blog? what blog?

apparently it takes having a sick kid at home and doing absolutely nothing all day to get me to blog. we have had a super busy first half of 2009. this has included:

• a trip to mexico
• buying our first home
• liam and i starting to work at our fellowship in the afternoons
• me increasing my commitments to LLL

the new house is great and spacious. we have had many, many house guests already. i am glad that we can be a place for people to visit, relax, and recharge.

liam is 20.5 months old and incredibly amazing. he wins hearts and makes friends where ever we go. he loves his friends of all ages - but mimi is definitely his best friend. it is always a better day when we can spend time with her and missy. he loves tractors, trucks, airplanes, and all construction equipment. his gender identity seems pretty solidly "boy". he is combining words into sentences:

• more wabi! (this means more ice)
• there you go
• help, mommy
  
• i can help you
• water too hot
• daddy car all gone
• daddy at work
• drink water
• other side

well, you get the point. i have stopped listing the words he knows. it's a lot. it makes everything so much easier. especially today, when he is sick. he is able to tell me when he is hot, thirsty, what he wants to eat (ice and soup) and when, and what hurts (his hair [he probably means head] and his tummy).

liam's illness is what really prompted this blog today. i am so grateful that colin and i have chosen to structure and prioritize our life the way we have. this morning when liam awoke at 6am with a fever, all we had to do was focus on making him comfortable. i got him some ice water and ibuprophen, then followed his lead on the rest of the day. he wanted to nurse around 7:30, and we ended up sleeping until colin came home for lunch at 11. housework is abandoned for the day while liam and i snuggle on the couch watching movies about tractors and farm animals. we will clean later, run errands later, cook real food later. this down time together has to do as much good for him as the ice and ibuprophen.

others who choose a different family structure are forced to miss work, possibly argue about who has to take care of the sick kiddo, who did it last time, whose time is more important, etc. this path is not always easy, but i wouldn't trade it for anything. thanks, colin, for supporting our family in so many ways.

hope

i don't like to often admit it, but many parts of being a parent are scary and selfish. we bring another human being into the world, with all it's shortcomings, and hope for the best. sometimes you wonder if it's worth it - the legacy our children will inherit. you start to understand why others never have children. you would fiercely protect your child from all harm, and yet so many things are beyond your control.

now i am more hopeful than ever. i'm not going to have to rip my family from our culture to resettle somewhere else where things are supposedly better. i truly believe that the world will look at our country differently soon. i believe that diplomacy will win out over future unknown wars. i believe that we have chosen to raise our son within a country whose values are compatible with our own. i don't fear the future so much now. and i am proud to have done my part to bring about this change.

thanks, mr. obama.

we're all in this together

arriving home last night from a quick visit to my family in salina, i hopped on my support group's message board to catch up on the last 24 hours. one of the moms in our group has a son struggling to learn to breastfeed and gain weight. she has 4 other kiddos that need her, too. her son is too little for the baby carriers she has, and she isn't making enough milk since baby isn't nursing well. i stopped by friday to give her carriers to try from missy and me. another mom dropped a different style off yesterday. many moms are pulling out their pumps so they can donate milk, while other working moms are donating from their frozen stockpiles for their own babies.

this mom is working so hard to give her baby what he needs. i am humbled by the love our group shows each other. i am also saddened to think of other mothers in our community that may have similar struggles, but do not have the support that we do. i am so grateful to be part of such a wonderful group of people.

critical mass

last night we joined up with a group of cyclists and rode all around topeka - on the "real" streets. the group is critical mass, and everyone was super cool. missy's fiance partakes on these friday night rides often, and we thought we would have fun, too. luckily, liam is a really easy going kid and didn't have any issues being in his trailer for 45 minutes straight. if only the car was this easy...

you take the good, you take the bad....

last thursday, as i walked missy and mimi out to their bike, i discovered that ours were missing. mine and liam's, colin's, and one we borrowed from nikki and scotty. grrr! what an awful feeling! i made the police report, and called the nearby pawn shops and out to boyle's. no luck. that was our preferred method of transportation. it's just stuff, but it made us feel pretty violated. we are getting a security system (colin wants this yesterday...) if you have any company suggestions, please let me know.

luckily, we have renter's insurance. our deductible is the cost of my trike alone, so we filed a claim. we had the money to go ahead and replace them, so we went shopping on saturday at capp's. i tested many bikes and fell in love with this one. it's really light weight, and pulling liam's new trailer is a piece of cake! colin picked out a new bike as well, and he finds it very comfortable. we've decided that the theft has turned out to be a wonderful event. we still don't know what our compensation will be with our insurance, but whatever it is, it's worth it. we didn't know how good it could be! yes, i loved our trike. it made me feel very safe, and liam was so little when i got it, i couldn't have handled him being so far away. as others might say, everything happens for a reason. me, i think things just happen, and then you have to choose how you react to those things.

we went on a ride to sonja's house tuesday evening, and passed another cyclist. he flagged us down and informed us that in order to keep liam safe, i needed to wear a reflective vest. he then took his off and gave it to me. it was very humbling, and made me feel wonderful that a stranger would care so much about another person. i thanked him and put it on. it made me feel safer! i hope our paths cross again. he happened to be deaf, and i wished i would have signed "thank you". but i didn't. maybe next time.

today our pediatrician called to inform us that liam's lead level is 8.5. once it reaches 10, an inspector from the state comes to your house because your child is at risk for developmental issues. sucky. i think it's coming from the windows in our house. so i get to wipe down the sills, mop, and vacuum daily. we're also going to wash all of our draperies and replace our mini-blinds. i need to wash his little hands before eating and sleeping. then liam gets his blood drawn again in six months. luckily, we'll still be nursing then, so it will be a piece of cake. hopefully his levels will be lower by then. if not, i guess we'll look into moving...i don't know what else to do!

liam is walking nearly all the time now. we officially have a toddler! he has the greatest grin, and is still a very joyful kid. i feel that the strong-willed changes of toddlerhood are just around the corner, so i'm trying to enjoy this easy time while we have it.

party = success!

i had a lot of help, so it's not really surprising that everything went well. thanks to everyone, especially mandy, mom, and missy. i couldn't have done it without your cooking, decorating, and/or baby wrangling skills.

liam's caterpillar smash cake

liam got some great toys and clothes. i was worried about his winter wardrobe, but not anymore! aside from all the new goodies, he also received a bunch of clothes from hunter. yay for hand-me-downs!

the weather was a little rainy, and although our home is small, some borrowed chairs was all we needed to make everyone comfortable.

cozy house full of guests

liam was feeling unsure about opening presents, so marie showed him how instead. zeven and noah enjoyed playing with all the toys, and there weren't any fits for such a busy time. liam loved his carrot cake 'beetle' (it was supposed to be a littler caterpillar)



i ate so much cake during the decorating that i skipped it during the real 'cake time'. after cake liam nursed and was out - while the party went on!

liam knocked out; missy: maker of many faces

all in all, i couldn't have asked for a better first year celebration. i am grateful to all of my wonderful friends and family who were able to be here with us. so, again, thanks :)

happy birthday, baby liam!

we have had more of a week long celebration in honor of that guy's special day, as opposed to a single day's observance. the culmination will be pretty big party on saturday morning. we are very loved, and so is liam. we only invited the important people in our life, but still ended up with 20+ guests. i am really nervous, since our house is so little and it's supposed to rain...we are planning on being outdoors. but, whatever; we will make it work!

colin didn't have to work on monday, so he decided to be all photo-journalistic and take photos of a typical liam day. i hope to have them up on flickr soon as a slide show. they turned out great!

yesterday was liam's birthday and we spent it with our friends missy and marie, and nikki and zeven. we all met at missy's house (she has the coffee and the space) and i cooked a late breakfast of whole wheat pancakes and eggs. yum! colin worked a half day and got off in time to eat as well.

i spent afternoon nap time sorting all the 'baby' toys out and organizing liam's books. we also got our new fridge delivered during said nap, so that was convenient. our old one was having issues, and our landlord, jerry, is awesome. requesting the fridge has inspired missy to ask her landlord for carpet. i hope they get it! we went to 'the globe' for some tasty indian food, then picked up a movie (smart people) which ended up being pretty good. the last movie we watched before this was the new x-files movie. IT SUCKED. colin downloaded it because everyone else was. well, everyone else was wrong. it made me think that the tv show could possibly be awful as well, although i utterly enjoyed it when i was in high school.

tomorrow grammie kate, aunt mandy, cousin stephen, and uncle kyle are all coming to town to see their favorite one year old! better get to bed so i can wake up early and clean my house. O_0