December in a nutshell

First off, the move was hectic, as expected. Lots of last minute crap to deal with. The only good thing is that the drive down was not as horrible as I thought it would be (Joel drove the moving truck, I followed behind in our car with Liam). Liam actually slept through most of it and thank goodness for portable DVD players and Cars. We left around 2 pm and got to our GA house around midnight. He woke up and seemed pretty alert when we got there and this was just the BEGINNING of a new erratic sleeping pattern that would begin...

Ever since we moved, he has only slept through the night ONCE. Not sure if I mentioned it in a previous post, but we removed the front rail of the crib (so essentially it is now a daybed, with a new lower crib safety rail that we had to buy separately) while we were still up in MD and that transition seemed to go well. He STAYED in his bed and woke up around 7:30am but kept himself occupied and content until someone came into his room around 8 to start the day.

We figured that he'd keep this same type of schedule when we moved, but how silly of us to think that it would stick. I mean we did throw off his ENTIRE life by moving 600 miles away, taking him away from 3 of his favorite people who would do just about anything for him (aka, my mom, dad and grandma), AND enrolling him in daycare (more on that later)!

So now, he actually goes to bed around 8-9pm, then sleeps until 2-4am, at which point he comes into out bedroom and says, "Mommy/daddy come into my room," and then Joel and I take turns escorting him back to his bed. We have to stay in there until he's back asleep. Otherwise, repeat step 1. AND... he's been waking up SUPER early compared to back when we were in MD... he's waking up around 6am. Which isn't so bad because we have to be up by 7am. I usually take him back to his room, he says "Not sleepy anymore," and I turn on a DVD and let him do whatever - he usually colors or plays - until we are able to get at least 45 minutes of half-assed sleep until we have to get up for the day.

I think we are getting used to it now. We may try some type of intervention next month, once he's settled into his new routine.

I call this "Linus from Peanuts", or Day 2 of daycare (a screencap from the Kiddie Cam)

Which brings me to the subject of daycare... Liam transitioned surprisingly well. The first week was a little tough, with the whole separation anxiety and just being in a new place. He cried when we left him there for the first few days, but by the end of the week, he did not cry at all. The daycare center we have him at has a Kiddie Cam where you can check in to see what they are doing. This is a great thing and a bad thing. That whole first week I was on it almost all day and didn't really get much work done. But it is AMAZING to watch how he has adapted there. I think the structure and routine has helped a lot. I was worried that he would not nap well (they have a 2.5 hour nap period) since he is not a great napper to begin with. But it seems like he goes to sleep pretty damn well there! They have lunch at 11:30, then they come back to the room at noon for naptime. They sleep on cots and he just goes straight to his cot (which is in the same place every day), lies down and doesn't move until the lights come back on. Crazy! Well I did see him wake up early once, but he STAYED IN HIS COT, did not get up or anything!!! He just laid there and looked around for about 30 minutes until everyone else woke up. (Napping here at home is still a STRUGGLE!!! Joel and I were joking around saying that we should get one of those cots like the daycare has!)

Christmas Party at daycare!! CUPCAKES!!! (nope, I didn't make them... someone else signed up for them before I did! d'oh! I did make some of my Peanut Butter kiss cookies, though!)

Opening up his gift-exchange present from one of his classmates....

...it's a CARS toothbrush holder set!!!! He loved it (ANYthing with cars is like GOLD)! Maybe now he will WANT to brush his teeth! haha

The hitting is also still an issue. He has hit other kids at daycare. They put in him time out, but only when they see him do it. I gave my parents the access codes to the Kiddie Cam (they watch him 24/7!! haha) and they give me reports at the end of the day sometimes... Like they told me one day, he hit a girl sitting next to him at breakfast, and they put him in time out. Then another day, they saw him hit 2 kids on the playground, but it was not in the view of the teachers, so he did not get in trouble. He's still a terror at home. I think he does this ESPECIALLY for Joel and I. He hits the dogs, pulls their hair, pulls ornaments off the Christmas tree, bangs his toys, just does anything he can think of to push our buttons. It's exhausting to deal with, and we are still trying to figure out the best way to deal with him.

Caught in the act! Liam hitting poor Snorty! :(

We also noticed that our female golden retriever, Snorty, is very protective of Liam. Liam, the doggie tormentor, will torment both Snorty and our male golden retriever, Mac all the time. Snorty can take it - she's tough and also playful, so she just thinks Liam is playing with her all the time. Mac, on the other hand, is more touchy and more of a loner, so when Liam torments him, he does not like it. He's growled at him and showed his vicious teeth at him, but knows not to snap at him. The times Snorty has noticed Mac growling or getting irritated at Liam, she barks at Mac, as if she's saying, "If you hurt him, you'll have to deal with me!"! It's pretty neat that she's protective of him like that! But it sucks that Liam still treats her like crap! :( We are working on that as well.

A cut-away of one of the cupcakes I made for his birthday party... that I had to throw in the trash!! :(

Blowing out his birthday candles!

For his 2nd birthday, we did a party at an indoor playground. We invited family and friends and we had a good time. I made some awesome looking cupcakes for the party, but ended up trashing them at the last minute and having to buy store-bought ones, instead. :( I used old canola oil when I made them... I didn't think the taste would be so bad, but when Joel tried one, he did not like it at all. So I ended up trashing the whole batch. I took pics of them before I dumped them, though! haha

Liam's first picture with Santa (at daycare)!

This Christmas, Santa is delivering his gift a little late. We, er... I mean "Santa" ordered him a trampoline, but he procrastinated and didn't read the Amazon Prime disclaimer that with certain items, the free 2-day shipping does not apply! :( Grrrr... It's coming in on Wednesday the 28th. Ugh. That was going to be the big present. We did get him a cool race car bed (which was supposed to have been from us), but maybe we will stick Santa's name on it instead. And you know, I was thinking to do something cute, like write a letter from Santa to Liam, saying sorry I couldn't bring this to you today, blah, blah, blah, but really, does he even understand the whole Santa thing yet? I may just seem like a lazy, unspirited mom... but shoot. I have other things to worry about. I'll deal with that once he knows who Santa is. We actually have not even really told him about Santa... and I refuse to take him to the mall to get his photo with some strange old guy in a Santa suit. That's just me, I think it's kind of creepy! :) But still, somehow he knows who he is and what he is supposed to look like and even what he says, "ho, ho, ho!" From where, I have no idea... maybe from daycare? I'm sure this will probably be the last year we can get away with half-assing the whole Santa Claus idea. haha Such a Scrooge I am, huh?! (Yeah, can you tell this is not my favorite holiday?)

ANYWAY...I think I am all caught up. OH! I don't think I ever posted his official 2-year stats (I took him a couple weeks before he turned 2)... wait, I can't find the sheet (still in a box somewhere, but I could have sworn I saw it just last week somewhere...) well, from what I can remember:
Height: 35.5" tall (80%)
Weight: 32# (approx, can't remember) (80-90%)
Head circumference: totally can't remember
Had blood drawn and a flu shot.

Eh... I will post them when ever I find them... sorry! haha

(And this post was pretty long... so much for a "nutshell"!)


MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!!!!!!!