(Day 77) Sheering the Libum

As you could see in my post yesterday, it was high time Libum (Liam's nickname... honestly no idea where it came from, but it started about a month before he was born) was sheered. His hair grows SOOOO incredibly fast (like we have hard to cut his hair 4 times this year) and his hair was getting so shaggy that it was curling under at the bottom. He hated getting his hair cut so bad he was screaming and shaking no matter what was playing, how many yummies he had and how long we had to let him play with the cutters, show him they weren't scary etc. So we kind of put it off, as I am sure you can understand. But today he did awesome! He only cried at the end, but I think that was because he was covered in hair and it was getting in his eyes. He looks so cute and old with his new hair cut! I will post pictures of the final product tomorrow! :)

We let him hold our old cutters and I think it made him realize it was dangerous

look at the difference in the hair!

a little pile that was on the floor. There was SO much more on his body and the seat! 

(Day 76) Sporting the green

I have always loved St. Patty' day. My Irish blood feels very proud to sport the green, proud of where my ancestors come from. My great-great-grandpa and ALL of his ancestors (or at least as far back as we can go) is from a little town in Northern Ireland and I have always been loved the fact I have Irish blood. Ever since I was a little girl I have had a love and fascination with all things Irish. Not sure why, but it's always been there, and visiting the town in Ireland that for generations and generations my family lived in, is on the top of my bucket list. 

Anyways, today was a great St. Patty's day! Liam and I went to a Primary activity and then we went to a party our friends put on! It was fun to socialize and spend time with our good friends. 

Liam at the nursery activity (taken with my phone)

(taken with my phone) 

Love that smile (taken with my phone)

And of course, here are the babies wearing green: 

I couldn't decide which one to post so you got both :)

In this pic I LOVE Liam's face... 

And in this pic I LOVE Brielle's face!

Heck in this one I love both of their faces!

Liam only sat long enough for me to frantically get a couple pictures, so I took advantage of the fact Brielle can't run away...yet :)

Well, both kiddos are asleep so it's time to get off the computer, break out the green ice cream and play a game with the hubby on our date-at-home evening!

(Day 73) Lollipops and laughs

Today as Liam and I were walking up our stairs coming home from playing outside, he looked up at me all suddenly and asked for "BIG SUCKER!!" 

It took me a little while to figure out what he was talking about.

We bought him a big lollipop for his birthday over a month ago, and for some reason, he remembered right then he hadn't eaten it. So we busted it open and he had a couple bites/licks. He loved it.

And just to prove that I don't just feed my kid sweets for every snack, I snapped a pic of him eating some carrots. I promise I am not a negligent mother who feeds her kids candy all day ;)

Watching the a TV show that he earned for cleaning up his toys

But my favorite, all-time favorite, pictures from today (or maybe ever) are these of Liam that I took while I was tickling his tummy:

Today as I was talking to him, I realized how crazy it was that I was actually talking to him. Like we were having a conversation, he was responding and we were talking back and forth. It was so surreal and crazy that my 2-year-old is old enough, to have a conversation with me. My baby. He is talking SO WELL. He always has talked well (like 40 words by 15 months), but its booming now and he only has to hear a word once and it's apart of his vocabulary.

Also, today we went to get ice cream as a family after dinner, and it was so much fun! Liam was so excited and kept screaming "ICE CREAM, ICE CREAM" until we got there. And then as we were eating our ice cream, sitting around a little kid table with spoons eating out of the same carton, Liam started dancing like a crazy kid to the music. So we joined in. It was one of those smiles-that-makes-your-cheeks-hurt moments where your heart is so full it feels like it will explode. Watching how happy and excited he was to be eating "ICE CREAM" with his parents, was so wonderful.

He is my buddy.

Best buddy forever.

(Day 72) Our special time

Most days, I dont get to spend quite as much time with Brielle one-on-one as I would like. Sad, but it's the reality of having 2 kids close together. I like to make myself feel better by telling myself it's better that she have a sibling because they will be friends and a support to each other long after I am gone. 

But, once Liam goes to bed, we get out special time together. I love it. We usually play until she starts whining because she is tired, I change her diaper and then start the bedtime process which includes a bottle of some pumped breast-milk (I like to know she is getting at least a certain amount of milk before bed), nursing if she is still hungry and off to bed. My favorite part of it is when she has fallen asleep and just "dream feeding" (or eating while she sleeps). I love watching her, smelling her, kissing her, stroking her soft little blonde head and just admiring her while she sleeps. It's such a special time bonding with my little sweetheart. That is the part of Liam growing up I think I miss the most. Watching him sleep while he nursed before bed, just like she does. A lot of times I wish I could rewind just to those quiet moments while he slept in my arms as a little baby. 

But lucky for me, I have another sweet baby to hold while she sleeps. 

It's my favorite special time.

A sweet nursing picture...

mmm squishy sleeping face. So precious.

(all pics taken with my phone)

(Day: failed) Dang. I am part of the masses.

I failed.

Apparently, the majority of New Years resolutions are broken by February 14th. I was determined to not break my resoluation to take a picture a day and write about it, then post. But I failed. In my defense, I lasted almost 3 weeks past that date, but then life got crazy busy and I stopped. Richard went on an interview to Ohio for 4 days, took the camera card with him and I got out of the habit. Since then, getting back into the habit of taking a picture a day and the posting about it, has been hard. 

That and I have just not been in the mood to post. Seriously?!?! Here is why. Richard and I are trying to decide where we want to spend the next 4 years of our lives. We have 4 very good options that we are constantly thinking, talking about, creating spread sheets about and weighing out and so my whole day when I am not taking card of the kids, is spent sitting at the computer, looking up apartments/houses, researching the different areas, schools, and everything about these places. So when the kids go to bed, I have had enough computer time and blogging just sounds like drudgery. 

So I took a break. 

I didn't want one of my hobbies to become drudgery so I let my goal go for over a week. But, I am hoping that I will get back in the habit. Because I will be honest, I am already so grateful for this resolution. I have looked back on posts I wrote about what happened on our ordinary days, and I am so glad I did. I have already forgotten those little but special moments and it brings back such sweet memories. 

So, I want to refocus my goal. 

I don't want to become one of the masses that fails at their resolution 2 months in. 

This week will be hard. Richard is leaving for his last interview (PRAISES!!) for 3 days at the end of this week, but I want to try and keep it up. Bare with me though, cause it might be rough. O and bare through this "catch-up" post, because that might be rough too ;) 

****

Wednesday 

(Day 66)

She LOVES playing with plastic or anything "crunchy" sounding

She laid on the floor and watched a fly on the sliding glass door forever. She was completely mesmerized by it and just stared with a very serious face at it, until I distracted her by taking pictures.  

 The same day, as I was cleaning the house, it was too quiet. You think I would have learned my lesson.

This is what I found when I went to see what Liam was doing: 

Once I saw his hair, it all clicked. 

He had been saying "hair, baby" over and over again and I just blew it off. But then it dawned on me why he had been saying that. He calls gel "hair bubbles" (cause there are bubbles in the gel) and so we mention that everytime we put it on his hair. So as he was putting the A&D ointment in his hair, he was saying "hair, baby". Little stinker. It took 5 shampoos and several days to come completely out. And it smelled so strong even after being washed, I got a headache while I was holding him during his bedtime routine :/ 

He has this thing about putting stuff in his hair lately! They day before this, I found him putting foot lotion in his hair the same way! Silly boy...

Thursday

Day 67

Holding the little-pink-riding-hood beauty after her nap

It has started happening.

The kiddos are playing together, so well.

They are so cute and just in the past couple days, they have started to play and interact so much more than they ever have. I can already see the beginning of a life long friendship starting. It's so cute to watch! Brielle does this super cute high pitch squeal coupled with a huge smile and flalleling appendages whenever she sees him and he gets all giddy and has to hug her.

Sunday

Day 70

The kids playing after baths and before getting ready to go to church. 

I love their cute little diaper bums

and huge smiles.

That moment

watching them play, roll around, squeal, and love on each other in the sunlight made my heart swell.

Those are the wonderful, timeless, meaningful moments I live for.

Today: Monday

Day 71

Liam woke up from his nap on the cranky side and sat in his crib like this for about 15 minutes...

So to bribe him up and cheer him up I gave him a couple chocolate chips (or "choco" as he calls it) 

That did the trick.

mmm...choco droll

Voila.

My smiley, happy boy is back.

Well there ya go. 

All caught up.

Glad I did that. Even though I should have probably spent nap time preparing the weekly menu list, cleaning the house or planning our future. O well.

(Day 62) Spewing thoughts

Tonight, in approximately 3 hours, my shift as single mommy will end. And I only have one more "shift" left. 3 down 1 to go. He is interviewing in Iowa either this upcoming weekend or next and then we are done with that part of applying to Podiatry school . So glad. The first time he left in December for his interview in Arizona, I was terrified. It's hard enough taking care of 2 kids (then) under 2 with hubby there to help, but doing it all by myself was more than I could imagine. It was rough, I relied a lot on other people, but I survived. Now, it's still not easy, but I am getting better at it. More planning and expecting things to go wrong, so when they don't it's a good surprise :) I am becoming a pro. 

But, all this interviewing has paid off. big time. Here's where we are right now:

--He has been accepted to the school in the San Francisco area and because of his very high grades and GPA, he has been awarded their highest scholarship ($20,000 a year...)!
--He has also been accepted at the school he just interviewed at on Friday in Ohio! They normally don't tell you until they meet as a board once a month, but they pulled him aside as soon as he was finished interviewing and they told him he is accepted and they also awarded him their highest scholarship (half-tuition a year which is about $18,000)
--The school in AZ is having an acceptance committee meeting in about a week, but it's almost a guarantee that he will get in, because they said if he got above a 20 on the MCAT he would be accepted, and he got a 28...
--The school in Iowa received his MCAT scores and immediately invited him to come to the campus for an official interview.

Now the hard decision of where to go to Podiatry school begins!!!!! So hard.

Liam has done and said so many cute things these last couple days. Tonight he wanted to play "basketball" while we put away his blocks and we took turns making "baskets" in the block container. We sat next to each other on his floor cheering each other on. Doesn't sound like anything, but it was one of those special little  moments I will want to experience again in the afterlife (i hope SO MUCH there is a way to experience moments of our life after we die). And watching the kids play together, make each other laugh, Liam running around with juice boxes in each hand, his sheer joy of getting to walk in the "deep" snow (which he repeats the whole time he is making boot prints), hearing Liam copy Brielles banshee squealing noise. Makes these past few days of doing everything on my own, worth it. But I have to be realistic. It hasn't come without simultaneous crying from the kids, them tag teaming their sleep (aka: one wakes up as soon as the other goes to sleep during the day) so I never get a rest, Brielle going through a growth spurt so she is eating twice a a night and then not going back to sleep when she wakes up at 6:30 (when she normally sleeps until 8:30). But that's how it goes :)

The other day, I was looking for Brielle's bottle and just randomly asked Liam if he knew where it was. And this is how our conversation went (still can't believe I can have conversations with my boy...he talks SOOOO well):

mom: "Liam, where is sisters bottle?"

Liam: "right there"

mom: (rather surprised he responded like he knew where it was) "Wait, where?"

Liam: "right there"

mom: "where? I don't see it"

Liam: "mom, right there"

mom: (looking around everywhere) "where?"

Liam: (getting up from the floor where he was playing and walking towards the corner next to the couch) "right THERE"

mom: "o wow! There it is! Good job Liam! Thank you so much! You are genius you know"

Liam: "O yeah."

...I had to laugh. He responded like "duh mom, of course I am a genius".

So Richard had my camera card all the way in Ohio in his computer, so I was able to take 2 pictures with my weak-sauce 2gig card I had laying around. Here is some cuteness I HAD to document:

Brielle loving her carrots

The kids loving each other...and totally not posed at all! I found them like this!

Sorry for the random spewing of thoughts. I wanted to get something on here since it's been several days since I wrote and I wanted to remember some of the last 3 days and write it down for journaling purposes. I just have to say, I have the best kiddos and I am SO proud of my wonderful, hot, hard-working hubby.

(ok now it's time to pick up the house and watch Downtown Abbey until I am tired)