playing cars

Somehow Liam learned how to play with cars... he scoots them all over the house and loves it. I didnt show him how to do it so I am guessing little McKale must have showed him at day care. McKale is a year older and obsessed with cars so maybe it rubbed off a little on Liam.

The happiest baby alive!

For anyone who has met Liam - you know - but for those of you who havent had the opportunity to meet him - Liam is the HAPPIEST baby ever! He is always either smiling, smirking, laughing, or playing - well - unless we are trying to get him to stop playing and go to sleep that is! Here are some of the latest smiles and smirks :D

Our friend Jeffrey

On June 1, 2009 our friend Jeffrey Alan Hall was killed in Afghanistan. Jeff was a great friend to Chris. They served together during Chris's last deployment , shared a love for wine and whisky, and were both new fathers. Jeff's wife Allison and I have grown close since the boys' return from Afghanistan in 2007. Jeff and Allison have a (nearly) 1 year old daughter named Audrey. While we are still very much in shock about the whole ordeal - we were fortunate enough to be able to travel to Alabama to attend his funeral services and meet the rest of his family. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and we will never forget him or what he did for our country.

Visiting Nana and Papa in KC

Not only did Liam get to visit his Nana, Papa and Aunt Devon - he also got to meet his Aunt Lisa, Uncle Jeff, Cousin Logan, Cousin Mia and "cousin" Sheldon! We had a good time all things considered (see post entry "Our friend Jeffrey"). Liam's vacation included his first road trip (2300 miles round trip) but he also got to go on his first plane trip (4 planes actually!). Liam had funny playing, laughing, and of course - getting into trouble.

Liam and "cousin Sheldon"

Liam and his Papa

Liam and his Nana

Liam and his cousin Logan

Liam and his Aunt Lisa

Liam and his Aunt Devon

My crazy family

nothing but trouble!!

When Liam started to get more mobile at the end of May, we soon discovered how curious he is. He has found all kinds of cool new toys - Daddy's stereo, dog food, that cool bowl of water mommy and daddy always leave on the floor of the kitchen - and lets not forget big sister's "bedrooms." Those are the coolest! Of course Liam can only get his head inside little Roxy's bedroom but not Sofi's - he can get all the way in :D

And he is also ensuring that he will not get into trouble for all his trouble making. I mean - when he gives kisses to mommy - enjoys getting kisses from mommy and gives mommy smiles like this - how can mommy ever say no to him??

Grandmama's visit

Sorry we havent updated in awhile - it has been a crazy 4-6 weeks!

Lets start with Grandmama's visit! Lets just say that Liam definately won his Grandmama over! It was hard for her to leave her little guy but it was a great visit. Come back soon Grandmama!!

walking, talking, and eating.... tough work for a little guy

Who knew that eating took so much skill - I mean - I have eating (and over-eating) mastered! Liam is learning how to feed himself and he is SO cute. He gets upset when he misses his mouth - but the dogs love it of course. They eat more of his sweet potato puffs than he does.

walking, eating, getting into trouble, and....

learning to talk from his big sisters. Yes - Liam is learning to talk but not from us - from Sofi and Roxy. He GROWLS at everything. Now this is in addition to them teaching him how to kiss (he licks our cheeks). They are such a good influence on their baby brother!

7 months old and already causing trouble

Ok so - I guess everyone is right when they say "just wait until they are mobile!" Liam always uses his walker while at daycare but we didnt have one at home so we didnt know just how mobile and independent he is. Miss Karen let us take the walker home this weekend and lets just say that terrorizing the dogs was just objective #1 in Liam's "to-do" list. If it was within his reach - he wanted to have it (and eat it). He went after the dog food, pulled his high chair across the kitchen (its on wheels), chased the dogs around the house (they loved it) and showed mama and dada all the places we needed to baby proof. Geesh - he's only 7 months old! Whats going to happen when he doesnt have the walker to limit his reach?

learning the fine art of weaponry

Liam has mastered the fastest kick and the high block but to really impress his Aunt Devon (the black belt karate master of the family) he is mastering the art of weaponry. His first weapon of choice is baby nunchucks. He is working hard and once he gets it down he will be competing in the under 1 year division of Young Champions over the summer :D

big day being a big boy!

Liam loves hanging out on daddy's shoulders and walking around the house with mommy. He's definately not a baby baby anymore - he's leaning more towards a big boy baby now :D

getting ready to crawl

After mastering the inch-worm movement - Liam decided it simply isnt good enough to inch around the world so he took off on the brand new adventure of learning how to crawl! Once he learned to get up on his knees he got the rocking going - it will be any day now and he will be off!

Fastest Kick

Liam is practicing for Karate - or soccer - or kickboxing... not really sure. What we do know is that he definately knows how to kick - and kick FAST! This video doesnt even do his lightening speed justice.

this sitting thing is hard work....

Liam is trying and trying and trying to master this sitting up thing. Most of the time he crashes to the floor within about a minute. With the force of his face hitting the hard wood floors you would think he would hurt himself, but he just rolls over and laughs and we try try again.

Pretending to be an independent Big Boy....

He doesnt want anyone to know that mommy actually helps him most of the time!

But when Daddy is around he isnt allowed to pretend - Daddy demands results!

Did he just say what I think he just said?

Ok so Liam is a JABBER BOX! He is always blabbering on about something - telling us stories about his day at "school" or how much he loves his big sisters. Now - of course Chris cannot understand his stories so I have to translate his jibberish in a cute little voice I have developed so I can talk for Liam. BUT - every once in awhile a sound pops out that ACTUALLY sounds like a real word. Now - Liam might not be saying "da" or "hi" or supercalafragilisticexpealadocios" like it sounds but - I'd like to think that sometimes the sounds actually are a recognition of real words. Case in point - the following video. Is it just me or does it sound like "mommy"? Whatever he is trying to say with that sound - he says it alot. Maybe mommy is too complex of a word to be hoping for but - I will take it when I get it :D

"sick" day

So - after I got Liam dressed for "school" (day care) Chris was holding him while I got ready for work. They were watching the news together and curled up under a blanket on the couch. I came down stairs and this is what they looked like.

Well as if that wasnt cute enough - Liam would look at me with that little lip pouting out as if he were saying "mommy I feel sick, I need to stay home from school today." He would then look up at Chris and smile like "I think its working dad - does mom look like she's buying it?" Then he would look back at me and pout his lip. He's only 5 months old and he already knows how to manipulate us.

tickle laugh giggle

My new favorite past time is tickling Liam. He giggles, and squirms, and squeels, and laughs his head off. Whenever I change his diaper you can tell that he's expecting to get tickled because he starts to smile and stares at me like "I am ready for you this time mommy."

please ignore the commentary

I never knew my voice sounded so annoying until I heard it on the 1000 videos we have taken thus far of our little Liam Kelly. So - ignore my voice and watch little Liam practicing his "roll over". This one wasn't completely successful as he got stuck on his side - but - the sneaky little guy only does it once mommy puts away the camera so this is the best we could do.

Big BLUE Eyes and a cute pink TONGUE

Despite the fact that Chris and I have matching hazel eyes - somehow our little Prince's eyes just keep getting bluer and bluer. Wait - is "bluer" a word? Anyway, you know what I mean. I just can't get over how beautiful my little man's eyes are.

In addition to his beautiful eyes - the next thing you see in this picture is his lovely pink tongue. We are seeing alot of this tongue lately. Liam is OBSESSED with it. He rolls it around in his mouth, chews on it with his gums, grabs at it with his fingers and loves to stick it out at us. As you can see - he even sticks it out while smiling.

I am told that once the novelty of his tongue goes away that my pictures of him will go back to normal. Until then - expect to see a lot of his cute pink tongue... and maybe the big blue eyes are here to stay.

Liam has slowly began to become mobile. It is happening way too fast and way too early for mommy's liking! What happened to my little prince that just laid around smiling at us??

Sometimes he gets stuck while he is trying to move around. It is cute but it is very frustrating for him - as you can tell my his scream!






Most of the time he just tries really hard but doesn't quite go anywhere.





And then every once in awhile he gets to scooting!

Welcome

It is unfortunate that we live so far away from our friends and family. We decided to start this blog so that we can keep everyone up to date with new things in our life. Check back often for new stories and new pictures!