Merry Christmas, from Santa & Laim

Liam met Santa for the second time. Last year he was only a day or two old and happily met Santa at the hospital where we were recovering.  This year was a different story. The typical mall Santa set up, hustling (and frankly, not that nice) elves, a little line with kids all dressed up and then the shocked little face upon seeing this white bearded man that quickly turned into a wail that likely scared all the kids behind us away.

Don't worry, he recovered 2 seconds after I picked him up.  And really, this picture is pretty sweet. Bless his heart.

Merry Christmas!

Liam's Got a Move

Liam has been mastering his "move" lately.

This is his very dramatic, I'm-not-completely-enjoying-myself "move." 

Or I hate that you are making me sit here to take photos.

Or that every time I crawl away, you put me back here.

In other words, this is how he throws a fit.

And it's kinda cute.

Ten Months

Our little baby is all grown up and a full fledged toddler these days. He added 4 new teeth this last month, all on top - joining his 2, now much taller ones on the bottom. These 4 teeth really gave him some problems. I felt like he was trying really hard to be happy, but the slightest thing just knocked his spirits down. You could tell he was so uncomfortable, and nights were the WORST. Nothing could distract him from the teething pains then... So, we depended on baby Tylenol and Ibuprofen (as approved by our doctor).  There was pretty much 2 weeks of sleep deprivation in there for us all.

Then, once we were getting through teething a bad cold came!  A sad cough that would wake him up, gunk in his throat and running into his tummy to make eating hard.  Just when we thought we were through a rough patch, this cold came and robbed him of more sleep and made getting over this current bout of teething that much harder! Dang. 

Through it all, lack of sleep and not great eats, we had some good times, too. Not feeling good brings more cuddles... he likes to be held when sleepy, and while that's hard for me in the middle of the night, I try to cherish it, because these days he is on the go with no time for hugs!

Pumpkin Patch

Before Halloween, Liam picked us out some pumpkins at Johnson Farms Pumpkin Patch. He went for the biggest ones, of course.  It was a cold day, so we couldn't stay outside too long, but he had fun walking around all the pumpkins. I can't wait to see how he loves the other activities this farm has to offer when he's a little older... a maze, hayride, play areas, etc!

Mimi and Papa got to come along, too!

Back at it, for a new reason...

A confession & a new purpose: I was feeling unmotivated and uninspired by this space. Not really sure what I really wanted to do with Chasing Babies. So here it's sat, pretty boring.  Then I was having lunch with the amazingly talented Heather of Hocus Focus and she was telling me about her blog for her sweet girls. Then it hit me. Duh.

That empty scrapbook I keep telling myself I'll get to one of these days for my little guy is just gathering dust... Oh, don't get me wrong. I want to remember EVERY SECOND of Liam's life, but I'm not a scrapbooker.  I can think of a million things I'd rather DIY than cut away at paper and paste things into a book Especially these days, when all my photos are digital and there are great photo books you can make.... And thanks to my Mom's One Line A Day book, I have been jotting down all those little Liam moments.

So my new goal is to put all those moments into a pretty visual with a little more of a story around them and then about once a year, blurb it up into a book (a digitally done for me, hard bound, Liam's own kinda book). This is my scrapbook for Liam where I'll share his milestones, sweet (and hard) moments, things we're loving and things we're doing.

See? Liam doesn't care about paper either. Digital all the way. So hang it there why I have some backtracking catching up to do.

Thanks Heather for the inspiration!

Nine Months

This is pretty much the face of foreshadowing... teething is not fun. This particular month, it was ok. Liam just loved to put everything he could in his mouth.

 (band-aid from his 9 month check up with flu shot)

He's turning into a very active little guy and we like to keep him entertained!  We hit up our first KU Football game, tailgate and all. Liam did great!  We made it through the first quarter and then went out to the tailgate to play with all the other kids. 

Mr. vocal over here has found his voice. Loving the "babababab" in all kinds of tones. He just babbles to himself. If I imitate him, he laughs and makes another noise, then I'll imitate him again, and we go back and forth for a bit. This is especially fun while at Target or the Grocery Store.

He's also just getting stronger and stronger: falling gracefully, crawling very fast and pulling up onto everything to stand.  Definitely a mover on our hands.

His 9 month check up stats: 23 lbs 12 oz (80%) / 30 inches (90%)

8 Months

With thicker thighs and a constant smile, the last month was a good one!  Liam was healthy and happy.  He's doing a lot of rocking back and forth on all fours, getting really close to crawling!

He loves to be outside, watch the dog, play with any toy that makes noise and lights up and chewing on everything.

Liam tries to eat the eight! 

Eight months already, baby blues?