. . . Liam lately (17 months)

My sweet boy is only a month away from being a year and a half old -- where has the time gone?! Seventeen months hasn't been that different than 16 months, but here goes nothin' . . .

Merry Christmas!

Liam loves Mexican food!

Still no stats -- just a running, growing, crazy boy who makes me laugh every day! It's funny to see him next to his friends because although he is younger by at least 5 months (and up to 10 months) from the kids he hangs with the most, he definitely holds his own and is even taller and weighs more than a few of them!

His eating habits have stayed the same -- three full meals at 9 am, 12 pm, and 6 pm, and a snack around 4 pm after his nap. He eats what we do, and has done a great job feeding himself with a fork. The spoon is a little tougher because he hasn't quite mastered scooping, but he's working on it! It can just be a little messy at times. : ) His favorite fruit is still grapes and he loves roasted carrots.

Liam lately . . . (16 months)

Liam turned 16 months old while we were in Georgia for Christmas, and it's amazing the things he was doing while we were there. I know I say it every month, but it is SO cool to watch him grow and learn new things!

At a playground by the Charles Bridge in Prague

home for the holidays . . .

After a busy November, the time finally came for our month-long trip home to Atlanta. We were a little nervous about how the plane trip would go considering how awful it was when we traveled in August! This time however we booked Liam his own seat and brought on his carseat. I also bought Liam some new toys and wrapped them up so that Liam had something new to unwrap throughout the flight when he was getting antsy. These two things SAVED our trip. Liam was a dream during the whole flight! I think having him in his carseat tricked him into thinking he had to stay in it. He only got up twice during the flight to walk around and play in the back with the flight attendants (who loved him of course). Amazingly, he took a one-hour nap at the very beginning of the flight, and was awake for the next eight hours -- no joke. And he STILL was awesome.

However, that lack of sleep came back to bite us . . . we flew in the same night as a birthday dinner for my mom's 50th and we literally went straight to dinner from the airport. We all looked awful and Liam was a pill during most of dinner. He finally started to warm up when we put him and Bailey next to each other -- they kept each other entertained and Bailey would not stop trying to kiss and hug him! She was so excited to see her cousin!

Since I am just now taking time to write this all down, it is amazing how quickly the month flew by! We had play dates with friends, Santa sightings, lots of shopping, road trip to Alabama, a baby shower . . . the list goes on and on! We were also so happy to witness my brother getting married the week after we arrived, and then go to my cousin's wedding right before Christmas. There were so many awesome things to celebrate while we were there!

So here is a picture dump of our time with a few comments here and there . . .

Ruxi's painting

Living in the Netherlands has introduced us to so many incredible people. One of my friends, Ruxi, is a very talented artist and I have admired her work for some time now. I discussed having her paint something for us and Keith and I were able to pick out what we were looking for. In downtown Eindhoven there is an old Philips lighting warehouse called the White Dame (Witte Dam) that now has a restaurant in the bottom of it (Usine, which happens to be one of my favorite places to eat in Eindhoven). Keith has always loved that building, so it seemed natural to choose that location -- it is Philips that brought us here, and we "lived" downtown (in a hotel) when we first moved here, passing that building every day. Ruxi chose a view of the building that also captures the more modern part of the city -- a huge store called the Blob that sits across the street from the White Dame. It is the quintessential mix of old and new, blending the history of Eindhoven in one scene. She also painted the street that passes between them, all in her rich, gorgeous colors that match perfectly with our style and decor. In the painting the White Dame isn't actually white (though it is in person) . . . it's the big red building on the right, with the Blob in white and orange on the left. Below the White Dame are the umbrellas that sit out in front of Usine, and the street that curves around the corner. We couldn't have been more happy with our first work of real art -- HUGE thanks to Ruxi for capturing perfectly the feel we were looking for. I absolutely love it!

Surprise!

After our weekend in Prague we had a pretty low-key week, but I was really looking forward to a fun weekend. On my actual birthday I was suprised with flowers from my parents and from Keith -- all beautiful that Liam LOVED to smell all week!

Prague!

As our time in Europe is dwindling down, Keith and I have been trying to cross cities off our "must-visit" list. My 30th birthday seemed like the perfect excuse to do just that! We decided to go to Prague for a long weekend and were lucky enough to have our good friends Lindsey, Josh, and Jackson join us! Keith and I spent Friday afternoon to (early!) Monday morning there, and our friends came Saturday to Sunday.

When we first got to our hotel on Friday we did a little exploring and found somewhere to eat lunch. Lucky for us Keith's boss is Czech and was very familiar with downtown Prague, where we were staying. All we had to do was send him a text to say where we were and ask for a recommendation and voila! It was done. So our first restaurant recommendation was for a tiny little restaurant around the corner from our hotel where Keith and I got some savory crepes. Luckily they were between services so the place was pretty empty, but otherwise it would have been hard with a toddler -- not a lot of space and no baby chairs!

Afterwards we began to wander and found ourselves downtown on the main strip. Let me say now that because of where Prague is located, the sun sets extremely early -- so when we were walking around at 4:30 pm it looked like it could have been 10:30 pm! I actually didn't mind it for two reasons: first, Prague is beautifully lit up at night, and second, I actually felt like a real adult who goes out in the evenings! Haha! Seriously though, I can't remember the last time we were out all "night" with Liam. So it was nice to enjoy the night (or five o'clock, whatever) without worrying about bath and bedtime just yet.