One Month Old!

Liam is one month old.

Already.

That went by really fast.

Dressed to impress!

This baby boy is amazing. He's mellow, except during the evening when he just wants to be held and I just want to make dinner, eat dinner, bathe his sister, or shower. Then he likes to cry a lot. Good thing there are usually two parents home around that time.

He spits up after almost every feeding. If you don't get a good burp out of the kid, he'll spit up for a while afterwards. As a result, I'm doing laundry more frequently than I did before he came into the world.

He likes pacifiers and prefers the Nuk variety.

I adore him. 

He is a champ at holding his head up and looking around. He can keep that little head pretty steady for a minute or two before he becomes a bobble head.

Liam is approximately five days into his first cold. Thanks, Big Sister, for sharing. He does not like the snot sucker (AKA nasal aspirator) very much.

The kid makes lots of interesting noises. He grunts, squeaks, whimpers, snorts, and cries. My favorite is this little cough cry thing that he does that means, "Hurry up and feed me!"

Smooches!

He loves Emma, almost as much as she loves him, I think. He likes watching her run around and listens to her talk and sing. He even sleeps through her screams, singing, yelling, jumping, and general two-year old behavior.

We all love him.

Liam has rolled over from his front to his back three times. He hasn't actually mastered the skill of rolling over, he just has fits of wiggly rage when he no longer wants to be on his tummy. Wiggly rage leads to incredible feats of strength, like rolling over. Just call him Baby Hulk.

I think he's starting to smile. I've seen several silly smiles when he's falling asleep, but those don't really count. However, today he smiled while wide awake. He was looking over my shoulder at the front door and made a big happy face.

I love him dearly. The really super thing is that I actually LIKE him. A few weeks ago I actually spoke the words, "I love little babies!" That's a phrase that I had never said before. I fully expected that it was a phrase I would never ever say.

This little man is changing me.

Did I mention that I love him? 

Type A

Let's talk about me for a change.

I'm a bit of a type A personality. (My blood type is also A, but that's irrelevant to this post.) Don't know much about the Type A/Type B personality theory? Look it up on Wikipedia. The Wikipedia article says something about Type A people being "obsessed with time management." That's me to a T.   
Or should I say, that's me to an A.

This isn't a new thing. My mom recently recalled my neurotic, high-strung behavior as a child. Apparently, when given several days or weeks to complete a school project, I'd come home stressed about it and get the assignment done the next day. (I don't remember this, but I believe my mom.) I do know that the very first entry in my childhood diary says, essentially, that my pediatrician prescribed journal writing for me as an outlet so that maybe I wouldn't worry so much. I also know that my college roommate called me The Camp Director because I organized our friends' activities and cracked the whip a lot.

I think I do an okay job of balancing my rigid type-A neurosis with a more laid-back attitude, once the chores are done and everyone is fed. For example, I enjoy taking a different route to get to the same old place, even if it takes longer. I enjoy the impromptu stop at the park, or ice cream parlor, or friend's house along the way. I let my girl get dirty, make her own choices, and make messes. However, when it's lunch time, we need to eat. When it's nap time, we need to sleep. When I have to meet the needs of three cats, a dog, a toddler, and a newborn, as well as clean up after dinner, take out the trash, and shower before I get to go to sleep at night, my rigid Type A behavior goes into overdrive.

This part of my personality doesn't really bother me, but my husband can't stand it. Apparently I'm no fun because I'm not impulsive and don't really love surprises. He can't whisk our family away for the day without telling me exactly where we're going and what we're doing so that I can bring the proper supplies, clothing, food, etc. We don't go on dates very often because Emma goes to bed early and I don't know how she'd do with a random babysitter putting her to bed at night, and I can't always ask my mom to babysit. My poor Barry has to put up with me for the rest of forever.

Anyhow, I'm a control freak.

And now you know.

Here We Are Together...

...Listening to children's songs. Again.

I'm not finding much time to blog. Gee, I wonder why.

While I have a moment, let me update you on a few of the things going on around here.

We call Liam our Sleepy Beepy. He's wonderful and sleeping during the day and the night, thank goodness. The only problem we've encountered is that he wants bedtime to be a little later than Barry and I prefer.


I have learned that diapering little boys must include an extra step. I need to remember to point his little peepee downwards in the diaper, otherwise we get a lot of pee pee all over his back and bed while he's sleeping. This was, obviously, never an issue with my daughter.

Emma is dealing with the adjustments of a new baby brother rather well, but she is having her two-year-old melt downs a little more frequently than normal. That wouldn't be such a big deal if her parents weren't extra tired and therefore less patient than normal. Oh well. We're surviving.

We bought a minivan, or as Emma calls it, "A Vini Man!" I'm so excited to have a bigger vehicle! Now I will be able to leave the house when I'm babysitting instead of being trapped at home three days a week.

My recovery is going really well. My guts don't feel like they're going to rip open when I sneeze anymore and I can actually use my abs when I get out of bed or off the couch. Yay!

I need to go. Morning chores are being neglected and my girl is looking for attention...