Luminati

Ok! Vacation is set!

Lunch with some high school friends at 1pm in Omaha, then whatever, then dinner at PF Changs with other friends, then whatever, then hotel room at the Marriott in the Old Market, then SLEEP IN!!, then brunch at Granite City.

I’m totally stoked to not have to wake up to Liam in the morning for the first time in 1 1/2 years. And I totally deserve it because I’m awesome and I’m a great mommy and a wonderful wife and a pretty cool friend. Agreed?

In other news, the game The Last Guy for the PS3 is totally cool and addictive and well worth $10. Because it’s a game I can actually play. Also, Pixel Junk Eden is more fun with two players I think.

I got ice cream at Hy-Vee a couple days ago because it was on sale and I thought shakes and rootbeer floats sounded like a nice treat and a way to fatten Liam up while filling him with fruit. Anyway, the first container we opened, the ice cream looks a deep yellow color and when I scooped some out tonight, it was kinda sticky. SO I looked at the expiration. MAY!! Seriously? Come on Hy-Vee. I considered not making a fuss because it was only $1.77 but this is the second time I’ve bought something over the expiration at this Hy-Vee. And I know I should check and usually do, but when I have Liam (who is not a big fan of sitting still) I often don’t take the time. Because I expect the store employees to do that. A few weeks I can forgive, but May?!

Also, Liam is finally starting to attempt words. His favorite sound it seems is “Waah” Which means “water” and “watch” and “wet” and various other words taht start with ‘w’. But yeah. It’s funny how he started after the doc said “let’s check on this.” Kinda like when they said “he’s not smiling yet?” he started smiling the day after.

Today though, he was so unbelievably cranky. I’m gonna blame it on the shots he got yesterday. But he also has this mysterious rash that started yesterday afternoon (before his appointment) and keeps getting bigger. It’s only on his trunk though, up to his ears. Nothing on his arms or legs. And they’re not raised bumps. Last time he had something like this, the docs told us it was just his response to getting over a virus. So maybe this is the last hurrah for whatever he had last weekend? I really hope so.

He just drove me crazy and I thought I was going to go out of my mind. I actually broke down and cried at one point. He didnt want to do anything but he didn’t want to sit still. Actually, the only time he was really happy was when he was watching tv and when he was in the bathtub. It was really hard to deal with. I hate days like this.

He didn’t want to eat at all today either. And he would drink his milk or juice and then let it dribble down his chin.

I really hope we have a better day tomorrow or I’ll go insane. I need a vacation!!

Liam and I drove to Hastings on Friday (during nap time of course!) to spend some time with Gpa and Gma. He seemed to have a good time, but since Gma has so much stuff around the house we had a hard time keeping his hands off all the little knickknacks. He fought naptimes and bedtimes but for the most part was pretty good about sleeping away from home. So proud! He woke up Saturday morning with a low-grade fever but was happy regardless. (I think teeth may be coming in) My parents had a deck party Saturday night and Liam as the only child was the hit of the party. He was very entertaining; throwing rocks in the pond, eating cookies, smiling at all the “old people.” It was great :) The fever finally went away by the end of Monday.

Liam had his 18 month checkup yesterday afternoon.
Height: 32″ (50%) Weight: 21 lbs 10 oz (5%) Head circumference: 49cm (90%)

So he’s a big headed stick boy. I swear he eats! He’s just not real crazy about milk so he’s not getting that fatty whole milk all the time. I’m going to switch him to whole milk yogurt instead of sharing mine, and we were encouraged to slather his food in butter and fatty cheese and stuff. Must be nice! He helped me with my Thin Mint blizzard tonight, so that should help :b

With regards to his feet, he’s been officially diagnosed with Metatarsus adductus. And apparently it’s not anything to be too worried about. Which is good! We’re still hoping it will correct itself on its own, and if not, we’ll deal with it when we come to that (3 or 4 yrs old).

With regards to his not talking at all, we were encouraged to get him evaluated. I try not to get too worked up about it because he used to talk, he just stopped. But it still worries me a bit. He has us pretty well trained to do things for him just by pointing and gesturing and grunting and stuff, though. So he must just figure that he doesn’t have to talk! We’ve started pretending that we dont know what he means and that he should TELL us, but when we do that, he’ll actually grab our arm or leg and pull or push us to the object or in the direction he wants us to go. It’s very clever :) And we know he understands almost everything we say because you can do things like mention a book and he’ll go get it (sometimes) or ask if he wants something and he’ll walk over to it and point.

He likes to apply sunscreen to himself and to us. It’s very cute! He will still bring us his hat to indicate that he wants to go outside. He likes it when I let him decide which pair of shoes to wear. And he absolutely loves being outside.

Liam woke up cranky yesterday and then decided to not take a nap. I tried three times to put him down and it didn’t work. And it’s not like he was happy and wanting to play, either. He NEEDED a nap. I don’t know what the problem was. I think his tummy was upset because he had some pretty nasty diapers. Which lead to nasty diaper rash. I ended up just giving up and taking him outside at about 4 and letting him play in the sprinkler. That made him happy, which made me happy!

After the sprinkler, I stripped him down and let him run around nekkid. He helped me shuck some corn for dinner. Then when B came home, we ate. His dinner was a nice change from his not eating all day. He ended up having an entire ear of corn (cut off the cob), and more than a cup of pasta with sauce. And then he finished off my ear of corn

Man, he’s not old enough to go without a nap! Trying to entertain him for almost 12 hrs straight was very very difficult and stressful. We did make a new friend yesterday, though, and hope to set up some future playdates! Yay!

Today (after we got up at 6 freakin 30 in the morning) we drove out to Pioneers Park and checked out the nature center. We saw bison about a mile away, but we got to see a couple huge elk who were leaning up against the fence. We also saw some owls (Liam will say “hoo hoo!” if you ask him what the owl says) and a turkey and lots of tall grass :) I think Liam had a good time. At least it got us out of the house–someplace new to visit! And after lunch…TA DA! He went to sleep! Not without a fight of course. I hope he takes a good long nap.

The KS pictures are up in the gallery too.

Alright, I’m exhausted. I’m going to go read and then take a nap while I can.

Had a great weekend in KS! Liam is becoming a better car-rider every trip and that makes me happy. We drove during his naptime which helped, but he cut his usual long nap down to a 1 1/4 hrs nap there and back. Don’t know why. Wonder if it has something to do with sleeping sitting up, or possibly pressure changes when we go up and down hills? Regardless, we made it there and back with our sanity. Praise Jeebus.

Liam finally warmed up to Gpa Dan and took a “tractor ride” with him on their riding lawnmower. He also enjoyed picking fruit off of Great-Gma’s trees. He couldn’t get a pear off so he just took a bite out of one that was hanging on the tree. Really wish I’d gotten a picture of that. But he got a couple apples off and walked around gnawing on green apples all day. And he picked a cherry tomato off a plant and squished it. Fun times! I’ll get the very few pictures I took up in his gallery soon.

Liam also got to play with his 2nd cousin Isaac. That was fun to watch! They’re about a month apart and they’re about the same size. I ended up chasing the both of them around the house, which was quite amusing. When they’d get to the hallway, one would go one way and the other a different way. So I’d have to decide who to chase and leave the other turning around wondering what was going on.

Tonight after realizing that I’m flabby and jiggly everywhere, I decided that I’m going to start walking or riding a bike every other night. Tonight I decided to walk to Target. There’s a secret path from our neighborhood to the Edgewood Shopping Center and by a lucky guess, I found it! Unfortunately, it started pouring as I was finishing up my shopping. So I had them double bag my stuff, slung it over my back like a backpack (it fit over my arms when I stretched the handles a bit) and took off through the rain. Thankfully it had let up quite a bit. Unfortunately, I took a wrong turn in the dark and rainy night and ended up walking all the way around to the other side of our neighborhood. I had a cell, I could’ve called for directions but refused to out of a silly sense of pride. And I eventually ended up on a street I recognized and made it home. Sopping wet, but happily exhausted. It was a very nice walk, rain and all!