An Indiana State of Mind

Making Granola

2012-01-28T13:14:00.004-05:00

A happy, messy granola face

Earlier this week I was faced with an early nap wakeup and a lllooonnnggg afternoon. My solution? Have Liam help me make granola. It surprisingly went very smoothly, minus some oil dumped on my kitchen rug, but the rug needed washed anyway.

I simply put the bowl down on the floor (don't worry, none of the granola we ate actually got on the floor) and had Liam help dump things in the bowl. He also was a champ at helping to stir with a big spoon. The most fun part for any kid is licking the bowl and spoon when everything is over and Liam was no exception. At first he wasn't too sure about touching the squishy granola in the bowl, but once he put the spoon in his mouth and discovered it was sweet, he was all over it. He must have carried the spoon around for half an hour after we were finished.

He wasn't as keen on the finished product -- I let it get a little too crunchy in the oven -- but he then discovered the chocolate chips I added (I know, we're very healthy around here!) and that won him over.

Getting down to the good stuff

"Hey, this stuff is good mama!"

Yum!

In the Trenches with Bugs

2012-01-23T16:14:00.004-05:00

*Disclaimer on this post - no, we do not have lice or other bugs. The bug reference is to a kid's CD I'm recommending. That's all.

Christmas is a distant memory already, but the gifts keep on giving. Two things we received for Christmas deserve recommendation, so here goes.

This book, Loving the Little Years: Motherhood in the Trenches, by Rachel Jankovic came highly recommended to me by several friends. I bought it for a few friends for Christmas and then bought myself a copy too. It's one of those books that is so honest and funny and convicting that you can't really put it down and you want to be friends with the author. How convenient too that it's about motherhood. The good and funny and hard parts of motherhood. Rachel has five kids under the age of five(!) -- one set of twins in there -- so the book is divided into really short chapters (she doesn't have a lot of time to write books I'm sure) about things like training emotions in your kids, dealing with conflict while keeping fellowship with one another, reasonable expectations, "me" time for moms, etc., etc. I didn't even make it through the first chapter without stopping to seriously chew on some things she was saying. It is clear that she is a very godly woman with a deep understanding of the Bible and how God's truth must define how we raise our kids. It's also clear that she loves her kids tremendously and has a lot of fun with them.

If you're a young mom, if you know a young mom, if you're a grandmother who has lots of daughters and daughter-in-laws and granddaughters (hi Jan!) you will want to get a copy of this book. Read it and pass it along. Or keep it and read it again, which is what I'm planning to do.

The second thing I want to talk about is bugs. Technically, Slugs, Bugs and Lullabies, which is a kids CD we asked for for Christmas. The kids music we had previously listened to was deplorable, but with Liam getting older and the radio (even Christian radio) not being any better, we wanted to get something that we might all enjoy. We're not the kind of people who listen to a wide range of music and are always looking find the next "cool" artist. We just needed something we could listen to driving around town and not want to jump out of the car while it was moving. Enter Slugs, Bugs and Lullabies by Andrew Peterson and Randall Goodgame. I hadn't heard of them before, but my friend introduced me to this song by Andrew and I was hooked. I know, super sappy, but sweet too.

The best part of Slugs, Bugs and Lullabies is that we honestly enjoy listening to it. The songs are original, clever and catchy. And actually, I don't mind having them stuck in my head, which is a lot more than I can say for most kids music. Even better, Liam really likes it too and gets excited when the Tractor Tractor song comes on.

If you want to check it out more, here it is on Amazon. Now they have a second volume and one for Christmas too.

So there you go -- some new things for a dreary January day. Oh and bonus to my dreary January day? My dad sent me spring flowers! They are beautiful. I should blog about things I want more often. :)

**I was not compensated in any way for the recommendations here. These people have no idea who I am. Just passing along things I enjoy.

Today was one of those days...

2012-01-20T19:40:00.003-05:00

Today was one of those days when:

I showered, but didn't wash my hair so I felt like a greasy schlump all day.

I have two zits the size of Texas and California currently residing on my face.

Liam woke up an hour earlier than normal.

I looked at the clock at 8:19 am and thought, "wow, is it really only 8:19?"

I drank a lot of chai tea until I ran out of half and half.

I decided to put Liam down for an early nap (because of aforementioned early wake-up), but didn't feed him lunch before nap (it was only 11:00).

He slept for 45 minutes. And woke up crying. And probably hungry

I calmly ate a chocolate and let him cry in his bed for half an hour. It was not time to wake up and I wanted a nap!

I felt sorry for him and got him up. He did not nap again today.

I think Liam is getting his pointy teeth. What are those called? I can never remember. Poor kid -- big pointy teeth poking up through your gums. I felt bad for letting him cry.

It was 30 degrees and cloudy and freezing so we couldn't even walk for the mail.

We went the grocery store instead. With all the other billion people buying milk and eggs before the "storm" comes. Weather.com says we're getting 0 inches of precipitation people.

Kroger "discontinued" carrying chorizo. Aldi does, but they were out today.

I ate two shortbread cookies from the freezer leftover from Christmas. It was truly a low point as they did not taste like shortbread, but like mint cookies that had been in the same container, but are long gone. I ate them anyway.

I stooped to new lows and put in a Baby Mozart video for Liam this afternoon.

I wished someone would buy me spring flowers. It's January. How does Kroger have spring flowers already? I don't care - I want them.

Today was also a day when:

I had a warm bed and a hot shower.

We have a roof over our heads in 30 degree and freezing weather.

I have a healthy baby who really is (most moments of every day) a joy to me.

I had money to buy food at the grocery store to make meals for our family and guests.

I have a baby who, even though a video was playing, brought me books to read him instead. (You would be proud mom -- it's was Mr. Gumpy's Outing :)

I have the opportunity to help our family again by doing more free-lance work, which really is God's provision to us in a time of need.

I have a husband who came home from school early and stopped to buy me a funny and sweet card on his way home.

I have a baby who, when he heard me muttering to myself about getting oil on my shirt while making dinner when I wasn't wearing an apron, went to the drawer and brought me my apron. Melted my heart.

I have a God who is a good provider, a faithful friend and is trustworthy.

I was reminded today in the midst of my grumbling and complaining that it's ok to say that being a stay-at-home mom is hard. It is the hardest job in the world, hands down. However, it is not ok to continue in a sinful attitude that is full of self-pity and complaint. It is much better to stop that attitude in its tracks, repent and be thankful. The good things, the sweet things, far outweigh the troublesome, annoying and cranky things.

Were you cranky today? I would encourage you to stop and be thankful, even for the smallest things. It really does help!

New Skills

2012-01-18T12:13:00.005-05:00

This week has seen the advent of some of Liam's new toddler skills, some of which I was able to capture on camera.

1. Sharing. Liam is starting to move past the "parallel play" stage and into understanding more about sharing toys with friends. I was encouraged this week when after taking a toy away from a 6-month-old friend and being disciplined for it, he went back and gave Caleb multiple other toys and didn't try to take those away. Progress people.

Playing (and sharing) with baby Caleb

2. Playing the piano. We don't have a piano, but while visiting two different friends this week Liam got to "play" their pianos. Both friends said he did a great job (I wasn't there) being gentle with the keys, but having fun hearing and making music. We hope Liam does develop a love for music!

Bethany snagged this shot of the cheeser piano player

3. Climbing. As he's gotten taller, Liam has been much more interested in climbing on things. I totally understand now why preschools and daycares have so many jungle gyms and things to climb on! Kids really do love to climb. Today he figured out how to climb up on one of our dining room chairs. After one small bonk on the table, he went back at it and figured out how to climb safely. I'm of the mindset that kids, especially boys, need to learn how to take calculated risks like climbing and not be scared or foolish. Too bad though right now it is winter because parks are ideal for climbing, energetic little boys!

"Is this ok mama?"

This picture cracks me up. He was sitting looking at pictures on my computer and listening to music. Amazingly he stayed this way (still!) for a few minutes.

"Uh, ok, how to I get down from here?" (Don't worry, we working on turning around and coming down backwards, just like stairs)

First Snow

2012-01-12T15:14:00.003-05:00

We got about an inch or less of snow today, so I thought it would be fun to try out Liam's new snow suit and see what he thought of snow.

As I was getting him ready, I felt like the classic mom who works so hard to bundle her kids up and then they have to go to the bathroom. Snow suits are great in theory (and in practicality I understand) but getting a squirming 15-month-old into one is not an easy task. Not only is the snow suit hard, then there is the big coat, the boots, the mittens and the hat. Liam thankfully didn't fill his diaper as soon as I got him into his ensemble, but of course he saw his cup and wanted a drink. While wearing his mittens with no thumbs or fingers. This makes it very difficult to hold a cup...

Asking for a drink while all bundled up

After getting a drink we went out into the backyard and Liam wandered around for oh, maybe a minute? Then he fell down. And got snow on his mittens. And probably got cold. And had wind in his face. And maybe his boots hurt. And that was the end of our snow time.

Still ok with this whole snow thing

No thank you. The end. You are a terrible mother for taking a picture of me in this position. Rescue me!

Here's to trying again next time!

Liam | 15 Months

2012-01-11T12:55:00.004-05:00

It's been awhile since I've updated Liam's stats, but since we had his fifteen month appointment this morning, it seemed fitting to blog about.

He is definitely a toddler now with a host of words and capabilities. His favorite words are "ball" (he knows various kinds too -- soccer ball sounds different than basketball), "cracker", "cheese", "vacuum", "hi", "choo-choo" (for the train we can hear from our house), "doggie" and many more I can't think of right now. Interestingly, the only animal sound he can make is a crow - "caw caw caw" because we have them everywhere outside our house this winter (gross). This morning all the blinds were drawn and he heard a crow outside and was able to make the sound. It constantly amazes us how much he can understand, even though he can't repeat it back. He also knows when he is being disobedient and obedient too. He can do a lot of "chores" around the house including helping to take the laundry in and out of the washer and dryer, put his toys away, pick up things he pulled out of a cabinet and help set the table.

He is still a wanderer around the house, but he is getting better at sitting down and playing with toys. He loves tractors, school buses, trucks, trains and especially the garbage truck when it goes by. That is a big deal to watch out the window. He loves to sit and look at books and have me read to him too so that is fun to do. Our mornings are much longer now that he is only taking one nap right after lunch. He still isn't the best napper, so a good nap for him is an hour and a half. But he sleeps usually 11 and a half to 12 hours straight at night so I can't complain about that! It was definitely more of an adjustment for me dropping the morning nap than for Liam. I do miss having a little more quiet time in the day.

At the doctor today he got an A+ so that is always encouraging. He only weighs 22.8 lb, but he is 32 inches tall. He has consistently been in the 25 percentile for weight and 75 percentile for height for about a year now so the doctor is not concerned at all about his weight. He does eat a lot, but he is busy, busy, busy and has a tall papa so I think this is just how he is going to be.

He is such a joy to us and we do have a lot of fun. We are certainly in a time of him pushing boundaries with us and us needing to be firm and loving in disciplining him. It is good to see him responding to discipline though and growing into a little boy. We continue to pray for wisdom as we raise him and teach him in the Lord.

Here are some fun photos I took the other day. One of his favorite things to do is climb up on this chair (there's an ottoman he can climb on) and sit there. He talks and laughs and squirms and then climbs down and back up again. I was making funny faces at him from behind the camera and he thought it was hilarious.

Christmas Crafts

2012-01-09T13:21:00.007-05:00

Forgive the throwback to Christmas, but I obviously couldn't post anything I was making during Christmas. I did want to share some of the crafts I made and give a shout-out to my creative family too.

It all started with two things: One - we were trying to save a bit of money over Christmas by making some things for family and friends, and two - my brother Ben and sister-in-law Logan are amazingly talented and are definitely raising the bar for creative gift-giving. We've all decided that now every Christmas some of our gifts to each other should be upcycled, recycled or handmade somehow.

I started with some very simple fabric flowers from this tutorial. I really admire the work Emily does on her blog (and no, I don't know her at all) but she posts great stuff. I enlisted my friend Bethany to help me and ended up making enough flowers for some girlfriends, my two sister-in-laws, my mom, myself and two darling little headbands for the daughters of above mentioned girlfriends. I plan on making more of these in the future.

A close-up of the fabric flowers

All the flowers I made. I put pin backs on all of them except the two little headbands which received elastic.

Next, Rob and I undertook an enormous project that I had the crazy idea to even attempt. Back story -- my brother Luke has shot two deer and both of them have gotten away. It's very discouraging as a hunter I'm sure. So, to remedy that, Rob and I (ok, me) decided to make him a paper mache deer head. Friends of ours have one in their house and I've seen them all over blogs so I thought it would be fun to try. Plus, I thought Luke and Logan were artsy enough to go for it and possibly hang it in their house.

Well, needless to say the deer got a little out of hand. It worked great and we spent many hours working together on it, but it got wayyy bigger than we meant it to. I'll just let the pictures and captions tell the rest of the story...

Rob starting the cardboard construction for the inside frame of the deer head

Our friends Nate and Katie were about a week overdue with their baby (ie. they had no other plans and nothing better to do) so they came over one night to help us put the deer head together. They are the ones who also have a much smaller, nicer deer head hanging in their house.

Parts of a paper mache deer head: tinfoil, wire clothes hanger (for the antlers), flour and water paste and a phone book for strips of paper mache.

Rob and I putting on the first coat of paper mache.

First coat finished!

Was it creepy having a huge deer head hanging in our dining room for about a week? Yes, yes it was.

Finished! We painted the head a pale gray and the antlers darker gray. We were so proud. (It looks more like a moose, I know)

Luke loved the deer head, but ultimately he and Logan thought it was better to keep it at my parent's house. Mom wasn't too thrilled, but she'll find a place to hang it. And Luke and Logan can visit it on vacation.

Beyond those two main gifts, I also put together some other semi-handmade gifts for Rob's family: a Shutterfly calendar, a dinner date basket for Lauren and her boyfriend, some framed photos and mulled wine.

As for the other Yoder family gifts, those went way beyond what we made for sure. Ben is turning into quite the carpenter/craftsman and Logan dreams up all kinds of cool stuff from somewhere in her brain (and Pintrest :).

By far my favorite gift was our custom countertop Ben made us. When he visited earlier this fall I told him what I was looking for in the space above my front loading washer and dryer which are technically part of my kitchen. I was using the tops of them for counter space, but it would work a lot better with a real counter. He took measurements and asked a lot of questions about what I wanted and then he delivered. It's amazing -- all I ever dreamed of and more! He also made me some storage boxes that are going to hang on the wall above the countertop, but they didn't fit in his car so I have to get them another time.

The counter top on Christmas morning.

Proudly displaying my new countertop in my kitchen. Bonus: space under the counter and on top of the washer and dryer for storing cookie sheets.

From the other angle

I also already mentioned Liam's toolbox Ben made in my last post. He is really starting to learn how to play with it more.

Ben also made ornaments for my mom out of wire and Scrabble letters left from their wedding. And for my dad he made some custom shelves for some pots he wanted to display. Luke and Logan received a vintage door handle turned into a curtain tie-back that I was only a little jealous of.

These are hard to see, but the words match up with a "picture" made out of wire for hanging them.

Finally, Logan made some beautiful, framed wall hangings for Ben and Heidi's new home that I unfortunately don't have pictures of. She will probably put some up on her blog. They were so different than just framing photos. Her "baby" though, was a book page wreath for my mom. Wow. Beautiful! She had made one for her apartment a few months ago and my mom asked for one of her own. It is now proudly hanging over their fireplace.

This is all made from old book pages. So cool.

Overall, Christmas was a little more work for all of us this year as we attempted to raise the bar even higher in our creative gift giving. But it was all worth it and I'm already looking forward to next year!

Testing...1...2...3...I'm back...

2012-01-02T19:37:00.010-05:00

Apparently I do have a few readers of this humble blog. Thank you to everyone who asked where I went during all of December. I'm going to try and wrap up the last month and give this whole blogging thing a try again. Thanks for reading and sticking with me through the crazy times of life.

I'm sure our little life will only continue to get crazier, so it's good for me to start realizing now that it is not worth getting worked up about traveling with Liam. Honestly, he does so well when we travel and believe me, I am thankful for that. We have our moments -- this trip it was two fevers and a car throw up -- but overall, we are a portable little family.

Since we spent Thanksgiving with the Bedinghaus family, we spent the larger part of our travels in Pennsylvania with my family. We left in the middle of the afternoon on Tuesday with the goal of driving mostly through the night so Liam would sleep. After a quick stop at Rob's parent's house to drop off their gifts and eat supper, we hit the road again for the rest of the drive to PA. Liam did eventually fall asleep and slept for most of the way with a few brief wake-ups. Rob and I enjoyed using the headphone splitter and listening to podcasts on our iPod (NPR's Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me, This American Life and Pirate Christian Radio's Fighting for the Faith if you're interested in knowing) which surprisingly kept us awake until we got to my parent's house around 1:30 am.

"Hi Grammy! I'm glad to be at your house!"

Wednesday and Thursday we rested and ventured out to join my mom's classroom for their "holiday" party. That was chaos, but Liam enjoyed the kids.

Hanging out in Grammy's classroom

On Friday we spent the day getting ready to host the Beiler Christmas at my parent's house. My mom's extended family is up to 51 people now and lucky for us (that's not sarcastic!), almost all of them wanted to come to Christmas. Mom cooked up a storm on Friday and we ended up with more than enough food for the 43 people who did come. We are so thankful to have such a warm, close-knit family who truly loves each other and enjoys spending time with each other. The evening passed too quickly, but it was sweet to be together for a short time.

My mom and her oldest sister whipping up the mashed potatoes.

Every year my aunt Millie takes a photo with her nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews. Somehow the great-nephews photo is the only one that ended up on my camera. Probably because Liam is in it! It's fun to look back over the years and see how the family has changed and grown.

Christmas Eve day my dad hosted an open house at his studio so we were in and out of that visiting with people. We also had a great visit with our Bloomington friends Phil and Amy and their boys who are originally from Souderton. We've been close friends with them for over two years, but our paths have never crossed while we're home visiting our families. It was fun to finally make that connection with them.

Liam opening his first present from Grammy -- a John Deere tractor -- on Christmas Eve.

Both my brothers and their wives drove in late Saturday night after having Christmas with their in-laws. This was the first time we've all been together since the boys got married and it was great. Rob and I kept remarking how relaxed and fun they were. No wedding stress, no long distance relationships, etc., really made for a great few days together. We had a slow and relaxed Christmas morning, especially enjoying all the handmade gifts we made for each other (come back for my next post about all the handmade gifts). We played games, Ben and Heidi's Wii, ate tons of food and just enjoyed being together.

Liam opening his gift from Aunt Logan and Uncle Luke -- his first baseball mitt and ball.

And opening his gift from Uncle Ben and Aunt Heidi -- a handmade tool box made by Ben. It came complete with Black and Decker toy tools.

A close-up of the tool box. The other side says "Tools".

It's an original folks.

Liam and Uncle Ben read the personalized board book my mom got for Liam. (www.pintsizeproductions.com) So cute and smart!

My dad, the license plate collector, happily opens one of the only states he still needed to complete his collection.

All the kids, wives and one baby. Love you guys!

We all parted ways again on Tuesday -- Ben and Heidi back to Ohio and work, we went to Cincinnati to Rob's family, and mom and dad and Luke and Logan up to my aunt and uncle's cabin in northern PA. As always, it was hard to say goodbye, but we're already looking forward to our ski weekend in February together.

We journeyed westward and on to a few days with Rob's family. It was a great and relaxing way to round out our trip and spend some time with their family. We had "Christmas morning" with them on Wednesday and enjoyed opening and giving more presents.

Aunt Lauren and "pseudo Uncle Ryan" (he will be a real uncle someday :) starting the Christmas present opening.

Liam got a great dump truck with blocks

Reading a new book with Mimi

After some good family time together, we enjoyed visiting with Rob's cousin Jeff and his family who came from Long Island for a week. Since his wife and daughter had never been to Cincinnati, we gave them the star treatment with trips to Montgomery Inn, Graeter's ice cream and Skyline Chili. Apparently I forgot to take my camera on all these visits which is a bummer because I would have liked to get some pictures with them.

But when Friday came around we were ready to come back home and settle in again. I about had a nervous breakdown when it came time to pack our car and the realization that everything we were bringing home had to go somewhere in our house. It was nuts how much stuff we had!

Poor Liam was all scrunched in the car. Seriously. The stuff. It was crazy. (Oh and notice his favorite Christmas gift - an old remote)

In our parent's defense though, we did have a custom countertop Ben made us in the car (hence the reason the two back seats are down next to Liam) and we made a trip to IKEA in Cincinnati and spent some Christmas money to buy a toy storage shelf and four baskets. So it wasn't all toys and gifts!

We came home and spent most of Saturday and today purging our house of excess. It's amazing to me how such a tiny person (ahem, Liam) can have so much stuff. Thankfully he doesn't really understand what is going on and putting some toys away in his closet for later doesn't bother him.

We still have about a week of break until Rob goes back to school. I'm so spoiled when he is home; grocery shopping by myself? Yes please and thank you. I still have a list of projects to get done, but we're trying to balance having some family downtime and doing stuff too.

Hopefully that doing stuff will include blogging again soon because I'm excited to share with you more handmade Christmas stuff.

So. It's a new year and I hope yours is off to a great start!

Christmas Time Is Here

2011-12-04T12:27:00.003-05:00

We hit Christmas early this year with the release of the Repeat the Sounding Joy CD, but then stalled a bit through Thanksgiving because of our travels, Rob finishing the semester, the upcoming Christmas Sing-A-Long at our church, daily life, etc., etc. I do love Christmas though so wanted to at least get some decorations and our tree up so we could enjoy everything before we travel again over Christmas. At first I thought we would have to wait until Rob started his school break (11 days to go!) to go and get a tree, but a friend told us about a nursery close by that sells live trees so we were able to go yesterday afternoon. Last year I think Liam slept through the tree getting process so it was fun this year to take him along. He, of course, was more interested in the gravel and tractors, but at least we got some cute pictures. We met another family at the tree place with a son named Liam (William too!) but he was seven. They offered to take a picture of us too.

Yes, thank you, I will throw rocks.

My favorite men

Par our usual, we are matching

Besides the tree, other decorations are a bit scarce due to one curious little boy, but I did put some pine branches and Christmas balls up on higher shelves. Someday perhaps I will be able to decorate a bit more, but not this year. We immediately had to teach Liam which ornaments he could and could not touch on the tree and put some softer ones down lower for him to touch. His favorite so far is the one from Baby's 1st Christmas last year that has a picture of himself in it...

Mama and Liam enjoying our finished tree

This time of year always goes by in such a blur, but I hope you will have time to stop and appreciate the coming of Christ in absolute humility as an infant in a stable to die for our sins. And I hope too that Christmas will also help you to long for His return again as the triumphant King of Kings.

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving

2011-11-29T10:44:00.004-05:00

As usual I'm a few days late in posting about the most recent events, but oh well. This is our life.

We had the pleasure of spending Thanksgiving at Seven Springs ski resort in western Pennsylvania with Rob's extended Bedinghaus family. There was no snow at the resort yet, but we still had a fun time and enjoyed the resort. Rob's family rented a huge house and then some smaller sleeping cabins nearby to accommodate all 24 of us. The lodge and property were beautiful and perfect for fishing, walking, lots of games and eating. Additionally, we were able to use the resort itself which had restaurants, a lovely pool, a spa and an arcade.

The main lodge house where we stayed

Part of the pond complete with a pair of swans

Rob and the men went clay shooting one morning. The next day the women went to the spa...it was only fair!

One evening we went up to Pittsburgh for dinner at Buca Di Beppos. All 17 of the cousins sat at the huge "Pope Table". Here the Pope is sampling some of our dessert.

We were happy to welcome Ryan, Lauren's boyfriend with us for the weekend too. He's looking a little orange here and as usual Kayla is looking weird.

After dinner we rode an incline up a hill overlooking downtown Pittsburgh. It was beautiful with all the lights.

Family picture missing a few members.

This side of the family is more spread out with members traveling from Georgia, Ohio, Virginia and San Francisco. I hadn't spent a lot of time with them as a group, but they are a comfortable family who likes to have fun. We spent the evenings playing big group games like OLD (a version of charades and telephone), four on a couch, Pictionary and our version of Minute to Win It. There were many moments of our game playing that were priceless -- my father-in-law trying to get an Oreo from his forehead into his mouth during Minute to Win It by only wiggling his face comes to mind. Fun I tell you.

Unfortunately I don't have any photos of dad doing the game I mentioned, but Rob snapped this lovely shot of me stuffed with balloons for another game.

Aside from the drive and some coughing fits in the night, Liam did pretty well. I think he was a little overwhelmed by all the people and tended to only want to be with "ba-ba" which is how he says "mama" now. So it wasn't so much a vacation for me as I would have hoped, but it was still a nice time. This trip definitely confirmed our decision to drive through the night at Christmas when we go to my parents. When your baby only sleeps for 45 minutes during an eight and a half hour drive you will resort to drastic measures. It's actually amazing I don't need to go to the chiropractor this week to get my neck put back straight after all the time I spent turned around in the passenger seat trying to give Liam snacks or things to play with.

But you know, that is just the season we are in right now. Squirmy almost 14-month olds just don't want to sit still. I'm still thankful we were able to go and spend time with family. I'm thankful to be blessed with such great in-law family members too. I know it's a little late, but what are you thankful for this season? Happy belated Thanksgiving!

Bandana Update

2011-11-21T14:28:00.003-05:00

It's day number three for the King of Drool to wear his bandanas and I must say, it's going well. I wasn't sure how he would respond to having something around his neck all day, but he doesn't seem to mind. The bandanas have been doing a good job of catching most of the drool and he looks pretty cute in the process. Yesterday he wore khaki overalls and a blue bandana to church and looked like he was going to a hoe down. (A cute hoe down that is).

All that to say, I'm hoping this drooling is a phase until the rest of his molars break through. It's not very fun, especially when I look under his chin and see how chapped and red his neck is from where the wet shirts rub against him. Poor baby.

We have gray...

And we have blue. Both soaking wet.

Up close and personal. Liam is fascinated by the camera so it's hard to snap a photo these days without him coming right up to me.

In case you were curious, bandanas are the perfect fashion accessory for future drummers who would rather drum on metal doors than their drums. Oh and who think pants stifle their creative genius.

Lately...

2011-11-16T16:36:00.005-05:00

Lately we've been busy with a capital "B" around the Bedinghaus. I barely have time to read other blogs I like to follow, let alone write on my own. I have so many thoughts for blog posts, but really, they just aren't writing themselves.

So...I thought I'd do a quick post about some things we've been doing lately.

Lately Liam has been loving books. If you know me at all you know I love to read, so it is very exciting to see Liam developing a love for books. We used to just keep books upstairs for reading before naps and bedtime, but recently we brought some downstairs and there is no going back. Liam carries books around with him and is constantly at my feet holding up a book to be read. It is one of the most precious things he does. When I open the book he literally bounces up and down. I hope that he always has such a great love of books.

Liam and papa enjoy a book together

If you're looking for some recommendations, we are really enjoying the Baby Einstein First Words and Let's Go! books (thanks mom B!). They have big pictures divided into different categories on each page (food, transportation, instruments, etc.). Liam likes to turn the pages himself and then point to pictures and wait for us to say the word. It's fascinating how his tastes are already developing -- he skips right over the pages about boats and animals, but loves the pages with trucks, food, anything with a ball and oddly enough, the "home" page. Probably because there is a picture of the vacuum on it. That is also one of his words -- "vacuum". I have him saying "vacuum" on video, but it's not loading properly...grrr....so I'll try to put it up later.

The one thing that is difficult is reading the same baby books over and over again. I will say that to keep Liam's interest up I will read them over and over again, but some are just bad. I think Mother Goose was smoking something when she made up some of those rhymes. I would welcome any recommendations for good books for 12 to 18 month olds!

Lately our house has also been inhabited by The King of Drool. I didn't know it was possible for someone to have so much drool! Granted the poor kid is breaking in some nasty molars, but the drool often soaks his shirt down to his bellybutton on any given day. I think I could take his shirt off and wring it out that's how wet he gets. I do change him into his jammies for naptime because I would feel awful if he had to sleep in that. Yuck. I also bought him two bandanas today to wear around his neck because lets be real, cool kids don't wear bibs all day. Cool kids wear bandanas. I hope that will help at least protect his shirts and maybe make him a little more comfortable. He seems to take it all in stride though and really hasn't complained too much about his teeth coming in.

The King of Drool. Yes my friends, all that wetness is from his mouth.

A cheeser face for the camera

That's better!

Lately we've been listening to a lot of Christmas music by the Good Shepherd Band. I usually am a stickler about no Christmas music before Thanksgiving, but this is an exception year I think. The CD is really growing on me and is an excellent way to prepare for the true meaning of Christmas. If you like, you can order your own copy here. (or ask me nicely and I'll hook you up with a copy.)

Lately I've been thinking about making a lot of Christmas gifts for friends and family instead of buying gifts. I won't share my projects because some of you who read this blog will be the recipients of the gifts (if I can actually make what I want to...), but I'll take some photos and tell you all about them after Christmas. I have some fun ideas, but actually bringing them to fruition is a whole other story. It seems like most days it's all I can do to keep the house tidy, dishes washed, clean clothes on our bodies, a dry, happy baby and dinner on the table. That doesn't leave much room for crafting. Not to mention I don't sew...

But! There are some other, non-sewy things I want to try, so stay tuned.

As usual I have lots of thoughts about lots of things, just not much time to write them down. But I will eventually and I'll be happy to share my thoughts here for all of you who care enough to read my thoughts...! Thanks for caring enough to keep checking back on this little piece of my world.

Repeat the Sounding Joy!

2011-11-10T16:32:00.008-05:00

I'm just warning you ahead of time that this is a husband bragging post and a shameless plug for an excellent Christmas album.

Now that you are sufficiently warned, I will proceed.

For the past four years our church has put on a Christmas Sing-A-Long that is truly all that and a bag of chips. It is that good, I promise. Considering how close we are to the IU Jacobs School of Music, we have a lot of very talented musicians in our church, not to mention a music pastor who is top-notch. This year, the band wanted to put out a Christmas album to encourage and help prepare the congregation (and everyone who gets the CD) for Christmas.

I can't even begin to communicate to you the number of hours and hours and more hours that have gone in to making this album. They recorded it last January after the sing-a-long and it is just coming out tomorrow. Whew! It was so much work, but it was so worth it. Oh and did I mention who the amazing drummer on the album is? Yes - my husband. I am so proud of him and the rest of the band for this work. I know the CD will be such an encouragement to me and other moms (and dads and kids) as we work and play at home.

If you're interested in a copy of the CD, 'Repeat the Sounding Joy' by the Good Shepherd Band you can download a free track and/or order a copy here. The CD officially releases tomorrow on 11.11.11 (no, I'm not having a baby to commemorate the day although how cool would that be -- one baby on 10.10.10 and one on 11.11.11!). I'm not sure if there will be a digital download available for purchase after tomorrow, but the website above might tell you.

I hope as you and your family prepare for the Christmas season you will keep Christ in your hearts and homes. And maybe take the Good Shepherd Band along with you. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Rob!

2011-11-04T20:38:00.008-04:00

It's a fact. We keep getting older and we keep celebrating birthdays around here. I was especially reminded of how fast a year goes yesterday when I compared these two pictures:

Baby Liam in his confetti onesie and paper hat for papa's birthday. 24 days old!

And this year. My baby is growing up so fast! As usual he didn't want to sit still. This was about picture number five.

Happy that it's papa's birthday

We had a fun day for Rob's 26th birthday. He asked for a Pumpkin Nutella cheesecake which I happily made for him, creating a huge mess along the way. It turned out perfectly though and was very tasty. Thankfully we had some friends come over in the evening to help us eat the cheesecake.

Making a mess in my kitchen.

Earlier in the day Liam and I worked on a birthday card for papa. Liam still doesn't understand crayons; he just wants to take them in and out of the box. And then, I turned my back for one second and...

...there was blue crayon on the wall. He knows how to use a crayon that way! I'm sure Magic Eraser will take it off, but I kind of like it there. Not that it is acceptable behavior to color on the walls, but it makes our house feel more lived in.

Eventually I did get Liam to color a little bit and hold still long enough to trace his hand for the card.

We had a full week so we were thankful for a visit from Rob's parents today so we could have a little date to continue the birthday celebration. It was so nice to leave home and have a relaxing lunch with Rob without Liam. He had to teach in the afternoon, so I strolled around Target and the mall by myself. I honestly didn't know what to do. It was so easy - no carseats, no looking for carts with a buckle, no bribing with Cheerios, no whining. However, I kept seeing moms with their kids and I missed my baby. I picked Rob up from school and we spent the afternoon at home with his parents.

While we were gone though, mom took 80 some pictures of Liam that I uploaded on to my computer. He had a grand time with Mimi and Boppy while we were gone.

Reading a new book with Boppy

Of course, a gift bag. Could a boy ask for a better toy?

Then they took a trip to the park

Swinging!

I love you Rob! You are a wonderful husband and papa. I hope our next year is even better than this one.

Taylor's Homecoming

2011-10-28T09:46:00.005-04:00

It's been a few weeks, but I had these pictures from our time at Taylor's Homecoming that I wanted to post. We combined a day at Homecoming with a family photography session with the very talented Traci Falder. Back in the day when we lived in Upland, Traci was just getting started with her photography business so she used us as "guinea pigs" and took some engagement photos for us. I knew she would only get better and I told her when we moved away that whenever we had kids we would come back and have her take our photos again. Liam's first birthday seemed like a good time to fulfill that promise. I probably could have taken him somewhere close by for one-year photos, but I knew Traci would do a great job capturing our whole family at this season of our lives. Although it was a very windy and chilly morning, we had a great time with the photo shoot. Liam was a ham at first, but then he fell down and scraped his chin and got cold so things went downhill fast. However, I am SO pleased with how the photos turned out and we are in the process of ordering some for our walls.

Per her instructions I can't post the whole gallery she sent us, but you can see most of the photos on her blog. (We're the fourth post down). If you live anywhere in the Upland area, I highly recommend her!

After our photo shoot, we met up with Rob's sisters - Kayla at Taylor and Lauren at Indiana Wesleyan - had lunch and ice cream at Ivanhoe's (obvious choice there) and briefly stopped by Kayla's boyfriend Chris' lacrosse game. It was too cold to stay long.

Cold and windy, windy game with the favorite aunties!

After visiting with some more friends, Rob headed off to take a tour of Taylor's new science building while Liam napped at my friend Miriam's house. Miriam and I have been friends for years and it was so good to spend some quality time catching up with her while our babies slept.

Rob looks good in a hard hat as he tours the science center

One major highlight of the day was going back to my old dorm, English Hall. I was with three other English girls and yes, we were the weird alums who come back and get all nostalgic to the girls who live there now. I even stood in the doorway of the room I lived in my freshman and sophomore year and took a photo (while the girls inside tried to look natural and not give me the evil eye for interrupting their Saturday) to send to my roommate, Ashley. I have so many good memories from that room and dorm that I couldn't resist. But wow, it feels so small and dark in there! I suppose when you are in college you just don't care, but it's amazing we didn't all go crazy. Or maybe we did and just choose not remember those times...

Back on my old wing, 2nd South!

English girls!

We also took a detour down to the converted health center, affectionately called "The Haak" where three of us lived. That was even more weird because it still smells exactly the same four years later! How is that possible? I only lived there for one semester of my senior year when Rob was in Spain and Ashley was getting married in March. There are some very, very good memories from that semester.

Oh the Haak. Katie and Kerrie made those days much sweeter.

We ended the day with this obvious picture and more ice cream from Ivanhoe's with the one and only Ben Taylor.

It was great to be back to Taylor for a day because we do have such a soft spot for the windblown place. It's where we fell in love and learned and grew in part to be the people we are today. There are days I do miss college, but that feeling gets smaller and smaller as I get older and love the season we are in now. Next year is my five year reunion already so I'm sure we will be back again.

Toys

2011-10-25T13:38:00.004-04:00

I know I promised I'd write next about cloth diapers, but lets be real - I know you're not all checking my blog every hour to read about cloth diapers. I know (most of you) want to see pictures of Liam and hear what he's been up to these days. So all of you (one of you) who are waiting to read my riveting news about cloth diapers, check back later. Today I want to talk about "toys" that Liam has enjoyed so far this week.

This child is not deprived of toys. He even got a lot of new toys for his birthday. But ever since he understood what toys were he has chosen instead to play with things that are not actually toys. Namely cups, spoons, straws, boxes, fridge magnets, paper, coupon books, etc. He will occasionally play with his toys, but that lasts a short while before he is opening my cabinets and taking out bowls to play with. Honestly, I have no problem with this type of "play." I encourage him to play with various things and use his imagination in playing. It does require a lot more picking up on my part and some discipline to teach him what he can't play with (an entire package of paper napkins) and teach him how to put things away, but I figure that is a small price to play for a child who can think outside the box and invent new ways to play.

A typical scene. Playing with a breast milk storage container he found in his closet and a yogurt container. The yogurt container is perfect for taking smaller toys in and out of.

Lately his latest find has been a bag of Hershey's Bliss chocolate squares. Thank goodness he has no idea what chocolate is! I call them his "squares." It fascinates me to watch what he can do with a bag of chocolate squares and how long it keeps him entertained. This week he's: taken the chocolates in and out of the bag, carried them one at a time to a stool, set them up on top and then one at a time brought them back to me, put them in the washing machine and taken them out again (don't worry, I checked before I did laundry!) spun them around on the floor like a top and my favorite, stacked them inside a napkin ring. This last one was especially fascinating to me because completely unprovoked by me, he got a napkin ring out of the drawer, stacked the chocolates one at a time in the napkin ring (it held four), then picked up the napkin ring so they all fell out and did it again and again.

Playing with his "squares"

Yesterday I actually took some pictures of his various "non-toy" activities. Excuse the condition of the photos - my camera is not fast enough to catch a busy boy!

A new adventure yesterday -- dragging mama's apron around by the strings like it was a dog on a leash. He walked around and around the house laughing to himself and dragging the apron.

Another object he has been fascinated with this week are my tall rain boots that sit by our front door. He is starting to even say the word "boot." Yesterday he was having so much fun dropping a ball into the boot and getting it out again. Later I found about ten various toys down inside the boot.

Papa helped Liam stand up in the boots, but his feet couldn't touch the bottom so it wasn't very comfortable.

There is no lack of curiosity from this little guy and I love it. I hope he always keeps a sense of wonder about the world and how things work.

Baby Basics: What We Didn't Use

2011-10-19T20:55:00.003-04:00

Clearly I'm not as good as Erica at posting things for my baby week, but here's the next installment: All the Stuff We Have and Didn't Use.

And in no particular order again...

Nursing Tanks. I've discovered that in mom-land people either adore nursing tanks or leave them at the bottom of their drawers. I'm definitely in the latter camp. I think I got off on the wrong foot with them because I didn't realize how when you nurse (especially at first), well, you get bigger. Ok, huge. So mine always felt really tight and uncomfortable. As much as I find nursing bras to be uncomfortable too I have to admit they are handy and help keep a nicer shape for me. I really only wear my nursing tanks on Mondays when I do laundry and wash my bras.

Pacifiers. Oh how we tried and tried to get Liam to like pacifiers! We must own at least four different kinds and they are currently sitting in a basket gathering dust. I remember when my mom was here the first week Liam was born, she came downstairs holding him happily sucking on a pacifier. The kid loved to suck on anything. I freaked out at my mom (seriously freaked) saying he couldn't have a pacifier until he was four months old at least. See how by the book I was? I was so concerned about nipple confusion that we completely missed the pacifier window. I should have seen from the beginning Liam would have no trouble nursing and it was probably fine to give him a pacifier, but how was I to know? The silver lining of no pacifiers: no pacifier fairy needs to come visit when Liam is going off to preschool to take the precious binky away.

Bottles. Again, we tried and tried. I would pump until I was sore and then listen to Rob upstairs trying to give a screaming baby a bottle. Miserable. It was all with the goal that when we drove to PA for Thanksgiving when Liam was barely a month old that we could feed him in the car and not have to stop and nurse. What a joke. I was trying to pump in the front seat with a blanket over me so the truckers couldn't see and then we would still stop to get him started on the bottle and then stop again to burp later. After one time of this we gave up and just stopped to nurse. Everyone was much happier. After that we didn't really have reason to keep trying a bottle as I was barely ever away from Liam. I wish now we had tried a little harder because there have definitely been times when it would have been so nice to leave him with someone and a bottle. Probably until he was about seven months old the longest I was away from him was six hours when we left him with Rob's parents (and a bottle) and went to dinner and a movie. I was told it went fine, but later learned he had cried, a lot. Next baby: we're going to try a little harder with bottles. However, like the pacifier, the upside to this, no bottle habit to break.

Moby Wrap. I thought I was really going to like the Moby wrap. And perhaps I would have if, like my friend Suzie told me, someone would have showed me how to use it. The enormous length of fabric freaked me out and I never really tried it. I had three other carriers I did use though -- a Baby Bjorn, a cloth sling for when Liam was really little and a Mai Tai carrier a friend made me. My feelings about carriers are this: you have to find what works best for you and your baby. Find one that is completely comfortable to you and that you can put a baby in by yourself. I rarely wore Liam around the house; mainly the carriers were for places like church or waiting in restaurants when I wanted him to be quiet and go to sleep. I'm getting an Ergo carrier for the next baby though. You're welcome to send me money toward one whenever you want.

Baby dishes, etc. Our house is a decent size, but we do not have a lot of kitchen cabinet space. Therefore I simply made the decision one day that Liam is going to learn to use the dishes we use and not take up a lot of space with baby dishes. At least for now when he isn't feeding himself. Maybe when he breaks a piece of dinnerware from Royce Yoder, Potter I will feel differently. But for now all we own special for him are four spoons (really three because he doesn't use the pink spoon -- that is for girls!) and two sippy cups. That's it. Any food I give him I just use our dishes. I've found this saves a lot of hassle and space.

Expensive Video Monitor. This was a disaster. We bought this expensive video baby monitor with extra money from our registry and got it all set up before Liam was born. The first night we brought him home we turned it on and it had terrible feedback, even though we'd tested it before. I was a mess. Liam was tiny, tiny (or as tiny as an almost 10 pound baby can be!) in his big crib and I was sure something was going to happen to him in the night. After Rob went out to get batteries at 11 pm and those didn't work either, we gave up and didn't use a monitor the first night. Liam cried in the night and my mom came up to get him because Rob and I slept right though his crying. After that we went to Wal-Mart and got a $30 cheapo monitor that is still going strong. Thankfully we got our money back from the expensive one, but it was a hassle and not worth it. Unless you really feel like you need to see your baby all the time, the technology on the video ones is not worth it.

Pack 'n Play with Extras. We got a fairly standard pack 'n play, but it came with all kinds of extras I didn't expect. It has a cradle type attachment on top, a pad that raises the mattress so it can be hooked up to a vibrator and music and probably a DVD player for all I know. We've definitely gotten our use out of the pack 'n play and I'm sure we will continue to, but we didn't need the one with extras. Now they are sitting under his bed taking up space. If I could do it over again I would get a PeaPod. Have you seen these? They are like a baby tent with an air mattress that collapses down small enough to fit in a suitcase. Genius!

Halo Sleep Sack. The memories I have from Liam's first week sometimes just make me laugh. Who lets people go home from the hospital with this helpless being? It's so good babies don't remember when happens to them when they are so little. The Halo Sleep Sack ranks up there with humorous mistakes we made. Basically the one we got was a sleeveless, zippered gown that was closed in at the bottom. Then, it had this piece of fabric that velcroed to the back of the gown and came around the arms to create a swaddle. One of the first nights we tried to use this thing and halfway through the night, as babies are known to do, he pooped everywhere and got the gown part all dirty. Silly me, I only had one of these contraptions so my mom and I rigged up some other pajamas that we then wrapped the swaddle part around his arms again. Of course there wasn't any velcro for it to stick to, so just a few hours later Liam had either wiggled out of it or somehow it was all funky around him. It did not work. I clearly remember my mom coming in his room in the morning and saying, "We need to get this pajama situation figured out." She promptly went to Wal-Mart and bought Liam six, long-sleeve sleeping gowns and we never looked back. Sure, he looked like he was wearing a dress, but at 2 am when there is a dirty diaper and no snaps or velcro swaddles, gowns are genius. I ended up selling the sleep sack at a consignment sale to some other poor soul who hopefully had better luck.

I'm sure there are more things we didn't use, but that's all I can think of now. I'm sure some of you have had great success with these things and that is great. Again, it's all about finding what your baby likes and what works for you. I'm completely on board with things that make your life easier!

Next up: Why I gave up on cloth diapers. Riveting, I know.

Top Ten: The First Year

2011-10-14T16:14:00.004-04:00

We've had a busy week around here with one year doctor appointments, attending Taylor's Homecoming yesterday and other such activities going on. However, I did not want the week to get away from me without joining my friend Erica and some other women who have been posting about their favorite baby items. Erica is doing a great job summing up the books, stuff and saving ideas she has used in the first few months of her son's life. I don't really have time to be quite that detailed today, but here's our top ten items/things/thoughts from Liam's first year of life.

And in no particular order...

Ten. Kiddopotomus swaddle wrap. My mom found us one of these at a garage sale before Liam was born and we really had no idea what is was until a few weeks after he was born. But once we realized that some genius out there had invented a swaddle that he couldn't get out of, well, the rest is history. Liam loved to be swaddled and this thing really did keep him snug. He actually slept in it until he was eleven months old, no kidding. With his arms out obviously, but still, his bottom half stayed in it. I thought for a long time it would prevent him from standing up in his bed and screaming, but really all that did was make it look like he was wearing a skirt. Next baby we will have more than one of these too because ours didn't make it in to the wash very often...and that's all I will say about that!

Nine. Bouncy seat. I affectionately call our bouncy seat "the Lexus" because it is a beast and has all the bells and whistles you could imagine. It was a gift from my mother-in-law, and at first I will say I was skeptical, but as Liam learned to sit in it and enjoy it, it slowly grew on me. (Thanks mom!) Yes, it made my living room look like a baby garage sale because it was so big, but it was worth it. As Liam got to be more mobile it was handy to have somewhere to put him while I made dinner or needed to run upstairs. Now it sits outside our bathroom and while Liam doesn't love it as much as he used to, it is still handy to have there when I need to get ready or when I need to clean the bathroom, not a chore that can be accomplished with a toddler. (Eek! I have a toddler! He is so big!) I would say this seat was most helpful from about five months on.

Eight. Stride to Ride Lion. When we were on vacation in August at our cabin, Liam learned he could push a chair across the deck. At that point he wasn't walking (he was almost 10 months old) but I knew it was time to find him a walking toy. We went to Buy Buy Baby (Babies R Us on steroids if you've never been to one) and the new ones they had there cost anywhere from $30 to $80! We could not afford that, so I eventually found one for $10 on CraigsList. It is a fun lion that has a handle to push and walk behind and then eventually when he can ride on it, the handle comes down and makes it a seat to sit on. We spent many hours this summer outside pushing lion up and down the sidewalk and I do think it helped Liam learn how to walk by eleven months. Definitely a toy worth having for pre-walkers.

Seven. A play mat. Backtracking to little babyhood (probably 2 to 6 months), a play mat with toys that hang down was a huge favorite in our house with Liam. Liam would lay happily on the mat and talk to the stuffed octopus, (we called him Roctopus because he rocked at keeping Liam happy) for a long time. I'm pretty sure Roctopus got more smiles that I did some days. Again, it will make your living room look like a baby garage sale, but hey, if it keeps the kid happy, I'm ok with that.

Six. Friends to call. Where would we women be without friends to call when things get tough? A very sad place I'm sure. As a mom, you have to have people you can call at all stages of your child's life. They should be the kind of people you can ask honest questions of without being judged and be told the truth, no matter how hard it is to hear. I think one of satan's greatest tools against motherhood is loneliness and feeling like no one understands what you are going through. This is a lie. All mother's have been in your shoes before. I think there is nothing more helpful than calling a friend and hearing her say, "You can do this. It will get better. Keep going." Take the time to foster and grow those kind of friendships even if there are times you'd rather take a nap than talk on the phone. For your own sanity, keep them alive and don't be afraid to ask for help.

Five. Figuring out scheduling and sleeping. Yes, I am the mom who read Babywise before my baby was born. I'm glad I did because it gave me a foundation to start from when it came to getting Liam on a schedule. I don't think that the babywise system works for every baby, nor do I think that it was ultimately the best thing for us when it came to getting Liam to learn how to sleep on his own, (see my thoughts on Ferberization), but it was helpful when it came to understanding the eat, wake, sleep cycle. There were definitely days that were frustrating as I tried to figure out when Liam would sleep and for how long and then we would get thrown off if he woke up early from his nap, etc. But, now that we have a schedule it is good to know what time Liam will wake up and need to nap during the day. It also helped a lot when he was very little to know if he was crying because he was hungry or something else. This helped me to not snack nurse him during the day. Scheduling a baby does have its downfalls, mainly not having a very flexible baby and meltdowns when a nap is missed, but overall I think scheduling was one of the best things I did this year.

Four. Baby bathtub. When we registered, we accidentally added two bathtubs to our registry and ended up getting five bathtubs before Liam was born. Obviously we only kept one and returned the others, but perhaps it should have been a clue to us about how much Liam would like his bathtub. When he was about six weeks old we realized how much he liked his bathtub and started making a bath part of our regular bedtime routine. Now he sits in the big bathtub and we still give him a bath almost every night. Since Rob is gone during the day, he gives Liam his bath and it is a fun time for them together. I highly recommend getting a bathtub for the first few months.

Three. Toys to put things in. This is the stage that we are at now. Anything Liam can put other toys in to is a hit with him. Even though he has all these new toys from his birthday, he still walks around with an empty yogurt container, putting things in to it and taking the lid off and on. We introduced crayons to him recently and he could care less about coloring. The only thing he wants to do with the crayons is take them in an out of the box. Apparently this is fun for a one year old.

Two. Highchair. We did some research about high chairs before Liam was born and we ultimately settled on one that would strap to one of our dining room chairs versus a stand alone high chair. Since the highchair is now a large part of our daily life, I stand by that decision, but essentially our high chair does act like a stand alone one even though it isn't. I didn't think of this beforehand, but the arms of the high chair are too high for the chair to slide under our table. Because our dining room is rather narrow it has to strap to the end chair of the table, which means, that if we want Liam to eat with us, we have to pull the chair around to the other end of the table where we eat. So the highchair usually spends the day away from the table acting like a stand alone high chair. I'm ok with it really -- it's a good seat and is smaller than a stand alone one so it works just fine for us.

One. The Baby Bjorn bib. I could talk about this bib all day long. (See what my life has come to!) When Liam first started eating cereal food we used cloth bibs that people had given us or little ones that came attached to matching outfits. That lasted a few weeks before I realized how gross they got in addition to creating more laundry. Then we moved up to a plastic coated bib that had a little pocket at the bottom. This worked for a while too, at least I could wipe it off, but soon enough it got gross and stained too. I saw a friend using one of the Baby Bjorn plastic bibs and I was sold. It is probably the best $10 we've spent this year. It is a big bib, so it covers a lot of body for messy babies, plus it has a deep pocket at the bottom for collecting "treasures" of food. Best of all, it simply washes off and could probably go in the dishwasher if we had one of those. I will honestly never use another bib.

Did I say I had a top ten? Just kidding, it's eleven. But this one is overarching all of them.

Prayer. I don't think I've ever prayed so much as I did the first weeks of Liam's life. Except for maybe the week before our wedding when I prayed like crazy for the thunderstorms to move away from our wedding reception tent. And they did -- it was a miracle. But anyways, prayer and more prayer sustained me through those first weeks and since then really. I believe that the Lord is especially close to new mother's and helps them by drawing near when the times are hard. There are desperate prayers. There are thankful prayers. There are prayers for sleep, a constant theme in our house it seems. Prayers for energy. Prayers for patience. Prayers for endurance. Angry prayers. Hopeful prayers. Our lives as mothers should be filled with prayers. It's hard to find time to sit down during the day and focus on praying, but whispered prayers throughout the day are also heard and can be sustaining too. When Liam was very small we started a habit of praying with him and for him specifically before bedtime and that is something I know we will continue. I want Liam to grow up in a house that is characterized by prayer; that it would be the first thing he does when he is sad or angry or happy or thankful or whatever. I want him to know how to turn to the Lord in all things and to watch his mama do the same.

This year has been fun and full and hard. It has been a year of new joys and challenges I could not have predicted. Overall it has been characterized by God's faithfulness to give us a son; a tremendous joy and responsibility. I would not trade this life for anything and I am excited to see what year number two of Liam's life brings.

Next up: The things we thought we would use this year and didn't...in other words, my child did not take a bottle or a pacifier so we have lots of those laying around...

*A note about this post. None of the things/objects/companies I mentioned even know I exist so I was not paid for this post in any way. I'm just one mama talking about the things that made my life easier. And I did mean to post some pictures, but it's Sunday evening and we are making pancakes for supper and I just really don't want to take the time to put up pictures. If you want more info about anything I mentioned, leave a comment and I'll get back to you!

Happy Birthday Liam!

2011-10-09T20:29:00.009-04:00

One year ago today I was about to go to the hospital in labor and we didn't know anything about Liam. Today, we're on the eve of his first birthday and I cannot imagine life without him. He is a joy to our home and a great blessing from the Lord. He is outgoing, funny, a cheeser, stubborn, energetic, curious, smart, busy, busy, busy and our sweet little boy. It's funny to say, but he really is an amazing blend of me and Rob while still being his own person with a big personality.

To celebrate Liam's first birthday I wanted to have a small, but special party for him. He really didn't understand what was going on, so you could probably say the party was more for us, but I couldn't imagine not having a party for him. I decided to make the theme of the party circles, since he loves balls and these round refrigerator magnets we have. The circle theme was really easy and fun considering how many foods are circles. We had round chicken salad sandwiches, grapes, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, carrots (yes, they are tubular rounds), round tortilla chips and dip, blueberry mini muffins and of course cupcakes. I made all the food including an extra smaller cake for Rob's sister Kayla, whose birthday is today.

A cupcake caterpillar. I was too lazy to figure out how to make a head, so a ball stuck in a cupcake worked great!

All the round foods and my bowl of balls centerpiece. Notice the little hands that would like to have some...

Kayla asked for a smash cake for herself. She didn't get to smash this whole cake, but she did eat a piece with no hands or silverware.

The party setup. You'll remember the triangle happy birthday banner from my birthday, but I made the half circle banner at my mom's group a few weeks ago. It worked out perfectly for my circle party.

The balloon has been a big hit at our house this week. Liam likes to walk around the living room and point to it. It welcomed people to the party.

We invited our immediate families, understanding that my parents and brothers probably couldn't make the drive, but hoping Rob's family could come. We ended up having a great party with Rob's parents, grandma, sisters and their boyfriends coming over for most of the day.

Hanging out with Mimi

And with Boppy

And with Aunt Kayla

Aunt Lauren, Lauren's boyfriend Ryan, and great-grandma Nan were here too.

And how could we forget that Chris, Kayla's boyfriend was here too? These two are the life of the party for sure.

We had fun hanging out together eating, playing a Liam trivia game I made up and another game where I printed off one picture from each month of Liam's life and in teams, the partygoers had to arrange the photos in chronological order. It was fun to look back at his first year of life in photos. (Thanks Chrissie for the idea from Elijah's first birthday party!)

After games we had presents, which there was quite a stack. I think my in-laws did a great job of not going overboard with gifts and getting Liam some good, quality toys he will enjoy. His favorite was a mini soccer ball. He also received a wooden puzzle, a small wagon with wooden blocks, two shape sorter toys, a musical toy and some books. He was actually more interested in the wrapping paper because it was printed with sports balls and he kept saying "ball, ball!" when he was unwrapping. But eventually he understood and was interested in the toys.

Starting the present opening

"Hmm, what should I open next?"

Working on his new puzzle with papa

Later we took the ball outside and tried to work on kicking vs. throwing. His Pops would be proud to know he seems like a natural at soccer. :)

After presents we had high hopes for some good cake smashing considering how much Liam loves to eat. However, it was a bit underwhelming as I think he was confused what he was supposed to do and it was right before naptime so he was getting tired. He eventually stuck his fingers in the icing and thought that was tasty, but he didn't get in to the cake too much. We still had fun helping him explore and understand cake. I think cake at his two-year-old birthday will be a bigger hit.

Exploring the icing

Icing = yum

"I think cake is pretty good."

Happy birthday Aunt Kayla! We love you.

Family shots!

Overall, it was a fun day and we really enjoyed celebrating with family around us. Liam is a very well loved little guy! Tomorrow, on his actual birthday, I think we will have a low-key day and probably not do much in terms of celebration. One party was exhausting enough!

Happy 1st birthday Liam! We love you so much and cannot wait to enjoy another year with you.

A Pennsylvania Visit

2011-10-04T20:56:00.004-04:00

When Rob got his first credit card in 2004 he never realized that it would take him approximately a million years (ok, seven years) to earn enough points to get ONE free airline ticket. That goes to show how little we use our credit card too. But we finally got almost enough points and since it was only one ticket, we decided we would use it for me and Liam to fly out to Pennsylvania and see my parents for a long weekend.

Our visit started off great because my mom had Thursday off from school for the Jewish new year of all things. We celebrated by shopping and getting pedicures. Then, on Thursday night my cousin Andrew and his wife Amanda flew in from Seattle on an east coast tour. They used my parents house as "home base" as they visited Philadelphia and Lancaster. This was the first we met Amanda and we really enjoyed getting to know her.

Our trip also coincided with my mom's annual weekend in Ocean City, NJ with her sisters and nieces. She and her three sisters and one sister-in-law had a "sisters beach weekend" for years and they always had a rule that once any other woman in our family turned 40 she could come along. Well, considering how many women there are in our family and how many of them have years to go until they are 40, (me) they did away with the rule and now any woman in the family can come. It is such a fun weekend and I was thankful I got to go along. We rented a house for the weekend and filled it up to the brim with laughter and lots of fun. The weather was actually nice too so that was a bonus. I packed a lot of long sleeves and sweaters for us and we were hot on Saturday. Liam did great all weekend and seemed to have a good time too. It is really special for him to get to spend time with grammy and pops. The time always goes so fast and I always cry when I say goodbye to my mom, but Lord willing, we will see them again at Christmas and the fall will go quickly.

Apparently my camera only knows how to take photos of Liam...but here are some from the weekend.

Hanging out with grammy

The beach in October; goldenrod blooms on the dunes. Who knew?

"I'll just climb up here..."

"Or give you a cheeser smile!"

I love this one. Liam loved walking on the beach, stopping to pick up things and explore along the way.

Focused on walking

Apparently Liam was too hungry to smile for a photo; he'll just eat his sleeve.

My Child Has Been Ferberized!

2011-09-25T16:19:00.003-04:00

Warning - this post will probably be boring to those of you who don't have kids or who have kids who are great sleepers, but I can't help but share about the great things happening in our sleeping world.

When Liam was about six weeks old we started sleep training him with a cry it out method. I was already following a type of schedule where I would nurse him, he would be awake for a little while and then when he started showing signs of getting sleepy, I would rock him for a bit and then lay him down in his crib and he would usually cry a bit and then go to sleep. At this point he was repeating this cycle about every 2 and a half to 3 hours. I remember when we got home from traveling at Christmas he started going right to sleep without crying and I felt like we had finally arrived at parenting bliss. It was amazing. Then, he learned how to roll over and that made him mad because he couldn't roll over the other way and we had to keep working at things. This period only served to confirm what I'd already thought about parenting - it often feels like one step forward and then two steps back.

Springtime came and we started traveling and then traveling even more during the summer. Most of the time while we were traveling Liam did pretty well sleeping in the pack n play, but unfortunately I got into some bad habits (nursing him to sleep, rocking him, etc., etc.) because it was so important to me that he get a good nap rather than let him cry for a long time. The problem with these bad habits was that when we got home, we didn't work to break them and go back to letting him cry himself to sleep.

About a month or so ago things took a turn for the worse when it came to his sleeping habits and I was a wreck. I thought at first he was teething. Nope. Then I thought he was old enough to move down to one afternoon nap a day. Nope. We tried that one day and he slept for 45 minutes all day long and that was awful. He apparently hadn't gotten the memo that when you only take one nap a day, it's supposed to be a good, long one. So I started rocking him to sleep again, patting him, really doing anything I could do to get him to go to sleep. Then during naptime I would race around like a mad woman trying to get things done only to have him wake up again 3o or 45 minutes later. Nothing was working and he would wake up screaming and cranky all day. I was crying, Liam was crying, it was probably raining, etc.

Enter a friend from church who randomly gave me a book called, Solving Your Child's Sleep Problems by Dr. Richard Ferber. She knew I was having problems and was kind enough to share this book, which I found out later she had picked up out of a free box at a used bookstore thinking, "why am I getting this book? I don't need it." God works in mysterious ways is all I have to say to that because how could she know that I needed it?

I started reading this book and as I began to understand the nature of sleep and sleep cycles I learned that I was actually creating more problems for Liam by rocking him and assisting him to sleep. See, at about four months babies start having sleep cycles like adults and when they get into a lighter sleep stage they may actually wake up a bit and need to learn to go back to sleep on their own. Think about how many times a night you wake up and adjust your pillow or blanket and go back to sleep. Babies need to learn to do this too. However, when you give them any kind of parental assistance in falling asleep they will wake up at this time, realize that the aid that put them to sleep is gone and they will freak out. Dr. Ferber compares it to losing your pillow in the middle of the night. Instead of going right back to sleep you realize your pillow is gone and you start to look for it and thereby wake yourself up even more. Going back to sleep on your own is actually a skill babies need to learn for life.

Dr. Ferber's method for correcting this problem is letting them cry, but going in occasionally, patting their backs, soothing them, but not picking them up. Then the baby learns that crying will only get them a brief visit from you and they can go to sleep just fine on their own. The first day you start out going in after 5 minutes of crying, then 10, then 15 and so on. The next day you go in at 10 minutes, 20 minutes, etc. Each day has progressively longer intervals of crying until eventually they go to sleep on their own. You do the same process for naptime, bedtime and the middle of the night crying. Liam is long past needing to eat in the middle of the night so this method doesn't exactly apply to very young babies.

It was very humbling to learn that I was actually Liam's problem with sleeping, but the method also gave me hope that he could learn to go to sleep on his own again. I knew he could do it -- he's done it many times before. But he is very stubborn (definitely not a trait he gets from his father!) and I was doubtful that this could work. We've also been struggling with him standing up in his bed and having a hard time laying down on his own.

There have definitely been times when it was hard -- an hour and a half of crying at bedtime was the worst it got -- but overall, this method has worked better than I could have hoped. Within 3 days Liam was going to sleep on his own for naptime, usually with just one visit from me to lay him down and give him his Lil' Bow Wow dog. Even better, he has been sleeping for an average of an hour and half for each nap. The first day this happened I sat in the kitchen and honestly did not know what to do with myself! I wasn't used to getting all my naptime goals finished and actually having downtime for myself. He wakes up happier and is happier all around during the day. I am a much more patient, happier mama during the day too.

We had to make some pretty major changes, mostly dealing with when I was nursing him. Before I was nursing him to sleep right before bed and he was up to nurse at least once in the night. We switched this with reading books, so I am still nursing him, but it's not the last thing we do before bed. Now he is going to bed awake, falling asleep on his own and sleeping totally through the night. I am also not getting up with him if he wakes up at 5:30 or 6, Rob is instead, so we can try to break the early morning nursing habit we got in to. The problem now though is that he wants to be up for the day at 6 which makes for a long morning. Dr. Ferber says this is the hardest habit to break so we will keep working at that.

I will say too that I prayed a lot about this. It is so hard not knowing how to help your child, especially when you can see what they need - sleep in this case - but they won't give in and sleep. God was very merciful first to give us a good resource we could understand and follow, and then second, really be with Liam and help him learn to sleep.

I'm sure this method won't work for everyone, nor will everyone have enough patience to try it. But we were honestly on our last thread of hope and this did work really well for us. I am thankful that this method did work for us and we will hopefully continue to have more success with it.

I just realized how long this post is...sorry! I'm happy to talk more about this method if you have more questions. And I promise my next post will be a little more interesting... :)

Hunter's Honey Farm

2011-09-21T15:50:00.004-04:00

We spent Saturday afternoon at a local honey farm with some friends enjoying a gorgeous fall day and a fun fall festival. The honey farm is over 100 years old, so they have some lovely honey and obviously a nice crop of bees. (Can that even be true? A crop of bees? I may have just made that up...)

Anyways, at the festival we sampled various kinds of honey and other things made with honey - honey butter, honey mustard sauce, bbq sauce with honey, honey ice cream, etc., went on a tour of their facilities and took a hay ride. It's amazing how different honey from different plants -- wildflower vs. clover for example, can taste so different. Between the three of us we bought a gallon of honey to split, which I think will last us for awhile.

We all have boys who are all fairly close in age -- 16 months, 11 months and 2 months old. They had corresponding levels of fun at the festival, but I'm sure by next year they will think it is a little more fun. Liam's favorite part was probably tasting mama's chocolate honey milkshake. Of course, anything with food is his favorite part!

Liam was styling in his news boy cap. That stayed on about 2 seconds.

A demonstration on how the farm makes beeswax candles

Possibly one of my favorite family photos of us ever

"Oh look, a bee!"

Liam, Liam and baby Caleb. They're friends, they just don't really know it yet.

The whole gang, including the gallon of honey

The Big 2-7

2011-09-17T10:05:00.003-04:00

This time last year we were 24 days away from having a baby, but we didn't know that. We also didn't know the sex of the baby, nor much about being parents at all. This year we have an almost one year old and we couldn't imagine life without Liam. The Lord was faithful to bring me through another year that had a lot of change.

September 8th of last year

Now I have this cheeser face this year!

My birthday was a pretty normal day this year with a few adventures and highlights. Rob stayed home for an extra hour in the morning so he was part of the present opening festivities at breakfast. My parents always send the best birthday boxes so it was nice to have presents to open.

Later in the day a friend dropped off a gorgeous "happy birthday" banner her friend made. I'm sure you know the ones I'm talking about -- fabric triangles on a ribbon that you can hang up. It was such a sweet gift and one we will use for all family birthdays for many years to come. I also received phone calls, emails, cards, texts and more from many friends and family. You all know I love my birthday and it showed!

Every birthday should have an adventure and mine happened in the afternoon when I got a call from a friend who was stranded at Kroger with three kids, a cart full of groceries and her keys locked in her car. Her husband was teaching, so he couldn't come and get her. I left Liam with a friend, loaded her kids and groceries into my car and drove her home. Halfway home though she realized her house key was (duh) attached to her car keys and they didn't have a spare hidden anywhere. We prayed and asked the Lord to help us find a way into her house. When we got to her house I randomly found a screwdriver in my glove compartment which we then used to pry open an unlocked window through which she hoisted me and I unlocked the door. Whew! We did a victory dance in the yard and I went on my merry way.

All that rescuing made me hungry though, so Rob and I went out to dinner at our favorite Bloomington restaurant, Upland Brewery, in the evening and left Liam with a friend. Rob knows me very well and also knew that I would like a nap in the late afternoon (yes please and thank you) a chocolate milkshake on Thursday night and a bottle of wine on Tuesday night. He is very good at making a birthday week for me. Besides that he had Liam help him write a card and traced his hand in the card which is precious and bought me a necklace with a little "L" charm (for Liam) on it. I don't wear a lot of jewelry, but this is the kind of necklace that I could wear every day and it's very special and sweet.

We ended the evening with a large slice of chocolate cake from Feast, a favorite bakery. Liam even got to have a little bit and I think it got him excited for his first birthday cake in a few weeks. Not like he really knows, but he certainly inherited his father's sweet tooth.

Mama and Liam about to enjoy cake. (And you can see my birthday banner in the background)

Chocolate cake!

Liam | 11 Months

2011-09-10T21:08:00.005-04:00

This has been a really fun month. Liam is growing in leaps and bounds and is really becoming a little boy now. I'm not sure how much he weighs, but my guess is probably about 23 pounds. He is very tall and seems to be growing upward every day. I've started noticing it more as he can now reach up to take stuff off the table. He is definitely tall like his papa.

This month he also started to take a few steps every now and then. He is getting braver, but he still doesn't like to let go of something he is holding on to and walk. Usually we have to stand him up and bribe him with a toy to walk to us. But he is so proud when he does take a few steps and we cheer for him. His record number of steps is about 11 or so. If he approaches walking anything like he did when he transitioned from the army crawl to real crawling, I'm expecting him to one day just start walking everywhere and not look back. Then I'm sure life will get really crazy!

Liam has always been a champion eater and that is no different now. At the mention of food or if we do the sign for "eat" he gets so excited and literally bounces up and down. He loves cheese and can actually say something that sounds very close to the word cheese. If I give him cheese it has to be the last thing on his tray because he would not eat anything else if I gave it to him first. For the most part he likes what I put on his tray, but he clearly has his favorites. He has almost stopped eating baby food -- he doesn't seem to like the texture or the fact that he can't do it himself anymore -- so we're feeding him mostly table food now. It seems like I am constantly trying to come up with new and varied foods to feed him. We tried tofu last week and that didn't go over very well. Even when I scrambled it with an egg he seemed to know it was weird. He doesn't eat a lot of meat so I'm always trying to find ways to give him protein, but apparently tofu is not it. He would probably eat it if I melted cheese on it though!

We've adjusted our schedule now that Rob is back in school so I am home with Liam all day and we see papa for a few hours in the evening. It has worked out well so far and Liam is happy to see papa when he comes home at the end of the day. So far our days at home haven't felt too long, but ask me again in the middle of winter when we can't go outside. We will miss walking for sure. We are also slowly transitioning down to one nap a day from two and so far it is not going well. Liam is not a great napper and so even if we do one nap a day it usually only ends up being an hour or so which makes him cranky in the afternoons. It is a long time until bedtime when he wakes up at 2. Hopefully that will start to smooth out in the next few weeks as we make the change.

We have so much fun with Liam, especially as we learn his personality more. We are discovering he is more of an extrovert like Rob in that he enjoys being around people and gets energy from them. I'm trying to have him spend more time around other kids too as he seems fascinated by older kids. If there are other people to see or play with he doesn't mind at all if I leave him in the nursery at church or with a friend. It is interesting and encouraging to see more of who he is becoming.

Part of that learning too is understanding what he can understand and having reasonable expectations for him. It amazes me how much he knows and how many words he can understand even if he can't talk back yet. However, he often looks at us when he's "talking" as if to say, "come on guys, why don't you get what I'm saying to you?" We have taught him some sign language and he can do most of it, although his signs for "more" and "ball" look very similar! I have no doubt he will be a prolific talker when he can talk.

It's hard to put in to words what this munchkin means to us, but it's a lot. I can't imagine life without him and the little person he is becoming. We are looking forward to celebrating his first birthday soon!

For now though, here are some recent photos.

We have to be so sneaky with the sign these days

For obvious reasons - it's like a magnet to his mouth

Standing up and taking steps...

And falling into mama

A recent post-bath mohawk

A very typical scene in my kitchen these days. Cabinets are so fascinating, but even more so are boxes with plastic bags that can be pulled out and strewn around. So fun for Liam. Not fun for mama!

This is a very typical face, especially when he really wants something, in this case the camera. I promise, this is a very happy face, not an evil face!

The Garden that Took Over the World (err, the Backyard)

2011-09-08T20:53:00.003-04:00

Remember when our backyard garden looked like this?

Not anymore! The squash literally took over our entire backyard.

The summer is winding down and so is our garden. But it has been a great summer and Rob and I learned a lot about gardening in a small space. Namely, tiny little seeds grow into BIG plants! Squash especially like to crawl out of their spaces and almost invade the neighbors. We also had some bugs and invaders like bottom rot on our tomatoes, but we still got a fair amount of produce. We had beans, tomatoes, basil, zucchini and plenty of butternut squash. I also enjoyed my flowers - cosmos and zinnias.

Next year I don't think we'll plant so much squash and I'll make more room for herbs. But I think we will plant a garden again and maybe try some different kinds of things too. We had fun though and enjoyed watching our garden change and grow.

The Help (Again!)

2011-09-03T15:07:00.005-04:00

You may recall that months ago, maybe longer, I posted a review of The Help by Kathryn Stockett on this blog and highly recommended it. In case you just crawled out from under a rock (which I hope you would not be reading my blog if that was the case!) they made the book into a movie and it's been out for a few weeks now. The film has been getting great reviews, partially, as I understand, because the screenplay was written by a close friend of the author's so it stays very true to the book (it does). And, because the casting is so excellent (it is).

After jumping through what seemed like a thousand fiery, flaming hoops, my friend Julia and I finally got to go and see The Help on Thursday afternoon. Whew. We'd be trying to get a group of friends together to go and see it and plans kept falling through. Finally, it seemed like it would work for some others to go on Thursday, so Julia and I found a babysitter for our boys, planned how I was going to go and pick her up (she lives half an hour away without a car), have dinner at our house, etc. However, at the last minute one of the other girls backed out and threw our plans into confusion. It was stressful, let me tell you. The friend didn't know all that we had gone through to make this happen, nor is she a mom so she didn't understand how precious this time was for us. BUT, not to worry, we still went and it worked out great. Believe me, we felt very strange and a bit guilty for driving away on a blazing hot Thursday afternoon to go see a movie. But away we went. Julia even had a 50 percent off coupon for popcorn and soda and we ate til our bellies hurt.

I will say too that we would not have jumped through so many flaming hoops had we not been so hopeful about the film. We'd both read the book and couldn't put it down of course (stop reading this post and go read the book if you haven't already!) and were excited to see if the film lived up to our hopes. And it did. It may have even surpassed them. The book and the film walk such a fine line between hope and despair, the painful and the grotesque and both handle deep issues delicately, but well. Both make you think (and cry a little). If you are a mother and watch this film (or read the book for that matter, but it looks different on screen than in your head I think), be ready, your heart will break into about a thousand pieces and you will go home and hug your baby.

Which is exactly what we did. Our boys are both named Liam and are about five months apart so we have a special bond already. We walked in the door and they both came crawling as fast as they could to see us with big smiles on their faces. Just what we hoped to see!

Rob snapped this shot of the little buddies for us as they waited for their mamas to come home. He said he hoped they would still be standing like this when we pulled up, but right before we did he went into the kitchen and they followed. It was still sweet to see them come crawling to us though.

"Hi babies!"

An Ohio Wedding

2011-08-29T21:06:00.007-04:00

It's official - all the Yoder children are married off. We spent this past weekend celebrating the wedding of my brother Ben and his new wife, Heidi, at her home in central Ohio. Everything went off so beautifully and it was a special time. Considering that a large part of the country was in the midst of a hurricane, we were very fortunate to have perfect weather. In fact, in the evening, it was actually chilly at the reception! But we would take that any day over a hurricane.

I know my cousins Dave & Heidi, the official photographers, will have some gorgeous photos, but here are some of mine from the weekend.

The reception was a tent in an open space surrounded by corn fields.

Ben worked hard to use hundreds of mason jars around the reception. These were hanging on shepherd's hooks while others had flowers and some were strung up in the trees with candles.

My parents worked so hard with Ben and Heidi to make the tent look beautiful. All their work paid off because it was!

Logan and I were very happy to get a new sister

My stylish parents next to the getaway car

Next to the bride and groom, these two were the stars of the show. Liam and Heidi's niece Bailey were the official ring bearer and flower girl. The wagon had a little sign on the back that said "Here comes the bride." Thankfully neither baby cried down the aisle!

Again, we look washed out, but here's our happy little family

Away they go!

Waiting for pictures to start, we snagged this one with two of three daughters

What a happy, handsome baby! He did a great job all weekend.

Cupcakes!

Wedding details Ben came up with - the chalkboard menu and mason jars in the trees.

Ben and Heidi love games so the whole evening had a game theme. The table numbers were various playing cards which matched up to this seating chart. They also used Scrabble tiles in little stands to spell out words like "cupcakes" and "drinks". So cute!

Love this setting and the shot

Just like Luke and Logan's wedding, we couldn't have made it through the day without Mimi and Boppy to help take care of Liam. They were my heroes of the day!

A perfect evening in Amish country.

A classic brothers shot

The bride and groom were beaming all day. We love you guys! Thanks for letting us be part of your special day!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

2011-08-25T20:44:00.005-04:00

One of our final hurrah's of summer was to go to an Indianapolis Indians (Triple A baseball) game on Monday night. It was an alumni event through Taylor which made it even more fun because they treated us to dinner beforehand and we made some new friends. The tickets were cheap and Victory Field is a cool stadium so we decided to make a family event out of it.

I'm so glad we did because we had such a fun time. Liam did pretty well, although we felt like we were back on the airplane once we sat in our seats because we had to contain him in a very small space while trying to keep him from touching other people around us. Eventually we got up and walked around and he was fascinated by everything. It was a perfect evening for a baseball game and for visiting with other alums. We even met a couple who had lived in the same house in Upland we did when they got married. It was a very surreal moment where we reminisced about the sloping floors and drafts through the windows...

It was a good way to end our summer and welcome the new semester that is upon us. Rob and I had our "here-we-go-with-a-new-semester" date tonight and we both said how great it was, but how fast this summer went. We're ready to get started though so I think it will be good.

It was the perfect summer evening for a baseball game

This photo looked a lot better right off my camera...we both look orange here!

That's better - my favorite boys.

On our way home

These next two have nothing to do with baseball. They are bonus. :)

Being silly with papa

Anyone who remembers when the New Orleans Saints beat the Colts in the Superbowl (boo!) may think that Liam looks like Drew Brees' son when he came out on the field with headphones on. So cute.

Liam the orchestra conductor

2011-08-24T11:15:00.002-04:00

It appears Liam is an aspiring orchestra conductor. He does it with such gusto! He gets a little distracted from his job at this age, but he seems to have a handle on it.

At the Fair

2011-08-20T16:16:00.005-04:00

Rob was invited to play drums with his friend and fellow Taylor graduate, Joe Paulson, at the Indiana state fair Friday night. Last summer, Rob and Joe and some other guys recorded an album, and since then, Joe has been getting more local publicity. He was invited to play at the free stage (no, not the one that had the tragic collapse last weekend) and was kind enough to invite Rob to play too.

We decided to make a longer day of it since Rob had to practice with the band before the evening concert. I spent the afternoon with my friend Adrienne and her kids since they live just a few blocks from the fair. It was nice for Liam to nap there and we got to stay out of the heat too. Later, we went over to the fair and met Rob's parents who had made the trip over for the evening.

Since we'd never been to the Indiana state fair I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, but a friend told me I would get to see "Indiana in all its glory." And that was pretty true. All kinds of people, costumes and of course, deep fried everything. Deep fried Kool-Aid seriously? We did not sample that thankfully. I did however have a delicious tenderloin sandwich and Rob had a fried Twinkie. My friend Jessie who came for the concert, also had the "doughnut burger" which as one would imagine, was a bacon cheeseburger stuck between two Krispy Kreme doughnuts. She said it was really good actually, sweet and salty together.

Fried food aside, the concert was great and the guys sounded good together. Liam was unusually quiet for him, but I think he was taking everything in. Once we got in the car later he "talked" a lot and had a hard time sitting still in his seat. I think he was processing everything he'd seen to us. He enjoyed some good time with Boppy and Mimi and even got to eat part of a fruit smoothie, a highlight for the kid who loves to eat. Unfortunately we didn't have time to see the animals, but I think he would have liked that. I would say for our first fair experience it was a good one!

We skipped this part of the fair. It looks very crowded and overwhelming!

The Joe Paulson band gets ready to rock

Liam is not sure what to think about everything

"Helping" papa sound check his drums

It was a treat that Chrissie and the Duncan family and Jessie came out to see us

Yea, we're with the best drummer ever!

"I want more!"

2011-08-16T15:00:00.002-04:00

I'm so glad I got out the video camera today to capture this moment. Since we taught Liam the sign language for "more" he uses is very well, especially when Cheerios, yogurt, and oh, yea, every other kind of food is nearby! Enjoy.

Liam | 10 Months

2011-08-15T14:54:00.004-04:00

Clearly it is several days past Liam's ten month birthday, but we're committed now to taking these photos through one year so I thought I'd still post them. Even though it is a major chore to get him to sit still and get a decent photo!

Before the sign was spotted...

Spotted... "How fast can I get to that?"

"I want it papa!"

"I'm almost there!"

"Got it!"

After Liam was distracted with things that are not toys, we got this photo too. You can see the sign damage from earlier.

Sorry to all the Philly fans, this kid is half from Cincinnati too! Liam loves his drum too, just like his papa.

We are having so much fun these days with Liam. He is almost walking, but he still hasn't quite figured out how to get every body part in coordination with the others to move forward without holding on to anything. He is fast though at crawling and cruising on everything so he doesn't have any trouble getting around.

He is starting to communicate a lot more with us and "talk" to us. Often, he gives us looks that seem to say, "I'm talking to you, why can't you understand what I want?" He doesn't get frustrated though and most of the time it is just baby babble. He has learning to sign "more" and "all done" which he uses fairly well. He also understands very well the sign for "eat". The kid l o v e s to eat! He eats almost anything I put on his tray and would much rather feed himself than be fed, especially if baby food is on the other end of the spoon. Today he picked all the green beans out of a pile of white beans and avoided the white beans. He definitely knows what he likes! Fortunately for us that is almost everything.

He also understands many words and loves to listen to music and play his drum. It is fun to watch him learn new things every day.

He is growing up so much and really becoming a little boy before our eyes. We've enjoyed having the summer to spend together as a family and going on vacations with our extended families too. For the most part Liam has been a traveling champ, but he is definitely more like his mama than his papa and he does better at home with his own schedule, sleeping his own bed.

Our lives are about to change again with Rob going back to school in a few weeks so we will see how things go. We will miss him of course during the day, but maybe it will be good for us to get on a schedule of our own at home too. Before we know it Liam will be turning one!

Cabin Life

2011-08-12T07:43:00.007-04:00

We were home from Colorado for enough time to do laundry and repack before heading east again to one of the best places on earth - Slate Run, Pennsylvania. We make the exodus every year to spend time at our family cabin with arguably the best family on earth too. It was special this year too because it was Liam's first time to the cabin. We were also particularly thankful to see the cabin still standing this year after a tornado went through in the spring. A lot of trees around the cabin were down or damaged, but the little cabin hung on, probably anchored by love and lots of memories.

The weather was not in our favor this year -- a lot of rain and humidity. But thankfully for us we were inside the cabin in a tiny bedroom because of Liam so we missed getting soaked in our tent. (Sorry Luke and Logan for giving you our leaky tent this year!) We still were able to do most of our usual activities - eating, playing games, biking, eating, going to Wolfes (the general store nearby), eating, reading, playing in the creek, eating and having fun together. In total, there were 47 of us coming and going throughout the weekend so it was a packed house, but fun to see everyone. Liam loved all the attention too.

Hamming it up for the camera

The gang descends on breakfast

View downstream Pine Creek. The creek was very low this year.

A typical scene - reading on the back deck

Liam and Elizabeth were good pals all weekend

More pals on Liam's first trip to Wolfes

It was a memorable occasion.

In a few years he will be saving his pennies to go buy candy at Wolfes. It's a right of passage at the cabin. For now, I'm thankful he doesn't understand!

More friends

Such a big boy!

All the big boys gathering for a wiffle ball game

When the sun came out we went swimming. Liam had little water shoes so he could walk on the rocks inside his tube. As usual, he enjoyed the water.

The usual Sunday hymn sing

"I miss my bathtub!" There are only showers at the cabin so bathtime was in the kitchen sink. Liam was not really a fan of this.

Liam discovered he could push a plastic chair across the deck and walk behind it. I think it's time for a push toy for him!

Liam and grammy spent time dropping rocks in the water.

A big boy riding in the row boat with mama

Family photo in the row boat too

A peaceful, beautiful place

Colorful Colorado

2011-08-01T22:16:00.006-04:00

Vacation #2 of the summer is over and it was a good one. We journeyed west this time to Colorado Springs with the Bedinghaus family for five days. Rob and I weren't sure at the outset how things would go because Liam woke up with a nasty cold and some teeth breaking through the day before we left. We always hate to think that things like family vacation revolve around Liam, but in reality, if he is a cranky baby it makes things a lot more bumpy. We prayed a lot and within the first few days he was much happier. His cold dried up and his tooth broke through so that really helped. Plus, he got used to the time difference (2 hours behind) and while it threw him off a little bit, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

We stayed at a lovely resort, Cheyenne Mountain Resort, in southern Colorado Springs where we enjoyed great food, four pools and beautiful views. While we were in the city we took advantage of the hiking nearby, amazing restaurants and some other attractions. We also spent Saturday morning driving up Pikes Peak, which halfway through we weren't sure was a good idea when we realized how thin the air really was up there. Liam started having labored breathing and we thought about turning around, but we took a break and got him out of his car seat and he was fine. We made it all the way to the top and took some very chilly, windy pictures before we turned around and came down.

Colorado Spring is a special place for me because as some of you know, I spent a semester there studying at Focus on the Family Institute the fall of my junior year at Taylor, almost six years ago! Wow, how my life has changed since then. My time there was a pivotal part of my life before I met Rob so it was neat to take him back there. We spent some time on the Focus campus where I showed Rob around. I loved how many memories came back to me while we were in the city.

We also got to visit with some special friends on our trip including my cousin Laura, her 15 month old daughter Mady, my Taylor friend Caitlin Peters and another Taylor friend and bridesmaid in my wedding, Leanna Kelton. It was such a treat to reconnect with these sweet friends.

As always, it's good to come home, but we're thankful for family and the time we get to spend together seeing new places and making new memories.

And now for the photo part of the blog...

The chapel at the Air Force Academy.

At the main part of Focus on the Family

A lady who worked at Focus was kind enough to let us in to the Institute part and I got this photo in front of my class picture. Yay class of 2005!

Hiking at Garden of the Gods. Liam was a champ in the hiking backpack the whole trip.

It is so beautiful there with the different rock formations.

At the Balanced Rock

We're a strong family!

This is what happens when Aunt Lauren rides in the backseat. You get a faux hawk in your hair.

Leanna came to visit! We had dinner together one night...

And out together the next night after Liam went to bed. We also got to meet and spend time with Leanna's boyfriend James who became an instant friend. They are darling together and it made me very happy. :)

We made it to the top of Mt. Cutler - a beautiful hike with stunning views.

We reenacted Simba from the Lion King with Liam...

And got a family shot (minus Kayla) at the top.

Liam cried halfway down the mountain, but eventually went to sleep on papa's back.

We stopped and had a picnic by a stream.

We made it to the top of Pikes Peak too!

The view from the hotel. The mountains are so beautiful there.

This kid loves to eat.

I love this family! (Even if we are squinting :)

A Book Recommendation

2011-07-25T07:36:00.003-04:00

A few weeks ago my friend Erica recommended this book on her blog. Since Erica and I have shared many book recommendations in the past and because I trust her judgment I put my name on the hold list at the library for Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand.

Erica was right - this book is excellent and an incredible true story. Hillenbrand spent seven years researching and writing this book and it shows. You feel like you are reading a novel, but it is a true story. I don't want to say too much to give anything away, but you will be changed by reading this book.

It was the kind of book I always wish I had on vacation, one that keeps my attention and that I really want to read. If you're heading away on vacation anytime soon this may be a good option for you.

Garden Bounty

2011-07-20T20:31:00.003-04:00

Since I posted my last blog post about our jungle garden, we've actually seen some fruit of our labors. We harvested our first tomato on Monday and then two zucchini yesterday. With the tomato we made a wonderful caprese salad with basil, fresh mozzarella and olive oil. Yum! (Shout out to Aldi for having fresh mozzarella balls for wayyyy cheaper than Kroger! I heart Aldi.)

Liam happily eyeing the first tomato

The best summer salad!

Liam is not so sure about the green garden veggies

We also had our first major garden mishap with one tomato plant getting top heavy and toppling the cage over. Of course this had to happen at 10:00 at night when I was getting ready for bed...

So Rob and I were out back with the mosquitoes and a ski pole and clothesline and Rob wearing his head lamp trying to create a makeshift stake to hold the plant upright. It felt like we were on an episode of the Amazing Race trying to work together to complete some kind of weird challenge in the dark. We finally managed and the clothesline (no ski pole was necessary for this challenge after all) held overnight until Rob got to the hardware store for some real stakes. Then I noticed tonight the other plant has given up and fallen over...

Next year we're going to do a lot better with several things in our garden! Namely, buy bigger tomato cages...!

Jungle Garden

2011-07-17T17:44:00.004-04:00

In the past month and a half or so, we've gone from having a garden like this...

to this!

I think Rob and I were a little overzealous when it came to our garden and even more naive about how big tiny seedlings will get. We planted two tomato plants, some zucchini and butternut squash, one garden bean plant, basil and cilantro all in our three by six raised bed. Even since we took this photo our squash has moved further out into the yard. I think we need to measure how much it is growing by the day.

We've enjoyed our garden so far even if we haven't seen the full harvest yet. We are hoping for some tomatoes here soon. We've had a few beans and plenty of basil which we made into delicious pesto.

And my flowers are doing wonderfully too and all coming up pink which I love. Pink cosmos and zinnias to start with and then the morning glory is just starting to bloom. It loves climbing the fence and the gate.

Starting out with seeds...

To now (and even more since I took this photo a few days ago)

Rob mentioned the other day that when we (hopefully!) have a larger yard in the future that it would be fun to put in a big garden. I agree, especially if our garden always does as well as this one!

Liam | 9 Months

2011-07-10T20:40:00.004-04:00

On Wednesday we went back to the maternity floor at Bloomington Hospital for the first time since Liam was born to visit friends who had their second baby. It definitely did not feel like nine months had passed since I was pacing those floors in labor!

But surprise, nine months have flown by and we have a happy, healthy little boy to show for it. This past month he made tremendous leaps in development, which, I keep telling myself is good, but wow, he is in to everything and very mobile now. I have to keep a constant eye on him to make sure he is not getting into trouble. He no longer does the army crawl at all, but now crawls fast on all fours. His favorite thing to do though is stand up and pull himself up on everything. This has of course resulted in some bumps and bruises as he hasn't quite figured out yet how to get down once he is standing. I am trying to find the balance of protecting him, while allowing him to explore and play and yes, fall down sometimes so he can learn to get back up and not be dramatic about falling down. He is also cruising on furniture and will take our hands and "walk" around a room very happily. I still think he will be an early walker, but we'll see.

Standing up on everything

He still loves to eat and is trying out new foods almost every day. Anything soft is up for grabs to him and he knows when it is time to eat. He is still eating baby food, about five jars a day. We go to the doctor on Wednesday for his nine month checkup so I am anxious to see what he weighs now.

Every time he eats black beans, a favorite, he looks like he has a five o'clock shadow.

For the most part, Liam's favorite toys are not toys - plastic cups are still a big hit. As is paper, my clothesline (I have to take it down every time I use it and I store it in my kitchen where he has found it), clothespins, books, a wooden hammer and my newest find, a toy drum. I bought it new at a garage sale on Saturday. It is one of those drums that is hollow inside and you can pull off the lid an there are other instruments - jingles, a tambourine, shakers, etc. - inside. So far he has only found the drumsticks which, much to his father's disappointment, did not elicit sweet beats on the drum, but rather drool as they went right into this mouth. Everything has to go into his mouth. We are slowly working on training him which things are not mouth worthy.

Most of the time he is a pleasant, happy little guy, especially when he has had a good nap. We are enjoying more laughter, papa chasing him, more understanding of words and just more fun all around as he grows up. It is a joy to have him as our son. And here are his nine month pictures from today. Like I said last month, this paper sign thing is not working out so well!

He does this a lot with his arms. Either he is praising or he is saying "all done!"

Before the sign is spotted...

Spotted! "Give it to me mama!"

"How fast can I get this in my mouth?"

"Success!"

Double Wedding Weekend

2011-07-05T21:32:00.006-04:00

Years ago, back when Rob and I were much younger (ha!) and had more energy we attended three weddings in one weekend. One on Friday night and two on Saturday. That was a lot to juggle, but nothing like this past weekend where we participated in my brother Luke's wedding on Saturday and attended another wedding on Sunday all while trying to take care of Liam (and our sanity) along the way. I was especially thankful this weekend for my wonderful in-laws who came early on Saturday and took care of Liam the rest of the day. He was in excellent hands!

The weekend was all so fun and I wouldn't have done it any other way. I will say though that watching my baby brother become a husband and put a wedding band on his finger made me cry a little, but they were happy tears. I love Logan so much and am so thankful that they are married and she has joined our family. We wish you many happy years!

Since I was in the wedding as a bridesmaid I didn't get many pictures, but I'm anxious to see some of the photos my cousins Dave and Heidi took for them as their professional photographers. I know they got some great shots. But until I get some of those, here are just a few off my camera.

The beautiful bride Logan getting ready to meet her groom. All day I kept thinking she looked like she walked out of a magazine!

I l o v e d my mom's hair. She looked lovely all day too!

Our family. One son married, one to go on August 27th.

Our little Bedinghaus family. I loved Liam's outfit (thanks to my mom). Yellow bowtie and black Chuck sneakers = adorable.

His toy of choice - a water bottle.

I posted this photo so you can all see Logan's gorgeous birdcage veil and headpiece. So elegant.

Best in-laws ever!! (Lauren and Kayla that includes you too :)

After the wedding we took a trolley car from the church to the reception at Baker Street Train Station in downtown Fort Wayne. Here we are on our way toward the streamer tunnel outside to the trolley.

Here you can see the trolley car in the background. No one thought about how hot it would be inside, but it was fun to ride in.

Cutting the cake.

The party went late in to the night with lots of fun dance moves, but eventually we crashed in bed and got up Sunday morning to drive over to Elkhart, Indiana to attend the wedding of Audra Lehman and LT Newland. Audra is the daughter of dear friends of my parents from their college days. They are a wonderful family that we have been privileged to spend time with over the years, so it was with extra joy that we celebrated Audra and LT. The two weddings were different, but each reflected the couple beautifully. Audra and LT got married in her home church and then had a tent reception (for 350 people!) in her backyard. The weather was perfect for them and reminded me so much of the evening of our tent reception three years ago.

Wedding number #2....Liam looking a little dazed.

I didn't get many photos of the beautiful bride, but here they are about to be announced into the tent.

The wedding had a simple, vintage feel to it, complete with Jones Soda in glass bottles...

romantic candleabras, mirrors and lace for the centerpieces...

and even a chandelier hanging from the center of the tent. As the night went on the tent glowed even more.

One of my favorite photos from the whole weekend.

Their "getaway car" was this vintage '54 Packard in marine green. We thought it would make a nice backdrop for a family photo, but you really can't see the car anyways! And our family isn't quite complete because obviously Luke and Logan had already left for their honeymoon in Cancun.

Liam fell asleep in the car after a few minutes and when we got back to the hotel he didn't even stir in the bright elevator or in our room with the lights on and Rob and I talking. He was pooped. Today he slept until 9!

We loved celebrating with the brides and grooms this weekend and are already looking forward to Ben and Heidi's wedding at the end of August. Thankfully there will be just one wedding that weekend...

Bumming at the Beach

2011-06-29T11:10:00.009-04:00

We had a great week hanging out at the beach in Ocean City, NJ with my family. We weren't sure before we left how Liam would do all week, but he did better than we expected so that was a blessing. He was a champion sleeper (even though we had to share a bedroom with him), he loved the sand and the water, he learned how to crawl up off his belly (no more army crawling!), he is pulling himself up on everything and best of all, he developed a cheeser smile that he would give to anyone during the week. It is so funny to watch him smile, even when no one was around to smile back at him.

My family vacations at the beach are very relaxing and even though things were different with a baby, we still had time to do the things we love to do at the beach. I even had time to read a few books and shop with my mom and future sister-in-laws and Rob golfed and hung out on the beach.

It was a long drive to and from the beach so we were glad to be home on Monday and spend a few days resting at home before our big wedding festivities this weekend for my brother Luke and his fiance Logan. Good news that the wedding is only in Fort Wayne so for once we are not the ones driving the furthest! We are very excited for them and are looking forward to seeing our family again so soon after being together.

I put a lot of photos up on Facebook, but here are a few from our week.

Rob, my dad, my cousin Kendall and my cousin Les rode their road bikes from Washington, DC to Ocean City in a two day, 160 mile bike trip. It was a fun trip for them, except for the crashes and flat tires.

Post crash scrapes for Rob. Good news - they look much, much better now.

Liam had lots of friends to love on him all week long and he loved them too.

He ate sand by the handful and didn't seem to mind. In this picture he was crawling into the bucket to get the good stuff at the bottom. Clearly he is annoyed that I interrupted him to take his picture.

Can you tell he really loved the beach? He did!

He even liked the cold Atlantic Ocean when he was jumping waves with papa.

My immediate family together. We were thankful Luke and Logan could be with us for a few days even though they had a lot to do before their wedding this coming weekend.

Hanging out in the sand.

This was just about the spot where Rob and I got engaged four years ago. How things have changed since then!

This is one of my favorites from the whole week.

Marco wanted a photo of just the boys in the lifeguard stand. Liam doesn't have very good muscles to show off yet!

This is another favorite. Rob was playing with the "toy camera" effect on our new camera.

The cheeser smile!

A windy, windy night. Bye, bye beach.

Ben and Heidi jumping off a dune

This beach is probably one of my favorite places on earth. I love it here and it is always so hard to say goodbye, but I'm thankful for the memories and photos we have.

Liam | 8 Months

2011-06-13T10:20:00.003-04:00

I'm a few days late again, but here's Liam at eight months. I know I say this every month, but it is crazy to me how fast he is growing up. Rob mentioned this morning that he seems more like a toddler every day, even though he isn't quite there yet. He is starting to develop funny little habits and enjoy exploring his world a lot more.

He is still a champ at the army crawl, but he can go a few paces up on his hands and knees. I don't know if he will ever prefer to crawl that way since he knows he can get to what he wants much faster army crawling, but at least he is trying. He is also trying to pull himself up on things, but we're noticing he is not a risk taker and often gives up or gets frustrated. He hasn't learned how to use both hands to pull up on things, I think because he is scared to let go of the ground.

Much to his papa's delight he started saying "ba-ba" this week, which Rob quickly counted as the first time he has put a consonant and vowel sound together. (He is a linguist after all!) We don't really think he means anything by it, but he seems excited to try out new sounds. We are teaching him some basic sign language and he seems curious about that as well.

Like his mama he loves food. He is happy to try anything I put on his tray, most recently black beans and bits of hardboiled egg. He gets very excited when he sees food coming! I am still nursing him about five times a day, but he eats solid food about three times a day. We think he is close to 20 pounds, but he is so long and lean that he doesn't seem that heavy to us.

As has been his nature since he was born practically, he is a busy, busy little boy. He is into everything and never stops moving. He is very, very curious about the world and wants to touch everything and of course put it in his mouth. Lately he has been learning things in the house that are no touch, namely shoes, plants and cords because they would go right into his mouth. Like most babies he is not so interested in his toys as he is in things that are not toys. For Liam this includes plastic cups, any kind of paper, cell phones, boxes and anything with a tag.

This is such a fun season of life and we are really enjoying it and enjoying our summer. It has been wonderful having Rob around so much and spending time together as a family. We are learning new things to do together and teaching Liam new things. We leave on Wednesday to head east for our week at the beach in Ocean City, NJ with my family. We are so excited for this trip. I remember thinking last year at this time when I was pregnant with Liam how different this year's beach trip would be and now it is upon us. Our packing list is much longer and it will be a different week for me, but I hope it will still be good. I think Liam will enjoy the beach, or the sand at least. Maybe not the cold Atlantic, but we'll see! I'm sure we will have many photos and videos when we return.

But for now, here are some eight month photos of Liam. For the next baby we are definitely getting those stickers or onesies with the numbers printed on them! Holding up a sign is just not working anymore. :)

"I'm eight months old!"

After many failed attempts to get more photos we just let him have what he's wanted all along.

Yum! Destroyed in about 2 seconds.

He couldn't even hold still long enough for me to take his photo while he "helped" with the laundry.

Playing Settlers

2011-06-10T07:57:00.003-04:00

Many of you know how much Rob and I like to play Settlers of Catan. Remember the time we competed in a tournament? Yea, that was awkward. But we won the tournament.

Anyways, apparently Liam inherited our love of the game. Or maybe we just store the boxes right at his level in the dining room. Either way we think we have a future Settlers player living in our house. How convenient that they do make a version of Settlers for kids too!

baby bum.

Liam gets flushed

2011-06-01T20:19:00.002-04:00

Rob and his dad used to play this game where Rob would balance on his dad's knees and then when his dad would open his knees, Rob would get "flushed". Ok, I know, it's slightly weird to think of a kid getting flushed down the toilet, but we tried this game with Liam the other day and the resulting laughter made me forget that it was a strange game. Liam doesn't laugh very often, so when he does, it is video camera worthy. Enjoy!

Recently...

2011-05-29T18:19:00.005-04:00

Recently we've been busy! I'm freelancing again for my old job, and while it is not exactly my desire to be doing the tedious work, we see it as God's provision at a time when Rob doesn't have a summer job. It works out well with our schedule too that Rob can take Liam for longer periods of time so I can work. Rob has some tutoring work too so we're thankful for that as well.

Recently we realized these past few weeks are the first we've had since Liam was born that we've had some downtime as a family. When you're in school like Rob is, weekends and evenings aren't downtime and even when he did stop working he was still thinking about school. We've been having some conversations about how we want to have more fun as a family and what that looks like with Liam in the picture now. We're ready to enjoy this summer together as a family.

Recently we took a trip over to Cincinnati to visit Rob's family. It was a girls and guys weekend, so Rob and his dad took an overnight golf trip while I enjoyed some time with my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law. I got a facial and we all got pedicures while Liam enjoyed time with a babysitter. We had a lovely weekend visiting with them.

Liam chilling with Aunt Kayla

Being a cheeser man with both his aunts

Liam and mama

Liam was more aware of their two dogs this visit. The little dog, Chloe, was so scared of Liam though. She could not figure out what this little creature was!

Wearing a silly hat that made him look like a backwoods mullet man

Recently I've been reading my first science fiction novel (thank you Julia), Ender's Game, and to my great surprise I'm enjoying it tremendously. It's quite a shift from the three books in one volume of Anne of Green Gables I recently finished, but it's a very thought provoking and interesting read.

Recently Rob discovered Liam has a blister underneath his enormous big toe which I believe came from how he crawls. He has mastered the army crawl, but instead of pushing forward with all his toes, he only pushes forward with his big toe. And he is fast. Do not get between this kid and his two favorite toys, a toy cell phone and cups in any form. He is obsessed with cups.

Don't mess with my cell phone papa

And most recently, we had the joy of hosting our good friends Lindsay and Christian and their daughter Eadie. They were gracious enough to make the long drive from Cedar Rapids, Iowa to visit us this weekend. We enjoyed great conversation, three games of Settlers, playtime in the park, hiking nearby, dinner out while the kids were with a babysitter and more. It was so fun to meet Eadie (she just turned a year old and this was the first we've met her) and watch our kids interact together. We are thankful for our friendship with them.

Liam and Eadie meeting for the first time.

This photo cracks me up

Liam really likes the swings at our nearby park

The guys and their kids

Liam cashed out on Rob's back during our hike. How can it be comfortable to sleep like that?

Love this girl!

Awkward family photo shoot

Recently too, the Lord continues to be merciful and kind to us, including protecting us from a tornado that touched down only a few miles from us. He is a great protector and provider and we are thankful for that.

A Fun Weekend

2011-05-17T11:22:00.005-04:00

This past weekend we had the pleasure of participating in a bridal shower for my brother Luke's fiancé, Logan. Logan and her family live up in Fort Wayne so Saturday we loaded up the car and made the trek north. We would have gone no matter what, but as an added bonus, my mom flew in from Philadelphia on Friday night and my brother Ben and his fiancé Heidi came over from Ohio as well. We hadn't seen Luke since Liam was born in October and we hadn't seen Ben and Heidi since Christmas. It was wonderful to be together, even if it was a short day. We did however, bring mom back with us Saturday night and she stayed until Sunday afternoon when her flight home left. As always, it was a treat to have her here and our time together was too short.

Sharing this weekend with my family and my sisters-to-be made me anticipate with even more excitement their upcoming weddings this summer. I am so thankful to be welcoming such lovely, godly young women into our family and I know they will make excellent wives to my brothers.

All the past, present and future Yoder women at the shower. Plus Liam, who is half Yoder.

Liam "helping" Logan open gifts. Lounging around is more like it.

Plastic spoons are way better than toys or gifts

Spending some quality time with Grammy Love

All of us together, but we were definitely missing dad!

Silly uncle Luke

Rob was messing around with the fish eye setting our new camera...

Liam was so excited to be up and "walking", but his pants were too long so Grammy Love hiked them up and tucked his tie into his pants. He's an old man already.

I know I'm biased, but he is a cutie.

Liam | 7 Months

2011-05-11T17:00:00.000-04:00

I feel like a broken record when I say every month how I can't believe Liam is this old already! He turned seven months yesterday and I really do think he will be one before we know it. This summer will go so fast as summers do and my baby will just keep getting bigger and bigger. I'm trying to enjoy every day with him and celebrate the milestones he reaches rather than mourn that he is growing up.

We always knew he was going to be a busy, curious little boy and so far he has not disappointed us. These days he is figuring out how to get around, mostly by scooting army crawl style on his belly and pushing with one foot to move forward. He knows how to get up on on fours, but he hasn't quite figured out how to make all things work together to go forward like that. He especially moves fast when he sees a toy he wants or even better, something that mama has that he wants - i.e. shoes, cell phone, computer, books, anything that is not a toy...

It is fun to watch him explore his world and he is very curious about everything. He is trying out new foods and so far he seems to like squash, peas, carrots, bananas, sweet potatoes, corn and some puffed cereal. He is not a fan of country garden vegetables, applesauce (by itself) and baby meat. Let's be real though about the meat - it is gross. I just couldn't feed it to him anymore, even mixed with other food, because he was literally gagging on it! I think we will switch to beans for some better protein.

He also finally got his top teeth in which was a relief because it was pretty rough there for a few days. He seems to already understand they are for chewing and biting...

Showing off those chompers

While he still has his moments of going from zero to mad, especially when it comes to certain naptimes, he is overall a happy baby and is interested in the world around him. We're learning that each step of the journey has its challenges, but there are many joys that come too and we're grateful for that.

It is getting harder each month to have a month marker sign. Liam is way more interested in that than in getting his picture taken!

Sneaky mama and papa

We got a new camera for Rob's graduation so this was later in the day as we played around with it. Our old camera was from 2005 so this new one is a vast improvement!

This is why Liam cannot be trusted with the sign. Instantly destroyed in his mouth of course.

Hi papa!

He works very hard to "crawl" and get his new favorite toy - a cell phone of course. He will be asking for an iPhone by next month I'm sure. This one is totally obsolete.

Rob's Graduation

2011-05-07T13:47:00.006-04:00

It has been a very busy, busy few weeks around here. We've been up up to our eyeballs in end of the semester work for Rob, a huge kids consignment sale at church for me and the new world of being mobile for Liam.

But today, the consignment sale and school are behind us and we are all breathing a huge sigh of relief. (Liam is still on the move however, which does present its own set of new challenges, but it is fun to see him reaching new milestones.) This semester was by far the hardest we have encountered yet (even surpassing the semester Liam was born in), so we are even more thankful it is over.

I am still having a hard time believing that it has been two years since Rob started his masters work and almost as long that we've lived in Bloomington. It has truly flown by and so much has changed since then. Yesterday at Rob's graduation I almost got a little choked up (almost!) thinking about how much work he has put in to get to this place. I was, and am, so proud of him. He works so hard and often juggles many responsibilities; it amazes me how he manages. And he would be the first to admit that he doesn't manage well all the time, but at least he is failing in the right direction.

And so, we continue to press on to what is next, namely the summer and then five more years for Rob's PhD. There is a lot more work to come, but this was a good milestone to reach. I'm glad too that we aren't moving away from Bloomington yet when we are finally feeling settled here. If this was the end of the road I do think I would be sad. Of course, I'm not looking forward to all the school work to come, but I am glad to be in a place where we have great support to get us through. Check back to this blog in five years and I'll give you the recap...

Finally, what graduation would be complete without lots of pictures? Thanks again to my mother-in-law for all the great shots. We could see Rob from the stands in Assembly Hall, but her zoom made it feel like we were much closer to him.

Liam with the graduate in the morning

Rob all dressed up and ready to go

Waiting for the ceremony to start

The fam waiting for the ceremony to start. Liam was highly interested in everything going on around him

There he is!

Major zooming in. Lori kept trying to snap a photo of him smiling, but he was bored during the ceremony and never did. Consequently there are lots of photos of Rob looking like this. :)

Nan and Aunt Julie. Liam looks terrified, but I don't think he really was. Overwhelmed perhaps.

The family post graduation

Flying baby!

Someday this hat will fit...

We are so proud of our husband and papa!

The cake I made for Rob. Congrats Rob!

Easter

2011-04-24T20:30:00.003-04:00

He is risen! He is risen indeed! Christ the Lord is risen today, alleluia.

I love Easter. It is definitely my favorite holiday and I always look forward to it every year. I think it is my favorite because of the fresh reminder of Christ's death and resurrection and his payment for our sin. It is such a sorrowful, but joyful holiday with so much meaning.

I was excited for Liam's first Easter this year, but it didn't really go as I hoped. Yesterday was one long whine from him as he is working on getting his top two teeth. I can see them there, breaking through, but they haven't come all the way through yet so he is miserable. He is running a low fever which may or may not be related to his teething. This morning when he woke up I wasn't even sure we would go to church because he woke up screaming which is very unlike him. But he calmed down and we went to church and had a lovely service and church meal afterwards. If we couldn't be with our immediate families, it was good to be with our church family.

I hope wherever you were for Easter that you took time to remember and praise God for sending his son as a sacrifice for our sins. He is a merciful God to us and deserves all the glory.

A quick photo with the timer before we walked out the door to church. Kind of awkward, but at least we got a photo! And yes, as usual we match...

I couldn't help but add this photo from the week. Liam is sporting one side of a carrot fu-man-chu mustache and crazy eyes.

A Friend(ly) Favor

2011-04-18T20:39:00.004-04:00

Hello everyone! I'm writing today to ask a favor for a friend. My friend Michal is applying for a job of sorts at an online company called HopScout. It is a cool company that finds and sells one unique, classic, but new kid's toy everyday. (Just go check them out - you'll see what I mean). Michal is applying to be one of their editors, which comes with all kinds of perks, but best of all, she can do the job from home and still keep her full-time job as a mama to her two boys.

Since the company is really into social media, they asked their applicants to submit a video and then have people vote for the best video. Michal is super creative and great and her video shows that. She would be perfect for this job.

Will you take a moment, watch her video (it's short and you don't have to sign up for anything or do something else crazy!) and then vote for her? Just click on the video itself to watch it and then after you do you can vote. I know she would appreciate it.

Thanks so much!

Liam | 6 Months

2011-04-12T16:22:00.004-04:00

Liam turned six months on Sunday. Whew! Where does time go? I recently read an article declaring the first few months of your baby's life to be the "longest, shortest time." I really think that is so true. Some days, especially in the beginning, seem never ending, but then suddenly your baby is six months old and growing like crazy.

These are fun days for us. Liam is so curious about the world and very observant. Today we stood at the window and looked out and he watched every bird go by and was very focused on what was happening outside. Usually he doesn't sit still long enough to do that, but today it was very interesting to him.

He is also starting to move a lot more. Not crawling yet, but it is amazing how far he can get by rolling, turning in circles on his belly and scooting forward. He hasn't quite mastered pushing himself up on his hands and his knees at the same time - usually it's one or the other - but he is working on it. Today he rolled himself all the way into a corner and I found him chewing on a lamp cord...yikes. He is such a busy boy that I can only imagine what life will be like when he starts crawling!

We were at the doctor on Friday and he officially weighs 16.5 pounds (25% percentile) and is 27 inches long (75% percentile). He is so long and skinny, but the doctor said he is very healthy and that is normal for active babies like him. He also said our skinny family genes might be coming in to play by now too.

He has moved on to eating more than just rice cereal. His diet now includes breast milk, baby oatmeal and peas. He wasn't so sure about peas at first, but he seems to like them ok now. We're hoping to start introducing more foods in the next few weeks or so. He is a champion eater though that is for sure.

It is so fun to watch Liam grow up and see his personality develop. His temperment has evened out so much and he really is a happy, chatty baby most of the time. He giggles at being tickled and almost anything Rob does to him. He adores Rob and gets a huge smile whenever Rob comes around. He has also started drumming with Rob and actually copied the exact beats Rob showed him the other day. It was pretty neat. He already loves music so we try to have music on or be singing to him when we are at home. He apparently doesn't mind that I can't carry a tune in a bucket.

I'm sharing this weekend at our women's retreat about God's faithfulness to me to allow me to be a mother and as I'm writing what I plan to say I'm reminded of the journey I've been on to get to this place of loving my husband and my child. It's not easy every day, but it's worth it and it's a good life. I wouldn't trade this season for anything and I'm so thankful for it.

Here are a few recent photos:

We had to be sneaky about where the 6 month sign went because if it was anywhere near him he wanted to put it in his mouth. Obviously because everything goes into his mouth.

I'm a drool face baby.

"Ok, seriously, can you guys be done already?"

I sent my mom some photos of my tulips out front today because she helped me plant the bulbs back in October when I was days aways from giving birth. Liam had to jump in for a photo.

Sweet Sunday

2011-04-03T21:51:00.003-04:00

Sundays are full days in our house since we go to Sunday school, church service, small group lunch and often hanging out with friends in the afternoon/evening. We are so thankful for our church family here in Bloomington and the solid teaching we receive that it often feels like Sundays are just one big hang out day with people we love.

This morning before we rushed off to our full Sunday we took a moment to take a photo before church. The sweater Liam is wearing was one of the only things I bought him before he was born and I wanted him to wear it before it got too warm. If you remember we called him 'Baby B' before we knew if he was a boy or a girl. I found the sweater at a garage sale and it was fairly gender neutral (although now I think it's more for a boy) and had a big "B" on it. The tag says it's a 12 month sweater, but it fits him now so I'm guessing it shrunk somewhere along the way! He's really not that big yet. He looked so cute with his sweater and khaki's on his way to church.

Since no one else was there to take our picture we just traded. I, of course, wanted my daffodils in the photo. :) Mom helped me plant those the days she was here before Liam's birth back in October and it was a joy to see them come up this spring. Funny to think now of being enormously pregnant out there planting tulip and daffodil bulbs! But the work is worth it now.

I hope you had a blessed Sunday like we did and are ready for a new week ahead.

An Update

2011-04-02T17:00:00.003-04:00

Six hours, 1 entire Pilot G2 pen (the best in my opinion) and 30 sheets of notebook paper later, Rob finished his exams and we all breathed a sigh of relief. His hand may be dead and his brain fried, but he is done.

For this part at least. :)

Next comes the oral exams in a few weeks where he can be asked questions about what he wrote and have to give a defense of them in front of three professors. Nervewracking, yes, but at least he knows what topics he wrote about that he will have to defend.

Overall he thinks he did well and most likely passed all three sections. The morning part seemed a little easier than the afternoon, but he thinks he did ok. There were only a few questions he didn't feel as confident about and some he smashed out of the park. Hopefully those will count for more! He won't know how he did for a few weeks, but the hardest part is over.

Whew. This has been a tough few weeks for all of us, this past week especially. I'm glad I was gone for two of the weeks! That was good time for Rob to work. Every semester at this point is hard, but this one was especially difficult and we are both spent. There's a bit more to push through, but Lord willing we will make it. We just go one semester at a time (or at least I do! Rob thinks about the upcoming ones a lot more than me) and we always make it. I suppose nothing could really be as bad as having a baby halfway through the semester and then a major Christmas concert right after that which is what we did in the fall. Still, it's a hard time for us all. But summer is just around the corner and we're always thankful for that time.

I'm also so thankful for all your prayers today! I know Rob is too. It is wonderful to know so many people were praying for him today and I know those prayers are what got him through. We give all glory to God for his mercy and provision over Rob today.

A Praise and A Request

2011-04-01T10:49:00.002-04:00

Happy Friday to all of you. If your week has been anything like mine perhaps you are ready for it to be Friday! Whew. It's been a full one here at the Bedinghaus house.

I would like to give a huge praise for Liam sleeping for eleven hours straight last night! 8:30 to 7:30, yes please and thank you, I will take that. I woke up at 6:30 out of a full night's sleep and couldn't believe what time it was. However, the downside of a nursing baby sleeping that long...well, lets just say I was in pain. So I dozed until 7:30 when he did wake up and then poor baby, I overfed him and he threw up everywhere. A lot. Good morning to me! But I was still thankful for the long stretch of sleep.

On a completely different note, I finished re-reading Water for Elephants last night and it was not as good the second time around. I re-read it because it's coming out as a movie and I like to do that before I see a movie based on a book. This time around it seemed much more crude and not as interesting. Maybe that was because I already knew the twist at the end? If you haven't read it, it is an interesting read, but beware of some of the more vulgar parts.

And finally, another different note, I'm asking for prayers for Rob tomorrow as he takes his master's exams. I think most of you know about these, but basically he has to take three, two hour exams on three different subjects within linguistics. He is choosing to focus on Second Language Acquisition, Phonology and Sociolinguistics. (Don't ask me to define those areas!) He was given a reading list for each section that amounted to a total of 139 scholarly journal articles. He can be tested on information from any of those articles and be asked to apply the knowledge to various questions. Oh and did I mention that even though it is 2011 he has to hand write each exam? Like with a pen.

He is pretty anxious about the exams because he really wants to pass all three sections the first time around. He would be allowed to start his PhD work in the fall if he doesn't pass a section, but that means not walking at graduation in May and obviously having to retake the section again. He wants to be done with these tests!

Please pray for:

Retention of everything he has studied
No headaches and hand cramps
Focus on applying what he has studied to specific questions
A calm approach to the questions and for his brain not to freeze up

It's been a full week for us and we're both anxious for this part of the semester to be over. While he still has to finish up the rest of his class work and teaching before the semester is actually over, it will be good to have this part behind us.

Thanks for your prayers and love for us! Happy weekend.

Rice Cereal

2011-03-26T16:03:00.002-04:00

When we returned from traveling we decided it was time to start Liam on rice cereal. He's been so interested in what we're eating (and strangely he is obsessed with watching me brush my teeth - maybe because he sees me putting something into my mouth?). While I thought I might exclusively breast feed him until he was six months old, I decided to go ahead and start the rice cereal anyway.

Rob missed the first time I fed him and I couldn't wait for him to be there the second time because Liam was so funny while he was eating. As you can see in the video below he is like a little bird, eagerly anticipating each bite. He eats the cereal like a champ and always acts like he wishes there was more. One of the funniest things in this video too is that he was wearing a bib, but when he was finished the bib was almost entirely clean, but we were wiping cereal from behind his knees. Ironic I know.

We love this child so much and I'm so thankful for him. He makes us laugh everyday, especially as he's getting older and developing his personality so much more.

Liam + Webster

2011-03-23T11:12:00.003-04:00

This video is just too precious not to post separately from my last post about our visit to Pennsylvania.

Liam of course did not remember my parents dog, Webster, from our last visit so this time he was a bit skeptical of her when we first arrived. She can be a bit pushy and she was curious about him too. He would look at her as if to say, "what are you and why are you trying to touch me?"

But then one evening out of nowhere he suddenly found her hysterical. As you'll see in the video mom was swinging him around and he was laughing like I've never heard him laugh. I happened to be on the phone with Rob and Rob thought he was crying he was laughing so hard.

Since we've been home we've been trying to get him to laugh like that again, but with no luck. Apparently Webster is magical in that way.

Enjoy!

Pennsylvania Visit

2011-03-23T10:55:00.005-04:00

Liam and I returned from our second spring break trip to visit my parents in Pennsylvania on Saturday. It was such a good week and as always, I cried when I left. Mom cried too and one of her tears got on Liam's face so it looked like he was crying too. In actuality he was probably just trying to chew on her sweater. He really had no idea what was going on.

After getting home from Cayman we had a great weekend chilling with Rob. He took Saturday and Sunday off since he'd been working so hard and we had good family time together. Then bright and early Monday morning we were off to the airport again for two quick flights to Chicago and then Philadelphia.

{I would like here to make a shameless plug about Southwest Airlines. They are efficient and on time and hello, let's be real - free checked bags, choose your own seat, they still give snacks and best of all, family boarding. The great thing about choose your own seat is only really nice people who liked babies sat next to me.}

The week with mom and dad went so fast. We got to see two of my aunts and my uncle, my cousin Heidi, a great family I used to babysit for (hi Sansons!) and lots of mom's kids at school and her teacher friends. We always do the rounds there to show off Liam.

Liam got all dressed up in adorable clothes to go see Grammy Love at school. Mom got him a shirt with a tie printed on it that is so cute and she bought him the black chucks for Christmas. He was styling!

Mom and I also went to pilates class at her YMCA one evening and shopping another night. Both times Liam stayed home with Pops and watched basketball in the "man cave." The first night went great, the second night was a bit harder as Liam was tired and got pretty upset before we came home. Poor dad did great, but in all the world mama is best.

Liam is buds with his Pops

And with Grammy Love

Liam and mama enjoying a beautiful spring day

The whole week was relaxing for me too because it was like being in my own home, but without chores and cooking. Plus, Rob got a ton of work done while we were gone so that was good. The next few weeks are crazy for him so it is good for us to be here now to encourage and support him.

Monday it was back to the reality of our day to day life here - laundry and cleaning and cooking. I am so thankful though that we got to go on two vacations this spring and see so much of our families. Next year maybe Rob can go with us.

Thanks to all of you who prayed and encouraged us and spent time with us these past few weeks. I'm already looking forward to the next time we are all together!

An Island Vacation

2011-03-12T14:53:00.005-05:00

Liam and I returned yesterday from a lovely visit to Grand Cayman Island. It was so good to be in the sun and be WARM after a long Indiana winter. We had a beautiful condo right on the beach with an almost empty pool most of the time. We relaxed, I read two books, we watched our favorite shows on tv, went out to eat, took pictures of Liam and had a great time together. Liam was a champ most of the time (he had his freak out moments) and I think he had a good time. I know I did. It was so nice to have extra hands to help with him and keep him entertained. I'm sure he will expect the same from me when we are back into our normal routine. But really he did well overall and he was definitely the center of attention most of the time. We said he had a troop of "paparazzi" after him all the time (ie. my in-laws :).

He also did fairly well on the flights and I was thankful for that. The trip down was better than the trip home yesterday as we had a long layover in Miami made even longer by delays for mechanical problems on the plane. We were also patted down (yes, Liam was patted down) by security in Cayman so that was a bit of a frazzling way to start our trip home. But we made it. When I saw Rob waiting for us at the airport I let go of the stroller which contained a screaming Liam (Rob heard us coming before he saw us) and while I embraced Rob the stroller kept rolling away into a potted tree. No harm done, but I think some other passengers were a bit alarmed at us. I was just so happy to see Rob that I completely forgot about Liam!

The hardest part of the week was being away from Rob. I really missed him and it felt so unfair that I was relaxing on the beach while he studied at home. But he had a good week and got a lot done so that was good. He also passed out of his Italian class (yay for no more night classes!) and got accepted into the PhD program while I was away so that was a relief. He has a lot more studying to do this coming week, but he's well on his way.

Whenever we travel I'm always so thankful to come home to a husband who loves me and is happy to see me.

I'm also thankful when we travel for a mother-in-law who has a great camera and as much as we complain sometimes, takes great photos so I don't have to. All these are to her credit.

The view down our beach in front of the condo

Our beach at sunset

Liam and mama hanging out on the beach. Lori bought him the sunshade thing which was really nice so I could still sit on the beach with Liam playing in the shade. You can also see the big cruise ships that would come in and dock everyday.

Liam being a happy baby

Liam really liked the sand. He liked to walk in it and of course put it in his mouth.

Liam hanging out with Aunt Lauren and Mimi

And with Boppy

I thought Liam would really like the pool since he loves his bathtub so much. But it was a bit cold for him. His favorite part was to stand on the stairs with just his feet in. I don't think he could really decide what he thought of the frog floatie.

He liked the ocean a little better, I think because it was warmer. One afternoon we sat like this for about 45 minutes and he was very calm and content.

Liam sporting some island wear before dinner one evening.

Mama and Liam being happy together

Liam turned five months while we were in Cayman. He's almost sitting up on his own. A few more weeks and he will be.

Our last night out to dinner and the only picture of all five of us. We missed Kayla and Rob!

We're home for today and tomorrow and then off to Pennsylvania on Monday to visit my parents for a week. It is a lot of traveling and we will miss Rob again of course, but I'm really looking forward to spending time with mom and dad. Rob has spring break here from IU so he will be studying the whole time anyways so it's just better if we leave.

Thanks to all of you who prayed over our trip. We really felt the prayers, especially when traveling. Keep them up as we travel again this week!

Traveling

2011-03-04T10:34:00.002-05:00

Liam and I are about to embark on our first big adventure tomorrow. (Wait, maybe the first big adventure was his birth? Yes, probably. :) This adventure involves an airplane and many hours until we end up in a warm, tropical place. It does not involve papa however which is very sad. Papa has to stay home and study for his masters exams while Liam and I go on vacation with Mimi and Boppy Bedinghaus and aunt Lauren.

It's really not fair, but Rob encouraged us to go so he can really focus and study at home. He has a lot of work to do and while we will miss him a lot, it will be good for us to be gone for a bit.

Pray for us tomorrow as you think of us. I am a bit anxious to fly with Liam by myself, especially since we have long layovers in Miami on the way to Cayman and on the way back. I am trusting the Lord will go before us and with us and we will have a smooth journey, but your prayers would be appreciated.

We'll be back on Friday, Lord willing, with lots of pictures and hopefully video of Liam's first trip to the beach! I'm excited for him to experience the pool especially considering how much he loves his bathtub.

Once we get back we'll be home for a weekend and then traveling again to visit my parents in Pennsylvania for a week which we are also really looking forward to. I'm secretly glad to be missing that much of March in Indiana, but I hope my tulips and daffodils don't bloom while I am gone...

Thanks for your prayers and check back with us soon to hear all about our adventures!

Welcome Baby Mae!

2011-02-24T21:30:00.003-05:00

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.

Swimming, Swimming

2011-02-22T12:53:00.005-05:00

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!

Liam | 4 Months

2011-02-10T22:12:00.005-05:00

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.

Research Partners

2011-02-05T13:33:00.003-05:00

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!

Happy Birthday Lauren!

2011-01-31T22:26:00.004-05:00

Forgive the lack of posts this past week or so - nothing really interesting has been happening around here. That is until this past weekend when we celebrated a very special birthday of a very special sister.

Lauren turned 21 last Thursday so we all traveled over to Cincinnati for a celebration weekend. We were all there, including Kayla who told Lauren she wasn't coming, but showed up and surprised her anyways. It was a good weekend complete with lots of time together, gifts, beer (the girl is 21 now after all!) and lots of loving on baby Liam. For her actual celebration Lauren wanted to go to a German restaurant across the river in Kentucky. A lot of the extended family came and it was a great time, minus the almost two hour wait to be seated (thank you party of 90 who came in before us to a restaurant that doesn't take reservations...). Liam did pretty well until the end when he fell apart and we had to leave. Thankfully it was really loud in there so no one could hear him screaming. He did however wear a look of terror most of the evening. I think it was a bit overwhelming for him.

However, we would not have missed celebrating with Lauren for anything! We love you Lauren.

The birthday girl with her favorite nephew.

Another highlight of the weekend was taking Liam to meet his great-grandfather, Robert Bedinghaus. This is a really special picture of four generations of Bedinghaus men.

Of course Roctopus had to travel with us.

Our little family on our way to dinner. We somehow often manage to color coordinate without trying...

In honor of his aunt Lauren's birthday Liam wore his "My Aunt Rocks" shirt. It is almost too small for him and it really should say "My Aunts Rock!"

Yes folks, this is how I stay so skinny. Bouncing this kid to sleep in a very noisy restaurant lobby while waiting to be seated. It took a loonnggg time, but it worked eventually for a little while.

Aunties and Mama and Liam make a happy family.

Recent Photos

2011-01-20T14:09:00.005-05:00

I promise this blog will not always be about Liam. I have other things inside my head I'd like to blog about and I suppose I will get to them eventually. However, the reality of everything is that my life really does involve a lot of Liam these days so I guess that's what I'll blog about again today! I also realize a lot of you (ahem, grandmas & aunties) come here to see pictures of Liam and today that is what you shall get. Here are some from the past few days. Enjoy!

"Hey, hey, I'm a cool baby chilling in my Bumbo seat."

What a big boy! He's still deciding what he thinks of the Bumbo seat. I think right now he's indifferent to it.

"Haha mama! You are hilarious!"

"I want to give you a hug!"

Hanging out in one of his favorite places - his changing table.

A rare smile during tummy time. Probably because Roctopus is involved in tummy time too.

Two of Liam's favorite things - Papa and Roctopus. Together forever.

Liam | 3 Months

2011-01-11T21:29:00.003-05:00

I'm a day late, but Liam turned three months old yesterday. I say this every month, but I really can't believe how fast he is growing up! He really is turning into a sweet, happy little boy. We now can let him sit in his bouncy seat or lay on his play mat and he is so happy and smiling. We are still working on him being happy outside of the house and when his schedule gets messed up, but he's little yet - that will come (I hope!) We're also trying to help him sleep longer at night, but he still thinks he needs to wake up several times a night. I am seriously waiting for the day, hopefully soon, where I wake up at 7 am and he's slept through the night. :)

This month he is loving his stuffed octopus that hangs over his playmat. We've officially dubbed him "Roctopus" because he rocks, ha. Liam talks to Roctopus more than he talks to us. He also loves, loves, loves his bathtub. He seriously squirms in anticipation before getting into the tub.

He also loves to sit up like a "big boy" and hold his head up.

He still hates his carseat, nothing new there. It's like we're torturing him when he has to sit in it. He is not a fan of going out in the cold either, which is mostly fine with mama because she doesn't like cold much either. He is doing better with tummy time, but it's not his favorite either.

We love our little boy so much and are so thankful to see him grow up. Here are some recent pictures. Enjoy!

I'm a three month old big boy!

Papa and Liam are such good friends

We went to visit friends this morning so we had to bundle up. Amazingly Liam was happy in his snowsuit. This is probably a first.

The other night when he got out of his bathtub his head got caught under his hooded towel and we thought he looked so much like a pharaoh or a jedi or something. His eyes just added to the magic of this photo. He is seriously the silliest little baby!

Brother Bragging

2011-01-06T13:48:00.005-05:00

I have great brothers. Seriously, they are the best. I thought it was about time I dedicated a blog post to them, especially since we didn't get to see either of them at Christmas. So here's to brothers!

My brother Ben is becoming quite the craftsman. After Liam was born he asked what kind of gift he could give us for Liam and I suggested he make a sign spelling out Liam's name that we could hang in his room. He went above and beyond my suggestions and created a sign using found objects and old tools to spell Liam. He gave it to us at Thanksgiving and it is now proudly hanging in Liam's room. It is the kind of thing I am sure he will always have hanging in his room as he grows.

Uncle Ben displaying his sign with Liam

A close up of the sign hanging on the wall in Liam's nursery

And I thought this was so neat too on the back of the sign. It's an old saw blade with Ben's message to Liam written on it.

When we visited at Thanksgiving Ben was also working on making a marble board for our other brother Luke and his fiance Logan. This marble game is a game Ben's girlfriend Heidi introduced our family to a few months ago. It's played in teams and is somewhat similar to Sorry and Parcheesi combined into one game. It's a blast to play and we've all gotten really into it. Heidi got Ben a board from an Amish man in Ohio where she is from, but Ben was convinced he could make a nicer board himself. With a lot of work he figured out how to make one and gave it to Luke and Logan for Christmas. Little did we know he also made a board for us! We were thrilled to open it on Christmas night at my parent's house and are already teaching some of our Indiana friends how to play.

He worked so hard cutting and staining the wood and then individually painting the holes.

I'm already anticipating future gifts from Ben because as he has been saying recently he is planning to never buy anyone gifts ever again. Why buy when you can make amazing things?

My brother Luke is a great guy too. He has made some beautiful things out of wood too (I am seriously jealous of the bedside table he made for Logan out of wood from our old tree house) but Luke uses his hands for other things. He is currently studying in St. Louis at Logan Chiropractic (ironic we know!) so he can become a chiropractor. He has wanted to become a chiropractor for awhile now, but just started the school work this past fall. It will be a long three years for him to finish, but in the end I know it will be worth it. He worked so hard this past semester taking about 27 credit hours including hands on labs with a cadaver. This is all on top of planning a July 2nd wedding and making the long drive to see Logan at Indiana Wesleyan in Marion, Indiana.

I honestly could not be more proud of Luke for the hard work he is doing and all the studying he has to do to reach his goals. You can do it Luke!

We are thrilled to welcome Logan into our family too. Did I mention she is studying to be a graphic designer? She makes the most beautiful cards and gave us as a gift when Liam was born a family tree she made out of scrapbook paper. It's beautiful. It will be so fun for me to have another sister very soon.

Logan's older sister got married on New Years Day so here is a picture of Luke and Logan at her wedding. Aren't they the most beautiful couple? Can't wait for their big day soon!

It's hard sometimes living so far away from family, but we're actually closer to my brothers now that we have been for a few years which is great because they can come and visit us. Right guys? :) Love you both and hope to see you soon!

Papa and Liam

2011-01-03T10:35:00.002-05:00

I couldn't resist posting these photos from when we were visiting my parents the day after Christmas. I walked into our bedroom there and Rob and Liam were propped up on pillows like this looking out the windows. They are good buds. (and ps. Rob is not naked for the record - he has shorts on. :)

Christmas Comes But Once a Year

2011-01-01T20:53:00.005-05:00

Home. It's such a wonderful place to be. While we had a really great Christmas break, there is nothing like coming home to your own space and sleeping in your own bed. But, I do want to backtrack a bit and share about our travels.

We started out in Cincinnati at Rob's family's home for the few days before Christmas. We had a great time playing games, hanging out with family, entertaining Liam and enjoying Christmas traditions like the Festival of Lights at the zoo and Christmas Eve festivities. The highlight for me though was going on a "real" date with Rob to see the new Harry Potter movie and out to dinner. Rob's parents were gracious to keep Liam so we could spend an evening together without him. Whew. You don't really know when you're in it how exhausting an infant can be (well, maybe you do!) and how much you need a break just to be with your husband. So that was really great.

Christmas morning was special with all of us being together even if Liam slept through the whole thing. Oh well, he didn't know what was going on anyways! My big gift was a computer that I am currently writing this blog post on. Yay! Finally I don't have to share a computer with Rob and that is really good.

Rob and Kayla are two peas in a pod

Mama and Liam hanging out

Liam loves his new playmat, especially the octopus who hangs down and smiles at him.

The Bedinghaus and Green families (plus Lauren's boyfriend Memo) together before heading down to the zoo

We got in the car again after Christmas morning and drove to my parents house in Pennsylvania. Liam did great in the car and was happy to help us open gifts with grammy and pops when we arrived. It was a bit silly for us to drive all the way to PA because we only spent one night there, but I still haven't wrapped my mind around not being at my parents house at all for Christmas. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

On Sunday we drove to Harrisburg to my aunts house for a big Christmas gathering with my mom's extended family. It was so good to spend the day with everyone, especially since some of them hadn't met Liam yet.

Liam with my cousin Shari

Every Christmas my Aunt Millie gets a photo with her great nieces and nephews. This year Liam made the photo even if he wasn't very happy about it!

My cousins Jeni & Naomi

After the day there we drove to my cousin's cabin in central Pennsylvania. We've vacationed there between Christmas and New Years for the past few years and it is always a great time. We spent most of the time eating and playing games and just spending time with one another. Liam did so well there and was definitely the center of attention, especially with my youngest cousins. It's great to see Liam growing up and being able to entertain himself for longer periods of time.

Liam with Mattias and Rio. They are two of the sons of my first cousin Kendall so I guess that makes them Liam's second cousins. But really, who cares! We're all close family.

Our little family

We drove home Wednesday and had a fairly uneventful trip back. It was good to be home and have the craziness of Christmas be over. We've been hanging out at home mostly and spending time together as a little family which is how we wanted to spend the rest of Rob's break. He has another week off before a new semester begins....

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your families and are ready for 2011 to begin. Happy New Year!

Christmastime Is Here

2010-12-16T21:43:00.006-05:00

I've been collecting photos and thoughts for a Christmas blog post for a week or so. Rob is at band practice and Liam is finally sleeping for the night (I hope!) and I'm ready to share.

I've been reading through Isaiah in preparation for the Christmas season. Every time I read the parts of Isaiah that predict Jesus' birth and proclaim him by so many wonderful names I am reminded anew of how awesome is our God. How awesome he is to send his only son as a baby, a helpless, weak infant to a mother who was just a child herself and to a father who was a righteous man, but desperately poor and uneducated.

Emmanuel, Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace.

Christmas has taken on new meaning for me now that I have my own son. True, it is much harder to get things done (I'm not even close to finished putting gifts together and forget baking cookies), but holding him in my arms I think of Mary, holding Jesus. I think of Jesus as a baby - did he fuss and spit up and coo to his mother and father? He was completely God and completely a helpless baby at the same time so I think he must have. It is so humbling to think that the Savior of the world came in such a miserable, meager way. So often we think we must come to Him with gifts to give and flashy trinkets like a Target ad. But no, he wants us to come to him in the humbleness of a child, an infant, helpless and weak, desperate for Him. We can bring nothing and yet He gives us all of him freely.

This Christmas feels different to me. I am tired. I am distracted and disorganized, a place I do not like to be. I feel behind on everything. I miss my husband and often the life we had before Liam. I feel guilty at times for thinking of our old life when I have this beautiful baby I love so dearly. I am stressed about traveling with him (to both Ohio and Pennsylvania!) even though I know we will have much help along the way. It's just harder to travel with a baby.

And then I think of Mary, traveling on a donkey, escaping with Joseph and Jesus to Egypt, knowing the king behind them wanted to kill her son. I think of Mary, humbly submitting to God's plan for her. She didn't seek excellence through the things she did with her life; she worked hard to love her child and husband and God.

Thinking of Mary makes me thankful this Christmas season. I'm thankful for the Lord's plan in my own life. I'm thankful that he gave me a righteous man who is both strong and tender as a husband. I am thankful I have a beautiful, healthy baby boy who was given to me to raise and is a gift to our family. I'm thankful for a Savior who came as a baby, not as a king, to save me and love me in spite of myself.

I pray you will recognize this Christmas what you have in your life to be thankful for.

And on a less serious note, here are some photos from Christmastime at the Bedinghaus home!

Going to get our Christmas tree. It was very uneventful as we didn't get to cut one down this year. Liam slept through the whole process in his bear coat.

Before decorating...

After decorating!

Rob drinking our new favorite holiday drink, hot buttered rum. Delicious!

Daddy and Liam

Nothing as sweet as a sleeping baby under the Christmas tree

So I decided to make this cake for our friends Conor and Kerri. Every Sunday we watch Amazing Race with them and this past week was the season finale. This was definitely a season finale cake! This is a Peppermint Fudge Torte from the Taste of Home magazine. Most definitely the biggest cake I've ever made! We had to take photos because it was so big. It was really, really good too.

If I don't post again before Christmas I hope yours is wonderful! Thanks for reading my blog and being my friend. :) Merry Christmas!

A Very Merry Shutterfly to You! (And Me :)

2010-12-11T08:28:00.001-05:00

When I visited my parents at Thanksgiving I noticed my mom had a catalog of products from Shutterfly (a photo website that allows you to make all kinds of cool gifts and cards) that looked really pretty and fresh. Since we do an annual Christmas card, and since this year we have a new family member, I got really excited about doing our cards again.

Shutterfly came to my rescue by offering free Christmas cards to bloggers. It's a great deal and it's really not hard at all to talk about how great Shutterfly is. (Sorry though fellow bloggers, the deal expired on Dec. 10). They have such beautiful Christmas card designs this year that I'm having a hard time picking my favorites! I'm loving this one though:

One tradition that I would love to start doing with Shutterfly is a family photo book every year. My cousin Heidi does this with her kids so I can't claim it to be an original idea, but it is so fun. Instead of having random photos everywhere or attempting to scrapbook everything (not my idea of a good time) she uploads photos from their adventures all year and puts them in one book. Then, each year they literally have a "yearbook" they can keep going back to look at

This year I'm also wishing we had money to send out birth announcements for Liam's birth because they have such cute designs for those too. I mean, how sweet is this?

Maybe our next baby? Oh wait, Rob will probably still be in school then too and therefore we will probably still be poor...

Oh well! At least this year we will have a lovely Christmas card from Shutterfly. Check your mailboxes for ours soon!

Two Months Old!

2010-12-10T19:17:00.003-05:00

Liam is two months old today. It seems like time is going by so fast! I can't believe it has been two months already since he was born, but at the same time it does feel like we've known him for a longer time than that.

He is a healthy, happy (most of the time) baby and we are so thankful for that. He is well over 13 pounds by now and growing more everyday. He loves his blind friends still and gives them big smiles every time he sees them. He also loves his bathtub (as you saw in the video in my last post). He is becoming more interactive with us by smiling and cooing more and more. Slowly he seems to be mellowing out and can sit by himself in his bouncy seat and not need to be held all the time. So far his longest stretch of sleeping at night was 7 and a half hours, but usually I am still up feeding him once a night. He is slowly learning how to fall asleep by himself and doesn't need to fuss very much anymore when we put him down for a nap.

He still does not like his carseat or getting bundled up to go outside. He still fusses to be held and would absolutely take every nap on mama if he could!

He truly is a joy to us and we love watching him grow and become his own little person. Here are some photos from the past week or so...enjoy!

"I'm two months old today!" He would give me these huge smiles whenever the camera wasn't on him so this is as close as we got to capturing one of them.

My sweet chunky monkey

Trying to capture the elusive smile again

I could not resist posting this photo. Somehow I captured this crazy look on his face...priceless!

Bathtime Baby

2010-12-07T21:43:00.002-05:00

At Thanksgiving my mom started sitting in the bathtub with Liam in the evening, something she used to do with me as a baby. When we got home we started doing the same thing as part of his bedtime routine and it really helps Liam calm down. We think he really likes his tub too, as you can see from this video. It is so fun to watch him kick and kick but keep his face so steady. This actually wasn't the funniest video of him, but in an effort to be modest...well, the washcloth video won out. I hope you enjoy my baby as much as we do!

Top Ten of the Past Month

2010-12-01T15:05:00.005-05:00

It's been a bit of a rough day today with a baby who was up half the night because he slept all evening, (and then refused to sleep this morning), a busy daddy and a cranky momma. So I thought I'd do a quick summary of our past month focusing on the good moments to cheer myself up.

10. Fall. I felt like I missed most of the beautiful parts of fall because of having Liam, but I still got in some walks on the semi-warm days and got to enjoy the change of seasons during November.

9. Poop. Dare I say I'm thankful for poop? I just did. Yes, Liam has a constipation problem that makes him fussy about every three days until he poops. I actually find myself looking forward to those poops because they make a happier baby!

8. A healthy baby. I am so thankful that God has been merciful to give us a healthy baby. He continues to grow and sometimes I think he is already growing up too fast! We weighed him on my dad's scale in PA and he is 13 healthy, chunky pounds already.

7. New baby announcements. I've had several friends tell me this month they are expecting little ones. What a joy it is to find that out from people and look forward to meeting their sweet babies.

6. Cheese. I tried a dairy free diet for two weeks to see if it helped Liam settle down when he was nursing. Wow, it gave me such an appreciation for dairy products! I really missed cheese especially. I reincorporated dairy a week or so ago and it hasn't seemed to change him so I'm back to eating dairy, thank goodness! Life is hard without cheese and chocolate.

5. Reforween. Basically Reforween is an excuse to have a party with lots of friends from church. No really, it's actually a celebration of Reformation Day when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Whittenberg Chapel. And when you combine it with Halloween you get Reforween and you get to wear costumes and sing Reforween songs. It's loads of fun. We went as the classic question -- which came first, the chicken or the egg? Rob was the rastifarian (sp?) who asked deep questions about life. I was an egg. The chicken is self-explainable.

We ran into some nerdy friends while we were there

4. The end of the semester is closer today than it was yesterday. This is a huge thing to be thankful for! The end of the semester for Rob is always major crunch time and it's so hard for me because he works constantly. Add to it this year are lots of practices for our church's Christmas concert and....yea....let's just say December 15th can't come soon enough!

3. Baby smiles. Liam has started smiling at us a lot more and it just melts my heart. There's nothing like it. He still likes to smile at inanimate objects which is weird, but he does smile at us when we smile at him and talk to him. I love it.

2. Thanksgiving. We had a great week in PA with my family celebrating Thanksgiving. Liam did pretty well in the car and it only took us 12 hours to get there. I was so thankful to be there and finally have my dad and Ben and Heidi meet Liam. It's different doing family stuff with a baby, but we managed and lots of extra hands to hold him definitely helped.

Hanging with future Aunt Heidi

The family at Thanksgiving

Introducing Liam to Pops and the open house Pops has every Thanksgiving weekend

We couldn't resist putting Liam in one of dad's big bowls

1. New mercies every morning. Praise our great God that his mercies are new every morning! There's always tomorrow and a new day coming. And that over all is something to be very thankful for.

What's your best things from this month? I'd love to hear!

Liam's One Month Birthday

2010-11-10T21:05:00.005-05:00

Today is Liam's one month birthday. Wow! I cannot believe how fast this past month has gone. I'm sure it only goes faster from here on out.

He didn't do much today to celebrate this milestone. It wasn't an awful day, but it wasn't our best. He was really fussy most of the afternoon and didn't sleep much during the day -- dozing here and there -- so I think that had something to do with it. He is also deciding that is way more fun to scream and pull away while nursing which is stressful to both of us. I am beginning to realize he does it mostly when he isn't hungry and I think that he still is.

But....such is life with a newborn! Every day is a new adventure. :)

"Ok seriously. Why are you making me hold this sign and take a picture?"

"Whoa mom and dad, one month is amazing!"

At one month Liam is starting to smile at us, he loves to lay on the couch or on our laps and look at the window blinds, he is starting to be awake a lot more during the day and he just discovered his pacifier, but is not very good at keeping it in his mouth. He currently hates his carseat, getting his clothes changed and going to bed.

I'm anxious to see what the next month brings!

Happy Birthday Rob!

2010-11-04T22:28:00.003-04:00

Rob's birthday was yesterday and even though we have a newborn, it was really important to me to make it special for him. He always makes my birthday so special and since birthdays are really important in our family, yesterday was no exception. We have had a very stressful week, especially Rob, with all his school work, extra projects and meetings that keep him away from home. Add to that that Rob's birthday was a very stressful day with Liam, resulting in me deciding to give up dairy products for two weeks to see if that makes his little belly feel better. He has been very fussy and gassy and not like himself the past few days so I decided dairy could be the problem. He is already doing better today so we'll see if it works.

So needless to say, we needed a little celebration around here. As a gift I bought Rob Season 6 of 'Lost', which was perfect because we just finished Season 5. We are definitely hooked. I also made him some of his favorite foods -- waffles for breakfast (heck, I was already up at 6:30 feeding Liam anyways!), a harvest stew he loves for dinner and then a dessert he selected, Peanut Butter Pie with Nutella. It turned out pretty well, but apparently I have issues making runny pies...he liked how it tasted though.

Yum! Oatmeal waffles

Liam was excited to celebrate daddy's birthday too with a homemade party hat

Five candles to represent Rob's 25 years. Liam is done partying.

He even wore his confetti onesie for the party

Today we continued our birthday celebration with our first date without Liam. Rob's mom came over with her friend Cindy and watched Liam for us while we went out to lunch. He was perfect for her of course and slept the whole time. It was so nice to go out with just Rob and we had a good date together. Thanks Mimi and Cindy for coming and loving our baby!

Passed out for Mimi

Sweet Pea (err...Chubby Chicken)

2010-11-01T19:45:00.003-04:00

Growing up we didn't celebrate Halloween in our house. Instead, my parents would take us out of school on Halloween and we would go on a family trip. We went to places like the Statue of Liberty, Gettysburg, the Crayola factory and other such places that would have some kind of "educational" value. I still cherish those memories of our annual family Halloween trip.

Now that I'm a parent I still don't really like the idea of Halloween and someday I know we'll cross the trick or treating and dressing up bridge with our kids, but with Liam being so little, he doesn't really know what's going on, so I figured this year it was pretty harmless to dress him up. At one of my baby showers a friend gave me a chicken costume that was hilarious, but I thought it was too big for him. So I traded the costume with a friend for her son to wear (who coincidentally is also named Liam) and she found me a pea pod costume at a garage sale for my Liam.

We are invited to a costume party in a few weeks, but we didn't really have costume plans for Halloween itself yesterday. We ended up having a game night with our small group and I took the pea pod costume along for Liam since the other Liam would be there in his chicken costume and we wanted photos. When it came time to actually put Liam in the pea pod I was shocked to find that it didn't fit him! I couldn't get his other arm in the sleeve, nor could I actually zipper the costume. Target apparently doesn't factor in 10 pound plus newborns when they make baby costumes.

The failed pea pod. That's as far up as the zipper would go.

Before the other Liam gave up his chicken costume for us. Two chickens and an ill fitting pea.

Thankfully the other Liam was gracious enough to give back the chicken costume and of course it fit our big boy just fine. Rob even texted me today to ask how the "chubby chicken" was doing. Really, he is just so precious, and yes, I'm a little biased.

Mommy and her sweet chubby chicken

A close up. Rob used this photo today to encourage his students before they took a test telling him their "mascot" was cheering them on.

Now the only question that remains is what should Rob and I go dressed as to compliment our chicken to the party we're invited to in a few weeks? Suggestions are welcome. :) We were going to go as a steak dinner (Rob as a steak, me as mashed potatoes and Liam as the peas) but obviously that won't work now!

Liam's Dedication

2010-10-27T14:58:00.005-04:00

On Sunday we had Liam dedicated at church. It was our first time to church since he was born and we were excited to go and see all our friends and be part of the dedication ceremony. I was a little nervous about how he would do with all the noise and people, but he slept almost the entire morning. It was also his first time hearing daddy play the drums, but that did not phase him at all.

We are so thankful to be part of a church that affirms the fact that children are a blessing and a heritage from the Lord. Not only that, we are thankful for the teaching and admonition we receive to raise Liam in love and discipline to fear the Lord and obey him. It was a sweet moment for us on Sunday to see the congregation rise to say they will walk with us to help us raise our son.

We also had the joy of having Rob's parents (Mimi and Boppy), Aunt Lauren and great-grandma Nan with us for the ceremony. They were so good to drive over from Cincinnati to be there for church and then lunch afterwards. It was a full day and I think we were all pretty tired by the end, but it was a good day too.

Ready to go to church! You can't see here, but Liam has the sweetest little overalls on for his first Sunday. Thanks Aunt Joan!

Dedication ceremony at church

Pastor Bayly talking to us and Liam

The family after church

Liam and Boppy

We've had a pretty good week so far. I am starting to feel a lot more "normal" and have more energy to do stuff around the house. We had one night this week where Liam slept from 1 to 5 am and that felt great. Last night though we were back to about every two hours of being awake. He is definitely changing though and becoming more of his own little person. We went to the doctor yesterday for his two week checkup and he now weighs 10 pounds, 10 ounces! The doctor said he is doing great and everything looks good so I was thankful to hear that. It is still hard to believe this is our life now and we can't just give him back to someone else -- that he really is our son -- but at the same time that is amazing and we love him so much.

Here are a few photos from this week at home too.

Sometimes we call him Capt. McChubbs. This photo explains why. The other day Rob literally had to lift the fat roll around his neck when he was buckling him into his carseat to make sure the strap fit properly.

He is having longer periods of awake time during the day which is great. His favorite things to look at are the blinds and curtains in our living room. He is totally fascinated by them.

Hey dad, that flash is too bright!

He would much rather sleep on other people than in his bed. But how sweet -- Daddy and Liam together.

Aunt Logan's Photography Studio

2010-10-21T11:08:00.005-04:00

Over the weekend while Luke and Logan were visiting, Logan asked if she could take some photos of Liam for us. She is currently in a photography class at Indiana Wesleyan and thought it would be good chance for her to get more practice. We were thrilled at the idea of her taking some photos and I am so pleased with how they turned out. Liam was fairly cooperative, more on the second day when we took the photos outside. I think he really liked the warm sun. Enjoy!