Liam’s First Thanksgiving

With so much to be thankful for this year, I was really looking forward to Thanksgiving!  I love  the holidays, and kids are at a great age to really be excited and get into the spirit of the day!

Thanksgiving morning, we headed downtown to watch the 63rd running of the Troy Turkey Trot!  I wasn’t running this year, but we went to cheer on Poppy and Aunt Ashley, who were both participating.  It’s fun to watch because people get all dressed up in crazy costumes for the race, and we even got to sit next to a saxophone-playing Santa!  Here’s a little phone pic of the kids waiting for the racers to come by.

Then it was time to head home and prepare!  We always contribute pies and mashed sweet potatoes to the meal.  The kids watched the parade while Dev and I made apple pie, pumpkin pie and the potatoes.  Every year we talk about going down to watch the parade…someday we will get there!!

Liam’s all ready for his first Thanksgiving!

Is that the cutest little turkey bum ever?

 

Attempting a nice shot of the goobers…but you guessed it…the EYES ARE CLOSED!!

  

Then we headed over to Nanny and Poppy’s house for the festivities.  We had an amazing meal, and we actually got to witness a Thanksgiving miracle…Seamus ate turkey!!!

Time for the official Turkey Day nap

The kids with Aunt Ashie

The kids with Aunt Chachi

Thanksgiving is a little extra-special to us, because that is the day that Devon and I announced to our families that we were expecting our first baby.  On Seamus’ first Thanksgiving, after all we had gone through with his misdiagnosis, this bib he wore perfectly expressed how we were feeling!  I found it packed away in the baby clothes, and Liam got to wear it this year.

I truly don’t have words to say how blessed I feel with this wonderful family…

And Liam also made it clear what he is thankful for this year!

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.  ~Thornton Wilder

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Two

Liam is two months old today!

Last month, he was just a little squishy bundle of baby-ness.  I can’t believe how much he’s changed already!  I figured I should start putting something in these pictures as a size reference, so here’s the cute puppy that the Weissers gave him :-)

 

We love to see him smiling, cooing, and giving little sighs and squeals when we entertain him. 

He’s starting to get more active…look at those legs go!

He’s a mama’s boy all the way…he always has a tight grip on my shirt when I’m holding him (which is often, I have to admit…I have a hard time putting him down!)

This time has just flown by.  I’m back to work on the 1st and Liam will be off to the sitter.  Luckily we were able to get the same sitter who used to care for my youngest sister when she was little!  So we know he will be in great hands.  I’m also fortunate to go back part-time for December, so we can both get used to the transition.

Happy Two Months, Liam!  Don’t grow too quickly!

This is my life

My adorable son Seamus finds it physically impossible to keep his eyes open for a photograph.  It’s almost painful for me.  An example:  I wanted to take a cute picture of the boys wearing their matching “Big Brother”and “Little Brother” shirts.  Watch the agony unfold:

   

I mean really.  How can this be possible??

So now I’m all, “SEAMUS!!!!  KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN!!”

And I get:

 

Oh cripes. 

“Okay, let’s try this…CLOSE your eyes, and when I say three, open them!  One, two, three!”

 

Hooray!  Except by now, Liam has gotten bored with all of this and is staring off in another direction. 

And this is just two-thirds of our crew!  Can I tell you how excited I am for Christmas card pictures?  Super. Excited.

They’re lucky they’re cute!

A Man of the Cloth

I have been interested in the idea of cloth diapering for quite some time.  Intimidated, but still quite intrigued.  While pregnant with Grace, I spent countless hours on the internet, trying to decipher the code of the cloth diaper underworld.

Pocket, hybrid, AIOs, fitted, birdseye, hemp, Chinese prefolds…were these diapers they were talking about or top-secret government ops??

And once you figure out what all the different types of diapers are, then you have about a zillion and half brands to choose from:  FuzziBunz, Happy Heineys, BumGenius, Rumparooz, Knickernappies, Tots Bots…how many cute and clever spins can they come up with for baby butts???

It was all very overwhelming, and I eventually decided to get a pattern and try to sew my own cloth diapers.  I made ONE.   It now resides on the soft plastic bum of Grace’s favorite doll, Big Baby (I’d show you a picture, but Big Baby is a little scary.)

We eventually scrapped the idea for Baby #2, but when we found out we were expecting Baby #3, I really wanted to give cloth diapering a shot.  So I started my internet research again.  I reached out for help on Facebook and got the most excellent and awesome advice from a very sweet bloggy friend, Chelsea.

She recommended a Canadian company called ComfyRumps, which she has used on her two adorable boys.  I immediately checked out the website and saw the amazing price at which they were selling their diapers (nearly HALF of other popular brands!) and decided to go ahead and order a stash.  I am so glad we did!

These diapers are amazingly adorable.  They come in a gorgeous rainbow of colors and are a one-size diaper, meaning that they can last from 7 pounds up until the time your baby is 35 pounds.

They are so soft and squishy!  We have had zero problems with leaks and we have not had to use diaper rash cream on Liam since he was in the hospital.

They even look cute just sitting in the basket!  We have only purchased one box of 86 disposables in the seven weeks since Liam has been born.  With 10-12 diaper changes per day, it’s easy to see how many fewer diapers we are throwing away.

They wash up wonderfully and dry super-quick.  We use Rockin’ Green soap in our HE washer, and it only takes 1-2 tablespoons per load!  Love it!

These diapers rock, and we are so glad we made the jump into cloth diapering.  Good for the environment, good for the baby, and dare I say…even a little fun?

Because really, who DOESN’T want to dress up their baby’s bum for the holidays? 

Rock Around the Clock

This weekend we were so excited to attend one of our very favorite school events – the Sock Hop!  Sacred Heart School puts on a rockin’ sock hop every year and the kids just have a blast.  They go all out with the costumes, decorations and music, and we all dance the night away!

The kids were beyond excited and were clearly NOT in the picture-taking mood, so this is the best they would give me!

Try as I might, I could not find a baby-sized leather jacket (and believe me, I tried!), so I whipped out some red felt and decked out Liam in his very own letter sweater.  Paired with his high-tops,  he’s channeling the good-boy version of Danny Zuko!

 

We walked in the door, Seamus took off for the dance floor and I hardly saw him the rest of the night!  He’s getting his groove on here!

We had a blast as always!  Love our school!

Halloween Weekend

We had a fun and busy Halloween weekend!  We started it out doing my favorite thing…lounging in the living room eating breakfast, and Mommy and Daddy drinking a lot of coffee!

Then it was time to get ready for a special treat…a ride on the Albany Aqua Ducks Tour!  This is a really cool vehicle that tours the city by land and by sea!

It was extra fun this time, because the kids got to wear their costumes and trick or treat at all the tour stops.  They had a blast!  Here’s Dorothy Gale and Southpaw!

Later that evening, we walked from our house over to the new RPI Athletic Complex to watch a football game.  We are lucky to live so close to the college, and we love the football and hockey games.  There is a big hill on one side of the stadium that we can hang out on, and it gives us a great view. 

At halftime, the dance squad performed “Thriller,” and of course Seamus couldn’t resist performing his Michael Jackson moves for everyone else on the hill!

Liam’s first football game!

The chilly walk home!

“Look Mom, I found you this beautiful leaf!”

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Halloween Day, we were ready for some trick-or-treating fun!

Seamus has been asking to be Southpaw for a very long time…so with my mom’s help, we came up with a Southpaw costume.  Seamus was thrilled to be dressed as his hero, the mascot from the ValleyCats!

 

Here’s my sweet little Dorothy Gale…complete with the ruby slippers.  She loved this costume!

And of course, our little “monster!”

Liam loved his first Halloween!  The weather held out for us and we had a great time trick-or-treating.  The kids loved going up to each house and showing off their costumes.  They even had a great time just handing out candy to other trick-or-treaters. 

Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween!