I think he says Mama

At Liam's 9 month appointment I asked the doctor what milestones we should be looking for in the next three months.  As he had just started crawling two days before that appointment, I wasn't expecting him to start walking in the next three months, but she did say he should start to use words "with purpose".

To start, Liam is the polar opposite of Sarah.  Where she is crazy, he is chill.  Where she is intense, he is giggly.  Where she loves to talk (and ask why?  why?  why?  why?) he prefers to sit and observe the situation.  Where she is, well, me, he is, well, T.J. And to that extent is not really a bit talker.

So he babbles, like any baby babbles, but I wasn't sure he was using words "with purpose" and he turns 12 months this weekend.  But then I started to notice every time I got him out of his car seat he would babble "mama".  Or when I went to get him out of the crib in the morning he would say "mama".  And when we come home in the afternoon, if T.J. was here, he would wave his arms frantically and say "dada".  It doesn't seem to be consistent, but it does seem to be with some sort of purpose.  And if I listen really hard, I think he may even say "aah-rah" (Sarah) as well.  No other words, no ball, bubble, up, juice, milk or shoe (which was purportedly my first world) but I think we're getting somewhere. 

I remember Sarah also spoke late.  The doctor told us that babies that are exposed to multiple languages often start speaking later because it takes a while for their brains to sort out the two languages, but they do eventually catch up (as evidenced by my almost three year old who is verbal far beyond her 22 months).  For now I'll relish the nonverbal way he communicates with me - lifting his arms up toward me when he wants to be picked up, waving his arms up and down when he gets excited (about anything), clapping with joy along with music or clearly understanding the word no as evidenced by his pouting lower lip and shrill cry soon after.  And I'll relish that just shy of his first birthday, my baby knows his mama.

 (Gratuitous pictures of my almost 1 year old little man!)

Of Grocery Stores and Shopping Carts

Being the mother of two has made me reevaluate the way I make even simple decisions.  Take grocery shopping.  Normally I can put Liam in the front and throw Sarah in the back, unless I have two many groceries, and then I have to go to Wegmans.  Why?  Not because of the fabulous bakery or fresh sushi but because of the fact that the carts at Wegmans have seats for two kids in the front of the cart.  Teeter may be closer, Walmart might have better prices but neither one of them will help me prevent the  meltdown that comes when Sarah doesn't understand why Liam can't sit in the back of the cart ... yet.

The only downside is close proximity to each other does allow for easy hair pulling.  And as I have yet to break down and cut either one of their hair, there is quite a bit of real estate there.  But the positive is that Sarah is an adorable big sister who loves snuggling with Liam when he gets upset.  I'm not sure if it helps, but she loves putting her arm around him and saying "It's ok buddy" over and over again.

So when I have both kids and need to get more than just a couple things it's off to Wegmans.  Or Costco, as they also have the two-seated shopping cart (and the added bonus of the giant cart where Sarah can sit in the back and fit along with the two kitchen sinks I inevitably buy).  Now if only Target would understand the brilliance that is this invention, my life would be complete (and so so so much easier).

Their first time side by side.

I am so glad I didn't get married in the era of pinterest....

So I'm not sure how this happened, but Liam turns 1 on Saturday!  And though I must have been crazy choosing to have his party two days before school starts for the year, I've been spending the last couple of weeks planning a Very Hungry Caterpillar party (well, I say week, but I noticed today that I pinned my first party idea on Pinterest 10 months ago, so really I've been planning for a while?)

Oh well, Pinterest.  Two years ago I found some online party depot, ordered a birthday party set with girlie jungle animals, filled out the invitations by hand, put a paper sign in our front yard and bought some balloons.  I did cater the food and we had way too many people here, but it wasn't stressful.  It was a celebration.  But in the past three years, the mixed blessing that is Pinterest has entered the American lexicon.  The framed pictures may have been sitting there for over a year,  but Liam's "theme" to his nursery was the classic Eric Carle story, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" (at least I have a crib sheet and color scheme that matches).  So I guess early on I decided that the theme to his party would be the same.  Oh yes, parties now have to have themes.  So I figured out how to use Pinterest and started pinning things that I figured would never come to fruition.  Caterpillar cupcake cake?  Balloon sculpture?  Month-by-month picture chain?  English muffin pizzas in a caterpillar shape?  Check, check, check and check.  Then the party planning hit the fan and I had to figure out what I actually wanted to do/ versus what I could actually accomplish. 

But the moral of this post is, this party planning has been somewhat stressful.  It was worth it when my "Liam is Turning 1" candy bar wrappers looked adorable, or the month-by-month caterpillar makes me smile seeing how much he has grown, but I think the multitude of choices makes overachievers like me bite off more than I can chew (especially when school starts 48 hours later). 

But it's fun.  Really fun.  Or else I wouldn't be doing it.  But considering my incredible level of indecisiveness, I'm really glad I did not get married in the era of Pinterest.  Instead of having celebrated our 6th anniversary, I may still have been ruminating over the different ways I could fold the napkins at the cocktail hour.  But alas, I had to settle for magazines and blogs, and instead I could save my Pinterest obsession for Liam's first birthday.  Or Sarah's third.....

Perfect Morning

Naming William Andrew

I recently had lunch with a friend who was expecting her second child, and she asked me how we came to name Liam.  Though I could recount the story quite well now, the more adorable things my children do, and the further removed I am from my moderate hospital meltdown that resulted from trying to name my son, the more I realized I should write this down while I still remember.

First off, I feel naming a boy was much more difficult than naming a girl.  There were far fewer names that I would consider for a boy.  With a girl, I feel you can be a bit more creative.  Even though we ended up with a super traditional name, that was by choice.  And though social norms may change in the next thirty years (or she may never get married), the name we gave Sarah may not even be her name for her entire life.  As attached as I was to Lynn, I gave that up to hold on to my maiden name.  So there is a feeling of permanence associated with naming a boy that gives me, the person who can't even decide where to go to dinner, pause. 

So these were my rules for naming my son.

1) The name could not me monosyllabic.  I just didn't like the way two monosyllabic names flowed when said together.  T.J. and I both like the name John, but I don't like the way "John Flynn" sounds together.
2) It couldn't end in an "in" sound.  One of the reasons I am not Jen Lynn Flynn is, well, say that out loud.  And it's amazing the number of boy names that end with an "in" sound.  Evan.  Nathan.  Kevin.  Ryan.  Brayden. etc. etc. etc.
3) It couldn't have negative associations with former students.  In case this blog is ever found by said former students, I won't mention the names that were ruled out, but a couple names that did not violate rule 1 or 2 were ruled out by rule 3.
4) The default name could not be a nickname.  I like the name Timothy, but you don't know many Timothy's in the real world, only Tim's.  Same for Alexander, Benjamin (though this also violates rule 2) and Nathanial's.  Not like I mind if my son went by a nickname (I feel most boys do) but I didn't want to have to go by a nickname
5) Like naming Sarah, it couldn't be too popular.  Though as the number of names has increased, the frequency of any particular popular name has decreased, so this is the least important rule.

If you're having a child at any point in the future, don't let them tell you you cannot leave the hospital without a name.  Not true, you may need to pay $50 later to register it,but it is possible.  After Liam was born, the nurse asked what his name was, and though we had had 30 weeks to try to think of a name, we still had no name.  I was pushing for Andrew in homage to my maiden name, and even told that to the nurse in the delivery room, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized there were still too many Andrews in my life to have another Andrew.  So Friday night came, and the registrar came, and we had no name.  And Saturday morning came, no name.  Saturday night, still baby boy.  Sarah came to visit and was calling him "baby baby" and I realized we should probably have a name lest Sarah call him "baby" for the rest of her life.  Sunday morning, no name.  Sunday afternoon an Irish nurse came in (for an unrelated reason) and T.J. asked her what some popular Irish names were.  Her response was Liam, William, and Seamus.  Well, I ruled out Seamus immediately.  We both liked Liam, but being a Jennifer born in 1979 I worried it was too trendy.  And then T.J. pointed out that Liam was a legitimate nickname for WilLIAM.  We kept the Andrew as a family name and though there were tears as a signed the paper (was it hormones?  Exhaustion?  And I'm still not 100% sure we made the right decision, but can you ever be sure about anything?) but thus was named Little Liam.

So the friend I had lunch with asked if I violated my own rule 4 by naming Liam a nickname.  I rationalized it by saying he doesn't "have" to be Liam.  He can be a Liam, or a Bill or William or Will.  I'm still not sure he knows his own name as daycare calls him William, I call him Liam, Sarah calls him "Eeum" and T.J. calls him Billy.  But he will learn his name one day.  Whatever he chooses to call himself, at least he can read this and realized we tried our best.

Seben

I'm in no rush for my children to grow up.  I (try) to cherish every moment of this snuggly phase, knowing full well that there will come a time where Sarah will no longer try to stall going to bed in order to have  few more "nuggles" (snuggles) on the couch with me.  But at the same time, I've started worrying about not facilitating baby habits in Sarah, especially as she starts "school" in two weeks.  Sarah is incredibly verbal, but there are some words she still says in an adorable, and yet, not proper way.  I've noticed she's already started to correct some of these and though it makes me proud how she's starting to talk like a big girl, it makes me sad to realize she's, well, starting to talk like a big girl.  Though these posts are more infrequent than I planned or would have liked, it's amazing how much I've managed to forget in the past three years, and how much reading these posts have helped me remember and smile.  I recently read my post about translating baby Sarah, and I wanted to write down her toddler speak. And though she is much more comprehensible now, she still has some idiosyncrasies that I both hope she outgrows and hope she retains for ever.

The letter "v".  I'm surprised she even knows it's in the alphabet or recognizes it on a piece of paper.  Seven = seben, everybody = ebeebody, five = five? (ok, I can't follow the trend there either).  And speaking of numbers...

The substitution of "f" for all sorts of letter blends.  Three = free, Granddad = Frandad.

And then the adding of letter blends where they don't belong.  When she wants you to pick her up (or hang on to her in the ocean) she asks you to "holch me" (instead of hold me).

Then there are the one offs, like the aforementioned "nuggle".   I'm sure there are many more that I can't think of right now (and might be edit worthy at some point in the future) but if we go on vacation next year and Sarah asks to go back to the hotel after dinner, I want to be able to remember that this year she asked for the "huhtel" after a day at the beach.

Update: How could I forget two of my favorite "Sarah"isms!  I love how she wants to stay in the "tubtub" (bathtub) to dry off.  Why?  "puzz" (because!)