Father's Day 2007

We had a great weekend here in VA. Taylor's parents came for the weekend. It was also Richard's birthday, so a perfect weekend to be together. Friday night, Taylor and I had some of his friends from GMU over for a cookout. The weather was great and it was nice to have someone to hang out with. Liam was in bed when they got there, but got up to ask about the people he heard. Pretty cute. He also "needed" boo-boo cream (lotion) and a band-aid from Daddy....can we say, pay attention to me please. :)

Saturday, Taylor's parents came and we mostly just slept and hung out as everyone was tired. It worked out well for me so I could do some last minute shopping and errands. On Sunday, we all headed out the WW II Memorial and Air and Space Museum. Liam LOVED that and coerced his grandparents into showing him all there was to see there while Taylor and I caught a show at the planetarium. It was hot and all the excitement wore Liam out, as you can see:



He never does this!

While I am finished with work (thank goodness), we decided to keep Liam in school an extra week so Taylor and I could have a mini-vacation before having him home all summer. We are trying to get a lot of errands done while he's there, so we ran up to a great baby store in MD to take a look at some of the things we need for our youngest boy. Some of our stuff we sold or got stolen, so we need to replace those things and others will be new (ugh...double strollers!). Anyway, it was nice just to see Taylor as we have been very busy.

We also surprised Liam with a new water table that we've been wanting to get him for months and months now. He LOVED it, of course, and had a blast playing with it:







We also enjoyed a nice family dinner of fish and chips at our picnic table while Liam ran crazy around the yard. He did manage to stop and relax for about 10 seconds:



All in all, it was a great kick-off to the summer. Liam is enjoying his last week at school and will have a water day there tomorrow. We also have a busy week. We are meeting with a physician on Wednesday to discuss a possible c-section, going to see Lyle Lovett in concert, and going to a meal-prep place to try out. Should be fun!

You wanna read a book, Mama?

Liam has been OBSESSED with reading lately!! Not a bad thing, but we do feel like all we do is read. There are a couple of books he has nearly memorized and will actually "read" to us from time to time. For a kiddo who used to hate books, it is really, really nice to see him enjoy reading so much, especially with two parents that are avid readers and one who teaches kindergarten. LOL!

While there are many more that he likes, here are a few of his favorites right now:

Freight Train by Donald Crews (we read this at least 3 times a day)



Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown (he's always loved this one)



Good Morning, Good Night (another long-time favorite)



The Napping House by Audrey Wood



10 Little Rubber Ducks by Eric Carle (a recent addition; the little rubber duck makes a squeak noise at the end...really fun!)



Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr. (all kiddos like this book)



Anything Miss Spider by David Kirk. (The illustrations are AWESOME!) Liam really likes this one:



Anyway, thought I'd share since we're having fun reading with him. We read throughout the day as he wants to and for around 20 - 30 minutes each night before bed.

Oh, and while I'm on, when picking Mr. Man up from school today, he was talking to Miss Linda (his teacher) and counted perfectly on his own from 1 - 10!! I was pretty excited. He is learning so much!

Quick Update

Finally in my last week of school, so should be able to update more this summer. I at least wanted to pop in and let everyone know that Mr. Man will be having a little brother!!! We are so excited and I cannot wait to see my two boys together. Plus, now our little girl (obviously still yet to be conceived)will have at least two big brothers to watch over her. :)

Liam continues to do well. He has transitioned wonderfully to his new bed. He pretty much has his routine of bath, brush teeth, read a million books, and then climbs into bed on his own and most nights will go straight to sleep. We really haven't had trouble with him getting up (knock on wood). He really seems to love his fire truck bed and we are thrilled with how well he's taken to it.

Liam has two more weeks of school and then we'll keep him home full-time for the summer. No plans right now on potty training (despite small successes at school) or taking paci away since Mr. Man has a new baby and probably deployment of Daddy coming up in the next 7 months or so. We're just going to keep watching him and let him tell us when he's ready for both.

We all took a fabulous trip out to Houston to visit Nick and Sidonie for Memorial Day weekend. It was much needed and Liam took to both of them instantly. We had a blast and really enjoyed being back in Texas for a short time. Liam's favorite parts were probably a local children's museum and the Museum of Natural History:





Baby boy Basye (who is named, but still secretively) is doing well. He is constantly on the move and wearing me out, but we are loving it. We have an appointment in a week with a physician to see how feasible a VBAC is for us.

Not much else going on this week. Just trying to survive this last week of school and looking forward to hanging with little man for the summer!

Getting Ready to be a Big Brother

With just 4 1/2 months until our newest Basye, we decided to go ahead and try transitioning Liam out of his crib. We had not planned to kick him out until he was 3+ years old, but decided to try this so we can use the crib for the baby. We are on night 6 and he has slept in the bed every night so far. He gets up maybe once or twice to ask for something to be removed from the room (i.e. a book) but then does stay in bed for the rest of the night. So far, it is going well, especially since he is in a totally different room and this boy is extremely resistent to change (just like his mother!) Grandmichaele and Papa were so generous to buy all the furniture and it looks awesome. We still cannot get over that he has a "big boy" room. A lot still needs to be done, but the basics are all set.






Liam's sibling is doing well so far. We had an appointment on Friday and the heartbeat was around 140. We have a consult with a physician next month to see if I'm a candidate for VBAC (although not hoping for much since they told me I was probable c-section with Liam even before he was born). We also have an ultrasound on the 29th and hope to find out the sex of the baby.

This past weekend was spent with Grandmichaele and Papa. Yesterday, we went to a military airshow. It was really cool and we all had a blast. Liam thought the planes were too loud at first, but eventually got used to it. Even to the point where he fell asleep during the Thunderbird show (6 fighter planes flying all around overhead). LOL!

Liam had a ton of fun watching the planes,




Checking out a helicopter with Daddy,



And practicing riding the toddler step on our stroller for when his sister or brother will be riding (this thing is awesome...first time we tried it)



It was a great day and the planes were just awesome.

Next weekend, we will be heading out to Houston to see Nick and Sidonie. We are thrilled since we haven't seen them since Liam's 1st birthday. No doubt Liam does not remember Sidonie, but he is super-excited to see her for some reason. He keeps asking me when we are going to see Sidonie. It should be a blast!

I have just four more weeks of work left (thank God), so should hopefully have more time to update. Looking forward to the summer since we are keeping Liam home full-time and have several mini-vacations planned including the beach at Long Island, going to Nags Head, and Taylor and I will be going to England without Liam (Taylor has school there for two weeks and I will join him there for a third week of fun). Anyway, will be sure to update after the ultrasound next Tuesday!

As a reminder, be sure to click on Liam's Pictures (at the top left of his site) for more photos of what's been going on with us.

Happy 1st Birthday Ben!!!

This post has to start with a picture of my gorgeous nephew since he's the birthday boy! Ben turned one this past Friday and we were able to celebrate at his party on Saturday. It was nice to have the Basye family together and great to see Ben enjoy his special day. Liam also had a ton of fun playing with his cousin and his new water table:





This past month has been a ton of fun with Liam. We were able to celebrate Easter with both families. The weekend before Easter, we headed to Virginia Beach for Liam's first easter egg hunt. Unfortunately, the hunt was right in the middle of his nap, which we had to wake him up from, so he was a bit out of it at first and took a bit to wake up:

All Ready to Hunt

Okay, you got me here...now what?

Now he's catching on!

After the hunt, we all headed to the neighborhood playground for some great fun. (As you can see, Liam woke up by this point)

Riding with Mimi

Wheeeeeeee!!!

Sunday, the boys even made it to the beach to visit the Atlantic:

The following weekend we traveled to NJ for Easter. Grandmichaele kept little man very busy with lots of Easter activities, including:

Decorating Peeps

Visiting a Sheep Farm

Hunting for Eggs

And Simply Hanging Out

On Easter Sunday, we all headed out to Pennsylvania for fun at Bill and Erin's. Liam had a ton of fun with his cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. Here are some highlights of the day:

Other than all this fun we've been having, Liam has been doing really great. He still likes school, but has a bit of difficulty being dropped off with all the long weekends he's had. The lack of routine really throws him off, as he'd rather stay home with us. He is using the potty now and then at school, but we aren't even trying at home right now. We won't even begin to tackle that until the summer. He is learning and ton and LOVES to sing us songs that he learns at school. You can hear him sing his ABC song in one of his recent videos that you can watch on the link to his video site.

He is getting to be such a big boy now and really helps a lot around the house. He doesn't really know about the baby yet, but says he wants one for his birthday (he LOVES all babies). He is always checking up on me though, and pats my head and says "You okay, mama?" So sweet.

Liam is still loving Gymboree and lives for the outdoors. Taylor recently got Liam a massive bubble blower, so this is his latest obsession.

We have another quiet weekend at home coming up. We have been starting to spend some of this time slowly preparing for Baby Basye. Most of it right now is clearing out things we don't need and figuring out what we do. Fun fun! We had an appointment on Friday and heard the heartbeat...in the 150s. Everything looked good and ultrasound scheduled next month.

Will update more this weekend so as to avoid these huge long posts.

Someone has to be Expecting in our Family

Now that Brianna has had her little Owen (who is adorable, by the way), I guess I'll take the job. We are expecting our new little one in October. We are very excited, but nervous, as we had a miscarriage nearly a year ago. However, I'll be 12 weeks this week and leaving the first trimester. We have had several ultrasounds and everything looks great. We are just praying it stays that way so we can have another October cutie.

Liam is doing as good as always. We had a nice weekend just relaxing before some visiting we will be doing in the next few weeks. Taylor has been practicing counting with him and he can count to 4 now. We also had a lot of fun coloring and playing in his new tent.

Not much going on this week. My last week before spring break. :) :) :) :) :) :) :) Liam does look like he has some crafty ideas on his mind though. Hee hee.

Big Update

It has been forever since I have posted, so thought I would take everyone through one big update.

Sad News

On February 20th, we lost Taylor's grandmother, Momma. Taylor was able to see Momma two days before she died, although she was not awake at the time. It was nice to be within driving distance so we could do this and travel down to Virginia Beach for the funeral. Momma was just one of the greatest people I have ever known and we are missing her so much. It does help that Liam was able to get to know her even just a little bit and it was always so great visiting with her and watching her get so much joy from spending time with both her grandson and her great-grandson. While Liam will miss out on more time with her, we have these memories that we'll be able to share with him when he's older.



Family

We have been lucky enough to spend a ton of time with family lately. It is so great to see Liam enjoying his family so much. He LOVES spending time with all his grandparents. We were able to see Katherine, Judd, and Ben the weekend of the funeral. Liam is really starting to take more interest in Ben and vice-versa. One morning, I had Ben on my lap on the couch and Liam was sitting next to us and bouncing around being silly, showing off. The two boys would just look at each other and crack up laughing. It was really cute. Liam was also to spend some time with Taylor and Tooey working on a shed that Tooey is building. He LOVED that as it involved spending the majority of a day and a half outdoors, which Liam cannot get enough of. Here are some pics of recent family visits:

Goodnight Moon with Mimi

Visiting with Mike

Development

Liam was exited out of Early Intervention this past month. While he still struggles with a couple minor things, he has improved tremendously. Any delays he does have are minor and he has actually caught up in most areas. Liam is running full-force and can jump over things now (like a stick). He is also going up and down the stairs on his own (although supervised).

He talks all the time (I mean, nonstop!) and will speak in sentences up to 6 words. He is also starting to sing. He tries to sing the ABC Song (he pretty much just gets up to D) and can sing the first line of "Twinkle, Twinkle", but just sort of peters out on the rest of the song. He knows what numbers are can count to 3. The other day, he also counted (out of the blue) "5, 6, 7." He knows his colors and some of his shapes (triangle, circle, square...working on rectangle).

Liam is finally sitting still to listen to books, which seems small, but is actually huge. He still doesn't really like TV at all. The only shows he'll tolerate for short periods of time are Rachel Ray and Sesame Street.....although his Baby Signing Times DVDs are always an option, as he LOVES those still. He is getting really creative in his play. He loves to play in his kitchen, mop, sweep, and vacuum. Washing machines are also a really big thing with him. He cannot get enough of them and insists that we visit the machines whenever we are in Costco or Sam's Club. Cars, trucks, planes, trains, etc. are always big, of course. Especially as we recently went on a plane and bus....very exciting and Liam now loves make the noises of these vehicles.

Liam is still sleeping a TON. Bedtime is at 7:00 p.m. and he wakes up between 6:30 and 7:00 most mornings. At school, Liam sleeps 2 - 2 1/2 hours in the afternoon. At home, he takes a 3 - 4 hour nap. He is still in the crib and LOVES his sleep sack. We will probably move him from the crib soon as he does well with his travel bed, although he had some issues with our latest trip (hee hee).



It has been so much fun to see him grow and learn. We think a lot of it has to do with his new school. He is doing REALLY well there. His teachers are amazing and they keep him so busy. You can tell he is learning so much. All the activities they do are so much fun. They've been working with money, rainbows, planting shamrocks and are working on Shopping this week. We are so happy we moved him there

Travel




We recently took a trip up to VT for a Wezwick family ski trip. We all stayed at my uncle's ski house with my uncle, aunt, cousin, his wife, and their daughter, Ryan. Liam had a blast. My dad, Johnny, Mike, Liz, Michaele, Bryan, and Taylor would all go skiing, and Liam hung around the lodge with Mary, my mom and me. Probably his favorite part was his first time sledding. Liam named the sled "the whale" probably because it is blue. We would walk him around the street, but the most fun was probably taking him on the snowmobile trail. My mom, Taylor, and I took turns running and pulling him on the sled. Liam (as you can see) had a blast:







Liam also enjoyed time with his aunt and uncle:






Coming Up

We are finally starting to catch our breath and slow down a bit. We were able to spend our first weekend home in the past month. Liam is getting to be such a little boy now and loving all his time with Daddy doing boy things. We are really happy we are getting this extra time together with Taylor being home more since it seems that he will be deploying after he graduates in December/January. We will be visiting both sides of the family soon and look forward to a visit from the Easter bunny. We are also hoping for warmer weather during spring break so we can go camping. Only two more weeks!