You'll Ruin Your Eyes!

Today I uttered a sentence that I never imagined I would have to say…..something that I find happens a lot now that we have kids!

I looked over at Kate as she was watching Dora the Explorer this morning and found myself calmly asking her “Kate, let’s not watch TV through binoculars, please.”

I wish I had a picture of her standing in the middle of the room, holding my mini-binoculars to her eyes as she sang the “Dora” theme song. What was it that my mom said about standing too close to the television? What on earth does binocular television viewing do to the eye? ☺

Maria, I just met a girl named Maria......

We have an incredibly adorable and precocious daughter! And did I mention imaginative? This weekend, Nick and I took the kids to run some errands. At one point, a passerby stopped and commented on how lovely Kate was. She asked Kate “are you the big sister?” Kate politely answered “Yes, maam, I am the big sister!” The woman said “What is your name?” and Kate, without hesitation and with full conviction stated “My name is Maria!” Well, I just looked at her, stunned, as the woman went on to say “Maria! My, what a beautiful name!” To which Kate replied “Yes, it is beautiful. My name is Maria!”

I could hardly stop laughing as I reminded her that her name was not, in fact, Maria but the very beautiful Kate. The woman, a total stranger, laughed right along with us.

But WHERE does Kate come up with this stuff? She is so darn funny! I mean, she is two years old!!!! And we don’t even know anyone named Maria, so who knows where she got it. All I can think is maybe we listen to too many musical soundtracks – maybe too much West Side Story!!

So – Liam and “Maria” are doing well and providing us with endless entertainment. Liam, by the way, is the best three week old baby ever…..last night he slept for over 5 hours straight! Ahhhh, blessed sleep! But who knows what he will do tonight! The boy is growing so fast – already almost 11 POUNDS!!!! – that he eats like crazy to keep up. He is too cute.

All is well here - loving life with these little peanuts. It is the "Maria Moments" that remind me that any sleep deprivation or toddler terror moments are well worth it.

Friends

Kate always asks to "howd Wiam". She loves to hold her baby brother and always exclaims "Oh! We're Fwends!!!" She is fascinated by him - and he adores her. We are so lucky.

First Bottle

Liam totally pounded this bottle. Kate, of course, had to help feed him. She is SUCH a big helper. My little gopher - she gets me diapers, blankies, etc. She loves helping her brother!

Crashed

Nick has the enviable ability to sleep anywhere, anytime. I left him holding Liam in the armchair to go put a load of laundry in and in that short amount of time, both of them totally crashed. I found them like this in the chair. Poor Nick had not even had time to change out of his work clothes yet.

Snuggly Guy

Liam is one of the cuddliest babies I have ever known. He just loves to snuggle. He bunches up and works himself right into your arms, or on your chest and just conks out. He would be held all day long if he had his way. Thank goodness for our super swaddling blanket (an awesome gift from my friend, Carrie)....it makes him feel snuggled and cozy when people's arms need a break! Anyway, here he is snuggled up on Nia.

Kate playing Dress Up

Nia and Gramps have a "Dress Up Box" at their condo - it is full of all kinds of fun outfits and accessories - mostly a lot of Nia's wardrobe from the 1980's that are now considered to be outrageous, but at the time were incredibly chic! ;) Kate loves to play in the dress up box. The other day she wore a gold sparkly belt for an entire evening. Here she is in her "let's have tea" outfit. "Pink is her signature color". (name that movie quote, anyone!)

Liam and his Gramps watching NCAA Basketball Tourney

He loves his Gramps!

Nakey

Bath time for the kids! WHOA! It is so strange to say "kids" plural! Here are the two little peanuts getting ready for bathtime. As I have mentioned in past posts, Kate LOVES holding and snuggling her baby brother. The contrast between Kate's ultra fair skin and Liam's newborn ruddiness is quite strong! Looks like Kate for sure got her Mom's un-tannable skin. Jury is out on Liam.

Creative Kate

Kate kept busy on this snow day by drawing and playing games. She is such a good girl! And darn cute, too, I think! :)

March Madness

Wow! Today we got about a foot of snow! It is the most snow we have gotten all at once in two winters. Now THIS is the Minnesota that I expected to encounter when we moved here. It is actually so beautiful - like a painting. Though Nick may disagree with all the heavy lifting he had to do in clearing it! Kate is so anxious to go and play in the snow. I guess we'll get to use those snow coveralls I got for her at the beginning of winter after all! Hopefully they still fit!

Anyway, I snapped a quick pic from the front porch while it was still blowing a bit this morning....

Life with Liam

Life with Liam is wonderful. He is a sweet little boy. He is perfectly serene – except when hungry, when he goes from zero-to-super-cranky in 0.3 seconds with his extremely loud and demanding cry! ;) He also absolutely despises having his diaper changed and likes to play a game where he tries to soil as many diapers as he can with repeated bodily functions in the course of one attempted change. That aside, he is awesome. He is a super snuggler and loves to cuddle and be held. He really likes the Baby Bjorn carrier! So much so that Kate has taken to imitating the Baby Bjorn – today she took one of her teddy bears and stuffed it down her shirt so it’s head was poking out of her collar in the front. She walked around “hands free” like mom, occasionally patting bear on the back saying “ooooh, you’re such a sweetheart. Oh you wittle sweetheart”. SO CUTE!

Kate really is a great big sister. When she wakes up in the morning, she immediately asks about Liam and wants to give him kisses. Yesterday he snuggled in bed with her and she “read” him stories for about 20 minutes. When Liam cries, Kate instantly breaks into song to try to quiet him – usually “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”. She also calls him her “little buddy”, running up to him while he is in the swing or bouncy seat saying, “oh hiiiii wittle buddy”! Truly adorable, if I may say so. She just marvels at him – exclaiming over his tiny fingers and toes and announcing to the world when he has his eyes open “Look! He’s looking at me!!!!”

I am so proud of her. We have had to deal with a couple of expressive toddler moments – I think it is a combination of her age and needing to assert herself and also the major changes in the household with a new baby. But nothing major stands out. She is really adapting well thus far and Nick and I are just more in love with her than ever. I myself have had a few moments of “mourning” so-to-speak when it comes to Kate. She was my best bud for the past 2 ½ years and it is an adjustment not spending so much time totally dedicated to her. I worried that it would affect her and, while she seems to be adjusting just fine, I have to confess that I have had some moments of feeling overwhelmed by “missing” Kate. Even though she is right here! She will always be my best girl. It is just hard for ME not having as much one-on-one time with her as I used to. I thought it would be Kate that would have a tough time. Turns out it is the hormonal and teary mom that is struggling! ☺

Nick is just all around fantastic. He is the best dad – changing diapers like crazy and rocking Liam and just being super dad. He has been especially great spending time with Kate on every level as I am occupied with nursing. He and Kate have gone on some fun outings together and he is so good about making her feel like a special big girl. She is crazy Crazy CRAZY about him. And Nick has been amazing with me, too! He takes my emotional and physical ups and downs in stride as I “come down” from pregnancy and childbirth and has been nothing but patient and loving and wonderful. He will probably be embarrassed when he reads this, with me going on and on about the love of my life…..but I just could not be more blessed. What can I say? I’m a lucky girl!

Well – as is often the case, this has become somewhat of a “dear diary novella”. Super Dad Nick is rocking Liam to sleep and it looks like he is almost out, which means we will be falling asleep 2 seconds after Liam does. More adventures of parenthood in Minnesota to come…..

Some pictures from Liam's first week!

Welcome to the World!

Hello everyone! We are pleased and proud to announce the birth of our son, Liam!!!! William Edward Harris arrived the morning of March 2nd, 2006 at 10:44 AM after 1 hour and 45 minutes of labor. You read that right, it was quite a quick entry into the world. As many of you know, I have had quite the long road with this pregnancy and after literally months of contractions, I ended up in actual labor for a very short period of time. Some could argue that actually I was in labor for 3 months, 1 hour and 45 minutes - as my sister kindly pointed out! My water was broken at 9 AM and then they started me on pitocin. Well, there was no need for even the most minimal dose of pitocin as I went into immediate hard labor and the pitocin drip was quickly turned off at 9:20. By 10:30 I was pushing and 14 minutes later he was born! Unfortunately there was no time for an epidural after the initial botched one, so I was med free - OW! The poor guy was born facing the wrong direction - not a breech, but his head was turned wrong and he had the cord around his neck..... so he came into the world a little bit bruised up like a prize fighter. He has some bruising on his face and had quite the fat lip when he was born but it is quickly subsiding and the swelling is going down. He is eating like a champ and is just as sweet and cuddly as can be. Here are his stats:

William Edward Harris ("Liam")
Born March 2, 2006 at 10:44 AM
8 pounds 12.5 ounces
19 1/2 inches long

Big sister Kate was able to come to the hospital with her Nana to meet her new brother and is absolutely in love with him! She is going to be such a great big sister! Nick was the greatest coach ever and is the definition of cool under pressure.....I could not have made it through as well without his patience and care. He is so proud of his handsome little son!

We are home now and settling into life with the cutest guy in town. Enjoy the pics! Many more to come..........