Living In A Mini apple is...

Lovely Little Lucy

2010-01-11T21:09:00.000-08:00

This past week Little Lucy turned 4 months old. She is lovely fun every day! She is little...at her 4 month check-up, Lucy weighed in at 12 lbs., 9oz and was a mere 22 1/2 inches long. As best I can tell, there are people who birth babies as big as Lucy is now (I'm not sure how they live to tell the tale). Liam was a long and lean baby, so I never had the pleasure of seeing those chunky, round baby thighs, but our Little Lucy has them. Very sweet, but definitely challenging to keep clean! The many nooks and crannies seem to be a fabulous hiding place for the gallons of spit-up Lucy seems able to spit up each day. Miss Lucy is full of smiles and seems to be finding new skills each day.
Some fun facts about our Lucy...No matter when she last ate, she always spits up when she's on her changing table. It seems to be her favorite place...She loves her bath and kicks and splashes her feet. In fact she likes it so much, we got rid of the the Baby tub and just lay her in the actual tub...She has just made the move to 3-6 month sized clothing (mostly to accommodate her growing belly)...For a teeny, tiny little thing, she can hold her head up remarkably well and holds on to us when we hold her...She's no longer bald, her hair is finally coming in...I think she's going to end up with green eyes. Here she is in all of her loveliness...

This little dress was mine when I was a baby.

Just this week, Lucy got to try her first solid foods--rice cereal and applesauce. Liam was very excited about getting to help, which was really sweet, but also a bit challenging. Lucy is still sorting out the spoon and Liam seemed to think the best thing to do was to just shove it as far into her mouth as it could go.

This was the outfit I bought for Lucy to come home from the hospital in. In light of her wee littleness, I ended up picking something else out. Apparently a good choice, since she's only just worn it today for the first time...

Happy New Year!

2010-01-05T21:41:00.001-08:00

New Year, New Blog Look...Maybe I'll be a better blogger this year. Since it has taken me the better part of the night to change the look of the blog, I'll leave you with just pictures tonight and the promise of an actual post shortly...

Lovely Little Lucy

2009-09-11T20:35:00.000-07:00

Lucy Anne Neiwert has arrived....two weeks early! She weighed in at a whopping 5 lb 2 oz and 18 inches long. We're having a great time remembering what it's like to have a newborn in the house again. Who said you need sleep and good nutrition to survive?

Liam has been pretty amenable to sharing his Ducks, which we think is nice of him. We're taking that as his sign that his sister is A-Ok with him. It's quite sweet too because when Lucy cries (which isn't very often), he comes running with his ducks and gives her one.

We think she's absolutely perfect. It's hard to capture how really tiny she is, but the pictures at least capture how really adorable she is!
Liam decided to donate his bed friends to Lucy's crib...for about 5 minutes. This was followed with Liam trying to climb into the crib, yelling at Lucy to "Get out!" At least he's not bossy.
Here's her going home from the hospital outfit. She was swimming in fabric, but still looked really sweet!
Getting ready to leave the hospital with Lucy's Birthfamily
Here's Liam meeting Lucy for the first time. Liam was a trooper all weekend. Since Lucy came so early, he spent the weekend shuttling back and forth between us and friends. As it turned out the hospital seemed like not the best place for our two-and-a-half year old. There's nothing like hanging out in the hospital room with the woman who is giving you her baby presumably because she believes we're decent, good parents while you watch your son run circles around the room, throwing matchbox cars through the air. Needless to say, Liam had limited hospital time and Allison (Lucy's birthmom) was incredibly understanding!

So far, in her one week of life, Lucy is a super happy little girl. She loves to eat and sleep and each day she opens her eyes a bit more. We're having big fun and we're so very thankful for her.

I have some cute videos of the Liam and Lucy, but since it's been an hour and my computer has yet to successfully upload them, maybe I'll try again tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Liam!

2009-04-18T20:33:00.000-07:00

Liam turned two last week. It is hard to believe that two years have already gone by. Our little Liam is busy, busy, busy. He's starting to put little sentences together. Every day he has more and more words. One of his favorites right now is "garbage," usually said between running back and forth between the bathroom (where he gets a kleenex and rubs his nose) and the kitchen (where he throws the kleenex away in the kitchen garbage). I haven't figured out yet why he doesn't just throw the kleenex away in the bathroom garbage. It also means that we have to keep a close eye on him, because sometimes in the excitement of throwing the kleenex away, other things make their way to the garbage also. Wade tells me he has also taken to roaming the halls at Bethel asking passing students, "Garbage? Garbage?"

Liam's day started with breakfast with Trey and Christine at Perkins, where he picked the very nutritious chocolate chip pancakes. They also gave him new cars from the movie Cars. Then it was off to home, so that mommy could work on her birthday cake creation. Just to remind everyone, I don't actually cook or bake. The kitchen just doesn't bring out the best in me, but Liam loves trains, so I really wanted to try and make a train cake. Apparently me and thousands of other moms thought the same thing. Try googling "how to make a train cake," there are thousands of things that come up. I watched a video on You tube with directions. In case you were keeping track, the frosting and decorating of the cake required:

9 knives

7 spoons

6 bowls

3 cookie sheets

2 cutting boards

2 tubes of frosting (which I was unable to use to pipe frosting for train tracks)

By the time I came home from the library, it was almost time for Liam's party. Jeff and Susanne came over to celebrate with us. Thanks to them we have beautiful pictures of the evening.

Liam making music--a perfect birthday gift from Jeff and Susanne! Does it look like we're forcing him to play his xylophone against his will?!

Then some pizza for dinner

After dinner, time for some present-opening.

Notice Wade's overly joyous appearance.

How much of this fake food will fit in my mouth? Just watch, Mom!

It took quite a while to convince Liam to open more gifts after the fake food--he was pretty taken by it. This cash register is from the Mobley's, who get major kudos for sending this. Not only does Liam love it, at the very moment Liam was opening this, Christy was an hour away from giving birth to her beautiful baby girl, Elsbeth. She can be seen in all of our her beauty at the SweetScooterBicks blog on the side! Liam is thrilled to share his birthday with her!

Liam's big gift from us and his Nana and Papa was his very own kitchen. He was so excited when we carried it into the room. Later that night when we told him it was time for his bath, Liam wrapped his arms around it and tried to take it to the bathroom with us.

Time for cake!

It was a perfect day! We're so excited to see what the next year has in store for Liam!

Just for fun

2009-04-13T19:39:00.000-07:00

What's not to love about beluga whales?

A Funny (and Fabulous) Thing Happened on the Way to an Adoption

2009-03-23T19:10:00.000-07:00

Years and years ago, when Wade and I went to his senior prom, we went with Wade's best friend, Jason and his date, Aubrey. Admittedly, Wade's memory for these things can be better than mine, so he remembers this was Jason and Aubrey's first date. What I remember is that Aubrey and I quickly became friends after this one night. She was my maid of honor and I was hers. We certainly didn't realize when we were making friends that in addition to both loving reading, we would someday both be adopting babies. There are many reasons that I am glad that Jason had the foresight to invite Aubrey to prom, but I think I can speak for Aubrey too, and say that we've needed each other on our ways to finding our babies.

Depsite the bumps in our adoption road, I definitely don't regret it, but I am exhausted by the system. Liam's adoption still isn't quite sorted out, though I have recently heard May will bring the true finalization (maybe). I won't be waiting with bated breath (maybe a little bit of hope though). As for the second adoption, we're on our third agency. After LSS suggested that the muddle with the Indian Child Welfare Act was somehow our fault, we thought using them again would be less than wise. Ironically, after two years, thousands of dollars, and at least an equal number of pieces of paper that we have turned in with our name correctly spelled, they still struggle to spell our name right. I haven't figured out yet why no one there has pointed out, "Rachel gets really mad when we spell her name wrong. We should double check this." It seems to make sense to me, but then again...

The second agency had a similar set of issues to LSS. They also struggled to spell our names right and weren't always so keen to call us back. Also a curious choice, after all if someone wants to pay you thousands of dollars wouldn't you return their call. It makes sense to me, but then again...

Now we've settled on a third agency.* On the plus side, they both spell our name right and return our calls. On the downside, we're going to pay them to do a home study. In fact, we're going to pay them more than we have already paid LSS to do a home study.

I'm tired. I want Liam to have a brother or sister and I'm just never going to birth babies, so that means adoption is really the only choice for us. I'm tired of having to prove over and over again that we're good parents. At the new agency, proving this requires letters of reference from 4 people, letters from our employers indicating we're financially solvent, a letter from our pastor proving we're really Christian, a questionnaire that we had to fill out proving we're really Christian, our stance on abortion, a physical including an STD test, a drug test, and TB test. All this and we haven't actually received the bulk of the paperwork yet. Oh and Liam has to have a TB test too. In case you're curious, what sorts of risk factors might put one at risk for TB in Minnesota? I looked--recent immigration from another country, homelessness, drug use, incarceration, and being HIV positive. In light of the many ways that we fit this list of risk factors, I'm certainly glad I can take my two year old to the doctor so they can poke at him to determine he doesn't have TB. The STD test** sounds pretty fun too--a really good use of everyone's time and resources.

I know at the end, when we get to hold the next little baby, it will all be worth it and when I hold Liam, it is too, but it's still exhausting. But to come back to Aubrey, this is why we've needed each other. She always understands why I feel so oppressed by the paperwork and doctor's visits. She exactly understands the contradictions. For example, while adoption agencies drill into your head the importance of teaching your child about the culture that they come from, when the child actually arrives, there's no discussion about pertinent issues like what sort of feeding schedule the little baby is on, since you haven't been in the hospital. As Aubrey says, as long as when they're 102, they die clutching the Ethiopian or Russian flag, we've done our job as adoptive parents. Clearly, we're already failing since we have nary a dream catcher in our home.

In February, I took Liam to Washington to visit my parents and we got to spend a weekend with Aubrey, Jason, and Isabelle. It was so sweet. There have definitely been moments in the last eight years when I wasn't sure Aubrey and I would get to be together and both have babies. It was extra special to get to be together with Liam and Isabelle--hope realized!

Just last week, Aubrey and Jason came home from Ethiopia with their second daughter, Madeleine. She's beautiful! If you have a moment, stop over at their blog and send them good wishes! Thanks Aubrey for taking good care of me when the weight of adoption paperwork threatened to bury me!

*I wrote this a few weeks ago. Since then we met with our social worker and I really like her. I am feeling a bit more optimistic. We finished the bulk of the paperwork and are just waiting for a second visit with the social worker and then we can enter the pool of waiting families.
**Those of you reading this reconsidering your friendships with us, you'll be happy to hear that all TB, STD, and drug tests came back negative. I'm still not quite sure what it is that this says about us, but now you know.

Play it Again Liam!

2009-02-17T21:00:00.000-08:00

Chemistry Love (A Post for Jason V.)

2009-02-17T20:40:00.001-08:00

The other night I was making dinner and I asked Liam to put placemats on the table for the two of us. He sorted through his and finally settled on his periodic table placemat, but set it on the floor and promptly sat down to examine it. You might think he's just pointing at a random element, but that would be wrong. Liam is pointing to Tungsten, his Daddy's favorite element. I am not sure which part is nerdier--that Liam can point to Wade's favorite element when asked or that Wade has a favorite element. This made me think of our friend Jason of the Chez Valentine blog at the side. I am pretty certain that any little Valentine will also be able to identify their daddy's favorite element. At least then Liam will have a partner in his chemistry love! When next we see you Jason, Liam will have to share his periodic table placemat and perhaps he can learn to find your favorite element too!

Happy Valentines Day! (a few days late)

2009-02-17T20:12:00.001-08:00

Since it has been forever since I last posted, I thought you might be wondering where we have been and what we have been up to. We've been happy to have all of us back in the same house again. Though Liam and I managed the month of January on our own, it's good to be a family of three again. Valentines Day was great fun! Liam's favorite part was baking cupcakes and my favorite part was the Children's Museum. I'm not sure how it has taken us so long to go there, since I love museums, but now I think we will be there regularly. The promise of a special exhibit on Clifford was enough to convince me buy a membership!

Here we are mixing the cupcakes.
Liam loves standing on his stool and helping.

My death grip is only a reflection of the poor cupcake-paper filling
that occurred with the first cupcake when I let Liam do most of the filling.
Having learned my lesson, that almost 2 year olds aren't quite
coordinated enough for that skill, it took a pretty tight hold to keep
the batter in the pan and not on the counter.

Finally, the best part of all!

Playing at the Water Tables at the museum

In the Dog House

Cooking some lunch

When we first got to the museum, Liam was pretty stand-offish.
It took him a little while to understand that he could really touch everything.
That quickly faded though. Here he is off on his own adventure!

In case you've been wondering if Liam was sending Valentines this year, he is; they're just super late. The first week in February Liam was into coloring, so I thought he could color a bit on his Valentines, but by the next week coloring was totally out from Liam's perspective. Every day, I brought out the crayons and the cards and said in my most enticing and excited voice "let's color some pictures." Every day, Liam would look at me, wave his hand back and forth and say "no, no, no, no!" Finally it was Valentines Day and the cards were still sitting on the hutch in the living room. Happily, Wade was much more successful and he convinced Liam to color his cards today. Valentines will be arriving soon. I believe Liam and I might arrive in Washington to see my parents before the card gets there, but we did try.

A Growing Boy and an Anniversary

2009-01-09T21:09:00.000-08:00

Today is a doubly special day. Liam is twenty-one months old today and it's our 11th wedding anniversary. Sadly, Wade and I are celebrating our anniversary on separate continents. It sounds like he's having a great time in Europe and Liam and I are having a great time here. To celebrate we went to dinner at the Rainbow Cafe with Liam's friend Anjali and her parents. The four of us had a wonderful night--Liam, however, was very sad. We've been to the restaurant before and Liam usually likes it, but tonight something scared Liam as soon as we got there and he spent the meal huddled in my lap, with his face buried in my chest, shaking. It was very sad for Liam and I'm sorry that he didn't enjoy the celebration.

Here's 21 fun facts about my sweet little boy.
1. He's getting so big--some of his 24-month clothes don't fit anymore.
2. His two favorite words right now are "moon" and "clock."
3. He loves the Wonder Pets!
4. His current favorite foods are macaroni and cheese and oranges.
5. Tonight before bed, we read "Llama, Llama Red Pajama," "What the Grizzly Bear Knows," "Have you ever Seen a Moose?" "Wild about Books," and "Born to Read."
6. Mr. Duck is still his favorite.
7. He painted his first watercolor the other day. It's beautiful though mostly wet since his favorite part was putting the brush in the water.
8. He gives kisses though he prefers to wave bye-bye. He waves to my Mom when I have her on speaker phone and she says good-bye. He even waves to the Backyardigans.
9. He still loves cookies.
10. He loves his Fisher Price school bus.
11. He can do the hand motions for the Itsy Bitsy Spider song.
12. He loves his Daddy!
13. He has recently learned to pray. Sometimes we pray five times during dinner because he asks too.
14. He has a quirky habit of smelling things.
15. When he sees cars in his books, he makes a car sound.
16. Liam's favorite letter is "K" on the starfall website.
17. Missy now spends every meal with her head resting in Liam's lap. This cuts out the bother of having to eat the food off the floor, she can just catch it as it falls. Missy loves it, Liam feels a bit crowded.
18. Lately Liam has taken to directing me where to go. If he's playing in his room, he brings me to the chair and pats it and says "down" so that I know to sit. I'm not allowed to do anything, but watch him play. If I try to read a book, he rips it out of my hand and says "no, no, no, no, no."
19. Also like his mama, he loves m&m's. (for the record he does not get to eat them by the handful like his mama.)
20. He still has the sweetest smile.
21. Today he wore his smart wool socks, striped red, green, and orange, and took them off at least ten times...because he could!

Merry Christmas, Part Two

2009-01-02T19:41:00.000-08:00

Christmas Day was wonderful! We missed our families, but so appreciated being in our own house and setting our own schedule. It was great for Liam. He was so sweet! He can say "thanks" now, but only to copy you and I don't think he has any idea what it means. In his own little way, he was clearly gracious on Christmas morning for all of his beautiful gifts. We let him set the pace and he would open a couple of presents and then he would play with them for an hour or two. After a bit he would pick something else from under the tree and we would begin again. Stopping to play and not just ripping through everything seemed like his own way of being gracious. Sadly, I have fabulous videos, but I can't get them to load very well, so the pictures will have to do.

Discovering What the Day Has in Store!

A Table and Chairs from Grammy and Grandpa
The perfect spot for breakfast!

My boys playing with toys

The train set was a definite hit!

Liam now has a very exciting toy set-up. The Fisher Price Little People empire lives in the living room with the table and chairs. The train set lives in his bedroom. It was handy--we had Christmas and then it was like we got to move, but in our house to accommodate Liam's new toys. The first few nights after I changed his room around to fit the train table, Liam would wake up in the middle night screaming. When we would go into his room, he would stop crying as soon as we picked him up and then point at his train table and say "down...train." We had to put a stop to this because train playing at 2 in the morning isn't ideal!

Luckily for me, Liam has sorted this out. Wade left on Saturday with my Dad for the month in Europe teaching a history of science course. Liam and I are on our own until the 27th. We shall see how we manage. We have successfully managed the last 4 days, so I think we will be ok for the next 3 weeks!

Merry Christmas, Part One

2008-12-30T21:15:00.000-08:00

Christmas here was wonderful! Though we missed our families, it was really nice to be in our own house. As always (by this I mean the three Christmases total that I have not been at my Dad's church), the moment that I most missed being home was as we were going to Christmas Eve church. It was sad to sit in church and not be listening to Dad preach and see all of our wonderful Bethesda family, but we looked awfully cute and it was fun to see Liam so interested in seeing members of the congregation dress up to create a living nativity scene during the sermon.

Then it was time for Christmas Eve dinner. Earlier in the week, we decided to make soup--something easy and we picked a soup we had made before. We actually looked to make sure we had all the ingredients, and I even put the soup together before we went to church. It was only after the soup had been cooking for a while that I realized my crucial error. The recipe called for lentils and I added something I thought was lentils (and so did Wade), which turned out to actually be white beans, which turn out to not cook as quickly. By the time we got home, the beans were still a little crunchy, so we fed Liam something else and put him to bed and then had soup. Despite the ingredient issue, it turned out pretty well, but I was disappointed we didn't get to have Christmas Eve dinner together.

I think my favorite thing about this Christmas is that for the one and only time in his life, Liam went to sleep on Christmas Eve expecting Christmas morning to just be another day. No matter how much we talked about what was coming on Christmas morning, Liam had no idea. It made the next morning so much sweeter because he was so surprised. The surprise was magnified because he had quite the pile of presents. Not until we were bringing everything downstairs did we see how much there really was. Here we are getting ready.

Wrapping the Last Present

All ready for Liam!

Christmas Guests and Baking Cookies

2008-12-30T20:22:00.000-08:00

Apparently my offer of complimentary ice tools as a housewarming present to anyone who might want to move here is not the magic ticket. Fortunately, the Mobleys decided to brave the adventure for a weekend here. When we pulled up to the airport it was 3 degrees outside...we're lucky they decided to stay for the remainder of the weekend! Check out Christy's blog (Sweet Scooter Bicks) for her recap of the weekend. The title of her entry is Progression of Evil -- reference to a game we played not the actual weekend. She has a great video of Liam and her little boy planning the "Boo Game." It was the best weekend! We ate great food (all of it provided by restaurants--who wants to be bothered with cooking), we played games (Phil and Christy were such good sports. After a long day of travelling, they were up for playing a game and we said we had a perfect choice that would not take long. Two hours later we were still playing the Train Game. Luckily the little boys chose to sleep in, so we got some extra sleep in the morning), and we went sledding at Bethel. The little boys had a great time (and so did the grown ups)!

"Come on, we can totally climb this huge hill.
When we get to the top, we can slide down the mud.
We'll show our silly parents how we can do this on our own!"

We were sad to see them go, but it was perhaps fortuitous. In the 10 minutes it took to board the plane, the weather changed from 40 and raining to 10 and freezing. A few hours later and they would not have made it out (though we would have been so happy to have them for another day.) Perhaps another day is all it would have taken to sell them on a move to Minneapolis!

In light of Liam's new-found love of cookies, we decided to make Christmas cookies with Liam. Such fun! Things to note: I made the frosting from scratch. Since I never cook, I was feeling rather proud of myself! By the end, Wade was feeling very stressed out. His handy chemistry skills (stirring, mixing, and shaking) were greatly offended by Liam and I's less than stellar skills. The kitchen was a disaster--there was flour everywhere!

A Little Bit of Both of Us

2008-12-20T12:48:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to post this for a long time.

One day in the fall while I was at school, Liam was looking for something to read. Out of many, many choices here, look what Liam chose. Needless to say, Wade was delighted. (On a related chemistry note, Liam has a periodic table placemat and you'll be happy to know that he can almost identify Wade's favorite element, Tungsten.)

A few weeks later, this was the reading material of choice. Much more my style!

I think we can safely say that while we may not share genes in common, Liam definitely represents bits of both of us!

Christmas Traditions

2008-12-20T12:13:00.001-08:00

Since this is our first Christmas to be in our own house with Liam, I've been really excited to create some new family traditions. Some have worked, some haven't. Here's a review.

1. The Christmas Tree
I had envisioned going to a Christmas tree farm and cutting our own tree down. After an exciting day of phone calls with our lawyer, trying to sort out the baffling mess that our adoption agency has created for us (if you haven't heard the story, give me a call and I'll share), there was no time to go to the tree farm (Thanks agency!), so instead we went to Home Depot and selected a tree. As far as Liam was concerned, it was great because he got to ride in the race car shopping cart. I thought Liam would be more interested in decorating the tree--not really! There was a lot of crying involved and then it was bedtime and then Wade had to go to a meeting, so I decorated the tree by myself and watched a movie. Liam has been much more interested in the tree decorated and likes to look at the ornaments. We have one that looks a bit like the hot air balloons in the It's a Small World Ride at Disney World. If only you were here, you too could participate in picking Liam up to see the ornament (which he asks for at least 10 times a day) and then singing the It's a Small World song. Though it loses some of its fun on the 10th time, it is sweet.

2. The Advent Calendar
This was much more successful. Every year (this is the first exception), my grandmother sent me an advent calendar. My mom decided to carry on the tradition for Liam. She sent a great advent calendar that has little books for each day that can be hung on a tree. Wade got Liam his own miniature tree with lights on it and each day Liam hangs another book on the tree.

3. Holidazzle Parade and 8th Floor Display
A Minneapolis tradition---an electric light parade and a story display in the Macy's downtown. It's great! I remember going when I was little and lived in Minneapolis. If the ice tools haven't sold you on moving, perhaps this will. You know the winter is totally bareable when every weekend, scads of people line the streets despite the near zero temperatures to watch a parade. Liam was fascinated.

Note the wide-eyed look from Liam. He looked like this all night.

Here we are at the story display.

More traditions to come later. Happy Advent!

Swimming Lessons

2008-12-10T20:08:00.001-08:00

Over the course of the fall, Liam and I took swimming lessons together. It was big fun, though Liam rarely showed off his water skills in the pool. He loves bath time and will blow bubbles and splash and doesn't mind if he gets water in his eyes. At the pool it was a totally different story. He didn't mind having water in his eyes, but he wouldn't splash or blow bubbles or kick his feet, but it was still fun. The best part was that his friend from down the street took lessons with us.

Liam's best skill was the back float. The video is a bit long, but you'll notice Liam's nice, relaxed position. Maybe he's going to be next Olympic backstroker....

Another plus about swimming lessons was the fabulous park near the pool. Liam definitely had a lot of fun playing after each swim lesson.

We didn't realize how great an impact swimming lessons made on Liam until a week ago, when he started requesting to wear a swim diaper and his swimming suit over his clothes every day. Have you ever tried fitting a swim diaper and swimming suit over corduroy overalls?

Thinking about your holiday shopping?

2008-11-16T20:30:00.000-08:00

My friend Susanne (of the previously mentioned state fair winning pie fame) is also an incredible artist and she's designing a whole variety of different types of stationary and selling them online. They're beautiful! If you're starting your holiday shopping, come and visit her shop, Instead of Zed. Here's a link:

www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6350693

No More Babies Here...

2008-11-16T20:09:00.000-08:00

It was brought to my attention that perhaps Liam's hair was getting a bit long. It was long enough to go in a ponytail and when wet and plastered to his back, it actually went a bit of the way down. I decided it was time for the first haircut. I have been gearing myself up for this for a few months. I was convinced that if I cut Liam's hair, I would be cutting the last bits of his babyhood and I think I was right. He looks like such a big boy now! (For the record, I did not cry.)

The last photo of my beautiful long-haired baby!

"Gee Mom, what's going on. This isn't what we usually do after lunch."

My friend Mel, who also cuts my hair, very generously came to the house for Liam's haircut. Liam was great. He only cried at the end and I think that was mainly because he kept trying to put his duck in his mouth (it was under the cape), which didn't work out so well for him because he ended up with a mouth full of hair. And really, who can blame him for crying about having his tongue covered in hair!

"Look at me. I have a big boy haircut and I can sit at the table like a big boy.
Next up, high school graduation."

"Okay, maybe a bath first."

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-14T17:29:00.001-08:00

Halloween was definitely a hit with Liam. Like his Mommy, he's a fan of snacks, so really what's not to like about a holiday where people give you candy. Like his Daddy, his favorite candy was Reeses Peanut Butter Cups.

I have no stunning pictures of visiting a pumpkin farm...maybe next year. Wade took Liam to the grocery store where they picked a lovely pumpkin that we carved on our kitchen floor. Here's his favorite part of the event.

Once the pumpkin was outside, Liam wanted to carry it everywhere.

Liam was an adorable bear for Halloween and was well-loved by our friends Jeff and Susanne and our neighbor Jim. Jim had a special treat bag for Liam and Jeff and Susanne had animal crackers just for him.

Isn't he the sweetest thing?

Tap-Dancing Anyone?

2008-11-12T19:16:00.000-08:00

Should Liam choose not to be an historian or a chemist, perhaps tap-dancing is in his future....

Check back tomorrow for Halloween. I have a lot of catching up to do on Liam's blog....

Guess Who's Eighteen Months Old!

2008-10-10T19:52:00.000-07:00

I can't believe Liam is already 18-months old. Where has the time gone! In honor of the big day (it was on the 9th, I'm a few days behind), here's 18 things about Liam!

1. Liam loves going for walks around the neighborhood. Every day he can walk farther and farther. Today I think he walked about five blocks! Very impressive for a little boy who couldn't walk at the beginning of July!

2. Liam prefers happy meals from Burger King to the ones from McDonald's. (Just to clarify, we do not feed Liam fast food on a regular basis.)

3. Liam can blow bubbles in the bathtub, but refuses to do it in the swimming pool during swim lessons.

4. He can say "moo" when you point at the picture of a cow.

5. He tries to hiss when he sees a picture of a snake. (Thanks Emily for the great book with all the pictures of animals!)

6. My favorite crib sheet for Liam is also his favorite. It has the alphabet on it and I've caught Liam tracing the letters.

7. Liam's favorite fruit right now is bananas.

8. When he eats his pudding, he uses his spoon.

9. Liam is sporting a fall and winter wardrobe that includes a lot of bear-themed articles of clothing.

10. He loves his Lighting McQueen car from his Nana. He likes to take the little phone from the car and put it to his ear and then hand it to me. (perhaps this means I spend too much time on the phone...)

11. Breakfast is Liam's favorite meal of the day!

12. He can wave bye-bye, but even better, he gives high fives!

13. He loves his books (be still my beating heart!). Tonight at bedtime, we read Cowboy Bunnies, Smileascarus, and the animal book from Emily. Before bath we read his favorite from the week, Born to Read, where we learned that "Readers win and winners read!" It makes me smile every time I read it and Liam likes the pictures especially, the baby giant Grundaloon!

14. Tomorrow at swimming lessons, Liam is wearing his orange shark swimsuit.

15. Liam likes The Wonder Pets. I feel a little guilty letting him watch it, but he tries to say "teamwork" (it's part of the theme song) and it's just so cute!

16. Liam is ready for the snow with his very own snowsuit! He looks kind of like the little brother in Christmas Story who can't move his arms. It will all be worth it thought when he's sledding in the park!

17. Liam likes to twirl and will play Ring-Around-the Rosie.

18. Liam likes to help. To demonstrate this, here's a story to make you shriek with laughter. Since we have a small yard and two dogs, we have to clean up after them. When I take Liam out to play, I usually put him in his sandbox while I scoop dog poop, thus leaving Liam a clean yard to play in. He doesn't usually pay much attention to me when I am doing this, despite how truly glamorous I look what with plastic grocery sacks and poop shovel and all, but a couple weeks ago, he was paying attention. There I was immersed in my chore staring intently at the grass, when little Liam should suddenly appear before me with both hands thrust in my direction, really in the direction of the poop bag because in an effort to help, he had used his lovely hands to pick up dog poop and then drop it in the bag. He was so excited with himself, but promptly burst into tears when I brought him in to wash his hands. It's so hard to be little!

A Trip to the Zoo

2008-10-10T19:08:00.000-07:00

There are lots of things that I love about our neighborhood, but my favorite thing about our neighborhood is that Liam has a friend who lives down the street. Since I know people have different feelings about posting their children's names online, I'll call her A. A and Liam love each other. If we go for a walk and walk by her house, Liam knows it's A's house and he wants to knock on the door. We go to story-time together and swimming lessons and A. comes over to play once a week and Liam goes to A's house once a week. They're very sweet together! Last week we decided to go on a big adventure to the Minnesota State Zoo together. It was such fun! Don't they look adorable sitting in the car together. I think they were both thrilled to have company in the backseat!

Here's Liam looking at the wild boars. The zoo has a fabulous new exhibit on animals from the Pacific coast of Russia. The highlight is the bears who live in a really neat looking habitat and have a pond where they can catch fish.

After checking out the animals, it was time for a break to play on the playground.

Liam has been very jealous that A. can go down the slide by herself. He's pretty psyched to have mastered the skill himself!

After the playground, it was off to lunch.

Here we are looking happy and interested in the chicken nuggets that were coming. Unfortunately, there's no picture from 5 seconds later when Liam decided to end the zoo outing with a major fit! Even A. was looking at him rather curiously. All that zoo air made for some tired babies. Before we were even on the interstate, they were both asleep!

Thank You for Saving Me From Broccoli!

2008-10-06T19:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Auntie Christy and Auntie Emily,

My mommy is crazy. At breakfast, she puts out a pretty good spread. There's waffles or pancakes or eggs and toast and fruit. But lunch and dinner are a totally different story. The sandwich and Bunny macaroni are great, but then Mommy insists I have a fruit and vegetable. There's peas, and broccoli, and green beans and I don't like them. I've been watching though and I've seen my Mommy eat things that look very yummy. Things like M&M's and cookies, but does she share them with me...no!

Thanks to you Auntie Christy and Auntie Emily, everything has changed. There's still green beans and peas, but now there's also chocolate pudding. Thank you for telling my mommy pudding is a dairy. Thank you for saving me from broccoli!

Love, Liam

Playing at the Park and What Happens When it's Quiet

2008-10-06T18:48:00.000-07:00

We've had beautiful fall weather, so have been walking to the park quite a bit. We have 2 parks in easy walking distance. Liam seems to have pretty big fun there, though now that he has learned to walk up and down a single step, he mostly likes walking in and out of the sand area or walking up and down the first step on the way to the slide.

What happens when it's quiet?

Getting in the basket is Liam's favorite part...cleaning up the dish towels is mine...especially when it is the 6th time for the day....

What happens when it's quiet at your house?

It's the Great Minnesota Get Together!

2008-10-06T18:30:00.000-07:00

Inspired by the 6 pages of my dissertation that I wrote today (yeah!), I thought I would finally catch up from the rest of our August and September activities.

In case the details about the MN State Fair have escaped you, let me remind you. It's the second biggest state fair in the country. It involves any food you can name deep-fried and on a stick. There is a live birth barn where you can witness many farm animals being born (the grossest smelling area at the fair, but I did check, on Christy's request, and regrettably there were no goat births, but there had been 97 piglets born). Our friend Susanne won the best peach pie and the sweepstakes best pie at the MN State Fair. Honestly we know State Fair royalty. I believe also we could have seen the bust of the Dairy Queen made out of butter. It's always the last week in August, so if you are looking for a fun family vacation next summer, come on out and join us!

Liam slept through the beginning of our visit, which I was very sad about since we immediately went to see Susanne's winning pie with its masses of ribbons. (I think the sweepstakes ribbon was taller than Liam). Fortunately he woke up in just enough time to see the pie, so we didn't have to make a return trip.

Liam loved petting the animals (we washed his hands a lot!) He would touch them really quick and then look us, as if to say, "really, I'm allowed?"

I have saved the best for last. This is Squeaky - the largest boar. He weighs 1240 lbs and I'm pretty confident he could not have stood up and I am sure he is bacon by now.

Meeting Mickey

2008-09-14T20:10:00.000-07:00

Visiting Mickey has really changed since I went to Disney World for the first time. It seems like Mickey (or whoever) used to just appear periodically and then there would be a mob of kids around them. Maybe in your day at Disney you got lucky and saw them and maybe you didn't. I can't say I remember being really traumatized by not meeting Mickey. Now, however, it is much more regimented. The characters have places in each park where they spend the whole day greeting children and there's no free-for-all to see them. You have to wait in line--a very big line and waiting in line with Liam was definitely the trickiest part. There isn't much to do to keep a 16-month old occupied while you wait and since Liam has no sense of "wait his turn" he really just wanted to get to whatever we were waiting for. Fortunately the rain mostly kept the lines down, but there were always huge lines to meet the characters. Even though Epcot had a delightful character spot where we could have moved down a line meeting Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Donald, and Chip and Dale, it just didn't seem likely that Liam was going to manage the hour long line. On our second to last day, we decided to try to see Mickey at Hollywood Studios. It seemed worth a go and an earlier encounter with some Jungle Book characters suggested that Liam was not going to be frightened.

As it turns out, Liam was a fan of Mickey--albeit a very impatient one! We were fortunate in that the line wasn't very long. I think I counted and there were 20 people ahead of us. As soon as we got in line, Liam's eyes were locked on Mickey. He pointed, he made his "I want to see that," he made his even louder "take me there I want to touch it NOW" noise. All was going well until the lady in front us tried to talk to Liam. She was really very nice, but Liam took one look and listen at her and his face crumpled and he was wailing. I thought perhaps if I took him out of the line and left Wade waiting, he would recover. It really only made a marginal difference. The lady was no longer a concern, but now Liam felt that the goal of Mickey was getting very far away and then Mickey had to take a break. He walked right by us (literally inches away) and Liam's little hands were reaching for him, but he kept going and Liam was very sad again. We fortunately got things back together by the time Mickey showed up again.

When Liam's turn came it was very sweet. Clearly the Mickey for the day had had some experiences with little kids because he very gently put his hands out for Liam to touch and look at before getting close for the picture. Liam was absolutely fascinated. He touched Mickey's hands, he looked at him closely, and was very sad when we had to leave so the next little person could have their turn.

In non-Disney news, I purchased this book for Liam yesterday. I thought Wade would think it was funny (he did). We were i-chatting with Liz and Aaron tonight and showed them Liam's new book. Liz rolled her eyes and said "You're going to have to send Liam to us for at least a week every summer." She probably has a good point--Liam's best chances at achieving any sort of "cool" standard will rest with his Uncle Aaron and Aunt Liz.

The Logistics of a Disney Vacation

2008-09-13T20:13:00.000-07:00

You might be wondering how exactly we managed a successful Disney trip with our baby. After all, babies need naps and cribs and can't just eat any old thing you might offer. Disney makes it easy for you. They provided a crib and Liam slept great every night. I wasn't sure how it would work with Liam sleeping in the same room we were sleeping in, but he was so tired every night that it was never a problem. Aaron and Liz's room adjoined ours and every morning Liam would bang on their door and then go back and forth between our rooms. He was very sad on the last day when Aaron and Liz were not there. He so wanted into their room to see them. He loves his Uncle Aaron and Aunt Liz. As for naps...

...they weren't a problem either. In the middle of every day and late every afternoon, Liam would fall asleep in his stroller and sleep for a few hours. I thought we would be taking him back to the hotel every afternoon to sleep, but it really wasn't necessary. As long as Liam had Mr. Duck he was good to go and game to sleep. This way we could stay out a bit later each night, so Liam could see the fireworks, which he totally loved.

Food was not an issue either. There were abundant kid-friendly meals including peanut-butter sandwiches--always an easy option. But really who needs any of that when French Fries are available. Liam was definitely a fan and I think there were days when he ate French fries and Disney animal cracker for the bulk of his meals. While it might not have been the most nutritious, it saved us from being the family whose child was having a very sad time. Not to say that Liam did not demonstrate his own screaming and crying skills, it just was only once per day and not all day long. I firmly believe it was the constant french fries and Disney animal crackers that did it for us.

Here's Liam on his favorite ride again...

He also really liked the safari ride in Animal Kingdom. The animals were so close that Liam could see them clearly.

After a busy day at the Animal Kingdom, look at my big boy strutting off to dinner.

A Little Bit of Mickey, A Lot of Rain, and Crazy Big Fun!

2008-09-12T20:02:00.000-07:00

It's finally here--the first of a few posts about our week in Disney World with my parents and brother, Aaron, and his wife, Liz. I have been so excited about this all summer long. We have been playing Disney music for Liam for weeks. Wade received a Disney-themed Father's Day present. I purchased 3 Disney guide books, that I have been reading all summer. For those of you thinking that it must be sheer insanity that would lead us to take our 16-month old to Disney World for a week, we would whole heartedly recommend that everyone take their 16-month old to Disney World. It was perfect--the 6 of us adults were all entertained and it was perfectly manageable for Liam and even though I know Liam will not remember it--he loved it in the moment. It was so fun to see! Before we get into all the serious Disney fun though, first a few caveats.

In case you are wondering, why we all look so wet and bedraggled in every picture, that would be compliments of Tropical Storm Faye. It rained 5 of the 7 days we were there and not just rained a little--poured buckets all day long. Being that we are all members of the Kalms family, we all came with very expensive, high quality, REI-purchased rainjackets...we were still wet...the kind of wet where you are so wet, your underwear are soaked. On the up side, we never waited in a line... ever. Apparently other visitors to the Disney park were willing to put Disney magic on hold for the tropical storm--we Kalms, we are made of much stronger stuff. We wore our rain jackets (though really it would have made little difference if we hadn't worn them), put the rain cover over Liam's stroller, and pressed on. Luckily, it was still 90 degrees while it was raining, so you might have been wet, but you definitely weren't cold. On the down side, it rained so hard on the third day we were there that our camera gave out. Thankfully my mom and Aaron took lots of great pictures that they shared with me.

As you can see, Liam was definitely enthralled with everything. His favorite ride was "It's a Small World." When we would ride it, Liam was absolutely entranced by everything around him. I think since we don't let him watch TV, this might have been the most visual stimulation he had ever had at one time. He loved it. He would clap his hands and twist his head to look at something, and when we walked by it, he would point and want to go on it. I think we rode it 12 times. I imagine this might seem like some of your worst nightmares. After all, let's be honest the song is a bit much especially after the 6th or 7th time, but really he loved it so much it just didn't matter. I am sad to think that when next we go back (and oh we will, because we Kalms, we love Disney), it probably won't be his favorite anymore. Here he sits in rapt attention in the very front row of his "It's a Small World" boat on his very last ride for this trip. (By the way, I don't really do rides. Liam's rides were really my style. No roller coasters for me, no towers of terror that drop you down--the horror! When you come and visit, perhaps Wade will show his picture of us and my parents on the Mt. Everest roller coaster ride. The three of them look to be having great fun. I look as though I might actually be moments from death and I spent the entire ride, which let's be honest lasted 42 seconds, saying "I don't like this, I don't like this, I don't like this". Thus ended my attempts at brave ride-riding for the trip. Perhaps Liz will post a comment about our Splash Mountain experience.)

Our last afternoon in the Magic Kingdom, we let Liam play in the Winnie-the-Pooh playground. He was so cute, though I think other people were frustrated with him. He loved Pooh's house and really felt that he should not have to move from the house to accommodate other people taking pictures.

More to come tomorrow. . . there's still much to tell.

We are Friends with Dessert Royalty!

2008-08-26T21:01:00.000-07:00

Let me introduce my friend Susanne--Queen of the Pies! Susanne enters various baked goods in the state fair each year and this year her peach pie won best peach pie and best pie over all. The Minnesota State Fair is the 2nd biggest state fair in the United States. They're not handing out blue ribbons to just anyone. Yeah Susanne!

On a related note, the MN State Fair is known as a place where you can get anything you want deep-fried and on a stick. It's really a heart attack waiting to happen. This year the new deep fried and on a stick item is a third lb. slab of bacon slathered in brown sugar and deep fried (and on a stick). It's called a "Pig Licker". We're going to the fair on Thursday to see Susanne's pie and other baked goods, we will not be eating the pig licker. (Nor will we be visiting the live birth barn where you can watch animals being born. They even keep a tally.)

Since it has been forever....

2008-08-26T19:19:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to post for so very long, but the end of the summer has run away from me. I think it's official though--summer vacation is over. Wade went back to work today and I am in my last days of journal work before it's time to really start working (read desperately) trying to finish my dissertation. Here's what we've been up to over the last few months.

1) A big trip to Washington and Oregon to visit our families. Wade flew out with Liam ahead of me. You'll remember that my most recent travel experience with Liam by myself involved Liam and I both walking through the Salt Lake City airport crying and then there was that really unfortunate business traveler who I had to sit next to. You might be wondering, "did Wade have an equally difficult time that involved weeping in the airport?" I am sure you will be shocked to hear--NO! Liam was fabulous, the flight was fabulous (he got a whole row to himself), and there were no tears. It might have had something to do with Liam's new airplane toy---the portable DVD player. Here he and Wade are trying it out.

You'll want to keep track of the really good habits we're inculcating in our son. Here we have DVD watching, though we went with old Mickey Mouse cartoons, which I find much less obnoxious than say Dora the Explorer, the Teletubbies, or Veggie Tales.

2) You might be wondering now, "what did Rachel do with her 4 days of being along without Liam and Wade? Surely she wrote millions of dissertation pages!" Alas no, I slept in (bliss), I did a lot of journal work, I did a fair amount of dissertation reading, and then I did the most important activity of all I read the very important, very high quality teenage vampire books by Stephanie Meyers (The first one is called Twilight). When Emily called and told me to put the phone down and go to the book store and buy the books, I was skeptical. When she called for the third time, I was convinced. Let me just say, I am not sure how anyone's life is entirely complete without reading the 4 volume series about vampires and werewolves in the Pacific Northwest. They are not well-written and I totally think the author chickened out in the end, but the plot was so engrossing. I had to know how it was all going to end. Emily--thank you for your many calls checking in on reading progress. I do feel that my reading life is infinitely improved for having read them.

3) Liam has been growing like crazy. I can't believe how big he is. Here he is sitting in his high chair a couple of weeks ago.

Here he is when we bought the high chair last September. Look at how tiny he looks. Honestly what were we thinking to put him in it. He's all slummpy!

We've also introduced some new food groups including my most favorite--M&M's. Bad habit #2!

4) We took Liam to his first Yankee game. My Dad and brother are huge Yankee fans and the Yankees were in town when my Dad was visiting so off we went. Dad took me to see my first Yankee game here in Minnesota, so I thought it was kind of fun that he got to take Liam to his. We also got to bring my friend Valerie to her first major league baseball game. Valerie and I met in the 2nd grade and have been friends ever since. After I moved from Montana, we kept in touch by writing letters, which we still do. We had another friend from 6th grade who was in town for a conference who came along also. Anyway, it was a great night at the baseball game, I figured we could manage Liam for 9 innings. After all we were 5 adults to his one little person--famous last thoughts. In the 8th inning, Rivera, the Yankee's amazing closer who never gives up a hit, gave up a lead-off home run to tie the game. No mere 9 innings to survive, but 12. Liam did quite well. He made it through 6 innings looking around and walking around. To get from the 7th to the 8th inning, we offered a bag of potato chips that Liam wolfed down (bad habit #3). By the 9th inning, he was getting quite restless and it looked like the night might be ending for him, but he finally fell asleep and slept through the end of the game.

5) Then the Olympics were on and really, who wanted to miss even one moment of underage gymnasts, zillions of gold medals for Michael Phelps, and the many totally bizarre Bela Karolyi interviews. Here we introduce bad habits #4 and #5 to Liam. Considering the many choices in bad habits, will my many cloth diaper using, organic food feeding friends still keep in touch?

6) I turned 31, which I still hold is totally young, but infinitely smarter than 21. Liam "made" me a card with this picture on front. I also got to spend my birthday with Valerie and Dad here, which was really fun.

For now, I think it is time to eat ice cream. Coming soon, a post about our trip to Disney World.

A Few Random Pictures and an Update on Adoption #2

2008-07-23T20:46:00.000-07:00

Things that Liam has enjoyed lately:
Gazing through the gate at the front sidewalk, wanting desperately to walk the sidewalk in front of the house. Liam has really figured out walking; he can walk around the block now.

Playing with Daddy

Playing with packaging

Begging for chips (we have to be so much more careful about what we eat in front of Liam)

Preparing for many travels. First to Washington and Oregon and in a couple of weeks to Disneyworld with my family for a week. Wade is hoping that the addition of a portable DVD player will net an easy flight for him and Liam tomorrow night. We shall see!

I'm following Wade and Liam on Monday night. I have to admit I'm looking forward to the flight--a flight in which I will walk onto the plane with a small bag that closes (not a bulging diaper bag), a novel, and my iPod (both of which I'll actually get to use). I might even eat a snack on the flight--it will be wild and crazy!

It's official--We're on the waiting list to get into the book that birth parents look at. I think we're somewhere between number 40 and 42, which we think will be about 2 year wait to get into the book--definitely a bit discouraging. There have been some positive things--the background checks that took months to come back last time and only came back after I wrote letters to all of our senators and representatives (I still believe it was one of them who ultimately got them back for us), came back in just a couple of weeks this time with no outside intervention! We did attend a training day on how to find our own birthmother. I have to say I don't think we're the adoption-card handing out kind of people, nor do I think we're the "mailing our profile to doctors and hair-dressers" kind of people. (In case you're curious, this is called a targeted mailing, where you focus on people you don't know who are likely to come into contact with people who might be experiencing an unplanned pregnancy.) I don't think we're really the referral agency type either. A referral agency is the adoption version of match.com. They bring adoptive parents and birth parents together--not a bad option if you have a lot of money (it costs way more than if we just went through LSS) and are not concerned with the ethical issues raised in pricing situations differently based on race (a Caucasian baby "costs" roughly $40,000-$45,000; an African American baby "costs" roughly $20,000) We're hoping that something crazy will happen--we need a birth mother to walk through the doors of LSS and only want to match with a family with a chemistry professor and a history professor (I think I can say I'm close enough). But really, if you meet someone considering adoption, please tell them about us. While I won't have an adoption card (like a business card--it sounds totally nerdy) to give you, I can send you a profile to pass along. As my Mom keeps reminding me, Liam is living proof that in the world of adoption things can happen crazy fast and completely unexpectedly. In the meantime, I'm pretty confident Liam will keep us quite busy and then there's always that thing called a dissertation!

It's Sad to be a Dog at our House...

2008-07-23T19:47:00.000-07:00

You might be wondering, why is it sad to be a dog at our house? Here's a list, compliments of Missy and Rosie.

1. There used to be 24/7 access to dog food, but not anymore since Liam thinks the little dog food bits look quite delicious. You gotta be fast at puppy chow now before it disappears, not to be seen again until Liam is sleeping. Even the water bowl is taken sometimes since Liam thinks the water bowl can be his own personal water table.

2. It used to be quiet. Now Liam cries and then Rosie cries--very loudly. I have to say, it's not actually very helpful in calming Liam down.

3. There used to be a lot of lazy time. Now, the dogs are no sooner settled somewhere, then Liam comes along to touch them and then they have to move. It's good exercise, but really gets in the way of relaxing!

4. The escape route out the dog door is cut off sometimes. It turns out being able to walk and climb out of the dog door isn't such a great combination. There was an unfortunate incident that ended with Liam falling off the steps out of the back door. Poor little boy... he was very sad! I felt terrible for not grabbing him quickly enough, so to make amends, I fed him a small bowl of chocolate ice cream in the tub that night. (On a related note, it was particularly sad that Liam's fall coincided with his 15-month doctor's visit. There were a lot of questions about how it happened and a lot of notes about it.)

There are a few pluses--long walks each day and the best of all, many extra treats. Liam signals the end of every meal by throwing all of the remaining food on his tray to the dogs (not a good habit we know!). Missy and Rosie are totally there for every meal. I have to say it really helps with clean-up; I'm not sure how people do it without a dog. If you have a dog and a baby, check out Madeleine L'Engle's book The Other Dog. It's really perfect!

In fairness to Liam, he actually does pretty well with the dogs. He's pretty gentle and he does love them. He's starting to learn their names and will now look for them if you ask. He can say dog now too. The big adventure will be to see what my parents' border collie, Winnie, thinks of Liam now that he walking around. She wasn't so sure about Liam when I was there in May though she did practice some of those herding skills that border collies are famous for in an effort to move Liam where she wanted, unfortunate since it involved occasional nipping.

Walking!

2008-07-03T18:16:00.000-07:00

Liam turned a huge corner in his walking today. Although he has been taking steps, usually once he falls or sits down he goes back to crawling. Today he kept walking. Yeah Liam!

(I have no idea why this is black, if you push the two play buttons, it seems to work.
Although I previewed the post, perhaps it will fix itself when it's posted.)

In other news--before Liam I was really good about remembering people's birthdays. Now, I struggle. If I remember, I can't get seem to get to the post office. Or I remember but three weeks early and then forget when it actually comes around--I'm trying. Erin and Jason, Happy Very, Very Belated Birthdays! I'm sorry we're so very late, but fortunately we're not too late to say, Happy Anniversary!

Busy Week

2008-06-28T21:07:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy week in the life of Liam.

He went to his first baseball game and even made it through 6 innings!

He ate some really yummy spaghetti!

He has learned some new words. So far we can recognize duck, dog, and plane. When we're outside and he hears a plane and he looks for it in the sky and points at it. He even said the word plane when he was pointing this morning.

He went on an adventure to the adoption agency to turn in all of the rest of the paperwork. We're a criminal background check and a homestudy away from the waiting list!

Sadly, he also had his first "secret" ear infection. There was no fever, no ear pulling, no general daytime fussiness, just bad night-time sleeping. Wade and I felt awfully bad about our "cry it out" night-time philosophy when we found out he actually had an ear infection. Happily he is feeling much better now.

When he was done with all this activity, it was time for some relaxing with Missy.

I'm a Big Boy; Look What I Can Do...

2008-06-17T19:33:00.001-07:00

...I Can Use the Dog Door Too!

...I Can Walk With My Walking Toy! (I forgot to mention in his post about being 14-months old that in honor of that milestone, he took his first steps. I was not home; Wade got to see them. In case you are keeping track, I have missed both Liam's first steps and Liam crawling for the first time. I'm glad Wade got to see both, but I wish I had been here for one of them.)

...I Can Walk Holding My Daddy's Hand Too!

It's a bonanza of posts today. I've been meaning to post for the last week and time has been scarce, so I decided to put up the posts I had in mind. In other news, we turned in our first (of thousands or at least that's how it feels) piece of paperwork to do a second adoption. It will be trickier the second time around. Domestic adoption has gotten a lot more popular, so there's a minimum one year wait just to get into the book that birthparents look at. While we wait, should you meet a pregnant lady on the street wearing a sign, "looking for adoptive parents," feel free to tell her about us. We're smart, nice, and have an adorable little boy who will be a great big brother! (and we bring bubbles in the bath-tub sometimes)

Happy Father's Day!

2008-06-17T19:23:00.001-07:00

Happy Father's Day, Wade! Poor Wade had to share his day with the Berkshire Women's History Conference (where I met very famous historians--it was like my own personal Hollywood-like experience. I know, I'm a total nerd!)

For Father's Day, Wade got books from me and a fun Disney-themed package from Liam for our trip to Disney World at the end of the summer. Liam picked out coordinating (not matching--I could pick a shirt up for you too Aaron!) Disney shirts for him and his Daddy to wear. On Monday, we went on a belated Father's Day outing to the Minnesota State Zoo. In the picture at the top, Liam is making his serious face; he's very serious when strangers are around. It's as if he has really internalized the stranger danger message. Contrary to Liam's serious face, we had a great day. They have a fabulous new exhibit with grizzly bears. Sadly the bears were sleeping (notice the furry lump in the background of the picture.)

Fourteen Months Old

2008-06-17T18:58:00.000-07:00

On June 9th, Liam was 14 months old--it's hard to believe that Liam is already that old. I feel like we blinked and the year and a few months went by. Here are fourteen things that make me smile and laugh every day about my little boy.

1. He says "mama" and means me!

2. He's also not a bad mimic. The other night at dinner he said "duct tape."

3. He loves to open and close doors.

4. The other day we were all outside working in the yard and I ran in to get the phone. Pretty soon I heard the door open and I thought it was one of the dogs, but there was Liam. He had crawled after me, climbed the steps, pushed the door open, and crawled in after me. Admittedly perhaps not the safest activity, but impressive for him.

5. He loves to clap his hands.

6. He loves to push the buttons on the stereo (a bad habit, I know) and when he gets the music to play, he shakes his head back and forth--his own version of dancing.

7. He'll push cars across the floor and say "vroom".

8. He's stopped eating books and now likes to read books. (The best thing ever!) He particularly likes Cowboy Bunny (beautiful pictures) and I Love You Through and Through (it makes him laugh).

9. Green beans are one of his favorite foods.

10. Finger nail clipping is the bane of his existence even though he gets to watch The Wonder Pets (the only tv he ever sees) when we do it.

11. He likes to point at what he wants and make this little noise to indicate the desires of his heart.

12. He gives Missy and Rosie hugs. He's particularly adept at picking up their dog hair off the floor. (always fun for the neat freak in me--nice that he likes to help, a little horrifying that there's so much fur on our floor)

13. In his carseat, he loves looking at himself in the mirror and who can blame him since he's so adorable!

14. The word he most consistently uses and knows what it means is "Duck".

We're Back

2008-06-07T20:36:00.000-07:00

It's been a full and adventuresome few weeks for Liam (and mommy and daddy too!). I took Liam to Washington to see my parents. Liam has actually flown quite a lot and has always been fine. I've flown a number of times with him by myself and it's been fine as well. This was the first time that I had flown with Liam since he learned how to crawl and that seems to make it a whole different thing. We made it to Washington ok. Liam did great on the flight and despite having really tired legs (how do people sit with an almost-2 year old on their laps for a whole flight?), I thought I managed pretty well too. We had a great time with my parents, Liam's Nana and Pappa. Their new house is amazing. Liam loved crawling laps around it and at night he slept in the crib that my mom, myself, and my brother slept in. My mom had even found the backpack that she used for my brother and Liam spent many a happy morning riding around with her. One morning he even used it as an opportunity to take a nap.

My brother and his wife came up to visit as well, so everyone got some good Liam time. The return flight was not nearly as happy. Liam screamed from departure to arrival. I felt terrible for him, for me, and for everyone sitting around us. Except for the man sitting next to me on my second flight. When I sat down with my screaming baby, he promptly began texting his friends to let them know that this was going to be "the worst flight ever" because of the "screaming kid" sitting next to him. I'm not sure if he perhaps thought I was illiterate or just too exhausted to be able to read, but really, I was sitting 2 inches away from him and his blackberry was huge. If I could have poked Liam and induced him to throw-up on the man, I would have. When my friend Jeff came to airport in Minneapolis to pick us up, I could have hugged him. I was so glad to be done flying. When we got back it was just Liam and I for a week because Wade was on a canoe trip in Boundary Waters with some of the chemistry professors. Liam had had a rough week sleep-wise, so I was tired and ready for help by the time Wade came back. We did mange alone though--there were lots of walks and my friend Susanne came for dinner one night, which was a welcome break since she never once threw her cup or partially chewed-up food at me, as Liam is often prone to do! (and she brought really fabulous bars!)

In the meantime, it's summer and we're having a great time playing with Liam. We've been walking to the park. Liam likes the swings.

Today we tried out the water play mat. I think he's going to like it! We'll save y'all a spot anytime you'd like to stop by!

Happy Mother's Day! (or Snacks Part III)

2008-05-12T20:33:00.000-07:00

I had a great Mother's Day! Frankly it wouldn't have taken much to top last year's really lousy Mother's Day--it's amazing how much the day changes when you get to put your baby to bed and know that in the morning he'll still be yours!!!! (I did think about Liam's birthmother and wonder what she was thinking--this year it was a very different day for both of us. I know a lot of adoptive families do something for their birthmother around Mother's Day to recognize them as the birthmother, but I don't think I'll ever really be able to do that. I am willing to share a lot of things with Mary, but I can't share Mother's Day in light of how everything happened last year. Maybe time will change this for me...)

Wade and Liam brought me breakfast in bed (pancakes) and my first Mother's Day gift of the day. All of my gifts were themed around things Liam had observed about me over the last year. You might not be surprised to hear that my first gift was a huge grocery bag full of oreos and M&M's. (3 Costso-sized boxes of Oreos and a 5 lb. bag of M&Ms) Clearly I have more than made my point about my love of snacks. Throughout the day other fun things appeared---a gift certificate to my favorite book store, to a nursery, and to a clothing store. (I'm leaving it for Liz to guess where) The last gift was really the funniest. Liam has apparently observed that I like to clean (true--or at least I like things to be clean and since the cleaning fairies look to be imaginary, it's all me--Wade does all the cooking, so I think this is fair). He particularly noticed that I do laundry, which is one of my least favorite (but most necessary cleaning jobs). In my quest to do laundry as infrequently as possible while maximizing the volume of clean clothes available, I have built up our underwear collection to be able to go 2 weeks between loads of laundry. Liam had apparently noticed that my laundry-doing had increased in frequency to accommodate falling numbers of underwear, so I got a gift card to buy more underwear, so I would not have to do laundry as often. Thank goodness for practical things!

Since the weather was beautiful, we put Liam's sandbox out and it was a definite hit! There's plenty of space in it, so now that we're not living in a frozen wasteland, stop by and visit and Liam will save you a spot.

Gazing with longing at the freedom waiting just beyond the fence (and the bunny in the neighbor's yard)

Snacks, Part II

2008-05-06T20:30:00.003-07:00

It's snack time again...

With bellies full, it's time to head out for a little adventure...

A Boy after My Own Heart

2008-05-05T19:09:00.000-07:00

Our first night in our first apartment, Wade cooked dinner for us. He was barely finished when I had inquired, "what's for snack?" Wade later told me that he thought this was strange especially when I asked the next day after lunch and after dinner again and the next day and the day after and I asked yesterday too. Apparently not everyone has snack--craziness!!! My sister-in-law Liz apparently had the same experience with my brother. She too seems to think the Kalms compulsion to fill every day with multiple snacks is perhaps not entirely normal. She also thinks that our insistence that it's snack, and not dessert, is a little weird. I guess that's fair. Outside of the 4 original members of the Kalms family, I guess I've never heard anyone talk about snacks as much as we do.

I am happy to report that Liam is a boy after my own heart! Since it was crazy warm today (70!), Liam and I went for a long walk and to the park to play. When we got home, I set Liam up with his own snack, goldfish crackers and juice, and got a snack for myself (chips ahoy cookies and ice tea), but I forgot to close the snack drawer. Look at my little boy, on his tip toes, gazing in adoration at the snacks...

Just a point of clarification...although there are cheetos in the snack drawer, they are not an official Kalms snack. Certain members of the family seem to think that salty makes a snack when we all know that it's really about the chocolate in some form or fashion.

Big Liam news...he can stand up on his own without pulling up. I imagine walking is soon to come.

A Little Bit of Spring, A Little Bit of Not Spring

2008-04-29T19:13:00.001-07:00

It's the end of the school year, which means life is crazy busy. I remain hopeful that spring is coming and it's trying, but really it snowed last weekend. We did have a few nice days though and Liam and I spent some good time outside. We even had snack time outside and wore shorts (mind you I'm not sure this will ever happen again, what with the snow and everything) He's still trying to figure out the grass...and shoes... (no walking yet)

You'll notice Liam's tight grasp on the phone. He loves the phone. He pushes the buttons and throws it on the floor, but refuses to make any noise if you want him to talk on the phone. Conveniently for Liam, the phone is located near the dog bed, which makes for a cozy place to sit and ponder the wonders of the phone.

Missy is rising in Liam's esteem. She's even more likable when combined with the phone!

How to Have a Fabulous First Birthday

2008-04-16T19:26:00.000-07:00

Step 1: Have a Pile of Presents from Friends and Family who Love you
Liam did like his gifts though he was mainly interested in climbing over the packages at first. It was like scaling a mountain in Liam's world. He's pretty excited now to play with all of his big boy toys. (Mommy is glad for some new things too.)

Liam was so surprised when he came out in the morning and saw all of his packages. The balloons were definitely a big hit!

Step 2: Breakfast out at Perkins with Trey and Christine. Liam looked like such a big boy sitting at the table. He had big fun throwing his cup on the floor. It made for a busy breakfast for Trey who got the pleasure of picking it up, over and over again. After breakfast, we went out to the cars and Trey and Christine gave Liam a very fun birthday present--with bright lights, fun music, and the added bonus of being able to ride it!

Step 3: An afternoon of hanging out with Mommy. It was even a decently nice day, so we got to go on a walk. When Wade got home, Liam got to open up a few more presents. In an effort to encourage an early love of math, Wade picked the perfect mathematical gift... You can see the math thoughts turning about in Liam's mind.

Step 4: A Dinner of Champions...quesadillas, green beans, and peaches. As a self-feeding boy now, Liam loves his green beans!

Step 5: Your very first Chocolate Cupcake!

"Hmmm..."says Liam, "They've never brought me food with lights on it or in such big pieces."

"First, a taste of frosting just to make sure I'm allowed to dig in to this whole thing. Wow...it's the best thing ever. What's up with the green beans they've been feeding me?"

"Now for a bigger bite. Still yummy. Who knew my mommy could bake such lovely things???"

"Hey Mommy, pick me up and hold me. The sugar is rushing to my brain and I don't know what to do!"

"That surge of sugar in my veins is wearing off, Mom and Dad. I think I need another hit!"

We weren't so sure the bath tub could handle much more, so much to Liam's chagrin, we opted for bath and bed. I thought we might need the sprayer that we use on the dogs, Wade thought we could manage without. I think it really wasn't until the bath the next day that I think we had finally cleaned off the last of the chocolate. It was a perfect day!

On another note---it was 64 degrees here today--rather like living in the tropics!

Happy Birthday Liam..with technical updates!

2008-04-09T08:40:00.000-07:00

From lunchtime: So it turns out it's not just mac users that can't get Liam's photo montage to work in the previous post. The link below should work better. Clearly I have reached the limits of my technological skills!

We're still having a great birthday!

From the mid-morning: I've heard that for Mac users my photo montage isn't showing up in its entirety. You can also watch Liam's movie, "Liam: The First Year" here.

We're having a great birthday! Yeah Liam!

From the wee hours of this morning:
It's 2:30 in the morning on Liam's very first birthday. We should be sleeping and now our hours of sleep will be very short, but we've been making Liam's first birthday gift of the day. If you have some minutes (like 10 and there's music), check out Liam's first year.

Happy Birthday Liam!

2008-04-09T00:26:00.000-07:00

It's 2:30 in the morning on Liam's very first birthday. We should be sleeping and now our hours of sleep will be very short, but we've been making Liam's first birthday gift of the day. If you have some minutes (like 10 and there's music), check out Liam's first year.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

One Year Ago Today....

2008-04-03T19:06:00.001-07:00

One year ago today we were sitting in a rather dingy room waiting for Liam's birth-mom and her mom to walk through the door. We were waiting on the edge of our chair to see if a seventeen year old girl would like us enough to pick us. When we went to the first training session about adoption, the opening session was about highlighting all the things that you lose if you can't have biological children (it was a real uplifter of an hour). I have to say, I never really felt like I was losing anything. I think we exchanged one set of experiences for another. In our quest to find Liam, one year ago today was like taking a pregnancy test and finding out you were having a baby, only we only had a 6 day gestational period. A year ago we were trying not to stare at a young girl's stomach, wondering desperately about the little person inside and also exercising great restraint. It was like the highest stakes picking sides for kickball game ever. I wanted to be jumping up and down, yelling "pick me, pick me." They assured us in the adoption training (the same one that started by highlighting our many 'losses' and ended with a 3-hour discussion about coordinating your font color with your paper color with your pictures for your profile) that yelling "pick me, pick me" was inadvisable. They seemed to think it would discourage people from picking you. Admittedly, in the grand scheme of incorrect things that the adoption agency told us, I suppose this one piece of advice was actually correct. (If you want to get a sense of this, check out the movie Juno. The scene where Juno first meets Jennifer Garner's character felt so real from the adoptive parent perspective.) A year ago today, she did pick us and look who we have now...

In honor of today and the fact that it was 55 DEGREES!!!!!, Liam and I went to the park down the street. Honestly, I think this has been the warmest day since October. We wore our short sleeve shirts and had big outside fun!!! Apparently the weather brought a lot of people out because there were all manner of children playing (all with very grateful parents to be able to be outside), Liam tried the swings. He seemed to think they were good fun. He also liked the elephant bouncy-thing. Doesn't he look so happy? If all you Atlanta folks (and former Atlanta folks) would just give up and accept the inevitable, that despite endless snow and bitter cold, moving to Minneapolis is best for everyone, we could all be going to the park together.

One year ago tonight, we were having dinner with our friends Jeff and Susanne to celebrate being picked. For those of you not fortunate enough to live by Jeff and Susanne--Jeff goes to school with me and has generously read pages and pages of blather that I have written in the last year and never once complained or said they were terrible, despite the sleep-deprived state that they were often written in. Thanks to his endless positive feedback, I have great confidence that my dissertation won't be a total disaster and in fact could possibly be kind of ok. When I called Susanne to tell her that a birth mother wanted to meet with us, without missing a beat, she said "I think I should come over" and she brought pizza and ice cream and it was perfect since Wade wasn't home and I needed someone to share my news with me. She also bakes state fair prize winning baked goods (to put this in perspective, the MN state fair is the second biggest state fair in the US. It's a select group winning prizes there)--she brought us some bars the other night-we ate them for dinner. They were great!!! You should all be so lucky to have such baked goods in your life and such good friends who live just down the block and love your children. Dinner has changed a bit for us in the last year (though Jeff and Susanne still come regularly to dinner), but it's awfully fun. (Just to be clear, this video was taken at the very beginning of a meal before Liam had had the opportunity to really make the food yucky by playing in it. Though it is perhaps not perfectly captured, I was trying to blow on the food to cool it off. Liam apparently took this as a sign that I was hungry.)

Yeah Liam and Yeah Us! Who knew what a year could bring!!!

5 Things I Wonder

2008-04-01T20:47:00.000-07:00

1. Will the snow ever go away?

I took this picture on March 31. Literally 1 hour before, there was no snow in our yard. It was a snow-free zone. My flip flops were peaking out from the far recesses of my closet. They have, however, now gone back into hibernation. Maybe next week... it's the end of winter in Minnesota and it's unpredictable!

2. Why does Liam think his crib tastes good?
(on a related note to point 4, when will he stop literally eating his books?)

Now that he has learned to pull himself up, Liam likes to stand up in his crib. Doesn't he look like a big boy? Sadly, he likes to eat his crib. I've had to purchase an unfortunate crib rail cover to protect the crib (which is going to take a week to arrive). Christy assures me I won't even notice it after a while. We'll see what Liam thinks of it. You can't see it in this picture, but at the foot of Liam's crib there is a small bookshelf with a humidifier, basket of burp clothes, and a baby monitor. Liam thinks it is great fun to move down there, stick his arms through the crib rails, and push things off the shelf. This brings me to the third thing I wonder...

3. How long before Liam pushes the humidifier off the shelf?

I don't know where else to put it, so I am holding out for never. Foolish me, I'm guessing.

4. What do you think Liam is trying to do here?

I think he's practicing blowing bubbles. He might very well be the next Michael Phelps in the making. You never know, swimming excellence has to start somewhere! Doesn't he look happy though? He loves his bath time, though he is definitely particular about what constitutes a proper bath activity. I have 2 bath books for him. One is the Sandra Boynton book about a pig in the bath. Here's how our reading of it goes while Liam is in the tub--"Hey, hey what do you say it's time to take bath today"--Liam is laughing and smiling and looking at the book--"Bring your ducky and bring your boat. Bring the toys that like to float"--Still laughing, but looking a bit unsure--"Gently scrub from top to toes"--Now there's big screaming. It's as though Liam is greatly offended by the pig in the story getting clean. That takes care of bath-time story reading. It's usually hard to recover from that point. Now we do not attempt to read the books, merely point at them periodically. Aside from sad feelings for the pig in his story, Liam loves bath-time. Doesn't he look sweet and practicing good dental hygiene. I believe Brennan's daddy would approve!

5. Who wouldn't look good in quilted whale pants?

Seriously, is this a look for everyone or what? You'll notice how happy Liam seems about his whale pants. Wade too for that matter. I think Wade is thinking, "Hmmm, where would I buy quilted whale pants. Perhaps rather than teaching chemistry, I should go into business and fill the quilted whale pants niche. I have so many friends I know would line up to purchase them (and very fashionable wives who would clearly encourage the purchase)...Phil, Robert, Tim, Jeff, Jason, and Aaron...Talk about dressing for success."

Happy April Everyone! Hope it is less snowy where you are!

Look Mom I Can Share! (maybe)

2008-03-27T21:03:00.000-07:00

Not much new to report from here, but I thought you might find this amusing. Well, at least I found it very amusing. Since we haven't been teaching Liam sign language, Liam has decided to let us know that he is done eating by throwing his food about the kitchen--it's own sort of lovely sign. (If anyone has any good clean-up tips, I have a wall with food glued to it in some sort of permanent way. I'm trying to keep up with it, but really, depending on the light different bits of food become visible.) On this night, however, Liam chose to throw his food off his tray, but this time not just randomly about the kitchen in his "get this mushy food away from me, I am sooo done with it," but in a "Look at my puppies standing by my chair. I think I'll share my sweet potato chips drizzled in yogurt with them." At least I am choosing to believe it was the second!
Rosie was partaking in the bounty that Liam was offering until the camera came out, at which she promptly ran outside to hide from her own personal "devil machine." As payback for me ruining her evening snacking, she tracked dog poop into the house this morning. Thanks Rose! (It was particularly nice when Liam found it on the floor. I only discovered it when I grabbed his hand to take the "stick" out of it. My mistake. Much hand-washing, floor-cleaning, and clothes-changing later, we continued with our morning. I'm sure you're all reconsidering your plans to come and visit. Perhaps try Atlanta instead. I heard they're wearing shorts and flip-flops there. Just to clarify, in Minnesota, we are not wearing flip-flops.)

Happy Easter!

2008-03-24T19:59:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter Everyone! We had a great day together despite the snow (yes we had to shovel on Easter. I bet no one in Atlanta had that as part of their Easter festivities! I know that has really sealed the deal for any of you considering a move to Minnesota.)

In an effort to create fun holiday memories for Liam, I used my very limited crafty skills to cut out paper Easter eggs and make an egg garland with a sign for Liam. Seriously---I might not be dyeing "organic duck eggs" like some people I know, but I have real craft talents too. I think Liam thought it was pretty fun.

Just in case you couldn't see the Easter garland in all of its home-made glory!

I also made an Easter basket for Liam. Wade came with me to pick out the toys for it, but I think he was a little concerned that I was going to be disappointed come Easter morning. As Liam is only a mere 11 and a half months, it's hard to predict his reaction (or so Wade said). Wade seemed to think that maybe it wasn't realistic to expect Liam to have a big reaction to his Easter basket. I remained hopeful and was not disappointed. He seemed thoroughly interested in the basket and the toys in it and quite happily pulled each thing out to look at.

The stacking cups were a definite hit. The crayons for toddlers -- a little less so. I admit I was totally taken in by the crayola commercial where the mom calls the baby over and shows her the crayons and they draw a picture together and then it gets hung on the fridge. It turns out this is perhaps a more idealistic picture of how the first crayon experience goes. Liam's first crayon experience went something like this....Look at this thing. My mommy seems to want me to put it on that white paper, but I think I will eat it instead.

We went to church in the morning, but Liam was not able to wear his springy patchwork quilt whale pants (I know he will love these when he grows up and I will post pictures later). Instead he wore his very stylish outfit from his Aunt Liz. I know Liam was better dressed than me in his Kenneth Cole pants, button-up shirt, and jacket. All the other babies were clearly jealous. While Liam thought a lot about the fashion statement he was making, my clothing decision went a little something like this....Gosh, I would like to wear my new Easter frock, but since there are 3 inches of snow and its like 20 degrees, perhaps a sundress isn't ideal. Hmmmm, maybe I'll wear my skirt with brown stitching and a brown cardigan (Liz is totally rolling her eyes at me. She seems to think I wear a lot of brown and olive green). Hmmm, I'll need to wear brown tights then too...(effort to put on the tights)Hmmm, the tights have a hole in them, I guess I will need something else. So into the new Easter frock I went with a cardigan and wool jacket and scarf--none of which I took off during the morning because it was so cold.

When we got home from church, Liam looked for Easter eggs that had cheerios and goldfish crackers in them. I loved hunting for eggs when I was little and I was so excited to get to see Liam look and he was so happy. Who doesn't like a good hippo egg???

It was a great day! We got the call from the adoption agency that Liam's birthmom had picked us and wanted to meet us on March 22, 2007. It's almost exactly a year later now. Look what we're doing now. It is such great fun!

Bracket Update: I almost had a serious bracket situation with UCLA's near loss on Saturday. Even with them pulling it out, I still am down...but not out. Wade had some key losses, so there is potential that I could eeck it out in the end. I'll keep you updated.

Finally Spring (or so I hear)

2008-03-22T12:38:00.000-07:00

The calendar says it is officially spring. We woke up yesterday to this. Add a couple more inches to the top of this and that's what we woke up to today. I'm not saying it's not pretty, but it's Easter. I am thinking my Easter dress is going to have to be my "first real warm day and it's May" dress. Somehow I think the wool leggings underneath the sun dress will really detract from the overall fashion statement (and you all know how fashionable I am anyway:). I hope it's warm and sunny where you are. Perhaps you can send some warm sunshine our way!

Just in the last week, Liam has gotten so big with his skills. Look at our big boy!

He can pull up on the stairs...

He can climb up on the stairs...

He can stand up anywhere (almost)....

Last year on Easter Sunday, Liam's birth-mother went into labor. This Easter I'm watching Liam learn to stand up and take steps while holding on and he's giving me hugs and we're reading books. Tomorrow he gets an Easter basket and will 'hunt' for Easter eggs filled with cheerios and goldfish crackers.

A bracket update:
Our brackets aren't looking good. (Wade is beating me by 2.) The commentators that I read picked all the wrong upsets (silly me to think the research would pay off); and thus, so did I. It was a black day yesterday with Oregon's loss. Liam was all dressed and ready to watch with his Daddy. Perhaps he'll still fit into his Oregon outfit when football begins (and since it can't possibly be snowy then, he could maybe wear it without pajamas underneath).

Cold and Snowy Again...

2008-03-18T20:57:00.000-07:00

I promise not all the blog titles will be about the weather, but really the end of the winter is exhausting. After the blessedly warm days (well the 40s--don't laugh at me Christy with your crazy short sleeve in the 70s weather--for MN folks, they're still wearing turtlenecks in the ATL, really it could be actual sleeveless shirt weather), we woke up this morning to an inch of snow on the ground. It's the kind of snow that in November would be pretty, but in March, just a few days before Easter, is frankly sad and depressing. It has mostly melted, but it's a big wet, sloppy mess again.

Here is the promised post about Liam and the dogs. Liam loves Missy and Rosie, or at least he's very interested in them. He would really like to pet (or bang as the case may be) on Rosie, but she prefers to keep her distance much to Liam's dismay. Missy on the other hand is mellower and quite happy to lay still (largely because she is lazy) and let Liam 'pet' her. The dogs are mildly interested in Liam--particularly in his eating. Missy likes to lick Liam all over his face. Poor Liam always seems torn about this. On the one hand, he gets very excited when Missy comes that close and stays that close. On the other hand, Missy's kisses are rather overwhelming and, I think, though I would make no claims to be an expert, not particularly sanitary.

Now that Liam is feeding himself, there is always bits of food dropping to the floor. For a while, Rosie had staked out the space under the table by the high chair so that she could swoop in and eat the dropped bits. Missy was never to be found during these times, I think because Rosie actually told Missy "nothing's happening here, don't bother coming" in a selfish move to keep all the scraps for herself. Missy, not to be left out, has recently moved in on the action. Now it's rather complicated to get to Liam's high chair because there are 2 dogs camped out underneath his chair.

In a reciprocal move, Liam is also interested in the dog food. In his defense, it's small and round and when your diet only consists of like 10 items, something new is pretty fun. In an effort to be good parents, we do encourage Liam to not eat the dog-food. For his part, Liam remains unsure if we're telling the truth, so he's still checking it out.

I don't have a great picture that captures it, but just moments before this, Rosie was sitting in front of her bowl with her paws wrapped around it, definitely laying claim to it as HER bowl. (She thinks the camera is a devil-machine and enters the zone and runs away whenever the camera appears). Missy had been standing in front of her bowl eating, but Liam crawled his way in and pushed her out of the way, sat right in front of the bowl and leaned over it as if he was going to stick his face in and begin eating. Notice poor Missy sitting there. I think she is saying "This boy eats 8 times a day, does he really get to eat my food too?"

Now that he can crawl, Liam recently discovered the dog door, I think it is only a matter of time before he can crawl out of it as the photos attest.
You'll notice the care the dogs take with Liam.

All in all the dogs have been awfully patient with many changes to their life. It's hard to be a dog sometimes!

Coming soon, video of Liam's latest skills. Not to give it away, but it involves stairs and standing and the inevitable coming of walking. Also coming soon, bracket updates...Wade wins every year, I'm determined to beat him this year and I have added help in accomplishing this in Jeff and Susanne who have joined our small bracket pool. Any tips anyone?

.....crazy warm...sort of....

2008-03-14T17:00:00.000-07:00

Before Liam's news, I have to tell you all that we've had 3 days in the 40s. Yesterday, I actually considered for a moment that when Liam went down for a nap that I should sit outside and read for a bit. Then I realized that it was still only 42 and there was still snow in my yard, so it probably was not the best sort of sitting outside and reading a book sort of day. Judging by the number of people outside running in shorts, I think many others are feeling the same. Clearly we in Minnesota are all ready for winter's end. (Just to clarify though, the winter was really beautiful. We have had light, fluffy snow on the ground since last November and it was lovely to look at. I heard it was a beautiful white Christmas. Despite the snow and cold, 4 real and distinct seasons are still the best. Sorry Atlanta folks, though I am missing the Atlanta spring.) Liam and I have enjoyed being able to go out for a stroller ride each day. Spring is trying to come! Yeah!

Wade is sitting with Liam feeding him dinner. Tonight he's eating red beans and rice, a recipe I followed from the baby cookbook with much greater success. Tonight Liam has decided it is also fun to throw his food off his tray. Not a habit to be encouraged, but he certainly likes seeing it fly away.

Yesterday, Liam wore his Oregon best, hoping for a happy basketball result. It was not to be, but he looked like such a big boy in his t-shirt, hat, and cowboy boots. He was fascinated by the boots when I put them on him. Thanks Keri, Randy, Cori, and Katie!

Liam only just mastered crawling in the last few weeks. It looks like he's on to the next skill. Notice the attempts at steps. Notice also the use of the crystal candle holder to encourage movement--Liam really likes this particular one!

Coming this weekend, a post about Liam's developing relationship with Missy and Rosie and his attempts to escape with their aid. Happy weekend everyone!

Finally Warming Up...

2008-03-11T19:52:00.000-07:00

Liam recently voiced some issues he was having. He is apparently really concerned about the choices being made for him. As a budding environmentalist, he's not too sure about our use of disposable diapers and applauds the environmentally friendly choices of Andrew and Asa. As I tried explaining though, any sort of diapering that requires a special diaper brush attachment on the toilet is totally not for me. Additionally, I would need to purchase a whole new washing machine so that the diapers could have a space separate from my clothes. Liam begrudgingly agreed, but then he wanted to know why I wasn't cooking delectable baby food from scratch like Andrew's mom and Ellie and Lauren's mom (we didn't even bother with why I don't buy organic as Emmy and Asa's mom might). Here I have made an effort. I purchased a cookbook of recipes for baby, I purchased ingredients, I put my Ph.D. skills to the task of making mac and cheese from scratch. It's lucky for me I'm not in a math program as my basic measuring ability really struggled with the directions. Fortunately, Liam didn't seem to mind the soup-like cheese with way too few noodles (it's crazy how when you use the right amount of cheese, but barely a quarter of the right amount of noodles that the proportion really doesn't work out) and he gave me an A for effort. We did agree to a compromise that included no diaper cleaning....Liam's very own blog.

Living In A Mini apple is.... finally warming up! I was beginning to think we were living in Narnia where it was always winter and never Christmas. Now it would seem that Aslan is on the move and spring (the MN version) is trying to arrive. Nothing is for sure though until mid-April. There could still be serious snow in our future. But it was 49 degrees today; the warmest it has been in 4 months. Anybody for a visit?

Liam has finally "mastered" crawling. He loves to feed himself. We love him. Last year at this time his birth mom was probably just looking at our profile and we didn't even know Liam was out there and now we have an 11 month old. The wonder of it all still takes my breath away!