Wednesday, November 26, 2008

a picture from september...


18 mo. old today!

so many talents. he seems to learn new words every day, repeating (or at least trying to repeat) just about anything we say to him. he says please and thank you. he loves to look at his books. he loves to ride his bike and can even peddle just a few inches!

had an interesting conversation at work. a patient's mom asked about liam's adoption (after the - i don't remember you being pregnant when we were here last time - comment.) i hope she thinks more positively about open domestic adoption now. and although it came off not so great, her final comment was - i think it's great that you can love a baby that isn't genetically yours. i told her that i thought it was great that people can love their children so much that they give them to people who can't get pregnant. (her point was that too many people have kids who shouldn't. tell me about it.)

anyway, we have lots of fun things planned over the next few weeks, including a party with liam's friends from my old infertility support group. i hear the girls are starting to catch up to the boys in the hair department!

i tried to add a picture, but i don't think it worked.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

17 mo. update

i believe liam has finally put together a true 2 word phrase. contrary to what all my textbooks say, it was not mommy sock, but, WAIT FOR IT, liffey flyball. yep. liffey trumps me again. oh well. he had fun that weekend because his friend from one of the area teams gave him double stuff oreos all day sunday!

and a huge milestone for liam is that he actually peed in his potty! he did it sunday night, maybe by accident, but tuesday night was definitely on purpose. he jumped out of his bathtub to run to his potty. he likes to fart on his potty too. :)

i got to visit with our adoption social worker today. i heard bits and pieces about babies that have been placed and families that have grown. she also got to hear about how no one at my work likes liam. hahaha.

Monday, November 3, 2008

2nd halloween

liam was a giraffe for halloween. since he didn't care about trick or treating last year, we didn't go. this year we went back to the neighborhood where i grew up and liam had fun walking all over the neighborhood and seeing all the other kids. he said thank you at every house except 1, where he just said bye bye.

new words are popping up every day. yesterday he repeated OH MY after i saw the condition of his high chair after he ate dinner. :) he will sometimes say bless you after someone sneezes.

on sat. night we joined his godmother for her birthday celebration. liam had a fun time hanging out with all his "aunts and uncles." we all had a good laugh over the story of "are you going to tell him he's adopted?"

Monday, October 20, 2008

new blinkie

our social worker sent us the new blinkie over to the right. hope it shows up! :) november is adoption awareness month. this week is an exciting time for me because a dear online friend is finalizing the adoption of her 3 boys - all biological brothers - from foster care. their family day is this friday. the boys are just excited to be going to chuckie cheese!

liam had a fun weekend - he inherited several of my old toys (and some from his uncle too.) he has already figured out how to use the "power tools." he is also obsessed with his KEYS, one of his new favorite words. oh, and he gained 2 lbs in 5 weeks! up to 23 lbs finally.

what could have been

happy 2nd birthday sweet angel.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

barkin' in memphis

liam made his 2nd trip to memphis for the national flyball championships. i think he had more fun this year because he kept saying BARK BARK, doggie, ball and flyball all weekend. :) he played with his friends and watched lots of flyball. liffey is proud to announce that her teammates won their division and she got to play flyball with other little fuzzy dogs just like her! i think liam was a little confused as to why there were so many liffeys running around. :)

Monday, October 6, 2008

a new word every day!

liam seems to be popping out a new word every day for the last few days. yesterday was "alright?" after he fell down and today he told liffey "GO." he also repeated big bird and moon yesterday.

on saturday we went to a dog event, and the first think liam said when we stopped the car was "flyball?" he got to see some of his flyball friends though, so that is always fun. i got out his sidewalk chalk, and he seems to like drawing with that. he is not as gifted at drawing as he is at talking just yet, but he'll get there. :)

Monday, September 29, 2008

trying again for a picture....



top picture is liam with his finger up his nose, which he finds quite funny. bottom picture is at steak n shake, with another new skill!

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

another busy weekend

friday night, liam got to go to his 2nd balloon glow. he met us with his friends, aunt, uncle and cousins and had a good time. he saw fireworks for the first time. he spent most of his evening, however, pointing at the medical helicopters flying overhead.

on saturday, he went apple picking. he was rather unimpressed with it all, but he liked eating apples - but only his grandma's apple. he had fun playing with his cousins again.

on sunday, he helped paint his flyball friends' house (he helped by NOT helping.)

and today, he had that 10% reaction to the measles shot - looking like he's covered in measles. that's MY kid alright. :)

Thursday, September 18, 2008

new things every day

this week, liam moved his dad's kitchen chair and climbed up in it so that he could look out the bay window in the dining room. he said "right now" for the first time. he climbed into the bathtub, all by himself, fully clothed. he says moo and baaa. today, for the first time, he said MOO when someone asked him what a cow says. he figured out how to buckle his high chair buckle.

his parents as teachers lady told him that he was ahead in both motor and language skills (he's a genious!) he went to the pediatrician the next day and has jumped back up to the 50%ile for ht (31 inches) but even with a wet diaper is not quite 22 lbs and is down to 10%ile for wt. that explains why his pants won't stay up! the dr. said that "that sometimes happen when they become more active and burn more calories." uh, liam, active? noooooo. (can you hear the sarcasm??

and tammy - he DOES try to stick his finger up my nose too. :) the dr's i work with think he might have a future as an ENT!

oh, and liam had a close up on the jumbotron at the NFL game on sunday afternoon! he's famous.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

world traveller!

ok, covering a few states traveller, but still, it's been busy here!

we took our first family vacation over my birthday 2 weeks ago. everyone went, including liffey and lincoln. we took the camper and just had a relaxing time - shopping, swimming, reading, fishing (well, liam and his dad did that) and going for walks.

we came home for 4 days then left again for a flyball tournament. we had a great time with our friends, at a fun tournament with fabulous weather. liam wore his new team shirts and really likes to watch flyball.

he has also learned to sign help and yummy (which he started tonight.) he loves to "talk" about flyball. he practiced saying all sorts of things this weekend. however, his favorite new activity is sticking his finger up his nose.

Monday, August 18, 2008

more and more new things!

oh, so many new talents. we have been working with liam on sign language. his favorite sign is "more" because he gets more food. next is "milk" because when he's thirsty, he wants his milk! "eat" is good because he says that when he feeds his food to his dogs and they get to eat. yesterday he signed "water" for the first time too. he is exceptionally brilliant, if i do say so myself.

he is also very verbal, talking up a storm all the time. his new favorite word to say is flyball, which he got to say a lot this past weekend at the tournament. he behaved himself very well, saying hi to lots of different friends while we were busy running the tournament. he is OBSESSED with flyball boxes - i think he wants to be a boxloader like his dad and his friend jeff.

he is still a dancing fool, along with a kissing fool, considering he kissed his little girlfriend at the sitter's today!

i will see what i can do about getting a picture uploaded soon.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

trip to the zoo!

even though bill and i apparently ate some bad food at the zoo, we had fun while we were there on sunday. it was liam's first trip there, and we think he really enjoyed it. of course, we also think that he thought - look, a dog with a long neck; look, a dog with a long nose; look, a dog with long legs; look, a dog that can swim. :)

he did a lot of pointing to the animals and "talking" about them. we'll definitely have to go back again soon and try to make it into the children's zoo next time.

liam has turned into a dancing and kissing fool too! he loves to give kisses - even sometimes his idea! and he dances all the time - sometimes without music. but pretty much every time he hears music, he wants to dance. we'll work on the lack of rhythm later. :)

Monday, June 30, 2008

happy birthday liffey!

happy birthday to liam's "big sister" liffey. she is 7 yrs old today.

i'll write more about our fun weekend later. ate some not good food i think....

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

1 yr check up

after a few scheduling problems, liam finally made it to his 1 yr pediatrician appt. he is 21 lbs 6 oz and 29 1/2 inch long, putting him in the 25%ile for both height and weight. he is a bit of a runt, but then again, so am i. :) he was 50%ile for head circum., proving that he is a genious! ha.

he has been busy lately - we went to a flyball tournament the first weekend in june. we went to the baseball game on father's day. it was hotter than we could imagine, but liam didn't seem to mind at all. i did, however. :) we went to a big family reunion on bill's side of the family. it was fun to meet so much extended family and hear more family stories.

more plans coming up for the summer: more flyball, camping with friends and a week long camping trip with the 5 of us in the camper. looking forward to it!

Friday, June 6, 2008

new sitter

liam started at a new sitter this past week. he is around boy's close to his own age and LOVES it. he is doing things (like eating more big boy types of food) that he sees the other boys doing and playing with all sorts of fun toys. the new sitter just kept saying - he's so smart and so cute (well, let's just state the obvious here.) :)

i took it as a good sign when i went to pick him up the first day, and, when i walked in the door, he smiled at me and went right back to playing. i hope things continue to go well.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

more beautiful babies!

check out my friend sandi's blog. her beautiful daughter was born on may 26th (hmmm, that date sounds familiar....) :)
and another online friend gave birth to her daughter on tuesday, after about 200 weeks on bedrest (or so it seemed.) another beautiful little girlfriend for liam!

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

first birthday weekend

liam had a GREAT birthday weekend (and thanks to my friends who posted messages here!) his party saturday was lots of fun, even if the weather forecasters were completely wrong. liam had fun playing with his friends and loved his presents. it took a little while to really get him going on his cake, but he seemed to have a good time once he really tasted it.

on sunday, we took it easy, bought some flowers and a new little tikes slide and napped a lot. he LOVES the slide. loves to climb up one side and slide down the other. he even tried to say geronimo when he went down the slide!

on his actual birthday, his grandpa, 2 grandmas, aunt, uncle and cousins came over to celebrate with him. he loves hanging out with his cousins! (who teach him things like using pots and pans as drums.) he also got a quick call from his birthmother, who sang happy birthday to him while i chased him around the kitchen with the phone.

how lucky we are to have liam in our family!

Friday, May 23, 2008

1 yr ago monday....

at 5am, we got a call from liam's birthfather was "liam's on his way!" we rushed to get out of the house and on our way!! we got a call at about 6:30am that liam was born at 5:45 with apgar scores of 6 and 8. the scores concerned me a bit, but they had gone up, so that was a good sign. we got to the hospital by about 10am. after watching him there for a bit, he was transferred to the NICU at a bigger hospital. he spent 5 days there, just being cranky. :) (i would be too if i wasn't allowed to eat and had things shoved up my nose, down my throat and in my arm!)

we were so greatful for the ronald mcdonald house. what a wonderful thing to have them there.

happy first birthday baby boy!! i hope our first birthday/adoption finalization party tomorrow will be lots of fun.

Friday, May 16, 2008

1 yr ago today

we got the call that would change our lives. i was testing a patient when my cell phone rang. i saw it was our s/w and finished the test as fast as i could so that i could call her back. after getting the info on liam's birthparents, i called bill. he was in his truck and almost drove off the road. then i told my friends here at work - the first was a fellow adoptive mom. we called our s/w back that night and accepted the match.

Monday, May 12, 2008

another new link

i just added another friend's adoption blog link. tammy also went through the all the hoops there are to go through to become a mom.

mother's day was fun. we went camping and had a good time. liam gave me a shirt that says - i love my mom, with a picture of one of his cheesy smiles on it. :) while we were gone, we got veyr nice phone calls from both his birthfather and birthmother wishing me a happy mother's day!

Friday, May 9, 2008

mother's day

this is not my first mother's day. it is my 3rd. my 1st two were spent without a living child. his name was frederick, and he watches over us. i miss him very much and thank him for finding liam. last mother's day was just days before we found out that liam's birthparents had picked us to be his parents. i have already thanked his birthmother for making this mother's day so very different from the last two.

and to all my friends who went through infertility to become mothers and all my friends who are still waiting, i will be thinking of all of you this weekend especially.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

5 yrs ago

yesterday actually (i was too busy to post yesterday.)
the tornado/straight line winds hit our home and area. definitely something we will never forget.

Monday, May 5, 2008

not 6 teeth....

we found 2 molars on sat. morning that have obviously been there for at least a few weeks! so the tooth count is up to 8!

and as of now, his words are liffey, lincoln, doggie, captain (his godmother's dog) and bye bye. bye bye has the hand action to go with it, but he doesn't really know that it means bye yet. he just repeats it and does the hand action. usually both hands at the same time!

Friday, May 2, 2008

one year ago today...

we were told by our s/w that we were officially in waiting to be matched. i hunkered down for my 6-12 month wait. :o)

Thursday, May 1, 2008

liam's advice for the day

you can pick your mom. you can pick your nose. you can't pick your mom's nose.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

2 more teeth!

liam was crabby yesterday, so i checked his gums, again, figuring i'd see nothing, again. nope!! 2 more teeth were poking through the bottom gums. so after 4 mo, of no more teeth, we got 2 on the same day. i'd be cranky too. :)

and no sandi - we haven't fixed the toilet problem. i think our "fix" is going to be shutting the bathroom door! :o) we still have to deal with the dogs' water dish though....

Thursday, April 24, 2008

more walking and more talking

liam is definitely all boy. he loves to climb anything he can reach. he figured out quickly how to climb into the child sized chairs that i once sat it. he is taking more steps at a time, but he'd still rather crawl. and when we were outside playing frisbee with liffey, i told him to call liffey and he repeated something that sounded vaguely like liffey! he's the smartest baby ever.

we have tickets to the ball game tomorrow night. it will be his 2nd game, but i'm hoping we don't get rained out!

we renewed our home study last week. it is cheaper to renew than to redo, and since we don't know what the future holds for us yet, we'll renew.

not much else exciting going on. looking forward to a get together with our friends in a park. now that most of them are more mobile, it should be fun!

Thursday, April 17, 2008

one small step for man.....

liam decided yesterday that he had a bit of balance and could stand on his own, not holding onto anything, for more than 2 seconds. we tried it several times and one time i put out my arms, and he took about 3 steps right to me! i turned him around, and he walked back to bill. he was VERY proud of himself. we kept making him do it over and over again. :) he does look like a drunken sailor, but he doesn't mind.

we have a fun weekend planned with a party on sunday to celebrate liam's friend julia's adoption finalization!

Friday, March 28, 2008

10 mo. old!


sorry for no new updates recently. it's been a busy month. the 5th was lap #3 for me. the 6th was bill's birthday and the 2 yr anniversary of our miscarriage. throw in the st. patricks day parade and a host of work issues, and that's my month.


but liam is a little monster now. he is crawling faster than most people walk. he was unimpressed by the easter egg hunt at our former college. he loved the toy shovel from aunt lynn better.


he has figured out how to feed liffey. this pleases both of them greatly. i expect liffey to weight about 200 lbs in a few months. :)


he can also climb the entire flight of stairs by himself (with his mom or dad hovering behind him.)


and we believe we have heard liam's first word. he said it tues. night twice and wed. night once. all 3 times he was looking at liffey and said ee ee. we have one incidence of it recorded, so i need to watch it again to see if i really heard it.

hope you enjoy the latest picture! it was from our evening out with friends and family for bill's birthday. yes - he went to another brewery. :)

Friday, February 29, 2008

9 mo. old and more fun sounds!

liam turned 9 mo. old on tuesday! we are going to the ped. this afternoon for his 9 mo. check up, which here, includes a blood lead level screening (not sure if it is done everywhere, but when you live in a place where the EPA will pay for your soil and water to be tested, it's a bit more necessary.)

liam has also discovered his high pitched voice! low, growly voice was long ago, but the new high pitched one is apparently very entertaining too. lots of sounds - /m, n, d, p, f, w, g/ to name a few.

we are off to liam's friends' birthday party tomorrow. the babies all start turning 1 yr old now. first lily and olivia, then landon, then liam, then julia and of course the brand new twins harper and jackson have about 11 1/2 mo. to go. :) liam will be excited to see all the girls! (and landon's first word is umbob - sponge bob. not mom. not dad. sponge bob.) :o)

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

karin's blog

i've added another link over to the right. karin is a friend i met on IVFC who was just a few months behind us adoptiong her son. feel free to check it out!

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

adoption thoughts....

one of the great things about adoption (i think) is that liam will be able to grow up to be who HE wants to be, not who anyone else expects him to be. he is his own person, and not the product of of anyone's genes around here. if he wants to grow up to be a CPA (since neither i or my brother did!) and ski every winter, he can do that. but if he wants to grow up to be a mechanic, or pilot or senator, he can do that too. his genes are his own. he will obviously be influenced by us, and his birthparents are not that dissimilar to us. maybe he will be artistic, like his birthmother and me. maybe he will be more like his dad and birthfather. it's up to him.

while it's hard to look at his sweet face and see not bill or me, we are so lucky to know who he does look like. and so is he.

Monday, February 11, 2008

turn up the volume!!

liam has been experimenting with whispering for several months now. this weekend, i think he learned how to TALK REALLY LOUD. we were in the car, and bill and i hear liam "talking" to himself then all of a sudden, it was really loud! i think he is impressed with his oratory skills.

bill, liam and i went geocaching on sat. afternoon. liam really likes to hang out outside. on sunday, while bill and grandpa ken went to the woodworking show, liam, grandma pat and i went shopping. liam got a valentines day present from his grandma - a build a bear dog in a fireman's outfit. liam is nearly as impressed with the box right now. oh well.

Thursday, January 31, 2008

cheerio!

or cheerios. last friday liam tried cheerios for the first time. not much of a pincer grip yet, so the fist into the mouth is his method of giving himself cheerios. has about a 50/50 shot at keeping them in his mouth, which of course liffey loves. he'll eat them anytime and seems to enjoy himself!

and with not so great news, liam had his first fever this week. luckily, aunt lynn was on top of it. we watched him and gave him baby tylenol (which he hates, still), and today his fever seems much better, but his cough sounds not so good still. but he's eating like a champion (as usual), so at least he is feeling good enough to eat!

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

cheese, glorious cheese!


we gave liam some shredded mozzarella cheese last night while we were eating dinner. although he had some trouble figuring out how to pick it up AND put it in his mouth, he was upset when the 3 or 4 tiny pieces i gave him were gone. so i had to give him more. and more. and more. but that was mostly because half of it ended up in his lap instead of his mouth. luckily, his liffey was MORE than happy to clean him up.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

latest updates

liam has all sorts of new skills. he has started to "cruise" the furniture - getting from one end of the couch to the other without getting down to crawl. bill put together liam's "shopping cart" that he got for xmas, and within 1 week, liam has learned how to take several steps behind it instead of just 1 or 2 before falling on his knees. he still loves to bang on his "piano" and table he got for xmas. bill and i know all the songs from the play table, if anyone ever wants to hear them. :)

liam is having fun with his border collie friends marvin and silk visiting. he thinks they are pretty funny. marvin and silk think that liam is big enough to play with them and keep bringing him toys. so far, liam hasn't caught on.

on sat. afternoon, liam and i are off to our friends' baby shower. they are expecting boy/girl twins from a donor embryo cycle. liam picked out some of his favorite things to give to his new friends.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

another friend's blog

i just added a link to my friend sandi's blog. i met her online with other infertility vets. she is in the waiting phase of her adoption, which is not easy. please feel free to check it out and give her a little support.

thanks!