A Little Bit of Liam

This time I have a really good excuse for not blogging in awhile. We lost our camera. Very, very sad. We looked everywhere we could think of for weeks and finally bit the bullet and bought a new one. I couldn't wait for it to turn up with a baby on the way!

Speaking of baby on the way, we have two and a half weeks left until the official due date, August 8, and it couldn't come any sooner! I am ready to meet this little boy and have him outside of my body. It has been hard to not be able to play with Liam much or run around or even enjoy the short heat wave we had. But Liam has been glowing under the care of his daddy. Edwin has been spending a lot of time with him lately and he has definitely become daddy's little man.

Edwin's mom, Evie (or Nana to Liam), came out for a week to spend some time with Liam and to help me out some, in early July. Liam and I were devastated when she left! He loved all the attention and I loved all the help. Unfortunately for her she came right during our heat wave and she doesn't really enjoy the heat. Especially in our home without A/C. A few the thermostat was reading in the 90's! But it was a great opportunity to break out the kiddie pool and sprinkler. Liam LOVED them!

I love this picture. Edwin is so much fun sometimes. He came out to play with us and Liam wasn't too sure about getting in the pool yet. So Edwin, fully clothed, just gets in and sits down! Liam hopped right in and started to play with daddy. I would have gotten in too, but there wasn't much room left. OK, that's a lie. I had absolutely no intention of sitting in Liam's tiny pool.

The kids having fun...

I had to add this picture for a few reasons. One, Liam is just so cute when he sleeps. He was so hot last night, poor little guy, but he just laid there for about a half hour staring at the ceiling holding on to his three animals. I went in and took the picture when he finally fell asleep. Two, it was pitch dark in is room and I used the night portrait function on my camera. I was impressed with how the picture came out. It looks like the middle of the day!

Finally, of most importance to Liam right now are the ABC's. He is truly obsessed with them. He can identify all 26 capital letters easily now. And he loves to play with his magnetic letters. He will stand at the fridge of 30 to 45 minutes just naming letters and moving them around into different patterns. Genius right? Smart and artistic! He calls out letters on signs and in books and repeatedly chants throughout the day, "ABC, ABC, ABC". Here is a little video of his fridge time. I just love my soon to be eldest son!

Annual Trip to Chelan

Last Year we had so much fun in Chelan with our friends Renee and Mark, that we decided to make it an annual event! The benefits are many, including but not limited to the fact that the weather is much better east of the mountains and we like the heat, we have kids the same age, we like to do similar activities and every family should have an annual trip, right? So this is ours! Someday when the kids are a little older we might switch it up to things like Disneyland or camping, but for now a nice condo with a pool will do just fine.

Renee and Mark have a son, Merritt, just 2 1/2 months older than Liam and a daughter, Morgan, who is 6 months old now and will be just 8 months older than our baby on the way. Much to my disappointment I didn't get any pictures of Morgan, who is one of the cutest babies you will ever see (mainly due to the fact that she never, and I mean NEVER, stops smiling). I guess that just proves that we were having way too much fun to stop and take pictures!

We drove over separately now that we don't all fit in one car. But that turned out to be a good thing because Liam had been sick for a week before we left so he was just MISERABLE to ride in the car with! I was so glad to get to the condo that afternoon and put him down for a few moments of peace. We spent the rest of the day just relaxing and playing in the great yard outside our back door.

The following morning we made our annual trip to Blueberry Hills for some amazing breakfast! Even the kids love it. Note: Morgan is actually real, and we didn't leave her at the condo. She is sleeping on the floor in her car seat.

The rest of the trip consisted of more eating (isn't that what your supposed to do on vacation?), some pool time, beach time, a whole lot of play time, some hot tub time, and even some world cup soccer.

As always, Liam would much rather play with a ball than pretty much anything else.

The boys loved the beach and spent a ton of time playing in the sand.

And then, just like that, the trip ends and you wonder if someone has fast forwarded your life just for the length of your vacation. How do they always go so fast? Liam did much better on the car ride home, but the last hour seemed like an eternity for all of us! Let me just say that toddlers and road trips do NOT mix well. Pregnancy and road trips don't mix all that well either.

Another Month Gone By, Already?

Why does it seem like April and May went by without my knowledge? And what is more strange is that they can't have flown by because this pregnancy is dragging on and on. I feel like I have been pregnant for over a year as opposed to 7 months! So, somehow the time flew by but it also stood still.

I meant to blog earlier this month but Edwin erased my pictures from the camera. Don't be too upset for me, he managed to get them on his computer first without knowing they were there. So my pictures are on they busiest guy on earth's computer and I have little hope they will ever make it to mine. I was going to tell you that Liam got out of his crib for the first time! I had picture evidence of the giant goose egg on his forehead. We decided to wait before transitioning him out of his crib to see if there would be a repeat performance and there hasn't been. Lucky us, because I am so not ready to play the "get back in your bed" game. Soon, just not quite yet, please!

Mid may Edwin went back down to Guatemala so Liam and I packed up our stuff and headed for Bopa's house (Liam's name for Grandpa AND Grandma). I introduced Liam to bubbles and they are a new fascination for him. He gets so excited and screams and jumps up and down and chases them around. But he refuses to be in control of the bubble gun I use. He will not touch it. That doesn't seem very kid like to me, but maybe it takes all of the magic out when he has to do the work! So we took the bubble gun to Bopa's house and spent a lot of time playing outside.

Liam has a ton of new words and is trying new things every day. He has started to sing a little bit, loves to do the motions to children's songs, can say the letters A through G when prompted, and he has started counting but only likes to say two and four. He can say one and three, but prefers not to most of the time. I took this picture on the count of two because he gets so tickled every time he says two.

Liam started saying thank you, unprompted, at the appropriate times (what a lovely child I am raising). He is comfortable putting his face in the bath water and blowing bubbles. I have some videos but am too lazy to download them. He sits and plays with legos for long periods of time, loves to be outside, mainly playing with rocks, loves to eat and can't wait for snack time, and still loves books. He spends so much time sitting in his room reading! Edwin and I are starting to feel fear for what our next child will be like since this one is so mellow most of the time.

The baby in the belly is doing well and growing as he should be. He kicks all of the time and really hard too. I am starting to wonder if he ever sleeps! I think he is going to be a little more like his daddy. Energy abounds with the Martinez men, so Lord help me! 10 more weeks to go to carry this baby full term. 4 1/2 if he has a mind of his own like Liam did! But the doctors are monitoring me fairly closely so hopefully we would be a little more prepared this time. We are praying to carry him to full term and that he won't be as big as Liam was. If you don't remember, Liam was already 6 lbs 10 oz, nearly six weeks early!

Mixing and Matching

Oh, blogging. The desire is there in my heart, but I am finding it harder and harder to get it done! So, once again, I will just throw a bunch of stuff into one post. Note to self: take more pictures. I am going whole entire months now without snapping any photos! Maybe if I had more photos I would blog more? Probably not.

So, lets see...March flew by and definitely had its fabulous moments! Mid month we found out we are having another little boy. Two boys? Wait, four boys including Edwin and the cat. I guess I won't have to fight for the bathroom. We're very excited and hoping and praying that our boys will be the best of friends. I specifically am praying that they eventually meet women who won't steal them away, but want to be a part of our side of the family too! Someone is going to have to remember my birthday and mother's day, to call home and visit often. You know how boys are. I think my worries are valid!

A few days later, one of my best friends had her little boy, Elliot Dean. He came out absolutely perfect! Kristen and I spend a lot of time together so it will be fun to have boys the same age.

Grandma and Grandpa came over for an early Easter visit and surprised Liam with a wagon from the Easter bunny. He doesn't quite get it yet, but I am sure it will be a constant source of entertainment for both boys in due time.

The next weekend Edwin, Liam and I flew down to Dallas to visit Liam's great grandma Margaret, my cousin Laura and her family and my dear friend Christie. Would you believe we didn't take one picture the whole time we were there? Shameful. But we had a great time. Christie has a little dog at her place and Liam was in heaven. What a patient little dog she was!

And heading into April, Nana came to visit for a week. It was so fun to have her with us! I was really grateful for the time she and Liam could have getting to know each other better. No pictures of that either. Ridiculous! Then, we celebrated Easter with my other best friend Renee and her family. They joined us at our house for some prime rib and a mini-easter egg hunt. Liam developed a nasty cold that morning so he wasn't feeling too jaunty. Neither one of the boys really got into the spirit of hunting eggs, but both couldn't have been happier to be outside. I am learning quickly that Liam doesn't need any source of entertainment as long as he is outside! That should come in handy for me as the weather improves. Renee put some little crackers in the eggs and that was really the only draw to pick them up. Otherwise they walked right by them in favor of the puddles.

And for those of you who would like to know what Liam is up too lately, I'll give a brief update. Liam is saying a ton of words and starting to string more than one together. But his most frequent word is "fish". We haven't figured out why, but almost everything he points at is a fish. I expect that someday we will get to the bottom of it. We are constantly correcting him and telling him the actual word for what he is pointing at, but he insists over and over that it is a fish. He has figured out how to hook certain types of buckles and will stand there playing with them for 20 minutes straight. The only negative to that one is that I have to come over and unhook the buckles every minute. He is repeating nearly everything we say and do, finding humor in things all by himself, loves to dance and snuggle, likes to read books by himself in his big rocking chair, can open any kind of door and nearly every lock, thinks laundry is a ton of fun, has no trouble saying goodbye to us when we leave him with other people, and is getting more interested in mine and Edwin's things. He put on my slippers all by himself and was so proud!

We are having so much fun as Liam's parents. I can't even imagine what it will be like to have two little boys! I am excited and terrified all at the same time. I guess that is probably natural.

Olympic Fever

Saturday Edwin and I got to attend the 2010 Olympic Games! Our friends, Aaron and Sara, invited us as well as some other friends of ours to go see the Women's Ariel Ski Jumping. We had an amazing time! Grandma Nancy came up Friday to spend the night and watch Liam all day Saturday so that we could go. She claims that she had more fun than us, hanging out with our little man. I don't know about that, but we felt pretty blessed to have her here.

We left at about 5:00 AM Saturday morning to meet up with everyone and start driving up to Canada. We took a shuttle from Simon Frazier University in Vancouver up to Cypress Mt. where the event was held, arriving about 8:30 AM. Once we got to Cypress it was all fun and games! Here are some pictures of our adventure.

These are our official Olympic tickets with the ski hill in the background

This is our friend, Natalie, sporting our colors

This is where we stood for the entire event. We were so blessed that the weather was gorgeous. I can't imagine what our experience would have been like in the rain or snow.

After the event we took the shuttle back to the U and then headed into Vancouver to see the Olympic village and all of the hoopla going on downtown. We found out that we had to be invited into the village by a delegate, so we went with the rest of the commoners to see all of the international houses, the open food markets and general madness all over the streets of Vancouver. The city looked beautiful.

These are some of the videos Edwin took with our picture camera, so it is not the best quality. But you can see a little of what it was like to be there. I cut together several clips and they move somewhat quickly, so don't blink or you might miss the jumps! But I am sure they looked a lot better on TV! Also on the reader board you will see the best jumper of the day was Nina. No surprise there.

The whole day was amazing. I never in my life thought I would attend an Olympic event of any kind and the Ariel Ski Jumping was a really fun event to see! Also, Edwin and I haven't had much time lately to play without caring for Liam at the same time. It felt like good old times. We had amazing weather, great friends, tons of food, and got caught up in the Olympic fever for a day. It was a day I won't soon forget!

Happy Anniversary, Edwin

To My Best Friend,

I can't believe we've been married 9 years already! The time has flown by, and it's been a wild 9 years. Some have been tough, some miraculous, some peaceful, but all of them wonderful in one way or another. I am so thankful that you picked me to spend your life with. I can't imagine being with anyone else. And because we're together, the world now has this incredible little person, Liam, and another one on the way! God has been good to us and I am looking forward to what He has for us in the years to come.

Here are a few pictures of our 9 years together (beginning after we got a digital camera). I don't have any yet for 2010, but I am sure there will be many with the little gummy bear due in August. I love you, Edwin!

2009 - Liam's 1st Birthday

2009 - Victoria

2009 - Guatemala

2008 - Now it's the three of us

2008 - Liam is born

2008 - Leavenworth

2007 - Boston

2006 - Canlis

2005 - Anniversary in Vegas

2004 - Argentina

2003 - Rio Dulce

2001 and 2002 were pre-digital, but remember that one in '02 in the Disneyland parking lot? And I would have picked a lovely wedding picture for 2001. You'll have to use your imagination because I was too tired to try and scan those pictures in!

Laughs at Lunch

Liam really had the giggles at lunch today. Just about everything was making him laugh. So I decided to grab the camera (something I have done very little of lately).