Aunt Linda's visit

My aunt came over for just over 2 weeks at the end of May, beginning of June. It was so nice to have her here to help entertain Liam, love up Cian and help me organise the house a bit. The weather was less than impressive with low temperatures and mostly rainy or cloudy days... damn Irish weather!
She helped me get things prepared for the christening and was the official photographer on the day. We visited with Anne and Aunt Annie, hit the shops, visited the farm and the park. She introduced Liam to Banana ice cream, which is now his favourite ever!

I love this shot of Aunt Annie and Cian...

Aunt Lin and the wee man...
The weather got nicer towards the end of Aunt Lin's visit and we were able to get to the park for some fooling around...Spiderman...
We went to Springvale farm to see the animals. The weather was a bit crazy- one minute sunshine, the next clouds and rain. It was a nice day getting to see all of the little animals. Here's Liam hamming it up with me and Cian (wonder where he got that from?)
Big boy gets to go on his own in the barrel ride!
Nice shot of the boys.At the start of our development there are a few shops- hairdressers, tanning salon, chemist and village store. The village store was celebrating it's 1 year anniversary and threw a little family fun day with a bouncy castle, sumo wrestling, dj, etc. Here's Liam showing off his prize for being such a great dancer...
I realised how much I missed her, my mom, grandma and the rest of my family and friends so... I'm heading home to the states for an extended holiday at the end of the summer! I'm off on maternity leave until November so the time couldn't be better. I'll have 4 weeks there with just me and the boys and then Ollie will join us for the final 2 weeks. I'm looking forward to not having to cram a million visits into 2 weeks and get to enjoy a holiday at home for once!

Cian is 3 months

Cian is 3 months (well was a few weeks ago... he's nearly 4 months now) and boy is this little man growing strong! He's still a brilliant sleeper and is normally in bed from 9-10pm until 7-8am. He takes 2 set 2-3 hour naps during the day and is very alert for the remaining 7-10 hours! We have stopped breastfeeding completely now- I stopped at 12 weeks. My milk was just not there and that combined with his reflux and huge appetite just meant we had to stop. I was a little disappointed, but we did our best and 3 months is better than nothing at all! He is taking 210mls/ 7ozs of formula 5 to 6 times a day. He loves his food and is taking a real interest in what we are eating too. At his 3 month check up and injections he measured a big 65.5cms (25.8 ins) and 15lbs 9 ozs. He's in the 91st-97th percentile for both weight and length. He's pretty much exactly the same as Liam was at this stage, but considering he started out over a pound lighter and an inch smaller he might just be bigger than Liam soon! He has beautiful medium blue eyes and brown hair. Here's a pretty good shot of his eyes...
I have brown eyes and both Ollie and Liam have a hazel green, but everyone else in my family (apart from my grandmother) has blue eyes so I'm hoping they stay blue. He's a wee dote as they would say here- meaning he's a little cutie. He is a really good baby and I cannot complain one bit. He is a great sleeper, good eater, and for the most part has a great disposition. He seems to have outgrown his evening colic which makes for a more pleasant evening for everyone. He is so strong and loves to stand up (supported, of course) and is starting to enjoy tummy time, sitting in his bumbo chair and loves baby yoga. Cian is a wee wriggler and you cannot keep him still. I think he'll be rolling around and crawling in no time! He smiles all of the time now and has started laughing too. He loves his big brother and Liam loves him. I was a little worried that Liam would be jealous and be a bit rough with him, but he is so gentle and loving that it makes my heart melt. I know they are going to be best buddies.

Some recent photos of my little cutie-pie.

Cian's Christening

We celebrated Cian's christening on a sun filled, windy Sunday afternoon. He wore the same christening gown as Liam, one that I hope his own children will wear one day. I was getting a little worried he might not fit into it as it's 3-6 months and he is a little porker these days, but thankfully he fit it perfectly. We had Cian's christening at our parish church, Christ the Redeemer and Father Raymond performed a wonderfully personal service for us and 2 other babies. Cian, of course, was the cutest and most vocal... and from what my arms felt like after the 45 minute service, the heaviest. Here he is with his daddy after getting dressed in the crying chapel.
He wasn't that impressed with the water, but only fussed a wee bit.

We stayed for a few photos in the chapel before heading around to the Balmoral Hotel for his party. Here's the best family shot we could get.
Cian was stood for by one of Ollie's best mates, Joe (who according to Ollie would raise Cian in the religion of Man United) and Ollie's sister Susan.We had around 40 people join us for a hot buffet lunch of vegetarian pasta and garlic chicken with rice, salads and fresh breads. I made a cake and cupcakes for the kids. We had a friend, Warren, sing and play guitar. He got the kids all dancing to the Jungle Book and loads of funky wee tunes. Here's me with the wee man of the day.
Liam was in fine form, running around the ballroom and shouting, singing and dancing his wee heart out. He didn't even want a story that night and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

I'm a bit proud of Cian's cake which I made from scratch using fondant icing for the first time. It was a Madeira sponge cake with buttercream, strawberry jam and fresh strawberries. It turned out really well and I'm going to try and get myself a few commission jobs to improve my skills.

More posts to come...