Mother's Day breakfast

Liam and I took Tara out to breakfast on Sunday to one of our favorite (and unfortunately, seasonal) breafast spots in Bar Harbor. Liam had his first blueberry pancake - no syrup - and made it about two thirds of the way through before sputtering out. What I love about this series is you can see him struggling to finish - and stay awake. After a trip to see his summer friends at the farmers market, we went home and put him down for a LONG nap.

Spring at last!

Well, Bar Harbor has officially reopend her doors. The shops are opening, the cruise ships are spewing out their passengers, the Park loop road is once again feeling vehicles on its pavement. We have arrived. For those of you who haven't visited Bar Harbor in the winter (or at all), everything closes and our little town resembles something from the set of Northern Exposure. All year round residents breathe a sigh of relief as things begin to quiet down but come May we are ready for our favorite haunts to open again.

As the bars and restaurants reopen the trees start to bud and the sun finally begins producing heat. Today was the type of day I love here on MDI. The whole town was alive and buzzing. Liam and I set out to hang out for a bit in the Village Green. We sat in the sun for awhile. Liam was getting the biggest kick out of watching other kids run around and play in the fountain. He sat still (this never happens) watching and taking in the sights. He finally decided that he had to join the action so he took of crawling. I followed him as he explored the green. Towards the end of his explorations, we ran into some friends and their dogs. I have to add here that Liam adores dogs. They make him laugh the cutest little belly laugh. So, he was thrilled to learn that we would be going on a walk with the dogs and their owners. He giggled for a good part of our walk down the Shore path. He loved it. After we parted with our friends we started to head towards home. We got a few minutes up the street before running into another friend, Jen. Jen and I stood on the sidewalk talking and as we did so, Liam crashed. Head to the side he let himself sleep in the warmth of the sun.

A little less then two weeks ago, our friends Rich and Natalie gave birth to a little girl. We are so pleased that Liam has a new friend to play with. He is not at all sure what to make of Anouk right now. He kind of gives her curious looks and every now and then tries to reach out and grab her. On Thursday night, Anouk and her parents asked a bunch of us to meet them at the Lompoc (our favorite restaurant/bar) for drinks and dinner. Towards the end of the evening both Liam and Anouk were fast asleep. It was so cute. Liam used to fall asleep at the Lompoc all of the time when he was wee little. We were convinced we would never be lucky enough to have that happen again. It seems to hold its sleeping magic though as two nights now have found Liam fast asleep in my arms after dinner.

I am posting many pictures of the boy as he has grown and changed so much. It is amazing to think that we are fast approaching his first birthday. We no longer have a baby, I fear he has already become a toddler.

Easter Weekend

First of all, let me apoligize for not posting in such a long time. I just couldn't seemm to get my act together in order to post. There is no good excuse for this except maybe that my thumb is still splinted and it is a drag to do modified typing.

At any rate, we have some catching up to do.

Grammy and Grampy McKernan came for a visit over Easter weekend. They timed their visit just perfecty enough that the had to drive through Maine at the tail end of an April Nor'easter. Yep, we got well over a foot of snow for Easter weekend. It seemed impossible that I would find myself with a snow day in April but I did. While I wasn't super excited about the snow at first, it did provide is with the opportunity to go snowshoeing. On the Saturday of Easter weekend, we all strapped on our snowshoes and took to the hills. It was fantastic. As you can see in the pictures, Liam made the switch from the Baby Bjorn to the backpack. We were finding that Liam was a little too tall for the Bjorn these days. It is so hard to believe that he has grown so much but he has!

At his nine month well child check Liam checked in at almost 30 inches tall and about 19.5 pounds. We were checking the weight limit on his car seat after the appt. and were shocked to find that he was too tall for it by four inches! So, if anyone has an extra convertable car seat kicking around let us know.

We had a great rest of our visit with Grammy and Grampy. Easter was a pretty laid back affair as Liam was feeling a little under the weather. He had a temp and seemed pretty exhausted. We thought he had the start of a cold but a few days later we realized that what he really had was a new tooth popping through. Little Liam now has two tiny little teeth poking through the surface of his bottom gums.

I had this week off for our April Break. I was hoping for georgous weather so that Liam and I could walk everyday. Sadly, the first four days were rainy, windy and cold. We got out Thursday afternoon for a good walk. It was a bit cold but we were just so happy to see sun we didn't care. Today was beautiful. It was warm enough that as we were walking our loop I was able to wear a tank top. It felt good to get some sun on my skin. Liam seemed to enjoy soaking up the rays as well. I did have to remember to lather him with sunscreen. He is so fair skinned I was sure that he would be burnt to a crisp if the sun had a direct path to his face. After our walk we went for a nice swim. He still loves the water and has no fear. He kept wanting to swim away from me.

Mike is in a canoe race tomorrow. We are hoping for the best as the water appears to be pretty high. Luckily, he is paddling with an experienced white water paddler. We will let you know how it goes. While Mike is racing Liam and I will be enjoying some Earth Day activities at the College of the Atlantic. I promise a new report after the weekend.

Last Ski of the Season (we think)

Liam had another exciting weekend of indoor and outdoor fun. Friday night was his first wine tasting (and I think ours, too), as we tasted some possible wines for Chris(tine) and Joel's wedding. Liam did great and we he got to bedtime, we laid him down in spare bedroom at C and J's place and, go figure, he actually fell asleep. Allowing for a more indepth study of the wine. I think we concluded that more research would be necessary.

On Saturday, we ventured off at the crack of dawn to The Sunday River Inn with a group of our friends.
The weather was amazing and the skiing was pretty decent for the last weekend in March. We had to pick our way around some mud and water but a good number of the trails were very skiable. On Sunday we were able to ski in short sleeves. I believe we even managed to get the first sunburns of the season.
Two members of our group (Steve and Rich) made a last minute decision to enter the Inn's annual triathlon
Liam as always was great and seemed to have a lot of fun skiing and hanging out with the crew. He was very lucky to have two older friends (Eliza and Sammy) to entertain him on the car ride and for most of the weekend. Liam seems happiest when outside playing. He spent much time in the Bjorn skiing with Mike. He and I also took an early morning walk on Sunday while we were waiting for everyone else to wake up.
I am still in my splint so it was pretty interesting figuring out how to x-country ski without hurting my thumb. I had to be a bit more cautious then usual but I did mangage to make it through the weekend without anymore breaks.
We are so lucky to be surrounded by great people with whom we are able to share some really fun weekends. We are even more fortunate in that they all love Liam and seem to enjoy him as much as we do.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is Tara's 30th birthday! Happy birthday Tara! T is going to celebrate her birthday with a Thai yoga massage, which I think she'll enjoy. During the massage, Liam and I are going for a hike. Temps this week will be in the 50s, and I'm willing to bet we've seen the last skiable snowfall (at least on the coast). So, welcome spring.

Speaking of spring, I discovered this morning that Liam's first tooth is starting to emerge. Bottom tooth, left side from Liam's perspective. The crown is just peeking through the gums, and it probably cut through yesterday or overnight. I'd post a picture, but it would take three of us to hold him down, hold his mouth open, and snap a picture which would inevitably be blurry. Sounds humane. But it's exciting that he's on the breach of another new development.

Liam's is getting better and better at crawling around the house and we are learning to be very watchful. I think just as kids slowly learn to move around and explore and satisfy their curiosity, so does 'parental radar' develop and become more refined. So by the time a kid is 16, the radar is pretty much like a walking NORAD station.

Liam is crawling between rooms - going from the living room to the entry way where he can play with a big pile of shoes. Yesterday, he criss crossed the kitchen as I was trying to bake Tara's birthday pie and cake - going from the shelves on one side to the trash can on the other to the stack of cookbooks, and then in the middle of the floor, I put a wooden spoon and few other toys. I was baking and redirecting and saving him from potential pitfalls all at the same time. It was more fitness than baking. He's also starting to get into a crawling position and push himself up by his feet into a brief quasi-downward facing dog position.

We're also hearing a few new sounds like mamamamama and Brian and I are almost certain he said Emma. As Tara was holding Liam the other day, she and I swore he turned around and gestured with is hands and said 'hi'. Probaby a great coincidence though. Not sure if anything qualifies as a first word, but Tara is pretty excited about mamama.

Finally, I know who's going to protect me from the neighborhood toughs now...

A little break and crawling

So, I think we have a pretty good excuse for our recent lack of activity (at least online). Tara, Liam, and I went skiing the weekend before last at Saddleback Mountain. Incidentally, Saddleback is a neat little ski area in western Maine. It gets very little attention because of Sugarloaf and Sunday River, and I think most of the skiers are Mainers and not from unmentionalble states to our south. We had a great day skiing until, naturally, the last run of the day, when Tara decided to break her thumb. At first we though it was a dislocation, but xrays confirmed a pretty decent fracture. During all the chaos, Liam was enjoying himself in the slopeside daycare facility (another reason why Saddleback is nice; plus, the day care is cheap, and qualified to watch kids). A few days later she underwent surgery to set and pin the bones back into place. Of course it was her right hand.

It's been interesting around the house, especially for me, as Tara is just now able to help with Liam a little more. She can sort of move him from place to place, and she can feed him and play with him, but she's still unable to change diapers, change clothes, give baths, or really anything that requires two hands. And since Liam is incredibly squirmy, that's basically everything.

While Mom is injured, Liam has been doing great. As I think we reported before, Liam has shown tremendous progress in easily getting from his belly to a seated position, and even getting up onto his hands and knees. He was able to crawl in reverse, but when he tried to go forward, he would plop back on his belly again, much to his frustration. As of Wednesday, though, Liam has started to tentatively crawl forward! And he seems to be figuring it out at an increasingly fast pace.



Liam's favorite toy right now is our iPod cable, or really any white computer cable. We put it on the floor about four feet away from him, and inch by inch, he made his way over to the cable, and was able to grab it with one last lunge at the very end. It's very cool that he can get around a bit on his own. I think it makes him even more content, and he rarely cries now when he ends up on his belly. He must know he is now able to extract himself from any position if he rolls around, or sits up, and now he can crawl away. He was upset yesterday when he somehow managed to get himself stuck under the couch up to his waist. He was just stuck there and couldn't pull himself out. It was rather funny.

The other new thing is his mobility in his crib. We always put him to bed on his back, but he almost immediately rolls over to his side, and curls the blankets around his head. Tara and I have been peeking in a couple times a night just to see where he has ended up. He could be on his back, belly, or side. Sometimes he has crunched himself into the corner or one end of the crib.

It's exciting to see him move around, and strike out in different directions. I think the major activity this weekend will be baby proofing the house.

in only 8 months...

I think this is just amazing...

Skiing

We had a great snow storm on Friday. The storm dropped quite a lot of snow on us. Sadly, we also had some sleet, which compressed the snow a bit. At the end of the storm we did end up with some nice snow to cross country ski on today. Our first attempt at skiing with Liam a couple of weeks ago was not so successful. Today, we had a great ski with our friends Chris, Joel, Natalie and Rich (that's Rich in the picture with Mike, and Joel, Natalie and Chris, below). Liam babbled and blew raspberries almost all of the time we were out. It was great to listen to him on the trail. He seemed to love the downhills and his raspberries appeared to be his means to get Mike to move faster.

Tomorrow, we are heading to Saddleback Ski resort in western Maine to downhill ski. Liam will be spending the day in the daycare run by Saddleback. Mike checked out the daycare the last time he was at Saddleback earlier this season. It appears to be a clean and well organized place. Hopefully, Liam will have a good day. Mike and I are certainly looking forward to being on some of the powder that fell on Friday.

Mimi Visits

My mom was here for the past week. It was a fantastic visit in which Liam got to spend great amounts of time with his Grandma. Mom flew in the 22nd of Feburary and left on the first of March. She babysat for Liam all week long and even let us go to the movies and on a cross country ski over the weekend. Liam and Mimi got along famously and they both seemed to enjoy going for afternoon walks, hanging out in the mornings, reading books and of course just playing. It is always a joy to have grandparents around for extra love and support for our little guy.

As far as new things that Liam is doing.... he has finally figured out how to let go of the crackers once he gets it to his mouth. He is so very close to crawling that we think it could literally happen at any second. He gets up on his hands and news and rocks. He does this for awhile until he finally decides that he will try to move forward. As soon as that happens he tends to fall back onto his belly. He seems to get stronger each day though. He has been rolling around the floor a lot. Rolling and hopping on his bottom see to be his best means of getting from one place to another.

Liam has a favorite book. He loves Hop On Pop by Dr. Suess. It is pretty much the only time that he sits completely still. He will sit and listen to that book and just soak it in. As and experiment we will often try out another book right before and right after Hop on Pop but those never quite get a quiet little boy. It is so amazing to us that he can already have a book that he adores. He actually squeals with happiness when he even sees the cover. Mike and I on the other hand might be getting a little tired of reading the same book over and over again.

As always, each day brings Liam new delights. He continues to soak up the world around him. We love that he is so active and curious.

Future Olympian

Liam has been learning some new things recently. The other day we set up a rowing machine in our spare bedroom (thanks Scott and Linda!). Of course we couldn't wait to let Liam try it out. He loved sliding back and forth on the seat. Once I got on it to actually workout I was wishing I had someone just to push me back and forth too!




The next new sport that Liam tried recently is swimming. I took him for his first swim last Thursday when I had a snow day. He loved it so much that Mike and I brought him back today. He is a little fish already. He will hold on to just our hands and kick his little legs. He will also let us dunk him underwater without so much as a whimper. He comes up smiling most of the time. I am so pleased that he likes the water. I know that we will log many hours this summer swimming in some local lakes and probably the ocean too.




Onto non-sport related topics. Liam has been learning how to feed himself. We bought some organic baby crackers for him and have been letting him try to get them to his mouth. He has a pretty decent pincer grasp on the wee little crackers and he gets them to his mouth but then he forgets to let them go. Boy does he get mad when he then only gets part of the cracker in his mouth. Sooner or later I am sure he will figure out that he has to let it go in his mouth to get the whole bunch of goodness.

Finally, we swear that Liam said Dada when Mike walked in the door this morning after running some errands. I had Liam on the floor playing and Mike peeked his head around the corner. Liam said something that sounded a whole lot like Dada. Now I know that at this age any words are just accidental and are most likely not said on purpose but it was pretty thrilling to hear.

It seems like everyday this little boy is learning new things. It is great fun to watch and experience each first with him.

Poetry and film

Well after a very active week (not to mention the activity of the weekend prior), Liam's weekend was decidedly low-key. He napped like crazy on Saturday, but I'm getting ahead of myself. We had a small adventure on Thursday night when we took the ferry over to Swan's Island to attend the poetry slam at Tara's school. The poetry slam was fun. One of the kids wrote a poem about his favorite NASCAR team that I literally can't get out of my mind. Seriously. We spent the night out on Swan's at Mimi and Gary's house. It was a little wild to spend the night on the island, knowing we were a 45 min ferry ride away from MDI.

Liam's weekend was rather mellow. After some much needed R & R around the house, we hired back to back babysitters (cha-ching) on Saturday and Sunday nights and T and I went to the Banff Mountain Film Festival world tour as it swung through Ellsworth. The film festival is an annual rite - something to look forward to during the long and dark winter. If the festival hasn't come to your area yet, you should should check it out. If you love anything outdoor (mountain cultures, snow sports, insane freeride mountain biking, free climbing, ice climbing on icebergs, etc), you will love this show. More than anything, it was another reminder of the fun ahead with Liam on skis. Safely away from his father, of course.

The photo is in honor of Melanie Ganim, Liam's godmother, who sent Liam this awesome onesie. Thanks Mel, have a great tour! And good luck to Liam's godfather, my brother Matt, as he heads out on tour with his band (sorry, no web link).

A few firsts

What, we haven't posted in over a week?! Lots to catch up on, then. It's been an exciting here during the last few days - Liam has had several exciting firsts which I'm pleased to report. Last Friday, Tara and I woke up around 6 am feeling remarkably refreshed, downright energized, even. We both knew what had just happened - Liam had slept through the night for the first time in his life. A full 11 hours of sleep from 7 pm to 6 am! I'm sure he woke up once or twice during the night, but his waking time must have been fleeting b/c neither of us heard a peep. He woke up naturally at 6 am, and had a really great and very happy day. We tried to figure out what we did the night before and nothing unusual popped out - other than I made what I thought was a radical and dicey choice - to put him down without the aid of his pacifier. It worked, he went down quietly, but I doubt that was the reason he slept all night. We didn't get our hopes up for a repeat performance, which is good, as he is now back to getting up once in the middle of the night and once ~4 am. Not to bad, considering other stories I've heard, but sleeping through the night felt REALLY good on Friday morning.

The other exciting first is Liam learning how to clap. T and I have been working on clapping for a while now, demonstrating and helping him move his hands in a clapping motion. Then out of the blue as I was getting him into his car seat on Friday morning, I thought I spotted a rough looking 'clap'. I stopped, clapped broadly, and he did it again once or twice. I called Tara down and we both tried to get him to clap a few more times, which he did with a big smile. It was a great way to start the day. We've been clapping all weekend - Tara and I will clap, we'll look at him and say 'your turn!', and then he'll clap 3 or 4 times. Sometimes he'll miss wildly, which is cute, but so far this seems to be the first discrete thing we've taught him - and, the 'your turn' command seems to be the first direct response he's made to a verbal command other than 'where's daddy', 'where's mommy'. The other cool interaction is when he's lying on his back and I put two fingers in front of his hands, he will grab my fingers and sit or stand up from lying flat (depending on how much I pull him).

The final big event of the last several days was a short XC ski trip yesterday afternoon. MDI finally got some decent snow this weekend, so T, Liam and I headed to Jordan Pond, which is one of our favorite places to XC ski. Before we left I had to apply some new kick wax appropriate to the temperature. People who have skied with us before will tell you that I have a bad track record in picking the right kick wax. Even with all the wax wizards and temperature guides, I always seem to pick the wrong one. ANYWAY, with the skis freshly waxed, we were on our way. Snow conditions weren't great so we picked short 1+ mile loop just to test things out. Given the Bjorn and the baby backpack, we picked the Bjorn for Liam, and I strapped him on my chest. Even as we set off, we knew the conditions weren't ideal. The snow was a little icy and it was wicked fast. Fast - like I wish my XC skis had metal edges and fixed heels fast. I think it was on the first decent - and this is a decent so gradual it would be pretty boring on sled - that I fell. I fell like I was sliding into home (but much less dramatic), and landed on my side cradling Liam into his Bjorn. So Liam was fine - he was very safe and didn't get upset at all - so we kept going. As it happens I fell like this three times in total, all on account of the fast icy snow, my skittishness with Liam, and the inability of my stupid skis to steer or stop like downhill skis. On the third fall, Liam started to cry, so I figured that was enough sking for one day. I walked back with Liam in his Bjorn and skis over my shoulder. The snow was so slick and my wax job so bad, that the pace of my walk was much faster than the pace of Tara on skis. So she walked too. We got back to the car, not willing to call it a day. We surveilled the local sledding hill, and ultimately decided on something a bit more mellow for a Sunday afternoon in February... Oh, and for future ski outing swith Liam (least XC skiing), we could really use one of these (the Chariot would be fine, thanks).

Light and Shadows

Perhaps one of the simplest joys of childhood is playing with your shadow. Twice now, I have caught Liam experimenting with the way light and shadows work. Since his birth he as found pleasure in watching the tricks of light. Now he has found that he can manipulate light and make it work for him. This morning as the sun shone in our living room window, Liam played with his shadow. He sat with the light on his back holding forth with the light as if it were his orchestra. With arms raised he played with the light and made his little shadow friend dance. Mike and I were lucky enough to be witness to this shadow play. I truly will never tire of watching this boy learn and delight in new things.

A photo tribute to dinner

Hi Friends - just this weekend, Liam tried two new things - pickles and tofu (that's little bits of silken tofu mixed up in his sweet potatoes). He loved both. In fact, he was downright rebellious when we took away the pickle he was gumming. He's also become a rather squirmy little fellow, which adds a new element of action when it's time for dinner. He eats willingly, but T and I have to be fast to get the spoon into his mouth instead of on his face or into his eye as he scans his surroundings looking for something to grab or shove in his mouth.

6 month checkup

Liam had his six month check up yesterday. We're pleased to report that he's doing great, right on track, and even doing a little better in terms of his weight. At 6.5 months, he's 27.5 inches (85th percentile), and 16 lb. 2 oz (30th percentile). I don't recall his head size, except that it's grown 1 inch since his last check up a couple months ago. We had a nice discussion about his sleep patterns - he's still getting up a couple times a night. Perhaps this weekend we'll try to work on that a bit. He also had 4 shots - yuck. He's really got the hang of sitting up on this own, and we can sit him in the middle of the floor relatively confident he won't topple. He can turn from his back to his stomach in one twisting move. Once he's on his stomach, he can work is way around 360 degrees, but hasn't quite got the forward and reverse down. Overall, he's squirmier than ever. He loves to move, flap his arms and clap them down. It's amazing how much he's grown in just two months.

Youngest member of the Academy

There was an interesting article that appeared recently in the New York Times. Their chief film critic, AO Scott, encourages parents to take their kids to the movies. And not just the kids' movies, but the movies the parents want to see. I say, great idea! As appropriate, of course - Apocalypto and Borat, perhaps, not the best movies for kids. But, he says parents have an opportunity to teach their kids the magic of watching movies in a theatre. Scott quotes another article that says today's kids will grow up watching movies via netflix, tivo, cell phone, internet, rather than at the theatre. Of course, that's regrettable, given that movies experienced in a darkened theatre can be magical indeed. The experience is simply heightened, and all senses absorbed. And you don't fall asleep on the couch. Liam is certainly too new to comprehend much of the movie going experience, but that hasn't stopped us from taking him along with us to the movies (well, maybe saving babysitting $$ has something to do with it too...). The first few were easy - he slept right through. The last few more difficult as he becomes more squirrely and susceptible to what he sees on a screen. It will be nice when he's older to go back and view *again* some of the movies he's already seen (in order, according to Tara's and my best recollection):

Inconvenient Truth
A Prairie Home Companion
Pirates of the Caribbean 2
Monster House
Who Killed the Electric Car?
Wordplay
Islander
Little Miss Sunshine
Flushed Away
Happy Feet

Holiday Madness

Hello All-
We are back in Maine after being in Ohio for the holidays. We had a wonderful time seeing family and friends. Mike gave you the update all the way up to Christmas. Following Christmas we spent some fairly low-key days visiting with my family and enjoying the time catching up with friends.

Little Liam was finally able to meet some little friends that he didn't know he had. We got to spend a couple evenings with our dear friends Leah and Steve Bechtol and their son Wyatt. It was such fun getting to see Liam and Wyatt play together in the way only babies and toddlers do. On the 28th we also go to meet up with three friends from high school and their families. Lindsay and Rick were in Ashland from Bath, Maine. Claire and Jay were passing through Ashland with their son Jack and Julie met with us with her daughter Mya. It was a joy to see them all again and to be amazed with the passing of time. It truly doesn't seem so long ago that we were in high school together hanging out at Malabar Farm, skiing together or just hanging out. How wonderfully odd it felt to met for lunch with our husbands and children.

We left Ashland on Friday the 29th. We got to the Columbus airport only to find out that our flight was canceled and that we were on a much later flight. We called my parents back to the airport and got them to take us out breakfast. Then it was back to the airport for a long day of waiting. We waited for the flight out of Columbus, and then waited for our flight out of Cincinnati. Liam was a champ through the whole thing. He even managed to sleep through both legs of our flight again. We finally arrived in Maine at 10:00 or so. We stayed at Lindsay and Rick's in Bath and then the next morning woke up early to start our drive towards Northern Maine. We had plans to meet up with a group of friends for a New Years celebration in the woods of Maine. We finally met up with our group and headed to the wilderness camp at which we would spend the next couple of days.

We had a great time at the camp. The cabins were rustic but provided us with heat and relatively comfortable beds to sleep in. We were able to play in the snow, hike on the Appalachian Trail and enjoy hanging out with a great group of people. Liam had only one major meltdown the entire trip and that was midway through a long hike. He was pretty hungry and probably a bit cold. One feeding him he fell right back to sleep and we enjoyed the rest of the hike.

We rung in the New -Years while playing games and having good conversations in the woods of Maine. One can't complain about that. We are so lucky to have gotten to know so many good people in Maine who help us to provide great experiences for Liam. I once heard that the way you spend your New Years is indicative of how your year will go. If this is the truth then we are in for a great 2007.