She Nailed It!!

George is a very serious baby. No joke. Everyone comments on it. Although, I never really figured out the right words for his most common facial expression until I saw the following caption that my sister-in-law, Katherine, used for a photo she took:

"George looks at us like we're idiots..."



She nailed it!!!

Seriously?!

So, Bryan got a new camera at the end of September and said that this was his favorite picture he's taken with it so far:



Granted, it's a wonderful picture and I love having it hanging, nicely framed by my brother, in my family room; however, CLEARLY, he never saw or noticed this one:



HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!! Gotta love that kid. This is the same child who had this little conversation with his father this morning when he came into our room:

Taylor: Good morning, Liam.

Liam: Good morning, Daddy.

Taylor: Do you want to watch Maisy?

Liam: I seriously do!

Seriously....where did this kiddo come from. Gotta love him!

Breathe!!!

I feel like I need to keep telling myself this. Christmas with Liam has been fun, but quite a whirlwind. I don't know if it's still jealousy issues with George, an overload of excitement, or a sense of a big change coming up, but Liam is definitely a challenge these days.

First off, Liam is now a full-fledged Oriole and doing REALLY well. He has almost no accidents anymore and did not want to leave school the other day. When we got there, he was sitting at the computer with a couple of his friends "checking his e-mail". He seems to be warming up to his new teacher, Miss Patricia and enjoying being around kiddos closer to his age. Plus, as he constantly reminds us, "they have a boys bathroom and a girls bathroom." Apparantly, this is huge. :)

He did celebrate Christmas with his old class. Taylor and George were able to make it to the class party, which Liam LOVED. My sweet child, of course, did not want to have anything to do with Santa or sing Jingle Bells with the other children, but still seemed to have fun nonetheless. One thing that was really cute was that his teacher gave all the kiddos VHS tapes of Disney movies and none of the children seemed to know what a tape was. It totally blew Liam's mind. Here are a couple of photos from the day:

Yay...Daddy came!!



What is this?!



Opening Gifts



This past weekend, we traveled to NJ to visit with the Wezwick side of the family. Liam traveled really well. We drove at night and he pretty much slept both ways. He LOVED seeing everyone and, of course, enjoyed opening all his wonderful presents (he got spoiled!) Two of the biggest hits were a Thomas cup on a strap and a dino rocker:





Mr. Man also enjoyed Christmas at Julie's on Sunday and eventually passed out from all the excitement:



Christmas Eve and day were spent at home with the Basye side of the family. Liam was full of meltdowns, but still seemed to have a ton of fun. He really enjoyed seeing his Cousin Ben. Another fun thing was giving him his new PJs on Christmas Eve (a tradition Taylor and I started for him since his first Christmas). He really liked them because they were "jacket" jammas and therefore, super fancy. You can see how proud he was of them:





Christmas morning, Liam was kind enough to sleep in until around 7:15 a.m.!! When he got up, he ran downstairs and asked where Ben was (he had only come over for Christmas Eve). Once we explained that Ben had to go home, Liam ran over to the tree and began tearing open the first gift he could get his hands on (it happened to be one for George). Big hits that morning were a Geotrax set that George got him and some new Thomas PJs. As you can see, once he opened them, he instantly stripped so he could put them on:





Liam enjoyed having his Mimi and Tooey here, even though he had a few meltdowns. He'll be returning to school tomorrow and then next week, we'll have to sit him down and try to explain to him as best you can to a 3-year-old that Daddy is deploying. I'm sure some of his behaviors will get worse before they get better, but he's a sweet and strong kid with a ton of family that loves him and I know that he'll get through this just fine. Besides, how can you get too down in the dumps with a kiddo like this around:

George's First Christmas

I started with this photo since this is pretty much how George spent most of his Christmas. Our first Christmas with Little G was really good. We went up to NJ to have Wezwick Christmas this past Saturday and then at Julie's on Sunday before heading back home. George traveled great in both directions, sleeping the entire way. It was nice to see family and for them to get to see George and how big he's gotten. He received a lot of wonderful gifts and seemed to enjoy himself as much as a 2 month old can. LOL!

Christmas Eve was spent with the Basye side of the family at our house. Cousin Ben seems to be fairly accepting of George and was giving him "nice touches" and kisses. It was really cute.

Christmas day was with the Basye grandparents and turned out to be a nice quiet day...well as quiet as it gets with Mr. Man around. George didn't seem to mind though as he slept through most of it and has been doing so for the past few days. I think he's beginning his 3 month growth spurt a bit early. At his appointment last week, he weighed in at 13.2 lbs and 24 inches. He is already beginning to grow out of 0 - 3 month clothes!

I'll end with a couple of photos from the past few days. Not too much thrilling here. Katherine is coming to babysit on Saturday, so we'll see how kind G is to her. :) He is still getting up several times a night, so I hope she's getting her sleep in while she can. Other than that, Taylor and I are just enjoying this week home with our little man.

Christmas Morning



Hamming it Up



Baby's First Christmas



What Did I Get?

George and his "Manny"

Why the concerned look, you may ask? Well, you would think it was because George's first week away from Mama was spent with Tooey. Really, it was just cold outside, though. It turns out that Tooey is a fantastic babysitter, or "manny" as Daddy likes to call him. Richard was so kind to come up last Monday to help out with watching George as I returned to work and Taylor finished up grad school. He stayed for most of the week and took fabulous care of George. Not a huge surpise, though, as Tooey has always had a magical way with his grandsons. He can get Liam to do things that we are never able to get him to do. It's really amazing. He can calm George and put him to sleep better than most. At one point today, George was really fussy and crying. Tooey walked him around and then put him on the ATV and George instantly got happy:



Later on, he just had George sit on his lap and here is what happened:

Sleepy



Sleepier



Sleepiest



All in all, it was a great week with Tooey, full of lots of cuddles, snuggles, and naps. Tuesday will be George's late 2 month appointment, so I will post after that. This week will be spent home with Daddy and then up to NJ for Wezwick Christmas. Here's to hoping that Daddy has as much luck and magic as Tooey does:

Let's Hear it for Underwear!!

This past week, Liam has gone full-force with underwear (really the past two weeks). The only time he wears a diaper now are at night, long road trips, and for shopping. He has also decided that he'd rather pee standing up...ya know, like a boy! His aim is really good, so far, and I'm definitely training him big-time to put the lid down when finished. :) He still won't sit on the big potty, which is why we still have issues with the store. We bought a potty ring to try and get used to at home before we tackle shopping trips and the public restroom. For now, though, this is major progress and we are happy with how he is doing.

Liam has been visiting the Orioles room at school. This is the room for the 3-year-olds and is something that he absolutely has zero interest in. It wasn't even a consideration until recently since you need to be potty-trained to go there. Well, this week, they began transitioning him...slowly!! The first day or two, he mostly just threw a major fit and cried saying he hates it there. On Thursday, he spent the entire morning until naptime there, so that was good. We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

This weekend was spent at Mimi and Tooey's house. Liam had a bit of a tough weekend, behavior-wise. We're not sure if he's not feeling well or if he can sense that something big is coming (Taylor leaving). We haven't told him yet, but I've no doubt he is showing us signs of things to come. He did have a blast though raking leaves in the yard on Saturday with Daddy and Tooey. Sunday was spent hanging around the house since it was raining. He did have a chance to relax, though, as you can see:



(yes, he's the one hiding under Snoopy).

Not much going on this week. School as usual and then up to NJ for Christmas with the Wezwick clan.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Wow! The past month has kept us very busy. Liam is growing up so incredibly quickly. This month, we had to put him back in school full-time since he simply would not leave Taylor alone to get his work done. It's like he knows that Taylor is leaving soon (no, we haven't actually told him yet) and is trying to soak up every second of him that he can get until that point. It's really cute, though.

Liam has actually thrived with being back in school full-time. His big thing right now is potty training. He is pretty much in underwear all the time with very few accidents. The one huge caveat, though, is that we need to have him sit on the potty every hour or so. He still hasn't figured out to tell us he needs to go yet, unless it's for #2. If we forget to remind him each hour, we tend to have accidents then. We are also using pull-ups for sleeping and shopping since Liam is still terrified of the regular toilet and I haven't figured out how to handle this while we're out. Baby steps, though. The other problem that is delaying him from being totally trained is that he understands that once he's trained he will be moving up to the Orioles room at school...the class for three-year olds. He DOES NOT want to go there!!!! This is the first week that he has been pretty much accident free at school, so they'll be trying him in the new room for about two hours on Monday. We'll see how that goes. His teacher has already said that if he throws a major fit, she won't push the issue.

Over Thanksgiving, we headed down to VA Beach. Liam LOVED it because his cousin Ben was there too. This was the first time that the two boys really played a ton together. While they definitely had their moments with sharing toys, they generally had a great time and raised the noise level quite a bit. Both boys love the outdoors and had a chance to play in the park near Mimi and Tooey's house:







It was so great to have the whole family there as this really happens. We even took the opportunity for Aunt Katherine to capture everyone together:



Liam is getting really excited about Christmas. He is fascinated with both Santa Claus and God and Jesus. I've been talking to him about all these things and reading books about them so he can understand both aspects of the holiday. He really loves the Christmas tree and driving around at night to look at the Christmas lights. We just have lights up on our tree and hope to decorate it tonight. Other than that, not too much going on this week. This weekend is our last alone as a family before Taylor leaves, so we are going to try to get some good quality family time in.

Two Months Old!

Well, I haven't written much lately for two reasons. 1...we've been pretty busy and 2...not much to say. George is doing really well. His reflux has improved a bit, so that is good. He has had a terrible rash on his face, so we are testing the hypo-allergenic formula. It has cleared up a bunch since using this, although I'm also nursing a bunch, so hasn't gone away completely. I am trying to give him as much breastmilk as I can, but with going back to work on Monday, we'll have to see how it goes. He has done well with the hypo-allergenic stuff, so that is good for times that I can't get him enough milk. Either way, he is eating well and it shows. According to the scale, he is already around 13 lbs and quickly growing out of his 0 - 3 month clothes!

George has rolled over three times. Every time I think it's more by accident than anything, but it's still pretty fun to see. As you can see, little G is also smiling a bunch. He LOVES to just watch Taylor and laugh at him. When you get a minute, head over to the video site for a really cute video of this. LOVE it!

George is still sleeping in the bassinet in our room as he is waking up at least every 3 hours at night. He is sleeping in the bassinet, though, which is good since he was sleeping in my arms or our bed. We started swaddling him, though, and he tolerates being put down a lot more now. Now if I could just get him to stay asleep for longer. :)

Well, as I've not much more to say, I'll leave you with some recent photos: