Week of February 16

Sunday: my parents went to church with us and then they headed back to the Lou.  Fortunately we will get to see them again soon!

Monday:  Caleb set some sticky traps in the pantry trying to catch our mouse foe.  Monday morning there was lot of hair on one of the traps and a chunk of the trap was chewed off.  The mouse had also gotten a hold of some more popcorn and about 5-6 crackers.   

We went to Caleb's parents' house for a visit.  One of the big reasons for the visit was for Caleb and Tim to work on replacing the spark plugs in the van.  The van drives much better now, it's just not perfect.  Oh well.  :-) 

While we were there, we tried to get some pictures of the three cousins together.  We eventually got a couple of good ones.

Hanging them by their overall straps

 Skyping with Uncle Seth

 One of Liam's role models.  :-)

Hanging out on grandma's magic blanket and watching Curious George:

Tuesday: This was the first day in 5 days that Liam hadn't been around grandparents.  Don't get me wrong, I love that he gets to see his grandparents often, but it's also nice to get him back on his normal schedule with naps.

I made Liam some toy boxes for the living room out of some diaper boxes.  I really like how they turned out.

Wednesday:  Wednesday morning Caleb checked the sticky traps again and there was a mouse on the trap that he put behind the wall in the pantry.  It was a big 'un too.  It was still alive so Caleb "took care of it". So far we have left the traps and there aren't signs of any other squeakers.

After fighting Liam the past few days with nursing, I decided to give it up.  If he didn't want to nurse then so be it.  I decided to still pump but use bottles to feed him. 

Thursday:  We loaded up Liam in the van to go to Columbia to do some shopping and the battery in the van was completely dead.  We knew it was really only a matter of time before it happened.  We tried taking Caleb's car but we didn't want to take Liam's car seat base out of the van just for one trip to Columbia, so we tried strapping his car seat in the car without the base (it's legal, there are instructions on the side of the seat showing how to do it) but the seats in the car are so plush that the seat didn't seem very secure.  So...I got to go to Columbia by myself.  Don't mind if I do.  :-)  I went to a new grocery store that some people from church had recommended. It's called Lucky's and it's basically like a bigger version of Trader Joe's, but I think that their prices are better. 

Thursday night Liam slept in his crib in his room for the first time.  He had been sleeping in his pack n play in our room since he was born.  I'm sure I'm probably pretty behind on making him sleep in his own room, but there were things that needed to happen before I wanted to move him in there.   First I wanted him to be sleeping all the way through the night.  Like 10-12 hours at a time without needing either of us.  Also I needed for Caleb to get a piece of plywood to go under the crib mattress for his movement monitor to work right.  Last of all I needed to somehow cover up the outside door that his crib is right up against.  There was a nasty draft that came in around that door and the curtain rods could pull off very easily.  I ditched the curtain rods and nailed the curtain over the window, then I nailed a blanket over the door.  He will have to have some mighty strength to pull either of those off the door.

Side note: I LOVE his movement monitor.  It makes me feel a lot better to wake up and be able to see the ticker moving showing that there is movement from him breathing.  Also, there is an alarm for temperature settings.  That way if our furnace ever goes out again and I don't notice it because of being all snuggled up next to Caleb under the covers, it will let me know if his room gets too cold or too hot.  Maybe I'm an over paranoid first time mom, but I think that monitor is wonderful. 

Friday:  We went to Hannibal to get our taxes done.  I wanted someone that I could trust (so as not to have a repeat of last year's fiasco) so I had set up an appointment with my tax accounting teacher from college.  Our taxes were more complicated that what I had learned to do in school.  After we left there we went and visited Ellie and her parents!  Liam and Ellie are finally both big enough to somewhat interact with each other now!  They were cute together.

Meeting Ellie again:

 So cute together.  :-)

After hanging out with them we went and hung out with some other friends of our from college, Neil and Becca, that are also still in Hannibal.  We haven't gotten to hang out with them much at all since we moved from Hannibal, so we really enjoyed getting to spend time with them.

Oh also my whole not nursing anymore?  Lol.  Scratch that.  I would have stuck with no nursing except for when we are out of town all day, pumping is not convenient.  So I went back to nursing but Liam still doesn't always want to nurse.  We'll see how things go these next couple of weeks as far as weaning goes.

Saturday:  I worked on making more baby food for the lil booger pretty much all day.  New foods coming up are: butternut squash, avocado, and peas.  

I also made homemade chicken potstickers.  I think I'm probably my own worst critic when it comes to my cooking, but I thought these were fantastic!  So long, store bought potstickers!

Other pictures from this week:

BFFs.

 First attempt with a sippy cup.  Maybe better luck next time?

Liam's six month pictures:

 Gee, mom, I just don't know if I can get much cuter!

 

"Mom has really got to knock it off with all of these pictures. "

Week of February 9

I realized this week how many things I forgot to put in my post last week about Liam's development. 

Here's a catch-up: He used to really like taking naps in his swing, but a couple of weeks ago every time I went in there to check on him the swing was barely moving.  I thought maybe it was dying.  Then I tried the swing without Liam in it and it worked just fine.  I guess he just got to big for it!  Caleb hauled it upstairs, which really gives us more room!  He adjusted just fine to taking naps in his bed, and I knew he would because he never put up much of a fuss at bedtime when we would put him in his bed.

Liam is also sitting up all by himself now.  He is doing really good with it.  He started a couple of weeks ago but forgot to post about that too.

This past week Liam finally starting rolling over from his back to his belly.  He had gotten so close so many times, but then it seemed like he realized what he was doing and would roll back over onto his back.  The first time he did it Caleb and I were cheering for him and he got so excited that he fell over back onto his back.  He got the hang of it again soon and now whenever I put him on the floor he rolls onto his belly and wants to crawl.  To his dismay he hasn't quite gotten the hang of getting his legs under him.  He can get his legs under him, but only when his face is flat on the floor.  He needs some more coordination before he can crawl.

I made homemade cheese crackers this week!  Christa had given me some of her cookbooks and it was a recipe I found in one of those.  At first I didn't like them too much, but once they cooled and crisped up a bit more I liked them.  Caleb said he likes them better than store bought crackers and my dad liked them a lot.  :-)  Caleb said he wants me to make more.  I always feel a sense of accomplishment when I try a new recipe that Caleb likes, especially since I'm not a very good cook.

This week I spent some time up at church with some of the ladies decorating for the Valentine's Day banquet.  It was a lot of fun!  We used a lot of the string lights and battery votive candles that were left over from our wedding.  It really seemed to transform the fellowship hall.

Caleb's parents came over on Thursday afternoon and they took us out to eat.  It was good to get to see them.

On Thursday Caleb came home from his office hours and said that his phone wasn't working.  He has had this problem a few times before and I have spent ridiculous amounts of time on the phone with the customer service from Straight Talk trying to get things working again. Similar to past experiences, the lady was rather rude to me this time.  I had a hard time hearing her because I'm pretty sure English is not her first language. If I didn't understand something she said she would snap at me. I hate their customer service, but to have a phone for $30/month just seemed like a good deal.   So I was on the phone a good chunk of the evening on Thursday and they told me I had to call back the next morning because the department I needed was already closed.  I called back the next morning and finally got someone after about a half hour of waiting for the next available representative, and of course every person you talk to gives you a different story about why your phone isn't working.  This lady told me that since I had activated the phone when we lived in Mexico that I would have to go back to Mexico and try the phone there and call them back if it doesn't work. Or they could reactivate his phone in Centralia but he would have a new phone number.  Straight Talk is really new-number happy, it seems like anytime there is a problem with a phone you have to end up getting a new phone number.  With Caleb's position, it's not a good idea for him to be getting a new phone number all the time.  I told the lady that if they couldn't fix his phone without me having to drive to Mexico and without giving him a new phone number that I would get a new cell phone carrier.  She told me that a new carrier was my only option...so I told her to have a nice day.

I got off of the phone and asked Caleb where he would like to get a new phone from. My phone is still on my dad's family plan because with him being an at&t employee he gets a discount.  The limit on the number of people on a family plan had been 5 people and my dad had it maxed out.  My dad said we should go to at&t and see if there was any way to add him to his current family plan.  It turns out that at&t has a new family plan that can have up to TEN lines now and at&t is giving all of their employees a bigger discount, and it's increasing the amount of data we can all use on our phones.  So with this new plan and the new discount, my dad was going to be saving a huge amount off of his bill each month even with adding Caleb!  No more straight talk for Caleb! It's going to be significantly cheaper for Caleb to be on my dad's plan than to have straight talk too.  He is also using my old phone so he didn't have to buy a new one and isn't locked into a contract.  God really has a way of working things out!  And did I mention that he is no longer a straight talk customer?  The only thing is that he had to get a new phone number because they can't port numbers from straight talk.  However, at least at&t will let him keep it no matter what and won't change the number on him every time there is an issue with his phone...which will probably be hardly ever now that he has a legit cell phone company.  Even if he does have issues, my dad has connections to get problems worked out quickly.


Friday morning my parents came over.  We went to Columbia and went to Ruby Tuesday for lunch.  Then we went to Target, at&t, Orange Leaf, Aldi, and Sam's.  Caleb and I remarkably haven't been to Orange Leaf since we moved.  It's sooooo good.

Lunch at Ruby Tuesday!

This pretty well sums up how much we all enjoy going to at&t and have to wait awhile to meet with a rep.

 Liam enjoyed extra snuggle time out of his car seat.

Mmmmmm

Friday was also my 24th birthday.  Caleb got me some cutting boards...those flexible doohickies that have different colors for each type of food: beef, chicken, fish, veggies, etc.  I really like those but since they are so thin they don't last too terribly long.  This is my third set since we've been mawwied.  He also got some Miracle Blade knives to go along with those, and I'm excited to try them out.  I just hope that I don't accidentally cut off any fingers.  I'm awful with sharp objects.  Last but certainly not least he also got me.....

Dark chocolate covered almonds!  He knows the way to my heart.

Caleb no longer has straight talk.  Did you know that?

On Saturday we hung out around the house most of the day and then Caleb and I went to church for the Valentine's banquet.  It was a really good time!  The program also went great, even though we didn't exactly do well in the newlywed game.  When it's two newlywed couples vs. two oldlywed couples, how can you compete when they have over 100 years+ of marriage on us?   ;-)


As of February 16th, Liam is now 6 months old!!  Now that I have successfully kept my child alive for half of a year I would like to thank all of you who have given me advice and supported me and prayed for me through it all. Especially those of you who helped me realize breast feeding is not nearly as scary and complicated as my ignorance had originally led me to think. As a first time mom it can be overwhelming thinking about having someone else's life depend on you, and through your support and a reliance on God I have hit a milestone! 

However, if you have chosen to take something I post and look entirely too far into it to the point that you infer things that aren't true about me and then chose to attack me regarding it, I also thank you. I thank you for giving me another opportunity to better myself as a parent by looking past negative criticism because I am confident in my God-given abilities to be a mother. When push comes to shove there is not a thing I wouldn't do for my child if deemed absolutely necessary.  Also please be aware that I will likely, in the end, have a good chuckle at your expense. 

Moving on, here are some more pictures of Liam: 

I went to get Liam out of his saucer the other day and found him like this.

"Mom!  I have a cape!"

 These boys love Caleb's new batman game.

 Life can be rough when you get stuck in a toy.

 Grandma Suzy-Q!

 It's hard to get a non-blurry picture of a break dancing baby.

Alternate caption:  Liam got so happy when I tried to make him smile that he fell over.

 Seriously.  This outfit.  It's a one piece outfit.  It's hilarious.  He looks like such an old man, especially when the pants look like they go halfway up his back.

 Does it get much cuter?

 Just one more.

 Oh but you have to see the back of it too!

Since I got a video camera I have been trying to take more videos of Liam.  Here are some shots from this past week.  I apologize if it gets boring, but I know that Liam has some grandmas out there who would probably even watch a 2 hour long video of him sleeping, so I thought they especially would enjoy some clips of him playing this past week.

Over and out.

Weeks of January 26 and Feb 2

Another two week post?  Oh my.  I really meant to post last week, I promise.  Life seems to get away from me sometimes.

Week of January 26
Caleb was still sick this week.  On Tuesday I could hear him breathing and his cough sounded awful.  I made him a doctor appointment just because I didn't want him to get pneumonia or be on the verge of it.  He went on Wednesday and the doc told him it was some sort of respiratory infection.  She gave him a cough suppressant and an antibiotic.  He started getting better as the week went on.

On Friday Caleb was out and about and I was at home making him some no-bake cookies for his birthday.  I had bought a big box of oatmeal at Sam's awhile back during my days of making homemade granola.  I pulled one of the bags out and oatmeal went every where.  I pulled out the other bag and the same thing happened.  :-(  A mouse had definitely gotten in there.  We also found a bag of flour that had been eaten through and then also a package of crackers.  I have several things in the pantry in plastic containers, but I'm going to try to work on finding frugal ways of putting everything else in mouse-proof containers.  Hopefully when garage sale season picks back up I can find some plastic containers at reasonable-I'm-a-stay-at-home-mom-and-try-to-live-frugally prices.  Caleb has a trap set in the pantry but nothing has gotten trapped yet.  Although, I haven't used that oatmeal since I had Liam and that bag of flour has probably in there for about 2 months, so I don't know when that mouse struck any way.  It could have been a long time ago and he's long gone now reproducing in other areas of my house and crawling in my bed while I sleep.  I was able to use that chewed through bag of flour and make my mom a salt dough project for her birthday.  I have lots of flour for that now!

Speaking of cookies for Caleb's birthday....Caleb had a birthday!  He turned 27 on Saturday.  We didn't do much for his birthday.  His parents braved the dump of snow that we got and came and had lunch with us.  (Come to think of it, when we lived in Hannibal we got 22 inches of snow on his birthday that year and I made him no-bake cookies for his birthday that year too.)  I gave Caleb his birthday presents which were: guitar picks, a keychain flashlight, and Lego Batman 2 for the wii.  The first two things I let him pick out because our old bank sent me a giftcard to Amazon, and the video game I got with amazon reward points we get from using our credit card.  I really broke the bank this year.

Liam liked the card Caleb got from my parents.

Caleb and Liam playing Caleb's new wii game, with their matching attire.

I forgot to mention last week that Caleb made us a new shelf in the kitchen.  He made a chip/bread shelf to help free up some counter space since our pantry doesn't have a lot of shelf room.  He whipped it up from our front porch full of pallets.  If you are wondering about that wonderful paint job on the shelf, that was done by yours truly.  I take orders.

Remember when I said I would post a picture of my valentine's day towel later?  That time has come.  It doesn't look the greatest but really I just wanted to practice making and applying bias tape.

Week of February 2
Sunday - church was cancelled that morning because of the weather.  When you've gone to church your whole life it's weird to not go on a Sunday morning.

Monday - we headed to St. Louis for Caleb to get his wisdom teeth out.  Since his appointment was at 9 am on Tuesday, we headed there on Monday and spent the night. 

We got to open our birthday presents from my parents and sister.  My parents got us a new video camera!  Hopefully you'll be seeing more videos on here.  I also got a new Vera Bradley duffle from my sister!  I'm super stoked about this.

Tuesday - Caleb got those toofers pulled.  We also got a lot of snow on Tuesday but fortunately that held off until we got back to my parents.  My dad still so graciously dropped us off and picked us up so that I wouldn't have to drive in bad weather.  He's the best!  My mom also babysat the tot so I didn't have to wrangle him.  I came back to a freshly bathed baby.  Those are the best smelling ones.

Caleb didn't have a whole lot of swelling.  I told him I wanted to take a picture of him to send to his mom to show her how well he was doing.  This was how he posed.

But for real, this is him Tuesday night:

He still has some numbness in his tongue.  Hopefully he can get through his sermon this upcoming Sunday!

Wednesday - we contemplated going home on Wednesday but when I check MoDot's website it showed that a good chunk of our drive was still covered in snow.  Caleb also was still pretty tired so there was a good chance I would have to drive part of the way.  That right there made us want to stay an extra day.  But then I checked the weather and the low Wednesday night was -6º.   When our pipes froze it was -9º that morning, and without being there for the past couple of days there was a good chance our pipes would freeze, so that made us want to go home.  We were torn about what to do but I called our landlord and he went and turned on our faucets to a drip for us so that they wouldn't freeze.  That helped me rest easier knowing we would have running water when we came back home!

Since we stayed an extra day I got to go to church at FBC Fenton on Wednesday night.  I always like to go back there for a visit.  Then since it was so cold out, my sister and I stopped for ice cream at Culvers on our way back.  Makes sense, right?

Thursday - we headed home.  Caleb was feeling even better and the roads all the way up to Centralia were good.  Centralia roads were another story.  :-) 

Friday - I went to Target because they were having a good deal on convertible car seats.  Little bit is going to be needing a new one soon and I was able to get a really nice Graco one for over $60 off.  It goes up to 70 lbs so he should be good for awhile. Here's what it looks like in case you were just itching to know.

While I was in Columbia I went to the eye doctor and ordered new contacts and glasses.  I'm looking forward to being able to read road signs from a distance again!

Friday night Christa and her brood came over.  I can't wait until Liam can actually play with them.  I think Nehemiah feels the same way.

We tried to get a picture of the three boys.  It's always nearly impossible, even with bribes.

When these boys make the exact same face they almost look like they could be brothers.

 This is how pictures usually turn out.

 Ezra looking all frazzled.

 Goodbyes are always hard.

Since Liam absolutely loves sherpa, Christa made him a monster out of sherpa, which ended up looking more like a Yeti.  She texted me the other night and asked what Caleb would name a Yeti.  Caleb said Sven.  So, meet Sven. 

 She even just got a fancy new sewing machine that does cool things like write words.

 Liam loves Sven:

Except for maybe when Sven attacks him while he sleeps.  This is how Christa found him when she went to get him up from his nap.

In other baby news:  Liam had gotten to where he was only sleeping 4-5 hours at a time at night.  Since he had been fairly consistently sleeping 5-9 hours since he was five weeks old, I was really getting exhausted.  I started thickening up his cereal and giving it to him every night before bed.  Since then he has slept 10-12 hours before waking up at all.  YAY!  I can actually put him to bed and stay up for a couple more hours, then go to bed without waking him up to feed him first.  Sometimes I do that and still get up before he wakes up. 

Liam has also started eating carrots this past week.  The doctor said to start him around 5 months on orange foods.  Since he was doing so great eating and gaining weight without solid food I wasn't in too big of a rush to feed him anything else.  It turns out that he loves carrots!  I got a baby bullet for Christmas and I'll tell you what, that thing is going to be a budget saver.  I made probably 2 weeks worth of carrots for less than $1.  Take that, jarred-Gerber-baby-food-with-a-shelf-life-of-3-years-that-cost-over-a-dollar-for-one-serving!

Mmmm....carrots.

Here are random pictures from the week:

We've been watching Turtleman on netflix and Liam loves it.  Especially when he has his turtle friend by his side.

 Liam's baby carhartt overalls are stinkin adorable.

 

And useful for things like this.

 Life is rough when you are five months old and accidentally get you pacifier stuck in a bucket.

 Taking his first selfie.

 High five!

So the other night I had Liam sitting on my lap.  He kept squirming around and wanted to lay like this.  I thought maybe it was an accident so I pulled him back up and he wiggled his way right back like this again.  Whatever makes him happy, right?

 Watching for grandma and grandpa to come over.

 Liam got a new aviator hat.  I can't get enough of this hat.  LOL  well worth the dollar it cost.

 Snugs with grandma suzy-q.

 

Another fuzzy but must-share picture:

 

The exchange of kisses: