It's crazy that we have started a new year. Time just keeps going faster and faster. I cant believe that 2 years ago I was preparing myself for having a baby in the middle of the semester, wondering if I would ever survive. Well I did survive, and the past year was my first year as a college graduate, and exclusive stay at home mom. Liam has gone from crawling to running and now talking in small sentences. Wow how fast things change.
So here is a review of Liam the past few months...
Sleep has really improved. What made the big difference? I moved him out of the crib and into a bed around October I think. Yeah it seemed most people say to put that off as long as possible, but Liam would just wake up and want to sleep with us in the rocking chair all night. Not the most comfortable. So finally I took out hide-a-bed mattress out of the couch and put it on the floor in his room to try it out. The first few nights were so great I was sold on the idea, then he digressed a little bit but at least I could get some sleep since I would be with him on a bed. Now I can just lay with him for a few minutes and he will fall asleep and sleep till 5 and then I just have to go in for a minute and he will sleep till 7 or 8 (well since Christmas threw off bedtime so much sometimes he sleeps later). Sometimes however I do wake up and find him in our bed and I have no idea how he got there. So sometimes he must just come out of his room and climb in bed with us. Now I got Liam his own full sized bed since I didn't want to buy a toddler bed and then have to buy another bed.
Other big event is I finally weaned Liam. Yay!!!!! We finally managed in the middle of November after months and months of trying. So happy to be done with that. After I was able to get rid of him nursing at nap then I just had to cut out the middle of the night times, which were hardest since I would just do it without really thinking. Oh well we are done! Celebrate!
He also is much better with being left with people. He goes to the child watch at the gym without much problem. It took a while for him to go with them in the evening but we finally have him ok with the evening people. Nursery goes much better as well now. This is really fortunate as I now am the primary chorister in our ward, and Jeff should be getting a more demanding calling in the next couple of weeks. We will miss the days of laid back church callings.
Liam is doing great. He loves, loves, LOVES trains. I let him watch a little clip of Thomas the train on Youtube and now he loves Thomas. Over Christmas his grandma introduced him to full episodes of Thomas and he thought that was pretty cool. That leads us into Christmas. The main gift I got him was some wooden Thomas trains and the wooden track (all purchased secondhand for $10 SCORE). Anyway he loved it and wasn't really interested in anything else. He played with it for at least an hour on Christmas just by himself. Worth every dollar I spent on it. We had a great Christmas and lots of fun with Jeff's family, and Liam loved the crazy amount of candy that was available at Grandma's.
Jeff's job has been going great for him as well. We got some great news the other day that unlike most companies right now, his company cut the insurance premiums in half and lowered our deductible. It was such great news as we had been worrying about the cost going up. Also nice that his work takes us to movies. I was able to see the Hobbit with Jeff on opening day and we have his big annual work party this next week.
Other than that things are still going. Hopefully this year I will be able to get my new thrifting hobby under control, and Liam will continue to be his cute little self and grow even more. Happy New Year everyone!
Friday, January 3, 2014
Monday, October 7, 2013
Get back into blogging
I just examined my blog today and found several unfinished posts. I always save them and say I'll go through them later and edit them. You know make sure everything makes sense and that there are no embarrassing typos, and then I never do. So hopefully I'll run through those and update in the next couple of days, but they seemed so outdated I thought I would just start over. So updates in the house of Walther. Jeff and I bought a new car! Yes it is very exciting. We have been driving the same car I had in high school, and it has been through quite a bit. I was surprised though I was a little sad that we would be letting it go. I've become attached to its quirks. Jeff and I feel so spoiled now that we have a car that the gas gauge works, the trunk closes first try, the a.c. works, radio works, and the gauge doesn't say that the engine is hot and about to explode. So we are loving our 2006 Honda Accord. Nicest car either of us has ever driven, but who knows if that is saying much.
It is crazy to think we have now been in our house for one year. Wow time really flies. One year with now school and I really do miss it sometimes. We have made some improvements in the past year. We bought our air conditioner, and thank goodness we did. I don't think I would have survived the summer without it. We also got our sprinkler system in the front and the back and grass in the front (which is finally starting to look decent). We also got a bed put into our basement as I have been told I need to have a place for guests since our house is so close to the freeway, and I have an empty basement. Our next project is going to be cutting down 50 ft trees in the back yard and that is going to be quite a project, but it will be worth it when there isn't the imminent threat of them breaking and falling on our house this winter.
So onto Liam. Crazy that he is now 19 months old, and in nursery. Woo hoo. Still cant say he's a fan. Every time I look in he is being held, but he stays there the whole time and is getting better. We are just starting to move on through the stranger anxiety. So sleep with Liam. It was going so well for about 2 weeks he was sleeping from 8-6 and them went back to sleep til 7:30. However, the past 3-4 days he has started waking up 4-5 times a night screaming like crazy. No idea what is wrong. Hopefully it is just temporary sleep regression, or I wonder if he has been having night terrors. So we tried cry it out again, but I just cant do it. Liam will not lay down and will just stand there and scream. When I go in after the 3 min, 5 min etc...he would just lay against me through the crib and would fall asleep standing up and then scream when you try to lay him down. After an hour I just stood by the crib and he eventually calmed down and went to sleep. I've read all the books on the different sleep techniques and they worked but for the last few weeks nothing. So currently we put a normal mattress on Liam's floor so we could lay by him at night and get some sleep. That worked for a few nights, but last night was rough. Hopefully tonight will be the night that he sleeps.
Other than the sleeping he is doing really well. Vocabulary has really increased, as we enter the big phase of acquiring language. He says a lot of words and I was actually trying to add them all up the other day, but then I keep thinking of ones that I had forgotten about. He loves going places and going on walks, but he doesn't like to ride in the stroller anymore. He likes to go everywhere himself. Here is Jeff's favorite thing Liam has been doing recently. We were watching the BYU football game, and Jeff says "look Liam football" and raises his hands above his head. So Liam looks at the TV puts his arms up like he is calling a touchdown and yells "football" (As Liam says it Buball). So now whenever Liam sees football he does this and he signs that he wants more whenever football goes to commercial.
Liam is also obsessed with watching baby videos on youtube. It is one of his favorite things. Liam has never had any interest in movies or tv shows, but goodness he loves baby videos. He also loves watching Tangled whenever they are singing, but has no interest in any of the dialogue. He just likes to watch the songs over and over. The kid loves his music. When we watched conference he would stop whatever he was doing to watch the choir sing and would cry and sign for more whenever they stopped.
Other than some serious sleep deprivation we are doing pretty well, and hopefully I will get some ZZZs soon.
It is crazy to think we have now been in our house for one year. Wow time really flies. One year with now school and I really do miss it sometimes. We have made some improvements in the past year. We bought our air conditioner, and thank goodness we did. I don't think I would have survived the summer without it. We also got our sprinkler system in the front and the back and grass in the front (which is finally starting to look decent). We also got a bed put into our basement as I have been told I need to have a place for guests since our house is so close to the freeway, and I have an empty basement. Our next project is going to be cutting down 50 ft trees in the back yard and that is going to be quite a project, but it will be worth it when there isn't the imminent threat of them breaking and falling on our house this winter.
So onto Liam. Crazy that he is now 19 months old, and in nursery. Woo hoo. Still cant say he's a fan. Every time I look in he is being held, but he stays there the whole time and is getting better. We are just starting to move on through the stranger anxiety. So sleep with Liam. It was going so well for about 2 weeks he was sleeping from 8-6 and them went back to sleep til 7:30. However, the past 3-4 days he has started waking up 4-5 times a night screaming like crazy. No idea what is wrong. Hopefully it is just temporary sleep regression, or I wonder if he has been having night terrors. So we tried cry it out again, but I just cant do it. Liam will not lay down and will just stand there and scream. When I go in after the 3 min, 5 min etc...he would just lay against me through the crib and would fall asleep standing up and then scream when you try to lay him down. After an hour I just stood by the crib and he eventually calmed down and went to sleep. I've read all the books on the different sleep techniques and they worked but for the last few weeks nothing. So currently we put a normal mattress on Liam's floor so we could lay by him at night and get some sleep. That worked for a few nights, but last night was rough. Hopefully tonight will be the night that he sleeps.
Other than the sleeping he is doing really well. Vocabulary has really increased, as we enter the big phase of acquiring language. He says a lot of words and I was actually trying to add them all up the other day, but then I keep thinking of ones that I had forgotten about. He loves going places and going on walks, but he doesn't like to ride in the stroller anymore. He likes to go everywhere himself. Here is Jeff's favorite thing Liam has been doing recently. We were watching the BYU football game, and Jeff says "look Liam football" and raises his hands above his head. So Liam looks at the TV puts his arms up like he is calling a touchdown and yells "football" (As Liam says it Buball). So now whenever Liam sees football he does this and he signs that he wants more whenever football goes to commercial.
Liam is also obsessed with watching baby videos on youtube. It is one of his favorite things. Liam has never had any interest in movies or tv shows, but goodness he loves baby videos. He also loves watching Tangled whenever they are singing, but has no interest in any of the dialogue. He just likes to watch the songs over and over. The kid loves his music. When we watched conference he would stop whatever he was doing to watch the choir sing and would cry and sign for more whenever they stopped.
Other than some serious sleep deprivation we are doing pretty well, and hopefully I will get some ZZZs soon.
Monday, May 13, 2013
Liam update
I keep wondering what it will feel like to sleep through an entire night again. There are days when I definitely feel exhausted, but then others I just feel normal. Is it just that night-time wakings have been happening for so long I dont know how to feel any other way? Or...is the day going to come that I sleep an entire night and I'm going to come out of some exhausted fog that I didn't even realize I'd been in. It is a mystery that is yet to be seen. So the sleep department is still not where I want it to be with Liam, but it has improved since the past couple months of ear infections, sickness, teething, more sickness, more teething, and so on. He now usually wakes up once at midnight, then at 3 or 4, and then usually wants to sleep being held from 6 o'clock on. Sometimes I don't really know how good or bad a night was as I just fall asleep in the chair accidentally when I wake up with him. It is nicer that Jeff can usually put him back to sleep now, so that gives me a little break. When he was sick he would only let me be with him, so that is a most definite improvement. As far as napping, he spoiled me last week and would take 3 hour naps every day, but I think he was just teasing me and getting my hopes up since he has gone back to just one nap for an hour and a half. Nursing, yeah we are still nursing, enough said.
So on to his fun stuff...
Social: He is super social, it's kind of rough on his anti-social parents. My family was here a week ago to help us get our sprinkling system and grass in, and he loved it when everyone was here. He was super low maintenance, hardly ever fussy, and really entertained himself well. He loves it when there are lots of people to look at him, and applaud when he does anything cute. He is always really sad when we have visitors and they leave, poor guy.
Speech (and other stuff): He still talks mostly in his gibberish, but adds lots of intonation and different emphasis. He is really into pointing at what he wants, and gets mad if you don't get what he means. We do have a few words now. He says mama, which he mainly uses when he wants something. Then its the shriek of MAMA! He has called Jeff dada as well. His first really clear word was doggie, and he loves looking at doggies. He doesn't really like being close to dogs, but will watch them for forever from a distance. He also says shoes, and the kid has a shoe obsession. I didn't really have any shoes for him, but recently was given a shipment of a ton of shoes from a cousin to use. He then brought me shoes to try on for an hour. The really funny thing was his favorite were these pair of Lightening McQueen slippers. He loved them and would make us put them on him and he would just prance around the room like he was so cool. Funny thing is he has never seen the movie, has no real reference to what it is (I've been trying to do the no TV before two). He does have a Lightening McQueen walker/car, but thats it. He had to have these slippers with him constantly for a while. When we were walking they fell off his feet while he was in the stroller, and he just started sobbing. It took me a while to realize that he was upset because he had lost his slippers. So when I picked them up from the bottom of the stroller, you heard an audible sigh and smiled so big.
Motor: Walking very proficiently. Now starting to run quite well. He can put different shapes into the holes of whatever those toys are called. He loves pushing things, the stroller, the grocery cart. He used to be so easy to shop with, and now he is a nightmare.
Swimming: Yes, when you are me swimming gets its own category now. Our new rec center just opened today! Liam and I went swimming for the first time in quite a while, as Provo has had no pool opened for a while. Liam loved it. We were in the pool for two hours. I was quite impressed. He went under water on his own...accidentally, several times. It never made him cry, but would kind of freak him out. Definitely need to work on that. We need to get it to where he enjoys it. He loved jumping into the water to mama so that was lots of fun. He also liked the slides and playing on the stairs. Hopefully things will get even better now its summer time. Woo hoo.
So on to his fun stuff...
Social: He is super social, it's kind of rough on his anti-social parents. My family was here a week ago to help us get our sprinkling system and grass in, and he loved it when everyone was here. He was super low maintenance, hardly ever fussy, and really entertained himself well. He loves it when there are lots of people to look at him, and applaud when he does anything cute. He is always really sad when we have visitors and they leave, poor guy.
Speech (and other stuff): He still talks mostly in his gibberish, but adds lots of intonation and different emphasis. He is really into pointing at what he wants, and gets mad if you don't get what he means. We do have a few words now. He says mama, which he mainly uses when he wants something. Then its the shriek of MAMA! He has called Jeff dada as well. His first really clear word was doggie, and he loves looking at doggies. He doesn't really like being close to dogs, but will watch them for forever from a distance. He also says shoes, and the kid has a shoe obsession. I didn't really have any shoes for him, but recently was given a shipment of a ton of shoes from a cousin to use. He then brought me shoes to try on for an hour. The really funny thing was his favorite were these pair of Lightening McQueen slippers. He loved them and would make us put them on him and he would just prance around the room like he was so cool. Funny thing is he has never seen the movie, has no real reference to what it is (I've been trying to do the no TV before two). He does have a Lightening McQueen walker/car, but thats it. He had to have these slippers with him constantly for a while. When we were walking they fell off his feet while he was in the stroller, and he just started sobbing. It took me a while to realize that he was upset because he had lost his slippers. So when I picked them up from the bottom of the stroller, you heard an audible sigh and smiled so big.
Motor: Walking very proficiently. Now starting to run quite well. He can put different shapes into the holes of whatever those toys are called. He loves pushing things, the stroller, the grocery cart. He used to be so easy to shop with, and now he is a nightmare.
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