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!)

Me Too Mommy!

So Liam is crawling, and recently started cruising, but though he is hitting milestones far quicker than Sarah, I figured I should record her goings on for posterity as well (though considering our biggest accomplishment right now is working on potty training, I won't put in too many details for fear of future 16 year old petulant Sarah).  I love the fact that I have a little person to hang out with now.  Not that babies aren't fun, and playing peek-a-boo over the steps isn't enough to occupy me for hours (no, it really is) but I love the fact that I can have real conversations with my (gasp!) almost 3 year old.  In regards to my singing at the Capital 4th last week.

Sarah: Mommy, where are you going?
Me: I'm going to sing.
Sarah:  What are you going to sing?
Me: Oh, the Star Spangled Banner and the Lion King (we "ooohed" Can You Feel the Love Tonight?)
Sarah:  Ohhhh, I like that song.

Next day:
Sarah:  I saw you on TV with Daddy on the couch singing Lion King.
Me:  You did?
Sarah: Liam was asleep in his crib and I was "nuggling" on the couch with Daddy.

I love the fact she is her own person.  Though her fierce independence means it often takes two to three times as long as I would like to leave the house (often because we're buckeled into the car seat when she informs me that then is the time to go potty) I love the fact she tries to remember her left and right when it comes to shoes, enjoys washing her own hands (even though it often makes a giant mess).  I love the fact that she twirls in a dress and after spinning around five or ten times announces to anyone who will listen "Wow, I'm dizzy". I love the fact that she sometimes comes up to me and says "Mommy, I like your dress" or "You're so pretty".  And I really love the fact she is a wonderful big sister.  She loves to help dress him, get his binky, hug him, walk him like a dog (ok, that's strange, but today he had a loose shirt on, and as he craweld around the kitchen, she held on to the back of his shirt and said, look Mommy, I'm walking the doggie!).  I love the fact that she wants him to be happy.  If Liam starts to cry while in the car, before I can even say anything I hear Sarah saying in a quiet, reassuring voice "It's ok, Mommy's still here". 

And I know equally reassuring to him is that Sarah is still there too. 

Future's So Bright...

Chaos Reigns

I may post about this at a future date, but I was incredibly fortunate to find a fabulous group of women in the hospital mommy's group soon after Liam.  There are 8 babies that Liam is "friends" with, and 7 of them are born within I think 11 days of each other.  It's been so much fun seeing them grow up together, but there is the ineviable side effect of comparing where your child is to everyone else, and it's even harder when you know these other babies are litereally the same age as your child.  A couple weeks ago we were all together having dinner, and of the six children there, 3 were first children and 3 were second children, and the 3 first chidlren were crawling around, while the three little siblings were just sitting.  At first I was worried, and then I remembered how much things change when they start to crawl.  No longer can you just plop them on your bed while you go to the bathroom or answer the phone.  You have to start to worry about little things on the floor that suddenly become baby magnets (and this has been even more difficult this time as Sarah loves playing with little things, like, no joke, marbles and pennies).  So as anxious as I was, I was glad I got to delay the worrying a bit longer.

Well, as the point of the blog (and this blog reboot) was the document "milestones" in my chidlrens lives, and I have no idea when Sarah began crawling, I figure I should mention that yes, Liam is now on the move.  He began spinning on his tummy a couple weeks ago, and then the end of May be managed to get up on all fours and rock back and forth.  And then I left town for a week to grade AP exams, and yes, the biggest fear of all working parents came true - you miss a milestone because you're at work.  Luckily, Liam was at my parents house this particular night, and I saw my son crawl for the first time, June 5th, via FaceTime.

Update:  In the past week and a half I've been home this child moves like a champ.  He also seems to have no fear as he crawls over and under and through things to get what he wants (which is often the smallest or most dangerous thing in the room).  Though he may have some friends already walking, now that I remember how difficult being mobile is, Liam can wait at least as long as Sarah did (which this one I do remember, she was 14 months).  He's far better now than the video below shows, but this was my first attempt at catching it on my first day back.  This video was only taken 10 days ago, and while re-watching it now, I'm amazed at how quickly things change.

And back to the title of this post - I now think this is the most difficult part of having two children thus far.  My eldest is not quite yet self sufficient, and my youngest is no longer portable.  Therefore I am really doubly needed at all times.  My entire life is often one big giant chaotic mess, but I'm also having a blast.

And Then There Were Two....

I guess if this is supposed to chronicle the lives of both my children, I might as well add the story of how Liam was almost not born at the hospital (ok, slight exaggeration).  Sarah was born right on time.  I went into labor the day before, but she came right on her due date.  I knew I was due right around the beginning of the school year, but I wanted to have as much time after the baby was born to stay home, so I was planning on working right until the end.  And anyways, I was in labor for almost 24 hours with Sarah, so I thought I'd have plenty of time.

The third day of school, one of my students asked me what would happen if my water broke during class, and I tried to reassure here that wouldn't happen, and that there would be plenty of time.  That night my sister came over, we had some fabulous Greek food, and I went to bed.  Woke up the next morning (day 5 of the school year) feeling a little odd, so I mentioned to T.J. that he may want to stay near the phone today.  Went to school, feeling pretty good, a little off, perhaps a bit of indigestion, took attendance, all was well.  Then I realized that my indigestion was somewhat regular.  So just for giggles, I started to time my (later identified as) contractions.  No biggie, 5 minutes apart, but only lasting for about 30 seconds. But being somewhat risk averse, I decided to go home, mentioning to my guidance supervisor that if nothing happened I'd be back that afternoon.  While driving home, I had my first identifiable contraction, so I called T.J. at work, told him to come on home, and hopped in the tub.  While relaxing, I called the doctor, and mentioned my contractions were 2ish minutes apart, but only lasting 30 seconds.  They said I should probably come in, so when T.J. came home I told him what to... whoa, was that my water breaking?  This was new.  So my nonchalant let's get to the hospital when we can became "let's get to the hospital now".  I left work around 10:20, got home about 11:00, my water broke at 11:22 and I checked into the hospital at 12:04.

And Liam was born at 1:15.  But I was pushing by 12:30.  Without drugs (not planned), but that's what happens when you go from 4cm (when checking in) to 10cm (15 minutes later).  Whoops.  Just for posterity, I do want to add that on his way out he did something to my back which lead me to be in more pain that night than my accidental unmedicated labor, but 9 months later, all is (almost) well and clearly he is 115% worth it.

So introducing, very very belatedly William Andrew Flynn. 

Let's Try This Again (Take 3)

The little icon when I went to login to this today told me my last post was May 4th, 2012.  I think I had just about given up on this whole blogging thing (especially since it is just for me) but then I realized I have no idea when Sarah started to crawl.  I think by the time we started Gymboree in August she was crawling at 10 months, and I know she started to walk on my birthday/ Thanksgiving day, but I have no idea when she started to crawl.  So I have no idea if Liam is (not) crawling earlier or later than his sister.

Oh yeah, Sarah has a brother.  His name is William (Liam) Andrew and he was born August 31st, 2012, 8 lbs 11.2 oz and 21". I'll have to do a post on him later, but until then...(no, he looks nothing like that now!)

But back to the point of this restart, before I go and continue grading papers, I don't know when Sarah got teeth, I don't know when she started crawling, or even when her vocabulary exploded so much.  And I think that was the point of this blog when I started it.  I know she has many many more milestones to reach (as does Liam) so I figured I'd give this one (more) try.  I'm not playing Candy Crush, and now that school is over maybe I can use my (rapidly shortening) extra time doing this instead.

But the quick milestone update, Sarah walks, talks talks talks talks! and has great imaginative play.  Not quite potty trained yet (I know she'll love that update when she's older) but we keep trying with "two candies" or stickers.  Liam does not crawl, but he rotates, rocks on all fours and has two teeth.  At this point I think he'll walk before he crawls because he loves to be standing up.  Another idea for a future post will be differences between a first and second child, but the one I'll note now is enjoying this lack of movement.  With Sarah I was all about moving, with him, I know the terror that happens with two dogs and a baby on the loose, so I'll take the stationary phase while I can.

My next post probably won't be until school is over, but it is coming.  I promise (I hope)