Baby Liam: 8 months old

Liam turned 8 months the day after Mother's Day! It definitely sneaked up on us because we've been telling everyone who asked that he was 7 months old when in reality he was closer to being 8 months old! This little bug had been learning to eat solids during our vacation to Hawaii. It was easier for us to give him a teeny bit of what we were eating than to give him baby food. We also started giving him baby puffs and he totally loved them.

Liam went on his first flight trip about 2 weeks ago. I was really stressed out about it the week leading up to the day of our trip because Liam loved to scream when he was tired and I had no idea what to expect. I was scared to attract stares from other passengers and feared that people would think that I was a useless mother who couldn't pacify her baby. But he did a lot better than I had anticipated. On our way to Hawaii, we had 2 layovers and 3 flights in total in one day! We flew from SLC to SFO, then from SFO to Honolulu. Our last flight of the day was from Honolulu to Hilo. We were SO tired by the time we got our rental car and drove to my friend, Julie's apartment. Like I said Liam did pretty well considering we were traveling all day long and he had maybe a total of 2 hour nap the whole day!

Liam is showing his personality more and more nowadays. He's a super curious baby. He just wants to touch everything. He also likes to put everything in his mouth. We tried countless times to stop him from eating sand on the beach but to no avail. He is also interested in everything he hears. He knows exactly which directions the sounds he hears come from. It was amazing to see how accurate he is! He is also a super sociable baby. He loves smiling at people. I guess that was why we attracted so many "Oh, he is so cute!" and praises like that when we were in Hawaii. He just smiled or grinned at people when they make eye-contact in the elevators, on the street, on the beach, and everywhere we went.

He's learning to stand up and he'd push himself up on anything. He likes to crawl up to us, use our thighs to push himself to a standing position. He loves doing this a lot and I think that he wants to practice this new skill any chance he got. Every morning I'd wake up seeing him standing in his crib watching us and waiting for us to go pick him up.

I love this little baby more and more each day! I wish so much that I could slow time down and that he'd stay little forever. It breaks my heart to think about when he becomes a teenager, leave the house for college, go on his mission, get married, and so on. I just don't want him to leave me, ever! Everyday I kiss him many many times because I know he won't stay little for much longer. I welcome the separation anxiety and enjoy the fact that he wants to hold on to me. I also pray every night that he knows how much his mommy and daddy love him.

I posted a lot of iphone photos of our Hawaii trip on FB, but here are some that I took with my DSLR that I didn't post. See how cute Liam was in all the pictures? I love him to bits!

On Hilton Resort Waikiki beach

He loves his daddy. 

Diamond Head crater in the backdrop

Playing hide and seek under the covers

Aloha!

China Man's head in the backdrop. He has sand in his mouth!

Scared by the waves, he crawled to his daddy for refuge.

At Sunset Beach

One thing I discovered while on the trip was Liam loved rubbing his face on our faces when he's tired.

Tongue out

I wuv my baby SO much!

Baby Liam : 7 months (so far so good)

We are two weeks into the month of April and it has already been a good month for us so far. First, it was General conference weekend. I learned a TON from the talks by many of the general authorities this time. I always feel edified and inspired to do something about my spirituality during the conference. There are some changes I want to make in my life after listening to some of the talks that really resonates with me.

We celebrated Mr.L's 27th birthday. My mother-in-law was nice enough to come up here to help babysit Liam while we went and flew a plane. It was a really neat experience. We each have a half hour with the flight instructor and flew the small 2-seated plane. It was like a crash course about how to take off, fly the plane, and descend into the airport. I enjoyed the introductory lesson and was so excited to fly the plane. It certainly was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I don't think I will do it again though. It was too complicated for me (reading all the meters, watching out for other planes in the sky, enjoying the view from up high, and being concerned about not nose-diving into the ground) and I had a little bit of motion sickness while I was mid air. But I am glad Mr.L liked it. 

Liam turned 7 months the day after Mr.L's birthday. He's hit so many milestones in the past couple of weeks. He is totally crawling on his own now. It was amazing to see him try over and over to get onto all fours and pushing himself forward. This baby is now crawling everywhere! We still have to baby-proof our apartment! His first tooth just cut through! It was so tiny and sharp! I think Liam really liked feeling it. He ran his hand through and used his tongue to feel it. Sometimes he'd sit on the floor, staring at a spot on the floor, and just move his jaw so his lips could feel his tooth. He's also getting separation anxiety. It isn't bad because I can still leave him alone sometimes and he'd still be happy playing by himself. But sometimes he gets worried when I leave the room. He'd start crying the second I walk out the door. He'd try to crawl out to find me. Sometimes even if I'm only 2 feet from him he'd whine and crawl up to my feet. It's like he just wants to sit by me and play right by me. It's so cute and funny to see! 

Spring is awesome.

4 years of bliss.

This is why I love my job. My students are SO SWEET!

My students from all around the world! 

I love this boy SO much!

Liam's first Easter

On Easter, we went to church, came home, went to Provo canyon for a walk, came home, took a nap, cooked Easter dinner, had Easter dinner with our bro and sis-in-law, went to the park, came home, got Liam ready for bed, and played Mario Party. I wish our Easter had been more Christ-centered, but all in all I thought it was a great first Easter for Liam. I love this little Easter bunny to bits!

A weekend getaway with little Liam

A week or so ago I had a few days off from work because most of my colleagues went to Texas for the TESOL conference. Since I knew it would be impossible for me to take Liam with me and I was too lazy to apply to present at the graduate student forum, I didn't get to go to the conference. So I pleaded with Mr.L to take us somewhere so we can stay in a hotel, go sight-seeing, and sleep in a king-sized bed for a couple of nights.

We went to Las Vegas. It's weird, I've been to Vegas many times when we were living in Toquerville, but I was still so excited to go! I guess I was excited because I got to "train" Liam to be a little world traveler. Even though it was a long drive to Vegas from Provo, Liam did really well in his car seat. I am sure he was SO sick of sitting in his car seat after traveling in it for pretty much the whole trip. But he was such a trooper.

We went to Golden Nugget's shark pool and slid through the aquarium. It was a little anti-climatic because I had expected it to be SO COOL and it was just okay. Mr.L and I both went down the slide once and that was it. It was too cold to go back up to the third floor and wait for your turn to go down the slide. It was, however, a unique experience. At first I was really scared to go down the slide because I hate sharks and seeing them up close and knowing that they were swimming around me just freaked me out a little. When I went down the slide, with all the water splashing in my face, and I couldn't really see a dang thing (well, I could still see some huge fish), I was a little disappointed. Everything went by too quickly! And I hate sharks!   Oh, so what was Liam doing while Mr.L and I were swimming in the pool? He was sitting by the pool in his little Prince Lionheart seat eating the straps of the seat. I thought we were genius for bringing the seat with us. Seriously, it's one of the best purchase.

The best thing about the trip was I get to eat some amazing food. We went and got Malaysian food the first night we were there. That makes me miss home SO MUCH! While in the restaurant, there were some Malaysians there, speaking English with Malaysian accent. I felt like I was home.

The second night we went and ate at a Korean Barbeque restaurant. I love Korean BBQ and I wish they have it here in Utah. The BBQ cow tongue is Teh BEST! Even though it was really good food, there was a bit too much meat for me. We got the all-you-can-eat dinner so there was unlimited supply of meat, meat, and meat!

We also went to Bellagio (my favorite hotel at Las Vegas strip) to see the Spring exhibit they have there. I am always amazed by the exhibits there. This is the third one I've been too and I just LOVE IT! I just wish there weren't so many people there though.

I've seen so many awesome pictures of this ghost town 40 minutes outside of Vegas, called Nelson/El Dorado. It was the most amazing ghost town I've seen so far (I've probably only been to two). There were SO many cacti! Love it. There were also a lot of rustic/vintage/old looking trucks there. The next time I go there, I need to hire a photographer to take our family pictures. I wanted to hire one this time but it was a little last minute to find a photographer whose style I like. As you can see from the pictures we took with self-timer, this place has really smooth, amazing light. I wish I had more than 1 hour to explore this place. Ah..next time. If you want to get your pictures taken there, LET ME KNOW!!! This place is magical!