Last of July!

Well, lots of things have happened just in this month. I feel as though this month whizzed by, but then I look back and wonder how everything happened in just this one month.



LIAM:
Liam's birthday was at the beginning of the month and I already covered that, but then we had his 2 year wellness visit. It went pretty well, we got in there and he got measured and weighed. He weighs 27 pounds and is 36 inches tall. He grew four inches in the past six months! He is in the 90th percentile for height and the 40th for weight. He's my tall skinny red head! He had to have a shot at his appointment, which I had completely forgotten about, and so the nurse came in and had me hold him down and she gave him his shot. She left and we got him redressed and as we left he still waved to her and blew her a kiss and said bye. She was so touched, because she said that most kids won't even look at her after their shots. But not my Mr. Liam! He is the most tenderhearted child ever and he has no malice toward anyone and he never holds a grudge. It was very sweet.
His vocabulary is expanding exponentially every day! He will have little conversations with you and he is just so sweet. His voice is adorable. He loves to say daddy, but still refuses to say mommy. I'm trying really hard to teach him how to say, "not the mama" to people from the tv show Dinosaurs. It's on Netflix and I had forgotten how much I loved it!
Liam is doing really well at listening. Some days are better than others, but for the most part he is doing a good job. I usually have to tell him twice and then if he still doesn't listen I will tell him that I've already asked him twice and then he finally follows directions. Some days are still a battle of wills with him, and I've gotten really good at learning when to pick my battles, but he's such a sweet spirit that he usually does really well.
The inevitable finally happened this week though. On Sunday we were at my parents house and we put Liam down in the pack and play so that he could take a nap. Well, about ten minutes into his "nap" the door opened and he came running out, just beaming! My little monkey learned how to climb out of his pack and play and so nap time is a thing of the past now. He rarely takes a nap nowadays and so naptime has turned into quiet time. We will sit on the couch or on my bed and just read stories during Duncan's afternoon nap. I'm pretty sure that I read through every Dr. Seuss book I have in my house, but we didn't read it all the way through... oh no.... we would get about half way and then he would take it from me and hand me a new book. The only one he sat through was "Oh the Places You'll Go".
Quiet time happens to be one of the ways that he gets punished now too. If he does something that is wrong I usually give him a warning, and then if he does it two more times he gets put in quiet time. So he has to sit on the couch and read through a book. However, he accidentally dropped it and I told him that he could get down to pick up his book so he could read it. Give an inch they take a mile. He will now throw his book on the floor so that he can get down. So that practice had to be given up quick, so now, if he throws it, it stays put and he doesn't have anything to keep him entertained.
He really is such a good little boy, and I am constantly in awe of just how smart he is and how fast he picks up on things. He is the type of kid where he doesn't need to practice anything over and over. He watches how others do it and then he follows suit.


DUNCAN:
Oh man, I don't even know where to start with this child. He is such a difficult baby. I am practicing being patient every single day with him. He used to cry all the time, it's gotten much better within the past couple weeks, but it's so stressful and frustrating to have your child just cry and you not know what else to do for them. I go through my checklist of things on a daily basis. There is rarely a day where he doesn't cry and he is just content. I love him to death, but he really is the absolute best birth control anyone could have. I am so grateful that I am a SAHM because I would not trust anyone else to be with him all day long. He is very hard to handle some times and there are days when after I've done all I can do, I just put him in his crib and turn on the vacuum so that he goes to sleep.
He is very difficult to read his cues. Liam would sleep anywhere if he was tired, Duncan is different and will only go to sleep if you catch him right when he's ready to sleep and put him down specifically for a nap. He only likes to sleep on his belly and hates laying on his back. He used to cry all the time in the car but we got him those toys to put on the carseat and he has been much better. It's amazing to see just how different siblings can be, Liam was seriously content wherever we went, Duncan is a bit harder. He loves to be held and doesn't like being put down for anything. He also doesn't like it when he is wet for too long. It seems like every time he pees he needs to be changed right then! He doesn't like being messy. He is also a stealth spitter! You don't realize that he needs to spit up until all of a sudden it's down your shoulder. Our friends JD and Amanda came over the other day with their little one and after she ate there were barely burps that were emitted from her tiny frame. Duncan can challenge anyone in a belching contest. His literally shake his whole body, and then the spit up just flows out. Thankfully, since changing up my diet he doesn't projectile his spit up anymore.
He is a giant kid. He is tall and he is chunky. Our friends' baby was 9.1 at three months old. Duncan was that at three weeks! He was 12 pounds at his last appointment and his next one isn't until next week, so we'll see how much he weighs then. 3 month clothing is tight on him, and so we've been in 3-6 month clothing for the past couple weeks. He is a big boy!
He can roll over from back to front and front to back now, although he doesn't do it all the time. He's more relaxed than Liam was and isn't as big of a mover as him. He is getting really good at grabbing things and pulling them to him now. He loves the toys that go on the carseats and will grab at those to play with now, we have this one butterfly one that the wings crinkle when he grabs it and he loves hearing it!


 JON
We also celebrated Jon's birthday on the 12th! We had a little barbeque with some friends and cooked flank steak, peppers, asparagus and we had lots of little treats while we watched a movie later. We really did have quite a fun time and I think that Jon had fun. He is doing well in school and even though he is a little nervous about his Calc 2 class, he is doing really well on his quizzes and did very well on his last test. He is working as a computer tech at Weber State and is enjoying it very much! He has really awesome co-workers and he gets along great with his supervisor.

ME:
Well, this past week has been crazy! I was really ill all last week and felt like death warmed over, and then Liam managed to get a cold somewhere and then the little stinker got me sick. It was awful! I didn't even remember what day it was. Jon was an amazing husband and took care of the kids while I slept, rested and watched Netflix all week. The cold Liam gave me turned into a sinus infection, so then on top of having a sore throat and runny nose, I also had sinus pressure! Who knew you could have a runny AND stuffy nose at the same time. The worst part was everytime I turned in bed it was like all the snot would run from one side of my nose to the other causing me not to breathe again. Jon was awesome and went and got spicy food and hot and sour soup from Dragon Hill in Clearfield and that cleared out my sinuses pretty quickly! Two days after that my sinus infection cleared up and I just had a runny nose, sore throat, and a major cough. These past ten days have been a complete blur of Pretty Little Liars, tissues, bed and breastfeeding. I really didn't do much else. I did finish the four seasons of PLL on Netflix and then the seven episodes of this season, and now I have to wait for one a week! Who came up with that idea?
Last night, I was feeling much better!! As was Liam, and so after I had finished feeding Duncan I put him in his bed and came out of his room. Liam was still awake and sitting in front of his gate fighting going to bed. So I told him to go get his shoes. His eyes lit up and he ran to grab his shoes, I changed his pants and then put his shoes on him and then we went to the Farmington Station movie theatre and caught the last showing of How to Train Your Dragon 2. We got popcorn and a drink to share and went into the theatre. Thankfully, there was only six other people in the theatre and so I wasn't super nervous to have Liam be there. He only spoke out a couple times and he tried to move seats, but he did really well! He finally climbed into my lap and I scratched his back and he fell asleep on my shoulder, but he did really good for our first time alone together. However, his late night didn't stop him from waking up right on schedule. My silly little boy.

Liam and Duncan with their Great Grandparents

this is Duncan's toy, but Liam loves playing with it. This reminded me of Schroeder from Charlie Brown

Liam's favourite part of me baking is licking the spoon!

Nap time for two of my boys!

the watermelon we had for the fourth of July. It was bigger than Duncan and oh so sweet!

Liam got a water table for his birthday from Nana, and he absolutely loves playing with it!

Duncan hanging out with our friend Katie!

I love how he sleeps with his little bum in the air!

I was doing laundry and Liam decided that that pile of clothes was the best one to pretend to be asleep on.

Duncan cries.... a lot.... and so this was my last resort the other day. And he loved being on top of the dryer.

Duncan and me!

Duncan and his Auntie Rachel

Duncan and Millie

So this is a funny story. The other day, Liam went downstairs and found an apple in Jon's office. Jon found him huddling in the corner eating his apple. So that has become Liam's new snack! He loves it!

Nana doing double duty!

Four months old!

Liam and I at the theatre late last night!