May Update

EDIT- I wrote this May 2021 and apparently never added pictures and never posted it. So... I'm just posting it as is 🤦‍♀️

Hey all! Since Liam is one now, I've fallen off of the wagon more than ever with writing blog posts. So instead of trying to do a monthly thing or anything, I'm going to try to be more chill with myself and just write when I'm able to and be okay with that.

So this is just a random update on our lives!

Liam is 14 months old currently and I now understand why people keep using months for so long. I always though it was kind of weird, but there really is such a big difference development-wise even just from 1 year to 14 months, so just saying that he's 1 doesn't seem to cut it.

When he turned 1, I felt like I he was still a baby. But now he's looking more and more like a little boy. He's got bruises everywhere from exploring, a little farmer's tan developing, and his feet are always dirty by the end of the day. It's so fun watching him grow and learn, but I am starting to feel that little twinge in my heart that I think comes from watching your baby grow up.

Liam is walking (and running) all over the place now! He's still super wobbly and doesn't make it super far most of the time, but then other times just GOES. He JUST started being able to stand up by himself though. I've only seen him do it a handful of times.

He's gotten into doing the downward dog yoga pose lately and it cracks me up every time. He tried to do it in the bath tonight though and fell and inhaled a ton of water, so there's that...

He also almost climbed out of the tub, so that's exciting *shakes head*

Going to the bathroom has gotten harder for me because he just really, REALLY wants to play with the plunger, the TP, my underwear, etc. The toilet paper always ends up on the windowsill when I'm in there at this point and he's usually mad at me by the time I'm done in there.

The noises that that boy can make still astounds me. I've added yodeler to his potential future careers. Beatboxer has been on the list for a while now.

Liam has started giving me attack hugs and it's my favorite thing right now. He just dives in and wraps his little arms around my neck and sometimes even pats my arm like I pat his back and it's so, so sweet. 

It's less sweet when he does it from the side of the tub. These days I seem to end up almost as wet as him by the end of his baths between splashing, him throwing his little loofa (that holds a surprising amount of water in it) out of the tub at me, and grabbing onto me from inside the tub.

He's learning to blow out of his mouth on purpose and it's hilarious to watch. He's been seeing me blow a lot because I introduced him to both blowing bubbles and bath bubbles (that I gather in my hands and then blow on to make them splat on the wall, which he thinks is hilarious) as well as blowing dandelion seeds. If I put something up to his mouth though, he doesn't seem to realize that I want him to try blowing on it and usually just ends up leaning into it awkwardly.

I've realized that I have very few pictures of Liam smiling. He is a super happy, silly little boy, but out in public or if there's a camera out, he's SO SERIOUS. He's always been like that, from the day he was born. He looks at everyone so gravely most of the time. He's really just super observant and likes to soak everything in. He does it even just with me if I take him outside. He'll be really serious as he takes in the great outdoors. 

We watched our neighbor go up and down the hill next to their house in a tractor thing for probably a good 20 minutes one day. Liam was completely captivated by it.

Some fun facts about Liam right now:

-He dances to every jingle that comes on the TV and especially loves the short Geico commercial that just plays a little song and shows the logo

-He usually only waves back at people once they're not looking, or even in view anymore

-He really likes bananas at the moment

-The main lullaby that he hears from me at least is Mary's Lullaby, which I legitimately never remember learning/singing in primary but came to me at some point as I was rocking him months ago

-He takes a nap with grandma in her recliner at least once a day most days

-He's almost always quiet during the dinner prayer and then will babble something when we all say Amen, like he knows that he's supposed to say something at the end

-His favorite thing in the world right now is closing doors/the baby gate

-He likes to steal the bookmark out of my book and does it multiple times a day

I realize that most of these things probably aren't that interesting to most of you, but they're little things that I never want to forget!

Little update on the rest of us since this blog is technically supposed to be about my family in general and not JUST Liam (whoops):

Our old Honda CRV finally kicked the bucket literally the day after we got preapproved for a mini van. We've been absolutely loving our new van! And before you ask, no, I'm not pregnant or anything. We just figured that if we were getting a new (used) car anyway, we might as well get something bigger for the future. Plus, I just like having lots of space because then we can help people move, carpool, etc. and pay forward a little bit of the service that others have given us!

Jonathan is still working nights at Amazon, so we're on opposite schedules. I'm looking forward to meeting some of his coworkers finally now that restrictions are loosening a bit with COVID and everything.

Fritz has gotten super vocal and can be heard caterwauling around the house on a regular basis. He still sleeps in the crib with Liam pretty much every night.

I'm second counselor in the primary presidency and we're just starting to have primary again, so that's been both really exciting and kind of daunting as we're kind of starting over in a lot of ways. It's already been so worth it though. The kid that gave the opening prayer that first Sunday that primary was back was so, so excited and it made me emotional listening to him. It was really sweet.

Otherwise I'm just doing the stay-at-home mom thing and trying to figure out my health (as per usual). 

My GI doctor recently had me try something called the low FODMAP diet to help my IBS, and it was basically the most confusing thing I've ever tried to do and was crazy stressful. I just went off it last week because there has honestly just been too much going on to give it the attention that it needs and to really be able to properly gauge the results since my IBS is very much stress-induced. There have been a lot of major stressors that have cropped up recently and so it's been hard to tell if the diet is working or not since stress has been making me sick anyway. 

I'll probably try it again sometime in the future, but for now, letting that stressor go at least has been a massive relief.

Anyway, that's our lives in a nutshell!