Blog Changes

So, I have some changes coming to the blog soon. We'll be using a new name (although our web address will stay the same) since our life no longer revolves around (only) Liam. I also want to be a bit more candid on the blog. I really want this to be a place where I can express myself openly and honestly, even if that means revealing flaws and weaknesses within myself.

I'm excited to see a difference in the blog and I hope the few readers I have enjoy them as well! Thanks for following along with our journey as a young family!

What the Focus Photography

Life and Liam.

I can't even remember the last time I did an update on Liam. Let's just say he's changed massively since then.

Liam is now two and a half years old. He's crazy (but in a good way)! He loves to laugh, run and just be a boy. I remember people saying that they have a "boy-boy" and I now I know exactly what they mean. Liam loves cars and dinosaurs and more cars (seriously, the kid has at least 150 hot wheels). You know you're the mother of a boy-boy when you find cars everywhere (I found five in my bed this morning).

He has started to pretend play on his own a lot more as well. He plays with his cars and sometimes I see him making little scenarios while pushing them around on the floor. It's so neat to watch because I can see him developing and learning (which is even more exciting for me). He likes to make up little stories too, most of them involve horses or dinosaurs eating random things. The kid talks so much and says so many random things that I've decided to start a series on this blog called "Liam Says". This will just be a fun way for me to document different things that Liam says during the month.

Another neat thing about Liam is his love for Asher. The first time I ever heard Liam sing was when Asher was crying and Liam started singing to him. It shocked me (1. because I'd never heard him sing before and 2. because he was singing a song that I would sing to him). I think that he'll be a great older brother once he realizes that he needs to be gentle with Asher. I really hope that the two of them grow up to be best friends.

Liam will always be my "lovebug" even though he's decided that Dad is just a little bit cooler than I am. That's okay though. I know that I will always have a special place in his heart, just like he'll always have a special place in mine. Here are a few more pictures of my lovebug.

Life and Time.

Just a few of our Photo Booth pictures

Time...it really goes by fast, you know. I mean, I should be used to it by now. I am 28 years old but sometimes it still takes me by surprise when I look around and realize that time has slipped by. So much has happened in our lives over the last few months (especially the arrival of our little baby Asher).

We arrived in Germany five months ago. In this time we've settled into a sort of normal life (although our sense of normalcy will be turned upside down once again). It still baffles me a little that Liam will know this as home. He's already forgotten our life in Kansas, the life that I seem to be holding on to. It's so weird to realize that when we leave Germany, he'll actually have to adjust to living in the US. He'll be used to bright colored homes with houseplants in every window, bike/walking trails that can take you from one town to another, dogs in restaurants/stores, and of course, being surrounded by the German language and culture. I really wish that I could say I have adapted as well as he has but I guess I still have time on my side (if it would slow down a bit).

Over the next few days, I plan to have more updates on our lives since moving to Germany. I'll have each post relate to a specific topic (such as Life and Liam) so you can skip over them if you're not interested. Hopefully this will get me caught up and I can start posting on a regular basis! I really do have lots of plans for this blog and I hope that they come through and this can be a place where I can share and feel at home.

We're in Germany!

We all made it in one piece! It was an interesting and long journey (and I'm glad we won't have to do it again for three years) but we're here and excited. We haven't gotten out yet since Liam is still adjusting to the new time zone and he also has a cold (poor guy). We will be back soon to update the blog with pictures from our last couple weeks in Texas as well as a few from our journey here. See you guys soon!

It's Been Awhile (A much overdue update)

Hello everyone! I'm alive! We're alive!
I apologize to anyone who regularly reads my blog and hasn't heard from us in awhile. I don't want to say that I got burned out but things have been a little crazy here.

Germany: We are still set to head to Germany. Will had planned to go to Ranger School which would have pushed our arrival date to Germany to the spring. Once I heard this news, I kind of decided that we would still be in Kansas and I had plenty of time to prepare. Well, Will decided that Ranger School was not going to happen and we had to do lots of planning in a smaller amount of time. Although we are still a couple months away from leaving for Germany, everything takes a lot of time when dealing with the military and overseas moves. Passports take six to eight weeks, furniture shipment takes 60-70 days and vehicle shipment takes six to eight weeks as well.
Even with all the craziness and briefings, we are excited for this journey to begin. We will be heading to Texas to visit Will's family during the month of December before heading off to Germany. This will truly be a journey and I am glad I won't be doing it alone. We have a three hour flight to Baltimore followed by a four hour layover before our flight to Germany. Once we arrive there, we have a four hour bus ride to our base (thank goodness we won't have to do that again for three more years). I'm crossing my fingers for an easy trip and plan to bring you guys along with us on our journey.

Camera: Another reason for the lack of blogging is the untimely demise of my camera. I can't even tell you what happened to it and to be honest, I don't think I tried very hard to figure out the issue. I knew that this new time in our life would require lots of pictures. We plan to do lots of traveling and definitely want to keep our family and friends updated on the growth of Liam and our new little baby (more on my pregnancy in a bit) so yesterday I became the proud new owner of a brand new Nikon Coolpix P510 camera. This is not the fanciest camera out there. I know people with far more advanced cameras but this is the fanciest camera I have ever owned. This camera will come in so handy while in Germany (especially the crazy/awesome zoom).

Liam: Liam is doing awesome! He's growing and learning more every day and I am constantly impressed by his personality (especially his sense of humor). He really is a sweet and loving little guy. I will do an update complete with pictures from the last two months this weekend.

Pregnancy: If I could make a guess on this baby's sex based on my pregnancy so far, I would say girl hands down. This has been the complete opposite of my pregnancy with Liam. I have experienced nausea, vomiting and weight loss this time around and even had a scare early on. Things are better now and I am currently 15 weeks pregnant. I haven't had an ultrasound yet but Will is convinced that I am having twins (and so is my sister). We'll have to wait and see since I will hit my 20 week mark while we are in Texas. Also, I will be doing baby bump updates since I now have a new camera.

I hope this update wasn't too boring for everyone. It is so hard to catch up with the amount of time that has passed. I promise to do my best to keep up to date especially once we are in Germany. Please forgive me guys and I will be back this weekend with a few more post.

Happy Veteran's Day everyone!!

TMI Series: TTC Month Three

Welcome to TTC Month Three! Things have been chugging along well and I'm happy to say that I have been a bit more relaxed this month. We had a little bit of a surprise last month when I got a positive pregnancy test. I actually tested on day three of my menstrual cycle (which was a couple days late). I hadn't planned on testing, however, my menstrual cycle was a little weird that month. I am a firm believer in listening and knowing your body. Once I tested and got the positive, I wasn't sure if it was right. I decided to test again later on in the week and got a negative. Deep down, I knew
I wasn't pregnant. I contacted my nurse advice line and the nurse ordered a blood test, just in case.
We are hopeful that this will be our month. I am currently on cycle day 15. Since I am trying to relax this month, I will not be buying a large supply of pregnancy testing strips. Instead, I will purchase a few tests and as of right now, plan to test on cycle day 24 or 25.

We have lot of exciting plans this coming up this month so I don't think it will be hard to resist the urge to pee on a stick. I will definitely be back later on this month with an update on our TTC situation. Until then, have fun guys!

TMI Series: TTC Month Two

As I've mentioned a few times before, we are trying for baby number two. We are currently in our second month of trying and are still crossing our fingers that things will happen sooner rather than later.

I'm actually new to the process of trying to conceive. When Will and I decided that we were going to try to get pregnant with Liam, I just stopped taking my birth control pills, downloaded the My Days app for my phone, and I was pregnant within a month. This time I'm almost expecting us to have a hard time getting pregnant. I don't know if it's the lack of ignorance due to all of the googling I've been doing or the fact that it was so easy the first time.

There are so many horror stories about pregnancy after Implanon on the internet. The stories range from fertility not returning to successfully getting pregnant only to have it result in a miscarriage (which I'm sure wasn't linked to the Implanon but still scare, nonetheless). I guess I should be happy that things seem to have gone back to normal right after having it removed. My doctor said that it usually takes four days for the hormones to leave your system. When I inputted my information into the My Days app, I rigged it to where I would be ovulating on day four (even though I had no idea when I would ovulate) and based on a 28 day cycle, it showed me when the first day of my period would be. Well, I actually got my period on the day it showed which actually doesn't surprise me too much. My cycle has always been pretty predictable. I have never missed a period except for while pregnant with Liam and when I had my Implanon (my doctor said that it was probably a combination of the Implanon and breastfeeding that kept my period away).

I know that a period doesn't automatically mean that ovulation is taking place as well. I'm really trying not to stress or obsess over this but it's so hard. In an effort to keep the cost of testing down, I ordered a large amount of pregnancy testing strips from early-pregnancy-tests.com. The site also sells ovulation testing strips but for some reason I didn't order any (I immediately regretted this decision after I paid but didn't feel like placing another order). If I'm not pregnant in the next three months, then I'll definitely want to make sure I am ovulating but for now, I have noticed signs of ovulation so I'll just go with it.

According to the My Days app, I should have ovulated yesterday so I think I'll start testing ten days from now. So, send some baby dust my way and (crossing my fingers) hopefully I'll have good news to share in a couple weeks.

In Transition...

I haven't posted in awhile and I want to apologize to anyone who happens to read my blog. I got a new computer and I am trying to get things figured out. I promise to update soon. I have Liam's 18 month update as well as a few other posts I want to do very soon.
Again, I apologize and to make it up to you guys, here's a family picture we took while messing around on the new MacBook Pro's Photo Booth. Enjoy!

We're Offically Trying for Baby #2!

It's official. I have been Implanon free for over a week now so we are officially trying to conceive. We are super excited and hopeful that it won't take us long to get pregnant again.

We're even more excited because this pregnancy will be a bit different than the last one. Although Will will be leaving for school at the beginning of next year, he will not be deploying (as long as nothing changes with our orders) for the next three years. We're happy that our family will be able to grow and strengthen with both parents here instead of being deployed although we understand that deployments are something we will have to deal with as a dual military family. Being together is not something we take for granted so as long as our orders stay the same, we'll cherish this extended family time.

I am...17 Months Old

New Things:
Hanging out in his playpen (and trying to climb out)
Sleeping (mostly) through the night
Loves trains (and makes the cutest noise for them)
Temper tantrums (enough said)

Not So New Things:
Climbing
"Talking"
Removing his diaper any chance he gets
Breastfeeding (more than usual)

Liam has been so active over the past month. He is still climbing everything and we now have to keep the bathroom door closed at all times because he climbed onto the sink. He loves to be outside and gets really excited when we go for walks (which we need to do more often). He's trying to talk more and I wouldn't be surprised if he just starts putting words together and forming sentences (he already uses "read" and "book" together).

He's a really fun guy although he has been showing signs of aggression and anger lately. He gets really upset when he's told he can't do something and has started to hit things (and sometimes people) to show his frustration. This is something we really want to work on. Actually, our whole parenting method is something we need to work on. I tend to be the disciplinarian while Will is the "fun" parent. Even if Liam is doing something that Will knows he shouldn't, 80% of the time, Will will not correct the action. We will definitely need to get on the same page if we want to tackle Liam's temper tantrums and bouts of aggression.

Overall, we are loving this stage of Liam's growth especially when he gives hugs and kisses. He really is a sweet guy.

What's Going On

I just wanted to do a quick update on what's going on in the C. household. Will received news that he will be going to school early next year and once he finishes, we will be moving to a new area. We won't know for sure where we will be going until next year but wherever we end up, we'll be there for two years.
I'm excited and nervous but also thankful that we have plenty of time for this information to set in and even more time to plan our move. Another thing that we are planning is baby number two! I had originally planned to have my Implanon removed this month but after doing a little math, we realized that Will may not be able to be home for the birth (again). Although it could take months (or even years) for us to get pregnant again, we've decided not to take any chances and will be waiting until August instead. Even though I have to wait a few more months, I'm still excited at the thought of having another baby. Until then, I'll just hold as many babies as possible (which is easy with my new job).
Other than that, things are good here. We've been enjoying some good weather (although it is pretty chilly today), spending lots of time with Liam and preparing for the summer. Have a great weekend everyone!

16 Month Update!!

Wow! Time has definitely flown by. Liam is growing (last time he decided to weigh himself, the scale said 27.8 lbs) and learning like crazy. We've experienced a few milestones that have been fun as a few that have been not so fun. I'll start with the good.

Liam has been talking a lot more. He definitely babbles all the time but lately he's been trying to repeat words. Here are a list of words he can say:
Mama
Daddy
Bye Bye
Hello (he likes to pretend to talk on the phone a lot and uses just about anything as a phone)
Peppa (his name for all of the dogs)
Please
Peek
No
Stop
Go
Yeah
Baby
Bubble
Pop
Ball

As you can see, we have a very talkative boy on our hands. Other than talking, Liam has decided that climbing is his new favorite activity. This little boy is climbing everything! He climbed onto our kitchen table yesterday. I just found him shimmying his way onto our t.v. stand. It's absolutely nerve wrecking. I'm just crossing my fingers that we don't have any falling incidents (although Will broke his left arm twice as a child...crossing my fingers, crossing my fingers).

He's a fun guy who thinks he's hilarious. He does this fake laugh all the time and I love it. He has a beautiful smile and flashes it all day long. Now, he does have him moments when that smile is nowhere in sight. We've experienced quite a few temper tantrums over the past month. He is very strong willed and when he sets his mind on something, it's hard to change it. I have realized that I am not a very patient person and am working hard to make sure that even though we have difficult times, we smile as well.

Okay, enough talking from me. Here's the boy!


Yesterday, Liam was hanging out with my mom while I attended a class. They went for a walk and Liam decided that he was going to run ahead of my mom. He learned the hard way that it's a bad idea to run on gravel. My poor little guy's nose is so scuffed up but I assure you, it looks a lot worse than it is.

What We've Been Up To...

So, I haven't been updating like I should (do you forgive me??). No worries though, things are good here (except for a little car trouble but that's taken care of now). We've been chugging along and things really seem to be falling into place. Liam has turned into Spiderman and is climbing everything. He decided that he wanted the car keys off the dining room table this morning and figured he'd just climb onto a chair and make his way on top of the table. I almost had a heart attack. That boy is trying to kill me!

In recent news (well, sort of recent news). Will and I celebrated our two year anniversary on March 24th. We just went to a nice baby-free dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Houlihan's. If you get a chance to go there, try their Seared Tuna Wontons. Best App Ever!

I mentioned that I am now working as a Breastfeeding Peer Counselor. I'm still super stoked about this job and really hope I can live up to the expectations of the program. I'm still trying to figure out exactly how everything will work (and so is everyone else since this is the first time the health department has offered this position). Once I get things perfected, I'll definitely do an update.

We also celebrated a low key Easter with family and friends. The weather was perfect and even though we decided to just do a small, fun Easter egg hunt at home instead of going to our town's annual event. Liam did not understand the concept of finding eggs so maybe it was a good thing we put off the actual Easter egg hunt until next year.

We also celebrated another low key event: My 27th birthday! I never do much for my birthday and honestly woke up that morning and didn't even remember it was my special day. The intake manifold on our Mustang cracked the day before so it was in the shop and I got to drive around our roommates Altima (definitely didn't want to give that back). I had a breastfeeding seminar during the day and went grocery shopping with my mom afterwards. When I got home, Will and Marks (our roommate) surprised me with a cake and ice cream. I was not expecting that at all since we had just planned on going to dinner this weekend to celebrate my birthday. That, along with all the Facebook love, made my day super special.

So, needless to say, things are good here. And here's a little visual entertainment courtesy of my Galaxy S2 (since I have no clue where my camera is) for you guys.

15 Month Update

15 months old...wow. I know I should be used to it by now but I'm still amazed at how old/big Liam is getting.

This month has been the month of the "wild child". Liam is all over the place and extremely vocal. When he doesn't want to do something, he will let you know by shrieking at the top of his lungs and since Liam is a very independent toddler, you can only imagine the sound level in our house right now. He pretty much wants to do what he wants to do and doesn't care what anyone thinks about it. We're crossing our fingers that this is just a stage.

Teething is another shriek inducing milestone in Liam's life. He is currently getting all four of his first year molars (yes, all four decided to come in at the same time, lucky us). He is so much pain and discomfort. It kills me since there is very little I can do to help him. So far our teething remedies are pain reducer, nursing and lots of hugs and kisses. A few friends recommended amber teething necklaces as a teething remedy so I think we'll be giving that a try as well.


And now on to the pictures!

Happenings in the C. House

A lot of things are happening in our home right now. I'm bored so I'll list them out in the Top 3 C. Family Happenings.

#3: Cleaning
Okay, that is definitely a not so happy and fun happening but it's something that has slowly been happening over the last few weeks in preparation for Will (and our roommate, Heinz)'s return. Cleaning and organization are things that I am think a lot about but when it comes to implementing them into our daily lives, I suck (I'll own up to that one). I've been using Pinterest as a means for inspiration and it's been helping a lot.
Right now, I'm working on the "Mother of All" Fall Cleaning Checklists.

#2: Will's Homecoming
He's not home yet, but he'll be here before we know it (hence the cleaning). Will doesn't want me to make a big deal of him being home but he's been gone for a year, it is a huge deal. I don't want to embarrass him too much so I am going to make a poster to hold at the ceremony and maybe decorate the car (I have a feeling he would be really embarrassed by that). If I don't decorate the car, I may decorate the front door with a few balloons. I'll have to get on it though, homecoming is just around the corner.

#1: Liam is "walking"!!
Well, more like taking steps but still, it's walking to me. It's so exciting! I wish Will was here to see him walk but he's been able to catch a few of Liam's "stepping spurts" on Skype. Everyday he takes more and more steps so who knows, he may just be walking at the homecoming ceremony. I've been trying to catch him on video but he always seems to start stepping when I'm nowhere near the camera or iPad.

We'll definitely be having an exciting next few weeks. I'll be posting lots of pictures and videos of Liam and even more once Will gets home. I'm excited to have my family together for awhile before we have to do this all over again next year.

10 Months Old (and a 9 month old recap)!!

I didn't do a nine month update on Liam since I had planned on waiting until he had a doctor's appointment. Well, we ended up not doing a nine month appointment (which isn't required) so I'll just do a small recap. Liam had a ton of milestones during his ninth month. He stands for longer periods of time, has six(!!) teeth, and has started shaking his head "no". He's such a big boy and loves to stand up. Here are some pictures that were actually taken when he turned nine months old.

Top teeth!

Bottom teeth!!

Love!!

Okay, and now on to the 10 month update!
Liam is doing great! He's "talking" so much and I love it. He even plays peek-a-boo sometimes by pulling his shirt up over his face and then saying what I think is "peek-a-boo". He's gotten a lot better during diaper changing time. He used to scream at the top of his lungs every time I changed him but now it's maybe once or twice a day (usually when he needs a nap). We still haven't gone to another doctor's appointment but I weighed Liam this morning (he wanted to stand on the scale when I weighed myself). He's 21.4 lbs. He hasn't really been gaining much weight but he's also a lot more active than he's been in the past. Okay, now on to the pictures!

Love this face!

Hope everyone is enjoying their hump day!