Recent pictures

No real commentary on this post. Just recent pictures of Liam.

Old man face

Bathtime!

Everything in the mouth...

Another day in the park...

We met up with a few friends at the park over the bank holiday weekend. It was babies galore!! Deborah and Rosha, Cara and Anya, Anna and Oliver and me and Liam. It was so cute to see how they all interacted with each other! Ollie, Liam and I turned up a bit early to enjoy the swings and take a few pictures- Liam is always getting pictures of him and his daddy, but I want to be in there as well!

Ollie and Liam

The swinger

The clapper- Liam loves to clap.

Liam's hair is getting so curly! It's very cute.

Old friends

I love facebook. I don’t spend every waking minute on it and I hardly ever use my blackberry to check my page for updates (hardly ever), but I’ve reconnected with loads of friends from middle school, high school and college and old colleagues. With some people it’s been 12 years since I last saw or spoke to them. How much our lives have changed! Some have children, some living in different states or different countries, some with really interesting jobs and some that really haven’t changed that much at all. I’m notoriously bad at keeping in touch with people. This was the case long before Liam arrived so I cannot blame it on being a busy working mother. I can go months and months without emailing people. What was my point? Oh, even though I haven’t spoken to some of these friends in years, it still seems like yesterday. I don’t feel 30. I don’t feel thousands of miles and many timezones away. Although when I go back to the states it doesn’t feel like home anymore, when I see my friends I remember my time with them like it was yesterday.

I miss seeing my girls everyday, but I suppose that makes the times I do see them even more special! Can't wait for my October trip!

Lora’s Challenge

Lora recently challenged her loyal blog readers to see how Proctor and Gambleised (it’s a word, sort of) their lives were. I’ve always tried to boycott P&G ever since I signed a petition at a Princeton health food store when I was 20. This is mostly because they were testing on animals. To be fair, I’m not sure if they have changed that policy but it’s kind of always stuck with me. For the past 10 years I’ve been pretty successful until Liam arrived and I started using Pampers. I have tried the other brands- Huggies leaked through on too many occasions and Nature Babycare cannot handle the overnight pee pees. I’m still using Nature Babycare during the day because I would never leave my child in a wet nappy for more than a few hours so they work fine. I seem to have developed superhuman smell since I first fell pregnant- I can smell a poopy or pee-pee from down the block. At one time I had even entertained the idea of reusable nappies, but there aren’t any local nappy-washing services and I just don’t have the time to wash them myself.

My toothpaste is Colgate, my shower gel and deodorant Dove, my make up and face wash Clinique or Lancome and my hair products and moisturiser always Aveda. I’ve used Aveda since I first moved to Philly in 1999. My aunt had gotten the shampure range as a gift, but regifted to me (well, she just gave it to me) and I’ve been addicted ever since. Heather used to always say the smell of the confixor reminded her of me- Buffy the Vampire Slayer always reminds me of Heather. Whenever I go home or my family come here, they bring me the moisturiser and the super size shampoo and conditioners. I just can’t justify buying it over here, because it costs an absolute fortune- try double the price!

Persil for laundry and washing up liquid, comfort pure fabric softener, and can’t remember what dishwasher tablets I use. I hardly ever buy bounty because I try and use the recycled brands. So, I’m not too bad. Not too bad.

More photos...

Some other photos from the past week. Here's Liam in a huff this weekend at St George's Market. He's been exhibiting some arsey behaviour these days... very frustrating for mommy and daddy. He also lost his wee shoe. He now has four pairs of shoes missing one shoe.

They had a petting zoo and kids learning zone at the market this weekend. He was a bit young to fully appreciate everything.
I don't have to hold his bottle for him anymore. He feeds himself and is very good at it! I'm still spoonfeeding his dinners... think it will be a while before he masters the spoon.
We need to get gates for the stairs because Liam has discovered how to go up.

Liam's new girlfriends...

Liam's two newest girlfriends have arrived. Aiofe Sinead Garland was welcomed into the world on Thursday, 24th of July. Her mummy and daddy are so excited to have her finally here. She was 9 days late. I was the only one who said Sinead was going to have a girl! Too bad I didn't put money on it.
Anya Eve McCoey was born yesterday morning, 2 August. She was 11 days late- showing some super diva behaviour. Mommy, Cara, is recovering well in hospital following a section.
The family photo.
Liam has the pick of the newest hotties in Belfast.

Park Life

The weather was finally nice enough to venture outside and the we visited the park. Liam loved the swing and seeing all of the other kids. On the seesaw with daddy...Loving the swing...

We stopped by the ice cream van and got a cone. I let Liam try a bit of the ice cream, but he just get pushing his face into it. Very cute.
We also saw some friends- Cara is in the background, very pregnant and Rosha is saying 'hi' to Liam. Rosha's mum, Deborah, and I were in prenatal yoga and baby yoga together... so they've know each other for ages!

Catch up...

Sorry for being AWOL on the blogging front. Work has been demanding and I've not had the opportunity to pop up new photos and commentary on wee Liam's progress.

So, let's see... We passed 7 months and entered the destruction phase! Liam is into absolutely everything - cds, dvds, plants, flowers, gas fireplace (gas fire not on, of course), laundry, picture frames, glasses, wine bottles... if it is within arms reach, Liam's in it.. or knocking it over. He crawls with some amazing speed and is from one end of the room to the other in the blink of an eye. He also started pulling himself up onto everything.. mostly to grab at something and attempt to knock it over or pull it down.

We also had our first patch of sickness. Everyone has said that the first few weeks at nursery bring with them colds and bugs and poor Liam had a it bad. His nose was constantly full of gunk which made it impossible for him to breath and he wasn't able to sleep at night. He had a very high fever and a chesty cough. He went on a course of amoxicilin and baby paracetamol. Poor wee thing was miserable for several days. Then he passed it to me and I was off work for 3 days. Ugh, not fun.

Some 7 month pictures...

In his lumberjack outfit...

Just looking cute...