Thanksgiving

Since it's a couple of days before Christmas, I decided it was high time we got some Thanksgiving pictures up. We had a great trip to Niles for Thanksgiving. Liam was a total trooper. He didn't complain when we dragged him out in the sleet for the Turkey Run. He didn't fuss when thirty people passed him around and around and around later in the day. And the next day.

Turkey Run!





Dressed up in his fancy clothes:



Reading a book to Aunt Jess:



D made an amazing turkey:



And still looked this good:



The Gourlay/Young men thinking too hard for a holiday:



Quality time with his Great Grandmas:

Comments, Revisited.

Over Thanksgiving, some people told us that they still weren't able to post comments. UNACCEPTABLE.

Here's the deal. When you click on the comments link, it takes you to this screen:



By default, the radio button next to 'Google Account' is selected. This is where things have gone wrong for those who don't have Google accounts (and don't want a Google account). To get around this, all you have to do is select the radio button next to 'Name/URL' like so:



Then you can type in your name (or make up an alias) and post your comment:



Please let me know if you're still having problems!

Day at Shedd

Today, we went with Aunt Jess, Greg, and Andy to Shedd Aquarium. Shedd is my favorite place in Chicago (and that's saying something). Liam showed again that he is definitely the offspring of Damian and I ... he LOVED it. He spent a lot of time looking around with his big huge eyes. When he saw something he really liked, he kicked his feet like crazy. When he saw something he really, REALLY liked, he talked to the fish.

What he didn't do, not surprisingly, is nap.

Here he is, captivated by the shark tank:



And here he is, talking over some things with the tropical fish:

Bumbo Growth-o-Meter: Month 4.5

And, just as a reminder, here's where we started:

Ready for Turkey

He'd been spending a little naked time on the floor in his room, working on his consecutive rolls. I left the room for a second, and when I came back, he'd rolled himself up in the blanket like this.

Our kid moves too fast and too much now to get a good non-flash picture with my p&s camera. It's a little blurry, but I love it.

Fourth Month

October was a very busy, but very fun month for us. We had a lot going on: visited Michigan, had some visitors, and lived it up fall/Halloween style.

The first weekend of October, we took Liam to Michigan for the first time. There he visited with all three sets of grandparents. The plan was to go apple picking and to go to the world famous Four Flags Area Apple Festival. The weather did not cooperate though, so we nixed the Apple Festival and just bought apples from the orchard store.

We did get the photo op, though. Fret not.

Lunch at Zeke's in Dowagiac, with Liam proclaiming his gang affiliation:

And an outtake from the three-month pictures Damian took while we were there:

The second weekend in October, the Maurers came to stay with us because Jonnett was running the marathon (as were BethAnn and Kyle). We got to join Jimmy and Marilyn, BethAnn and Kyle, Scott, Jonnett, and Jane, and the Bacon family for dinner the night before the marathon. Meaning we got to take Liam into the city for the first time. I think he liked it:

We are so, so excited about sharing the holidays with Liam and we got to kick that off this month with Halloween. We took Liam to Sonny Acres, a really nice pumpkin farm/petting zoo/fall extravaganza nearby. There, we got some great pumpkins and some even more fantastic pictures.

You can see the rest of our Halloween pictures here.

Life with Liam continues to get better every day. He's such an awesome little guy and Damian and I are having a great time with him. Here are some more pictures from our fourth month as a party of three.

Halloween

Our kid had a big, big Halloween. He had a few onesies and rompers that he rotated in the weeks leading up to Halloween.

You've seen the orange striped onesie from the Maurers:

He also had a glow-in-the-dark skeleton sleeper:

(Notice the heart in the ribcage ...)

And a fleece Baby's First Halloween outfit from Aunt Sue and Uncle Jim:

These were just warm-ups for the real thing, though. For his day care Halloween party, our little man was a money bag:

And on Halloween night, a little skunk greeted the trick-or-treaters at our house:

We went to a Halloween party on Halloween night, but the skunk costume did not make it. Liam was all ready to go, belted into the car seat, when his stomach let him know he'd had too much Halloween candy. We had to make a last minute change into the skeleton outfit (which was fine with Liam since he slept through the party anyway.)

Hope you all had a fantastic Halloween!

The Best Part of Watching Top Chef ...

... is watching Liam watch Top Chef.



We figured out that he really liked it when they interviewed the chefs and their faces filled the screen. He was trying to talk to them like he does to us. The colorful food shots were also a hit with him.

Videos!

It's been a while since we posted new videos. So, uh, I thought I'd ease back into it by posting some old videos. Both of these are from August. At least they're new to you!

Here's our boy working his rattle:



(The opening is me questioning whether the Penn State players should really be dumping ice water on Joe Paterno. They're certain to short-circuit his pacemaker.)

And here's Liam channeling Stevie Wonder in his swing. We have no idea what made him do this that day.

Milestones are Lots of Work

In the past 24 hours, Liam has been awake for exactly 6. When he woke up from his 18 hours of slumber, he could suddenly roll from his back to his front perfectly and with so little effort that it looks like he's been doing it forever.

(In this case, "forever" = 4 months.)

Pumpkins!

On Saturday, we took Liam and his runny nose to the pumpkin farm. As usual, he mostly looked around and took it all in. We got him the most perfect pumpkin. Sometime this week we're going to wrap his chubby fist around a knife so he can carve it.

First Cold

Boo. Liam has a cold.

He's being a total champ about it, though. He's as smiley as ever, but a little more whiny than usual. His appetite is not so hot, but, thankfully, he's still sleeping. Just not right now. Right now I'm listening to him as he's laying in his crib. It sounds like this: babble babble groan babble babble sneeze babble babble moan babble snort babble whine.

We propped up one end of his mattress and are using the snot snorgler to clear out his nose. We'll probably be making a trip out later to get a humidifier for him, once I sort out all of the choices. Hot? Cold? Vicks vapor compatible? WTH?

So Liam and I are just hanging out at home. I'm watching ET because that's what I watch when I'm sick. Maybe it will make Liam feel better, too. D is at a class at the church we're thinking about joining.

In other illness news, D and I got our swine flu vaccines on Friday night. Hopefully that will help keep our little guy safe since it seems to be everywhere around here--kids dying, schools closing. Scary.

Here's poor sick little man, getting some rest with Emmit the lovey.

I think I've got them all.

The last of the September pictures. See them all here.

Cashed in the Boppy

At the fountain in Adams Park, downtown Wheaton

Best Friday night ever.

Elfin Ear

We try not to let our kid be the stinky kid at day care. He gets a real bath every few days and every morning we use a washcloth on his head, neck, and hands. He still ends up with sticky ears and sometimes, when he sleeps or lays on it, his right ear folds over on itself and stays that way.

It scared the hell out of me the first time I saw it.

(In our defense, this ear didn't feel sticky. Even right after I took this picture ...)

More September Pictures

I knew there had to be more pictures from September somewhere. D and I found them on his computer tonight.

These were taken with an actual camera! Yay!

The Lunas!

Getting to know his Great-Aunt Sue

He really does like that lion a lot ...

Oh, look! Another faceplant.

Uses bath time to really think about life