Full of Cuteness

I am in love with this picture. We answered an add for a third baby needed for a multicultural playgroup, preferably of Native American descent - and since Liam is 1/32nd Cherokee (according to Mammaw) we fit the bill. Actually, these are our friends from church, Iyore and Ian. If I read baby body language correctly, I think Iyore is madly in love with Liam. I would consider her his first girlfriend. Ian has some of the cutest baby cheeks I have ever seen. I want him to get a puppy named Kevin, because I think he looks like the Korean version of the little boy from Up.

Another contender for the cuteness contest....exhibit B: this mouse. I love him! Thanks aunt Kelly! Some people put on their velour suits to lounge about when there is a bit of a nip in the air, Liam puts on his mouse suit. And we are still breaking it out in June. I can't complain though, I am actually loving the cool nights and warm days Vermont has to offer. Don't be too jealous, we earned this weather - six months of indentured servitude in arctic conditions to the white witch.

And lastly, what's cuter than a baby?

A baby with a puppy! This is Liam with May our friend's new pup. They were best buds while we puppy sat.

This is the new girl on the block (on the far right). Matty is Liam's best friend and two weeks ago he brought home his precious little sister Nora. We love her. Here everyone is hanging out beside our new community kiddie pool, because even the water coming out of the hose feels like melted ice. Cuddling beside the pool is almost as fun as playing in it. And at the after party everyone got to take off their diaper and feel the cool spring breeze on their nether regions. So the afternoon wasn't lost even though the pool was a bust.

Yesterday we celebrated Adam's first father's day. Well, actually we celebrated on Saturday because he worked on his first father's day, but I was still sweet to him yesterday too. Liam gave him a basketball and I gave him a scrapbook, partially filled out (on purpose). Each year we will put pictures and a little note about what we did that mother's and father's day. I had each of our parents do a little intro with some pictures of them with us as babies and a little note with some parenting advice/words of wisdom. Just when I thought I had hardened up again from all those postpartum hormones and emotions, I sprung a leak. We cried.

After we pulled it together, we had a lazy morning of eating french toast and drinking our weight in coffee. Then we headed off to do something manly and fatherly. We hiked Mt. Ascutney. We were expecting a leisurely, semi-challenging hike, but I think it was the toughest trek we have done in a long while. It was pretty technical too. Good thing we brought a baby with us. This was Liam's first trip in the Kelty kid carrier. I tried not to be too much of nervous Nancy as Adam climbed up slippery rocks with our baby. It is also a good thing I know there are no poisonous snakes in this area because I almost stepped on one. I might have panicked a little. I am Myra's daughter. A couple miles in we started to hear distant thunder, but there are almost never thunderstorms in Vermont so we pushed onward. Then as we got closer to the top, it started to rain and thunder clapped loudly all around us - possibly a poor parenting decision on our part. Luckily, we were below treeline. And we live in New England, where Adam likes to say in his best Bean town accent "if you don't like the weather in NE, wait five minutes." It's true. Ten minutes later it was sunny and cool.

We made it down safely. It was a beautiful hike, that we definitely plan on doing again (maybe with the Nalls:), but just not in Chacos. The rest of the day was spent lounging.

Other news...We are moving! Adam read The Complete Money Makeover and we are taking it to heart. The biggest way for us to save money is to downsize. We have loved living in our home on Summer Street, but we are both so excited to not be biting our fingernails at the end of each month. We have a few possible leads, but it looks like the Hammonds will be back in a one-bedroom apartment, re-living the Alumni Village years. Our biggest fret over this move was that it might deter visitors, but we hope not. We still would love to put anyone up that would make the journey to come see us. And now we can just spend time together in a more intimate fashion when you guys come to Vermont.

Don't even stress about Octoberfest! With the money we are saving in rent and heating, we can fork over the dough to do a weekend rental for Hammond Drop in Day. This year it will be the first or second weekend in October (depending on rental availabilities) and I will be sending out an official facebook invite as soon as the lodging is hammered down.

Two ways I almost killed my baby in the last month - gosh being a mom is stressful! 1. I was getting some things together in our van and I left the air on because this was one of the hot summer days in Vermont. After I gathered everything up and put on my kid carrier, I decided I better take the keys out of the ignition before I grab my babe (so I don't forget them). I don't know what happened....but the car started rolling backwards down our super steep driveway. I almost had a heart attack! But I managed to jump in and hit the breaks before it rolled into the street and then onto our neighbors house. Scary! 2) I worry much less about finding a blue baby these days. I had constant visions (you can't really call them nightmares if you are not sleeping) that Liam would stop breathing and so I would obsessively check on him. I hear these are fairly normal. But now that he is seven months old, I have been feeling that he is pretty hearty and have observed that his drive to breath is adequate. However, I was totally unnerved the other night. I let Liam sleep with a blanket because he loves to cuddle it and flop it around as he drifts off to sleep. After waking up to a very muffled baby cry, I ran down the hall to find feet where a head should be and a tightly wrapped blanket around my babies head. Stressful! I guess that is why they invented sleep sacks.

Here is a cute video of the possible precursor giggle that might develop into the full fledged scream-laugh later in life.