thankful.

A happy belated Thanksgiving to all of you!

We had a wonderful holiday- Zach had Thursday off and we enjoyed spending time together as a family. Liam had a big time of it, both on Thursday and the following Saturday- he met his Uncle *Big* Justin and Aunt Jennifer, his Uncle Bo and Aunt Valerie, his Uncle *Little* Justin, his Uncle Johny and Aunt Nancy and his Aunt Hannah. It was an especially big deal that he got to meet his Uncles Bo and Little Justin. They're both Marines- Bo is stationed in Pensacola while he completes his helicopter flight training and Justin is stationed at Camp Pendleton (I think) before his next deployment. To have them both around for the holidays is rare- and we'll get to see them all again at Christmas! So fantastic! Liam loved watching Justin and Bo's just about the best uncle on the planet. He's had a lot of practice with Jackson, Aiden and Lindy.

Liam's been having quite the week of it. Monday we spent time at my mom's house with her and my brother... but Tuesday we had to go to the hospital for blood work for the poor angel and that was a horror. I had to take him to give blood when he was 5 days old and I refused to hold him this time. I told Zach that I'm the meanie who has to take him to the doctor to get shots- it was his turn to feel his heart break while he holds his poor screaming baby. It was awful. Then, to cap off that fun day, Liam went furniture shopping. Whoopee-- but we were successful and will hopefully have at least a couch by Christmas. Today was even worse- we had to get up early to be BACK at the hospital for his 4 month check up... almost a month late. It was just so hard to get in to the doctor between our moving homes and our doctor moving from the offices in New Territory to the Methodist hospital. I don't care where she moves, I'd follow Dr. Shaya anywhere. There's not a pediatrician worth a da*& in this area in my opinion, and she's the best (she's a family practice doctor, so we'll never have to change and the whole family can go!). She teaches me so much- she taught me how to look at his spine to see when he'll be starting to sit up, she taught me a lot about the rear facing versus forward facing car seats, she taught me about the correlation between age at teething and height as an adult... I just love her. She's such a fantastic doctor that she doesn't even take new patients because she's so busy. She made an exception for Liam. I'm so glad she did- it's such a relief to know someone I trust so much is watching out for my baby. If she told me once, she told me fifty times how perfect Liam is today. She said he's an exceptionally strong little boy, that he'll probably be creeping backwards-if not crawling- within the next 6 weeks (!!!!!!) and his build is what is helping him progress so quickly. As nice as it is to see her, it's horrible when she leaves the room and her nurse comes back in to give him his shots. She scoots him to the edge of the table and holds those little legs down with her stomach and gets those shots in him quick- she's good- but once the pain registered today, Liam let out such a cry and reached out and grabbed at my face and just looked at me with this heart breaking pleading look. So hard. Seriously- this has to be the worst thing about being a parent so far.

With that- take a look at the best parts of being a parent!

{posing in his car seat (which he's 4 inches away from being too big for- not too far away!)}

{he loves remotes}

{watching tv with daddy}

{did NOT want to get up to go to the doctor this morning}

{trying rice cereal for the first time...}

{... not sure he's much of a fan.}

{*sigh* perfection. my everythings!}

We're going to get a Christmas tree tomorrow- we've got the Egg Nog ready to be consumed, we've got... *ahem* 1400 lights to adorn the tree... (I packed 1200 lights onto a 5 foot tree- I will probably need more). And the forecast is predicting SNOW on Friday!?! WHAT!?! I've got a lot of Liam's Christmas done. He's getting size 3-6 month clothes from Baby Gap (too cute!) and a lot of those toddler sized Star Wars figures. Zach put a set that was Han Solo and his Carbonite and Leia in her bounty hunter outfit in my stocking last year in honor of our bundle of joy that was on his way. This year... Liam is really adding to his collection: 1) Luke and Lando (@ Cloud City) 2) Chewbacca, the Death Star Droid and the little black Mouse Droid 3) Leia (Cloud City) and Darth Vader and 4) R2-D2 and a pair of Jawas. Seriously- I shouldn't be so excited but I am. He's also got another Baby Schwank blanket I need to go pick up and a Slinky Dog from Toy Story- as well as the BluRay copy of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Zach needs to go shopping for him since I've done it all myself so far. We decided there's no point to spending huge sums of money- I want a lot of packages under the tree but we don't have to spend a ton since his grandparents have already gone wild. I decided instead to spend my money on Zach's presents. One of them, he knows about (doh- I cannot surprise this man. He just goes out and does by himself and I'm always left trying to make sure we don't do duplicates). I'm hoping Liam's present for his daddy can at least be a surprise. I have my dad taken care of, we have Grandma Dorothy done... I know what I'm getting my mom... Zach's just got his parents to shop for! Duh- and my brother but he's usually really easy. I guess it's the cold weather- I want a tree and trimmings and trappings and presents! I'm so ready to put it up tomorrow!

That's all for now- I'll post more when the house is getting into some semblance of order. Gah!