Face to face

December 6, 2006

I turned the corner into the baby room at looked straight into the eyes of my son.


I held him for the first time.


He laughed.


He played with the first toys he would call his very own.


We sat for our first family photo.


Two years ago today, I saw my first son for the first time - face to face. I will never be the same.

Good fun.

Time flies. Upon our arrival home with Ben, a friend said to Rob, "The days are long but the years are short". That is so true. Our baby is getting to be a little boy. He is going to take off walking any day - already taking two steps unassisted. The past four months have flown by - perhaps in a fog of sleep deprivation - but flown none-the-less.

Liam loves loves loves the park. I see other babies sitting in strollers, eating crackers and watching the "big kids" play. Liam is crawling, sliding, climbing, swinging and attempting to eat dirt. He is having a blast. He does not want to be carried around. He wants to run with the big kids.




We had the pleasure of playing with Howie and his mom Stacy this last week. What fun. I can remember those first few months when the Ben and Howie would "parallel play" and Stacy and I were constantly saying "share". It feels like yesterday.




This blurry image shows just how fast they grow. Time flies.

Little Boys and Super Heros

I am not a Star Wars fan. Spider-Man, Batman, Super Man and even Wonder Woman never did much for me. But, when Ben decided Buzz was the hero for him - I jumped right on board. It is too much fun to watch your little boy discover the joys of make-believe. Soon after Ben first saw Toy Story, he realized that he has "buttons". Super hero powers that enabled him to move just a certain way, fly off his bed to "infinity and beyond", and of course, a laser. I fully support these buttons and even help "fix" them when they are broken. Rob found a toy Buzz Lightyear at a resale shop in town. It's perfect and Ben adores his very own Buzz. There was a brief moment when we had to explain that this Buzz was special and therefore was grey instead of white and came with a backpack instead of wings. In his easy-going way, Ben accepted that and Buzz became a full member of the family - often eating dinner with us at the table. I was not at all surprised when Ben announced he would be Buzz Lightyear for Halloween. And, when we asked Ben who Liam would be, the answer was simple - a cowboy named Woody.

Here is Ben in one of my all time favorite pictures - loving his very own Buzz. A little boy and his super hero. I love that.

Buzz in action! Rob found the perfect laser for Ben. In our pre-Halloween trick-or-treating, Ben was more interested in "lasering" people than actually trick-or-treating. Oh, and for the record Ben has had on his costume more than actual clothing this week. He understands that he can't sleep in costume (even Buzz wears pjs to sleep) but the second (and I do mean second) he wakes up - he is striping off his clothes and looking for his costume.

I dare say, that is the cutest cowboy I've ever seen. I think Liam actually likes being a sheriff. He has a hat to throw on the floor, a shiny star to chew on and lots of attention from on-lookers who can't get over how cute he is.

We did our early trick-or-treating with my nephew and niece. Riley was Link - from a computer game - I'm told. His mother said, "No one will know who you are". WRONG. We tricker-treated in the dorms at the college where Rob went and now works. All the college kids knew who he was and were very impressed with his costume - which his mother made - way to go, sis. Little sister, Maggie was an elephant - not the political kind - the very cute and sweet baby girl kind. And, this was the best picture we could get of all four. Oh well. We tried.

Two Great Dads. Not a great picture but major points for the dads that were trying so hard to help out the moms who are always looking for just the right photo. We had a great time with The Ninja - so adorable.

Finally, had to include this one of my little guys. Liam is sporting the pumpkin costume and Ben is in full Buzz form. I am the mommy in the background - so thankful to have these little heros in my life.

It's the Great Pumpkin

We had to take the pumpkins measurements first - a lesson Ben apparently learned at school. This great pumpkin measured 30 inches in diameter. Wow.

Rob was thrilled to see I had given Ben an ice pick to assist in the pumpkin decorating. He didn't get hurt but I did hide the pick when we got finished.

And, here's our Great Pumpkin - ears and all. The boys were so proud.

Here comes trouble

I left the room for maybe a minute and a half. When I came back I found Liam standing ON the fire truck. Grinning at me. Leaning over the gate. Laughing. HELLO - he is not even 10 months old yet.


Now this scene would not be possible without a big brother leaving the bag of cereal on a low table. But could the mess get any bigger? Sure - just add milk.


"I can do anything he can do." - I am pretty sure that will be Liam's first sentence.

Our future is so bright

We've gotta wear shades.

Gratitude

Liam gets me up most nights - at least three times - it can be as many as five or six. But, when he snuggles his little face in my neck and holds on so tight I am reminded how fortunate we are. We are holding our son. His sweetness fills our home. I am amazed and humbled by both my boys. How they became ours is a miracle beyond my understanding. In both cases, the adoptions of our boys went flawlessly. Certainly, it was hard. I cried - a lot. I thought it was unfair that we had to wait - that they had to wait. And, in fact, the waiting is long and unfair. But, then I see my boys faces. I smell their sweet scent. I hear their laughter and joy. And, I am grateful. So, so grateful.

Happy Birthday!

Ben has discovered his singing voice and I love it. He sings all the time now - Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Old Mac Donald, Row Row Row Your Boat, Little Bunny Foo Foo, Happy Birthday, and the list goes on. Here is a sample of his sweet voice. Of course, this is my favorite version of Happy Birthday. (The real celebration is in April but who cares - he can sing it year round if he wants.)

Swingers

Our boys love to swing. I think they could swing for hours. Ben is actually capable of swinging in a "big boy swing" but loves to be pushed and pretend like he is flying in the baby swing. The weather has been wonderful and we are enjoying being outside.

Liam is crawling all over the house - loving exploring new places. The bathroom doors are now closed all the time. Thanks to Beckett - we now have a way to keep Liam out of Ben's trains. Thank you, Beckett (and Jessica)! Peace is restored at our house.

Liam goes for a ride.

Here is my favorite video of my boys. I love Liam's laugh and Ben hee hawing around the house is too funny. Please ignore the large shark tent in the entryway and the piles of pictures (we are still getting settled in our new house). Thanks to Beckett for letting us borrow the awesome walker! We love it!

Two Months

August 19th marks two months since Liam joined our family! We are so amazed by him everyday. He is such a sweet baby. He is happy most of the time. He loves to play with toys - his own and his brothers. He can sit up on his own from a laying down position. He rocks on all fours and scoots all over. He can pull himself up to a standing position. (We lowered his bed this evening.) He loves the jumper and walker - he actually runs in the walker when he wants to get somewhere. He eats very well - just about everything I have given him but he does not like peaches. He has added four more teeth to the two he already had - giving him six teeth - the more to bite you with. He struggles with sleeping at night but his naps have gotten a lot better and he is on a good schedule (for the most part). He will be 8 months old on the 26th.

I call him Sweet Cheeks - sweet baby Liam.

The Big Three

Happy Birthday - My Big Boy! I can't believe Ben is three. He had a great birthday party at the new Jump Zone and afterwards we had our August family birthday party at our house. My nephew and sister share their birthday - August 4th, so we celebrate all the birthdays together. They all looked so cute in their party hats. Then we had Dance Party and the three birthday buddies put on quite a show. Ben was exhausted at the end of the night but he still had a hard time letting go of his balloons. It was a great day.

Ben - blowing out his birthday muffin candles!


Riley, Ben and Amy (that's Mamy to Ben) share three candles - one for each of them.



Dance Party



The party is over.

Guess Who's Three?

Rainy Day

It rained here yesterday! It's been so hot that we haven't played outside much. Ben was so excited to see the rain - he grabbed his rain coat and boots and headed outside. He didn't last long but it was very refreshing. Especially since all he had under neither his coat was his underwear. (That's big boy underwear!)


Liam is also wearing big boy underwear - over his diaper that is. I couldn't resist - since I think Ben is so cute in his underwear - I had to try some on Liam, too! I think this will become a regular "outfit" at our house.

Happy Birthday Rie Rie

My nephew, Riley, turned 9 on Monday. It's hard to believe that 9 years have passed since we first saw his precious face. He was born on his mother's birthday (that's my sister, Amy - Happy Birthday to you too, sister). I am so grateful that we live in the same town and I have the opportunity to watch him grow. I am very proud of the wonderful young man he is becoming. I am especially proud of how great a "big cousin" and big brother (he has a new baby sister) he has become over the last year and a half. He is definitely the one all the little kids will look up to. Ben adores his Rie Rie. We have regular "dance parties" at our house and Riley participated recently. I caught this picture of Ben following him around and trying to imitate all his moves.
Happy Birthday, Riley! We love you!

Wednesday, August 2, 2006

The day that changed us forever. August 2nd, we got The Call. I was at work when our social worker, Kimberly, called me. Right away she said, "I have a baby boy to tell you about". It was all I could do to maintain calm. I work with my family and I wanted Rob to be the first to know about our son so I had to get off the phone and make up an excuse to leave the store. It took about ten minutes to locate Rob who was on his lunch hour and running errands around town. Once I reached him, we agreed to meet at our house to call Kimberly back. She told us everything she knew about our little boy and then emailed us the details and his picture. We promised not to look at the picture until we had read through his documents and knew for sure he was meant for us.

It didn't take us long to read the documents and know this child would be our son. So, we opened the email with his photo and saw his beautiful face for the first time - our Baby Ben.

Two Boys

"Two Boys" - That's what Ben says when one of us is holding Liam and he wants to be held too. It melts my heart. I love my two boys.


Life at our house is starting to fall into a routine. It's a slow process with ups and downs but we are making our way. Ben is a great big brother. He is very sweet to bring Liam his toys and he loves to "help" when Liam wakes up from a nap. We are still working on being "quiet as a mouse" but Ben is starting to catch on to WHY we want to be quiet as a mouse. Of course, the best times of the day are when both boys are up and happy. Liam absolutely adores Ben. Right now he just follows him around with his eyes. Ben better watch out - Liam is already up on all fours and rocking. It won't be long before he is really following him around.



We are the fortunate recipient of not one but two double strollers. It is super hot right now so we take our walks first thing in the morning or just before bedtime.

Here We Go

We are off on a whole new journey - it's called - family of four.

Since I don't post much anyway, there in no point in pretending like I will keep up with two separate blogs - one for each of our boys. So, from now on, I will (attempt to) post here the happenings of our two little wonder boys. The blogs journaling our travels to Vietnam will remain up but I am not planning to post to them anymore. We appreciate all the comments that have been posted on our blogs. I have printed the comments for each of the boys books. If you haven't had a chance to view our travels, you can check them out by clicking on the boys pictures to the right.

Check back in every now and then for the adventures of The Brothers O'Connor.

Thanks for all the love.