Crazy Eye Emmett

The prognosis is in....Emmett's cataract is NOT coming back! The drops that we have to give him every night is causing the fogging appearance. The vet prescribed new drops and the foggy thing should go away. We were relieved to hear that it is not painful for Emmett and it does not obstruct his vision. Can you tell how excited he is??

Old Mother Hubbard

Obviously the formula and baby food isn't cutting it anymore for Baby Liam.

Communication is Key

Some people smile at their babies, others sing, and still others use sign language to communicate. But not us...

Stand and Deliver

Last Friday started per the usual. I get up at 5:00 am and then wake Sean up about 5:20. He wakes up Liam, leaves him in his crib, makes coffee and a bottle. As I am upstairs getting ready I listen to Liam in the monitor, usually cooing, babbling, humming, making the super cute endearing sounds that babies make. But then he starts with the yelling and singing and pounding and is having a grand ol' time, laughing and screaming LA LA LA! I turn to the video monitor and there he is ..... standing up in his crib!!!! I proceed to walk down stairs, call Sean over and show him his son's latest trick. Liam has a smile so BIG on his face it was hard not to laugh.

Friday evening Sean lowered the mattress.

Crawlin' at the Speed of Sound

If you blink for one second this kid will have crawled right by ya! It is true what they say - as soon as they learn HOW to crawl they will be very good at in no time at all.

Introducing Michelle Catherine Graves

Born Dec. 29th, 2007

Mom Bonnie, Dad Matt, and big brother Matthew are enjoying having their princess home.

Thanks for adding to the super cute kid population in Michigan.
We miss you guys!!
GO BLUE !!

The Week in Review

And what a week it has been! So last weekend was pretty fun. Sean and I ran out to buy a rain shield for our BOB stroller (jogging stroller - if you don't have one, it is a must buy!) because we are in Portland and whenever we wanted to take Liam for a stroll, it would be raining. So rain shield ready to go and of course, didn't need it, and still have not needed it. Oh yeah, it is still raining here but whenever we went out the rains stopped! Anyways, so last weekend was full of walks and playing and Monday we go back to work, ugh. Tuesday my back is achy and tight, I am going to blame stress at work, so I get adjusted and massaged and feel much better. Wednesday morning, ZOINKS, I can't move. Huge, painful spasm all through my back on the opposite side of my original pain. I swear, blinking my eyes made my back hurt. So I call in sick, Sean handles daycare. Thursday morning, I am feeling a little better and don't want to miss another day (you know the company may go down if I'm not there) so I get ready, Sean gets Liam ready and into the car. I am sore but you gotta do what you gotta do. Mistake! By the time I got Liam to daycare it was a huge spasm again. Call into work and head home for bed. The drive home sucked tremendously. And then torture upon torture, 2 days in a row stuck watching really bad daytime TV. I watched a marathon of Project Runway and hate to admit that I don't hate it. Oh what have I become (rhetorical, please do not answer)? Thankfully, after some ice, rest, and left over drugs from the C Section I felt better by TH evening, enough to get out of bed. Friday I was back to work, tender and slow, but back.

Liam is in the process of cutting more teeth. happy, happy, joy, joy. This is not an easy task. His front gums have been swollen and red for weeks that I can't believe they are taking so long to get here. We have tooth on one front tooth and the tooth next to it, and almost, so close you can taste it, tooth on the other front. They look so painful that I can't believe he isn't screaming 24/7. The baby gates went up this weekend since Liam can pull himself up now. He doesn't like to hold on for too long so there is lots of falling onto the butt, but that does not deter him from doing it over and over. It appears that he likes to see how long he can balance for on his own. I have a dare devil on my hands. Providence Hospital is 3 block away and might get to know us intimately.

The young Prince is waking up from his nap, gotta run.

Cheers!

It Is Over !

Well my days as an MBA student are finally at a close. The classes are over, the final grades are in and my degree will be conferred later this month. It was such a memorable experience; one that allowed me to meet some very interesting people from all over the world, combine class concepts to real business scenarios and push myself like I have never done before. The program was designed around executive education and relied on multiple years of professional experience from each of us to round out the learning. I will always remember the good things like attending classes both in Ithaca (NY) and Kingston (Ont), traveling to Hong Kong as a business consultant and drinking martinis at the Cornell Club in Manhattan. I am doing my best to forget the massive amounts of work, the 10hr classes every Saturday and the unmistakable feeling that I need to be doing something.

The Taylors and the Merritts will be traveling to Ithaca, NY this summer for my commencement. The campus is absolutely beautiful - even in the dead of winter.

Check out my Slide Show!

Here are the majority of pictures from Christmas 2007. The first few are Portland but then I think it is pretty obvious when we are in sunny Carlsbad, CA.

We had a most excellent Christmas thanks to all of our friends and family, you are the BEST !

Yes It Is

At least one of the aforementioned teeth causing all the whining showed itself to the world yesterday! Baby T is a much happier guy now. The playing is happy, the crawling is happy, the Mom and Dad are happy, the feeding time still brings the whining if we are not shoveling it in fast enough but you can't have everything.

Could It Be???

Liam's front gums are swollen! Please let these teeth come in and resolve the constant whine and pain that he has been in. I will be keep you posted.
Cheers--

Would You Like Some Cheese with that Whine?

So maybe I had high expectations, or maybe I just assumed, or maybe the Moms of America are playing a cruel joke on me but...I thought this baby thing was supposed to get easier as he got older? This dear, sweet, fruit of my loins whines 80% (a conservative guess) of the time he is awake! Whines because he wants food, because we are not feeding him fast enough, because he wants to flip over and crawl on his changing pad, because whenever he crawls to the cat she runs away (grabby hands Liam), because he is sitting and wants to stand up, because he is standing up, because he is in his car seat, because and fill in the blank with what ever you want because I am sure it will make him whine. Oh yeah, crawling is not good enough anymore. For example, he will crawl to me, offer out his hands one at a time, my cue to take them, and then he pulls himself up. I was in our room this morning and watched him on the video monitor checking out his crib for something to pull himself up with. The mobile and the mirror will be coming out the crib.

So I called to my friend Bonnie (she was still in the hospital with their new little girl Michelle) the other day and we talked about her 2 kids and also Liam and night time. I mentioned he still does a one a night wake up for a bottle. Her son Matthew was doing the same and their pediatrician suggested a snack before bed to hold him over. Sounded like heaven to me so we gave it a try. I was up from 2:13 to 3:30 with a child that would not stop whining! Clean diaper - check....he took a bottle - check....room was comfortable, not too hot, not too cold - check. No reason, no reason at all. Thankfully we didn't have to work today or I would be toast. I am seriously amazed that people actually have more then one child (I am not joking but dead serious).

Did I not get a memo on whining, why would no one warn me.

The other thing, besides the whining, that is blowing me away is the amount of food this little, 25th percentile in weight, bug is eating! This kid is a manic when it comes to food. I shouldn't be so surprised since he is moving and going CONSTANTLY. But to watch him put away 5 meals in a day, and the bottles too. If this is just a preview of what is to come we are going to need another fridge and freezer in the garage. And a pay raise to be able to afford feeding this kid.

My hat is off to every stay at home mother out there. More power to you, I have no idea how you do it.

If I could only be more like

Hail to the Victors!

It's official. Michigan beat the Florida gators in the Capital One Bowl.

We didn't watch the game with the alum group as planned but that's OK. Liam showed some school spirit with the sweatshirt Nana and Papa got him. We know that hurt your green, Spartan blood to buy so, Thank You!

GO BLUE!

I hate you Blogger!

I have formatted and reformatted and spent countless hours in moving and rearranging the previous entry and Blogger seems to move pictures and text where ever it wants. IT IS SO FRUSTRATING. With that said, it will be shorter entries and not as many pictures. Or just more, shorter posts. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, had to vent.