February 2013...

So, earthlings... it has been FOREVER since I have updated you on the joys of Liam's world! Okay, the earthlings thing was just me being a nerd for a second there... lol! On a more serious note, here we go on the updates. Liam had such a big month in February! In a, new-big-event-every-weekend, kinda way!

Rewind to the first weekend of February (Feb 2nd-3rd). Liam was like a little sponge--just absorbing everything we threw at him! Saturdays are pretty go-with-the-flow here in the Nol home. We usually hang out until dad gets home from his exercise class and then get our day started. That weekend started like all the rest of them, except Liam learned a new song and dance while we spent our early morning eating breakfast and watching cartoons. I started singing "I'm a little teapot" to Liam and teaching him the dance and hand movements, and before you knew it, he had learned his own version of the teapot dance. Haha... It was something between baby yoga and the tipping teapot, but it was cute nonetheless! Next up was pooping on the potty! Liam pooped on his potty TWICE. Once on Saturday, and again on Sunday. What a big boy! Liam has always given us big cues (he makes this distinct poopy-time face) when it's time to go #2, so I was pleasantly surprised when I realized he would use his potty if I caught him and took him to it in time! Go Liam!!

Liam doing his teapot dance!

The week passed and then came February weekend number two (Feb 9-10th). We had such a great time this second weekend of February! Liam and I were super busy on Saturday. He spent a few hours with Pawpaw while I worked and he came home with a cool new book called "Crunchy Croc." It's a book that has a puppet built into it and Liam enjoyed it so much. Then we headed to Mary's house for a Valentine's crafty play date. All of Liam's friends were there: Maddox, Ava, Madison, and even a new friend--Lee. Liam did his first finger painting and had a great time in the process. It's also a good thing I took all of his clothes off, except for his diaper, because he was covered in paint. I even had paint all over my arms and hands! lol... Next came Sunday--Chinese New Year! We got up early and got ready to have dim sum with all of Kobe's side of the family. We had a great meal and Liam may have eaten one too many shrimp balls. haha! After our meal we headed over to the shopping center by Hong Kong market and watched the Chinese dragon dance! Liam loved it. He was super distracted by the drums though and kept his eyes on the drummers the whole time. All in all it was super fun and we enjoyed making such great memories with Liam.

Liam's first painting! 

Red Envelope! 

Liam & the dragon: that's him inside the dragon's mouth on the top left!

Next came Saturday, February 16th. We started the day with a class at The Little Gym. Liam had such a great time and he even had the instructor asking when he was going to come back next. It was pretty funny because Liam was a newb compared to the other kids and he was in there like he had been going for months!

Finally came the last weekend of February (Feb 22-24th). Liam and I went on our very first trip without daddy! Liam experienced his first plane ride, first hotel visit, first aquarium visit... Oh lots of firsts! He had so much fun!! We first started our trip at Intercontinental Airport - Houston... we arrived super early and Liam was given his first wings by the man at the United Airlines counter. Liam wore them proudly... and may have even given them a taste test too. lol... Next we arrived in Atlanta and checked into our hotel with our friends: Amber and Nate! Liam and Nate played and had such a great time running around the hotel room until it was time to sleep. Saturday we explored Atlanta and first experienced the Atlanta Children's Museum, then headed over to the CNN World Headquarters building for lunch--where Liam slept on the bench while I ate. lol... Sunday we went to the Georgia Aquarium--the worlds largest aquarium! We saw hammerhead sharks, dolphins, WHALE SHARKS (coolest things ever!), sea dragons, starfish, and even fish from the Amazon!! It was such a great experience - Liam's first plane ride went better than expected and he adjusted flawlessly to the time change over the weekend. We definitely will never forget this first big trip for Liam!

Atlanta bound!!

Liam tasting his first wings while we waited to board!

 Liam's first glimpse of the giant aquarium room where the whale sharks lived!

Liam & one of the smaller whale sharks that lived there!

I hope you had a great time reading up on our update... It's April already and I feel like the year is flying by. Stay tuned for the next big update. I'll try to be better about remembering to blog like I used to!

-Amber

November/December 2012 Update!

Hi everyone!!
I know it's been quite a while since I updated Liam's blog, but here we go! Last time I updated y'all, we had just celebrated Liam's 2nd Halloween (check it out here: Halloween 2012). Now a lot has happened since then to say the least. Liam is practically running now--just when I was getting used to having a walker, he became a runner! LOL... Liam says a lot more words too. I'll leave that for a later post though, so stay tuned. So I'm sure you're wondering, "what has that awesome baby Liam been up to these past few months?" He has been busy making memories & having fun, that's what.

First off, Liam had a great 2nd Thanksgiving. Last year he was so tiny and slept most of the day, but this year he was actually able to enjoy the festivities. We first celebrated the Saturday before Thanksgiving with friends at the annual Thanksgiving dinner that our great friends, Eric and Casie, host every year. It was a lot of fun and Liam had his first taste of Thanksgiving dinner. He loved it!

Liam & the guys giving a toast at our friends' Thanksgiving dinner.

Enjoying the Polar Express at Thanksgiving Dinner!

A few days later was Thanksgiving day and we started the day at the Houston Thanksgiving day parade. It was fun, but very hot and not the type of weather you'd expect for a holiday in November. Kobe, Liam, and I are not supposed to be sweating while watching a parade in November. Haha... Despite the heat, Liam loved the giant floating balloons and the marching bands-he was absolutely mesmerized! After the parade we headed home to get ready to spend the day visiting family and eating A LOT of food! We first saw my family, then Kobe's and it was a great day, indeed.

On daddy's shoulders to see the parade!

Houston Thanksgiving Day Parade

The weeks went on and it turned into December. December was a busy and eventful month, to say the least! Liam discovered his love for dancing, strolled through Discovery Green's Christmas-lit sidewalks, he got his first boo-boo, watched his auntie graduate, experienced his first ER visit, and celebrated his second Christmas!

Dance, dance, dance!

Mighty comfy at breakfast time.

Cheesin' with momma.

Discovery GREEN, literally! haha

First boo boo. =(

Kobe's sis graduated. Liam's first-ever graduation ceremony to attend!

Sleeping in a Texas Children's ER bed. =(

Finally it was Christmas time and Liam started it off by celebrating at the Christmas party his babysitter threw for them. He came home drowning in lots of goodies. His favorites were the straw, cup and the gingerbread man cookie. He also went to meet Santa for the 2nd time at the mall. Santa didn't even look like he had aged a bit. Liam on the other hand... what a difference! Next was Christmas Eve. We went to tita's house first, then went to Kobe's parents for the highlight of our day-HOT POT! This is not something that Kobe's mom makes all the time or even "often" for that matter. The last time she made hot pot for us was about 6 yrs ago, so we were super excited. Even Liam had some and liked it. After all that fun, we headed home and went to bed so that Santa could come visit! When we woke up Christmas morning, Santa had definitely been to our house. He left a huge sack and a book for Liam. The sack had an awesome wooden activity block in it. Liam was definitely impressed! From us (mom & dad) he got books, clothes, bath bubbles, and bath toys.

Cheesin' it up with all his goodies after a fabulous Christmas party at Lidia's (his babysitter).

Liam & Santa - then (2011) & now (2012).

Christmas Eve

Hot Pot!

Christmas Morning... a big sack & a book from Santa. Wonder what's inside that bag??

WOW! Liam's face says it all... he loves it.

Christmas morning bubble mohawk!

The following week Liam had his 15 month check-up with his pediatrician. Liam did great on his current growth chart curve. He's small, but steadily growing, so the pediatrician has not a worry in the world which is fine in our book. He measured in at 29.5 inches tall, 18 lbs, and a 17.9 inch head circumference. That means he grew 1.5 inches since his first birthday in September, gained 1 lb and 5.5 oz, and his head grew 0.4 inches. Not bad, little man! =)... The pediatrician also told Kobe that now would be a good time to get Liam used to using the potty. She told us that he probably wouldn't be potty trained any time soon, but that just having his little potty out and available (and consistently placing him on it at certain times of the day) would get him used to it. So far he doesn't like to do anything with it but to take it apart & put stuff in it-like his goldfish and other snacks, but hey... that's a start. Right? LOL

Kobe demonstrating to Liam how it's done. lol

Liam & Kate at tita's on New Year's Day.

What mom? You mean to tell me that this isn't how I'm supposed to use it? lol

Well, everyone, that's what Liam has been up to. Glad y'all stopped by to read this update. He is the best baby boy in my world. I will try to do a better job of keeping y'all updated. Have a great weekend!

-Amber

Halloween 2012

Well, it's that time of year again. When there's a holiday every single month for 4 months straight! First up is Halloween. Liam celebrated Halloween last year, but slept through most of it - as you can see at this post: "Happy Halloween" a tale (more so a tell-all photo) of Liam's first Halloween. haha... This year Liam was a little more enthused about the idea of dressing up in a costume, seeing pumpkins, dancing, animals, and anything else fun that is associated with celebrating Halloween (sorry son, you're too young for candy). We first started out by going to Party City and picking Liam's costume out. He decided to be a dinosaur and we were more than thrilled with his choice. On Saturday we got up and decided the weather was nice enough to head out to Dewberry Farm. We had such a great time there! We visited their HUGE pumpkin patch field! It was a large field with tons of pumpkins and we took plenty of pictures of Liam. He even took off walking through the pumpkins at one point. Then we headed to the corn maze and got lost for a LONG time! lol... When we escaped it turns out we had only made it through 1/4 of the maze! After that we were exhausted and decided to head home for the day. The next morning we went to the zoo for the Houston Zoo's Halloween celebration--Zoo Boo! It was so much fun! We walked in right on time and caught a performance of people, who were dressed as animals, doing Gangnam style. Then we saw the Dinosaurs exhibit that is in Houston right now and then we walked around and let Liam enjoy the sites! After the zoo we headed to McGovern Lake and hung out on the grass to enjoy the weather. It was much too nice to rush home and miss out on such a beautiful day! That's about all we did for Halloween. What fun things did you do to celebrate?

Cheesin' it up at Dewberry Farm!

Our first family picture at the pumpkin patch!

Liam's first time at the pumpkin patch! He wasn't sure what to do! lol

... and he's off!

Entering the corn maze!!

Oppa Gangnam Style!!

Dinosaur Liam: Visiting T-Rex!

I think he realized what was behind him! LOL

Snack time! We always find time for monkey-see, monkey-do!

High-Five!!

He was SOOOO excited that we let him walk around!

Hi meerkats!!!

Little triceratops walking around!

Bye-bye zoo... we had a great time!

-Amber

13 Months Old!

Well, another month has passed and Liam is now a 13 month old. We had a pretty exciting weekend considering Liam walked for the first time on Friday night (the night before he turned 13 months). Way to time it right, little man! LOL... A few wks ago on Oct. 2nd, Liam took 4 steps in a row, but never did it again so we just brushed it off as a fluke. Well, this time he's really walking. He still prefers crawling, but he knows how to walk and does it when he feels like it. He has become very keen on just taking off and walking across the living room like a seasoned pro! The weekend went well. We went out to lunch on Saturday and made our weekly trip to the grocery store. We had originally planned on taking Liam to the pumpkin patch on Saturday to celebrate his second Halloween and to have him pick out his first pumpkin, but that plan quickly went South when we pulled up to "Old McDonald's Farm" and their pumpkin patch wasn't anything more than a group of picnic tables with tiny hand-held-sized pumpkins on them. Kobe & I just decided to wait it out and go to a real pumpkin patch next weekend! Anywho, that's about all we did on Saturday--Liam's 13 month birthday. hehe... Excuse the time lapse, I originally typed this up on Oct. 21st & never hit "publish." Oops!! Here are some videos from the weekend of Liam's 13 months!

Good morning! I'm 13 months old!

The first video we got of Liam walking-and taking a dive! lol

Hope y'all enjoyed that! Have a great weekend!

-Amber

Dear Liam #6-- Your FIRST haircut!

Hi baby boy! 

I hope you're enjoying reading all these blog posts. With this one I just wanted to share your first haircut experience with you! We decided it was time to get your hair cut because it was getting so long that we were having to tuck it behind your ears. Daddy & I decided to take you to "Cool Cuts 4 Kids" since you're little and we wanted you to enjoy your first experience. We walked in and they called you back right away. You got to sit in a little red fire engine with a tv in front of it that was playing Spongebob Squarepants. The haircut lasted about 10 minutes or so. Nothing too drastic--just a little trim and style! You did great for the most part. The clippers' buzzing scared you for a second, but you didn't cry very much. You cried for a few seconds, but quickly regained your composure! For the most part, you did amazing for your first haircut experience. 

Here are some videos and pictures for you to remember the day by:

First 4 minutes of Liam's haircut!

The finished product: front view...

Side view...

Afterward with mommy.

The car ride home! **Disclaimer: I usually don't ride in the backseat, but Liam just so happened to start crying so I hopped back there & brightened his mood. =)

Well, sweet boy... that about sums up the day. You were such a big boy and did so well during that haircut! I hope you enjoy reading this some day. Daddy & I love you so much!

-Amber (Mommy)

Liam is ONE!!!!!!!!

So, it's been almost three weeks since Liam turned one year old and I'm just now posting about this. Bad mother award anyone? lol JK! Well, let's get to it. Since Liam's birthday happened to fall on a Thursday we didn't do much... just a celebratory breakfast & then spent some time together at home before I headed off to work & left Liam & daddy to have a boys day without me. We then celebrated a few days later on Saturday with friends & family at Liam's First Birthday Bash!!! The party was so much fun & we are so glad we decided to spend the extra money on a photographer because we now have all of our beautiful memories captured on film. Some of the highlights of the party are when Liam enjoyed his VERY FIRST taste of cake, when Liam got to take a picture with every single guest at the party, & then when we had a blast jumping in the moonwalk for the first time!

Liam & his smash cake!

Liam, with momma & daddy! We love you so much, baby boy!

Liam & daddy being silly in their robot shirts!

Jumping with momma!

Kobe & I would like to take a moment to thank everyone for coming out & helping us celebrate Liam's first year. This was the most special day we've ever celebrated & we can't wait for all the years to come. Liam had so much fun seeing everyone & we are so happy with how his special day turned out!

Following the party, we had an amazing time at home playing with Liam & all of his new toys. We attempted to only open one at a time, but ended up caving & opening nearly all of them! Go figure! We have lots of fun at the Nol household. haha! 

  

Here's our messy living room full of toys & left-over party containers. Liam is one lucky baby boy! Kobe & I joked that it looked like Christmas all over again! lol

Liam playing with his new ball-drop chute game! He's a pro at it.

Sunday came & went, then it was Monday-Sept 24th, 2012. Dun, dun, DUNNNN! Liam had his appt for first b-day shots at Dr Farella's office. He weighed in at 16 lbs 10.5 oz and measured 28 inches long. Our little man is growing up so well! Also, our awesome doctor said she wasn't even worried about Liam being "small" since Liam is following his own curve perfectly on the growth cart! Just what we wanted to hear. I'm also happy to announce that Liam has not had a bottle since that Monday at noon. He is exclusively using sippy cups now! We found one sippy that Liam uses great compared to all the others, in case you mommas-or anyone else who reads this post-would like suggestions on an awesome sippy cup. The NUK Active Cup is what I'm talking about. We got ours at Wal-Mart & I ordered 3 more of the same cup off of Amazon because they are sold out in all stores in our area after I nabbed one!

Ta-Da!! The magic sippy cup that beat all the rest of them out. =)

Isn't that cup the cutest?! The spout is soft, so it feels like a bottle nipple, but it has the shape of a sippy cup spout. Perfect for transitioning to a harder spout sippy cup! It is such fun having a one year old, they are learning so many new things & Liam is such a smart baby. He's recently learned to shake his head no & to hold the phone to his ear & say "hello!" Keep checking back for more updates on our little man. I'll leave y'all with some more pictures now, I've gotta get back to my big boy! He's wanting breakfast! lol

Liam enjoying his first dinner as a 1 year old! We've recently discovered that Liam's newest favorite food is chicken!

 Our big boy drinking from his sippy cup!

What a difference!! Liam at one week next to Liam at one year!

Hope y'all are having a great weekend!

-Amber

Tears of joy + a tiny helping of sadness...

Well, it happened... I already cried at the thought of Liam turning one year old. Yep, you read that right-our baby boy will be 1 yr old in less than 24 hrs & just thinking about it brought on the momma sobs. All I can say is that this has been the best year of my life. From the moment I saw his tiny little body come into this world & heard his loud first cry, I haven't been the same. I know any mother would say this about her child, but I seriously feel like Kobe & I have the best baby in the world. Just thinking of all the happy memories we've made this past year and all the new parent situations we've lived through... It's just such a happy occasion that we'll be celebrating tomorrow. I cried tears of joy earlier, but there was also a smidgen of sadness because my baby isn't such a little tiny baby anymore. He's a big boy who loves to dance & eat & watch the Sprout channel! I don't care how big he gets though, as long as I'm living my baby he'll be. =)