Week of December 15

Sunday
I went to church that afternoon for a ladies cookie exchange.  The flier said to bring a white elephant gift...it turns out that the host didn't mean a gag gift...fortunately I discovered that before the party and a friend from church came through for me with a gift.  :-)

Monday
Liam turned 4 months old!!

Also, today is the anniversary of when Caleb proposed.  It's also the anniversary of my very last shift at Target.  And finally it's the anniversary of when I found out I was pregnant with Liam!  What great memories.  :-)

Monday night we went to Eldon, MO where Caleb's dad was preaching for a revival.  I ended up missing a good chunk of the sermon because Liam needed to eat, and also Liam had one of his approximate 8 poops that day.  (What happened to him going 5 days between poops?)

Tuesday
This was my only entire day at home.  I spent it trying to catch up on making Christmas presents...which I still can't post pictures of yet.  :-(

Wednesday
Liam had his 4 month appointment.  He is now 14 lbs and he is 20th percentile for weight, 40th for length, and 60th for head size.  His doctor was pleased with everything.  He got another round of shots too.  He seemed to take them even better than last time.  By the time Caleb was putting his clothes back on he was laughing.

Thursday
 We went to Columbia and went to Bass Pro and met Christa and her family there.  The idea was to get the boys' picture with Santa, but my tot was the only one who would cooperate since he's not old enough to care.  I did get Liam's picture alone with Santa but since I accidentally left it in the van and it's currently around 8º outside, you'll have to wait to see that picture.

I do have these pictures though!  Caleb took Liam bear hunting!

 Success!

After Bass Pro we met up with some friends from church and had dinner.  We love getting to hang out with people from church!

Also on Thursday night Liam decided that he no longer needs to sleep for long stretches of time at night.  I'm wondering if he is possibly going through a growth spurt.  If I'm lucky he will go 4-5 hours between feedings (as opposed to his normal 6-9).  I've started going to bed earlier since my nights are now getting longer.  It's just a phase, right?

Friday
We headed out that morning to go to St. Louis.  Caleb finally had his oral surgery consultation.  When we got to the place they said that the dentist office gave us the wrong insurance referral.  Go figure.  We are definitely getting a new dentist.  Absolutely nothing has impressed us about them.  Caleb met with the surgeon and got x-rays taken.  That was about the extent of the visit.  Once insurance approves everything then we can set up a time to have his wisdom teeth taken out.  We are both really dreading it, but at least it will be over with and he will never have to worry about them ever again.

After we left there we headed to Fenton to spend some time at my parents' house.  My dad took us out to Qdoba and then we visited Suzy-Q at JCPenney.  Then my dad took me to the At&t store because he had recently upgraded his phone so he wasn't using his iphone anymore.  I now have a smart phone! 

On our way back home once we hit Warrenton we saw a traffic sign saying that the left lane was closed ahead due to an accident.  We got over in the right lane but then it turned out that there was another accident in the right lane.  That accident looked like someone was on the outer road of 70 and they ended up on 70 facing sideways.  Then we came up to the accident that had the left lane blocked.  It was awful awful.  A car had driven across the median and struck a car going the opposite way. The cars were hardly recognizable.  I checked on the Missouri State Trooper website later to see if there were any fatalities and it said that the injuries of both people were "minor".  Honestly I was shocked, but also grateful that my prayers were answered that night.

When we are driving in the car Liam tends to fall asleep.  Then usually once the van stops moving he's wide awake within a matter of seconds.  Well since we were stopped in traffic for a little while, he woke up and then decided he was hungry.  Fortunately I had a bottle ready to go for him.  I don't know what we would have done if I exclusively breast fed.  We would have had to listen to a screaming baby for at least a half hour until we could have gotten somewhere to pull off of the highway.  I'm certainly grateful that Liam is so versatile with bottles and breast feeding.

Saturday
Ice, ice, and more ice.  I think we ended up getting about 1/2 inch on everything outside.  We were supposed to have a children's choir rehearsal at church but that ended up getting cancelled...which meant that the Sunday morning children's choir performance was postponed until Sunday evening, which meant Caleb suddenly needed to come up with a sermon for Sunday morning.  He did great for last minute and not having all week to prepare!

I finally got my Christmas cards passed out/in the mail this week.  Huggies sent me a code for $20 good toward Christmas cards at Shutterfly.com, along with a code for free shipping.  I think I ended up with 25 cards, for about a total of $1.  I passed them out at church and mailed out a couple that I had left.

Caleb finished my essential oil box!  It's my Christmas present.  :-)

 Holding the screwdriver for dad

 The finished product:

Other pictures from this week:

Caleb got up with Liam early one morning.  By time I got up this is what I saw.

 Liam better watch out where he puts those fingers

Merry Christmas from Liam!

 Just singing some Christmas carols.

"O Holy Night!"

Week of December 8

We've had a pretty uneventful week.  Pretty much all of my plans were cancelled so I stayed home!  I've been able to get lots of Christmas presents made this week.  I so desperately want to post pictures of all of them but what fun would that be.  I'll take pictures and post them after Christmas.

Just an update from last week about swaddling....as I type this my son is currently laying on the floor (he is on his playmat where he had been playing) and he is sound asleep with NO SWADDLE.  Mhmm.  I did the whole one arm at a time for one nap, then two naps, etc and it works so well!  I'm so proud of my tiny tot.  The only problem is that his hands get cold now that they aren't swaddled up next to him.  I put socks on his hands but his hands are always in his mouth whenever he wakes up and so then his socks get soggy and they make his hands even colder.  Suggestions anyone?

I forgot to post last week that we got our heater fixed.  Our house is warm again!  Woohoo!  The day that they fixed it it was in the 60s that day.  The guy came back by later and asked me if it was working ok.  I don't know what he keeps his thermostat set on, but ours isn't set high enough to run on 60+ degree days.

I finally got our Christmas tree put up on Monday.  Liam and I rocked around it.  It's still lacking a tree skirt, which I have an idea of one to make, but it just didn't happen this year.  We do have a tree topper though!  That's an improvement.  We also have several strands of lights from our wedding.  I hung up a few of those around three of the five doorposts in our living room.  If there's one thing this house doesn't lack, it's doors.  I'm not complaining though, our first apartment only had a doors to the bathroom and pantry. 

Caleb recently bought a new computer.  He found a good black friday deal through Dell.  It's a touch screen, which is pretty neat.  His old computer he has had for 5 1/2 years and it's starting to run pretty slow.  The only problem with his new one is that it has been running slower than his old one.  Yep, sending that puppy back.  When he called about returning it the guy tried to give him an $80 discount on it.  We might have to keep that little trick in mind if he finds one that he does like.

Wednesday night I got Liam loaded up to drive to church and went to start the van and the front headlights kept flickering on and off but the van wouldn't start.  :-(  I was already running late because I forgot that we were starting church a half hour earlier than normal and Caleb had texted me to remind me.  Caleb came home and rescued me though and we ended up driving to church in his car.  It's a far drive, that two blocks.  I offered to just get the stroller and walk but it was pretty nippy out.

With the snowfall that we got Friday, we ended up getting probably close to 5 inches.  I got Liam all bundled up to go out.  He wasn't much of a fan of getting bundled up.  I think he was outside around a grand total of 5 minutes.  This mama doesn't like the cold either. 

 

One last thing then I'll leave you with some pictures.  Caleb wanted a new toothbrush.  Since we live in the middle of nowhere (ok that's an exaggeration) I've gotten really used to ordering things online.  So...I found one on target.com for 94 cents!  I get free shipping with my Target credit card.  They sure put a lot of thought into packaging it.  I would have hated for that toothbrush to have gotten broken.  Also, I think that they may have spent more in shipping than I paid for the toothbrush.

More Pictures:

 Flying baby

 Johnny Jumper excitement

How does that keep going around and around?

Whatcha workin on?

Week of December 1

Monday
Monday night I tried to get Liam to eat some cereal.  The doctor said only milk until 4 months old, but I had several mamas tell me they started their babies out at 3 months.  My sister-in-law gave me two types of cereal, oatmeal and rice.  The oatmeal said that it's for supported sitters and the rice said it was for sitters.  Well since Liam is a supported sitter I decided to try the oatmeal cereal first.  There was weeping and gnashing of teeth.  (Ok, maybe just weeping.  The teeth are trying to make their way through though.)  I had put a tiny amount in a bottle for him along with some formula and I cut a bigger hole in the nipple of the bottle so I knew he could get the cereal out.  Next time we'll go with a tad of rice cereal with breast milk and a spoon. In a few weeks.

Caleb got the rest of Jane cut up on Monday night.  We now have deer in the freezer!  I love deer.  :-)

Tuesday
Tuesday afternoon I decided to make Liam nap without a swaddle.  Caleb kept telling me that he thinks Liam will one day decide that he doesn't like being swaddled.  I on the other hand kept having visions of swaddling a teenager to get him to sleep. I have gotten him to fall asleep a couple of times in his bed without one, so I thought I would just try to transition him during nap time but then swaddle at night.  It went awful.  Absolutely awful.  He cried and cried then screamed and screamed louder then even louder.  He was terribly upset with me (again).  I moved him to his swing to see if he would fall asleep swinging but somehow that made it worse.  I would go in there and hold his hand and he would stop crying and I would look him in the eye and talk to him and tell him about how he'll thank me someday when he's going off to college and doesn't need to pack a swaddle.  His big teary eyes would then follow me out of the room and the screaming would recommence.

After a little while of this it was time for him to eat again and then grandma and grandpa came over and saved him from any more nap time.

Tuesday night after Liam was swaddled and sleeping happily in his bed, I got on pinterest and typed in "when to stop swaddling you baby".  Fortunately several pins came up with links to blogs.  (What did moms do without other blogging mamas and pinterest to easily find said blogs??)  I read a couple and they both said that babies will usually let you know when they are ready.  *sigh* Caleb was right. It also said that there's really no reason to force your baby to stop swaddling unless they are rolling from their back to their belly, and if our tummy time experiences are any indication, Liam won't be voluntarily rolling to his belly any time soon.  One of the blogs I read did have a method of swaddle weaning by leaving one arm out for one nap a day for a few days, then moving to one arm out for two naps a day, etc. until you can go all night with no arms swaddled.  WELL WHO WOULDA THOUGHT OF THAT.....GENIUS!!  So I'm going to start trying that. I thought about just keeping him swaddled until he decides he's ready, but then my sister told me about a little girl she babysat who was two years old and brought my sister the swaddle, got into it herself, then asked my sister to swaddle her.  I'd like to get past the swaddle before that point.  So far things are working out better.

That night I mentioned when we were out to dinner with Caleb's parents that with the next kid I will probably try to keep away from the swaddle as much as possible in the very beginning.  Then I was reminded of how I didn't want Liam to have a pacifier either...and that lasted a whopping 4 hours.

Thursday
Caleb had gotten a redbox movie on Wednesday and it needed to be returned on Thursday.  We were planning on going to visit Christa and her family and returning it on the way, but Nehemiah got sick so we avoided their house.  I decided to take it upon myself to leave Liam with Caleb and take a trip to Columbia so I could return it.  By myself.  Armed with Target coupons.  Well sure, the only thing I really bought at Target was diapers but it was wonderful to be able to go shopping without trying to bust through a store before Liam gets hungry/poopy/tired/anything else that would make him cry.  I also went to Walmart and got to BROWSE the fabric department for Christmas presents.  I think this should become a weekly thing.  Eh, Caleb?  ;-)

I got this picture while I was out with the caption of "Look mom, no hands!"  He's sitting up by himself!  He's getting so big!

Friday
We went to the nursing home to visit a man from church who fell a few weeks ago and broke his hip.  His wife spends a lot of time up there with him and they are a precious couple.  They may be 93 years old and married for umpteen years and not able to hear each other when they talk, but they were sitting there holding hands when we walked in.  Cute old couples make me smile.

Friday night I put Liam in his new Christmas jammers from his Grandma Suzy-Q.  I thought he looked absolutely adorable and Caleb told me he felt sorry for Liam because he looked impish.  He told me not to take any pictures because he would be embarrassed if his parents had any pictures of him in an outfit like that.  So I took a picture and posted it on facebook and will proceed to post it on here.  How could this little boy not make you smile in an outfit like that?

Saturday
I meant to put up our Christmas tree but a nap ended up taking precedence.  Maybe another day.

We had a Christmas concert at church that was put on by one of the families from our church.  They always do such a good job and we love to get to hear them sing.  :-)

In other news, my hair is falling out.  Just a lovely thing about not being pregnant anymore. It was a good year or so of not losing any hair while it lasted.  I couldn't even remember the last time I had to clean out my hairbrush and now I'm having to clean it out every day.

More pictures from this week:

 What Liam likes more than sitting and laying down is standing (with a little help of course).  He is always straightening out his legs wanting to stand.

 Caleb dressed himself.  Then I dressed Liam.  :-)  (and Liam's cheeks get a little heavy)

 Sitting up! And tipping forward.  Blame the cheeks.

 Watching tv in their matching outfits.

 Liam getting a tummy time pep talk.

 Caleb made another hanger thingy for his guitar from tree roots.  He's using his other one for his ukelelelelele.  (I forget how many l's and e's are at the end of that.  I wanted to make sure I got enough)

 You know how I can tell Caleb that I want something and the next thing you know he has somehow crafted it for me?  Well I bought some essential oils a few weeks ago and wanted a box to keep them in.  A few pallets and paint stirrers later, and wha-la!  It's not finished yet, he is still going to stain it and put a latch on it with the lid, but I'm pretty happy about it!

Weeks of November 17 & 24

Week of November 17
I didn't update last week because I didn't have much to say.  Up until Saturday the only time I had left the house was to go to church.  On Saturday we went with Caleb's parents to Columbia and did some shopping.  Some serious shopping....Caleb bought 3 hotwheels cars.

I did take some pictures of Liam with his 3 month tie.

 Then I attempted some tummy pictures

 Which resulted in the usual tummy time melt down.

 So then he needed snuggles to calm back down.

 So I attempted some pictures again the next day.

 But the tummy pictures ended up the same way.

Week of November 24
This week was a bit more hectic.  Sunday night Caleb's uncle Mark came to speak at our church.  Back in June he was ran over and drug by an asphalt truck.  He had made remarkable progress and came to share his testimony about it.  Caleb's parents also came to our church that night and Caleb rode home with them so he could go hunting early the next morning with his dad.

My sister came into town to babysit Liam and me while Caleb went hunting.  I'm sure I would have been fine home alone but we have a big house and I get freaked out sometimes.  Also it gave me an excuse to get my sister to come visit.

Monday Amy and I went to Columbia and went shopping.  We didn't get anything exciting, just mostly groceries.  She did take me out for lunch at Applebee's!  Their spinach and artichoke dip is heavenly.  I'll be nice and not say anything about our waitress.

Caleb texted on Monday night and said that he got a deer but he was going to spend the night again so that I wouldn't have to drive at night to go pick him up.  Between deer, a fear of two lane roads, and my bad eyesight, I am terrified to drive at night.  That just meant that Amy HAD to spend the night again.  :-D

Caleb and Jane.  Jane Doe.

Tuesday morning I headed to Palmyra to meet up with Caleb and his parents.  On our way back home we drove through Hannibal so we could see our friends Ethan and Lydia.  Gah, their little baby is so precious.

Back up again to Saturday night into Sunday morning.  Saturday night we noticed our house getting cold.  The thermostat was set right but the heater wouldn't stay on long enough to heat it up.  I bundled Liam up to go to bed and Caleb set the thermostat as high as it would go on 90º.  The next morning when I got up to feed Liam, I checked the thermometer and it said 58º, then I checked it again before I headed back to bed and it was down to 57º.  Brrrrrr.  Now fast forward to Wednesday.  Caleb called about the heater and they sent a repair man out.   We hadn't called before because I needed to get a new furnace filter and I didn't want them to tell us that was the only problem and then we were gone all day on Tuesday.  The guy couldn't really find anything wrong with the furnace and said that he was going to order a new electronic board and see if that fixes it.  We left Thursday to go out of town and didn't get back until late Saturday night so we still haven't gotten it fixed but fortunately it has been warmer out so it's not as big of a problem.

Thursday morning we headed to Fenton to spend some time with my family.  My grandparents came over and we had our Thanksgiving meal.

We took our family Christmas picture.  It took a few attempts, but we finally got a decent one.

Friday Caleb and I went to JCPenney and Target.  He got some new shirts at JCP and some dvds at Target.  That was the extent of our crazy Black Friday shopping.

Friday afternoon I went to visit my friend Kelsey and took the tot with me.  He and I enjoyed getting to spend some time with her family!  After I got back to my parents house some more Fentonian friends came over to visit.  It's so good to get to visit with friends, I wish I could stay long enough to see everyone.  :-(

Saturday I got to experience my first Smith family holiday gathering....like Caleb's extended Smith family.  I survived.  I need some recovery time, but I survived.  ;-)

Saturday night when we got home I wasn't feeling too great but I'm chalking it up to exhaustion from not sleeping super well this past week.  I headed to bed early and went to turn on the humidifier in our room and noticed that the water level was low. I knew it wasn't that low when i turned it off last.  Then I realized that the entire top of my dresser was standing in water.  My jewelry box, books, EVERYTHING.  Caleb helped me get it all cleaned up so I could go to bed. I had noticed some water on the dresser before but it wasn't much and I figured it was just some of the moisture condensating on the dresser.  That definitely wasn't the case this time.  I guess we can't use that humidifier anymore unless I can find a tub or something to keep it in.

Here are some more pictures, and some Christmas ones that I was told I couldn't post until after thanksgiving.  :-)

 Don't these two just make your heart melt??