101st post!

who knew?

liam has been very busy learning new words, singing new songs and making his first trip to the ER. he was limping tuesday night, still limping wednesday morning, so i took him in. they xrayed his leg, and he's just fine. whew! he was an excellent patient though!

the wait for #2 is so different from our first wait, when i started this. i'm still, anxious, but for completely different reasons. but we still wait.....

it's hard to believe that 2 yrs ago this weekend we got the call that liam was on his way. at 5am sat. morning of memorial day weekend, our phone rang. by that evening, we were in another city with liam settled in in the NICU, still intubated. we were SO thankful for the ronald mcdonald house. liam's picture is supposed to be in their next newsletter. waiting to see it!

vacation!!

we are on our first out of state vacation! while we miss our dogs, we know they are having fun with their new best friend who is staying with them.

liam has become an expert on all things beach. he has his shovel and digs in the sand. he knows the water is called the ocean, and we've finally convinced him that the beach of full of sand, not dirt. we got to ride a bus yesterday, which was also terribly exciting.

liam is having a great time with his grandparents too. he pawpaw bought him a kite, which was not overly successful at the beach, but liam didn't mind.

our printed portfolios are now at the agency, so we are completely ready to go. just waiting. and waiting.

spring is finally here!

still very busy. liam had his first non-check up visit to the pediatrician. he had periorbital cellulitis, which ended up being not too big of a deal (at the 24 hr check up, we were told we could have been on our way to the hospital.) but the augmentin was almost worse - severe tummy problems then a horrible amoxicillin rash! only my child would get such a thing.

the new portfolio is FINALLY finished. the printer didn't have the little bindy thingees (which you would think they would have plenty of.) but the portfolio has been done for a little while, so we have been available online for about 2 weeks now. maybe 3. we've already had 2 "excitements," one of which we didn't get because we live in the "wrong" state and the other because the situation is too unstable at this point. oh, and our other excitement is that the state lost my fingerprints. the hwy patrol and the FBI has seen them, but our agency has not. bill's got through with no problem. go figure.

liam is really starting to enjoy school. he talks non-stop about his friend emma. he, actually, just talks non-stop. he loves to label things - mom's car, dad's truck, liffey's ball.

we went to the baseball game with grandma, grandpa and puh-la (his favorite friend paula.) his grandpa gave him a glove and he talks about it all the time. he also talks about running the bases after the game.

we also had fun at our first flyball tournament of the year in oklahoma. plenty of space to run around for liam! and he had his friend puh-la and beth in the camper too, so that was an added bonus.

looking forward to a laid back weekend....

xmas picture and more news

as i've found out that there are at least 2 of you reading this :) i thought i'd post a new picture. this is one i took of liam at xmas time for the card. the evil grin is definitely fitting.

we've been busy around here. we went to the magic house with our friends a few weeks ago. liam had a great time. we went to his friends harper and jackson's first birthday party. that was lots of fun too. yesterday we went to the mardi gras parade. liam got a lot of beads!

our other news is that we are adopting again. we have resigned with our agency (see blinkie to the right.) we are waiting for the portfolio to be finished. we picked the cover design yesterday. hopefully the rest will fall into place quickly as this is the only thing holding us up from being shown to prospective birthparents.

18-20 months

ok, i'm behind. not sure who still reads this anyway. :)

liam's 18 mo. dr. appt went well. he is back down to 30%ile for ht and 20%ile for wt though. he's a scrawny little shrimp!

he enjoyed xmas and seeing all his family. and i mean lots of it. we spent xmas day mostly at the firehouse with his dad. can't get enough of those firetrucks!

today was liam's first day at preschool. i'm sure he misses his old sitter, but she had some unplanned issues pop up. but his preschool was referred to us by another IF support group friend. liam is in class with her 2 girls. he seemed to be having a great time when we picked him up this afternoon. he'll be going 2 days per week.

liam is talking up a storm. he loves to watch "tools" (handy manny) and elmo. i'm trying to teach him about "old school street" - the real sesame street pre-elmo. i bought some DVDs which are way cool.

will try to post a new picture soon.

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.

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.

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?"

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.

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. :)

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. :)

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!

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. :)

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.

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.

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.

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. :)

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....