Christmas 2009

Hi - We've been away for a week on a lovely visit to Cincinnati filled with family, fun, and feasting (so many cookies... so little time :) ). We got back late last night in time for Jon to trudge all of the stuff up from the the car to our living room and fall quickly asleep. I cant take credit for helping with that as I was feeling under the weather and went to bed in a hope that a little extra cold might keep a cold at bay. I can't figure out how we ended up traveling with SO much stuff?! How does that happen? I blame Liam.

In any case, it was such a great trip and Liam's first Christmas was really special. Technology made it possible for me to video chat with my family in Texas live on Christmas morning and to give them a chance to watch Liam open his first Christmas presents. He has so many great new toys by the way I am not sure he'll even give his old stuff the time of day now that we are home. Other fun highlights included Liam taking his first steps on his own (not sure I'd call it walking as he's not very steady, but I have it on video so you can decide for yourself. I'll try to get it uploaded tomorrow), him riding around on grandpa's shoulders, pulling all of the containers out of the cabinet with grandma, and pulling off his uncle's glasses over and over again.

Cruising - Backspin!!

While our 'lil Liam shows little interest in crawling in the traditional sense (he'll army crawl and wiggle on his belly... but it eventually results in whining and shouting), he IS particularly interested in cruising these days. One of his favorite things is to cruise around the inside of his crib. He has such a great time, babbling and walking about. Jon and I get a real kick out of something he's begun doing to handle the corners. I suppose they are tricky when you're 8 months old. We've dubbed the move "the backspin." He hasn't figured out its completely unnecessary yet. I've attached a video below.

Christmastime in the City

Christmas is just around the corner! We couldn't be more excited. Not only are we looking forward to celebrating Liam's first Christmas but we are also eagerly looking forward to a trip to Cincinnati. We haven't been to Ohio since mother's day weekend, so we are really excited about the trip. Liam hasn't been on a road trip like this since he was pretty little so we're not really sure what to expect. When he was little he slept through a lot of the trip, not sure we'll be that lucky this time. With so much to look forward to though, we aren't too hung up on the travel.

We're starting to get in the Christmas spirit! Last Saturday night we went down to the German Christmas market in Daley plaza downtown Chicago. We bundled Liam up and packed him in his stroller. Jon and I stuffed ourselves with yummy potato pancakes, bratwurst, and roasted almonds and pecans. It reminded me so much of our Christmas trip to Germany five years ago. ( I just ran the numbers and was shocked to discover it has been five years!!) Jon and I got engaged on that trip, so our fun evening at the Christmas market brought back all kinds of fun memories of exploring the real German Christmas markets together.

There were big crowds at the market so we headed a couple blocks over to the State Street Macy's store (once upon a time it was Marshall Fields). We got warmed up and took our picture with the beautiful Christmas tree. Liam, by this time, was almost asleep and you can see from the picture and his
resemblance to a sack of potatoes.