Birthday Planning!

I have discovered it is really hard to plan a baby's first birthday party without having to cry through the whole thing! I've been looking up different party idea's and everytime I see a cute poem saying, "hey I'm turning one" I just break down in tears! 

Will this ever get any easier?

Will I ever stop crying because my baby is growing up?

No.... 

Simple and plain. I don't think I will ever not be overcome by emotion at the thought of my baby growing up.......... *tear* here they start again!

I have so many things to do before his big day! 

1. I have to get his pictures taken, and after much thought and hours and hours pouring over professional photographers and whatnot, looking at prices, that is just too much and way out of my budget. My sister has a pretty nice camera, and so I will just take his birthday photo's by myself. Sure, I've never done it before but I'm good at picking up on creative things! It'll be fun! And I can have all the time in the world and not have to pay hundreds of dollars for his pictures. Maybe this'll become a cool hobby of mine!

2. I have to get invitations sent out. My family always does family parties on the Sunday, so that's not a problem. But Jon has two sets of parents that we get to party with. So we have decided that the Friday after Liam's birthday we will have a small get together with Barb, and Saturday will be with Rod and Sheri. His actual birthday will be just Jon, Liam and I! We are going to go to the zoo! We are so excited!!

3. I have to figure out a theme for his birthday party! Do you realize how many themes there are for a little one!? Yeah, there are tons! Deciding on a theme is really hard work! I'm almost tempted to turn to Pinterest for his birthday party but I'm pretty sure that I'll resist. I have never been on pinterest, and I really don't have any desire to start.

4. I need to get his Birthday Presents. I have two already but there is one more that I want to get before his Birthday. 

Sigh.... so much to do and so little time!

In other news, over the weekend Jon and I auditioned at a new theatre close by us called Playbills (look them up! Playbills.org) We even got Jon's brother Chris to audition! And last night we got phone calls saying that we all got call-backs! We are all pretty excited. I have missed being in shows! I'm excited to start up again! Next step: lose weight!

"I have wings, and I can fly. You teach him earth and I will teach him sky"

"Their adventures were over. They hailed his great YOPP! And Jojo was honored as thinker non-stop. Now all Jojo's thinks would forever be heard, including this think......................

AN ELEPHANT BIRD!"

Lyndsie as our Cat in the Hat and Liam as The Elephant Bird

 Seussical is over, and it was such an amazing experience! I loved working with the kids and teaching them music and teaching them about finding their characters, finding their voices, and finding their place on the stage. 

We had some fun times as adults working on the set. First of all, the Thursday during Spring Break, Jon and I went to SJH to help build the set. We were there for six hours building platforms and painting flats and doing all sorts of work. We really had a fun time, and a great turnout of students willing to come help on their week off. Then, the week before the show started we still had a canopy to put up. I should mention that this canopy was very large and extremely heavy. Alyn had put some chains on the canopy so that we could hoist it up and attach it to the beam by the ceiling. Jon came up with the idea to attach ropes to the chain and have three people pull on the ropes to lift up the canopy. Alyn, Jon and Matt pulled on the ropes, and it lifted into the air... But then came the question: how were we going to attach it? Did I mention that it was heavy? Letting go of one of the ropes to chain it would result in part of the canopy falling down, which would make it too difficult to hold up for the other two. Thankfully, I realized that Alyn had put two other chains onto the canopy, so I climbed up the small mountain like ladder and had to throw the chains over the rail and then attach the chains together. The first chain I did great, and it was fine... The second chain, was a wee bit more difficult. As I climbed the ladder I broke the cardinal rule of being up high: DON'T LOOK DOWN! Well, I looked down and all of sudden my legs started getting a little shaky and I started getting a little light-headed. And luck would have it, the second chain was a little bit more difficult. For some reason the screw in the chain was not budging and so here I was on this gigantic ladder fiddling with this chain, and finally I managed to twist it, attach it and then climb down as fast as I possibly could. Then Jon got up and managed to fix the other chains, and then we all stepped back and realized that the canopy really was what was missing from the set! It was beautiful! It caused for a late night for us though, which was fun for Liam.

Liam has been so good throughout this whole rehearsal process! I know that I've said it before but I honestly don't know how we got so lucky to have such a sweet boy. But he really is perfect for our little family. He did so well on stage too. And I have to admit that I cried every time that he was brought out on stage in his little costume! 

Liam with his little elephant/bird adoptive parents :) Horton the Elephant and Miss Gertrude McFuzz

The show was fun, the kids did their absolute best! We had three performances this past week. Thursday night the kids performed once and Friday there were two performances. We set up a nursery of sorts in the teachers lounge and we tried to have Liam nap in between shows, and according to Jon he was almost asleep until the janitors came in and vacuumed. So that was a slightly wasted effort. But he did fine in the performances. When Liam gets excited he starts waving his arms really fast, well, when they brought him out on stage he got excited and he started waving his arms. However, it looked like he was flapping his wings. It was adorable! I cried every time he came out on stage. I know that I've mentioned that before, but it is so true, I teared up every time. 

Thursday's performance went so well! It was one of the best times I've ever seen the kids do their show. After the performance, I was buckling Liam into his stroller, when Jon came over to me and said that someone was there that I needed to see. So I looked up and there was a man walking with Jon. It took me a moment to realize just who he was. The man was Dr. Craig Hall, my OB/GYN! I was totally shocked and asked him why he was there, and apparently the girl in the first picture: Our Cat in the Hat is his granddaughter! Of all the random coincidences, right? It just goes to show that it truly is a small world!

How incredibly grateful I am for the chance to work with these kids! I love all of them, and I am really excited to work with them again for next years musical! It will be really fun! 

In other news! Liam is learning all sorts of things and it is so fun to watch him grow. He learned how to wave! It is seriously the most adorable thing ever! He is quite fickle with it though, and will only do it occasionally. So when he does do it it's really cute! He also has started crinkling his nose when he smiles, it's so cute! He also has been wanting to talk so badly and will babble non-stop. As soon as this kid learns how to form words I don't think the words will ever stop. My child will definitely be a talker and most likely a charismatic one at that. Everywhere we go he makes friends, we went to the supermarket today and every person we passed he would smile at and he would be so friendly. He is such a happy child and I'm sure that he brightens everyone's day that come in contact with him. That is a trait that I pray he always keeps.

Seussical Jr!

Today is final dress rehearsal for Seussical Jr. at Syracuse Jr. High. I cannot express how awesome these kids are and how wonderful this opportunity has been. Not only have I been able to work with such awesome people I have been able to watch these kids grow. Watching the awe and wonder on a childs face is probably one of the most rewarding things to me. I get to see my own baby react to things everyday because EVERYTHING is new to him. But for these kids to get up on stage and perform is wonderful. I am so incredibly blessed! The kids have worked hard and they have done so well. And when they bring Liam on stage for his part makes me tear up and cry every time. My baby is not really a baby anymore. He will be one in three months, and that is really hard for me.

Seussical will be playing at Syracuse Jr. High April 18-19: Thursday at 7 pm. and Friday at 4 pm, and again at 7 pm. Tickets are $5 in the office or at the door.




Ok, Life has been good. I had a couple weeks where I kind of just fell off the earth and avoided contact with the outside world but I'm better now. After several months my little relapse into my PPD was almost unbearable. But I've managed to get out of my funk and get going, being a part of Seussical has been such a blessing, I had forgotten what it was like to be busy all the time and barely have time to do anything, but I have missed it. I miss being in shows, I miss being busy, I miss having a life outside of home. Not to say that being home is bad, but I do miss the busy-ness and hustle and bustle of having a completely chock full schedule. I am excited to have a house full of kids and be a part of their busy schedules though. That will be fun.

Sorry, this post is rather boring..... one day I'll be able to find time to sit and blog longer. After the musical is over.

Small but important update!

Liam turned nine months old. NINE MONTHS! How did this happen? How is he almost a year old? Time seems to have gone by faster in this past nine months than it ever has for me. Jon and I have been married for two years and our little guy will be a year old in July. Jon is turning 25 this year and I will be 23! A couple goals that I have this year is to get in shape, I have NEVER been particularly fit, but I've never really had that big of a problem because I was always active and doing things, now that I'm a mom being active is kind of difficult. To top it off I haven't even lost the weight I gained from my pregnancy, and because of the Mirena IUD that I had for about six months I gained even more weight! I have actually been pretty self conscious of this since giving birth, I feel like I am huge! It's really bearing down on me and that is my number one goal! To lose weight! So I'll be writing about that soon on here too!
The next goal is to become a better housewife/mom. My mom makes it look so effortless, keeping the house clean, keeping my dad fed and happy, and always being the perfect mom. I want so badly to be able to do that. This week has been my spring cleaning week and I've been working hard. It made me realize that little things that are so easy to do every week turn into big things that you don't even want to do. Laundry being the top of that list! If I were to just do our laundry every week then I wouldn't have spent all day Monday and Tuesday  working on it, keeping Jon's and my room clean is another thing. Once a week make sure everything is off the floor and vacuum. SO EASY! Yet, I seem to fight doing it!
When I was going through my postpartum depression I didn't want to do anything because I was depressed. Then I got on my anti-depressants and got more apathetic towards my daily routines, apathy was definitely better than depression so I worked with it. February 18 I got my Mirena taken out and within the week I felt much better. I stopped taking my antidepressants and suddenly apathy wasn't something I had to deal with because I suddenly cared about everything! I wanted to do, be, and act better!
I will keep updating on my progress on the weight loss and the cleaning!