Liam's In Between Room

I can't really call it a nursery, and it's not yet a big boy room. It's somewhere in between, I suppose.

Before Liam was born, we planned to have a nursery for him like most parents do. I knew how I wanted to decorate it and what the color scheme would be. We moved into a new apartment what turned out to be less than a month before he was born. So of course, the nursery did not get done before we brought him home. That wasn't a big deal. We were planning on having Liam in our room the first couple of months anyway. Around the time he was 2.5 months old, his nursery was still not ready for him and we weren't ready to be so far away from him at night. That's when we moved his crib into our bedroom (Liam had been sleeping in a pack and play bassinet). Months went by with the intention of cleaning out his room (it became our catch all room) and moving his crib and him into it. But we never really had a desire to give up our roommate. Sure, there were times when we wished Liam was in his own room, but I guess the desire was never big enough for us to actually take action to get his room ready. Then before we knew it, we were planning another move to a different apartment. That's when we decided it wasn't worth the effort to clean out the room and it wasn't worth it to put Liam through two transitions.

We moved into our current apartment when Liam turned 11 months old. We had bought a new mattress for our bed, but still had our old one. The first week we were here, Will was out of town for most of it. Since the bedrooms are across the apartment from each other, I knew I wanted to be near Liam for at least that first week. The movers put his crib into his new room, not ours, so we put our old mattress on the floor in his new room with the intention of sleeping there the first week. As it often does, time got away from us and we ended up sleeping in his room for almost a month...on a mattress on the floor, even though our perfectly good new mattress and bed were in our room.

Finally, on Liam's birthday, May 14th, Will and I just simply went to bed in our own bedroom instead of Liam's. We turned the monitor on, and thankfully everyone made it through the night just fine. Liam never even woke up! His first birthday seemed like a good day to go our separate ways.

Since then, we've all adjusted well to our new sleeping situation. Liam has woken up a few nights, but it's not too bad having to walk across the apartment to him. I think we all sleep better being in separate rooms. We sold our old mattress a few days after his birthday, so now we can't sleep in there even if we wanted to!

I know most people wouldn't dream about spending the whole first year of their child's life sharing a room with them, but there are plenty of other people who do and go way beyond a year. For us, a year was just right.

So now that Liam has his own room, I finally decorated it! I used the decorations friends made for it before he was even born. It felt good to finally get all of it up! I love his room. I think I will eventually put more on the walls, but I think it's good for right now!

Banner and pillow made by my friend Glenda

Curtains made by my friend Kelli. They match his baby blanket and the crib bumper.

Original artwork by my friend Amanda

Liam's First Birthday Party

Warning: this post is long and contains lots of pictures.

I admit that even though I wasn't really looking forward to Liam turning one, I was looking forward to hosting a birthday party for him! I truly believe the first birthday is solely for the parents, a celebration of surviving the first year. That's why I planned his party with a theme that amused me, because I knew Liam wouldn't care at all.

I chose a Beatles/British theme because I do love the Beatles, and I've always thought a Beatles themed party for a kid would be super cute. I added the British element to it because I thought it would make decorations easier. I was right!

Around the time I decided on a Beatles theme, I also joined Pinterest. Therefore the first logical step in planning the party was to make a pinboard with ideas for it. You can see my party pinboard here. I pinned a lot of things, not with the intention of using all those ideas, but just to get inspiration for the party I was planning. The downside of the pinboard is that it made me dream too big. I got all these fabulous ideas, and then toned it down a whole bunch. I definitely got a little carried away in my head, but thankfully not in real life. My small budget and small apartment brought me back to reality.

Even though I had been thinking about and gathering ideas for the party for a long time, I didn't really start doing any preparations until April. The first thing I did was make an invitation. I tried designing one from scratch, and I think I could've made a cute one, but a coupon code persuaded me to just get them printed through Shutterfly. I designed the picture on the front and then added the text and picture on the inside. I only ordered ten, and with the coupon code, it was cheaper than if I had bought supplies to make my own.

I sent out 9 of the 10 invites (had to keep one, of course!), and really started planning the food and decorations. In the end, I kept the decorations simple and used paper to create them. I am a slacker scrapbooker, so I'm decent with paper. I ended up not having time to do some things I wanted to do like make proper food description cards, but handwritten ones worked out just fine!

Almost everyone we invited came, and we somehow managed to host 27 people (including the three of us) in our small apartment. We moved the TV into our bedroom, and I think that helped a ton with space. There were lots of babies, kids, and parents! I didn't plan any activities because I knew the kids would play and the adults would talk and wrangle babies. I definitely had a great time. I hope our guests did, too. It was a great joy to have all those friends in our home! Liam just had a look of determination on his face the whole time, playing with his toys and checking on the other kids playing with his toys!

All in all, it was a great success, and it was a fun way to celebrate Liam turning one!

Front of invitation

Inside of invitation

Food table and birthday banner

Close up of food table.

The food selections were cupcakes (no clever name for them), Strawberry Fields and Apple Records wedges with Marshmallow Pie dip, Octopus's Garden veggie tray (octopus made out of a red pepper is in the middle), Cheese Cheese Me featuring crackers, Fish and Chips (goldfish crackers and potato chips), and Ringo Starr puffs (star-shaped puffs for the babies).

Another banner

Pictures from Liam's first year

Drinks set up

Guests signed the Dr. Seuss book. Planning to read it to Liam on his birthday each year.

Liam enjoying all the space before the party.

Cupcakes!

The toppers were made from stickers I found at Hobby Lobby. I stuck them to cardstock, cut them out, and glued them to sticks. SO easy!

They sat on stands I made from records. I painted the middles.

Liam playing with the big boys.

Guests

More guests

Singing Happy Birthday! Liam wanted to play!

Still wanting down to play!

A couple of Liam's friends in the perfect dresses for the party!

Eating the gift receipt from a present his friend gave him.

Getting Liam to smile for the camera!

Our little family

This picture cracks me up. Liam was in the middle of blowing a raspberry and he decided to stick his hand in Will's mouth!

Father and son.

Party favors: Mix CDs I made including Beatles songs, instrumental covers of Beatles songs, and some lullaby renditions of Beatles songs.

Liam at One Year

It finally happened. Liam turned one. The first year flew by, which makes me fear how fast his entire childhood is going to go by. I was a little emotional leading up to his birthday, but now that we're past it, I'm looking forward to all the fun changes he will go through this next year!

Stats: He finally had another pediatrician check up. He is 25.4 pounds (80th percentile), and 33 inches tall (97th percentile). Big boy! His head is 18 inches around. He's in size 4 disposable diapers and 12-18 month size clothes. Any new clothes he gets are 18 month size. He wears a size 6 shoe (recently got his first pair!), but they are a little big so he won't grow out of them in a week. Now if we could just get him to walk in them...

Personality: Busy is the word I would use to describe Liam. He's very curious and wants to mess with EVERYTHING. And of course, there's the frustration when I don't let him mess with it all. Sometimes he arches his back (especially if I'm picking him up to remove him from a potentially dangerous situation), but he has also started throwing himself on the floor and laying his head down if he's frustrated. Still screams too, but that happens whenever he feels like it, even if he's perfectly happy! Liam is also a little daredevil, standing on toys and climbing (or at least trying to climb) on anything he can. He's very smart, so he knows that standing on something makes him taller to reach more things. He can also be very focused on playing. If he's really into it, he doesn't smile or pay attention to anyone else. He is in the zone! When he is playing with other babies, he does still sometimes just take whatever toy they are playing with, but I feel like he's getting better. Like I said, he's curious and wants to see what they're playing with! I feel like Liam has an intense personality at times. We sometimes call him "crazy boy." He seems to be pretty social and not scared of other people. Stranger danger or separation anxiety still haven't set in with him. He is becoming more affectionate, at least towards me. He does play rough with Will. I don't know if he realizes Will is a boy and he can be more rough, but Liam is definitely a little more gentle with me. We're trying to teach him that it really hurts when he grabs Will's face, even though he usually grabs it to give him a smooch. Still, though, Liam has the death grip and it's no fun when it gets used on your face. He's grabbed mine a couple of times, but Will gets the worst of it :( Still, though, he's a really fun and happy kid. He still loves to laugh!

Skills: I guess his coolest new skill is the big one: walking! After taking his first step on his 11 month birthday, and not doing it again for a week, he really stepped up (pun intended) the walking skills after that. There was definitely a progression, but really, he picked it up and became quite good at it quickly. It is extremely rare for him to crawl anymore. He walks everywhere. Just pops up and goes! With a look of determination on his face. He still falls down, of course, but he's pretty good at catching himself and keeping his balance. It's so neat to see him walking around this place. I think he loves his new skill! Liam has started doing the sign for "more." For a little while, he did it all the time, so I wasn't sure if he really got its meaning, but he does use it in the correct context as well. He also understands the signs for water and all done, but he doesn't do those yet. I haven't been signing with him very long, so I'm pleased with any skill he has in that area. When he's eating, he has started saying, "Mmmmm," and smiling real big and putting his head back a little. It's super cute! I guess I said it and "yummm" so much while feeding him that he finally picked up on it. I think he also does this when he wants to eat or when he wants more of a  food. So it kind of means "It's good," and "I want more." Liam hasn't really added anymore words to his vocabulary this month. Right now, we're working on "cat" and "baby" because he *almost* says both of those words already. He actually has been saying cat today, so good job, Liam! I know all parents think this about their child, but I think Liam is really smart. When I ask him a question, I feel like I can see his brain working, even if he doesn't really understand the question yet. One thing he can do is identify his books. I can hold up two different books and ask him to pick a certain one, and nine times out of ten he will pick the correct one. If three or so books are laying on the floor, I can ask him to go get a certain one and he almost always gets the right one. It impresses me! He at least knows what his books look like and he's responding to a command. I've started pointing and identifying objects a lot, and asking "What's that?," and then telling him what it is. Hopefully he's learning something from that!

Food and Drink: Liam still will not feed himself fruits and vegetables. He just plays with them on his tray. However, he will let me feed them to him. He's not really a picky eater, so I'm hoping it's just something he snaps out of one day. However, he does feed himself a lot of different foods these days. Some of the new ones are grated cheese, little fruit snacks, and goldfish. He is still just working with two measly bottom teeth, so he's still not really a biter of food. Overall, he is a very good eater, and I'm thankful for that, even if I have to still feed him sometimes. As for cups, he is officially on straw cups. He now does an excellent job of drinking from them, even ones without handles. I think he looks like such a cute, big boy drinking from his straw cup. I will not attempt anymore sippies with him because he just doesn't like them! Shortly before his first birthday, I started giving him a little bit of whole cows milk to see if he could handle it. So far, I haven't seen any ill effects. He likes the taste, and he hasn't had any stomach issues with it. But, I haven't given him a lot of it in one day. The most he's gotten in a day has been maybe 6 or 8 ounces. He is still drinking his formula, but not as much each day. We have two cans left, and will use that up and then move on to just milk. I think the challenge I'm facing now is getting him off the bottles. He still prefers to drink formula or milk from a regular bottle, especially before going to sleep. I know I can get him off the bottles during the day, but I'm worried about the bed time bottle. I need tips for how to get him out of the habit of drinking something before bedtime. As we wean him off formula, I'm hoping to drop the bottles at the same time.

Events and Firsts: The major first was his first Birthday on May 14th! The other major first was walking! On Liam's first birthday, Will and I stopped sleeping in the same room as Liam. At our old apartment, his crib was in our room. When we moved to the new place, we put his crib in his room, but we slept on our old mattress on the floor in his room for almost a month (we had gotten a new mattress for our bed before we moved). Of course we never intended to sleep in there for that long, but that's what happened! I figured his first birthday was as good a day as any to finally go our separate ways at night. So we did. We hooked up the monitor, and slept in our own bedroom. Everything went fine! It's been a pretty easy transition for Liam, as he's only cried in the middle of the night a couple of times. The difference is now I'm not tempted to just put him in the bed with us to get him to go back to sleep. I do miss him being so close, but I do like not sharing a room anymore. One year was the right amount of time for us to be in the same room. Another big event was Liam's first birthday party, which was yesterday. I will be devoting a post to it, so no details here! It was crazy, but fun!

Teeth: Like I wrote earlier, Liam is still rocking just the two bottom teeth. On the top, the teeth are bulged out almost to the bottom of his gums that pretty soon they will have no choice but to pop out! As far as I can tell, no other teeth are getting ready to make an appearance. Liam is having some teething pain occasionally and it usually involves crying. I'm hoping the teething necklace is still helping some. He does seem to be more irritated when he doesn't have it on.

So that's some of what Liam is up to at one year old! He's such a sweet boy, and I'm looking forward to his second year! Now for some pictures of Liam walking!

He wouldn't walk in his shoes at all and wouldn't walk on the grass in his socks!

Enjoying some water after all that walking in the sun!

Liam Month by Month

I have several blog posts I want to do, but I have to get this place ready for Liam's party, which is in two days! So hopefully I can do all the blogging I want next week. In the meantime, I thought I would post these pictures of Liam since it will only take a few minutes and it shows how much he has changed in the past year!

1 day

2 weeks

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

1 year!