Liam turns 10 months old!

It has been a long time since my last blog entry.  Many factors have contributed to my absence, from travels, busy life, and lack of free time raising two wonderful kiddos.  Honestly I can't believe 5 months has flown by as fast as it has, moreover that it is 10 months from today that Liam was born!  It is even more shocking that Liam is so close to turning a year old, time needs to slow down!
The past 5 months was full of adventures and family fun from Christmas, Bush/Woodall/Barrett annual Beaver Creek Ski trip, Valentines Day, my parents visit, and Easter.  Over this time Liam went from being a baby you hold in your arms to a mobile active bigger baby on his way any day now to be a toddler.
Liam is very active, around 6 months old he began to stand against furniture and use it to side step around the living room.  It seems he no longer wants to army crawl and roll as way of mobility, but rather go from one piece of furniture to another.  When he does get up on his hands and knees I call him towards me, he will move one hand and knee forward and then sit back on his bum or try to do a downward dog into a standing position.  He is so determined to walk and we believe he is going to just skip crawling all together and go right to walking.  Lets just say he has become an excellent side stepper!  These pics show him making his way around the room via exer-saucer.

Liam or Lee Lee as I and O like to call him is the sweetest baby and absolute joy!  As you can see in pics he is always smiling and happy and that pretty much sums up his personality all the time.  He is very easy going, can be held by anyone, and left to play with his toys all by himself.  Very low maintenance with an occasional need to get some lovin from Mommy, by holding out his arms for a hug, snuggle and kisses.  His little laughs and ear to ear smiles are contagious and he literally makes people stop in their tracks just to interact with him.  I even find myself smiling more often throughout the day because of him.  Not sure I could love anyone or anything more, he holds a special kind of love in my heart that I have never felt before.  Not saying I don't love my husband, daughter, or rest of family any more or less, it is just different.  My own sister warned me of this and that there is nothing else more like the love and bond between a Mother and Son.  I totally get it now.

L has been teething since he was 4 months old.  It started with one of the front bottom teeth and then it seemed like overnight he had all his top and bottom teeth, except molars.  Due to this there was a couple of rough nights sleep because he was in pain with all those little teeth coming in at once, poor little guy.  But since he has most of his teeth his sleep is back on track for the most part.  He goes to bed around O's bedtime and is asleep by 8:30 pm.  He wakes up as early as 6 am or as late as 8:30 am.  I love the mornings when it is close to 8! :)  I won't lie there is some random nights were he wakes up at 3 am.  He also takes a nap in the afternoon from 1:00-4:30 pm, which is very similar to the schedule O was on at this age.  Thank the heavens we have children that are relatively good sleepers, we feel like we won the lottery on that one.

Besides sleeping and snuggling, L loves to eat!  He devours his bottles, which is 4 6oz bottles a day, currently we are increasing the night time bottle to 8oz.  He also receives breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the form of baby food I make.  So far bananas and sweet potatoes seem to be his favorite.  He also seems to enjoy blueberries, mango, strawberries, carrots, and apples.  Avocado not so much, unless it is guacamole.  I think we might have another Mexican food lover on our hands.  But really his favorite thing to eat is pizza crust.  We found this out in March when my parents were visiting they gave him their crust at dinner.  I was a little afraid of the chocking hazard, but we haven't had any problems so far.  I am sure sucking and gnawing on the crust feels good on his teeth.  Actually I have had more problems with chocking on store bought teething cookies and crackers.

Liam loves pizza crust so much that I made a batch of crust just for him when we made pizza from scratch at home.  He couldn't be happier, the boy loves his carbs!

Liam playing with my hairdressers son while I get my hair done

 By doing his side step action around the furniture L gets really excited when he finds a new piece of furniture.  On this day he found a seat I bought for him while I was pregnant.  He looked so cute in it and it melted my heart when he started to act like he was reading.  He is such a smart and observant little guy!
He is also an ever growing little guy, for a long time now he has been wearing 9-12 months clothing.  Although due to his increased activity level he has tapered off on gaining weight.  He has even lost some baby fat in his legs, which makes me sad, but at least he fits into pj legs better.  Today at his 9 month checkup on his 10 B-Day (oops, I forgot to set up an appointment) he weighed 21 lbs., which is only two more lbs. than he weighed at his February check up.  Putting him in the 49% for weight, now he is just average, ha!  Although for height and head circumference he is still way above average with 29 1/2 (78%) height and 18 1/2 (86%) for head.  Cha has been concerned of the size and shape of L's head, but the pediatrician said he looks fine and that size is based on genetics, ahhem...Daddy's big head. ;)
Overall L is progressing as he should and is right on track.  We couldn't be happier and are truly blessed to have this special boy in our life!  He is simply a ray of sunshine!

Olivia and Liam become baptized

Liam wore the out fit he was brought home from
the hospital in.  A bit snug, but still fits.

Sunday Dec.14, the day after Olivia's Pinkalicious birthday party, we baptized Olivia and Liam at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Hammonton, NJ.  Due to the fact that we are a CG family and always on the move we unfortunately never got around to baptizing O when she was a baby.  Also there was debate about which denomination to baptize her since Charlie was raised Methodist and I Catholic.  

It really doesn't matter the denomination, what is most important is that our children are put forth before the eyes of God, washed of original sin, and we as parents vow to nurture their life in his light.  Only God knows where our true heart lies and no one else.  Charlie and I are very private when it comes to religion and our beliefs.

   

Before our children could be baptized I attended classes at the church.  It was good to renew my understanding of the symbolic act of baptism.  Another tradition in the Catholic church is to have a God Mother and Father sponsor the ceremony.  To qualify as a God parent one must be a confirmed Catholic, not only baptized in the church, but has gone through holy communion and confirmation.  I couldn't have thought of anyone better to be God parents to our children than my own Brother Christopher Rette and his wife Erica.  I am so glad they were here to celebrate such a momentous moment in our lives.  Even though we live long distance it is amazing to see their unconditional love for our kiddos, they will make great Godparents.

I held him in a white crochet blanket, a shower gift that made by my Mom's good friend.

Each child had a candle lit for them

There was four other babies baptized that day.  Hammonton is 95% Italian, and Italians have extremely large families, everyone is a cousin of a cousin.  During this baptismal ceremony it seemed like every family member and friend attended.  You could tell we were complete outsiders with our four member family representing our children vs. twenty some people.  Plus we were fair skinned and blonde, if that didn't give it away.

Liam was first to be baptized and had no problem with the water being poured on his head.  I loved the smell of the oil of catechumens they placed in a cross on the backside of his head.  It brought back many memories of being brought up in the Catholic Church.

Olivia was last to be baptized and did a great job.  She was so interested in all the rituals and ceremony.  I now understand why some denominations wait till the child are older to be baptized, it really meant more to her.

All the families coming before the church

O was recovering from a quick case of pink eye she
contracted at her B-Day party.

Our sweet children, we are so blessed!

Godparents Erica and Chris

Liam and Olivia, I pray that this day will not only shed your original sin, but announce to the World that you are Gods children, who will spread his love not only within yourselves, but to all those you encounter.  We love you both more than words can express!

    

Olivia's 5th Birthday Party!

December is always a hectic month for us.  Not only is Charlie's B-Day on the 6th, but it is also O's on the 9th followed by Christmas.  This is why I was determined that baby #2 be born in the summer, LOL!

This year for Charlie's B-Day I planned a night out on the town in Philadelphia meeting up with my Brother Chris and Sister-in-Law Erica, who flew in from Cali for a two week stay.  Not only were they here for all the birthdays, but they also became God Parents to both our children when they were baptized at St Joseph's Catholic Church on the 14th.
This year I had a hard time deciding what to do for O's 5th B-Day party.  Last year we did a Nutcracker theme by having a Sugar Plum Fairy Party at a play place.  O really wanted to have a party at the movie theater, but it quickly became too expensive.  I tried convincing her to do a bowling party, but she really wanted something girly.
One night while reading her favorite book Pinkalicious during bed time, I told her that we should make pink cupcakes for her B-Day.  She was so excited by that thought, that I immeditely said lets do a Pinkalicious themed B-Day party at our house!  "Oh yes" she screamed!  That night I began brainstorming about all the different games the kids could play, along with decor I could make,  Pinterest once again gave me inspiration.  What would I do without that website?  Granted, when I came up with this idea it was only days before the Disney Cruise and I didn't start planning or preparing until after Thanksgiving, leaving me only two weeks to get everything done for her party.

First project was the invitations.  I made these on microsoft word, the Pinkalicious girl was copied and pasted from a google search.  Charlie printed the invites at work and then I cut them and pink card stock, which were adhered with scrapbooking tape.  The invite was finished with a little gold glitter on Pinkalicious's crown and star wand.  On the envelope O helped me place puffy stickers that were these cute cupcakes, sundaes, and candies.  But, be warned,  don't mail puffy stickers on your envelopes because the post office charges extra!
The invites took longer to make than I would have liked, especially when you have to make thirty of them.  Finally I got them out, leaving me only a week in a half to craft and get all I needed for the party, as my Brother and Sister-in-law came into town.
Out of some kind of Christmas miracle I finished all my projects, got all the supplies, and made all the food in time.  The bit of decor I made was a circle garland, created by tracing and cutting circles out on card stock and then hot glueing to bakers twine.  I made pink garland for the pink food table and green garland for the green antidote food table.

I just love these puff balls, which were graciously hung along with tulle by Erica and Chris.

 Pinata cupcake that was later smashed by the kiddos

 The puff balls were so pretty! I ended up hanging them in O's bedroom along with some pink tulle after the party was over.

 I made 27 pink cupcakes for cupcake decorating.  We moved most of the furniture and toys down to the basement and installed two huge picnic tables from Charlie's work.

 I also made these foam tirara wands by taping them on a stick with pink glitter tape.

Next I made star wands, using star cookie cutters to trace stars on yellow foam.  I would place the stick and pink ribbon on top of a foam star, apply hot glue, and press another star over.  Erica glittered the outside of the stars.  Green ribbon was used for all the boys, in case they were allergic to pink. ;)  These star wands took a long time to make.  I made 30 for the party, unfortunately it seemed the girls were more interested in the tiara wands.

 For the gift bags I stamped every child's name on a pink lunch bag. My stamps came from a Disney princess set, O wanted to help stamp a crown or Cinderella carriage on every bag.  I placed pink bubble gum and green mint M&M's/green antidote in every bag.  The kids also got to take home as much candy they could gather when the pinata was smashed.

 I also made a book mark for the gift bag.  How appropriate is a book mark when the party is based off a book!  I used a quote from the book, along with the Pinkalicious girl.  Like the invites, Charlie printed these out at work and laminated them.

Gift bags are ready to go!  The night before O's B-Day we all stayed up late doing last minute decorations and preparations.  The next morning was like Christmas for her, she was so excited to see all the final decorations.  I told her a party fairy put it all together, I wish!

The pink area!

Green Antidote food, to counter all the pink food

Icky Green Relish= Split Pea Soup

My homemade guacomole was a hit as always

Drink station

O's B-Day cake and cup cake

My Rice Crispy Treat stars on sticks didn't hold up and started to fall apart, boo!

I cannot believe she is turning 5!

 On our front door I made a laminated sign warning people that we are a family infected with Pinkititus.  Finding a good looking pink cupcake graphic is harder than you would think!

 Before all the festivities I asked all the children how many have read the Pinkalicious book.  Only a few hands came up, so I read the story to 18 children under the age of 6.  I wasn't sure I was going to hold their attention, but O was really into it, helping me recite parts of the book (she pretty much knows the story by heart).  Someone even told Cha that I was brave trying to read a book to that many kids.

Loving a story she has heard a million times

 Now onto the game, "pin the cherry on the cupcake"!  I made the cup cake from foam and added gold glitter and used some left over pink tulle to decorate.  I cut stems out of card stock and glued them to pink foam circles for the cherries.

 Jake won pin the cherry on the cupcake with the closest placement on top of the cherry.

 O and the kids really seemed to be into the game, I wasn't sure if they would since it is so old school.  Some games are just classic.

After everyone had a turn at pin the cherry on the cupcake it was time for cupcake decorating.  Since my house is so small and we had so many kids, I wanted them to be entertained and busy with activities and games at all times.  The kids really seemed to be into decorating!

You know when the tongue comes out there is
precision decorating going on. 

Silly Alexis

She really looks like Pinkalicious here, just needed her star wand!

 O's very good friend, Ella

Time for cake!  The cake was a dark chocolate with raspberry
filling and raspberry butter cream frosting from Simply Sweet Cupcakes.
It was so yummy, as always!

The kids wanted to eat their cupcakes, leaving lots of yummy cake
for the adults, couldn't have worked out better for us!

The final activity and maybe one of the favorites was the pinata.  For O's first B-Day we used an owl pinata, which Cha held.  This time I thought it might be wise to hang the pinata from a flag pole that Charlie would hold so that there was more distance from him and the swinging stick.  As I took pics from a safe distance on the stairs I saw Cha take a couple whacks to the knees.  It was hard not to laugh, thank goodness they are only toddlers.

Niko giving it a try

Deborah is not so sure

Alexis gave a few whacks

Jake tried to hit it with his star wand, ha!

Henry in mid swing

Olivia was loving it

Emma hit it good!

Greyson went for it

Kelsy did a great job!

Juliana hitting it hard.

O gave it a go

I love Ella's face!

Alina did her best!

I was trying to get a shot of everything, but instead
got a great shot of the flag pole, ha!

Steven was the one to break the cupcake!

Candy galore!

Luz digging into her cupcake

Aunt Erica and Uncle Chris, love these two!

 Everyone is gone, time to dig in and open presents!  O loved everything she got and Thea, her cousin, had no problem helping her open everything.

Sweet baby Luz is love!

O's favorite movie and maybe Thea's too!

Bubbles and Tinkerbell all in one= Pure Bliss

 Time to shoot the confetti blaster outside to commemorate a succesful party and Happy Happy 5th Birthday to our sweet Olivia!

 Uncle Chad reading the girls a princess book.  I am so glad Thea and Luz made it down for part of the party.  O and Thea are like kindered spirts and it is so fun to watch them play together.

When everyone was gone I took one last pic of the party before Cha started to rip it down.  I  convinced him to leave up some of the decor for another day, it was just so hard to say goodbye after all that hard work.  A couple of parents at the party thought I did this for a living.  Deborah's father said, "this was the party of the year!" and that I need to try out for America's Got Talent.  All the praise felt really good and was great to hear,  although as a career it is not in the cards with a baby in the house, especially when I know how much work goes into it!  Honestly, I worked harder for this party in two weeks than all the years I did work.   O seemed super happy with her party, even asking the next day "could all my B-Day's be a Pinkalicious party?"  Yes baby, of course! ;)