Generic Blog Post

I keep thinking I should blog more frequently, and I always think I have lots of things to say, but then I start writing and draw a complete blank.  Here is what we have been up to.

For Christmas we went down to Toquerville hoping for warm weather because can I just say I DO NOT remember Provo being this cold in the past five years that I've lived here, and it probably doesn't help that we keep our house at 60 degrees.  Anyway so Christmas was full of fun.  We went sledding Christmas Eve, which still hasn't gotten to the point where it is fun with Liam.  He does not like being restricted by a bulky snowsuit and his hands covered by mittens, but I got to sled a couple of times which was fun.  Christmas day we hiked out to Devil's hole, nearly every couple lugging a baby as 3 of my siblings all have babies the same age as Liam.  We also went swimming in St. George which Liam loved, and went out psuedo-hiking at Dixie Rock.  Then everyone got sick (with the exception of us fortunately) which ended most of the outdoor fun.  It was great and Liam got a bunch of empty boxes because we are cheap and a ride-on/push car (so you know we aren't heartless).  I wanted to get him something that he would like for a few years and all the 3 and 5 year olds really liked it so I think I succeeded.

Now I've been staying home with Liam all day, which usually means I go out with him all day because if I stay inside all day I tend to go nuts.  It still is weird that I wont be going to school or buying books,  I got my real deal diploma in the mail and it just hit me that I had really graduated.  Anyway, winter makes things much more difficult though because then I have to lug my baby, who is already plenty bulky on his own, in full snow gear.  Then you go inside and have to take it off and put it on.   So there is my rant on my dislikes of winter.

So its hard to believe, but Liam will be 1 next month.  So crazy, but here is what he has been up to.
        -Social Skills:  He is still a real show off, but now we are starting to see some separation anxiety.  Mainly if I'm around he just has to be clinging to me or climbing all over me.  It's been driving me slightly crazy.  He loves people looking at him, but likes to keep me close.
      -Sleeping:  Some slight improvement.  Last night he woke up once right before I went to bed, and then one time in the middle of the night.  He also woke up at 6 and then went back to sleep until 7:30, but I guess that's technically not in the night.  So hopefully we are almost there
     -Eating:  He recently got sick again.  Grr.... sickness up here has been outrageous.  So he stopped for a while and is now just starting to get back into it again.  My main problem has been that he doesn't like me to cut things up small for him.  He wants it whole just like I have it, but of course he will just shove the whole thing in his mouth, but he gets mad if I try to feed it to him or cut it up.  So independent where I don't want him to be, but less independent where I would like him to be.
     -Motor:  Still crawling but he is fast.  He just found where our stairs are so I will probably have to break down and buy a gate.  He can crawl up just fine but he is still trying to figure out how to do down.  He can walk behind his car but isn't really showing any interest in trying it on his own yet.

     -Language:  Lots of jabbering and imitating.  He loves it if we repeat whatever he jabbered.  He will say mama if he is tired and whiny but I still don't think he has linked it to me yet, still just sound play.  Jabbering has adult like prosody, and he definitely likes to experiment with voice volume.  Here is a video of him jabbering away.

"Life doesn't turn out the way you plan"

When I left the BYU testing center for the last time this quote from "While you were sleeping" came to mind (cute Sandra Bullock movie). "Life doesn't turn out the way you plan.  I just wish I had known he was talking about my life".  I think most of us find this statement to be incredibly accurate as we go through life, but somehow when we start out toward some goal we always think we will be the exception.  When I was in high school I had my educational goals completely mapped out and I knew exactly what I wanted.  I didn't see the point of counseling, and having a plan B.  Then in life I've learned not only do you need a plan B but sometime C,D, and all the way to some letter that would be beyond Z.  Never did I think I would be completing my education with a child, but that is what life dealt me, and I can now say officially I DID IT.  When I was pregnant I don't know how many people told me I was crazy and there was no way I could go back to school with a new baby.  I wouldn't be able to leave the house for a month.  Having a C-section I would never be able to walk all the way to campus.  I maybe should be thanking these people though because really they gave me the drive to go back as soon as I could.  Seriously though I can't take all the credit, so here is where I give the sentimental shout out to my husband.  For those of you who hate reading about other people's wonderful significant others you may stop reading the rest of the paragraph.  I could never have done it without Jeff.  He has been incredibly supportive and never doubted that I could go to school with a baby, or at least never said that he did.  He accepted what I wanted to do and did everything he could to help me accomplish it.   He has been fantastic with watching Liam, quizzing me on language disorders, Traumatic Brain Injury, and dysphagia just to name a few of the things he has helped me with.  You never do something completely on your own its all the supportive people around you that make it possible.

So yes I have graduated from BYU with my bachelors in Communication Disorders, so Speech Pathology and Audiology.  Is this the end of my schooling?  Potentially, no.  I might apply to the U's or the Y's masters program in a couple of years depending upon what is happening in life, but for now I will be staying home with the not so little Liam.  Everyone says that being done with school should give me a rest, but I will be honest, I find staying home all day to be much harder.  When I could have a couple of hours to myself it was really quite revitalizing even if it involved homework and tests.  When I was finished I was actually kind of sad.  I have loved school at BYU, it was such a great and rewarding time and when I was done I just thought "now what?".  So now I create lists of projects and things to do as I stay home which I enjoy.  I just made Liam his first cardigan onesie (those of you who frequent pinterest probably know what I'm talking about.  I will have to post pictures, he looks so cute in it).  Motherhood can be isolating, and sometimes you think you are the only one in the world who feels that way, but in reality I have just joined the group that pretty much every other mother is a part of, but then Liam is an amazing baby.  Every time he does something new or gives me his toothy grin it makes it all worth it, most of the time :).

So as for the Liam, he has been doing great.  He is now almost 10 months, has a mouth full of teeth, and loves creating chaos. So here is what he has been up to...
        -Social Skills:  He loves to show off and smile around other people, particularly young, attractive women.  He is extremely sociable, and refuses to go to sleep with other people around, so at church we have to run somewhere to be isolated.
        -Sleeping:  I never know whether to call him a good or bad sleeper.  I am kind of indifferent about the subject.  It's one of those things if you tell someone he is a good sleeper and explain they'll say well MY child slept from 6 p.m. to 9 a.m and never woke up, and suddenly  my child is a terrible sleeper, and pretty much the same thing if I say he is a bad sleeper.  So here is how he sleeps he goes to bed at 7 p.m and usually wakes up once right before I go to bed and I feed him.  After that he usually wakes up at 2 and 5 and then wakes up all the way at 7 or 7:30.  So you be the judge as whether that's good or bad.  In regards to sleep training, not a fan of cry it out because I'm a pansy, and the other methods just seem to be things that I already do like having a routine and such.
     -Eating:   From the start Liam has not been a fan of baby food, applesauce being the exception, but how can you ruin that.  Liam loves real food, or whatever I'm eating.  Maybe it was my attitude that made him not like the baby food, but seriously have you smelt that stuff...YUCK.  I had a hard time wanting to feed it to him.  I haven't found any food that he hasn't liked and I have just fed him off my own plate.  Mash up whatever I have with my fork and let him go to town.  He loves rice, pasta, broccoli, carrots, and his favorite would probably be apples or oranges, actually I have yet to find a food that he hasn't liked.
    -Motor: He is fully crawling everywhere!  He stands up on everything and walks along the furniture.  He also has a very cute bouncy dance that he does whenever I play music.  He also did this in front of the whole relief society during the hymns while I was conducting the music.

So a very long post as it has been so long.  Hopefully now school is done I can blog more frequently.

New House, New Semester, New Life

So its been a while since I wanted to do my big blog post about moving into the house with pictures when the house was all put together.  Yeah that's not going to happen till the semester is over.  So we have been in the house for about a month now and I love it especially now the temperature has been going down.  The house is all wired for air-conditioning but needs the compressor or condenser whatever and we are too cheap to buy it this year so the first couple of weeks in the house were kind of miserable.  Anyway we were finally able to close after the deadline kept getting pushed and pushed, and we went and signed our lives away.  We were really lucky since Provo offers a no interest 10,000 dollar downpayment assistance for lower incomes and as we just got out of college we qualified.  However, most people who do get this have to do an FHA loan and we were conventional, so that was all super complicated and we were the first who were able to ever get this with a conventional loan.  All my effort paid off and I was so happy.  Anyway we closed and were hoping to get to move in and everyday we wouldn't get the keys, and then we found out there was a land dispute to deal with...frustrating.  Then we finally got that sorted out and were able to move out the day before we had to be out of our apartment.

Liam is now over 7 months old which is hard to believe.  He is still a super chunky baby, probably around 23 pounds now and still sticking in his 90th percentile.  He is really tall too, so he wears 18 month old clothes.  Yeah he is huge and hard to lug around.  He has a fun personality and loves to smile when it is all about him.  He is a major flirt and a big ham (pretty much sums him up).  He loves eating real food and despises baby food.  I have already had to give him his first haircut, but I'm not that sentimental about hair.  He loves stroller rides, and music.  He is really funny in this regard and already shows his preferences.  The Tangled soundtrack is probably his favorite, and if I play "When will my life begin" he stops crying instantly.  Banging on the piano is another favorite pastime.  He has been teething for forever, but I think he has at least 3 teeth all trying to break through.  Sleeping, oh how I miss sleeping, he did pretty good when we first moved in but with the teeth situation we are back to waking up at least twice every night.  He does nap fairly well though.  I now take him to a babysitter for a couple of hours while I go to class and he really likes it.  He loves playing with the babysitters twin girls so that has worked out really well while I go to class.

The last semester has started and things are going really well.  Its not to heavy of a load, and Jeff watches Liam after he gets home so I can do homework.  That is the really nice thing with having Jeff out of school, when he comes home he has no homework so he can watch Liam and help me study.  I have loved BYU and its a little sad that it will be over, but not all that sad.  Jeff's job is going great, so things are overall going really well.  I think that's all that has been going on, but who knows.  I was going to put pics of the house here, but you can just see the album on facebook