Cousins!

Liam and his cousin K, a beautiful baby girl, on family dinner night. So nice to have a small baby in the house again, even for a brief visit. Liam was fascinated -- see how Will's dad is having to hold Liam's hands back from touching (grabbing) the baby. He really wanted to see what she was all about!

Traveling

I'm traveling for work this week -- all week. We're lucky that I have a good job, and we get a lot of help from our parents taking care of Liam while I'm working, but it's crummy to have to travel. On the bright side, I've finally given in and begun to use one of those rolling suitcases. What a difference. I always, always carry too much work stuff -- papers I think I might want to read, computer, extra battery, etc., etc.. So much better to be dragging my rolling suitcase instead of carrying my (way too heavy) work bag AND another bag. I got my rolling suitcase second hand from my mother. Thanks mom!

I've been having airplane woes lately -- late flights, delayed flights, you know how it goes. Also more frightening stuff. One small plane hit a bird a few months ago and had to return home and land (I missed that meeting). A big plan I was on last month had to do a "go around" on landing (which means some kind of really steep take off just when you thought you were going to---finally---be on the ground) because there was already a plane on the runway it was meant to land on. Last nights' little plane took the strangest route I've ever seen to this place (I'm in Eastern Washington) and then went over and all around the little airport and then turned and turned and finally went in for a bumpy landing. (Maybe they had to go to the other side because of wind, but it didn't seem that windy.)

Family Dinner

Liam didn't eat the whole thing all by himself, but he wanted to. We were blessed and lucky to have (almost) Will's entire immediate family to dinner: his mother and father, sister and her daughter. Only his brother-in-law couldn't make it. And, my parents were here too (that's my mother feeding Liam). The best thing we ate was grilled vegetable salad (first bowl).

Here's how it goes. First, all the prep: (1) Cook about 8 oz of orzo pasta. Drain well, rinse, toss with about a tablespoon of olive oil and set aside. (2) Slice up 1 or 2 zucchini or summer squash and 1 or 2 red or yellow peppers. You're going to grill them and then chop them, so plan accordingly when you slice. Set aside. (3) Chop up 1 or 2 tomatoes, the best you can find. I also seed them, which helps the salad not be too wet. Set aside. (4) Clean about 1 pound of shrimp (you're going to grill these too). Set aside. (5) Chop up about 8 oz of whole milk fresh mozzarella. I bet other cheeses would be good too, but I haven't tried any yet. I'm thinking a lightly smoked cheese would be good ,or a manchego cheese crumbled. Set the chopped up cheese aside. Make the dressing, mix up: at least 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, 3-4 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, and 3 tablespoons store bought basil pesto. That's it for the prep.

Now, cook. (1) Mix the shrimp with 2 or 3 tablespoons of the dressing and set aside. You want them to marinate for 3o minutes or so, not much longer because the lime juice will start to cook them. (2) Heat the grill. (3) Brush the peppers and zucchini slices with some of the dressing. (4) Grill the peppers and zucchini and the shrimp.

Finally, assemble. (1) Chop up the grilled veg. Mix them and the grilled shrimp with the orzo pasta you cooked before. (2) Add the tomatoes and the cheese and about 1/4 cup (or more if you like it) chopped up fresh basil. (I roll up the leaves and cut it into thin ribbons, which I must have seen on TV or something.) (3) Add the rest of the dressing. Mix it all up well. That's it.

You can make this up 2 hours or so ahead of time, maybe more (although I haven't tried that). Keep it cold if it is going to sit around too long, serve at room temperature. We love this because it really tastes good and it's pretty much all cooked -- Will isn't supposed to eat too many uncooked vegetables because of the anti-rejection, immune suppression medication he takes. I got this recipe from Bon Appetite magazine, I think the May or June issue from this year; I think it's the first recipe from them I've really liked in a long time.

Best of all, Liam was so tired after all that playing and eating that he when straight to sleep, no fuss at all. Hope you all are having many joyful family dinners this summer.

Liam's Lovey

We are desperately auditioning a "lovey" for Liam. A lovey, apparently, is some soft thing that a baby takes to and it will help him or her fall to sleep. We're keenly interested in Liam sleeping better and all the baby sleep books I've read (and there have been many over the past year) say some version of "a lovey will help any child sleep better." Sounds great. So far, Liam hasn't quite taken to the whole concept. To the extent he's interested at all he has, of course, rejected the super-safe knitted lovey-fuzzy-bunny thing in favor of "soft doggie" the flip-floppy stuffed animal with the dangerous choking hazard plastic nose and eyes. I've seen Liam chew on them more than once.

We've got to figure something out. Liam's bedtime routine leaves a lot to be desired. Tonight's fun went like this: 6:15 pick Liam up from my parents' house and bring him home; 6:30 - 7:15 Liam plays with Will, this involves Will trying to get Liam to be interested in being still and looking at books and Liam running around; 7:15 begin the move towards bedtime, bring Liam upstairs, brush teeth, and quietly change him into his PJs; 7:30 rock in rocking chair, Liam drinks final baby bottle of the day. All is going pretty good up to this point. Liam is really tired. He napped well, so should sleep well.

He finishes bottle, snuggles for about 2 minutes, and then it starts. Liam wants to get down and play on the floor. When he isn't allowed to he cries. Liam wants to hid soft doggie under the pillows on the bed and find him again. When he isn't allowed to he goes nuts. Liam does not want to be in his crib. He also does not want to be held. So, we go into the crib with patting and comforting and trying to get him to lie down. When he gets too worked up, we go into the rocking chair again. More crying. More to the crib. Now it's about 8:30 and Liam is so tired that half the time when he tries to sit up in his crib he falls over. Still no sleep. Liam throws everything out of his crib on to the floor. Then wants it all back. I sit in the rocking chair next to the crib and wait for him to calm down. More crying. Finally at about 9:15 Liam is tired enough that he allows himself to be rocked to sleep. I go downstairs to start the work I didn't get to at the office today. Some version of this happens basically every night. We hope and pray that he adopts a lovey soon and that it works.

The Chucker

Liam is interested in anything that has to do with Mollie. He wants to drink from (or knock over) her water bowl, throw her kibble around, and, most of all, toss the ball for her. Will got Liam a mini-chucker and has taken on the idea of teaching him to chuck. So far, Liam definitely knows how it is supposed to work but he can't get his arms, and mostly his wrist, to move in quite that way. Will keeps trying with him.

We Love our Puffs & Will Rocks

We love our puffs, we really do. It's a silly thing. We got them for Liam's first birthday, about a month ago, based on these catalog pictures that show some well behaved, VERY clean-looking children sitting on puffs at a craft table doing crafts, or practicing their alphabets, or penning thank you notes, or some other laudable thing, it's clear. We thought Liam could site on them at the coffee table and look at books or whatever. (HA! He never sits still.) Anyway, we got some and we love them. They are just the right size for Liam to pile all over. They're bright and sturdy. And, they're great for mommy and daddy to "sit" on, alleviating some of that hoisting ones self up and down from the floor that happens when playing with an (almost) toddler. They were expensive, but we love them. We got them at Land of Nod.

I'm so proud of Will today. Even though he was up half the night coughing and clearly felt crummy this morning, once he got up he got going, and got out of the house, and went to the park, and stopped by my work to say hi, and played with Liam this evening, and, in general, didn't sink into the depths of despair on account of feeling sick. It's such a hard and complicated thing this disease. A transplant is an incredible gift; and it brings a new set of challenges.

Confessions of a CF Husband

I started this (new, improved) blog after coming across and then becoming addicted to reading Confessions of a CF Husband. This is the story of a couple from North Carolina who are going through an amazing journey with stops along the way for: a very premature baby (who is now doing beautifully), a double-lung transplant, and now PTLD. When they posted about their PTLD, I realized how much families who are traveling these roads have in common and it made me want to put some of our experiences out there in case they can help anyone, in any way. So often it can make a difference just knowing that someone else has been there.

So, check it out: http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/