Happy New Year!

Our 2009 has been quite eventful! Here's a little slideshow of some of our memories from the year. Enjoy!

Thanks, Alicia (at Posie Gets Cozy), for your cute slideshow, which inspired me to make this one.

Splish, Splash, I was taking a bath...

Liam has discovered how to splash in his tub! Notice how we tried to cover his boy parts through most of the video...only one slip-up. Oops. Does that make this video inappropriate? I hope not.

Liam is 3 months old!

If you've consulted Liam's birthday ticker to the right of this post, then you will notice that Liam is now 3 months and 1 week old. That's right, I'm late. As usual. Raise your hand if you're surprised. Anyone? I didn't think so!

So, of course, I have a few pictures. They're just not that great. I have never been a good photographer. But now that I have the cutest subject ever, I am beyond disappointed in my skills. I really want to get a really nice camera. But here's the issue: I wouldn't know how to use it, anyway. Oh well. At least my kid is cute...really super-duper cute.

Wordless Wednesday - I met Pioneer Woman!

The Chronicles of a Working Mom, Week 1

Monday was my first day back at work after being out for 11 weeks. That's a long time to be gone. In many ways, it felt like starting all over. Luckily, I remembered all the kids' names, even though I had only been with them for 2 weeks. It was much easier than I thought it would be to get back into the swing of things. And it did help that the kids seemed genuinely glad to have me back. One kid came in the room one day this week and announced, "It is so wonderful to walk in this room and see Mrs. Peterson!" That, my friends, is how you successfully butter up a teacher. So, all in all, I think it was a really good week!

But there were some things that I just hadn't thought about or expected. For all you working moms out there, my hat is off to you. I had no idea what a tough job it is. First of all, there are just so many things on the to-do list and not so much time to do it all. Count in being completely exhausted after being at work and that equals a dirty house and lots of piled up laundry. Then, there's the fact that you have to be away from your child all day long! And for me, that was the worst part. I'm away from Liam all day, then he only stays awake for a few hours after I get home. That makes me really sad! I don't think that I really ever understood the extent of "mommy love" until Liam. It's intense!

With all those complaints, I have to say that I am also extremely lucky to have a wonderful husband, who is also a fantastic father. Kurt has been staying home with Liam all week. I think it was a bit of an adjustment for the first day or two, but he caught on really quickly! Somehow, he has morphed into Mr. SuperMom! When I come home in the afternoons, I'm shocked at what he accomplishes in a day. Yesterday, he even made my breakfast and my lunch. Am I spoiled, or what?! On Monday, Kurt will have to take Liam to the doctor for his 2 month check-up. Lots of moms would be worried about that, thinking that the dad wouldn't be able to answer all the questions, or deal with the crying, grumpy baby after he's had his shots. Not me. Kurt has got it under control! At least somebody around here does...haha

For your viewing pleasure, here is a video of Liam doing tummy time. He's 10 weeks old now. Can you believe it?!

Go Dawgs!

Who cares that today is Halloween?! Today is the Georgia/Florida game! We're rooting for the Dawgs. How 'bout you?

We're also going to be doing some eating today, because that's what we do when we watch football around here! Among other things, we're going to have MckMama's Texas Caviar and also a yummy Zaxby's chicken finger platter!

P.S. Is that not the cutest smile ever?!

Liam is 7 weeks old today!

Early Wordless Wednesday

Check out what I can do!

I think this is pretty crazy. One-month-olds are NOT supposed to roll over! This one is gonna be a mover and a shaker. Are we in trouble or what?!

Please ignore my annoying, encouraging remarks. I should have just shut up!

In case you're wondering, Kurt made a comment about "spanking the monkey."

Yeah, told you it was inappropriate. This is a family blog!

He IS a Peterson, alright!

Yes, that's my boob over there on the right. And yes, he is totally rubbing it while falling asleep. He is SO a Peterson male. Bless his little heart!

1 month old!

Here is Liam chillin' in his bouncer. Isn't he cute?!

Liam is 4 weeks old today!

Time flies when you're having fun! We can't believe that Liam is 4 weeks old. He'll be exactly one month on Sunday!

Liam is 3 weeks old today!

Can you believe that Liam is 2 weeks old!?

I finally had some minimal success taking pictures of Liam. It is so hard to take pictures of a squirmy newborn! Here he is in his personalized onesie on his zoo changing pad.

And look what happened to Liam this morning! His cord fell off! It has been barely hanging on for a few days now and we were ready to lose this thing!

How adorable is this?! Kurt sure does love his "Little Bear."

Get ready to laugh until you cry!

Papa D is one funny dude. I personally have watched this video about a thousand times. And every time I watch it, I laugh so hard that I cry! With family like this, I'm sure that Liam will turn out to be a very interesting little boy.

Settling in...

We got home from the hospital on Monday afternoon and we're all settling in. Liam has been eating, sleeping, pooping, peeing, and looking totally cute. Everybody else has been passing Liam around. And we've all been eating...a lot.

I haven't taken too many pictures since we've been home, so I tried to take a few yesterday. I'm going to create an album somewhere (maybe Facebook or Webshots or Flickr) with all the pictures that we have from the hospital. There are way too many to post here!

UPDATE! I made a rather large album on Facebook. Click here!

Liam Grant Peterson is here!

Liam Grant Peterson arrived at 9:08pm on September 4, 2009. He weighed 7 lbs, 5 oz. and was 20 inches long.

Here are some videos documenting labor and delivery.

Sorry if that was overload!

Bella Speaks

We've been working on teaching Bella to speak since she was really little. She picked it up really quick, and was even doing it without treats. But we haven't tried it in a long time. Kurt's friend Ryan was playing tug-of-war with Bella and he gave it shot. She did it like a pro! Is our girl smart, or what?!

Impatiently Waiting

I know. I'm the worst blogger ever. My only excuse was that school started. But now I can't even claim that since I'm banned from work. So I'm sorry. I thought that I would try to update everybody on the happenings around here, since it seems like a lot has been going on.

Before I go into anything pregnancy related, I want to share our new toy! This is it!

It is so neat! Kurt and I had been looking at this camera for a while. We knew that we wanted some (easy and small) way to record all the cute things that Liam will do. And we wanted it to be easy for us to post videos here for you all to see. For Kurt's birthday, Mom and Dad sent him a giftcard to BestBuy, which was originally supposed to be for a new car CD player. But Kurt took one for the team and we got this instead. Don't feel bad for him though, he was so excited. Giddy, even. And he loves it.

If you're interested in such things, we got it at BestBuy (obviously). It was $159.99. Because we ordered it online, with in-store pick-up, we also got a free tripod!

Another reason we just had to get this camera is because our beloved Bella just learned a new trick. Kurt was so proud of his hard work and wanted to show off! If you haven't seen it on Facebook or YouTube yet, then here it is!

Now, onto all the pregnancy updating. The trouble started during the first week of school. Apparently the stress and increased activity of it all caused my blood pressure to spike. I had no idea this was happening until I went to the doctor on Thursday, August 13th. My blood pressure was 160/80. My doctor and nurse kinda freaked out and were about to tell me that I couldn't go back to work. But I begged. Nothing was ready! I had tons of stuff to do. I told my doctor that I really needed to finish out the next week and then I would do whatever she said. She agreed, but made me promise that I would check my blood pressure and tell her if it got any higher. Yes, ma'm. I did check my blood pressure and it didn't seem to be getting higher. In fact, it was always lower than 160/80.

The next Thursday (the 20th), when I went to the doctor, I knew it wasn't going to be pretty. It wasn't. My blood pressure was even higher at 162/88. So my doctor said that I could go to work on Friday, to wrap things up. But after that, it was bedrest for me. At that appointment, we also found out that I was 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced. We were pretty excited that things seemed to be progressing. My doctor also told me, that because of my blood pressure, she would not let me go past 38 weeks. So I should be prepared for an induction, if Liam didn't decide to come on his own before then. Yikes!

After laying and sitting around all week long, I went back to the doctor yesterday. My blood pressure was still not good, even though it had been great when I checked it during the week. Also, nothing had really changed and I was still just 1 cm. Over the weekend, I have to do the 24-hour urine test and see the doctor again on Tuesday. At that point, we will see if things have progressed any, and decide when I'll be induced. At the latest, I'll be scheduled for Friday, Septmeber 4th.

That was the long story. The short story is that I'm still on bedrest and I'm still waiting...impatiently. I'm hoping that Liam will decide to come on his own and I won't have to be induced. But either way, he'll be here by next Friday! The wait will be over in a week or less!

P.S. I have no idea why the formatting on these last paragraphs is so wacky. I tried to fix it, but no luck. Sorry!