July 5 = Play With Friends Day

We celebrated our 4th anniversary a few weeks ago.  A few weeks before that I was trying to figure out how Zachary and I could go out to dinner without the little man.  My original plan was for my parents to come up and watch Liam for a weekend in our apartment while we went to Mount Vernon and had a relaxing weekend before the baby came.  However, we learned Zachary had a class that met on two separate weekends, all afternoon Friday, all day Saturday and all day Sunday.  It was more practical for me to get them to come up on that weekend and help my 8 month pregnant self take care of Liam than for us to get a weekend away so that's what we did.  There's always next year right?  Ha.  Anyway- I was talking to my newly made friend, Rachel, who lives on the 3rd floor directly above us and she said they could watch Liam for us that night and I proposed we start a system where they watch Liam for us and we'll watch her kid(s) for her.  They have a 7 week old daughter so we won't be following far behind in joining the 2 kids club.  She loved the idea and so Saturday we paid them back for watching Liam for our anniversary.  They took little Allison with them and Jake stayed with us for a few hours.

Liam hasn't spent a ton of time around other kids since I stay at home with him.  Thankfully, Rachel and another mom in our apartment, Anne- who was due with her second child 3 days ago- are in the same boat so I think we can help each other find avenues for our kids to have that time.  I say this because I'm thrilled we have this new babysitting trade-off system because it gives Liam a little time with a 3 year old.  He's still a little unsure about the whole thing and spends most of his time playing in a different room rather than fully interacting but I think it'll get better as time passes.  Here are some pictures that caught some of the interaction they did have!

 

July 4 = Independence Day!!

Woo-hoo!  Another real holiday!  We love the 4th of July and celebrated all day long.  We started with toast topped with red (strawberry jelly), white (bananas in the shape of stars), and blue (blueberries).

Then we had leftover spaghetti for lunch- not so exciting- but topped that off with some homemade blueberry lemonade slushies!

We then worked on Malia's room, which has nothing to do with independence day but here's a picture anyway :)

Then we had your classic hotdogs and hamburgers for dinner of course and finally, headed out to watch some fireworks over at the Naval Academy.  The car traffic wasn't bad at all on the way over there and we were thinking we probably should have driven to prevent this almost 38 weeks pregnant lady from walking all the way over there but when said 38 weeks pregnant lady had to go to the bathroom so badly on the way home, we were thankful we were walking and not in the very, very long line to get off campus.

Zachary caught a lightening bug for Liam to look at.  Liam did a little bit more than look :(

On the way home

Oh!  How could I forget!  When we got home, we had delicious strawberry cupcakes with vanilla icing and sprinkles waiting for us.  Yummmmmm!

July 3 = Clean Day

I grabbed some all purpose cleaner to attack the bathrooms- my favorite chore of the week... not.  And I forgot to put the child lock back on the cabinet.  This is the one cabinet it's not great for Liam to get into.  I came back from scrubbing two bathrooms and this is what I find.  That is a container of dish detergent packets.  He nearly gave me a heart attack.

July 3rd also = all the guys (Zachary, Liam and Joey) relax day.  Liam also invited his giraffe, Gigi, to the party.

July 1 = Help Mommy Day

I've heard that nesting is a sign that labor is imminent.  Nesting is the urge to get things ready for the baby- to clean, organize, etc.  I do this every single day of my life.  Maybe people who don't make a habit of this notice a difference when it gets close to their delivery day but with Liam I never noticed an increase in the desire to be organized.  I've been thinking about how to best organize Malia's room since we moved in and I tweak something at least 3 times a week.  We have been blessed with family and friends providing us with lots of clothes for Malia.  We have items in each size up to over 12 months.  We were equally blessed with Liam and it was so nice to have clothes already when we went to put a 6 month onesie on and it was a struggle.  I made sure all of his clothes were washed and sorted and that was such a blessing in the long run so I've done the same with Malia.  The only challenge is where do you put all of these clothes- some of which you won't need for a year.  I had her 6-9 and 9-12 month clothes in this nightstand table but I found some empty bins and thought it'd be better to have the nightstand table drawers available for something else- they were filled approximately 3 minutes after being emptied.  So I needed to transfer the clothes from the drawers into the bins.  I was trying to keep Liam with me because Zachary was working on a paper so I thought it'd be interesting and comical to see if Liam would help me with my chore.  He did!  It was such an awesome moment because not only did he listen and actually comply, but he understood the words I said.  I pointed a little but he showed a level of understanding that I've never seen him show before!

 

June 30 = Don't Wanna Eat Day

It is well known that I have never enjoyed vegetables.  When I found out I was pregnant with Liam I gave it a good effort.  I swallowed peas and carrots whole and gagged after a few bites but I really did try.  When Liam was born- although my nutrition affected him when I was pregnant- it was easier to see that what I eat makes it into the milk he drinks and so I tried a little harder.  I enlisted Zachary's help and we found ways to cook vegetables that added a little variety to my diet and made it so I didn't gag every other bite.  But the real kicker came when Liam started eating solid foods.  He loved everything.  He ate avocado, squash, zucchini, peas, carrots, green beans, asparagus... anything we gave him, he ate.  I was so grateful he wasn't a picky eater like I was but it hit me very quickly that he would one day, he may question why he had to eat his vegetables if I wasn't eating mine.  That was the kicker and now I'm a vegetable eating pro.  Now, I'm never going to order a vegetable as a side at a restaurant over fries or a baked potato but my kids won't be able to use my refusal to eat my vegetables as a reason not to eat theirs.  So I made a meal we call chicken and vegetables because we are super original in this house.  I pick apart a rotisserie chicken (my least favorite part) and throw in potato wedges, green peppers, onions and carrots.  It's a healthy meal I feel great about having Liam eat.  We had it for dinner the night before and then I heated up some leftovers for Liam the next day for lunch.

Well here's what he thought of my healthy meal.

In contrast, we went to Outback for dinner.  Anytime Kevin Harvick finishes in the top 10 in a NASCAR race, Outback gives free bloomin' onions to anyone who mentions the driver or his finish.  In other words, as bloomin' onion enthusiasts, we frequent Outback on Mondays during NASCAR season.  We don't give Liam any because it probably wouldn't be great for him but he's distracted by his love of the bread that he doesn't notice.  He has this new habit of wanting anything he eats to be dipped in something.  It makes sense when it's chicken tenders dipped in barbecue sauce or, as in this picture, bread dipped in butter.  When he tried to dip his grapes in ketchup the other day though, it became a little strange.  But if that what it takes to get him to eat, I'm all for it.

 

June 26 = Escalator Day

June 26th was also our 4th wedding anniversary but you aren't here to read about us- Liam is the star of the show!  We went to target- what else could a girl ask for on her anniversary.  This is an interesting Target with a parking deck- you have to go up a floor to get to the store... they have stairs and an elevator but clearly, the escalator is the most exciting method.

June 26th was also USA vs. Germany day.  We had gone to Target to find some USA gear to wear in support of our team.  We ended up at Old Navy but you always have to start at Target!  Anyway, several guys from Zachary's LEAD Program cohort met at an English pub to watch the game so we met them there.  It was standing room only... there were so many people there so Liam and I found a spot in front of a pool table and set up shop.  We brought books, toys and snacks.  Here's one of Liam's new shirts- he also got a Boston Red Sox shirt and another patriotic shirt.

It is so very fortunate for me that I am not a germaphobe.  Zachary and I decided early on it was okay and even maybe good for Liam to be exposed to a few germs... this may be taking it a little far but what do you do?

June 25 = Try Ice Day

Chick-fil-a dates with Liam are one of my favorite things in the world.  We don't have any super close to us so I try to work it in when we have to be somewhere that is a little closer.  Conveniently for me, the office we go to for Liam's physical and speech therapy every Monday and Wednesday is less than half a mile down the road from one.  I get a 12 piece chicken nugget meal so we can share the chicken and then Liam gets a fruit cup, or if we have lots of fruit and I remember to bring him a fruit cup, we might share a chocolate chip cookie.  Usually he drinks out of his sippy cup but pregnancy brain mommy forgot to bring one so I got him a kids cup of water.  He didn't love it so I finished the water while he was in therapy but there was a lot of ice left.  He loved it!  And remember chick-fil-a has the tiny pieces of ice so he wasn't biting them and they weren't a choking hazard :)

Even when he was reunited with his sippy cup, the ice eating continued.