Let's start with Liam. Presently, he is fast asleep in his little bassinet in our bedroom. He caught his first cold (can you guess from whom?) but hasn't been fussy in the least, just a stuffy nose and a little cough. I'm in awe of what a wonderfully sweet little guy he is, even during his first cold!
As you may have guessed, Elizabeth also has a cold... basically the same symptoms. And like Liam, she is not terribly fussy and aside from being a slimey, snotty, wet mess, is still pretty happy most of the day.
Anyway, I am very happy to report that Liam is CONSISTENTLY sleeping through the night now... sometimes all the way to 7am, although most nights to 5am. How different than Elizabeth?! I'm not sure if it is his laid back personality, or the fact that mommy is more laid back the 2nd time around... but whatever the case may be, I'm just elated that we are getting such great sleep! I often feel I missed so much of Elizabeth's first year of life because I was such a sleep deprived zombie! Not so this time around! And I continue to pray that sleep goes well for all of us!
Anyway, as mentioned, Liam is such a sweet baby! He really is just the sweetest! We often say we think he is very "sensitive" because lots of little things will startle him and he will pout out his bottom lip (really pout it out) and then just cry and cry. Things he dislikes include sudden loud noises, you know like a door slamming shut, or a big sister running screaming into a room... along with sudden movements, like if "someone" (i.e. big sister) accidentally bumps into his bouncy or swing, he will get very startled and make a big pouty face and then cry. It is very sweet and melts my heart each time! Most of the time, though, Liam is smiling! He smiles SO much and just loves to communicate and imitate sounds and facial expressions! He is very content all day long... and is just a sweet, sweet babe! Each day he seems more alert, more communicative, more smilie, and each passing day I feel even more overwhelmed than the last that I was blessed with such a gift!
Elizabeth is growing and changing as well. She talks more and more each day... full sentences, sometimes full paragraphs, but lots of jibber too which makes it so cute! She LOVES to read, and reads pretty much all day long. She calls her bookshelf in our bonus room her "library" and it is the first place she wants to go when she wakes up in the morning, and the last place you'll find her before she goes to bed! She will often curl up in her big rocker and read book after book for hours on end! And she will often read books around the house or in the grocery store... reminding me so much of my sister Maddie when she was little (always a book in hand!). The funniest part though is when she gets her stories mixed up... like when she's reading the Cat in the Hat and all of a sudden I hear her say, "Then Mowgli the man cub ran away." I can't help but laugh at how out-of-context it is.
She also has really developed quite an imagination for things. She continues to pretend to be different characters from books and tv... Buzzbee, SuperWhy, Zoe, etc. And she continues to use her imagination to see things in everyday objects. A block becomes a piece of cake, etc. Sometimes, though, what she "pretends" just cracks me up! For example, Elizabeth and Liam were given the cutest Winnie the Pooh stuffed animals from Caleb and the McDermott family. I put Pooh in Liam's crib, and let Elizabeth play with Eeyore. One night as we were settling down to read our bedtime stories, Elizabeth was playing with Eeyore and really inspecting his bushy tail. She tells me, "Caleb gave me Eeyore at the movies... Caleb is cool!" To which, I reply, "Oh yeah, did Caleb give you Eeyore?" She replies, "Yeah." Then still inspecting his tail, says, "You better be careful, there's a raccoon in there." To which, I say, "WHAT?!" She says, "There's a raccoon in there [pointing to Eeyore's tail] Caleb put him in there... you better watch out!" At this point I get up and turn on the light to see what on earth she was looking at... almost convinced there might be a raccoon in there. All I saw was a knot of thread. But it just goes to show what a vivid (and sometimes downright bizarre and hilarious) imagination she has!
She also loves to sing! BINGO is probably the song she sings most, but she has a large repertoire of children songs she sings around the house. She also knows the difference between mommies music and her music... and if I dare turn on the radio it is almost certain to illicit a major meltdown! Similarly, whenever I go to sing a song... be it a children's song or a mommy song... Elizabeth yells "No! Not sing dat one! Sing 'Amazing Grace!!!!!!!!" She says it in a very commanding way, earning her a "one" (from, 123 Magic we are trying out). Of course, if I continue singing, she continues to get upset and insists that I "not sing that one." Apparently, she really likes the song "Amazing Grace."
Anyway, we have decided to enroll her in a local church preschool. We put her on the waiting list, and were surprised to find out there was an opening. It will be MWF for a few hours. I feel so torn about the whole issue. Mainly, I feel such an overwhelming sense of loss... I feel like I'm really losing my little baby! I know she will always need me and she will always be my "baby." But sometimes I just SO wish she could literally stay my baby forever! I often wonder why God designed it so they grow up so fast? It really does hurt my heart to think of her in SCHOOL, even if it's just preschool. It just hurts! And I can hardly believe I'm uttering words like "Open House" and "Conferences" with respect to my daughter! My baby! At the same time, I know she will LOVE it! And I know she will have so much fun with all the other kids... getting to play with blocks, and paint, and read stories, and sing songs! While we do all those things at home, I often feel like she can get a little bored with me... especially now that Liam is here! So while it hurts me to be sending her to school, at the same time I know she will just absolutely love it! Plus, it will give me some one-on-one time with Liam!
Not much new going on with me and Vassil. Same old stuff, really. Working, taking care of kids, taking care of the house... getting 'maybe' 20 minutes of personal time at the end of the day, then collapsing in exhaustion, only to wake and start it all over again. The domestic treadmill!
Vassil finished building our picket fence... Bella is now a free dog! I'm so proud of him! The front part is a really charming picket fence, which will get painted white once the pressure-treated wood has time to dry out. The rest of the fence is that green wire stuff you see people put around their gardens. We decided to run it through the woods instead of a picket as it is way easier to install, it camouflages with the woods so you don't even know it's there, and it saved us quite a bit of money. We hired a handyman to help install the wire part, but Vassil did a lot of it, and I'm so happy and proud of his accomplishment. And we think Bella is pretty happy, too!
Vassil has also being doing really amazing things at work. He forbids me from talking about it because he worries and worries that people will think I'm bragging. I'm not. I'm just simply extremely proud of him! He has come up with some very novel steps in different synthesis projects, getting published in the ACS, and winning him several awards. He is also scheduled to fly up to Pennsylvania for a day to meet the CEO of GSK for a project he was on, in which he helped saved the company millions of dollars by simplifying the process (his idea!). Yes, you heard right... he'll be meeting "THE" CEO of Glaxo-Smith-Kline.... I can't help but be proud of what a smart amazing chemist he is! Not bragging, just simple truth!
Again, not much to report on my end. I'm enjoying taking some time to myself to take my cake decorating class. I've also been busy trying to get some things organized around the house. Oh, and I made my first Craigslist sale! It was sad to see our leather loveseat go as it was our first furniture purchase after getting married. We bought it on a whim, and the fact that it was drastically reduced. I think we had visions of putting it in a formal office one day... unfortunately, we just never had space for it. So we decided to let it go. I posted it for $50 more than we paid for it, and in 20 minutes had 3 serious buyers. We ended up selling it for $100 more than we paid for it, which is amazing because it was a little warn and had a few 'scars' from the 5 years we've had it. Anyway, I was sad to see it go, so took one last pic for memory-sake... this one with Elizabeth. Funny how attached we get to material things. Oh well.
Anyway, hopefully I can do a better job of staying on top of the blog! Until then...
