Talitha, Cumi: Week of April 6

Sunday - Liam enjoyed watching the singing at church while hanging out with his pal, Matt. Especially when Kalyn and Karisha made faces at him when they were up on stage. :-)

Monday - We went to Christa's to hang out and watch the NCAA championship game. UK lost, but oh well. It was good to get to spend some time with her family. They had a tough weekend after finding out that their baby went on to heaven to be with Jesus. :-( But praise God for his provision, compassion, and strength. God is still good all the time. I keep thinking about how little Ezekiel gets to spend his whole life living in heaven with Jesus and never has to experience the sin and evil of this world. One day we will get to meet him and enjoy eternity in heaven with him. His absence from this world will seem like a moment when we are living in eternity. Seriously, do you ever think about eternity and how awesome it's going to be living with Jesus and all of those who have accepted Him as their Savior? It really gets me to thinking about things on this earth and what will really matter in eternity. It also makes me giddy thinking about living life in perfection of daily communion with Christ.

Here are some pictures from Monday. This might give you a peek at to what a day is like with those three boys.

This is the Bertram's new bunny, Basil.

Liam more interested in grass than in the bunny

Take one of trying to get a picture of Liam and Basil.

Take two. (The bunny seems to be more of a problem than the 8 month old)

Take three. Good enough. :-)

Lori and the three boys were playing inside of the play garage so I thought I would try to get a picture. Nehemiah went missing.

Then Ezra got blurred as normal.

Then Nehemiah realized I was trying to get a picture

So this was the best that I got from that effort.

Tim was eating some meat and of course Liam wants anything that anybody else has.

See Liam's left hand there? That's a hand full of meat he snatched from his grandpa.

That then headed straight to his mouth, but grandpa intercepted.

These two like each other.

He loves his grandpa. :-)

Then when these two get together.... Liam messed with Ezra's head...

So Ezra retaliates

Then tries to steal Liam's pacifier.

Nehemiah loves Liam!

:-D

It was cute watching them play peek a boo. I'm not so sure why Liam's bottom lip is sticking out though.

Wednesday - after we got up and going I hauled Liam to Columbia to get some shopping done. Caleb recently mentioned that he really needed to get a new reciprocating saw and he found a coupon in a Harbor Freight catalog for one that is normally $49.99 and with a coupon it is $20. I told him that I would run to Harbor Freight for him and get the saw. Do you know how out of place I look as a girl walking into that store with a baby on my hip? I got a lot of looks but I don't know if it's because I looked out of place or because I had the world's cutest kid with me. I'm convincing myself of the latter. However, I walked in and acted like I knew exactly where I was going and what I needed. My sister always taught me to act like I know where I'm going especially when I feel awkward and don't have a clue.

After that adventure we met up with Karisha and went shopping at Aldi, Target, and Hobby Lobby. Liam was such a trooper. I bought Liam and Ezra birthday presents at Target since they were having a toy sale. They are both Liam approved.

Thursday - Liam got to go on his first wagon ride! And we got a couple more pictures outside while it was warm and overcast.

Taking a wagon ride next to the forest of satellite dishes. I can't quite figure out why a building with four apartments in it needs 7 satellite dishes.

Watching his dad work on wood.

I also worked on getting our bedroom organized. It never really got done after we moved since I was pregnant and then Liam slept in our room for a few months. My side of the room actually looks more organized than Caleb's now. I'll enjoy it for probably about the three days that it will last.

Friday - We spent some more time outside. This warm weather is fabulous! It's nice being able to go outside and enjoy the weather instead of being cooped up in an office all day. Just another reason I have the best job in the world.

Friday night we had a fire in our new fire pit. I forgot to post a picture of that when Caleb built it. (I've been slacking on telling you all about Caleb's awesomeness lately) He got some old bricks from his dad's church and made a ring.

Liam enjoyed it

Saturday - we went on our first garage sale trip of the year and it was Liam's maiden garage sale voyage. We were big spenders, I tell you. We spent...are you ready for this? 20 cents. We came home with a bottle of lamp oil, a cheese grater (I have a weak spot for garage sale cheese graters...I won't tell you how many I own), and 4 windows. I need to get on pinterest and find some window craft ideas. I know there are tons on there. We only found one yard sale, so I guess it's still a little early for that?

This week I started testing the waters with trying to take away Liam's pacifier. I started on Tuesday but gave in at bedtime. I tried Wednesday but gave up during the afternoon because he was getting loud while we were shopping then I really needed him to take a nap in a short amount of time and didn't have time for him to fuss it out. However, since Wednesday night he has been completely pacifier free! He doesn't even seem to miss it that much. I've heard that if you take away their pacifier too soon that some kids have a tendency to become thumb suckers. If that happens then I would rather him have a pacifier, but so far it hasn't been too much of an issue. I just try to give him Sophie if he is wanting to suck on something. And here I was all worried about the transition away from the pacifier. Just like trying to get away from the swaddle, this kid is making parenting easier than I've hyped it up to be in my mind. But hey, I know every kid is different and that is making terrified of what the second child might be like. Hopefully that's just some more unnecessary worrying.

Liam is getting so close to crawling now. When he's playing on the floor on his belly he is getting up on his knees now and trying so hard to crawl.

Also, I'm really glad that I have a movement monitor. The other day I laid him down to take a nap and he was fussing because he didn't want to take one. When he does that I usually let him cry it out. I can usually tell a difference between his "I don't want to take a nap" cry and his cry of when he actually needs me like when he spits up everywhere and soaks his sheets and his outfit. Anyway, the other day he fought it for quite awhile. After I wasn't hearing anymore crying from his room I peeked in there and this is what I saw:

He has generally been a back sleeper, so this kind of startled me, but having a movement monitor made me feel a better because I knew it was detecting movement. Also, I really want to get a video monitor for times when I'm wondering what's going on in there but I don't necessarily want to open the door to check on him. Those boogers are expensive brand new. I'm open to buying a used one if anyone has one or knows of someone wanting to get rid of one!

Here are some other pictures from the rest of the week:

Sometimes my kid licks windows.

So the other day I sat Liam down on the floor and went into the bathroom to go fix my hair real quick. During that 30 secondish time frame Caleb came in the living room and called to me because Liam was eating paper again. I'm not totally sure how this happened because he was still sitting in the exact same spot where I put him, and he can't get from laying on his belly to sitting up on his own yet. Somehow he had gotten a hold of the manual to his new car seat. After I got it away from him I went to put him in his high chair to feed him lunch and noticed that he had chunks of wet paper stuck to his face. This kid.

I was scrolling through pinterest the other day and came across a picture like this of a nakie baby with it's stuffed animals, except the kid wasn't smiling. I knew I had to try to get a similar picture. I got some of Liam's favorite stuff animals: his superman bear that he got the day he was born, Charlie Brown, Curious George, and his turtle from his great grandparents. As soon as I set him down and snapped the first picture, then he turned around and smiled at me like this! I tried taking more but they mostly consisted of him trying to scoot away, play with the curtains (he has a curtain fettish right now), play with George, etc. However, we did make it without him peeing anywhere! Have you ever seen a cuter baby rump? I'm thinking this one needs to be framed.

So back to Caleb. This is his newest project. It's going to be a cabinet with doors to store our dvds. Liam is already getting into them constantly on just the shelves we have them on right now, so this will keep him out of them better. It's all made out of cedar so it will match all of the other furniture Caleb has made.