Liam comes undone

Yesterday James and I left Liam in the bathroom on his own for about 4 mins.  I came in to check on him and this is what I discovered:

We are very excited about this age.  Liam has, in the last week or so, tried out his first independent steps.  I won't say he's walking yet (though his daddy thinks he is), but he's so so close and definitely gaining confidence with each time he lets go of something and stumbles forward a step or two.

His first top tooth has now broken through the skin and with it, we have broken down and succumbed to magical anti-teething pain solutions.  We have been told by a few reliable sources that amber necklaces worn by babies help with teething pain.  Though Liam is a brave fellow, a few nights this week the pain got the better of him and we were just desperate to help him out.  So amber necklace it is (along with more traditional pain killers and gum gel)!

We're off to Marrakech tomorrow morning.  Here's hoping we have an easy trip!

My 30th Birthday Weekend

I know that turning 30 is supposed to be some big deal, so it might come as a surprise to hear how tame my birthday weekend really ended up being.  There were no crazy parties or late nights but I'm not sure how many people can claim they built a house on their 30th birthday.  So what if it was just a gingerbread house, and if, in fact, it was less house looking and more bombay slum.
The weekend celebrations started with great food at a newly discovered Indian restaurant in Lugano - Degli Amici.  What a great find!  All 24 or so of us were pleased with the food.  (We were responsible and had a babysitter so Liam could stay home).
Saturday morning was the TASIS Gingerbread house building competition.  I have no idea which group one, but our team of Andy and Emily Abell and James, Liam and I sure were creative!
Sunday evening Beril and Courtenay had a small girls dinner for me at Beril's house.  Delicious Thai food and no worrying about the baby since James was home with him.

Anyway, here are few pictures from dinner on Friday night, and our Saturday morning Gingerbread house competition. 

Normal us at my birthday dinner

 Normal Matt and Jen 

 Leigh and Gavin

 James with his leg of lamb

 Emily and Alli

 Sat Gingerbread house dream team - The Abells and us

 Design team hard at work - oh wait, James is feeding Liam!  Just Andy hard at work

 The finished product - please note the licorice and jelly head person hanging from the front of the building in a Mission Impossible stunt to break into our building!

Thanksgiving

November really was quite a remarkable month for Liam.  Along with becoming a 10 month old he suddenly (since our trip to England) stopped crying before bed and naps.  It has made such a difference in our world and I think all of us are happier for it.  The decision in mid October to switch him to 1 nap a day was probably a big part of it, and ever since then he is almost always happy to go to sleep around 12:15pm and then his bed time is pretty much 6:30pm.  He usually sleeps till around 7am, sometimes a bit later, and seldom earlier, and his naps have increased from their usual 30 mins to often around 1 hour and sometimes even a bit more.  This is all quite a huge deal in this house.  Truly a reason for thanks giving!

And speaking of thanksgiving, this year for Thanksgiving we once again found ourselves in Lugano because James was on duty all weekend.  We made the most of it by having our own little Thanksgiving get-together with the Walsers and Leigh and Stirling.  We waited till Friday for our late afternoon meal since by then most kids had left, and then we went to town with all the fixings.  Homemade pumpkin and pecan pies, cranberry sauce, a green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, salad (and that's just what we made!).  Eric and Kat brought the turkey, gravy and stuffing, and Leigh came with mashed potatoes.  It was a lot of food and a lot of excitement.  The three little ones fared well despite it getting close to bed time.

Our dinner table - we moved it into the living room for space

 Liam's thanksgiving meal

 Drake and Kat 

 Leigh, Stirling, Kat, Drake, Eric, Liam and James

 The Children - Drake, Stirling and Liam

So much else seems to be changing and happening with Liam these days and we're so busy living in it that I forget to write it down.  I have to say though I feel like this age is my absolute favorite and I wish he'd stay this way for a long time.  It's so so fun to hang out and play with him and he's so interactive.

Some stuff that's been happening: Liam's first top tooth is coming in right now, that'll be his third tooth altogether.  He's also becoming more and more confident in his standing, walking and running around, and is letting going of things and standing steady for a few seconds before putting hands back out.  He's been eating like a champ, and by Nov was down to 2 milk feeds a day.  (Now it's just 1 before bed time.)  However, he has shown no interest in formula and very little interest in cows milk, so he's just pretty much been a water guy.  He talks ALL the time.  And I mean really talks.  Just because we don't understand him doesn't mean he's not saying meaningful things!  He is constantly standing up in his highchair - my mom considers this karma since I did the same thing - and he's climbing the staircase completely unassisted (and sometimes unaccompanied if he can manage to dart off while we are unawares!)  Anyway, just wanted to get it all down to remember some of this great time.  He's really a love.  My favorite of all favorite things he does has to be the slobbery kisses I get from him all the time.  What a little huggy love!

Trip to England - Oct 2010

Liam and I went on our first solo adventure this past week.  It was just a 2 hour flight to England, but not having done the whole parenting thing on my own till now, I wasn't sure what I was in for.  As it turns out, we had quite a remarkable week, even in spite of the cold that most of us ended up with.  The cousins got to meet for the first time and we had great fun and laughter and the odd tear in a house full of little ones.  There was always a little body to run after, feed, change or put to bed, but somehow it all worked out pretty well.  There were many opportunities for all children to learn a little about sharing too!

"Goodbye Daddy" - at Milan airport getting ready to leave

 Liam and Lua's first meeting was over a xylophone.  Turns out they have similar interests!

 Lua is such a love and every time she comes across a soft toy or piece of fabric she gives it a snuggle!  Here she is with Liam's new hippo from Grandma Gail

 At the park Liam was excited to get to try out all the different equipment.  I think this really was his first interactive playground experience, and the swings were definitely a favorite.  Here he is with Nassim on the rocking horse.  He seems quite a natural!

 Three sisters and 2 wee ones in pouches.  Amazingly enough I'm looking as pale as Nassim here!

 It was so fun to see how Liam and Leo interacted.  Leo would try and figure out what would make Liam laugh and would do it over and over again if it worked.  Here they are just hanging out and playing on their own.

 Still a bit of an eater of all and sundry - Liam naws on the tail of Lua or Leo's lion.

 I loved witnessing this moment.  Nassim and Leo were playing in the sun room with Liam and it was joyful to watch.

 Though this is a bit ambiguous this is actually the moment that Lua was going in to give Liam a kiss!

After 6 days in Ettington we went in to London so we could visit Keith, Charlene and Otto.  That was probably the most complex traveling and even so, went off without any major glitches.  Both Liam and I were a bit under the weather still, but greatly enjoyed getting to see the three of them as well as Sonja.

 Liam and Otto getting into mischief in the kitchen

 Char reads Otto a book while Liam takes over his special chair

9 Month Madness

Liam has a second tooth.  Monday was miserable.  Well Monday Liam was miserable.  I guess the tooth coming through was causing a lot of pain and it was hard for him to be distracted by games or toys.  He spent most of the day seeking me out and climbing on me, clinging tight and half crying.  It wasn't fun. 
Gratefully by Tuesday morning things had improved, the tooth had peeked through the surface and I think things have been pretty much better since then.

Before I forget, here's a funny Monday story - I put Liam in his bed for nap and left him to it.  An hour later, still awake, still crying, I went in.  And when I found him he was standing at the bars of his crib (nothing new there) holding his PANTS (and by pants I mean trousers, not his undies), in his hand.  I have no idea how he got them off, but he did.  I was so amused I gave up any attempt to have him nap.  That night we put him to sleep in one of his sleeping bags that snaps over the shoulder and zips up the side.  He woke up in the middle of the night crying, and when James went in to check on him, he was out of his sleeping bag and holding it in his hand.  Little houdini!

We walked the percorsa vita with some friends this week - twice in fact for Liam and I, and once with James.  Just a couple of pictures from the walk on Sunday:

James and Liam hanging out on the walk

 Alessandra and Liam

 Liam and James examine the foliage

We bought Liam one of those obnoxious push walkers in garish colors and with all those sound effects and songs to boot.  He loves it, of course.  He does pushes it around the house, but he also loves the ball game at the front where he can pick up the little balls and dump them into the slot at the top, resulting in a lovely sound that encourages repetition!  He also likes to play one of the songs over and over and does a little butt wiggle to dance to it.
Here are a couple of videos of him from today: 

Other happenings this side of the Gottard - we have ferrets or some other lively and large animals living in the ceiling of our kitchen. We've been listening to them scrape and scratch around for the past few weeks, getting more and more distressed about it.  The landlord is working on the situation, but a few more weeks have gone by with no results.  Here's hoping something changes soon or the weight of them multiplying above us will no doubt cave the ceiling in!

Weekend in Zurich - 9/24-9/26

Last weekend we had a 3 day weekend and decided it would do us good to get out of here.  So we went up to Zurich (the big city!) for 2 nights.  We stayed at the very decent Renaissance Hotel a little out of the city center, but super accessible by tram, and after an ok nights' sleep friday night, headed in for a rainy day in Zurich.  Despite the gloomy weather we had a good time wandering the old cobbled streets and peeking into places here and there.  The disadvantage of the rain was that Liam couldn't see quite as much through the rain shield of his stroller, so it wasn't quite as fun for him.  We did go into the fantastic English book store where we hung out for a bit and let him crawl around, flip through books we weren't going to buy, and then leave.  (I did order 1 book for him... well maybe for myself).

Liam putting his sock in the drawer (while that did happen, he was more interested in the fact that these drawers opened and closed, and sometimes on his fingers!)

Right on the lake - enjoying the rain

We also found the Franz Carl Weber toy store and decided that our minimalist ways were perhaps a little unfair on Liam and having a few developmentally appropriate toys (besides the pots and pans I keep throwing his way) would possibly be good for him.  So 150CH later we walked out with a block sorting bus, a drum/xylophone, a mini tonka car (james INSISTED he have a car), and a stacking wooden clown that also lets you match up shapes.  Hopefully all will be normal with our child now!  Perhaps we should have invested in a pushing walker thing as he has taken to pushing his high chair around the kitchen.  Hmm...

At Wagamama's testing out his new car

 Other highlights of Zurich were the opportunity for us to eat non Italian food - We opted for Indian at Hiltl (fantastic vegetarian place!) and Asian fusion at Wagamama's - and somewhere squeezed into the last 15mins of store opening times was a purchase of a pair of boots for me, and a couple of yummy bretzels.

 Mama getting a kiss at Hiltl restaurant

 Liam investigates his own lunch options

 and just a nice picture of daddy James

But the biggest event over the whole weekend was the appearance of Liam's first tooth.  It's the bottom left side and it is too cute!  Of course we have no proof because he won't let us see it, let alone take a photo, but it's definitely there!  Exact date of first break through -  evening of September 24th, 2010.

This is back at home, but here's a little video of him playing his new musical instruments.  He's actually quite into it, even though it's supposed to be for slightly older children.  I think I realized his interest after seeing him playing with some of Drake's musical instruments.

September

My last post was long and boring.  Well, it was without pictures, which to many of us visual people, equates to boring.  This time I have a smattering of pictures and more of a random commentary.  C'est la vie.

September has come and gone.  Summer feels like it's been LONG gone, and as we head deeper down the rabbit hole into fall/winter I find myself switching into hermit mode.  Hermit mode, for those who don't experience it, is a state wherein all you wish to wear is sweatpants and sweatshirts, and you would prefer it if life could take place in your bed surrounded by a large down comforter.  But that cannot be.  Liam keeps telling me so.

Instead we hustle and bustle our way through the weeks chasing Liam, chasing sleep.  Oh but he's so so fun these days.  I mean he's always been fun, but now, now he's becoming really funny.  He's so very social and vocal and loves to play (especially the "I'm going to get you" game, which as the name indicates, involves James or me saying "I'm going to get you" and wiggling our fingers at him while approaching him in a humorously menacing way.  He loves it.  He squeals, turns on his pudgy heels and heads into the nearest wall, or sometimes away from us.)

Here's a family picture from our opening banquet.  If I can recall correctly, after staying up till 10:30pm he had his first amazing night of sleeping through till 6:30am!  Must have been the late night socializing!

Kat and Drake, Nura and Liam - opening banquet.  We even had a "family room" where they hid all us new parents with young babies so we wouldn't disturb the rest of the function.  It was definitely a win/win situation.

In other news, Liam has discovered the washing machine and the fascination of wet clothes going around in a circle.  Good times!

Foregoing practicality and falling prey to pure fashion, James picked out this adorable hat for Liam.  Can he look any more Irish?  If I could tolerate the term, I may be inclined to "OMG" this photo.  I know, I know, he's my child and I'm biased, but seriously, he really is kind of adorable.  I now have to go out and buy a real winter hat for the guy, but in the meantime we sure do love this one!

As I mentioned in the last post, Liam is eating all sorts of stuff, and with growing confidence every day.  This is a video of him playing with spaghetti for the first time.

And finally a video of Liam doing his own thing!  He crawled out onto the balcony off our bedroom with the umbrella cover, and was having a great time doing his thing.

Since our return

This posting is for our own memories because some things are pretty momentous moments in our little guy's life, but don't necessarily get accompanied by photos.   Feel free not to read!

Upon our return to Lugano we had already made the decision to transition Liam into his own room and crib for nights as well as the naps that he'd been doing.  We were not sure how long of a process it would be, and with James starting up work right away I think we both were nervous.
For the first week back we put a mattress on the floor in his room so that when and if we needed to hang out in there, we could at least be comfortable.  Amazingly enough, probably a week and half later we took it out.  This is not because he is sleeping through the night, but he has made some major strides in that direction.

Remember, we're talking about Mr. clockwork who HAD to eat every 4 hours.  I wasn't even sure how we would get to skip 1 of those feeds!  So needless to say I am both shocked and amazed that less than a month later he has gone from 4 hours between feeds to up to 12 hours!  (For the record, 12 hours was last night!).  He is still waking a few times, and so I would say on an average night these days, James might go in once in the late evening, and I often end up in there for an early morning feed (around 4 or 5am).  He's generally going to bed between 7:30 and 8:30pm, and quite often doesn't wake up till 8am (with little wake ups in between of course.)  But still, that's really impressive to me.  We are allowing him to cry for short periods on his own if he doesn't settle into sleep in a reasonable amount of time, and that is by no means a piece of cake, but knowing that he's eating so well during the day, I definitely feel less concerned that he's not getting what he needs.

In fact, little wonder over here has graduated from simple pureed packages of food back to Mama's home cooking which includes a delectable menu of anything from banana and avocado mash, to alphabet pasta with a cheese and vegetable sauce.  He's tried pureed chicken and beef, but from jars as I haven't yet tried to make them on my own, and mixed with other stuff.  He's not a huge fan of the chicken yet so I end up disguising it with fruit and vegetables and potentially sometimes yogurt, to make it tasty enough for him to eat.  The beef on the other hand was a hit mixed with creme frais and pasta, or sweet potatoes.  His favorite is his morning smoothie (banana, mango, some other fruit, oats and rice cereal mixed with yogurt) for breakfast.  It's so sweet.  Every morning now that James is on his healthy kick, he gets up and makes the family smoothie.  Love it!   

We have also just discovered some mom and tots groups in the greater Lugano area that are for English speakers.  Today was our first visit to one that was held at St Edward's church.  It went quite well, and I'm excited to have a place for Liam to interact with more kids.  He is also getting the opportunity to hang out with his pal Drake 2 mornings a week for an hour or so while I am working.  It's actually really sweet to see how interested and playful they already are with each other.  And on top of all that, we have our other mothers in the area and are still getting together once a week or there abouts to hang out with the wee ones.

Life is good here.  Busy, but good.  I am grateful to be able to pretty much be a stay at home mom, but still fit in some part time work, and I think Liam enjoys all the time he has with us, but is also learning to socialize so well.  He continues to crawl, pull up and walk as much as he can, and I have no doubt he'll just get more and more confident till he's walking all on his own!  This really is such a fun age.

Karen and Matt's Wedding

I had been trying to post some of the sweet videos shirin took of Liam in Vermont, but they refused to upload, and time is ticking and I need to be done with catching up on summer posting.

So the last summer installment is from Karen and Matt's wedding - August 21st, 2010.
We drove from Bennington to the Schenectady area on Friday morning and it was a bit of a marathon till we got home to Switzerland on Monday evening.
Friday afternoon was a mani/pedi with the bridal party, then wedding ceremony rehearsal and then the rehearsal dinner.  We had to leave dinner around 9pm because Liam was starting to fade (he'd done so superbly though), but at least we had most of the evening with everyone.  Here are some pictures of Liam at the dinner:

Meeting (and eating) Chandra - It seems Liam had a go at every lady's necklace that night!

Hanging out with the bride and groom

The whole wedding was beautiful.  I think it was the first time I spent most of a day away from Liam, which was certainly bizarre, but knowing he was just down the hotel hallway with James made it easy enough.  We began preparing at 11am and the ceremony was only scheduled to start at 6:30pm.  Of course before that there were the formal pictures and such, but we also spent a luxurious amount of time getting the beautiful bride all set.

This picture makes me laugh - Karen's amazing hair took about 3 hours to do, this was 30 mins in and I thought it was a terrific granny do!

Finally all ready - the bridal party on the balcony of the honeymoon suite at the Glen Sanders Mansion

Nura, Rebecca, Karen, Chandra, Megan

There is already a bit of a height difference between Karen and I, but in this instance my 4 inch heels didn't help matters!

Finally our little family was together for the formal pictures - Liam is rocking the beach formal look with his bare feet mostly because we can't keep shoes on him.

Our family with the bride and groom

At the cocktail hour and Liam is still going strong

Chandra and Dave

Liam still awake at dinner (he had his own special mush) - by then it was around 9pm

Amazingly, Liam hung in there for more wedding celebrations till just after 10pm.  When people got up dancing and we brought him on the dance floor he had a complete blast!  It was really sweet to see.  We did retire early from the wedding celebration because we thought it the responsible thing to do, but we are so pleased we got to be there for so much of it.  

Sunday morning we woke up, packed our bags one last time and drove back down to Brooklyn (about a 3.5 hour endeavor)  We arrived to pouring rain, and with just a few hours before our flight we tried to relax a little at James' parents house one last time.  Unfortunately after arriving at the airport and all going smoothly, we boarded the plane and then were told that there would be a delay.  The delay of almost 3 hours then meant we would miss our connection in Zurich and would have a 4 hour layover there.  It ended up being quite a long and not so fun trip because Liam was also overtired and unable to sleep well in the bassinet.   Our small silver lining was that we discovered that Zurich airport actually has a very nicely equipped nursery, so we did spend a little of our added time hanging out there.  

Liam and I in the Zurich airport nursery

Before our final flight to Lugano