Thursday, February 24, 2011

Welcome Baby Mae!

I couldn't resist writing a post to welcome baby Mae Shalom Ritter into the world. She is the brand new daughter of my dear friend and former college roommate Ashley and her husband Noel. Mae was born early this morning after a long and difficult labor for Ashley. But she is here now and she is beautiful. She weighed 9 pounds, 7 ounces so she is right up there with my big boy!

She looks so much like Ashley! Precious baby.
(They are treating her for pneumonia so I believe that is the reason for the wires and oxygen.)

I had the great joy of being on the phone with Ashley while she was in labor for about an hour yesterday morning. It was a difficult point in her labor and I was so glad to be there to pray and cry and encourage her. I was so close to jumping in my car and driving to Chicago to be there with her. We have been through so much in our eight (!) years of friendship, but that phone call with her will be one of my enduring memories I am sure. We have always called each other "the sister of my heart" and that certainly came through over the past few days as we walked together through the good work of bringing a child into the world.

Welcome baby Mae! We cannot wait to meet you. May you always know the love of your parents, your "aunt" Kate and "uncle" Rob, your family, your friends and most of all may you come to know and love Jesus as your Savior.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Swimming, Swimming

Liam has almost mastered rolling over, although he still struggles to get from his belly to his back. He is capable of doing it, but sometimes chooses not to. This is especially a problem when he is swaddled in his bed and he rolls to his belly and then decides he is stuck and just screams for me to come and get him. The poor baby looks like a seal with his head in the air.

Here's a video I took yesterday of Liam on his belly, but pretending he's actually swimming in a pool. You'll see what I mean if you watch it. (And yes, he is wearing a cloth diaper -- that's for another whole post. It's a FuzziBuns if you're interested in knowing.)


I'll try to be better about posting more frequently. The days go quickly, but have a familiar routine that doesn't really seem worth blogging about. We're looking forward to some trips in March though that will really break things up and hopefully give me some more blog fodder!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Liam | 4 Months

We had a really special four month "birthday" for Liam today because my dad is here visiting us. He was invited a few months ago to come out to Taylor and do a show there so he drove out on Tuesday with a van full of current work, set it up Wednesday, taught a clay class in the afternoon and then had an artist's reception in the evening to open the show. We spent the day up at Taylor yesterday and then dad came and spent the night here in Bloomington and he is heading home tomorrow morning. This was the first he has been to Bloomington to see us so we had a great day hanging out and showing him around our town. Liam was a champ all day yesterday and today which makes me breathe a sigh of relief that maybe, finally, he is making some progress on being flexible. He even (gasp!) fell asleep in his carrier at a noisy restaurant tonight. This was truly a first.

In the midst of our hanging out today, I took a moment to make mental note of the fact that my baby is becoming a little boy already. It is so fun and exciting to watch him grow and learn new things each month. Right now he is really interactive and smiles a lot (when he isn't tired) as well as giving us a few laughs. He also got his first tooth last week which was a surprise since he's pretty young to be getting a tooth. It only bothered him for a day or so and then popped through (those little guys are sharp!) and he was fine the next day. He knows how to roll over, but often chooses to stay on his back where he will happily play and kick his legs and grab his feet for a long time. He doesn't want to be held or snuggled (sad) as much and he would much rather be laying on the floor playing and talking. If he is being held he wants to stand up and look around at the world. It is so funny when he stands up because he gets this look on his face that seems to say, "wow, I'm such a big boy! Look at me standing up!" and he looks so proud of himself.

He still hates his carseat, but we discovered that he likes it a little better when he can play with toys that hang down from it or look at his mirror friend in the car. Maybe we're making progress there. That would be nice.

It is such a joy to be his mother and I'm so thankful for my precious son. Here are some pictures to celebrate this day, especially celebrating having dad here visiting us.

One of the special things about going up to Taylor was that Logan could come over from Indiana Wesleyan to see us. Here we all are at dad's show.

You can sort of see Liam's little tooth on the bottom if you look closely.

Hanging out with Pops.

Grabbing at Pops

Rob had to get in on the fun too.

"I'm such a big boy!"

Somehow Rob captured this face (dad's camera is wayy better than ours!) and it is priceless.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Research Partners

I left Liam with Rob today to go to the grocery store and Goodwill (50% off everything the first Saturday of the month!) and when I came home I heard Rob upstairs talking as he worked. I was confused who he was talking to because I was sure Liam was sleeping since I'd been gone so long.

But no, this what I found when I went up to Rob's office:


Liam was sitting on Rob's lap "helping" papa do his research coding work. It was really sweet to see them sitting there, listening to jazz music and working together. In spite of being awake for almost two hours, Liam was happily sitting there with him. I think he will be a scholar like his papa someday!