Christof the lobster slayer

Last night was lobster night!! This was the first crack and eat lobster session for the Jankes so we had a lot of fun. The biggest challenge was cooking 5 lobsters at one time. Thankfully, GG saved the day by letting me raid her cooking pots.

Getting ready for the hot tub

The lobster slayer

Table full of lobster

Oma's sweater

Oma made Liam a sweater which has the cutest buttons. They are lambs with legs and feet that dangle through the button holes.

(Click on the picture to enlarge to see the buttons)

Liam likes his sweater!!

Baby's first Christmas

One advantage of being a 'Germerican' is that Liam will get to celebrate both German and American Christmas traditions. We celebrated German Christmas on Christmas Eve and American Christmas on Christmas morning. When Liam is old enough to know what all this means he will be in for some fun!!

Christmas morning started with the shot heard 'round the block, followed by Poppa's peeling tires at at 5:15. Since all the kids in our house are big kids we went back to sleep and found our stockings around 9:00. It was then off to Mom and Dad's house for Christmas brunch at 10:00.

The Germans took stockings very seriously


Liam and Nanna, Christmas morning


The Christmas gang


Can this girl take a picture or what?!

Sweet little Jesus boy

Liam as Baby Jesus for the Christmas Tableau during the Family Service at Trinity on Christmas Eve. (The picture is a little blurry but we were trying to take a picture before the service started without the flash because we didn't want the camera distracting from the prelude music.)

He was a sweet little Jesus boy. He stayed very calm for the entire service. :)

'Bias as Joseph

Unfortunately, I don't have any other picture from Christmas Eve at Granny's because I ended up needing to tend to baby Jesus, who was past his bed time by the time dinner ended.

German Christmas

Since we are blending both the German and American traditions for Christmas, we had our German Christmas last night. Liam gave me the gift I asked for . . . he fell asleep at 8:00 PM and only woke up once to eat at 2:15 AM. He then slept till 7:00 AM!!

Christof gave Tobias a remote controlled helicopter (long story).
Before bed it was slamming into the ceilings, walls, counters, etc.

Christof wins the prize for 'best wrapping!!

Rocking and rolling

It's the most wonderful time of the year. Family is together and that means Liam's little bottom never hits the ground!! He is loving time with his German family. He has been rocking and as of yesterday - rolling!

Rocking with Oma

Hanging out with Onkel Christof

Why life is great when Oma is around!!

Dinner with the Jankes and the Crippens - - without them we would not be here

And for my newest trick - - I can roll myself over!!

Liam's baptism

Today's was Liam's baptism. We had a wonderful service. Not only was it Liam's baptism but he did not fuss or make a sound the entire time!! After the service we had a seven course meal with the family at home. It was a very special day and we are so glad we got to share it with our families.

Lots of pictures follow . . . but it was a big day so we needed lots of pictures. :)

Preparation for the meal started yesterday. Christof and Mami hard at work.

After the prep the men had to play . . . soccer, that is!

An evening relaxing in front of our first fire. Christof and Tobias did a good job with the fire since I managed to buy fire wood but gave no thought to kindling wood!!

Christof and Mami getting Liam dressed

Liam in the Janke family baptismal gown

Following the baptism we had a celebration lunch at home. The meal consisted of seven courses. The menu was as follows:

First Course
Champagne / Juice Cocktail

Second Course
Baguette with olive paste, brie, tomato, cucumber

Third Course
Pear and watercress salad with toasted pecans, blue cheese, vinaigrette & honey

Fourth Course
Zuppa Toscana

Fifth Course
Salmon tartar over zucchini carpaccio

Sixth Course
Turkey cutlet on a bed of leek and bacon

Seventh Course
Yogurt mousse with raspberry puree

Coffee, Espresso, Schnaps & Truffles

Liam is fascinated by Onkel Dodi. Don't worry . . . 

he is not arching his back the way the gown makes it look!!!

Celebration lunch

Place setting 'grown up table'

Place setting 'kids table'

Taking a break between courses

The happy boy

Mini me

Liam - er, I mean Tobias at 3 months

Tobias asked his parents to bring some baby pictures of him since he could not remember what he looked like as a baby. We had so much fun looking at them. Looks like Daddy won the design competition. Tobias now calls Liam 'Mini Me'.

Sleeping 8 to 4, what a way to scare your parents!

Looks like Liam is trying to make our Christmas wish come true. He just slept from 8:00 PM to 4:00 AM. One would think we would take our sleep and be happy, but I was up at 3:00 wondering what was wrong with him and making sure he was still breathing. He got up at 4:00, had a light snack, and is zonked out again. I guess he just really needed some sleep tonight. That, or he has decided to get all his sleeping in now so he can stay up all night and visit Oma, Opa, and Onkel Christof when they arrive later this evening!!

Early birthday

This afternoon Traci and I celebrated an early birthday since we can't be together for our birthday on Tuesday. Here are some pics from the day:

Cake time with 'grown up' birthday hats
(Traci was a very good sport considering she is living with
morning, noon, and night sickness right now)

Bruce, Liam and Ann napping after lunch

Abby and 'Bias playing Memory.
Abby decided later that her cap is too small now and she gave it to Liam. He will need to grow into it a bit.

Yep, he's a Janke!

This will only makes sense to Tobias' immediate family, but we got even more evidence today of Liam's Janke genes . . . check out his hand position while sleeping!!!!


And our hand model today is wearing a red onsie turtleneck from the Win, Wes, Charlie collection, jeans from the Bailey collection, and socks from Oma's knitting needles. Thanks everyone for the clothes!!

Momnesia

Call it 'Mommy Brain', 'Momnesia' or whatever you like . . . I do actually know that my son's birthday was 13 September and not 12 September. My post from yesterday is actually a day early. I knew that Saturday was when Liam was 3 months old, but somehow (despite looking at calendars all day and having a date on the blog posting) I managed to think yesterday was 3 months. It is, in fact, today so re-read the 3 month post with today in mind. :)

Gotta love Momnesia . . .

Ambassador from Boykins

Liam got to meet an ambassador from Boykins today. Joan Collins brought GG home today from Boykins and she got to meet Liam. It was wonderful to see her here and to know that she represents such a wonderful group of people who have supported Liam with so much prayer.

Newborn no more!

Liam is 3 months old today and officially an infant. Newborn no more!!

As everyone told us would happen, life is settling down a lot these days. His schedule is emerging and he doesn't have to struggle so much to do the simple things in life. He is now only getting up once at night to eat and he usually has two eating cycles of 5-6 hours at night. He is very engaged now and is starting to get distracted by things he sees and hears. Best of all, he is smiling and starting to giggle.

When we think over the past 3 months we are overwhelmed and overjoyed. Like most milestones we look back feeling that the past 3 months have both flown by and lasted forever. We are so thankful for all of the prayers that both helped us in the early weeks when things were so uncertain, and that continue to sustain us today. We are also very thankful for all of the help from friends and family!! We can't say thank you enough!!!

Picture night

Last night was picture night in the Janke house. We needed to get a family picture for our Christmas card as well as Liam's 3 month picture. It's hard to believe he will be 3 months old on Saturday!! We knew we were tempting fate when we decided to do pictures in the evening. And, sure enough, we started pictures about 5 minutes before Liam thought it was bed time. So we never did get a true family picture, but we got a good picture of Tobias and me and a good one of Liam and we got creative with the card layout.

For now here is a shot when we were all together getting ready for pictures. See, I can stand on the other side of the camera. :)

Smiling boy

Liam is starting to smile more when we play. He has been smiling for a while when he was asleep (or when he had gas!) but we are just starting to get his 'social smiles'.

(Hmmm, that eye shape looks like Mommy's!!)

Last night he had two consecutive six hour feeding cycles (with the help of Nanna's and Papi's pacifier replacement service) . . . so Mommy and Papi are smiling too!!


And some other generally cute pictures . . .

Oh no! Liam needs . . . little people

Last night Traci and Bruce and Karen and Erik came over for dinner. We had a great time seeing everyone. Liam slept most of the night, which disappointed the girls who had come to play with him. He woke up after dinner and when Abby heard him crying she looked at Kyra and Ann and said, "Oh no! Liam needs . . . little people. Let's go!" They came over and sang 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star', 'This Little Light of Mine', and 'Old MacDonald' to help cheer him up. It was very sweet.