One and fun

 

I have finally decided to emerge from my cave.  At least, I felt like I was in a cave the last several months.  The lack of technological amenities (internet, TV, phone reception) in our main transition home felt very quaint and humorous at first, but that begins to wear on a girl.  Many parts of the slow and simple life were delightful to indulge in - front porch sitting, shooting the breeze, and walks to the river - but the part that was tough was when Adam was gone and I was homebound with my baby at night.  That part was a little lonely.

Even with internet at our fingertips again, we weren't able to fully enjoy it, because we had to swing into "get it done!" mode. That became our mantra when the sun went down and the baby went to bed for almost a month.  We kicked off our evenings with take out, some vigorous fist pumps (to get amped up), and usually wrapped up in the a.m. hours after someone in our party shed some tears because she couldn't take it anymore and she was convinced we would never move in and we would be unsettled, gypsies forever! (I'm not going to claim it, but I won't deny it)

Being a mom is tough (when you have to get stuff done).  Moving is tough (all the time).  Moving with a baby is an even more drawn out and painful process than I ever imagined!  Tack on a few weeks of pre-move in labor that we were neither prepared for nor quick at and the pump is primed for bad attitudes all around (mainly me). But that is done.  We pushed through. Praise the Lord!  And I thought for my first time back in the blog saddle, I would flood you with some pictures of all the fun that punctuated our crazy gypsy life over the past couple of months.

Highlight #1:  Meeting Hannah Hammond

  

Our fluke Florida trip was not premeditated.   News spread that our new niece was coming to the states, because the grandparents couldn't go see her.  We were bummed when we found out because Adam was on a tough rotation with no promise of weekends off, let alone any leave.  However, due to some scheduling mishap, he was on for two weeks straight, so he just happened to have 5 days off right around the end of Troy and Kana's trip.  

 

So we made another trip to Florida!  Not that we are complaining.  This little chunk is 3 months old, but holds her own next to Liam.  She knocks him out in the hair department and is on par with him in the tooth department (she has two!).  It was so wonderful to get some quality time in with my Japanieces and I loved watching how happy Li was playing with his cousins.

Highlight #2: The World's Fair, aka The Tunbridge Fair, aka your 'run-of-the-mill' county fair

 

Not that it wasn't fun.  It was barrels of fun.  I love a fair.  We had ourselves a grand old time.  Initially, we just weren't sure what to expect.  Everyone in the Upper Valley loses their mind over the Tunbridge fair.

 

Liam got to pet his first cow, Ronnie. A blue ribbon heifer with an "excellent mammary system"  (I believe Liam thinks the same of me).  He had so much fun seeing all the farm animals.  He loves them!

 

We also had our fill of over-sized vegetables. I did the fair New England style - a funnel cake with maple syrup and powdered sugar on it.  My stomach hurt later.

 

 Adam is so mean.  He took this picture and didn't even warn me that one of those horses had a crazy look in its eye.  He just kept snapping.  That punk grabbed a big old mouth full of my hair and gave it a good yank.  It scared the daylights out of me!

  

Highlight #3: Liam's first Octoberfest!!

This was our least planned Octoberfest by far and it still turned out amazing! It fell right in the thick of our apartment crazyness.  We stayed at the log cabin up the hill from us.  The weather was a little soggy, but we still got out and played in it! Plus, it is not so bad being trapped in a gigantic log cabin with a rockin' fire place, surrounded by tons of good food and good friends.  

Highlight # 4: Uncle Troy comes to Vermont

We were so happy to have Troy come visit us in Vermont.  So unexpected! So fun!  I hope these random Japan encounters keep happening!

Highlight #5: Grandma to the rescue

 

Just when we started to lose hope, grandma swooped in for a week to hang with the boy. Adam and I were able to knock out some monumental moving tasks.  We got over the hump thanks to grandma!  The apartment felt like home by the time she left.

Lowlight: Liam's first injury with blood

Blood on the shirt, mostly Popsicle on the mouth

  I felt like a horrible mom!  I didn't even see what happened.  I was unpacking and he was playing in front of his little book cubby hole, with no apparent child death traps around and then I heard a blood curdling scream.  I ran over to him and blood just started pouring out of his mouth.  I cried! It was heart breaking.  He had a beak for the next couple of days.  Cute, but sad.

Highlight #6: Liam's first Halloween

 

I know it's typical, but I am going to use the moving excuse again.  It consumed way to much of my life!  But my boy was still the cutest pumpkin ever!

Highlight #7: Liam is not allergic to peanut butter

 

 

 

As you can see this series of photos is not followed by a picture of him in the ER, and for that we are grateful.  Adam was home and there was gas in the car just in case.

Highlight #8: Kitten Rescue

 

I have been secretly hoping to find an orange kitten in need of a good home for a while now.  Ever since I lost the late, great Dylan.  Of course, that comes to fruition, not even two weeks after moving into our one bedroom apartment! I was a little jelly when my neighbors found an orange kitten that had been hit by a car and then nursed back to health. But there was talk at the farm that people thought they had seen one or two more orange kittens in the woods by the farm, with no mama in sight.  This was right after our October Nor'easter, during a really cold spell.  Adam and I drove out there the next evening.  Looking at the vast expansion of wooded area surrounding the farm, the mission did not look promising.  I turned the car around to park and before we even got out, five little kitten heads poked out from behind the same tree.  It was the cutest thing ever!  We ended up keeping two.  Moose (the orange one in front) chose us.  He played with Liam, slept in Jamie's nook, and won our hearts over quickly.  Monty (the hard to see white and orange one, in the middle of the kitten knot up top) is the other boy we kept.  He is an emo man and a cuddle bug.  He still nurses on his brother and Jamie.

Highlight #9: Liam turns 1!

 

He was very unsure about what was going on at first, but as soon as that chocolate cupcake hit his tongue, that boy loved everything he knew about birthdays! Good thing we celebrated three times for him!  Once in New Hampshire with all his friends at his favorite play group.....

 

Once in Orange Park, where he performed the Cassidy cement rite of passage.

 

And once in Sanford with the other birthday boy - Grandpa!  Here the birthday boys are taking a moment to stop and smell the roses and reflect on their lives thus far.  Yes....OP, Sanford...we were in Florida, yet again.  We can't get enough!  But we will be in winter wonderland for Christmas this year.

Highlight #10: We ran our first family race

 

While we were in Florida, we ran the Subaru 1/2 marathon on Thanksgiving Day.  It was a perfect race day weatherwise.  Liam was amazing.  We had our racing pit crew there for support.  And I ran way better than expected, considering my sharp decline in training due to the move (ok that is the last time you will hear of this move).

Highlight #11: Liam had his first zoo experience

 

I didn't think it was going to pan out, but it did.  This was a few hours before our flight back to Vermont.  We really like to push the limit.  That is why I am always late everywhere!  

 

Liam loved it just as I suspected.  I don't know if all boys his age love animals, but he is obsessed.

 

I am not sure what Liam or Kat's favorite part was, but mine was feeding Luna, the giraffe.  She was so cute! 

Highlight #12: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Last weekend we cut down our Christmas tree and decked out our apartment for the season.  Soon it will be filled to the brim with Cassidy's rotating in and out during the holiday break.  We are so excited! 

In case any of you were wondering, we still love having house guests in our small apartment, as you don't mind an air mattress and a little less privacy.  The more the merrier!

 

In other news my boy is cute as a button, he calls everything a 'cat', points at everything, cruises and crawls like a maniac, gives kisses, has an obsession with balls (of the bouncy variety), and is a ton of fun hang out with every day!  I am so lucky!

 

But to keep me humble.  I will leave you with Liam's best ugly pic. Still cute!  But I am his mom.

Pain in the mouth

My angel baby has been a crank the last week or so.  He was being extra fussy during the day and waking up all through out the night, consequently making me sleep deprived and grumpy.  When this happens, first I get frustrated with Liam (grumbling like a crotchety old man and putting more force into opening and shutting things than is really necessary), then I feel really bad because he is just a baby.   Once this realization hits me I go through the laundry list of ways I am potentially being a bad mom and not putting my baby first.  We have been living like gypsies since the end of July, so I am sure not having a consistent place to call home is somewhat jostling for a baby.  On top of that we have been dragging Liam all over the place whenever Adam has a day off, which he loves but it totally wipes out, depriving him of any good naps....which we all know leads to crank city.  Plus, a lot of my energy has been diverted from Liam into packing, so maybe he is feeling a little neglected.  Then I think maybe he is sick or has a stomach ache, but can't communicate it - and I can't even imagine how frustrated I would be if I were in that position.

Of course teething crossed my mind, but I have given up on Liam ever getting teeth.  He has been drooling and gnawing on things since he was four months old.  But Tuesday morning I felt them - the double whammy.  Both bottom teeth had cut through the skin.  I couldn't believe it!

 

They are very hard to see, even in person, so I had to be determined to get the following documentation.  Some might consider it cruel, but the best shot you get of them is while he is mad as a hornet and crying.  The most sure fire way to get him to this point is to hesitate for even a moment, while shoveling spoonful after spoonful of food into the boys mouth during meal time.  He is a pretty easy going baby overall, but he is focused when there is food involved!  We baited him with a little banana/mango medley.  Sure enough my pokyness on delivery made him lose it. You might have to blow the picture up to see his two bottom teeth, but they are there.  I am gonna miss that toothless grin.  It was the cutest!

Don't worry Liam got me back.  He was lounging in the nude and he promptly peed all over my picnic blanket.  Thanks Li!

 

Other things that have been a pain in the mouth (No! Of course not my dear mother! I know- it is misleading that I make that comment directly under a picture her)....MOVING!  I hate moving!  But I love saving that dolla!  Adam read the Complete Money Makeover and this is us going at it with gazelle intensity.  We are moving into our neighbor/best friends one-bedroom garage apartment, a whopping two doors down from our old house.  Half the square footage (bleh), half the rent (woo woo)!  As far as moving goes you can't get much better....minimal packing, walking over most things....unless of course the "building" of the apartment is delayed and you have to pack all of your belongings anyway, put them in storage, and live like gypsies for a month.

 

Okay, I am being dramatic.  We are so blessed to have a home to live in for the month of August - rent free!  Praise the Lord.  I really am so thankful for that!  I think we have mainly felt like gypsies because all of our friends went out of town last week.  These people have all watched Jamie at some point and all of them called in their favors to yours truly. Of course, I was happy to watch three houses, two dogs, four cats, one hamster, and two fish for my friends, but it was a little sad bouncing around from house to house with no sign of life (human life - there was plenty of animal life).  My neighborhood felt like a ghost town. 

On top of that, two of my animals required my hospice pet sitting abilities (mostly giving lots of TLC, including rub downs and too many treats).  It's a little strange when someone tells you, they wouldn't be surprised if their pet passed before they got back.  But as long as we make it through the night tonight, I will consider myself successful at keeping everyone alive.

Back to the moving.  Far from a pain in the mouth, was the fact that we were so lucky to have three of the Cassidy gals in Vermont at once. My mom, Kelly, and Kat were able to be here most of the month of July.  Not only was it a ton of fun, but there is absolutely no way we could have moved out of our house on time if they were not here to play with Liam and help me pack.

Liam wore that huge grin (pictured above) almost though whole month!  He had so much fun!  No one can make him giggle like his cousin Kat...except maybe his dad.  I tried not to use them exclusively for their baby minding labor.  We did squeeze in some hikes (on and off the AT), a daily river dip (the Florida girls came during our hottest stretch) and many trips to the ice cream stand (this is dairy country after all).  After we took Kat on her first hike, every time we drove somewhere, she would ask, "why aren't we hiking there?"  That's my girl.

Something else I wouldn't have been able to accomplish without the help of my mom and sister, is planning Adam's surprise party.  My man turned 30 this year and I had to pull out all the stops.  Those of you who know me, may recognize that I am neither sly nor good at lying.  So, needless to say, Adam might have been on to me.  Either way, fun was had by all!

 

One of things that did totally surprise Adam was our west coast representative, Nick Vu.  That man flew from Seattle to show Hammer some love on his thirtieth!  What a  friend?!  Several other friends made the trek across New England to come party with us.  It felt like mini-Octoberfest!

The only person who might have gotten more attention than Adam that weekend was Liam.  It was a big weekend for him too.  That Sunday at church we dedicated him to the Lord.  It was so fun to have his grandparents, godparents (minus Andy), and so many friends there for the big day.  So special!

It's hard to refrain from sinking into an "I miss everyone!" depression when you are surrounded by so many friends and family for so long and then they are all gone.  To top it off we had to be out of our house that week and I always get sentimental leaving a home, especially the home you bring your first baby home to.

So to pull ourselves out of it we put on Loretta Lynn's "if this old house could talk," did a little good bye dance, packed our car, and headed to Rhode Island (mine and Liam's first time).  

Why Rhode Island you may ask??  For the Newport Folk Festival of course!  It will go down in the baby book as Liam's first concert and it was awesome.  First of all, Newport is beautiful, and apparently a sailing mecca, but more importantly, the line up was amazing. 

We hung with some old friends, Gillian, Emmylou, and Earl and we found so many new loves on the folk seen.  We will definitely be in attendance at the Newport Folk Festival every year for the rest of our tenure in New England (and maybe beyond).

Other new developments - Liam can drink through a straw.  This was his second successful straw encounter.

On one of Adam's days off this month we finally made our way over to the Franconia Notch area.  We will definitely be going back.  There were so many breath taking hikes in one place.

We did a short little jaunt up to Lonesome Lake.  I only wish we would have brought our suits.  There was too much traffic to embrace the skinny dip.  So instead we hung up our hammock and took an hour long family nap, lakeside with mountains jutting up all around us.  The picture of relaxation!

Work, work, work.  Adam's next reprieve from work happened to align with Sarah Sharkey's conference in Stowe, VT.  So Michelle drove up from Boston, then we headed west.  Stowe is a tiny little ski town about an hour from us.  It was a great place to hike.  We re-inacted our engagement photo with the product of our love on my back on the Stowe Pinnacle trail.

We hit up the Cabot Cheese Annex and slowed our bowels with tons of free samples.  All the dairy was followed up with a visit to the neighboring Lake Champlains Chocolates.  After cheezy-chocolate appetizer, we ate sushi at a pizza place (weird, I know), and wrapped up our evening with a trip over to the Alchemist, a favorite brewery of Adam's.

That night was our first time, three deep as a family, in our tiny hiking tent.  I can't say it was the most restful night of sleep or my best camping experience, but we will definitely give it another go.  Liam had his roughest night of sleep in a long time.  So we got out of there fast and early then next morning before getting egged by our neighboring campers.

We brought Sarah home with us for the weekend, but it was not long enough!  We miss her already! Silly Aunt Sibby and crazy Aunt Shelly both got to witness Liam' first clap while we were all together.  The only thing that would have made it better was if batty Aunt Addy was there.

Besides the teeth, the straw-drinking, and the clapping....Liam did his first official crawl on his nine month birthday.  He has been able to cover some ground for about six weeks now, but I can classify the mechanics of his Saturday shenanigans as crawling.  Adam missed it by about an hour, but Liam made up for that by kicking it in gear and crawling across the room, several times for his dad on Sunday.  I missed that, but Adam has some video footage which is posted on facebook.  I will try retrieve it for my blog.  Until then you will have to visit his facebook page.  

Oh!  Liam also cruised for the first time after his crawling spree.  This all happened after I gave him his first five hour energy drink;)

Stay tuned.  Things are happening at lightening speed around here.  Wednesday, the three of us our headed down to the sunshine state to meet our newest niece, Hannah!  We can't wait!