Growing Pangs

Sunday, 25 January 2009

Thanks to a recent tagging by my friend Heather I find myself blogging about my bag fashion. I remember when I would search the department store for the smallest bag available- the kind that would barely fit my driver's license, lipstick and a few twenties. These days it seems like I cannot find a bag big enough to fit all of the little necessities mommyhood requires.

Luckily, I found a great fossil bag for $180 about 2 1/2 years ago at Macy's. I initially bought this for work- it was big enough to fit my laptop, notes, a book and research, but still small enough to fit under the seat in front of me on the plane. These days it hardly ever has work in it. Instead you'll find wipes, shoes, socks, pacifiers, toys, drink cups, snacks, my keys, phone and wallet... in fact this post reminds me I need to clean it out.

It's held up really well and I would definitely recommend the brand- the leather is nice wearing and practical... well sort of... I have a suspicion it is contributing to my aching shoulder and back (or that could be Liam). Liam has a little backpack for daycare that I keep an extra change of clothes and nappies- this tends to be close at hand in the car. And sometimes I dust off one of my nice Coach bags or a little clutch, but this is rare.

Thursday, 8 January 2009

Liam's 1 year check up

I took Liam to get his 12 month injections and check up today. We arrived quite early to avoid too much traffic. I brought along his little lap top and some animal crackers to keep him busy. He was so cute dancing around the doctor's office and performing for everyone. He was giving the other patients big smiles and laughing loads. He weighed in at a big 10.9kg (24lbs) and measured at 82cm (32.3 ins) in length. I'm not sure which percentiles he is in, but he's normally around the 97th. He was walking all around the room and babbling and talking loads to the health visitor, which she was very pleased with. I tried to explain to him that he was getting a shot in his leg and it would hurt for a little while. He only cried for about 10 seconds when the needle went in. He was very brave and I gave him loads of hugs and kisses afterwards.

I still can't believe how big he's gotten and how much he has changed. This day last year, he was only 1 month old. What a difference a year makes!

Wednesday, 7 January 2009

Christmas with the Reynolds'

The Christmas holidays were lovely and quiet this year. Although we had everyone up to our house for Christmas dinner, we mostly stayed in doors just enjoying the company of our friends and family. Liam is still a little too young to understand all the fuss and bother. He's not in a rush to get to bed at night in order to wake up early to open presents. He's not in awe over the Christmas tree (just wants to take off all of the ornaments and put them in one of his boxes). He doesn't really get Santa, he's just happy to go sit with anyone. Here is is official Christmas photo with Santa- forgive the darkness as I had to scan it in.

We didn't go overboard with presents. Liam got tons of toys and clothes for his birthday- just 2 weeks before the holiday. We bought him a few bigger toys, a couple of small toys, smaller stocking stuffers and some more clothes (I'm still not sure when he'll get a chance to wear everything!) I also hit the sales after Christmas to pick up more bargains for him... more clothes! He really enjoyed ripping the wrapping paper off of the presents. We got him a Fisher Price Geotrax which he won't really be able to use until the summer or maybe even his next birthday. He has so many toys for 12-24 months, that I had to get him something a little different (plus I got it at a brilliant price).

And I picked him up a cute little robe to wear around the house.

Looking like a little elf...

"Okay mom, let's eat some bananas!"

You can kind of make out his new teeth in this one- 3 on the top!

I know this is a little mean, but I couldn't resist putting his long curly hair up in a little pony tail!

I went all out for dinner and made everything from scratch. Oliver helped with the turkey and made the roast potatoes, but it was all me for everything else. Stuffing, cranberry sauce, herb butter, wheaten bread and cheesecake for dessert. The cheesecake was a bit of a disaster, but edible- need to get a better recipe... suggestions are welcomed!

Monday, 22 December 2008

Some cute pictures...

Liam loves to work things out. This is his new little booster seat for Grandma's house. He is trying to work out the buckle.

Not the best picture, but I just thought it was cute... His hair is so curly and it's getting very long. I'm half tempted to cut it, but it's too lovely.

Sucking on his spoon- he loves his yogurts!

Liam is one year old!!

Well, it's certainly hard to believe that it's been an entire year since I popped out my 10lb+ little monkey. I can hardly imagine my life before Liam arrived... it has been completely turned upside down (in a good way, of course). He has changed so much since that first day we met him. He has the most adorable, cheeky little personality. He has near tripled in size (will post up his latest doctor's report when we visit the doctor in early January) and is more like a wee boy each day. He has 2 teeth on the bottom and 3 teeth half way through on the top (that's been fun!) He loves all food- I mean everything! He will take broccoli and asparagus and runner beans from my plate. He's down to one formula a day and is enjoying cow milk with his breakfast and a glass with his lunch. He loves cheese, eggs, bread, all vegetables and fruit. We recently introduced a small amount of chocolate- milk chocolate, which he gets around once a week if he's been a good boy. He is a total eating machine! Today he had 3 small bowls of cornflakes at daycare and was screaming for more. The girls there say they've never seen a child his age eat so much. He's still mostly in 12-18 months, but our clothes here run a little big. He took his first steps back in October and now walks all around the house. He walks around 90% of the time and will get from seated to standing completely unaided- he's also started looking and laughing at us between his legs as he props himself up to stand- I need to get a video of that it's very cute! He's still mostly saying baba, mama and dada, but will try and repeat words like cat, dog, hiya, bye bye and whatever we encourage him to say.

We had 20 people around to our house to celebrate Liam's first birthday. It was a great day and we're so happy that so many of our friends could make it. I made a few big lasagnas (and a veggie one for me) along with salad and cupcakes and brownies. I was cooking for a couple of days. A friend at work made Liam a cake to match in with his 'jungle buddies' theme. Liam loved the candles and everyone singing happy birthday to him.

Liam, Matthew and Oliver... the three amigos.

Oliver is so cute and loves to smile for the camera!

Daddy trying to get his son started on the drink a little early.

The closest we could get to a family photo... little man was tired after a long day and no nap.

Liam made out like a bandit.. thank you so much to everyone for making his first birthday so special!

We also had a little family birthday party. Liam got to eat loads of cake.. which meant a big sugar rush and some interesting diaper changes.

He was so cute. Happy birthday wee man!

Oh, and I have a couple of cute little videos from his party, but they appear to big too large- hope I can get it on here at some point.

Jack's 1st Birthday

Ollie, Liam and I all went to Jack's big first birthday bash. Ruairi and Marguerite went all out. They rented the chapel hall to hold the 50 guests, had a magician, tons of food, Santa (Ruairi in a santa suit) and fun games for all of the kids to play. It was a really lovely day and Jack was beaming with the biggest smile all day. Few pictures from the day:

Liam playing a bit of pass the parcel...