Getting in Trouble

Now that Liam is mobile, Liam has figured out a few things.

How to chase the cats, how to try and use EVERYTHING to try and stand, that a sharp "NO" when reaching for something means he needs to wait to try again later. (*sigh*)

And best of all, he had learned how to get stuck.

Stuck standing up and not knowing how to get down.... This causes a loud cry from him of purest anguish. It is enough to chill your bones and make you run into his room like your butt is on fire only to find him standing in the corner of his crib.

Stuck on the floor. He crawls over toys like they are not there, he crawls over clothes, cats, shoes.... but the one thing that foils him for sure is anything that is stuck in place and will not move.

You see, as Liam crawls, he has not learned to lift his knees yet. He shuffles them along, and while this is nice and speedy for the most part, it means things like the bar on his highchair base get in the way.

He works very hard at trying to get unstuck, but it takes him a while.

The first time he got stuck, I waited. I watched him try to figure it out. He did not cry, he did not fuss, he did not get mad. He just kept trying. Sometimes he tried the same thing over and over again, as if by sheer force of will he would move away from this spot. At times he laid down over the bar and sucked his thumb. It took him 10 minutes to get over the bar.

And then he met the next obstacle. The sliding glass door.

I decided that it would do little good to rescue him from every situation. He would never learn that way.

Liam likes to figure stuff out. He has a way of reaching for things with precision and sort of skipped that random infant hand flailing stage where he just HAPPENS to hit the toy. I think that one lasted about 30 minutes, and then he knew that things happened and he wouldn't reach until he thought about it and how to do it.

He is the same way with getting in trouble. He picks his target and heads for it with a goal in mind and a plan for once he gets there.

Now it is up to me and Daddy to intercept him before he reaches the scarier aspects of mobility. I have already winced at head thunks, dived forward to make his head land on my hand and not the hardwood floors, watched him cry for a little bump and shake off a bump that seemed to shake the whole house. I have a feeling we will be seeing more bruises and bumps in the near future.

Look out world, Here comes Liam!

New Years Eve

I have to admit, New Years has not been fun since I was a teenager. Running about in downtown Santa Cruz for First Night, which has been canceled since 2005 and replaced with a community started parade and festival that is making the city mad.

But I fondly remember a mass of people, foods to eat, musicians and performers all just doing their thing, as well as all the city planned stuff that cost an arm and a leg to get into.

Ever since then, and the horrible party of New Years '99 into '00 which shall never be forgotten, always thought of as a terrible idea in hindsight, and forever be remembered by a few key events I wish had never happened.... New Years had not been all that much fun.

I hope that a few years from now Liam will have fun with it, getting to stay up late if he can, banging some pots and pans together and shouting outside.

Until then I shall just use the day like any other day.

On that note...

Here are some pictures!

The house! We are all moved in, keys given back to the manager at the old apartment. Now we just have a few more touch ups here until we can call it perfect. And a whole lot of yard maintenance to learn about. First thing on my list is the Hydrangeas you can still see dead flowers on!

Liam got a play yard for Christmas. Right now it is a safe place for me to put him while I do things that take my attention off of him. I leave it open most of the time when I am in the room, but it is nice to have a place for him to be when I have to step away for a while. I put an unzipped sleeping bag in it as at least a slight cushion for him when he topples over.

And he has been toppling a lot lately! He mastered crawling, and sitting, but has decided to rush full on into kneeling and pulling up into standing. While the standing does not happen except in his crib so far, he gets on his knees and can wind up on his bum or his side pretty quick. So far no serious head bonkings, but the little ones still make me wince. Thankfully I am not one of those moms who wants to go overboard.

He also is having a major teething session, so he is a little upset. Everything is making him look at me with those sad eyes. Even playing!

Liam is of course enjoying his kitty cats... I think we have one of the most tolerant cats in the world. Plus the cats are a great distraction when the teething gets to be too much for him. I only hope their nerves survive it all!

 

We have started the long process of unpacking. I made a rule about bringing in one box at a time and unpacking it fully before moving onto the next box, and putting things where they go. I am trying to declutter and keep a tidy house. (I also started another blog on an idea I had to help with that concept...)

And I will end this blog post on a happy note... Liam also got a swing for Christmas! And an excuse to bundle up and go outside. So far we have to limit it, his little cheeks and hands get so cold!

So Happy New Years to all, and I will see you next year!

Baby's First Christmas, the day after

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who sent a gift for Liam.

Aunts, Uncles, Grandmas, and Cousins all helped make his day one full of paper tearing and amusement.

We had a calm day with Liam sleeping for a lot of it and then getting to sample part of dinner with us. He tried mashed potatoes and a roasted carrot instead of just a mashed steamed one.

I debated running broccoli through the blender, but decided against it at the final moment.

While dinner was cooking, Liam got a bath in the kitchen sink. He was drying off and getting lotioned with me while we sat on the couch when he took an interest in the Christmas Tree, leading to a great picture.
I sent it out as yesterdays Daily Liam, but here it is again.

p.s. If you want to be part of the Daily Liam, just let me know and I will either text or e-mail you a picture of the little guy every day.

All I want for Christmas...

Apparently, despite never hearing the song, Liam wants his two front teeth for Christmas. The upper left one is starting to show! It is just being a little nubbin behind his gums right now, but you can see the edge where it is going to push out in a day or two.

Merry Christmas little chompy baby!

Have a Crawly Jolly Christmas!

Liam is almost crawling!

He made 3 crawling steps today (all one right after the other!), and 2 last night. The motivation for these were reaching toward the cats, and grabbing at a cat toy dangled by his Uncle Dave.

I am just happy that he is almost crawling. He is getting to be more mobile, so it was not a moment too soon that the infant play yard arrived in the mail.

We wrestled with it to put it up, trying to figure out how to move it to be in the shape we wanted and finally it got into place. It is the perfect size to give him lots of room and take over half the living room. But considering that we sometimes need to do things that involve NOT watching the baby constantly, it means we have a safe place to put him where he can work on his crawling skills in relative safety and not end up under the couch or under a desk chair. It will come in handy out in the yard this summer when I am trying to garden, and Liam is wanting to play.

He also got to hang out in the kitchen while I was making dinner last night. He was in his high chair and spending time with me, banging some measuring cups together and a wooden spoon.

Plus all this, he is starting to sit up. Sometimes on his own he will end up sitting, but if we sit him up, he will stay that way for quite some time and then instead of falling over, now he will just sort of bend over and then get into his crawling pose or do a belly flop.

I love watching him figure things out, so it will be fun on Christmas morning when we give him his presents to open. He will get to play with the paper and tear them open... then keep playing with the paper and disregard the toy... like all babies. I have no expectations otherwise.

In other news, Dave is here and getting settled in. I think he is bored to death waiting for his computer to arrive. But he gets on well with Liam, he seems to like Liam and Liam thinks he is pretty great too as far as I can tell. Liam took to him right away.

Tomorrow we get to go out to breakfast with some family here, then have a nice calm morning until Dan gets home from work. We get Chrismas Day to spend as a family and I am thankful for that.
 

Home Sweet Home

Yesterday was moving day. The movers came at 9am and piled things into their truck. They did a pretty good job loading, but the unloading was a bit sloppy. That is ok, we can restack the pile.

Liam had a rough day, so much happening around him, even with him staying in the basement with mom while the movers were running through the house.

Comcast came and hooked up the internet, can't live long without that now can we? The day ended with putting beds together, Dan crawling under the house to run the cable for my internet under the floor, and then an early night heading to bed.

We found a few quirks with the house as we started to settle in, like why they had the water heater turned up sooooo high. If you don't have it high, you run out of hot water after just 5 minutes.

Today we awoke with a strong desire to hit the Aleve bottle and get some coffee made. All of us were sore! We all whined and moped a bit, then overcame our various aches and pains with some more work. Unloading a few boxes of needed stuff, getting some more work done in the basement and tending to Liam's needs.

Poor little guy was extra cranky today, plus his cheeks are chapped. I think perhaps the new environment, rolling about on the carpet in the basement, the change from warm to cold multiple times a day as we traveled more with him in the days before moving, and perhaps the oodles of drool he has been drooling each night in his sleep that just stay on the sheets. So we have been tending to his poor little cheeks today when he seems upset. He also might have another tooth coming in soon.

He is working so hard to crawl!

But he still has a ways to go. I hope he gets there soon, he will not be so frustrated then.

I went out and searched all over for a live Christmas tree of the Norfolk Pine variety. Alive, in a planter, and NOT covered in spray on glitter. I got what I wanted, except for the glitter. Thankfully it seems rather well stuck on and is not leaving little glitter particles all over the place. Yay!

So it is a little leany... that is ok. It is the best looking tree with the least amount of glitter. Now to just collect ornaments that mean something.  We have two so far. A hand painted glass one from the realtor, Tim Saeland. (Nicest guy, I really liked him a lot. He went above and beyond in getting us to look at houses that had what we needed and not waste our time on other ones. ) and a cute little snowflake from my Aunt Judy that we are using as a star on top.

Our living room is looking more like home.

Plus the move had the added benefit of creating a bonding experience for our two kitties who have had a hard time getting along with each other. Tulip and Katchoo spent the better part of Saturday snuggling in the same carrier and have been hissing at each other less. Lets just hope that the truce lasts past the settling in phase.

Now to begin the great task of unpacking, organizing, cleaning as we go and getting all settled. Right now everything is in weird places that has come out of its box. I think the thermos is hanging out with a pile of fabric on the kitchen counter while some shelves and the baby bath frolic in the dining room.

We have a house, now to turn it into a home!

The boxes were stacked by the chimney with care...

Moving right before Christmas has put a bit of a damper on the holiday spirit this year.

We are hoping to send out some Christmas gifts this year, but they will be a little bit late. We are packing up everything and somewhere in the mess of painting and moving everything else seems to take back stage.

I know we missed Christmas last year, but if nothing else this year I want a small tree and to at least send some cards.

My mom just got here this morning so she can help us with getting the house ready and the move. Today she and I are going to finish the painting while Dan stays home with Liam and works on packing.

I am so weary and looking forward to a chance to just relax for a little while.

Will post pictures of the house once we get it all painted. Just a little bit more to do and then we are finished with that part and will be ready to move in. And clean. And unpack, and organize.

But thankfully once we are in the house, we will not ever HAVE to move again, unless we choose to move if 15 years down the line we find a better place or something.

It is almost over.

Things I can not wait for

I love reading my cousin-in-law's blog. But I am just a SMIDGE jealous. Her and her 4 girls bake cupcakes and all kinds of goodies, make fudge, decorate a christmas tree... well, the littlest one tries, but even she can help in ways, and participate. She gets to interact more than Liam can right now.

I want to bake with Liam. I want to decorate a tree... (we WILL do this this year, but it will have to wait until the 21st or so, after we move.) I want to sit in the kitchen with him and watch him lick frosting off the mixer blade. I want to do all those fun things she does with her munchkins.

In a way, I want Liam to grow up just a little bit.

But I am enjoying him as he is right now too. Learning to crawl... I love watching him try. He gets up on his hands and knees and wobbles a bit, sticks his bum in the air, and tries to move one arm and BOOMPH, down he falls, back to his tummy just to get up and try it again.

I know these times will pass so fast... and I DO enjoy them and love having my little baby who snuggles with me and sucks his thumb. I love each second of watching him learn... but I am so excited for what comes next, I can hardly stand it!!!!!

House into Home

We have set a moving date... December 19th!

Thanks to my step mom and my dad we are able to hire movers to make this transition not be accompanied by back pain, arguments about how to get a desk through a door and the seemingly endless trips through the courtyard to put the boxes into the truck.

We hired 2Brothers movers, and I will let you all know how that works out. Out of all the movers I called and looked up they had the best rates, looked the most professional and were the kindest on the phone. I hope they live up to that when they come to move all our stuff.

Dan and I are closing in on finishing the painting jobs. I think that if I go over there on Sunday or Monday after he gets off work I will be able to get enough prep work done so that we can just come in on Wednesday and finish it up. All we have left is the wall for the other half of the kitchen and dining room, painting the entryway and the hallway and the accent color for Liam's bedroom. Plus the cupboard backings and the cupboard and cabinet doors. Then all we do is rehang curtains, sweep the whole place, run the vacuum and call it good. It sounds like so little when I write it down, but feels like so much when I think about doing it.

My mom and I got a lot of work done when she was up here for a week. We got the wallpaper taken down from the master bedroom. Liam helped with that!  We also did a lot of prep, painting, sanding.... so many things!

Dan's brother, Dave, is going to come rent the bottom living space from us for a while, which will help us with the monthly payments for the house. Liam will have his uncle close by and I think it will do Dan a lot of good to have someone so close who he can spend some time with.

I am going to see about getting a couple kids to babysit for while I look into getting licensed for child care. Graphic Design is not going anywhere, even as a home business... I am getting desperate for some income.

Liam is getting so close to crawling, he does amazingly well! Soon he will be all over the place!

He is starting to make "Mmmmm" sounds, some "mmmaaaaa, maaaaaa" babbling that makes me smile. We repeat his sounds back to him, add new ones... He is learning so fast. I love watching that moment when something makes a connection and he realized what he can do.

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Silly Old Bluebirds

We are closing on the house in the next day or two. And while this makes us SO happy, it also means a whole lot of work.

We signed a release of liability so we could get into the house and paint and start getting it ready so that we had a little less pressure to get it all done before we moved in. Everyone knows that if you don't paint before you move in, you will either NEVER paint, or it will be many years from now. The kitchen was Ice Pink, it is now Spice on some walls and Colosseum Marble on the other walls. The master bedroom is Stone Fence, a beautiful gray with tones of blue and green to it in the right light. The second bedroom was Ugly as Sin Pink and now is a nice Sliced Cucumber, a soft green with gray to it as well. I got the idea for that color from the lichens on the tree outside the window to that room.

And the best room of all is Liam's room. It is painted Hundred Acre Sky blue and will have an accent design of Silly Old Bluebirds blue as well. Apparently Disney sold Behr paint the rights to make colors with their name on them basically. But they really are some vibrant and bright colors. I loved the idea of his room being Hundred Acre Sky and Silly Old Bluebirds. It makes it sound like so much fun.

Speaking of Liam and fun, he is learning how to crawl SO fast. He can balance on his hands and knees and keep his head up now. He is trying to take a few little crawling steps.

This is happening at a great time since we can baby proof the house as we are moving in. Outlet covers. Cabinet locks. Wires all tucked away and we can watch for sharp corners or screws sticking out as we move things. I do not want to go overboard in baby proofing, but I do want to remove the chance of certain things happening. There will be no forks in the wall sockets, and no little baby/toddler hands getting into cleaning supplies under the sink.

The plan for now is to be moved in before Christmas. With that goal set for us, we can pick a final moving day and also spent time before then finishing getting the house painted and then packing some boxes up and moving them into the garage after we close, even if it is not painted yet.

I was going to start packing books this morning, but I can not find my tape!!! I guess it will have to wait.

Liam's Uncle Rob is going to watch him on Wednesday so that Dan and I can get a whole bunch of work done then. The second coat on the bedroom walls, and the kitchen cupboards painted, the second coat of Spice on the kitchen, the first coat of that other color we are doing.... I hope we can get all that done. It feels like so much work still!

But the yard is great, there are so many fruit trees and berry bushes. Peach tree, fig tree, two cherry trees, a pluot (a plum apricot hybrid) black berries, raspberries, some kind of gooseberry cross, two types of grapes, three types of apple, a pear tree that grows two or three kinds of pears and some weird edible root plant that is supposed to be like a water chestnut, called a Jerusalem Artichoke.

Plus a raised bed to plant a whole garden in!

Thanks, and giving it

This is Liam's first Thanksgiving. He will get to try mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, and maybe even a taste of pumpkin pie filling. We are going to my Aunt Judy's house in Vancouver to join her and her boyfriend's family for the holiday.

Dan is making the turkey, the house is filled with the smells of a really good turkey as it cooks in the oven. This year, the turkey weighs more than Liam does!

My mom is here visiting, we are about to close on a house and start the process of painting and getting ready to move in.

I tried to crochet a pumpkin pie hat last night, but it looked too feminine for Liam to wear.

His next thanksgiving, he will get to try more of the food, and maybe spend it with more people from his family.

While I do not care for the history of thanksgiving, the native american and pilgrim crap they try to teach us in school, I will use the day as a time to think about what we are thankful for.

I can teach Liam to think about what is important to him, and while we should be glad every day for these things, we can use this day as a time to reflect, and a time to spend sharing a meal with family. We can work as a family to prepare the meal too.

But for this year, we are mostly thankful for a house to make into a home, Liam being here with us and all of the people who love him, be they near or far. We are thankful for the love of our families and friends, and for the odd twists of life that brought us all together in such an amazing way.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Houses, Leaks and Hateful People

Mom came to visit, we found a great house, Dan liked it and we put in an offer. Waiting to hear back from the bank.

Liam is growing well and doing fine. He has his cranky moments, but mostly he is just perfect. He is having a sleepy day today, eating a lot and sleeping even more.

I think Nicole is right, babies do not eat to a certain calorie level by the day, they seem to go by how many they get in a week. Or maybe two weeks. Liam has days where he eats so little its a wonder he is even growing, then days like today where he wants to pack away 4-6 ounces every 2-4 hours. By 6pm he has downed 24 ounces, and I know there are at LEAST two or three more feedings of 4-6 before bed!

The bathroom ceiling sprung a leak. The guy said he repaired it. but then it was leaking even WORSE when the people up there took a bath. So the repair guy had to come back out and fix it. I didn't have a bathroom for most of the day and its STILL covered in plaster dust despite the plastic he put down. Ugh. I have to wash everything again.

Someone who I thought was a friend said something purposefully cruel and hateful to me on Thursday. I would ignore them and move on, but they are dating my very best friend. and now I feel like there is a barrier between me seeing that friend. Because if that person even TOUCHES me or my son I will have them charged with assault. And the only words I want to hear from them are enormous apologies while they cower at my feet. I don't think I could look at them right now without imagining causing them great bodily harm. So I can not go see my friend unless they are not home, which limits the time I can spend with said friend. Plus, while I desperatly want to be the better person, with how upset I am, I do not think that I could refrain from saying a large number of truthful but cruel things in return.

So I am rather slim on the friends front until things either blow over and cruel and hateful one apologizes, and not with one of her backwards "I'm sorry you are mad at me" apologies. I want to hear her say "I am sorry I said that your son should have been aborted or given up for adoption because you currently need state aid for food stamps and health care for said son. And I am sorry I implied you are lazy and abuse the state aid system that is put in place for the 1 in 7 people that live in poverty in this country that you are currently a member of, but I know you are trying to rise above that and not trying to mooch off the state." because that is what her words amounted to.

It makes me sad that I can not let go of this yet. I tried to pray, but found myself praying that she was horrifically injured or suddenly lost her job and needed to be on state aid and then I could go see her and call her a slacker and tell her that she should just get over all of her stupid hypochondria made up health care concerns because now her one doctor visit every two weeks is costing the tax payers money. Or I would find myself praying for her to get smacked in the head with a 2x4 and be tossed into a holding pond full of ravenous piranhas.

I look at my son, and know that he has a right to be alive. He has a right to be with me and Dan and our families. We were not trying to have a baby so we could get state aid, he was unexpected, but not unwanted. We are struggling to make ends meet and living frugally and carefully. We make do with less and repair the old instead of buying new. My food stamps are mostly spent on baby food while Dan and I live on some of the cheapest foods out there for right now. I no longer receive medical aid, only Liam does to make sure he gets his shots so he doesn't end up like those babies in California who are dying from whooping cough, a preventable disease.

For someone to tell me that because we are having a rough time right now that I basically don't have the RIGHT to have my child makes me sick.

I wish I could say more about her, and then tag her name in here a billion times so anyone who searched for her saw what a hateful person she was. But I am trying to be the better person. Maybe failing right now by typing this, but I need to get it out somehow or I think I will implode.

But in the end, she is sad and hateful and will lose everyone around her if she keeps saying things like this. While I have a beautiful son, a loving husband who has a hard time understanding me when I am so depressed. I need to cheer up for him, I need to let this go.

Ugh, adding this to the postpartum depression I am having is not healthy. But it gets easier when Liam smiles, or when Dan looks at me with those big puppy dog eyes and says "I just want you to feel better" even if I can not figure out what would make me feel better.

I will get through this. I will let go of my anger somehow. I will find a way to ask for her to get EXACTLY what she deserves without imagining delivering specific things with my own two hands. Or maybe I will just forget she even exists. That would be better right now.