20 Months!

Our sweet baby boy is 20 months today!  We had a great day, it was even sunny and warm.  Makes a happy baby and a happy mama.  We are both so much happier when we can get outside and play.  What a difference it makes.

Liam is obsessed with airplanes.  Every time he hears or sees one he gets so incredibly excited.  And then when the airplane is out of sight he signs more and says, "more, more, more."  I say, "more what?"  And he says "airplanes."  Whenever we are outside he's always looking and as soon as he hears one his head is up and he's searching.  Anyway, this morning he wanted to play the bed game, a game that Joe always plays with him (basically just rough housing on our bed), so I played with him but then he fell back into all of the pillows and just cuddled up against me.  He said, "phone" and the "airplane" so I knew what he wanted.  Wanted to watch airplanes on my phone!  I searched YouTube for planes taking off and landing and then I decided to search for the Blue Angels.  Found so much and he was totally fascinated.  He cuddled and watched with me for at least 30 minutes.  I LOVED it!  I have a love for airplanes and flying, so it was right up my alley.

Really can't believe my baby is 20 months.  He is so smart, so happy, so full of life.  I love it and everything about him, even though at times I feel like I'm a zoo keeper!  At the end of everyday, no matter how crazy of a day it has been, I always end up laughing about it.  He's definitely got me wrapped around his finger.  And I'm ok with that.  :)

Happy 20 months, buddy!

Birthdays, holidays, life......it's been busy.

I knew it had been ages since I had last blogged but I didn't realize it had been over two months.  Yikes!  I feel like a total failure when it comes to documenting things.  I'm horrible at writing things down in Liam's baby book, totally slacking on pictures lately and I don't even blog.  I guess someday if Liam wants to know something I'll just have to look back on Facebook.  As much as I despise it sometimes, I feel that's the only thing I update consistently.  Oh well, can't dwell on it, right?  Just enjoying the moments as they come!

We had a wonderful Father's Day weekend.  We went up and spent the weekend with my in-laws.  Liam always has such a great time when he goes up there.  As soon as we turned the corner to drive up their hill, he knew where we were and started saying, "Papa, papa, papa, papa."  He is totally in love with both of his grandpas.  Or papas as he calls them.  Papa this, papa that...it's all about the papas!  We went to a graduation party on Saturday and Liam fell in love with all the girls that were there, especially the youngest, an adorable 5 year old.  He was eating a piece of cheese when she got there and immediately started rubbing her leg.  No joke.  He is a total flirt!  She was being really nice but started looking a little nervous.  He ran off to do something else after a few minutes and she said, "He's so cute but his hands are grubby."  Haha.  She was right.  I wouldn't want grubby cheesy hands rubbed on me either!  After we washed his hands she was good to go and followed him everywhere.  He loved getting attention from all 3 of these girls!  They were reading at the end of the night and he crawled up on the bed, snuggled up to them and started saying, "night night, night night."  It was so adorable, a memory I never want to forget.

Yesterday we went on a bike ride and then had a BBQ with the rest of the family before we headed back home.  Delicious food, great company....it was a great weekend all-around.  I am so thankful for all of the dads in my life and for an amazing husband and 'dada' for my sweet little guy.  We are so blessed!

I can't take credit for this picture, my friend Cassandra took it when we went to pick strawberries last week.  SO much fun.  Although Liam eats more than he ends up taking home. :) 

Daffodil Classic 2012

Had I known the ride had an elevation map that looked like this, I probably wouldn't have signed up.  Sneaky husband.  It was definitely the most physically challenging thing I've ever done.  Especially considering I haven't ridden a bike since last summer!  I signed Joe and I up on a whim and it didn't really hit me how far 40 miles is until driving up the day before.  Then I got really nervous.  Once we hit the first hill I really questioned whether or not I'd be able to make it.  I'm proud to say I didn't get off my bike once the entire time.  The last hill was a killer, I thought I was going to have to walk up with my bike, but I kept on powering through the pain.  I felt so proud to finish and even more proud of myself that I kept up with the guys.  I'm not as in bad of shape as I thought!  My inspiration was Liam.  Throughout the ride I kept thinking about him and how I want to be able to do physically active things and keep up with him when he's older.  I have a feeling he's going to be active....and i don't want to have to watch from the sidelines!

There were 7 of us that did the ride; me, Joe, Gil, Uncle Lenny, Aunt Sue, Jayne and David.  Sue is my hero.  She rocked it!  I hope that when I'm 62 I'm able to do something so physically demanding.  Use it or lose it, my new motto.  

Lucky Liam got to stay and play with Uncle Jack, Dylan and Srey all day and had a blast!  He was so tuckered out from his busy day he was asleep before we even got on the freeway, slept the entire drive home and for 15 hours total that night.  Then he took a 3 hour nap yesterday!

A day of firsts

We did it!  Daddy was off today so we told Liam we were going on an adventure and took off for Vancouver this morning.  I wanted to take him to Lil' Snippers for his first haircut, it's such a cute place.  I wanted to make his first haircut a fun one.  Or at least try to!  He was so happy when we walked in, they have a super fun play area and he was loving it.  And then they called his name.  I think it reminded him of being at the doctor and he freaked out.  He was so scared and started crying hysterically even though there was a fun police car for him to sit in.  It took about 10 minutes of me holding him and the lady blowing bubbles and pulling out cars for him to play with before he would let me set him inside of it.  It was all fun after that, especially when he discovered the police car had a siren and lights!  So cute.  I didn't want to totally take the baby look away so we just got it trimmed up.  A little bit at a time, baby steps!  

The first cut!.

A close-up, Costco after!  

 After Costco, we took him for his first carousel ride at Jantzen Beach.  It's free to ride all month, so I thought it would be a fun thing to do.  He loved it!  A great way to celebrate his first haircut and a fun (and free!) family outing.  It's been a long time since we've been on an outing, everything has been so busy with the house remodel/work/school.  It was a perfect day!

Oh, watermelon....how I've missed you!

 I just cut my first watermelon of the year!  That makes me one happy girl!  Our grocery bill sky rockets during watermelon season.  We are all huge watermelon lovers and they don't stick around long.  I get a bad addiction, always have to have one cut and in the fridge when they are at the store.  I think I paid almost $8 for one last year!  Liam loved it last year but only would take a small bite at a time.  I'm sure he'll devour it this year.  He's definitely a fruit lover like Joe and I.

Lots has happened since the last time I wrote.  On March 29 I hosted an Easter party for my mama friends and babies.  We had a hunt (inside because it was raining) and they loved it!  It's amazing to see how far they've come in a year.  Then that night, I spent my first night away from Liam.  Joe was off the next day and I always schedule all of my appointments around his schedule so Liam can stay with him.  Well, Joe decided he wanted to go skiing with his cousin at Crystal on Friday so he took Liam with him up to his parents, Grandpa David watched Liam in the morning, Auntie Sue for an hour or two in the afternoon and then Grandma was with him when she got home from work.  I rode the train from Kelso to Tacoma Friday afternoon and they picked me up.  It was so weird without having him here.  It really felt like my heart was breaking when him and Joe pulled out of our driveway Thursday evening.  Worst feeling ever.  I knew he was in good hands, it was just hard seeing my baby leave without me.  I was so excited to get to him the next afternoon!  He did great without me....and he was mad at me when I got there.  I could see him in the car and he was smiling at me and so happy but as soon as I got in the car he turned his head away from me and started almost yelling at me!  It was like he was super happy to have me back but wanted me to know that it wasn't alright to leave him like that.  Or at least that's what I like to think!  He was probably just mad that I came up! ;)

The picture below is Liam's first roasted marshmallow!  We were at Jack and Sue's and Jack decided to roast one for Liam and one for Dylan.  Can you tell Liam was in a slight sugar coma?!  He loved it!

I'm thinking Joe and I might take Liam to get his first haircut tomorrow.  It's getting pretty out of control.  Maybe if we get it cut the "what a pretty girl" comments will subside?  I'm not even joking, pretty much every time I'm in public at least one person will call him a girl.  It doesn't bother me, I actually take it as a compliment!  But he wont like it when he's old enough to understand what they're calling him!  Every time I imagine him sitting in a chair and getting it cut I get a big lump in my throat though.  Ugh.  Why does everything have to be so bittersweet?

Easter came to our house!

Above are my "I'm too cheap to buy real Easter decorations" decorations.  I've never had many Easter decorations...or decorations for any holiday for that matter.  I guess I'll start getting more into decorating now that I have a little guy who loves all of the bright colors, chicks, eggs, etc.  They definitely make it more fun!  I am hosting an Easter party for my mama friends and babies this morning so I figured I better make it look a little like Easter in our house!  I google'd "free Easter printables" and found the banner and framed art.  Had the frame from Liam's party sign so I didn't even have to buy that.  Easy, easy!  Pretty proud how it turned out.  That's about as crafty as I get.  Printing off something someone else has created, cutting and stringing together to make a banner.  Amazing how something so simple makes me feel incredibly crafty though!

I'm making a quiche and everyone is bringing things.  Should be fun.  Pretty disappointed about the weather though.  I visioned us all out in the backyard, sipping Mimosa's while the kiddos hunted Easter eggs.  Ok, maybe not serious about the Mimosas (maybe we should start!), but really was hoping for nice weather.  Apparently that is way too much to ask!

Ok, better get a move on.  It'll be 10:30 before I know it!  Happy Wednesday!

Before and after. And a little something extra.

Here is a sneak peak of the new floors.  It's the best I could do without having to pull out the camera, feeling too lazy to take pictures right now.  And besides, the project still isn't done.  Joe is working on putting up all new trim board now, there are random tools everywhere, the (as you can see) oven is still up on weird stilt things, etc.  Basically, my house is a disaster and I can't take a decent picture without having random stuff in every picture!

Before

After.  And Liam's Desitin buns.  Worst diaper rash ever, trying to let him air out.  Poor baby.  Liam loves the new floor, his cars go super fast now!  Our stove/oven sticks out (even more) like a sore thumb now.  It will be the next thing to go!  

Spring is officially here.  Hear that, weather?  Time for you to check the calendar and get with the program.  Today is also my grandmas 81st birthday.  Oh, and Liam is 17 months!  Hoping for a good day!