7.5.10 - 4th full of firsts...

 
We had a great 4th of July weekend...it was so nice to finally spend some quality time hanging out, relaxing and spending time with our family.   Liam is doing really, really well right now and we hope this trend continues.  His congestion is almost entirely gone and he is finally getting back to his normal happy self.  We have two days left of the pain meds and then we are done.  He has been tolerating the decreases very well, with only some occasional fussiness, which we are now thinking might be attributed to some teething action going on....talk about some mega chewing and drooling!  Liam does not have any teeth yet, nor do I feel or see them coming, but we think they are getting ready to pop out.  Liam is officially 9 months old now, so surely some are close to being on their way out! I was hoping to have all his teeth come in while he was on the heavy medications, but I guess sometimes you can't have it all =)

Another HUGE huge milestone was also reached this weekend.  Especially with Liam's history with his vocal chord paralysis, we expected certain delays in his voice and words, but to our surprise, he is now saying MOMMA!!!  He has been babbling quite a bit for the past month or so, sometimes I could make out a mom, mommmaaaa, moooommmmaa, you get the picture.  But, he never seemed to be directing it at anything or anyone for that matter.  Well, this past Friday night, I was changing his diaper, and he blurted out "MOMMA" while looking straight at me and smiling....It made my heart leap for joy!!  And yes, I have witnesses, both my mom and Dustin both confirmed he was saying it intentionally towards me.  I couldn't be more proud, in fact I took a little video of it, because now that's his favorite thing to babble too!

 
We also started feeding him a little bit again over the weekend and he has been doing wonderfully, minimal to no congestion at all.  Things are finally starting to look the way I expected on the other side of surgery.  And while I know that there is always a looming "dark cloud" out there for us, I am going to just ride this wave as long as I can and not think about the dark.   We are TRULY blessed - each day is a victory, no matter how big or small!

Our weekend began with Dustin running the Liberty by the Lake 5k in the Colony Saturday morning.  He got third place in his division, out of about a hundred runners!  I was so proud of him!  I had planned on running too, but with everything going on the past couple month's, training has taken a back burner for me.  We did manage to get out to the race, even if it was after Dustin had already finished (due to the 5K walk my mom and I hiked to get to the finish line from where we parked!), but at least we got a couple pics....

About a half hour after Dustin got third place...

Mmmmm, yum!  Liam is liking having a taste of something other than baby food!

Saturday we also had Liam's aunt, uncle and cousins over for some family fun on the Wii.  Next on our list of toys to purchase for sure, we had a blast.  Here are some action shots, playing my personal favorite Just Dance...

 Sticking the tongue out really does help!

Let's see those moves!

 Hanging out watching the games!

And no pictures of myself though =)  My nieces were WAY better at dancing than I was anyways!

But it wasn't the Wii that caused the most laughs all weekend as Dustin found this strange, rubber...thing...I don't know what, I think it used to be an koosh ball of some sort lurking in a room somewhere...

We couldn't stop laughing at Dustin's funny faces....

 Liam...not so much

Uncle Mike got in on the fun...

At least it was patriotic...

No fireworks for us, as it was rainy with possible storms coming.  Maybe one year we will actually go watch them.  Sunday night, we did try to catch a glimpse over yonder,through the roofs and trees...

And finally, today I had the day off to spend with Liam while Dustin had to work.  I was going to take us for an outing to Ross and Target, but the muddy stroller wheels left over from Saturday's trek to the lake race dashed my hopes of getting us out of the house.  But, it was a great day nonetheless and I got some more great pics this morning or our little man...

Hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th!  We did make some progress on Team Liam, so soon enough we will have everything ready for the reveal in about a week!  Stay tuned and be BLESSED!!