Hello 9 Months!

Wow!  Wow!  9 Months and counting.  .  .  as I cuddled with my little guy tonight before he went to bed, all I could think about was how big he was getting.  I know the bigger he gets he will not want me to cuddle with him and give him lots of kisses.  That thought really makes me sad.  Before I know it, I will be planning his 1st birthday party.  The milestones are coming way too quickly for me.

So here is the 9 month breakdown:

• 5 teeth
• Crawling 
• Attempting to pull up on everything
• Loves to crawl over and dog-pile you 
• Eating a huge variety of food including lasagna (his new favorite)
• Lots of "chatting" (mamamama, dadadada, babababa)
• Still loves to be outside more than anywhere else .  .  .

Played so hard he fell asleep yet again in the exersaucer

Loving the new pool!

Required a little bit of a break from the water

And back in!

I promise he does not wear a hat all the time, but I think he is pretty stinkin' cute anyway!

Little Lobsters

Every spring, we in the Cousin's household like to partake in a little crawfish fun.  We have now officially hosted a Louisiana themed party four years now.  We have learned many things over the past two years and will hopefully continue the tradition.

The first year we scheduled our party for early April; ended in snowy coldness.  Not so fun.  The second year (late April) there was a torrential down-pour.  Not so fun.  The third year (early May) = PERFECT weather.  SO MUCH FUN!  And this year did not disappoint.  We had to move the date back this year because of tons of other stuff going on, but it was a great way to celebrate Memorial Day weekend.  Another addition this year - Cajun names.  I highly recommend a name change for such fantastic events.

Moral of the story, later spring is the best time of the year to enjoy little lobsters!

Some of the goodies needed to produce awesomeness!

Leroy and I (Alexandrine) enjoying the day

One of the many rounds of crawfish goodness

Jake enjoying the day

*Attempted to upload a pic specifically of the little lobsters and had no luck.

Where has the time gone . . .

Recently, "time" has been dedicated to school.  April is the busiest month of the year in the school year; especially in special education.  Luckily for me, the year is winding down and I have to say I am not sad about it.  Teachers and kids alike are ready for the year to end.

Besides school, I have been trying to invest as much time as possible into Liam.  I cannot believe how quickly he is growing.  I say it every month, but I honestly do not know how eight months have come and gone.  Liam has been in and out of the doctor's office lately for ear infections and most recently for pink eye.  However, with all of those doctor's visits, we get updated weight and height information.  So his current eight month stats are as follows:

Weight : 18.1 lbs
Height: 27"
Head Circumference: 18.3"

One of these days I hope to have more time to actually do a little more virtual catch up.  Until then, enjoy the photos!

Putting It in Writing

Weeks have gone by and pounds have come off, but I have really lack the motivation to take off the final 7lbs or so that I need to.  To be completely honest, I have about 9 lbs that I should loose.  .   .  With that being said, I am putting this in writing.  I am hoping that once this is "out" on the world wide web, I will have no choice but to suck it up and do it.  So this is it.  It is on.  Anyone else with me?

• The plan: start the original Weight W.atchers Points program (I tried the new WW program and was really not happy with the results otherwise known as the lack of results)
• Official start date: 4/19/11
• Official starting weight:  (not sure I am really ready to share this info :-)

I will be waiting a couple of weeks before I bring in exercise. I re-tweaked my knee this weekend, so it needs to rest a little first-- that's another story.

Skiing Fun and Wedding Bliss

Taos was AMAZING!!!!  The snow, not so much, but we still had a blast.  Thanks to the Highams for putting up with us for the week.  We had a great time skiing and eating glorious, glorious New Mexican food.  It is absolutely fabulous. If you have never been there, the food and scenery make the trip totally worth it.  The hardest part of the trip for me was being away from my baby for 6 nights!!  Luckily, my mom and dad were willing to bring Liam up a day early so that I could at least see him sleeping in his crib when we got home.

Mommy Tip #2: Don't leave your baby for more than a day or two if you don't have to; you will miss them TERRIBLY!!!!

My brother-in-law recently got married as well.  Hence:

Mommy Tip #3: If you want to enjoy any wedding festivities, you need to find a reliable babysitter to stay with the baby in the evening.

Liam is like a clock.  If you get off schedule, he certainly lets you know it.  None the less, the ceremony appeared beautiful from the outside looking in.  Liam and I got to see the bride walk in and then promptly had to go out to the foyer.  Coincidentally, my nephew Carson also could not make it too far in the ceremony.  Needless to say, Tara (my SIL) and I got to view the wedding from the "cheap seats."

Taos Bound Baby!!

Well, tomorrow anyway .  .  .

I totally have mixed emotions about it.  Liam is currently on his way to his Gigi and Papaw's house.  I have never been away from him for more than a night.  I don't how well I am going to handle this situation.  We have not been skiing in a couple of years and I am exited about it, but my baby will be SO far away.  He will be in good hands, but not seeing him might be torture!

I should be packing.  I absolutely HATE packing.  It is really not that bad once I make myself get going, but I dread having to take everything out that was neatly stored away.  I am excited about the trip, just not the packing (or the drive really).

Guess I should get busy!  Happy St. Patty's day ya'll!

6 Month Stats

Head : 94th percentile

Height: 42nd percentile

Weight: 48th percentile

Liam continues to top the charts with his massive head, but appears to be average with height and weight.  While we were there, we found out he had an ear infection and he officially started an antibiotic.   I wonder, how in the world did we miss that?  No fussiness, fever, pulling on his ears, etc. Much to my surprise, my MIL claims that Chris had a busted eardrum as a kid before she knew anything about his ear infection.  Awesome, it sounds like I am going to need an ear scope for the future.

In related news, I think I am going to start posting my "New Mommy Tips."  As I look back, I think, uh probably should have done things a little differently.  So here we go:

• Mommy Tip #1:
• Don't lean in too close when baby has a rattle; he will hit you in the face.  .  . (luckily this did not happen to me, but I did watch it happen to my FIL this morning in the middle of church.)

Hiking Extravaganza! Happy 6 Months Baby Boy!

Our Little One is officially 6 months old!  I know I say this every month, but really, where did the time go??  It seems like I was pregnant for an eternity and now the time is flying by!  To celebrate this momentous occasion, we decided to make our first family hiking trip and try out our new Kel.ty Kids Carrier for the first time. (Well other than Chris wearing it around the house in anticipation of the official first use on the trail.  Here's the recap in pictures:

Getting kisses from mom before we start

Posing for one more picture with Dad before we get going

Dad is packing me up

All packed up and ready to go

Excited about our hike!

Time for a rest 

Taking a little break

Checking out the homestead with Mom even though I slept through it

YAY!!  I finished my first hike at Lost B.ridge!

Oh, there is so much more to come!

Because I am a Nerd . . .

I registered for the T.emple Grandlin's upcoming presentation in Bran.son!  YAY!  I have heard her speak before, but she is bringing her mother for this presentation and I am ECSTATIC!! I come by my nerdiness naturally considering my mother is also going.  Another positive is that it meets the requirements I need to maintain my certification.

I also want to thank Alison at Giggly Girl Designs for our new look.  You can click on her blinkie on the side of my page to check out her work.

Wordless Wednesday

Thanks for our new look Alison!!  

Soap Box

When I started this blog I did so with the intention of moving forward.  The past few years have been difficult for us.  Yes,  I am an infertile.  I am one of the lucky ones.  Only 40% of infertile couples that move on to IVF are successful.

Dealing with infertility is publicly taboo.  It is not a topic that I have been comfortable sharing with many in my day-to-day life.  Over the course of our infertility struggle, I connected with other women suffering from the same issues across the country.  In doing so, some of us have had success and others are still dealing with the daily struggle.  With that being said, one of those friends I have made posted an article on her FB page--  huffingtonpost.  I am posting this article because I would encourage everyone to read it.  Whether or not you or someone you know has suffered from infertility, it gives you a glance at what it is like for those of us that do.  Please be mindful of others and educate yourself before making rash comments.

Souper Bowl Sunday!

Ah, what a wonderful day it was filled with family, celebration, and shoes!

Liam officially reached the five month mark on Sunday.  He is growing way too quickly for me.  I look at how much he can do now and it amazes me daily!  He is such a happy baby giggling, smiling, and talking up a storm. He is not quite reading novels yet, but we are continuing with our daily reading lesson.  He is pretty entertained, but is easily distracted; I am hoping his inattentiveness is not the prelude to what is to come.  Chris and I are both easily distracted at times, so I guess he has no chance.  We had to stop his rice cereal a couple of weeks ago, so we are a little behind on table foods.  Needless to say, he started oatmeal on Sunday, so we are hoping for better results.  Thus far, he really is pretty disinterested.

Everything goes in his mouth

Seriously, everything goes in his mouth.  Even his dad's cup.

Super Bow.l Sunday also resulted in some fabulous shoe shopping for me :-)  I am so excited about my purchases!

Honestly I rarely wear heels, but they were too awesome to pass up.  Now if we could only get rid of this snow .  .  . at least we got to finish the day with some fabulous beef stew thanks to Carolyn!

Big Head

We continue to have daily changes!  We went to the doctor on Friday and found out all of Liam's most recent "stats."

Weight = 14lbs. 15.5 oz (We'll just round this up to 15)
Height = 25 1/2 inches

Drum roll please ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Head Circumference:  17.25 inches -- i.e. 100th percentile

I knew his head was big, but apparently it can't get any bigger.  Since his birth, I have always said he was advanced, but I guess his "big brains" just add credibility to my hypothesis :-)

Since he has such brain power, we have decided to start the My Baby Can R.ead program.  My mother decided that we needed, so we will see how it goes.  Thus far my only complaint is there are no written guidelines to follow.  We hope to start it soon, so I will keep everyone updated on what I think about the program.

In other news this week, we officially started cereal after our doctor's appointment.  The following pictures show it all:

Seriously, what is this stuff??

Back it up Mom

And we're done .  .  .

So Much has Happened in Such a Short Amount of Time!

Where to start???  Life changed drastically for us September 6, 2010.  Our precious baby boy was born after 14 hours of labor.  (All I can say is that I am VERY thankful for epidurals even if I had to labor a long time without it!!)

We have had to get used to a lot of changes; but don't get me wrong, the changes are TOTALLY worth it!  I think we thought we knew what life would be like, but in all reality, we didn't!  We got a card from my brother-in-law and sister-in-law that said, "You have a new boss in town" and they were totally right!  Liam rules our world right now without a doubt.  No more running errands on the fly.  No more exercising without "officially" scheduling it.  No more eating without interruption.  With all of those complaints, I wouldn't change my life for anything in this world.

Although some people are aware, not all are.  It took a lot to get Mr. Liam here.  We hoped and prayed for him month after month.  There were lots of disappointments as we continued to struggle trying to get pregnant.  We have done just about every infertility treatment possible and were finally one of the lucky infertile couples who were able to get pregnant via IVF.  He was our lone surviving little one and we cannot imagine life without him.  We try to share him as much as possible with our family, but I miss him desperately when ever I am away from him.

It is amazing to watch him change and grow in such a short time span.  He just turned four months and he astonishes me everyday.  Right now, he is smiling and giggling.  He also has begun rolling from his tummy to his back and will roll up on his side when he is placed on his back.  He was approximately 14 lbs. and is about 24 inches long.  (We go in for our 4 month check-up on Friday, so we will get exacts then!)  We haven't started cereal yet, but will most likely be moving to it soon.

We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful baby.  He generally is not fussy unless he is hungry, wet, or sleepy.  He LOVES watching football with his daddy and is easily entertained by items as simple as colorful paper.  I feel like I could write a book about all of his changes, but I'm pretty sure no one (besides grandparents) really care to read it.

We are home today because of snow and as you can see Liam is very excited.  I realize there are only more changes to come .  .  .