What is it?

A few weeks ago, one of my friends started a "What is it?" blog post on Living with 3 Boys of Our Own. Britney is an inspiring and amazing mom and this weekend while in Galveston we found our very own "What is it?" post. We thought it would be fun to play along. So, can you guess what this is?

Month Seven

Really? 7 months already? Surely this has to be some kind of mistake!

Make no mistake, Liam turned seven months on Sunday. It is so hard to believe, but I truly love watching him grow. Watching him learn how the world works. Watching him take on new challenges and explore new things. Watching such a curious little boy as he takes in new experiences and trying to capture each moment to freeze it!

He is a perfect mixture of mommy and daddy. It is almost as if God hand picked each feature alternating parents, grandparents, aunt/uncle and even a little cousin.

And he is marked! We say it is where his angel wings fell off. I have to admit I am jealous as I always envied those with birthmarks. We have started to notice it more and more because it darkens as he sits!

He can say "mamma" but not on purpose so it really doesn't count. I am just thrilled that he can say it even if he doesn't know it. He practices mimicking our sounds like "hi" and "yum." He loves to scream as loud as he can and then smile at you like he did something magnificent!

He has gotten much better at holding his bottle and picking up little puffs to eat off his highchair table.

We ordered the Britax convertible car seat as he is getting so heavy for me to lug around in his infant car seat. He is 19 pounds, 10 ounces now and his little feet peek off the edges at 28 inches. Crawling? Almost... Liam gets up on all fours and rocks. I am sure that is right around the corner.

I love you, my sweet seven month old!

One Fish, Two Fish

It is unbelievably Houston hot.

And so we decided to take Liam to the downtown aquarium last Saturday to explore a little of the world under the sea. We met Noah and Ben there as well. And Elliott was such a trooper!

I love watching Liam experience new things. His eyes followed back and forth while sea turtles swam by, just as curious about him as Liam was about them.

I have always had a thing for aquariums. They are so calming. So colorful. So amazing to watch.

When we were little my grandmother used to take us to the pet store and we were able to pick out any creature we so desired. It was probably one of my favorite memories of all time. It was so great to choose a pet to be 'responsible' for. A pet of my very own! We took home lizards, iguanas, turtles, frogs, countless hermit crabs and this one time a guinea pig that got loose in the sticker bushes and was squealing in part because we were chasing her and partly because she was getting poked at every turn. I don't think we were allowed anymore of those! And now that I have a child... his grandmother better NOT allow for 'any pet he chooses!' Now that I think about it... my mommy was so cool!

More than not my choices involved a fish tank. Maybe it was the sounds of the motor in the water as it made air bubbles into the tank or maybe it was the extra night light in my room or maybe it was just that they were so beautiful to watch esp. when one couple fish hatched babies.

I was so excited that Liam seemed to enjoy the underwater adventure as much as I had hoped.

Liam and Noah took turns in the scuba gear.

We even got to see a real white tiger. I know, at the aquarium?

They had such a good time watching the baby sting rays and touching the starfish!

And what trip wouldn't be complete without a ride on an alligator and a shark?

They say its your birthday

August 4th is pretty high up there on the list of my favorite days. It is the day that my husband entered the world. Liam and I could not have been more excited to celebrate such an amazing person in our lives. And even though Cowboy tickets were not involved, I think - I hope - that he had a wonderful day. That the day and even a little into the weekend was celebrated just as he wished and this Monday he is drinking coffee with a smile.

We began the birthday with dinner at Trulucks with Liam and Margaret.

Then, on Friday morning the Margarita machine arrived! A refreshingly wonderful, lemony-lime concoction to start the party. It was worth every penny to be able to pull the lever and fill your glass with your very own adult slurpie.

Instead of top twenty billboard hits, we jammed to the tunes of the itsy bitsy spider played by Brooks and Liam. (what a difference a year makes)

We ate plenty of pizza, sang happy birthday...

Devoured a three-tier platter loaded with Sprinkles cupcakes.

And blew party horns!

Then, towards the end of the night when Liam was fast asleep, Alan began a post drinking game. The game that you can only play after a few beers and a good margarita. A game all about Bill. And we all took turns showering him with compliments, memories and happy sentiments until his head couldn't be filled anymore.

And because the round never completed full circle to me... Bill, I love you. I have loved you probably most of my life and that is an awesome feeling. You are my best friend. You are truly an amazing father and that makes me love you that much more. I love our life together, that you have helped create. You make me laugh, and I love that we make each other happy!
And we have some pretty wonderful friends too.

Thanks for all that you are and all that you do! Happy Birthday!

The weekend.

It's Monday. Which means that another great weekend has come and gone. As I upload all of the photos from the weekend, I cannot help but giggle at what fun my little monkey had exploring the children's museum, splashing and making waves in the pool, and experiencing some new firsts!

On Friday, Ashley called to see if Liam and I would like to join them for a late afternoon trip to the Children's Museum. Ummm... sure! Even though Liam is only 6 months and there will be practically nothing for him to do, sure! Boy was I wrong. There are TONS for 6 months old to do at the museum, and the best part is that they get in free until they are one! They stare at themselves in the mirrors...

Play with friends, toys, balls, books... you name it! And not to worry moms... these ladies are constantly coming by to disinfect everything and scoop up toys to wash and replace them with clean ones.

We even sat near the older kiddos play spot to watch our friend Noah do big boy things like slide down slides, make mega light-up box pictures, climb through tunnels, and watch cars zoom down plastic tracks. Oh to be able to join in on all the big kid fun!

We gathered in the storybook area for a much needed bottle stop! Noah showed off his reading skills while Liam ate a few pages! Little Bella, who was 2 days older than Liam, did an inch-worm crawling show that was also super impressive!

Later that night, we traveled to Cypress to help celebrate the Griffing's birthdays. Happy Birthday Rob and Cynthia!

It is the one time of the year that Bill gets to relive the glory days of Corsicana Tiger football. They talk about game match-ups as if it hasn't been ten years since those feet have seen football cleats. Lots and lots of fun memories. I know they cannot wait for Liam to hit the field!

Liam was entertained by the many critters of the house including fish, Buck and especially the ever so soft and friendly Ice!

Liam loved Ice!

On Saturday, while Ashley attended a wedding shower, we took the boys over to Bill's grandmother's house for an evening swim. The boys cheered on Bill as he leaped into the water with a canon ball splash!

Liam relaxed in his new float with his cool dude shades and bucket hat, while Noah tested out the shark water wings and bag full of nerf balls!

There was a little game of chicken.

Bill, Liam, Ben and Noah

And some fist pounding!

Pound It!

All in all, it was 2 1/2 hours of pure fun in the sun. And when the littles were nice and wrinkled, we wrapped them up in their towels and let them play with their pruned toes.

After a dry diaper and fresh change of clothes, Liam found himself sound asleep to the vibrations of the car ride home.

To wrap up the weekend and get ready for daddy's big birthday week, we went shopping for a few goodies on Sunday. Liam rode in the cart for the first time and enjoyed his new, non-obstructed view and ability to reach for items to dump into the cart!

As for bedtime, we attempted to put Liam to bed the way that Dr. Thaller suggested. Fully awake. No bottle. We turned on his mobile and left that sweet smiling face in his crib as we said our goodnights, kissed his forehead and turned off the lights. I fully expected to return shortly after to soothe little tears and rock him back to sleep with "You've got a Friend" and "Goodnight." But instead, after brushing my teeth and climbing into bed, I held the monitor up to discover a snoring little angel.

And I am not going to lie, I was a tiny bit sad. Don't you want to listen to all the songs I practiced just for you? Don't you NEED your mommy? And then at 4am, he did.