Flanagan Clan

Where Did My Baby Go???

January 18th, 2010

On Friday my Liam will be turning 6 months old. I have to be honest, I have no idea where the past half year went! I’ve been trying to soak in Liam’s babyhood as much as I can, and now I’m realizing that he’s not a newborn anymore. Developmentally, he’s not quite rolling over yet (he can roll onto his side, but he hates being on his tummy!) and we’re not sitting up yet, either. The other boys did roll before this, but none of them really started sitting until they were around 7 months either.

I’ve been slowly trying to introduce him to solid foods. The first time I fed him, he seemed interested, but the last two attempts haven’t been as successful. For the first time, I’m trying to make my own baby food. I purchased a mini-food processor and mini rice cooker in order to make the process easier, and it’s been very convenient to stick a few pieces of fruit in the steamer insert of the rice cooker and let it go for half an hour before dumping it in the processor and beating it to a pulp. Plus, it’s a lot easier to clean up after this process than if I was using our full-sized food processor and rice cooker!

I had really wanted to get a Beaba Babycook, which does the steaming and pureeing all in one step, but those contraptions run about $150, and I was able to get these two items for less than half that price! They might not be quite as convenient, but they are working pretty well for us!

Some of Liam’s food- homemade applesauce and rice cereal

Sitting in the high chair, ready for his meal

What he did with his meal

This face pretty much tells you how he felt about the food I made him!

He is more happy biting his fingers and sucking his thumb. On Saturday night I realized that he’s been sucking his left thumb so hard that it had started to peel and bleed. I tried to give the thumb a break by putting a little mitten on that hand and giving him a paci instead and he was MAD!!!! He refused the paci, he wouldn’t fall asleep, and after a minute of angry cries he started to actively arch his back and throw his first tantrum!!!! I tried nursing him to sleep, and finally he went down, mitty still on, but in the morning, well, mitty was gone! He’s a smart kid…

Pajama day with Mommy (Thanks, Mom Flanagan, for the new PJ’s! I love them!!!)

Liam absolutely loves our Moby Wrap. At church and whenever we go places, I always carry him in this. He loves it and it keeps him calm and happy. Sometimes he let him face out so he can see everything around him, and he loves that too. I wish I had purchased one of these when Patrick was a baby!

And, some pictures of the other boys!!!

The boys and I at the Conservatory at Wright Park in Tacoma

Lion at Wright Park- can you believe that I’ve lived in the area since I was 11, and up until last week I had never been to that park?

A Saturday with boys at the park 🙂

Posted by Andrew Flanagan | Comments (2)

Still Busy

January 8th, 2010

Well, Rachel was married 6 days ago, and yet I am still trying to catch up in the aftermath of her wedding. I guess it doesn’t help that I’m sort of trying to a really thorough early spring cleaning as I catch up on the housework, so things are taking a lot longer to get done than they might normally take. I’ve been devoting at least an hour each day to an different special task, in the hopes that I won’t burn myself out with the spring cleaning too quickly. Today the task I had in hand was to wash the walls on our staircase. You see, the boys will sometimes get away from me with sticky hands after they eat, and over time there have appeared many little dirty hand prints on the walls all the way up the stairs. So, today I cleaned everything off, and it’s amazing what a difference that little task did to our staircase! So, I’ll probably take a break from this new cleaning method for Saturday and Sunday, but I should be back on track on Monday morning and trying to get this house back to a happy, clean state 🙂

So… I’m sure some of you are wondering about the wedding. It went pretty well. Rachel made a beautiful bride, and I’m really happy for her and Alex. The wedding went pretty well. It was definitely a lot different from mine, but Rachel got what she wanted and I think that’s what is most important.

The boys have been doing pretty well. Liam has been such a sweet little baby lately. He’s absolutely adorable and I have a hard time getting anything done when he’s acts so cute and smiley. Ethan’s been starting to say more words- he’s definitely been one of the more shy of the boys, but he’s coming around. Sammy is also exploding in his vocabulary, and he’s starting to ask “how” for everything! Patrick is doing really well, too- he’s always been the responsible big brother who looks out for the younger ones, and he’s becoming more and more helpful around the house.

Here are a few pictures, as promised:

Rachel was trying on her dress at my house so I could hem it, and she left her petticoat in Liam’s room. Sammy found it and came down the stairs wearing it, proclaiming that he was getting married. Yeah, he’s a little confused, but it was awfully funny!!!

Sneak peak at the flower girl dress that I made. Hannah Scott, our pastor’s 6 year old daughter, was the flower girl and Patrick and Sammy were the ring bearers. They were both quite positive that one day they would marry Hannah!