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| I think Will had just poured water down his back. |
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| Love that belly! |
Friday, June 29, 2012
Splashin'
Since it's already 100 degrees or more pretty much everyday, the summer heat oppression has begun. We don't make it out for our walk everyday because it's usually too hot by the time we're ready to go. Obviously, staying inside all day is the coolest (temp-wise) option, but Liam still needs some outside time if we can get it. So yesterday, I set him up on a towel with a bucket of water (actually his Easter basket), and let him splash away. Will came home from work early and get here just in time to see the splashing. I think he had fun, but he would've enjoyed a bigger bucket more. I wish we could get him a little kiddie pool! We need to take him swimming in the regular pool that's 50 feet from our apartment.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Father's Day
This was Will's second Father's Day, but last year Liam was barely a month old and we were still in survival mode. I didn't really have it together enough to do much for him.
This year, we celebrated by going to Fort Worth. We went to two of our favorite places, the Japanese Botanical Gardens and the Spiral Diner. It was a nice morning and special since we rarely ever go to Fort Worth. It was Liam's first time at both places. He saw the huge koi, walked laps around the rock garden, and crossed the little pond with his daddy. Most of the terrain was too treacherous for a newbie walker, but he adored walking around in the couple of places he was able to do so. Liam is definitely happiest when he is free from all restraints!
Lunch at Spiral Diner was wonderful. It truly is our favorite restaurant. Yes, it's all vegan, but it is all delicious! Liam got to try the best potato salad in the world and their yummy bread. He spent most of the time goofing around with Will and looking around trying to get attention from people. Thankfully, he was pretty much ignored there!
Sunday, actual Father's Day, was very low key. We went to church and that was about it. Then I made a cake for Will on Monday.
I just have to say that Will is a wonderful father. He adores Liam and loves him with all his heart. He spends a lot of time with Liam and takes him for a walk almost every evening. He gets him ready for bed every night. Will lets me take much needed breaks and doesn't complain that our place isn't clean all the time. He works hard so that I can stay home with Liam, and he absolutely believes that's the best thing for our family. He loves playing with Liam, and I know they'll be best friends in the coming years. Liam and I are blessed that he is the head of our household. Liam has a huge advantage in life by having a father who loves him and is invested in his life. I know he will always be there for us. Will is the best!
This year, we celebrated by going to Fort Worth. We went to two of our favorite places, the Japanese Botanical Gardens and the Spiral Diner. It was a nice morning and special since we rarely ever go to Fort Worth. It was Liam's first time at both places. He saw the huge koi, walked laps around the rock garden, and crossed the little pond with his daddy. Most of the terrain was too treacherous for a newbie walker, but he adored walking around in the couple of places he was able to do so. Liam is definitely happiest when he is free from all restraints!
Lunch at Spiral Diner was wonderful. It truly is our favorite restaurant. Yes, it's all vegan, but it is all delicious! Liam got to try the best potato salad in the world and their yummy bread. He spent most of the time goofing around with Will and looking around trying to get attention from people. Thankfully, he was pretty much ignored there!
Sunday, actual Father's Day, was very low key. We went to church and that was about it. Then I made a cake for Will on Monday.
I just have to say that Will is a wonderful father. He adores Liam and loves him with all his heart. He spends a lot of time with Liam and takes him for a walk almost every evening. He gets him ready for bed every night. Will lets me take much needed breaks and doesn't complain that our place isn't clean all the time. He works hard so that I can stay home with Liam, and he absolutely believes that's the best thing for our family. He loves playing with Liam, and I know they'll be best friends in the coming years. Liam and I are blessed that he is the head of our household. Liam has a huge advantage in life by having a father who loves him and is invested in his life. I know he will always be there for us. Will is the best!
Monday, June 18, 2012
Liam at 13 Months
Here we are, a month after his first birthday. I feel like Liam is now even more so in fast forward mode. I can tell that he will grow up a lot this next year, which is good. I think we're heading into a time of frustration as he is becoming more physically able but still can't communicate effectively. He's always learning, though, so I know this is just a short stage. I admit I am looking forward to the day when he can tell me what he wants or what's wrong. I'm over the screaming, and he doesn't just do it if he's upset. It actually happens more when he seems perfectly fine. I think he just likes to scream. I think he does it because he doesn't know how else to show some of his feelings yet or voice demands.
I'm dropping stats for awhile. Liam won't have another pediatrician check up until he's 18 months old. So I'll just say he's a little bigger than he was last month. He's a large, solid, strong kid.
Personality: Liam shows more personality all the time. He also seems to have more than one personality! He's becoming more affectionate and cuddly, which is so sweet. When I'm reading to him, he likes to lay his head on me or even sit in my lap now. He snuggles more than he used to. He will also show affection towards people other than us. Liam is a social little guy. He doesn't appear to be shy, even though he may act that way at first to get more attention from people! He actively seeks attention from other people, especially in restaurants. And of course people usually give it to him, so there's usually random people coming to our table or always looking towards us. Will and I are not used to that! It's cute, though, but waitresses especially seem to take a liking to him so they're at our table almost constantly. Liam's other personality is that of The Screamer. Sometimes it's just random screaming, but other times I can tell he wants to tell us something or do something that he just can't do yet and so he screams. It's SO loud. I feel like this age is somewhat frustrating to him. He just can't do everything he wants to do or say what he wants to say. Lately, he's been really frustrated during meal times and screaming a lot during them. I honestly don't know what it is. He's typically ok when he's feeding himself, but starts freaking out when I feed him. However, I give him the option of feeding himself non-finger food things like oatmeal and mashed up fruit (still won't feed that to himself, remember?) by putting some of it and a spoon on his tray for him to try. He just plays with it. He doesn't feed himself with a spoon yet, so I have to do it. It's the only way he eats fruits and veggies, so it must be done. He doesn't even try to put food on the spoon and put it in his mouth yet, but still he gets frustrated. Too many meals lately have ended in tears, both from him and from me. Any suggestions are welcome!
Skills: Now that Liam has mastered walking as well as any 13 month old can, I'm hopeful there will be a verbal explosion over the next few months. He still hasn't added any words he says on a regular basis, but he will randomly say words. In the past month, he's said door, thank you (dankoo), and get down (apparently. Will and I didn't hear it but 4 family members claim to have clearly heard it!). He still says "good" all the time, but lately his most favorite word has been "Dad." Liam has been saying it all the time! No daddy, just Dad! It's cute! He has also gotten better with his mimicking skills. I taught him how to turn his palms up and shrug his shoulders like he's asking a question or saying "I don't know." That's really cute, especially when he just randomly does it. He's starting to understand more words, even if he doesn't say them. He's also pointing to things more often. One thing Liam has learned in the past month or so is sharing, or at least handing objects to us. He does this a thousand times (it seems) a day with me. Nine times out of ten, he hands me a book. That's usually followed by some babbling and perhaps some feet stomping that means he wants me to read it to him...now! I always read the book if he hands one to me. He LOVES to be read to! It is seriously his most favorite thing in the world. I read a lot of books everyday, and a lot of the same ones over and over. I don't think I can emphasize enough how much he loves this. He also loves to look at books on his own and sometimes babbles "reading" them. I hope he always loves books!
Food and Drink: As mentioned earlier, there is sometimes some drama at mealtimes. I started this post last week, and things have been somewhat better the past couple of days since I wrote that. Liam is doing pretty good with feeding himself, but still won't touch the fruits and veggies. However, he did feed himself a small bit of pickle at a restaurant the other day. That may be the first veggie he's fed himself! Since he still doesn't have much in the way of teeth, the fruits and veggies I deem safe enough for him to eat are usually pretty slimy since they are soft. So maybe he just doesn't like touching the slimy stuff. He doesn't like to get messy when he eats. He will feed himself pretty much anything else that's a finger food. His favorites are bread and cheese and little fruit snacks. One thing about Liam, he is a slow eater. With anything I put on his tray, there is usually a time of playing with the food before he eats it. He likes to smush the cheese, but then he eats it. When I feed him something, unless he's super duper hungry, he likes to rest between bites. But, even though he is usually slow, he is the type of kid to put lots of food in his mouth at once. With snacks, I have to regulate them and put out a few at a time, otherwise he will have 10 cheerios in his mouth in a few seconds.
One major change is that Liam no longer drinks formula. I was sad when breastfeeding didn't work out as planned and he had to drink formula in the first place, but I was actually also sad when he stopped drinking the formula. We ran out of it about three weeks after his first birthday. I didn't know it would be an emotional thing, but it was, I guess mainly because that means he's not a baby anymore? I don't know, but it was somewhat of a big deal to me. Since then, he's been drinking milk: mostly cow's milk with some soy. It seems he has outgrown the milk sensitivity he was "diagnosed" with at one month old. He's had more dairy in the past month than in the previous 12 months combined, but he's had zero problems with it. He has refused to drink milk (beyond the first sip) from his straw cup, so I've been letting him drink it from a bottle. I know that's bad, but I honestly feel like he needs another month or so before trying to go full-time with the straw cups. He drinks water from one throughout the day, but he sometimes takes a sip then lets it fall out of his mouth, just for fun. I'm trying to teach him not to do that. He did it with milk the other day, so until I can break him of this habit, I'm ok with him still drinking milk from a bottle.
Events and Firsts: Liam had two first birthday parties in May that were a lot of fun. He got to ride in a car facing forward for the first time. It was in a friend's car, as we still have him facing backwards in ours. We probably won't turn him around until the end of the year when we're planning on getting him a seat that only faces forward. He'll be about 19 months then, but I'm sure he will be the size of a two year old! Liam had his first play date at our house with his friend, Addy. They played really well together! On June 9th, we finally got a new vehicle! We got a Scion xB! The old, tired Camry is gone (traded it in). The xB (which is classified as a wagon) is the perfect size for us. We love it so far! Liam has a much safer ride now! His seat is in the middle of the back seat and it's so easy to get him in there. It was the best decision!
Teeth: Finally, there are more teeth to report! After several nights of waking up screaming, Liam's top middle left (from his perspective) tooth popped through on June 1st! Then the top middle right tooth popped through on June 7th! They are still in the process of coming down, so I guess he has about the equivalent of 2 and 1/3 teeth right now. Hopefully it won't be too long before more come in. As far as I can tell, no more are getting ready. These two coming in were tough on him. Lots of crying. He fell on his book, "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom," and that's what broke the skin for the second top tooth to pop through, so there was a little bit of blood involved with that one. Liam's smile looks so different already. He has a large gap between those two top teeth!
Now for some pictures! He is on the go (constantly, all the time) so it is extremely difficult to get him to look at the camera. I didn't really even try this month. These were taken at the Japanese Botanical Gardens in Fort Worth.
I'm dropping stats for awhile. Liam won't have another pediatrician check up until he's 18 months old. So I'll just say he's a little bigger than he was last month. He's a large, solid, strong kid.
Personality: Liam shows more personality all the time. He also seems to have more than one personality! He's becoming more affectionate and cuddly, which is so sweet. When I'm reading to him, he likes to lay his head on me or even sit in my lap now. He snuggles more than he used to. He will also show affection towards people other than us. Liam is a social little guy. He doesn't appear to be shy, even though he may act that way at first to get more attention from people! He actively seeks attention from other people, especially in restaurants. And of course people usually give it to him, so there's usually random people coming to our table or always looking towards us. Will and I are not used to that! It's cute, though, but waitresses especially seem to take a liking to him so they're at our table almost constantly. Liam's other personality is that of The Screamer. Sometimes it's just random screaming, but other times I can tell he wants to tell us something or do something that he just can't do yet and so he screams. It's SO loud. I feel like this age is somewhat frustrating to him. He just can't do everything he wants to do or say what he wants to say. Lately, he's been really frustrated during meal times and screaming a lot during them. I honestly don't know what it is. He's typically ok when he's feeding himself, but starts freaking out when I feed him. However, I give him the option of feeding himself non-finger food things like oatmeal and mashed up fruit (still won't feed that to himself, remember?) by putting some of it and a spoon on his tray for him to try. He just plays with it. He doesn't feed himself with a spoon yet, so I have to do it. It's the only way he eats fruits and veggies, so it must be done. He doesn't even try to put food on the spoon and put it in his mouth yet, but still he gets frustrated. Too many meals lately have ended in tears, both from him and from me. Any suggestions are welcome!
Skills: Now that Liam has mastered walking as well as any 13 month old can, I'm hopeful there will be a verbal explosion over the next few months. He still hasn't added any words he says on a regular basis, but he will randomly say words. In the past month, he's said door, thank you (dankoo), and get down (apparently. Will and I didn't hear it but 4 family members claim to have clearly heard it!). He still says "good" all the time, but lately his most favorite word has been "Dad." Liam has been saying it all the time! No daddy, just Dad! It's cute! He has also gotten better with his mimicking skills. I taught him how to turn his palms up and shrug his shoulders like he's asking a question or saying "I don't know." That's really cute, especially when he just randomly does it. He's starting to understand more words, even if he doesn't say them. He's also pointing to things more often. One thing Liam has learned in the past month or so is sharing, or at least handing objects to us. He does this a thousand times (it seems) a day with me. Nine times out of ten, he hands me a book. That's usually followed by some babbling and perhaps some feet stomping that means he wants me to read it to him...now! I always read the book if he hands one to me. He LOVES to be read to! It is seriously his most favorite thing in the world. I read a lot of books everyday, and a lot of the same ones over and over. I don't think I can emphasize enough how much he loves this. He also loves to look at books on his own and sometimes babbles "reading" them. I hope he always loves books!
Food and Drink: As mentioned earlier, there is sometimes some drama at mealtimes. I started this post last week, and things have been somewhat better the past couple of days since I wrote that. Liam is doing pretty good with feeding himself, but still won't touch the fruits and veggies. However, he did feed himself a small bit of pickle at a restaurant the other day. That may be the first veggie he's fed himself! Since he still doesn't have much in the way of teeth, the fruits and veggies I deem safe enough for him to eat are usually pretty slimy since they are soft. So maybe he just doesn't like touching the slimy stuff. He doesn't like to get messy when he eats. He will feed himself pretty much anything else that's a finger food. His favorites are bread and cheese and little fruit snacks. One thing about Liam, he is a slow eater. With anything I put on his tray, there is usually a time of playing with the food before he eats it. He likes to smush the cheese, but then he eats it. When I feed him something, unless he's super duper hungry, he likes to rest between bites. But, even though he is usually slow, he is the type of kid to put lots of food in his mouth at once. With snacks, I have to regulate them and put out a few at a time, otherwise he will have 10 cheerios in his mouth in a few seconds.
One major change is that Liam no longer drinks formula. I was sad when breastfeeding didn't work out as planned and he had to drink formula in the first place, but I was actually also sad when he stopped drinking the formula. We ran out of it about three weeks after his first birthday. I didn't know it would be an emotional thing, but it was, I guess mainly because that means he's not a baby anymore? I don't know, but it was somewhat of a big deal to me. Since then, he's been drinking milk: mostly cow's milk with some soy. It seems he has outgrown the milk sensitivity he was "diagnosed" with at one month old. He's had more dairy in the past month than in the previous 12 months combined, but he's had zero problems with it. He has refused to drink milk (beyond the first sip) from his straw cup, so I've been letting him drink it from a bottle. I know that's bad, but I honestly feel like he needs another month or so before trying to go full-time with the straw cups. He drinks water from one throughout the day, but he sometimes takes a sip then lets it fall out of his mouth, just for fun. I'm trying to teach him not to do that. He did it with milk the other day, so until I can break him of this habit, I'm ok with him still drinking milk from a bottle.
Events and Firsts: Liam had two first birthday parties in May that were a lot of fun. He got to ride in a car facing forward for the first time. It was in a friend's car, as we still have him facing backwards in ours. We probably won't turn him around until the end of the year when we're planning on getting him a seat that only faces forward. He'll be about 19 months then, but I'm sure he will be the size of a two year old! Liam had his first play date at our house with his friend, Addy. They played really well together! On June 9th, we finally got a new vehicle! We got a Scion xB! The old, tired Camry is gone (traded it in). The xB (which is classified as a wagon) is the perfect size for us. We love it so far! Liam has a much safer ride now! His seat is in the middle of the back seat and it's so easy to get him in there. It was the best decision!
Teeth: Finally, there are more teeth to report! After several nights of waking up screaming, Liam's top middle left (from his perspective) tooth popped through on June 1st! Then the top middle right tooth popped through on June 7th! They are still in the process of coming down, so I guess he has about the equivalent of 2 and 1/3 teeth right now. Hopefully it won't be too long before more come in. As far as I can tell, no more are getting ready. These two coming in were tough on him. Lots of crying. He fell on his book, "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom," and that's what broke the skin for the second top tooth to pop through, so there was a little bit of blood involved with that one. Liam's smile looks so different already. He has a large gap between those two top teeth!
Now for some pictures! He is on the go (constantly, all the time) so it is extremely difficult to get him to look at the camera. I didn't really even try this month. These were taken at the Japanese Botanical Gardens in Fort Worth.
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| I can sometimes get him to look if he's strapped in the stroller! |
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| Walking around the rock garden. |
Friday, June 1, 2012
Louisiana Trip for Liam's Second First Birthday Party
Memorial Day weekend, we headed to Louisiana to celebrate Liam's birthday with family. This was Liam's fourth trip to Louisiana.
We ended up leaving much later than planned, so we stopped for lunch in Lindale at a Chinese buffet restaurant. As usual, Liam was a hit with the waitresses and people sitting next to us. He loves attention and isn't shy (still don't know where he got that from). The waitresses stopped to chat with him every time they walked by!
Liam did great in the car, but started screaming when we got off I-20 in Minden. He cried almost until we got to Homer. He was tired and hungry. Of course he fell asleep ten minutes before we pulled into my grandparent's driveway. But he woke up happy, and we visited with my grandparents and he ate some food! After that, we went to my parent's house and visited a little while before we met up with my grandparents for dinner in Homer.
As I've mentioned before, Liam likes to stare at people, especially girls. But now it seems he has started trying to "talk" to them to get their attention! He did this with the waitress at Homer Seafood and Pizza (you can get either!). He kept turning around in his high chair, since she was behind him, and smiled at her at said "Hey!" Sometimes he said, "Good!," which is his favorite word to say. So yeah, it's fun to watch, and this time Liam had a big audience (my family) to entertain. The waitress was smiling, so hopefully she was ok with it!
After dinner, Will, Liam, and I walked to my high school since my grandparents live very close to it. We even went on the football field since all the gates were wide open. Even if they hadn't been open, they wouldn't have been locked. It had been a long time since I had been on the field. Liam was not impressed, of course! After our walk, it was bedtime for Liam, but he was not ready! He wanted to play some more and spend time with his great grandparents. He was flashing lots of smiles and being cute! He just wanted to stay up, and he was really wound up, so I didn't fight him on it and let him stay up until I knew he was truly ready for bed.
Saturday was a very busy day. We set out for Ruston, and I sat in the back giving Liam a bottle while Will was driving. We've done this many times before and never had any problems. But this was Liam's first time on a trip in his convertible car seat which makes him sit up higher and he can see out of the back glass. I'm not sure why, but something about drinking the bottle while going down the road didn't sit well with Liam. Once he had finished almost the whole bottle, he promptly projectile vomited it and all of his previously eaten breakfast all over himself, the carseat, and yes, on me as well. I yelled at Will to pull over, but the side of the highway wasn't the best place. Thankfully we were nearly to Athens and pulled into the (there's only one) convenience store parking lot. I had put a towel in the trunk for the trip, so I grabbed that and a full Nalgene water bottle and started cleaning it off of me just enough so I could function to take care of the rest of it. I got Liam out of the seat (poor guy), and Will helped me and got his clothes off of him and cleaned him off. I cleaned up the puddles in the carseat and on the back seat (thankful for leather seats in that moment), and then cleaned myself off some more.
We were headed to Ruston to have his one year pictures taken. Thankfully, I had been smart enough to not put him in his picture shirt, but he had been wearing the jeans he would have his pictures taken in. So I cleaned them off really well, and we put them on the front dashboard to dry. By some miracle, I had brought a pair of shorts as well (I know it's bad, but I pretty much never carry extra baby clothes with me). We put him in his picture shirt and the shorts, I dried the carseat as best I could, put him back in it, and we continued to Ruston. All in all, we handled the situation very well, I thought. We didn't freak out; we just dealt with it. I didn't have any extra clothes, so I smelled kind of like peach pumpkin pie baby food that had been part of his breakfast for the rest of the day... and it was a long day!
In Ruston, Will stayed at his parents' house to visit with them, I changed Liam back into his jeans which were still damp, and the two of us headed to Lincoln Parish Park where my friend Jamie took Liam's one year pictures. We were a little late, but it all worked out fine. As usual, Liam was Mr. Serious for the camera, but we managed to get some smiles out of him. I thought the shoot went really well, and it didn't take very long either. After that, I gave Liam another bottle since I knew he was hungry. Thankfully, I think he was only carsick, because he was perfectly fine the rest of the trip. Once we were finished at the park, we went to visit our friends the Kilpatricks. We had a nice visit with them, and Liam had fun getting into all their stuff, so the wrangling of him wore me out! We then met up with Will and his parents for lunch. By then, I think my clothes were mostly dry and so were Liam's pants! We ate at a new fast food place in town, Teriyaki Grill.
Unfortunately for Liam, there weren't any girls to stare at, but he did occasionally try to get the attention of the woman behind the counter. At some point, a guy came in and got an order to go. He sat at the table next to us while waiting for it. He was great with Liam, and Liam had fun hamming it up with him. I think he even gave him five! The restaurant was right next to Eskamoes (frozen custard), so I decided I wanted to get some since it had been years since I'd had any. We were just going to drive through, but then we saw that Jamie (the photographer), her husband Brian, and their three boys were sitting outside there! So we got to hang out with them for awhile, which was neat because none of us live in Ruston anymore!
At this point, we were all worn out, but it was time to head to my parent's house for Liam's birthday party. Thankfully, Liam slept on the way there. My mom chose a jungle animal theme for the party and had decorations, a cake, and a shirt she made for Liam that all matched the theme. It was very cute! Liam's parents (that's us), both sets of grandparents, great-grandparents, and aunt and uncle were there for his party! We had dinner first (Liam ate some beans and cornbread), and then Liam got to open presents! Once again, he had zero interest in actually opening the gifts, so Will and I did that for him. He liked playing with his new toys, though! He got a lot of great gifts. His family loves him so much! Then it was cake time! We put the whole cake in front of Liam and he promptly stuck his fingers in it. He had a look of concern on his face. I don't really think it registered to him that he could eat it! He never put his icing and cake-covered fingers anywhere near his mouth. I gave him a little bite of icing and and he mad a yucky face and coughed a little bit! So I didn't try to get him to eat anymore of the cake. Once we took the cake away, he just smeared the icing on the tray. The rest of us enjoyed the cake!
Liam had a great time at his party. He does love attention, and he had a lot of it there. He enjoyed carrying a ball around and walking from room to room. He enjoyed playing with the balloons. He is a very busy one year old.
When we got back to my grandparent's house, Liam got his first kitchen sink bath. He needed it, for sure! Then he did some more lap-walking around their house, and then I put him to bed. He was worn out, and slept through the night!
After Liam went to bed, we watched some TV with my grandparents. We watched a couple of episodes of "Duck Dynasty," which is a reality show based in West Monroe, LA about a family who has made millions making duck calls. It was seriously scripted, but it's very funny! I enjoyed it, though, and I like that it shows some places I'm familiar with, like I-20 between Ruston and WM! It does not take much to amuse me, apparently.
The next morning, we loaded up the car and headed back to Texas, stopping for lunch in Bossier City. All in all, it was a great trip! And the car got great gas mileage for a change. It was the Camry's last trip to Louisiana, as we will be replacing it this month! We won't have leather seats anymore, so now I'm paranoid about needing something to cover the seat in case Liam decides to make a mess again!
We ended up leaving much later than planned, so we stopped for lunch in Lindale at a Chinese buffet restaurant. As usual, Liam was a hit with the waitresses and people sitting next to us. He loves attention and isn't shy (still don't know where he got that from). The waitresses stopped to chat with him every time they walked by!
Liam did great in the car, but started screaming when we got off I-20 in Minden. He cried almost until we got to Homer. He was tired and hungry. Of course he fell asleep ten minutes before we pulled into my grandparent's driveway. But he woke up happy, and we visited with my grandparents and he ate some food! After that, we went to my parent's house and visited a little while before we met up with my grandparents for dinner in Homer.
As I've mentioned before, Liam likes to stare at people, especially girls. But now it seems he has started trying to "talk" to them to get their attention! He did this with the waitress at Homer Seafood and Pizza (you can get either!). He kept turning around in his high chair, since she was behind him, and smiled at her at said "Hey!" Sometimes he said, "Good!," which is his favorite word to say. So yeah, it's fun to watch, and this time Liam had a big audience (my family) to entertain. The waitress was smiling, so hopefully she was ok with it!
After dinner, Will, Liam, and I walked to my high school since my grandparents live very close to it. We even went on the football field since all the gates were wide open. Even if they hadn't been open, they wouldn't have been locked. It had been a long time since I had been on the field. Liam was not impressed, of course! After our walk, it was bedtime for Liam, but he was not ready! He wanted to play some more and spend time with his great grandparents. He was flashing lots of smiles and being cute! He just wanted to stay up, and he was really wound up, so I didn't fight him on it and let him stay up until I knew he was truly ready for bed.
Saturday was a very busy day. We set out for Ruston, and I sat in the back giving Liam a bottle while Will was driving. We've done this many times before and never had any problems. But this was Liam's first time on a trip in his convertible car seat which makes him sit up higher and he can see out of the back glass. I'm not sure why, but something about drinking the bottle while going down the road didn't sit well with Liam. Once he had finished almost the whole bottle, he promptly projectile vomited it and all of his previously eaten breakfast all over himself, the carseat, and yes, on me as well. I yelled at Will to pull over, but the side of the highway wasn't the best place. Thankfully we were nearly to Athens and pulled into the (there's only one) convenience store parking lot. I had put a towel in the trunk for the trip, so I grabbed that and a full Nalgene water bottle and started cleaning it off of me just enough so I could function to take care of the rest of it. I got Liam out of the seat (poor guy), and Will helped me and got his clothes off of him and cleaned him off. I cleaned up the puddles in the carseat and on the back seat (thankful for leather seats in that moment), and then cleaned myself off some more.
We were headed to Ruston to have his one year pictures taken. Thankfully, I had been smart enough to not put him in his picture shirt, but he had been wearing the jeans he would have his pictures taken in. So I cleaned them off really well, and we put them on the front dashboard to dry. By some miracle, I had brought a pair of shorts as well (I know it's bad, but I pretty much never carry extra baby clothes with me). We put him in his picture shirt and the shorts, I dried the carseat as best I could, put him back in it, and we continued to Ruston. All in all, we handled the situation very well, I thought. We didn't freak out; we just dealt with it. I didn't have any extra clothes, so I smelled kind of like peach pumpkin pie baby food that had been part of his breakfast for the rest of the day... and it was a long day!
In Ruston, Will stayed at his parents' house to visit with them, I changed Liam back into his jeans which were still damp, and the two of us headed to Lincoln Parish Park where my friend Jamie took Liam's one year pictures. We were a little late, but it all worked out fine. As usual, Liam was Mr. Serious for the camera, but we managed to get some smiles out of him. I thought the shoot went really well, and it didn't take very long either. After that, I gave Liam another bottle since I knew he was hungry. Thankfully, I think he was only carsick, because he was perfectly fine the rest of the trip. Once we were finished at the park, we went to visit our friends the Kilpatricks. We had a nice visit with them, and Liam had fun getting into all their stuff, so the wrangling of him wore me out! We then met up with Will and his parents for lunch. By then, I think my clothes were mostly dry and so were Liam's pants! We ate at a new fast food place in town, Teriyaki Grill.
Unfortunately for Liam, there weren't any girls to stare at, but he did occasionally try to get the attention of the woman behind the counter. At some point, a guy came in and got an order to go. He sat at the table next to us while waiting for it. He was great with Liam, and Liam had fun hamming it up with him. I think he even gave him five! The restaurant was right next to Eskamoes (frozen custard), so I decided I wanted to get some since it had been years since I'd had any. We were just going to drive through, but then we saw that Jamie (the photographer), her husband Brian, and their three boys were sitting outside there! So we got to hang out with them for awhile, which was neat because none of us live in Ruston anymore!
At this point, we were all worn out, but it was time to head to my parent's house for Liam's birthday party. Thankfully, Liam slept on the way there. My mom chose a jungle animal theme for the party and had decorations, a cake, and a shirt she made for Liam that all matched the theme. It was very cute! Liam's parents (that's us), both sets of grandparents, great-grandparents, and aunt and uncle were there for his party! We had dinner first (Liam ate some beans and cornbread), and then Liam got to open presents! Once again, he had zero interest in actually opening the gifts, so Will and I did that for him. He liked playing with his new toys, though! He got a lot of great gifts. His family loves him so much! Then it was cake time! We put the whole cake in front of Liam and he promptly stuck his fingers in it. He had a look of concern on his face. I don't really think it registered to him that he could eat it! He never put his icing and cake-covered fingers anywhere near his mouth. I gave him a little bite of icing and and he mad a yucky face and coughed a little bit! So I didn't try to get him to eat anymore of the cake. Once we took the cake away, he just smeared the icing on the tray. The rest of us enjoyed the cake!
Liam had a great time at his party. He does love attention, and he had a lot of it there. He enjoyed carrying a ball around and walking from room to room. He enjoyed playing with the balloons. He is a very busy one year old.
When we got back to my grandparent's house, Liam got his first kitchen sink bath. He needed it, for sure! Then he did some more lap-walking around their house, and then I put him to bed. He was worn out, and slept through the night!
After Liam went to bed, we watched some TV with my grandparents. We watched a couple of episodes of "Duck Dynasty," which is a reality show based in West Monroe, LA about a family who has made millions making duck calls. It was seriously scripted, but it's very funny! I enjoyed it, though, and I like that it shows some places I'm familiar with, like I-20 between Ruston and WM! It does not take much to amuse me, apparently.
The next morning, we loaded up the car and headed back to Texas, stopping for lunch in Bossier City. All in all, it was a great trip! And the car got great gas mileage for a change. It was the Camry's last trip to Louisiana, as we will be replacing it this month! We won't have leather seats anymore, so now I'm paranoid about needing something to cover the seat in case Liam decides to make a mess again!
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