Liam's 1st Birthday!!-January 12th, 2010

I cannot believe my baby is 1!! What a sweet boy...such a lover. We had a low-key celebration with Jeremy, Jude, Liam and I. We had some cake and blew out some candles. We attempted to have Liam wear a birthday hat but that only lasted a few seconds. Then, he opened his 1 gift from us, some little drums. He loved that toy though! Enjoy the pics!

Playing Outside in Alaska...aka Tallahassee, FL

Christmas and beyond...

So, here it is February 27th already...geez how the time flies. The pics above are Liam's first Christmas and Jude's 3rd. Jude is so into opening presents now and he is so funny because he says, "WOAH!" every time he opens one. The only problem is that he keeps asking for more and that is somewhat embarrassing when there aren't anymore...we'll work on that. Since I las wrote, Liam got his most medial 4 top teeth in. So, now he has the bottom two and the top 4. His smile just cracks me up. Liam just started pulling himself up the other day. Last Sunday, the 21st, I was reading a book to Jude on the couch and Liam snuck up and pulled himself up. Yeah, he's a little behind but he's progressing so whatever. He's now at the point where he can take quite a few steps while holding onto my hands. He is finally taking whole milk instead of refusing milk altogether. He would never take formula and I had cut back to breastfeeding him to twice a day by the time he was 1 so he didn't gain very much weight. He was 19 lbs and at the 5th percentile when we went to the doctor's a couple of weeks ago so they were not happy with me. He is now drinking milk and he eats a ton so I am sure he's gaining more weight. He was in the 50th percentile for length and 95th for head circumference. He has quite a few words now: night night, pa-pa (for pacifier), ball, block, yum, dada, mama, cup, and the worst one...mine. Jude was playing on the floor the other day and Liam wanted to play with the same toy and Jude said, "No, mine!" and Liam screamed right back, "mine!" Jeremy and I just looked at each other...we can thank big brother for that lesson. I have been driving the mustang with both kids in it since Jeremy needed Moby in order to drive with his left leg so we turned Liam's car seat around already. Yes, it is 20 lbs and 1 year old but I am sure he's gained a pound in the past 3 weeks. Liam is still breastfeeding right before bed. I tried to get away with not doing it last night and he wasn't having it. Really it's not hurting anything so I didn't want to push the issue too hard. He's so funny though because whenever he is over tired he laughs at everything. He is the most pleasant, joyful baby. Every time I am around him I can't help but smile. I love to just cuddle with him and rock him in the rocking chair. I sure do miss him during the day...

Jude is such a character. He is just adorable and he is talking SO much. He's like a little person, you know?! He's finally catching on to the whole manners thing with saying please and thank you. He loves to do something for you and say thank you for you too. ;) I have been saying "Good morning Jude!" every morning that I come in and get him out of his crib so now whenever he sees me he says, Good morning Mama!" He loves to make Liam laugh. He will just start cracking up and look at Liam until he starts laughing and then they just keep laughing for no reason. I guess they really are my sons. ;) Jude is such a sweet boy. He loves to read Liam books. He doesn't like when I help though, he says, "No Mama, reading Liam a book." Recently Jude's favorite thing has been to play in his crabbie sandbox that Grandma and Grandpa Clifford got him. We bought him some beach toys and he will literally play in there for hours. He makes me and Liam get in there with him so it is a pretty packed crabbie. ;) Last night we took Jude and Liam to Chuck E Cheese's for the first time. He had so much fun! He has a more laid back, passive personality though so we had to make sure he actually got turns on the games. Then, today we took them to Zoinks funstation. I loved this place!! They have those big blow up bouncy things and some games and it was only $5 for each of them to play. there was a special area for Liam and he loved it. Jude had a blast and enjoyed playing with the other kids that were there. He also rode on a little miniature merry go round and he thought that was hilarious. He tried to get off at one point though and fell so that wasn't too fun. Jeremy has a video of the ride so maybe we will post it soon. I can't believe how much my boys are growing. They are such a joy to be around and I love watching them interact with each other. I love having them so close together in age even though it can be a lot of work sometimes.

In other news, Jeremy is now walking with a cane. That is an improvement from crutches, believe me. He has been doing physical therapy 3 times a week and that is helping but he still doesn't have full range of motion of his knee. He is able to drive with his right leg for short distances now though. Dr. Wong said that he has so much scar tissue built up that it is going to take a while to get back to normal. He also mentioned that he might not need a second surgery though because he doesn't have the instability that you usually get without an ACL. So, we'll see about that. I start my last required rotation of 4th year on Monday. I get to do another adult medicine rotation for 18 days straight. It makes me a little sick to my stomach to think about it but I am sure or atleast I hope the time will fly by. Then, I get 7 days off!! I will have to take a test at the end of that but passing is good for me at this point. I am so ready to be done. It takes a lot for me just to go to work everyday let alone to study anymore...I guess that's good ole' senioritis kicking it. The fact that every required rotation we have is heavily adult medicine focused doesn't make it any easier. Well, sorry for the novel but thanks for keeping up with the Wolter's!

Quick Update

Hello everyone! I thought I would send a quick update of the past month. We went down to Titusville for Christmas. Jude loved opening presents and he was actually pretty well behaved at my parent's house. He calls both my parents grandma though which is hilarious. My parent's new dog, Nova, and Eli did not get along and Eli ended up with some staples from a couple of bite marks. That same day Jeremy tore a ligament in his knee playing raquetball. I am the horrible wife who didn't have him go to the ER though and now he doesn't have an appt until Fri so we don't know what is wrong with it. He is still on crutches though and can't drive so I have had to take care of the kids by myself which has been quite a feat. Somehow I misplaced both of my white coats too so getting the kids ready for Donna's got even more interesting this morning. My grandma, mom and half sister came up his past week. I had a lot of fun seeing them even though I was a little stressed with not having Jeremy helping me. Liam enjoyed his first Christmas and he was able to somewhat open gifts too. He started getting his top two teeth (not the middle but the ones on either side) so he was a little fussy and even more of a Mama's boy. Well, I will post pictues of Christmas soon. Thanks to all of our friends and family for such wonderful gifts and for all the great times we spent together. I really wish we were closer to family.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Some Pictures of Jude's 2nd Birthday and Halloween for Your Viewing Pleasure

It's Been a Long Time...but We're Back!!

Hi everyone! I bet you wondered if we were ever going to update this thing again, huh? Well, I am going to try and summarize what happened in our lives between July 3rd and now...which will be quite a feat. So, here goes...
First of all, Liam celebrated his first 4th of July and Jude had a ton of fun playing in the water. It is so nice being able to play out in our own yard! (I mean, we are renting but for the time being it is ours, sored of) At this time I was finishing up psychiatry and moving onto ENT and general surgery. Third year was almost done! Liam was growing great, playing with toys, and eating a ton. They are both still loving it at their babysitter's and Jude asks to go there anytime we are in the car. ;)
Skipping a little ways to the end of third year...which was around the first week of September...I was finally in my 4th year of medical school! I made it through the whole time only having to pump for two weeks, the rest of the the time the doctors let me go to Donna's and actually feed Liam. It has been such a blessing. I can't believe how well things have worked out. Jude is talking so much and he cracks me up. I can't even tell you how many times my parents used to tell me that I wouldn't laugh at my kids when they were acting up like I laugh at Christopher but honestly, most of the time I can't contain myself. Even my kids are pretty funny to me. ;) He is starting that terrible two stage I've heard about all ready. It is really funny because since we have wood floors, whenever he wants to throw a tantrum he very slowly lowers himself to the ground and then flails all over the place. I can't help but laugh at that and then he usually laughs too.
Now, jumping ahead to Jude's birthday, we had a party for Jude! It was so fun. We had Dylan and Megin, Christy and Brice, Casey, Kelly, and Kat, and Emily over. Jude was so happy to have friends come over and play with him. He absolutely loved the balloons. They were a big hit with all the kids actually. He was wiped out by the time we opened presents though and his emotions were extremely volatile which was slightly embarrassing when everyone was watching him. But, he had tons of fun and the most classic thing was that once the last people left and we shut the front door Jude said, "Again".
Now for the present time...
Let's focus on Liam for a moment. Liam is now sitting up, going from sitting to crawling and back to sitting on his own, crawling (doing the military crawl), attempting to get on his hands and knees when he crawls, making tons of noises, transitioning out of baby food and into the real stuff, and entertaining himself with all kinds of toys, most notably tupperware. He is such a joy to be around, he is constantly smiling and happy. The funny thing is that he is EXTREMELY attached to me. He cries when I hand him off to Jeremy and everyone else. If he is being held by someone else, he cannot see me otherwise he will start crying again. It is so strange because Jude was not like that at all. Whenever I come to feed him at Donna's he immediately starts crying for me to feed him. Oh, and I have still been able to go feed him there everyday at lunch time. He is only breastfeeding 3-4 times a day now and really he could probably go without the 3rd and 4th feeding if he had to. He has started throwing a serious fit every time I put him in the car seat though. He stops once we are in the car but he tries to get out of there so quick I can hardly get his seatbelt on. Otherwise he is usually an angel. I drove back from Titusville with Liam and he was perfect the whole way. He also sleeps in the car unlike Jude. ;) Whenever we turn music on, Liam will dance, it is too cute!
Ok, so now more about Jude...he is talking away. He repeats everything we say. He has quite a few 3 and 4 word sentences and to us he is pretty understandable. ;) He loves his brother most of the time and he always gives him kisses and hugs. We are working on toy sharing though...
He has a recent love for Finding Nemo and will watch the whole movie if we let him. He also loves Winnie the Pooh. He is starting to get on his tricycle and push himself around although he hasn't figured out the pedals yet. He loves to run around and be tickled. He also really likes to dance. He reads about 1,000 books a day and sometimes it's the same ones over and over which mommy and daddy love. ;) Most of them I can read without looking at the pages but Jude doesn't let me get away with that. Jude is starting to help me clean things up and put his toys back without being told. Somedays are better than others. ;) He has a ritual of sleeping with three blankets, a "papa" (pacifier), and all his stuffed animals. One day we will break the papa thing...he only uses it when he sleeps so I guess that's better than nothing.
Jeremy is busy working on school stuff and finishing up another semester. I am in my 4th year and am currently on an interesting but laid back rotation which is really nice. I have been doing interviews for pediatric residency programs and I am tired of driving so much. I am ready for them to be over. I love this time of year when it is just getting cool and we have so much holiday and family time. We are celebrating Thanksgiving here this year because it is just so much easier with the kids. Well, hopefully I brought everyone up to speed. Love you guys!

Time Home with the Boys!

Jude with his "cool dude" sunglasses...he walks around saying cool dude whenever he wears them...

Liam demonstrating his superior head control skills and upper body strength.

Jude putting my breast pump parts over his eyes...he thinks this is hilarious!!

Liam somewhat eating his yummy sweet potatoes

Liam relaxing on the papasan chair...with his curly hair and all.

This week I have been able to stay home with the boys for a few days so I took advantage of it by having another Woltie photo shoot. ;) Liam is now on a good nap schedule so the days go really smoothly. Usually our routine is as follows:

1. Liam wakes up between 6 and 7

2. Jude wakes up around 7 but plays in his crib with all of his stuffed animals for about an hour

3. We all eat breakfast and play and then Liam goes down around 9:30

4. Jude and I play some more and then he goes down at around 12:30

5. Liam wakes up around 12:30, we play and he goes back down around 2:30

6. Jude gets up around 3 and we play some more

7. Liam gets up around 4:30 and we all have dinner, and of course, play some more!

As you can see, our day is pretty structured as far as naps go but that contributes heavily to the maintenance of sanity around here so it's a must. Liam is now eating 2-3 jars of food mixed with cereal a day and he is still breasting 5-7 times per day. I have been so blessed to be able to take my lunch break to go feed him and see Jude. Psychiatry has a good schedule, that's for sure. I have one more week of psych and then I start surgery...my last 3rd year rotation!!! I can't believe how fast it is going. Liam is getting so big, as you can see. Hopefully you can see his crazy hair in these pics. I love it though! Jude is into 2T clothing...where has my baby gone?! He says just about any word we saw which is so fun! He has an amazing amount of understanding about things too. He is really into coloring right now and he wants to color a good 50% of the day. He likes to count but basically only says "8,9" over and over. We are trying to get him to branch out a little bit. ;) He is eating with a fork and spoon now. He basically won't eat without them which is really cute. Liam is getting so big...I cannot believe it. He is in 6 month clothing now. He loves to kick his little chunky legs over and over. He also loves to talk and he is quite boisterous when he wants to be.

Jeremy is doing well...school is busy for him but he is surviving. I am doing fine, third year has been great and continues to be great. I am going to be doing a half marathon in Feb. for breast cancer awareness. I am really excited about it! I have a hard time exercising without a goal so now that I have one, I have a lot more motivation. We are slowly decorating the house still...every time I want to do more I feel guilty for not studying so it has been a slow process. We are in a weird period of our lives where many of our friends have left so we have been feeling that unfortunately. But, we are just enjoying each other and loving the time we have with our family. I know in a year I will be swamped with internship so I need to enjoy the time with Jeremy and the kids while I have it.