16 posts tagged “liam”
Between my two adorable children, I was rudely awoken 7 times in the 6.5 hours they deigned to let me pretend to sleep. And now I am so achy I can barely move (thanks, fibromyalgia.) And I am so mentally sluggish that roughly an hour ago, I couldn't figure out how to make my microwave "go." I've also been very snappish with the children. This does not bode well for the day.
Liam's first birthday was on Thursday. And his party (close to 40 people in my tiny house!) was yesterday. It's hard to believe that at this point, exactly a year ago today, I had to leave the hospital without my son, and still hadn't been allowed to hold or nurse him. He wasn't even able to drink the milk I was pumping for him yet! Leaving him at AGH was quite possibly the worst day of my life. Coming home to Bill and Abbey as if my whole pregnancy, my new son, had never even happened at all.
And now he's a boy who crawls around with his toy cars, making them vroooom or go, "a-wheeeeee!" in his small sing-song voice. He loves to play ball, especially with his sister. He's fantastic on his drums with his two drum sticks. Definitely better rhythmicly than his sister was at this age. Liam really seems to have an innate sense of music. Loves the piano. Loves when we sing to him. Or when we're all dancing. He also has quite a temper, something we didn't see in his sister until a MUCH later age. Liam is such an amazing little person. Utterly unique and brilliant. Happy birthday, small son!
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Despite the best of intentions, Liam's first birthday didn't exactly go as planned. Which makes me wonder if that's simply how July 19th is meant to go for him. He was supposed to be a VBAC and ended up as a cesarean. An ultrasound the day before his birth confirmed everything looked good and clear and he ended up in the NICU with meconium aspiration for 2 weeks, with me not being allowed to hold or nurse him until he was a good 10 days old. I wanted so much for today to be, well, slightly more idyllic than it was. But it wasn't. He was teething and fussy and wouldn't nap. So I didn't get to do the birthday preparation activities that I had promised Abbey (aka baking a train cake and helping her to wrap his presents). Work was particularly busy today, too, so that didn't help. Since he was wide awake and seemingly happy, we went out for an early dinner and then errands. He was fussy at dinner, and I got to lug his off-the-chart heavy arse around while he drooled and slept on my shoulder at Lowes. And then, when we came home and it was time for bed, again he wouldn't sleep. So he got to play (and fuss) some more, had bathtime with his sister, and then 90 minutes after that, finally fell asleep. And was up again 20 minutes later. And is now, hopefully, asleep for the night.
He got no cake. No ice cream. Nor did we even get to wrap a single present for him (since Abbey has been insisting that she gets to help!) so thank goodness we're having a family shindig (and possible hootenany) on Sunday so we get a do-over on giving the small son a special day. Let's hope not every birthday of his goes like this! While I did snap some pictures today, I think we'll save the picspam for post-party on Sunday.
I heard Liam stirring upstairs and went to go fetch him. He was laughing and chattering to himself, and I felt so lucky to have such a happy baby. And then I saw why he was so blissful this morning. Apparently, my small son decided to take off his diaper and "watered" himself and his crib.
::headdesk::
In the past week:
- I was the featured artist on Imagekind
- Abbey's kiddism was featured in a newsletter on Maya's Mom
- One of Liam's pictures was commented upon by one of the founders of Flickr
and in other news:
- I reached a new parenting milestone: Abbey tried to flush half a roll of toilet paper with spectacular results. This is like a rite of passage, yes?
Can't wait to see what next week brings!
Show us an unforgettable memory from 2006.
Most days, it's easy to forget that Liam spent the first two weeks of his life in the NICU. Or that I didn't even get to hold him until after he was already a week old, or nurse him until he was nearly 12 days old. He's a big healthy boy now, with only his eczema left as a visual reminder of how tenuous everything is.
But at night, I don't forget.
today:
- Abbey had unhappy bowel issues, but still managed to use her potty and keep her big girl pants clean
- We thought grandma was dead, which left me to drag husband, infant, and unhappily boweled toddler to grandma's house, only to find that she had been whisked away by my Uncle Frank for the day without anyone being told, and without him answering his cell phone or returning calls about where gram might be and if she was in his care.
- We then had to go out to eat on the way home from my gram's since Abbey was starving and it was already past her bedtime. She refused to eat anything there. Mercifully, she was in a diaper since we were travelling, and we were able to drop her right into bed from the car.
- Jump to 11 pm and I go to put Liam (and myself) to bed. Out of nowhere, he's suddenly stuffed up and won't stay asleep for long. I suspect it has to do with Gram's cat, who coincidentally also caused a lovely asthma attack for me.
- Jump to 1:20 am Liam is up again, I was never able to fall asleep, and Bill is just coming to bed. Liam nurses again, Bill conks right off and I keep laying there awake as before.
- Jump to 2 am when I hear Abbey asking sadly for daddy in her bedroom. She's rather quiet and sounds half asleep. I go in to check on her, only to find her sitting up in bed, covered in puke and what appears to be a state of shock. She tells me, "I think there's still a spot on my pillow that's dry, mama. Can I sleep there?" I manage to get my poor girl out of her wet clothes, and she's apparently had a diaper blow out as well, which hasn't happened to her in, well, years. She's shivering as I get her cleaned up and search frantically for her spare sheets, which I forgot I moved to Liam's room.
- Jump to 3 am and I'm washing her clothes and bedding and listening for the very flaky washing machine to become unbalanced, which it does a few times, and which is where I was when I started this post. It's now 4 am, Liam has woken back up twice and is downstairs with me, and her laundry is going through the wash again without her blanket because nothing got clean.
So, fellow voxians, how was your day? Mine apparently isn't over yet.
Take a picture of a person who made your day today.
Submitted by Doubtful Guest.
Ok, so I took this picture yesterday. But Abbey makes my day pretty much every day. And yes she put Dora under the gymini so they could ALL share Liam's toys. Lucky Liam!
Show us what's in your pocket.
It isn't exactly a pocket, but it's the closest I've got to one on my person at the moment. Liam likes hanging out in his very own baby nest. And I like occassionally having my hands free, even if it's murder on my back at times.
We had a really special day for Liam's baptism. It was the first day of sun in what felt like weeks. Both of my children looked positively beautiful. And all of the stress of planning the festivities to follow were worth it in the end. I'm just glad I won't have to host that many people again until Thanksgiving, lol. Pulling something like this together with two big unknowns (aka Abbey and Liam) was nothing short of miraculous. It made last year's Thanksgiving planning and execution with my tempermental then 20 month old (and morning sickness I had to hide until Christmas) look like a piece of cake in comparison!
