Liam's Smiling!

Last week we got a few small smiles.  Cora was the first to get a "real" smile.  She was very excited to be the first one to get a true happy reaction out of her baby brother.  She works so hard taking care of him, I'm not surprised at all.  Mommy and Grandma also got some smiles out of him last week, but we were never able to get the camera fast enough to snap some pictures.

Today was the first day that he truly had a few minutes of smiling.  It was long enough for Mommy to go grab her camera and snap a few pictures.  Another funny thing is, that the outfit he is wearing is the same one that George was wearing when he was six weeks old and smiling away on new year's eve 2007.  It must just be a happy outfit to wear. 

I'm feeling that smiles are my blessing of the day today!  They are truly heart-warming coming from such a sweet baby boy. 

Liam's Growing!

Liam is getting big, unofficially he is 11.5 lbs.  Mommy weighed him by standing on the scale with him and without him, and got this unofficial number.  He is also getting super cute!  We often refer to him as our little friar (or monk), because he as long dark hair in the back and very short (almost bald) light hair in the front.  Grandpa also has created a cute nickname for him.  He calls him L-I-am, similar to Will-I-am from the black-eyed peas.  I think this is cure for a few reasons.  One because it is just silly, and the other is because is it so funny that my Dad came up with it!  I never realized he was so mainstream.  Okay, here are a few pictures of my big boy.

Cora dressed him in this stylish outfit.  

I have a professional picture of George similar to the one above, including the small stream of drool.  I'm curious to see them side by side.  I currently think that Liam looks the most similar to Henry.  He has Cora's coloring, with darker skin and hair, but his overall look most resembles Henry to me.  I'm going to have to pull out the baby books and do some comparing over the next months, but that is my current opinion.

King for a Day!

Michael is absolutely going to kill me for this, but it is too good not to put on my blog.  My best friend Stacey captured this awesome picture of Michael at his birthday celebration on Saturday.  It is a perfect picture! 

He also got a lot of help blowing out his birthday candles!

He is ready to start exercising again.  For his birthday, he asked for us to get his old road bike tuned up, and he wanted a stationary trainer, so he could ride his bike indoors.  I'll keep you posted on his progress.  We are all hoping to get more active this spring/summer. 

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Mommy's Helpers!

I am so very thankful for all of my helpers, I wanted to share a few pictures.  All of the kids continue to be BIG helpers with the new baby.  Cora, Henry, and George have all been playing and holding Liam.  Cora and Henry both help play with Liam during tummy time, and each have even helped with diaper duty!

Big Brother Henry cuddly his little brother Liam.

Big Brother George sharing his bed for playtime!

Even Liam has been helping out....here he is carrying Henry's water bottle to soccer practice.

My kids are so awesome, they really are so very helpful with their baby brother.  Now, if only I could figure out how to get them to help as much around the house as they do with Liam.  I'm thinking hard on that one.

Spoiling Little Boys!

This week was all about spoiling my little boys.  Cora and Henry are off on a ski trip with Granny and Granddaddy, so we had a week with just the little boys.  George got to sleep in Mommy and Daddy's room on the floor.  We made cookies and muffins, watched Cars and Tangled, and Mommy even played Lego Star Wars with him.  Here are a few pics!

Eating some ice cream with Mommy!

Mixing the cookies!

George did miss his brother and sister very much.  He had a tough time transitioning through the day.  Waking up in the morning, going to bed, and putting on his coat to go outside were all big struggles.  He did start to do something cute when he was upset.  He would declare in the middle of his tantrum, "I'm mad" or "I'm sad."  Usually he was sitting on the floor with a big pouty face. 

A big first for the week was that Liam and George was that they got to take their first bath together.  We put Liam's little tub in the big tub and George got to help get him clean.  They were super cute!  Liam's umbilical cord fell off and he was able to get into his big tub.  He liked it a lot better then the sponge bath from the week before.

Week of March 20th

This week weeks big events were:  spring break (for Astara and Chey), St. Joe's Education Fair, and St. Joe's Fish Fry.  Liam had his 2 week check up and we went to BKD for a visit.

The stats on Liam were that he had gained good weight, we was 8 lbs 10 oz.  He still measured at the same length.  The doctor checked him all over and said that everything looked good.  She ran through a long list of dos and don't, and that was about it.  Oh yeah, I almost forgot the best part, he peed on the nurse.  While I was changing him into a clean dry diaper.  I had him lifted up to wipe his bottom, and he shot a stream of pee across the room onto the nurse's pant leg.  I felt terrible for her, but we both got a good laugh out of it.

The big kids had their education fair at St. Joe's their projects were both good.  Cora got her project ready like two weeks ahead of time and Henry did his with Daddy the night before it was due.  They both got to "present" their projects to many parents.  We also got to show of Liam to our school friends.  It was a fun night.

Cora's project was on the O'Dwyers

Henry's project was on Electromagnets

On Friday night, we took the whole family to the Fish Fry at St. Joe's.  Amazingly, Grandpa said he didn't like the fish, and Cora said she loved it and went back for seconds.  I have the silliest girl when it comes to her taste in food.  She always seems to like what others don't and she doesn't like normal stuff like cheese, mayo, and tomato sauce.  What a nut!

Here a picture of Liam from this week....it is currently one of my favorites!

Terrific and Forgiving Friends

Today, I am thankful for all of my terrific and forgiving friends.....I have not been so good at posting to my blog.  I know that many of you thought, she's crazy thinking she is going to create and post to a blog with a new baby.  Well, you were right!  My brain has an amazing way of forgetting the way things are with a newborn baby (I should use this for another post at a later date because it is another blessing in life).  In order to keep going on my blog, I have to just admit that I am only going to be able to post every once in a while.  I do want to try to do a weekly post, but we'll just have to see how things are when "new baby" syndrome wears off.  Thank you to all of you who asked if I was still posting to my blog, please keep me on track.

So, for this post I want to say I am thankful for my friends, checking in on me, calling at the right times, and asking me out to lunch.  I've needed this support.  We've had a rocky few weeks and I just want to say thank you to all these people in my life, you are awesome! 

Also, I have to say thank you to my best friend, Michael.  He has been amazing the last few weeks too.  He has gotten up every morning and taken the big kids to school, gone to work sleep deprived, and done every little thing I've asked.   He has dealt with our demanding three year old, who is testing us after he spot as the family baby was taken by his baby brother Liam.  He is still adorable, but he has been very trying....

So, today I will post an update about last week, and one for this week.