Almost 9 Months Old

Can you believe it our little guy is really almost 9 months old. I took him to the doctor yesterday to make sure his ear infection had healed up and he weights in at almost 24 lbs. The nurse said, "Just look at that healthy boy and those feet, he has big ones." She said he is big for his age. His ears have cleared up but there is still some fluid in there. He is getting another tooth and the doctor chalked it up to that. He is handling it really well but drooling a lot and he tries to bite you if you get to close. He tried to bite our pediatrician last time he was there and this time he tried to pee on her. That's our boy.
He is so mobile these days its hard to stop him from getting into everything. He loves the shoe pile by the door and he really likes my big hiking boots. We have started putting them all in the storage room cause it grosses me out. I know that dirt is good for him but I just can't let him chew on our shoes.
I have also given him a cabinet. Every boy should have his own cabinet in his mothers kitchen, right. He loves it. We put some board books in it an all of his plastic bowls and cups. He loves to climb in to it and pull all the stuff out. Its perfect for when I'm making something and need to keep an eye on him at the same time. He's entertained by this for at least 15 minutes and that's a really long time for a baby.
So Brody starts his new job on Monday and he is both nervous and happy about it. I think he's going to do great.
I've been back in the working world for 3 weeks now and things are going well at the farm but I miss being at home with Liam. I wish I could just be a stay at home mom, I really love it. I start teaching farm ed classes at one of the local elementary schools this coming week and its going to be fun. They have a great school garden that was put in by my predecessor so it will be fun to plant it with the kids. Speaking of....I have work to do now that the baby is asleep. Hope you all are well.

Happy Valentines Day!!

Well We finally got a picture of him in the hat. I hope your all happy now. This picture will be used for black mail later in life. We went out for a nice family Valentines breakfast this morning. It was very nice and as you can probably guess Liam had a lot of admirers and generally had a swell time. The rest of our day was spent quietly at home. Liam is moving around so well these days and its just fun to watch him grow and change so much so fast. He was just learning to crawl last week and now he is totally mobile and pulling himself up on stuff. Its a whole new world of things to get into and a new phase in baby proofing. He still loves the walker but I caught him leaning over with his feet totally of the ground reaching for something yesterday morning. The walker is going to be a thing of the past soon. This is a picture of Liam and I reading his first magazine. I ordered him Babybug and we read it twice today. He seems to really like it and we will get a new one every month. I really like it because its like a little board book that he can be rough with and the pages wont rip or anything. We went to story hour the other day and really liked that. Its so good for him to engage with other babies his age. I tried to get Brody to go this week but the thought of singing scared him. I tried to tell him that everyone sings but I understand. It is all moms after all. Every once and a while a dad comes but its mostly a mom thing. His little red outfit that Sarah and Penny got him works really well. That's what he has on in this picture. I really like it because it has little built in mittens and he cant take them off and lose them. Thanks you guys!!! As you can see by picture of him in the high chair, he is getting a little sassy about eating. He likes to do it himself and shows it to. He is getting so good at eating stuff. He really likes cheese and salmon too. Ok well I thought I'd throw some text in this blog since Brody did the pictures earlier today and was having a hard time with the finer points of blogging. I'd say it was a fine job for his first time. Hope you all are well and having a very happy V day.

Dads Home!!!!

Sorry I have been a little lax about updating the blog but I think we have a good excuse. Brody is home and we are soo happy that he is. He had a job interview this week that went really well and we are thinking about the pros and cons of the job and what it could mean for our family. I am starting my job at Spring Creek Farm on Monday and am a little nervous. This is my first foray into the working world since Liam has been born. I think its going to be a really fun job and I can take Liam with me on some days. My official tittle is Farm Education Coordinator, sounds important doesn't it. We will see. Wish me luck on that.
Liam has been a little sick lately with a fever and runny nose but generally in good spirits. He still loves his bath time and is getting into it more and more. He is such a happy baby, isn't he. He started crawling for the first time yesterday. Not the army crawl but really crawling on hands and knees. He only goes a short distance and is a bit wobbly but he is getting more and more mobile every day. He loves his floor time upstairs. He has his favorite toys of course and has even grown out of playing with some of them. Tonight I put a bandanna on him and thought for sure he would take it right off, just like he does his hats. He wore it all through dinner though. Such a little ham!!!

Birthday Boy

After a rough landing Liam is finally asleep for his afternoon nap. First he was poopy then he had his leg stuck in the crib and then hurt his mouth chewing on the bars. Finally asleep!!!
Today is Liam's 8 month birthday, can you all believe we have an 8 month old boy. Bigger update and pictures later. I promise.

Milestones in the life of...

The weather has finally seemed to stabilize a bit here. Its been in the 20's for a while now which is nice walking weather. We try to walk everyday, Liam and weather permitting of course. This picture from the upstairs window looks drastically different from the last one I took, thought you all would get a kick out of that. Our weather just changes so fast up here. Its a total ice rink up on Lazy Mt., but sunny.
Now on to the reason we are all really reading this blog. Milestones in the life of our star have been happening in quick succession. Tonight he ate Cheerios for the first time. No choking just lots of attentiveness. As you can see from the picture he is very focused on the task at hand. He probably dropped more than he got to his mouth, much to the delight of Keegan. He worked very hard though and was defiantly ready for the challenge. I must admit watching him was kind-of hard because I just really wanted to help him, I knew that it would be best for him to do it him self though. I should learn this lesson now with something easy like Cheerios right. He is also getting a 7th tooth. I noticed tonight on the right lower side another one is coming in, can you believe it. Our friends little girl who is almost a year old doesn't have any teeth at all!!! We are going to her birthday party in a couple of weeks, lots of little ones running around a gym. Sounds like a good time to me. Back to the milestones...he is starting to get the hang of being mobile a bit more. He can move army crawl style at a surprising speed but he is working on the hands and knees more and more everyday. Its coming soon, I know. One of his other favorite things to do is this sideways thing when he is on his tummy. I think its a prelude to going from stomach to sitting but who knows, could just be a phase. He loves his Bob the Builder books. Well have a great week and check in with you all soon.

On Eating and Outside Time

This last week seemed to creep and fly by at the same time. My friend ended up coming out to spend time with us anyway. We spent time knitting, cooking and of course playing with Liam. She made Liam a really cute pair of mittens with a string to put through his coat so they don't get lost. If you look closely you can see them in the stroller picture. He is really decked out in the homemade goods in that picture. My mom made the quilt, I made the booties and hat and Michelle made the mitts. What a lucky baby. I also took this picture of him outside in his sled, the snow was mostly gone and slush had taken its place unfortunately. Right now there is almost no snow and our yard has a small lake in it, at least our driveway isn't flooded like our neighbors is. He is sporting a toasty warm outfit made out of organic cotton from Michelle. She does great work.
We are making progress with eating and moving at light speed it seems through the stages. It seems like yesterday I was feeding him his first bit of rice cereal and now he is starting to experiment with feeding himself and picking up soggy O's off his tray (he still doesn't have it down but its fun to watch). He makes more of a mess than anything and sorry Gin gin those are indeed carrots on his face. You will be happy to know though, he doesn't want to eat his beans unless I add something sweet like apples!!
This afternoon we are going to the Library to sign up for their baby story time and pick up some audio books for Brody. As you can see he loves his books. Right now we are reading Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White. We also read lots of board books like this one. He likes to carry them around when he is in his walker.
I just peaked my head outside and its raining again and 37 degrees!! Crazy weather. Brody said this morning up on the slope it was in the 20 below range. Keep warm thoughts for him.
Swim Lesson sign up is on February 3rd, more on that to come.

Traineau pour bebe

I had a friend coming out this weekend but she had to cancel. It made me sad and a little lonely. Then before I knew it I got a phone call from a dear friend in Seattle who just had her own baby and a call from the head of the Moms Club in Palmer. Its amazing how things just happen like that. The weather has been really strange lately. After the crazy below zero weather we had it is now over 20 degrees and the wind is blowing very hard. School, buses and pretty much everything else was canceled today because it was so icy outside. Liam and I stayed in today, no unnecessary travel you know. We are supposed to go to our first Moms Club play date in the morning so hope that goes well. Staying in has given Liam and Keegan time to bond or more time to for him to chase her around the house in his walker, I guess. I bought Liam a baby sled last night, the traineau pour bebe in french. We came home and tried it out in the house. He loved it. I cant wait until its not so windy and icy, then we can go for a walk. We also found a new game that Liam loves. If I throw the frisbee for the dog in the house he laughs hysterically, he really likes it if she catches it in the air. I'm not sure whats so funny about it but baby wants what baby gets.