Liam Orion

New Family Blog

2012-02-06T15:33:00.001-05:00

Now that our family is a little bit bigger, we've started a new blog. We make no guarantees that we'll be any more active on the new blog :)

All of the posts and pictures from this blog are also on the new blog:

liamandcaris.blogspot.com

July 4th to Autumn

2011-10-08T17:06:00.000-04:00

Liam nonchalantly observes a passing fire truck in a 4th of July parade while casually holding his "iPhone."

Before Liam's first haircut (other than the ones I've given him).

First official haircut wraps up and everyone is happy!

Liam and me at Luray Caverns.

Liam ready for his first day back at Montessori school after a fun summer at camp.

Liam and I pose together before I take him to his first day back at school.

Mommy says goodbye at home, but will pick up a happy Liam when school ends.

A rare shot of all three of us - thanks for taking this Joe!

Today we went to a farm to do mazes, see pumpkins and animals, slide down huge slides and take a hay ride. Liam and I also shot an apple cannon together and hit the target twice!

Liam and I were "matchers."

Disney

2011-06-26T15:34:00.000-04:00

We recently went to Universal Studios and Disney for a great family vacation. My parents and sister came too, which made the trip easier and more enjoyable for everyone (thanks!). Liam had a wonderful time and is already trying to convince us to return for a "3 week" vacation there.

Liam in full Cars regalia, ready to fly to Disney.

First stop: Universal, where Seuss Landing was the biggest hit, especially the rides One Fish Two Fish and The Cat In The Hat.

After two long, hot and humid days of walking at Universal, we bought a little stroller for Liam, which he *loved* and saved us lots of time and effort! He now refers to this as his "big boy stroller" despite being smaller than his other one.

Let the "Magic" begin...

The "Dumbo" style rides were some of Liam's favorites and there was one in every park. Here Liam and I ride the Triceratop Spin. He was thrilled to be able to control the up and down movement of the ride.

The happy family in front of the "Tree of Life" which houses the terrifying "Bug's Life" movie (just one of many shows I would end up leaving early with Liam)!

Wearing Cars and posing with them, Liam liked EPCOT a little less than I expected.

Although EPCOT did get him warmed up to greeting characters.

He was a character-greeting pro by the time we met Jessie and Woody outside Splash Mountain.

Post-meeting with Jessie and Woody, Liam excitedly recounts his adventures so far.

One of Liam's favorite rides was actually the set in front of Winnie The Pooh. Here, he explains all about Pooh's honey to grandmom.

Double excitement - the Dumbo ride during fireworks! He raved about both.

Watching our second "Electric Light" parade of the trip.

Watching the Pixar parade at Hollywood Studios under the precious shade offered by a vendor's stand.

A brief moment of relaxation during his adventures in Honey I Shrunk The Kids playground.

C ya real soon!

Catch Up

2011-05-20T14:52:00.012-04:00

Nope, we haven't been sitting around staring at the wall since March 14th--here are some photos from the past couple of months.

Finally got out to enjoy the outdoors and learned to ride a tricycle

Saw the Easter Bunny from a safe distance

Tried to roll down a hill--mostly just rolled across

Was delighted with what the Easter Bunny left me

Visited our nation's capitol for mother's day

Saw THE REAL LIFE Elmo and some dude who held Elmo

Visited the Butterfly Garden with my class

Growing Up

2011-03-14T21:04:00.013-04:00

Today, Liam turned 3. It seems hardly possible. He has been telling us for a while that he is a big boy and while I have been trying to keep calling him my baby, but I think it is finally time for me to retire the phrase.

To celebrate the occasion, we had a party for Liam and 20 of his closest friends at Gymboree. Here are some of the highlights. Happy Birthday BIG boy!

Play time

Hug time

Dance Time

Lead time

Bubbles time

Parachute time

Wish time


Treat time

Super Why

2011-03-13T09:48:00.001-04:00

Super Why is a TV show on PBS:
http://pbskids.org/superwhy/

In it, the main character Wyatt solves problem with "the power to
read" by swapping out words in a story to make things better (e.g. the
big bad wolf turns into the little good wolf).

Liam is pretty into Super Why right now. While we were playing this
morning he was pretending that two toys were me and him and they were
trying to get up on to something high. He said: "Oh no, they can't
get up! Who can be Wyatt? Who can be Super Why?"

So I played along and said: "We need the power to read!"

And he replied: "No. We need a ladder!"

Why?

2011-03-01T20:16:00.000-05:00

After a long series of why questions during the bedtime ritual tonight, Annika said "you get one more why question, so you don't want to waste it." To which Liam responded "why I don't want to waste it?"

Steve

We're back

2011-02-20T16:41:00.006-05:00

I am not sure why we have been so bad about posting; it isnt' because we don't have a cute subject or an awesome new camera. Blame it on the blah of winter. We'll try to be better, but here are some pics from the last couple of months.

Liam got tons of toys for Christmas, but the highlight was a $2.00 flashlight and some hand sanitizer.

Buzz and Woody still seem to be a daily theme. He hasn't even watched the movie in a few months, but can spot the marketing in the grocery store from 30 feet away.

His father's son. Liam has always enjoyed a good puzzle. Now, we are getting to the point where it is starting to be a challenge for the parents too.

Dear Santa

2010-12-24T15:17:00.007-05:00

Dear Santa,
This year, I have been a very good boy. I have learned how to dress myself, I am potty trained, I help put away the dishes and clean up my toys, I have tried many different fruits and vegetables and discovered that not all of them are bad. Sometimes I don't like to listen when I am spoken to, but I am confident I will outgrow that. So, for this year, Santa, I would like:
Buzz
Woody
Jessie
Bullseye
Rex
Ham
Slinky the dog
Mr. Potato Head and
Hammers
I politely ask that you leave all presents outside the front door as I am still petrified of you. One day, I do hope to sit on your lap and tell you in person what I would like, but you may need to cut off that beard.

Sincerely yours,
Liam Orion Luke aka WOODY

This is why you cannot come inside. At lunch with you this year, I couldn't even look at you. When at the mall, I made sure to stay clear of the hall you sit in.

I consider this a safe distance. Please do not come any closer. The front door is fine--I will even leave you some cookies.

Worry

2010-11-29T18:49:00.001-05:00

Liam: "Let's watch the whole DVD so we don't have time to take a bath tonight."

Daddy: "We're not taking a bath tonight no matter what. You'll take a bath tomorrow night."

Liam: "But I worry. I'm worried we'll watch the whole DVD and take a bath. I worry."

Steve

Full

2010-11-29T18:18:00.001-05:00

Mommy: "eat one more piece of squash."

Liam: "I already drank milk and ate three green beans. My tummy is FUUUULL!"

Daddy: "Oh, well I thought you were going to have a piece of candy after dinner, but I guess you can't since you're full."

Liam: "Well, I'm just a little bit full."

Steve

2010-11-28T22:40:00.000-05:00

We had a terrific Thanksgiving weekend as Liam (aka Woody), Daddy (aka Buzz) and Mommy (aka Jessie). Liam is always energized being around family and this weekend was no exception. His schedule shifted quite a bit later, sometimes not going to sleep until midnight! But he went to bed around 8:30 tonight, so I think we're getting back to normal already.

Dr Seuss

2010-11-14T20:15:00.001-05:00

While reading Green Eggs and Ham to Liam, he turns to me and says:

"You're funny with this book Daddy."

Steve

Entertaining Day

2010-11-07T21:26:00.003-05:00

Liam had a very busy day Saturday. In the morning, he and I went to our weekly music class together where we pretended to make cookies, played with a slide whistle and danced around. Liam always enjoys this class and looks forward to it every week.

After coming home for a little lunch, Annika took Liam to the mall where he gave his Build-A-Bear a "bath" at the store, picked up Toy Story 3 and played at the mall playground.

When they got home, we got ready and Liam and I went to see the Wiggles in concert with our neighbors. Liam is a huge fan of the wiggles - we listen to them non-stop on every car ride, watch the DVDs, and sing two Wiggles songs each night before bed. This is a picture of Liam when the Wiggles first got onstage tonight:

He was smiling, bouncing, singing and dancing through the entire show and had a terrific time. I was very impressed with how sincere the Wiggles themselves are. They walked through the entire audience and collected cards, flowers etc. from the kids and took the time to read every single sign out loud. In my opinion, they put on a great show with a mix of greatest hits, improv, acrobatics and audience participation. When talking about the show tonight, Liam seemed to be most impressed with when they sang Twinkle Star with the lights off and everyone's cell phones on as the "stars." I think I was most impressed when the 57 year-old Jeff Wiggle did a slow-motion head-stand while singing a song.

But wait... there's more! When we got home, after listening to yet more Wiggles in the car, we all watched Toy Story 3 while eating dinner. We reminded him that he could ask to skip any parts that were scary, but Liam watched it all the way through despite some darker scenes. One of the parts that seemed to trouble him most was when Woody loses his hat :)

As we put him to bed, we reviewed the day with him and covered all of these things. At this point, we said that was it, but he said "no! I also jumped on the bed four times." So I would be remiss not to mention that here too, for the record.

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T21:17:00.013-04:00

We are long overdue for some picture posts. I just dowloaded some pics from my camera and realized that I am WAY behind. For now, let's be timely and just say Happy Halloween!

Liam LOVED being Woody! He debated between Woody and Buzz until only Woody was left at the Disney store--decision made!

His Bear, Pickled Saudsa (story to come later) also dresses like the Sheriff.

Liam was invited to the annual Mommies group Halloween party--funny how toddlers won't sit on a couch for a picture any longer. We were successful with Liam and Addy and the newborns, but all others didn't want to participate.

Woody shows Belle some dance moves

Thing 1 and Woody collide!

Woody and Jessie at Jessie's work party

Woody's parties took place on Friday--I am not sure when Woody will go back to being Liam. He wore the costume throughout most of the weekend.

Trick or Treat buddies.

Ran into some fellow Disney pals!

His loot--neighbors here are very generous. If they don't give you a handful of candy, you get a whole candy bar!

Getting a Cavity Filled

2010-10-28T13:42:00.001-04:00

Liam had a cavity filled today at the dentist. Annika and I were both worried that this would be a disastrous event that would traumatize Liam forever, but it turned out quite well. We both took the time off and held his hands throughout.

Before going to the dentist, I started trying to make it seem fun by saying they would give him a "pig nose" (the cup they place over his nose to deliver the nitrous "laughing" gas). He got on board with that idea and was not upset by it at all. We joked with the dentist about putting on the pig nose and he was relaxed. About 10 minutes into the procedure, the dentist said "You're doing great Liam! How do you feel?" to which Liam simply responded "Oink."

Annika and I sang songs to him as the procedure wore on and he started getting a bit restless and that seemed to do the trick for the remainder of the procedure. In the end, there were no tears and Liam even said "thank you" to the dentist for fixing his tooth.

I am really impressed with his ability to handle this and his great sense of humor ("Oink!").

Steve

By The Numbers

2010-09-30T21:41:00.000-04:00

Liam wanted to jump on the bed before brushing his teeth so I asked him how many times he wanted to jump. He said five. When he jumped once, I said "that's one!" and he said "no, that's zero." His next jump was "one" and so on. It was so crafty that I went with it and let him do 6 jumps.

As a reward for potty training, Annika said she'd let him do something "four times... no, I'll let you do 5!" And Liam replied, with so much enthusiasm that from an adult it would sound sarcastic: "WOW, FIVE!?!? THAT'S AMAZING!!! WOAH! Five!"

Just before we sing him songs and leave his room for the night we talk about his day. As a stalling tactic, he says we're "almost done" (i.e. not quite done yet) when we start to sing. So, we ask him what he wants to add. Sometimes we say "OK, you tell us 4 more things about your day." We get some funny responses.
One was: "1, 2, 3, 4."
Another was: "Wiggles!" (We said "OK, that's one" and he said "No, that's two!" as if to say "the Wiggles are so great, just saying their name takes up two slots.")

Filling up

2010-09-22T19:20:00.000-04:00

Liam got a loaner cozy coupe today and really enjoys it. The only
drawback is the terrible gas mileage it gets. Liam got out, filled it
with gas, got back in, buckled up, and drove a few inches when it
would run out of gas again! He filled up 5 times between the curb in
the background and where he is in this picture!

Steve

Why?

2010-09-14T22:58:00.001-04:00

We are definitely in the phase of "why?"

There is no limit to the "why" sequence. We fairly quickly reach the
point where we really just don't know the answer. Tonight, after a set
of answers involving lactose and lactase, I eventually said "because
magic." :)

Earlier this evening I turned the game on him and continually asked
him why. He got a good laugh out of it as did I. His end-game solution
was "I don't know," so I figure that's a fair answer for me to end
with too. Although sometimes he retorts "you do know."

Another good technique Liam has when I "why" him is to get circular
and ditch causality. An example from last night: "why did he fall
down?" "Because he bumped his head." I'm waiting for a good
opportunity to use that technique.

Sometimes his questions really make me think and are inadvertently
deep. And while I contemplate an answer and start rethinking
everything I once took for granted, he says "I have something on my
finger."

Steve

Portland Summer 2010

2010-09-14T13:20:00.010-04:00

Here are some (very overdue) pictures from our trip to Portland. It was great to see the family out west--they were all so so good to us. Steve and I even got to have some grown-up time together because there are so many Aunties and cousins to entertain and amuse the little guy.

The group of second cousins from L to R: Macklin, Greyson, Camilla, Carson and his little brother Preston, and Liam

Greyson and Liam--they visited the children's museum in Portland together.

Camilla knows how to smile--not sure what Liam is doing :)

The next few pictures are from the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI--pronounced am-zee--don't try to spell it out and say O-M-S-I, you will be laughed at!)

Visiting my Mom's bench at the Portland Audubon Society

Switching beds

2010-09-13T20:43:00.001-04:00

Steve: "You're gonna sleep in your crib all night tonight right?"

Liam: "No. First I say 'Mommy! Mommy!' Then you come get me and I
sleep in your bed."

So it was all a ploy last night eh?

Steve

Dessert math

2010-09-13T19:02:00.001-04:00

Annika: "You can have one cookie or some ice cream but not both. So
you have to choose."

Liam: "No. I can have half of a cookie and a little bit of ice cream."

Steve

Just because

2010-09-10T19:27:00.007-04:00

I have been bad about posting, so here are some pictures that I thought were cute, but never got around to blogging about.

Trying on mommy's shoes

Working on potty-training. He is sporting some very cool Buzz and Woody undies.

Fun with play-doh

He actually looks light here...looks can be deceiving.

Soon to come--trip to Portland pics.

First day of school

2010-09-07T22:04:00.008-04:00

During the summer, Liam has been going to camp at his school, but today was the first official start to the school year. While he has yet to show enthusiasm to go to class, he always seems happy to be there when I pick him up. Here are some pics from this morning. Do you think they teach kids how to smile at a Montessori school?

Japanese

2010-09-06T19:29:00.001-04:00

Liam's new teacher is Japanese so I told him he should say "Ohio" whe
he sees her. He said "I can't say that." I said "why"? He said "I
can't speak Japanese."

Steve

Wisdom

2010-08-18T19:58:00.001-04:00

While watching the intro to a Wiggles DVD I ask if he'd like me to
skip it. Liam calmly and cheerfully replies "no, it will come."

I guess I need to be a little more zen.

Steve

Gary

2010-08-18T19:25:00.000-04:00

Liam was carrying a stuffed Bambi toy and I asked him who it was (I
told him it was Bambi yesterday).

Liam: "Its Gary."

Me: "What!? Gary?! I thought that was Bambi. Who's Gary?"

Liam: "He's another deer."

Steve

Busing dishes

2010-08-18T19:16:00.001-04:00

Me: "I don't think you can carry your cup into the kitchen"

Liam: "Yes I can, it's not heavy, it's light."

Me: "Well I know you can pick it up but I don't think you can take it
all the way to the kitchen."

Liam: "Yeah I can. I pick it up and give it to Mommy."

I did eventually succeed in getting him to take his own two cups into
the kitchen :)

Steve

Encouraging the plane

2010-08-11T01:46:00.001-04:00

While taxiing to the runway to take off, Liam said "come on plane, you
can do it!"

Steve

Portland with Grayson

2010-08-08T22:40:00.000-04:00

At the Portland children's museum with second cousin Grayson (3 in
October). They are brushing a crocodile's teeth.

We're all having a great time visiting, seeing the sights and museums
and relaxing.

Steve

Trip home

2010-08-01T21:42:00.001-04:00

We visited Sperryvile, VA today. It is now 9:30 and we are 1 hour
into our drive back home. We are also 1 hour into a Liam monolouge.
We have learned the following:

When Liam wants to sleep in mommy and daddy's bed, he coughs (insert
fake cough) and then he can sleep with mommy and daddy. Also, in the
morning, he will go downstairs and watch the wiggles and then he will
feel better.

When he plays bubbles with our neighbor friend, Liam gets three turns
and the other boy only gets one.

When Liam gets bigger, he plans to take mommy and daddy to school,
drop them off and then pick them up after he goes to work to pay money.

When he goes to school, he asks his teacher if his name is Jose. His
teacher says "no, it's Mr. Jose."

Steve

Puzzler

2010-07-18T15:11:00.000-04:00

Liam enjoys puzzles so today we bought him this tricky one. The puzzle
is "lenticular" which means it looks different depending on the angle
at which you view it. Also, the image on the box is clearly different
from the image on the puzzle: for one, there is no Donald Duck on the
box! Quite challenging for a 2 yr old or even the recommended 3 yr old
Disney!

Steve

Laps

2010-07-12T18:52:00.001-04:00

54 feet per lap times 50 laps running around the inside of our house
equals a little over half a mile Liam and I just ran inside our
house :) And it all started with "let's run around the house three
times."

Steve

Skip Stack

2010-07-12T11:30:00.001-04:00

Skipping through the stacks at the local library.

Slow Slide

2010-07-11T11:27:00.001-04:00

Slowest slide ride ever! Fortunately, the kids behind him were pretty patient.

Rock Star

2010-07-10T10:27:00.000-04:00

Liam has picked up some rockin' moves!

Love

2010-06-29T23:33:00.002-04:00

Out of the blue tonight Liam cuddled up to me and said "I love you."
he also told me we are "best friends." It was very sweet.

Now it's here on the record so I can remind him when he's a
teenager :)

Steve

Can't try

2010-06-18T21:46:00.001-04:00

"Do you sing the clean up song at school?"

"Sometimes... Not a lot... Just a little bit."

...

"I not getting tired! I can't go to sleep."

"that's ok, but lie down and Close your eyes."

"I can't close my eyes."

"Try."

"I can't try... I can't do anything."

...

It's really hard to get someone to sleep while you're both laughing.

Steve

Catch

2010-06-16T19:46:00.000-04:00

After telling me it was my turn on the slide, Liam went to the bottom
and said "I catch you!"

I went very slowly down :)

Steve

Mustache

2010-06-16T19:09:00.000-04:00

"Its a big one. Mustache!"

Who taught him what a mustache is?!

Steve

Gym

2010-06-16T08:34:00.001-04:00

Since it's raining today, I told Liam he'd probably play in the gym at
school today. I asked "can you say gym"?

Liam thought for a second and said "I can't say gym."

Steve

How's your day?

2010-06-14T19:04:00.000-04:00

Each night at dinner Annie and I ask each other "how was your day."

Tonight, for the first time Liam turned to me and asked "How's your
day?" And I said it was great thanks very much for asking. I was so
surprised that he decided to join in on the little ritual.

Then I asked "did you ask mommy?" So he turns to Annie and says "how's
Daddy's day?" :)

Steve

Bedtime talking

2010-06-04T21:54:00.001-04:00

Some quotes from Liam tonight while talking about his day before
bedtime:

Mommy not go bye-bye anymore? Mommy go bye-bye three times: 1, 2, 3,
4, 5.

...

Liam woke up. Mommy came up. Give Liam books. Liam said "mommy mommy
mommy!" Liam not take a nap. Go downstairs, had applejuice.

(we crack up laughing)

Mommy's funny, Daddy's funny, Liam's funny.

...

Liam has Liam's Mommy. Liam's Mommy named Annika. Liam not have Addy's
Daddy, Liam has Liam's Daddy.

...

Liam not wearing sandals. Liam's right foot got stuck in a shoe. This
is the left foot (pats his left foot). This is the right foot (pats
right foot).

...

We went to Old Mcdonald's. Liam had French fries and a hamburger.
Uncle Muck came. Said "hi Uncle Muck!" Not Bobo. Uncle Muck go bye-bye.

There was so much more but I couldn't remember it. He was very
talkative tonight.

Steve

Summer Begins!

2010-06-02T15:00:00.011-04:00

Liam had a busy Memorial Day weekend. We drove down to southern Virginia to visit my college roommate and her family including her two sons, Marc and Luc. Marc is a year and half older and Liam was very impressed with his cartwheels and acrobatics. Luc is a year and a half younger and Liam seemed interested in his doings, even though they were not nearly as active, as well.

Liam inspects Luc to make sure everything is ship shape

Up close shot of some very impressive face painting done at an art fair and some very impressive thumb sucking.

Word!

The next American Idol?

2010-06-01T17:10:00.004-04:00

Recently, Liam started singing songs as a way to pass the time. Many times, I will hear him in the back seat practicing his ABC's or while I am making breakfast I will hear Twinkle Star. These videos show only a taste of what we see on a day to day basis. Many times, when he knows a camera is watching, he is not willing to perform.

Aerobic ABC's by Liam

Apples and Bananas

You need to do a twist!

2010-05-25T21:07:00.001-04:00

Daddy: (singing) "Come on everybody let's do the twist"
Liam: (singing) "Come on everybody you need to do a twist!"

Steve

Meeting Barney

2010-05-22T17:49:00.001-04:00

Sometimes meeting your favorite character...

Isn't as fun as you think it would be.

Don't worry Hit Entertainment, he's watching a Barney DVD now and saying "I like Barney"!

4 Steps

2010-05-19T20:58:00.000-04:00

Step 1: Daddy pulls Liam in the wagon
Step 2: Daddy pulls the wagon and Liam walks
Step 3: Liam pulls the wagon and Daddy walks
Step 4: Liam pulls Daddy in the wagon

Steve

Play house

2010-04-27T19:21:00.000-04:00

Now we just need to re-do the patio and put some crash pads around the
house :)

Steve

Growing up

2010-04-24T12:37:00.006-04:00

Besides the lack of hair, Liam is growing by leaps and bounds. He has developed a sense of humor and seems to purposefully try to make us laugh. In the above picture, he thought it would be funny to put all the puzzle pieces in a big circle. He plays the "Hi" game which goes like this:
Liam: "Hi, Mommy"
Mommy: "Hi, Liam"
Liam: "Hi, Grover" (*Smirk)
Mommy: "WHAT? Hi, Elmo"
Liam: "Hi, Ernie"
Mommy: "Hi, Swing"
Liam: "Hi, Slide"
...
We took him to the Children's museum in Baltimore the other day. He is still a little young, but he enjoyed it nonetheless.

Making a big bubble with Mommy

Exiting a giant obstacle course with Daddy

Leaving a toy market

Phrases

2010-04-16T20:49:00.001-04:00

Recently Liam has started saying phrases like: "here ya go Daddy" and
"I dunno what it is" which sound extra cute coming very nonchalantly
in his little voice.

Steve

Easter bunny

2010-04-03T21:24:00.002-04:00

Liam:
"Not see Easter bunny coming. Be sleeping. Wake up, down stairs,
Easter bunny."

He keeps repeating this...

Steve

Great Aunts and a cool Uncle

2010-03-30T14:56:00.004-04:00

Liam loves his two Aunts and he gets to see them often since they live so close. But no amount of hugs and attention can compete with "Uncle Muck." Liam only sees his uncle on holidays and other special treats, but he has won Liam over since now Liam thinks that Uncle Muck is on TV singing with Elmo. It is really Jason Mraz, but to Liam if it looks like Uncle Muck and sings like Uncle Muck then it is Uncle Muck.

Aunt Me-Shell

Aunt Ri Ri

As of this posting, there are 247,049 views of this clip. I am pretty sure Liam is responsible for at least half that.

Future's So Bright

2010-03-20T18:42:00.001-04:00

While putting these on before going out to enjoy the weather, Liam said "bright outside."

2 Already!

2010-03-20T08:51:00.012-04:00

Another year! Really! You are 2! People call this the "terrible two's" but I like to think of it as the independent and knowing what you want stage. You love to "help" mommy and daddy. One of your favorite phrases is "Liam do it."

You are growing by leaps and bounds. The doctor puts you in the 90% tile for height, 75% for weight, and your head is in the 95% tile--you've got big brains. Most people who meet you would believe that. You know all your letters, most of your colors and the other day you counted to 20 and I am not even sure who taught you that.

If I had to predict what you are going to be when you grow up, I would say an engineer (because you seem to like to find out how things work and also, let's face it, it is in your DNA) or a housekeeper. You do not like disorder. One way to get you to stop crying is to tell you that you are making a mess.

You really seemed to enjoy your second birthday party. The music teacher that came to the house was a huge hit and you relished the the explosion of sesame street that was represented in everything from the cake to the giant balloons. You are a fun, curious, gentle little boy. It is a treat to be your mother.

This was more of a project than I would have thought. My hands were a red and black mess after this endeavor.

Glasses on

2010-03-18T19:35:00.001-04:00

If he gets my vision this might be a sneak preview :)

Steve

Ernie Elmo Infatuation

2010-03-11T20:07:00.007-05:00

As a child, I had a binky that went with me everywhere until I either lost it or my parent's threw it out (I am still not sure what the true story is). I have been wondering when Liam would find his "have to have" object--I think that time is finally here. Over the last few weeks, he has developed quite a fondness for all his stuffed animals--in particular his Ernie and Elmo dolls. They go with him everywhere. To the park, to Target, to bed. When it is cold, they need a jacket. When we go up stairs, they have to hold the hand rail. As a Mom, I worry about the sanitariness' of the situation; we'll see if I ever get to the point where I have to throw them out :)

Playing with them all. Sometimes he likes to have all of them take the journey from his room to Mommy and Daddy's bed.

Hiding from Daddy

Daddy found him!

Elmo and Ernie check out the patio furniture at Target

Trio

2010-03-10T21:12:00.001-05:00

Every night Annika and I sing twinkle star and abcs to Liam. Tonight,
he joined us on both songs and it was adorable :)

After we closed the door and stopped singing, we smiled at each other
and heard Liam giggle in his crib.

Steve

No Problems

2010-03-06T17:51:00.001-05:00

Liam has had a flurry of new little behaviors today.

This evening Liam was turning the lights in his room on and off. He
said "turn on, no problems!" I asked him who taught him to say "no
problems" and he said "daddy." hmmm.

I asked "what time is it?" and without hesitation, or consulting a
clock, Liam said "2 o'clock." If it had actually been 2, I would have
been really impressed!

Liam can now turn on the tv and DVD player, put in a DVD, and press
the right buttons on the remote to get the DVD playing. He uses his
step stool to access the remotes on the shelf. We are now in real
trouble.

Steve

The Negotiator

2010-03-03T21:30:00.001-05:00

Daddy: Can I buy applejuice?
Liam: uh-huh
Daddy: How much does it cost?
Liam: 2
Daddy counts off and hands over 2 pretend dollars
Liam: One more
Daddy: What!? I thought it cost 2!
Liam: Two more.

Rough negotiation! I quickly paid the 2 more before the price went up
again!

Steve

Mess Up

2010-03-03T00:08:00.000-05:00

After helping Mommy paint these Sesame Street characters, one of whom
was stepped on by the cat, Liam said:

"Cookie otay, Oscar otay, Elmo otay, Abby Dabby otay, Big Bird otay,
Ernie otay, Bert otay, Drover mess up."

Already an art critic. :)

Steve

Where's Liam?

2010-02-09T15:57:00.001-05:00

Can you find Liam in each of these photos?

Tumble Bumble and the snow

2010-02-06T21:52:00.005-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, we started "acting out" Liam's bedtime stories. One particular book he enjoys is Tumble Bumble. Soon, he was telling us that he also wanted to participate in the acting. We used to perform this with all of us acting, but it turns out he stole the whole show.

In other news, we had another Washington winter wallop. Here are some pics. Liam did not really enjoy the snow even though his Daddy made him a snow maze.

Radical Dude

2010-02-03T22:37:00.002-05:00

Liam loves wearing these old 80's sunglasses. I think its a good look for him :)

Recently, Liam started "calling" us in the same way he "calls" the dog: "Mommy, come!" He occasionally even adds in some hand claps or clicks to hurry us along if we delay. We're slowly getting him to at least modify it to: "Mommy, come... please." He says it so cheerfully and it's hilarious (even when he's "calling" me).

Dancing to Hanta

2010-01-24T16:28:00.005-05:00

Liam doesn't understand that Christmas is over--He loves to dance to this song and requests it at least once a day. Especially fun to note in this video is the outfit he picked out for himself. I can never get him to wear a hat when we go outside, but this day, he didn't want to take it off.

The month of December

2010-01-03T15:41:00.021-05:00

With the exception of the small sneak peak that Steve left yesterday, we have not been very good about posting in the final month of 2009. So here is a recap of what we have been up to during the month of December.

Liam saw Santa (aka Hanta). For those of you who don't remember, we struggled with the Santa picture last year.

He was excited to see him arrive on a fire truck

He didn't mind seeing him while on Mommy's lap. He even decorated his head for Hanta.

But do not try to put him in Hanta's lap.

We had a crazy snow storm, which Liam was happy about when he was inside, but didn't much care for while outside. He didn't want to sled, he didn't want to build a snow man--he just enjoyed watching other kids play.

We tried to take some pictures for the Christmas Card. These are a few that didn't make the cut. Notice the hand in the belly button. This has been a new soothing habit Liam has recently adopted.

Christmas day/weekend was exciting. There were so many toys, I am not sure we have gotten to play with everything yet! Thank you everyone and thank you, Hanta!

His new game is not a good one--He likes to fall on the couch. This is how he recently acquired a big goose egg on his forehead.

Obsession with Sesame Street. Despite what you might see on the blog, Liam will actually only wear about 3 shirts and they all have to do with Sesame Street. If you see him in something else, it is by the sheer might of his parents. The other possibility is that he has agreed to a compromise and has one of the three shirts underneath his displayed shirt. If you tell him you like his top shirt, he is very quick to remind you that he has "Elmo un'neath"

Liam rang in the new year with some rock band and friends. He didn't make it to midnight despite his protests that he was not tired.

Happy New Year everyone!

Xmas Part One

2010-01-02T20:16:00.000-05:00

Here's a small sampling of the toys Liam got for Christmas this year.
He got to open presents at three houses over the course of a few days
and had a great time. I think it'll be the last year we can easily put
him to bed on Christmas eve :)

Our basement is starting to feel like an indoor playground now. We'll
post more pictures from our camera, this is just the best one from my
phone.

Steve

Hanta's Little Helper

2009-12-05T09:17:00.003-05:00

Liam calls Santa "Hanta" and really enjoying decorating what he calls the "Hanta tree." While wrapping presents, Annika told him who would get each one. Here he is, practicing to be Hanta's little helper

Go, Go, Go baby Go!

2009-11-22T21:33:00.000-05:00

We made up some fun songs for Liam tonight. I think he enjoyed them :)

We're trying to upload some video of him talking from a while ago... Technical difficulties are delaying that, but we'll get it up here someday!

Unexpected Nap

2009-11-18T19:46:00.001-05:00

It's 7 pm and your baby hasn't had a nap all day when he curls up in a
ball of cuteness and falls asleep on you. Bedtime is usually about 9
pm. What would *you* do?

Steve

A Quick Nap

2009-11-11T13:43:00.001-05:00

Good thing he's so flexible! I wish I could sleep like this. Long
plane trips would be so much easier.

Steve

Starting to read

2009-11-08T16:33:00.004-05:00

Liam is on the cusp of being able to read. I noticed him reading some words in a book several weeks ago, but I think he's starting to sound things out now.

We had a fun time at IKEA today looking at things to make our basement more fun. They have a pretty cool slide. Beautiful weather today, so we're off on a walk!

Here's the Sesame Street song that made B Liam's favorite letter of all time!

Opening Doors

2009-11-08T10:16:00.001-05:00

We'll have to make sure he doesn't just walk out one day!

Car and driver

2009-11-03T19:24:00.002-05:00

Don't worry, we were only doing 35.

No No, Lellow! Moo!

2009-11-01T10:36:00.008-05:00

A few weeks ago, I asked Liam what he wanted to be for Halloween and showed him some costumes on line. He indicated that he wanted to be a cow by telling me Moo, Moo over and over. So, being his faithful servant, I ordered the costume. After it arrived, I realized that it was missing a few snaps and wasn't worth the money I paid. Thinking that surely a 19 month old would forget asking to be Moo Moo, I bought him a duck outfit. What a rookie mom mistake--of course he remembered. When I tried to put the duck outfit on him, he told me, "No, no, Lellow (yellow)!" He isn't exactly thrilled to put his cow costume on either, but when he sees it, he does indicate some like for it by telling me Moo and he agrees to wear it for pictures and minor trick or treating! Happy Halloween everyone.

Another successful line up of the babies in their costumes. This one was probably less successful than last year since now the kids can move.

A group of neighbors Liam went trick-or-treating with.

Liam is trying out a "post office box" costume at my work. Notice that even though this is a costume party, Liam would only wear his pajama tops.

Bookworm

2009-10-27T20:22:00.001-04:00

Liam takes a quick break from mowing the carpet to read a book :)
Although he can't quite read this one, Liam does love books. He loves
his bedtime stories, flips through books in his crib after we leave
him there for bedtime, and just spent an hour in the library pulling
books off the shelves to peruse. Once he learns those other 13
letters, he'll be ready to go!

Dancing with Ernie

2009-10-25T20:03:00.001-04:00

On a trip to find a good toy airplane for Liam, we found out that the toy store can be quite a party! Sadly, we did not find a suitable toy plane.

Liam and I had a terrific weekend while Annika was out of town. I think my favorite parts were our walks to and from the local park talking about fall, walking in the grass and playing the stop-go game (or as Liam says: "Bop, doe").

Tree Yellow Down

2009-10-24T10:55:00.001-04:00

Liam and I took a nice walk today and learned about fall. On the way
home we played the stop-go game: Liam periodically freezes and then I
freeze until he starts walking again. We both had fun :)

Rainy day

2009-10-17T16:48:00.001-04:00

It was a rainy day today so we played inside at playwisekids.

Fun at Target

2009-10-16T23:08:00.001-04:00

Liam had a great time exploring Target last night and trying on some merchandise :)

Playing in the basement. When Liam sees this picture he says "Down. Ball."

Pivotal Moments

2009-10-11T12:30:00.004-04:00

Liam enjoys a bubble bath by putting the bubbles all over his head

Liam comes to the rescue of his friend before she is cooked by the witch. One of a few such scenes at a local farm where we got a pumpkin and some expensive apples.

About a week ago, Liam started putting words together in two-word phrases. The phrases take the form "no kitty" or "bye-bye daddy." The leading word in these phrases is called a pivot word - it can be used in many contexts preceded or followed by an open word (e.g. bye-bye daddy, bye-bye mommy, bye-bye kitty). These short phrases are referred to as "telegraphic" speech because they resemble the short-cut wording of a telegram.

He's really interested in letters now and will point out an M, O, etc. in random words that we see. He identifies yellow (la-lellow) and blue. At first, I thought he might be red-green color blind, but he can point to the right color when asked, he just doesn't seem to be able to say those colors.

Sitting in a stroller can be a real drag, so Liam has taken to walking along with us while we push an empty stoller (which is just a bit slower). Here he is preparing to walk the dog:

Mommy was recruited to add the video, so while I was here, I thought I would also share this picture, which shows what a difference a year can make. You can see from last year at the farm, he was not only smaller, but he didn't get the "put your head in a circle" thing. This year, he even smiled for the camera.

Number of signs, words and phrases Liam can express over time (months old).

Spoiler Alert!

2009-10-04T12:27:00.000-04:00

We've put a big emphasis on communication for a long time with Liam. We reward him for communicating calmly and effectively by giving him what he wants when he asks for it. This has led to at least two things: Liam's ability to communicate very well, and Liam's expectation that he gets whatever he wants! Recently, we've begun to feel that he's started to get a bit bossy :) The other night, he asked for his dog pajamas by doing the sign for dog and saying 'woof woof' while we were changing him. Usually, we would comply, but the recent cold weather doesn't fit well with a t-shirt for bed time, so we wanted to put him in warmer pjs. This was not acceptable to his highness, who definitely let us know. After much protest, we got him into his warm pjs and then put his dog pajamas on top :)

Sometimes, Liam doesn't even have to try. We just loved this wooden train set our neighbors have, so we got it (for Liam, not Daddy ;).

Signing and Saying

2009-09-07T14:18:00.001-04:00

Liam can now sign about 45 words and say about 24 (depending on what you count as a word and assuming I'm remembering everything). His signs are focused on animals, objects and requests, while his words are more focused on people (although animals and statements are close behind). Of all his words, there are only 7 that he can't also sign and they're almost all names, colors and letters, which are a bit more abstract. His words basically consist of the vowel sounds plus B, D, H, M and N.

I'm very glad we tried sign language with Liam since it has clearly enabled him to communicate with us much more than he can with words alone. I'd imagine this leaves him less frustrated than he would have been, but who knows? His vocabulary is very strongly centered around nouns (the verbs he knows like eat and sit are more focused on the nouns involved - like the food or the end-state of sitting - than the actions themselves). Grouping people with animals makes the focus on living things quite clear too. He's also picked up on the names of things before the attributes (e.g. ball before yellow). His spoken vocabulary is limited by the sounds he's capable of making, and his signs are also limited by the dexterity of his hands (yellow, sheep and water all involve more difficult hand shapes).

Here are the lists of words I'm counting so you can judge for yourself whether they "count" as words :) Drum-roll please....

Signs:
Animals (13) : cat, dog, fish, lion, bird, pig, monkey, horse, cow, owl, bear, turtle, giraffe
Objects (11): moon, book, light, phone, bath (tub), fan (ceiling), ball, "that" (pointing), shoes, car, plane
Requests (10): help, open, pick-me-up, more, eat, drink, milk, please, down, sit
People (1): daddy, mommy
Statements (6): no (head shake), yes (head nod), all-done, bye, blow a kiss, hi/bye (wave)
Numbers (1): one
Colors (1): orange
Food (2): apple, banana

Says:
People (~6): Dada, Mama, Ady (friend Adeline), Baby (himself in a picture, or other babies), Debbie, Mommy, Daddy, Bobo (one of his grandfathers)
Animals (5): Ditty (for Kitty), 'oof (for dog), Moo (for cow), Raaar (lion roar), Baa (for sheep)
Statements (4): Bye, No, Hi, Uh-oh
Objects (3): Ba'a (Ball), Bone (dog's bone), 'Aoom (for car's vroom), Boo'oo (Pool)
Requests (2): Mo'h (More), num-num (for food)
Colors (2): B'oo (Blue), Yeddow (Yellow)
Sounds (1): A-choo (to fake a sneeze)
Letters (1): B

Shoe Fetish

2009-08-28T22:36:00.007-04:00

Until a month ago, despite our wishes, Liam has not found himself a lovey (a creature comfort he can turn to when feeling sad and abashed). Finally, Liam has found himself a lovey: his shoes. These shoes are now one and a half sizes too small, are incredibly smelly and he can't get enough of them. He will find them in the closet and want to put them on. He refuses all other shoes and when we bought him new shoes, he said "no, no, no" over and over and eventually ripped them off.

These shoes have finally taken their last steps. I have hidden them away and bought new awesome shoes; they are even named Liam. He doesn't love them, but he might learn to tolerate them. Sometimes, I think taking a pacifier away would have been easier.

In addition to his love for his own sandals, Liam enjoys looking in our shoe closet and taking out shoes so that he can return them to their rightful owner. He will carry shoes the size of his torso around until he can give them to his Daddy or Mommy to put on.

A note from Liam

2009-08-19T07:47:00.011-04:00

I don't know why my parents haven't posted in a while. I am obviously cuter and more interesting than ever; surely they have tons to talk about. In the last month, I have been to 2 new states (Michigan and New York), attended 2 big functions where mommy and daddy made me dress up, and have demonstrated my new communication skills--a kid can say 10 new words and yet not get a single blog post! Unfortunately, my parents didn't do a great job of taking pictures during all of these poignant times, but I will do my best to recapture some highlights. Let's start with Garvey week:

I took my first plane trip while being mobile--an extra challenge for my parents. I really like to look at planes in the sky, but once we were airborne, I quickly gave my parents the "All Done" sign. They didn't seem to get it though and they made me stay up in the air for another 90 minutes.

My Aunt Ria's un-wedding: It was a great 20's party--I am still a little skeptical that all of these people can really be related to me.

More to come--I need to get my parents to do the next post. It is exhausting watching me and trying to type on the computer.

Sweet Adeline

2009-07-05T13:53:00.007-04:00

Liam is learning to share his house and his toys with our babysitter's daughter, Adeline--she comes part time 4 days a week now. The two were born mere weeks apart and show a blossoming friendship.

Meal times are always filled with laughter...

Enjoying the cool summer we have been having in their wagon...

Patroling the city streets together...

Trying to push each other off the couch...

But, possibly their most favorite activity is "Ring Around the Rosy" where they have mastered the "around" but are still working on the "down".

"The Knack"

2009-06-21T08:05:00.004-04:00

As Scott Adams says in one of his Dilbert strips, Liam seems to have "the knack."

He's fascinated by mechanical and electrical devices and loves to "operate" them.

Recently, he learned how to take the vaccuum cleaner canister off and put it back on.

Now we just need to teach him how to dump its contents into the trash can :)

Mommy's little helper

2009-06-16T21:28:00.007-04:00

I used to blame my lack of cleaning on Liam's need for entertainment--now I have no excuse. One of Liam's favorite activities is "helping" mommy. He likes to swiffer, is fascinated by the vacuum and he will even help me put away the laundry. The other day, I told him we had to go and put the dish towels away. He promptly picked one up and walked over to his play kitchen and put it in the sink!

Since I haven't posted in a while, I thought it would be nice to post a few more pics of the little guy.

Classic shmoosh the cat shot. I think this is only the 3rd on our blog--imagine how many more we have on our camera!

A look at his face while smooshing the cat. Couldn't be happier.

A visit from Uncle Muck wouldn't be complete without rock band.

One of the few family pictures that we have.

Kiss

2009-06-01T20:46:00.001-04:00

I discovered that Liam learned a great new skill today - giving a kiss :) It's a wonderful new addition to our bedtime routine.
Liam is walking about 80% of the time now without help and I can tell we're on the verge of a new era of running after him. We took him to a terrific park yesterday with rubber padding all over the ground, and spent a long time following him around.

His signing vocabulary is getting bigger all the time and includes lots of animals (lion, cat, dog, pig, bird, fish...) and he's also starting to learn how to make some animal sounds (lion roar - which is adorable, woof, meow, moo).

On a visit to the zoo with his friends, he is fascinated by, of all things, a cow. To his credit, he did really like the elephant and the lion too--but he did indicate that the gorilla was a dog and had little interest.

Trying to play with the neighborhood kids that are twice his age, he ends up playing the role of the door-man.

Bedtime song

2009-05-04T21:07:00.002-04:00

While we were getting Liam ready for bed (hence the sleep sack), he indicated he wanted the keyboard out. Apparently, he wanted one last bedtime song.

Stand Up

2009-05-01T23:04:00.000-04:00

Liam continues to learn more each day. He's added some signs, like book, dad, bird and done. Interestingly, he'll sign bird when he hears one, even if he doesn't see one, so he's linked the sound with the animal in his mind. One of his most powerful new tricks is to shake his head "no" and nod "yes." This leads to a narrowing-down process where he'll sign "more" "book" and then we take out books one-by-one and ask if he wants that one until he gives an enthusiastic nod. Of course, sometimes we have to make him do something he is clearly shaking his head "no" to (like leave the playground after playing for an hour), but that's just early practice for many years of not always getting his way :)

Liam's also getting more physically capable. He can walk on his own for a few feet and stand himself up:

Go get it!

2009-04-07T22:27:00.003-04:00

We have taught our dog, Makoto, 1 trick: You tell him to stay, you throw his toy and then he will wait patiently until you say, "go get it!" Upon that command, the dog will jump into action and retrieve his toy. We have just now introduced Liam to this and he seemed a little perplexed, but also eager to get in on the action. You can tell in the video that he is wanting to be the boss and tell the dog to go get it. Now, we just need to teach Makoto to respond to "BUHHHHHH".

Favorite Things

2009-04-05T12:25:00.005-04:00

Liam definitely has preferences now.

He enjoys banging on laptops

The swing is great fun

Peek-a-boo is still a favorite

He loves the cat, but I am not sure the cat returns the sentiment.

Walking

2009-03-24T19:19:00.004-04:00

These are some of Liam's first steps on his own! (We hadn't gotten the camera out yet for the first few steps).

Happy Birthday, Big Guy!

2009-03-15T22:23:00.008-04:00

Has it been a year already? You so recently were a precious, helpless little blob in my arms, now you are getting to be a curious big boy with your own wants and desires…but no less precious. You are not quite walking yet, but I think you are going to love the freedom to explore that it will give you. You use your fire engine and shopping cart as mini walkers and you squeal with glee every time you make a long journey down the hallway. Your passion seems to be watching the kids in the neighborhood play basketball. I wonder if that is something you will enjoy when you are older. You also have really taken to the animals…especially Yuki. You love to tackle him and feel his fur on your face as you flatten him with your body. The other day, you stopped me in the store to point at a sign with a dog on it. Then you did your sign for dog. You seem to be getting smarter and more communicative everyday.
A few months ago, you seemed to eat whatever we put in front of you, but lately I fear that you have inherited your mom’s sweet tooth, preferring yogurt, cookies and cereal over veggies and protein. I was surprised to find out how much you disliked your healthy birthday cupcake I made for you; you found the smell distasteful and didn’t even smash it like most babies. Maybe next year we will try butter cream frosting.

Part of me is sad that you are growing up, but part of me feels happy that I get to watch you learn and explore even more. You are so interested, so curious, so in awe of the world around you. You have also developed a sense of humor, finding certain things like me trying to put your hat on funny. I am delighted to be a part of your world. Happy Birthday, Big Guy!

One Year

2009-03-14T21:48:00.000-04:00

One year ago today, at 12:34, Liam was born and life hasn't been the same since - in a wonderful way! We threw a big birthday party for him today and had his friends and relatives over for a big celebration. We went whole-hog on the pi day connection and put up a "Happy Birthday Q T 3.14159" banner, several of us wore our "simple as 3.141592..." t-shirts from Mental Floss, we ate pizza pi(e), mixed-fruit pi(e), muffins in pi-formation, a big cookie with pi icing, brownies and cookies shaped like the pi symbol, and showed some pi(e) charts about Liam (like % time spent sleeping, eating and playing). You might also notice that the fruit and pita dishes spell Liam's initials (LOL).

Many of Liam's friends from his "mommy and me" group were there to share in the fun and that created a really energetic and fun atmosphere. Albert Einstein was also born on March 14th, so we put up a poster of him and added some captions wishing Liam a happy birthday.

We put together a movie of some pictures of Liam and a couple videos set to "Birthday" and "Here Comes the Sun" by The Beatles. We put the pictures of Liam in chronological order and it was amazing to see how much he's changed over the past year.

Liam enjoyed the big get together and was thrilled with all of his new toys and clothes. His aunt Michelle also gave him a framed version of the poem she wrote for him when he was born. We really appreciate everyone joining us for the occasion! A special thanks to my mom for helping us set everything up the day / evening before.

Purr-fect Fur-niture

2009-03-01T18:54:00.001-05:00

Our cat (Yuki) has been very tolerant of Liam's recent affection for him in the form of full-on tackles followed by using the cat as a pillow. We had a cozy little snuggle on the couch yesterday during our weekend sick-in.

Yes, unfortunately, we all felt under the weather this weekend to varying degrees of severity. Everyone is feeling better now though - I think the weekend of lounging around the house helped :)

Signs of the Times

2009-02-14T12:09:00.000-05:00

A couple months ago, we started teaching Liam some sign language. He's really started to pick it up recently and its been great. When he wants something or is interested in something, he can communicate a little better than just pointing and grunting. I got the camera out today and asked him to say "more" (which is putting both hands together - above).

Then I asked him to say "eat" (which is putting your fingers to your mouth):

Finally, I asked him to say "cat" (which is the most difficult one for him because it is an "OK" sign that you slide from your mouth to your ear - representing whiskers). After looking around for the cat, he figured out that I just wanted to see the sign:

He's gotten the sign for milk (squeezing your hand) and dog (patting your thigh) mastered and is working on light bulb (looks like holding a piece of paper in front of your face and letting go). We can certainly tell that he understands a lot now. If we ask him where something is (socks, a toy, the light, etc.) he looks and points at it. I'm excited to teach him more signs and communicate even more with him :) A video would capture these better... I'll have to remember that next time.

Standing tall

2009-02-09T20:44:00.007-05:00

About a month ago, I turned my back while Liam was just waking up from a nap. When I turned around, he was standing up and laughing at his new accomplishment. He still doesn't pull himself up very often. He seems to have a smarter way to approach such things--Find a person who is mobile, say "Ba" and point until they bring you to the item you want. He has also found his own method of communication: "Da" is "this is fun", "Ma" is "I don't like this" and "Ba" is "I want." What more could a baby need?

Snow Day

2009-01-29T08:15:00.008-05:00

Liam had his first "real" snowfall this week and it trapped him inside for a couple of days. We used the time to play with all of his toys, practice his sign language and we didn't worry about getting out of our pajamas.

He observed the older kids in the neighborhood having fun on the ice covered lawns and street.

How big is Liam--SOOOO Big!

Give Daddy a high five!

Even though we really don't watch TV with Liam around, he quickly figured out what the remotes were for. In a couple of years, I am sure that this will be done on snow days.

Baby "Proofing"

2009-01-19T10:21:00.001-05:00

As Liam gets more mobile and curious, we've had to start trying to baby-proof our house. We plugged some of the outlets with little stubs and put up a gate at the top of the stairs. The gate is really nice, was fairly easy to install and works well.

However, most of our other attempts at child proofing have failed. We've had to return over $100-worth of various cabinet locks, door stops, and other little devices because they didn't fit our cabinets etc. We had to return another gate because it didn't work. So, we're on round 3 (at least) of buying baby-proofing stuff. Which is why it was particularly funny when - one day after installing them - Liam figured out how to take off the cabinet locks we got yesterday!

I guess we'll just have to try harder next time!

9 month stats at 10 month birthday

2009-01-14T21:52:00.009-05:00

Liam hit 10 month mark today and I realized that we never posted his 9 month stats. At his last check-up, the doctor pronounced that he "is one of the healthiest babies at the practice." He weighed in at a slim 23 pounds (90th percentile), was 31 inches tall (95 percentile) and I can't remember his head size, but it is big (97th percentile).

One of the more common questions I hear is "Is his Daddy big?" Actually, both of us were big babies, so it is hard to tell if he will take after his dad in the height department. So far, with his coloring and cheek size, he seems to resemble me a little more, but you can definitely see the Luke in him. Here are some baby pictures of us around that age (I will try to find a close up one of Steve and post it later on).

The Life Aquatic

2009-01-11T12:03:00.001-05:00

Liam had his first "swim lesson" on Thursday. We weren't sure whether he'd love it or be scared. It turned out to be somewhere in between. Throughout, he was cautious, but not scared, and enjoyed certain aspects of it. This was his first introduction to water deeper than a couple inches, so he might get more comfortable in time.

We were pathetically ill prepared for the experience in general: we left the house hoping to remember how to get to the pool, with no towels, and a bag too small to contain our stuff while we were in the pool :) Fortunately, we found the pool, the hand/hair driers in the locker rooms dried us all off well, and we didn't lose any of our stuff. Next time, we'll know what we're doing.

We all three got in the pool along with about 5 other babies and moms (only one other dad) and an instructor who had laid out groups of pool toys along the edges of the pool. We played with the toys and did things like the hokey-pokey in the shallow (~4-feet) end of the pool. As we got ready to leave, we saw some of the next-level class for kids over 1 year old. They were kicking while holding the ledge (with parental support) and looked like they were having fun. Sitting by the pool afterwards was one of Liam's favorite times as he watched everyone else enjoy the pool from the safety of the dry deck.

Overall, it was a fun experience and I'm glad we're introducing him to the pool.

A New Year

2009-01-01T20:08:00.000-05:00

Liam had an exciting and busy holiday season. For his last day of 2008, he learned to push himself up into a sitting position from lying down, how to feed himself Teddy Puffs and how to operate one of his toys (he had to squeeze a lot in before the new year). He's transitioning from a helpless baby to a toddler who knows what he wants and is getting more and more capable of getting it - either under his own power or by directing his servants (viz. us) to get it with pointing and grunting.

We're looking forward to a great 2009 with lots of new surprises from Liam.

12 days of Christmas--Liam style

2008-12-29T21:42:00.004-05:00

12 Fun new toys (at least)
11 Articles of clothing
10 Christmas dances
9 People chased
8 Lots of food
7 Packs of the car
6 Naps total
5 Cousins visited
4 Different houses
3 Celebrations
2 Outdoor walks
1 Amazing time

Liam had a wonderful Christmas and was able to show off his new skills: pointing at what he wants, rocking to some music and running in a walker. He loved the walker so much that he acquired a blister on his toe (it has yet to slow him down). The video below shows him enjoying his Christmas present. Sorry it is kind of long--I haven't figured out how to edit from our new camera.

Another video shows Liam's love for music and his potential dancing career. You can see he takes his dancing very seriously.

Santa on Pause

2008-12-24T19:52:00.003-05:00

One day in the future I fear that Liam will be looking through his baby books and notice that one timeless photo is missing. He will ask, "Mom, where is my baby picture with Santa?" and I will have to tell him that "Santa had some hungry reindeer that year."

Liam and I braved the mall on 3 separate occasions at 3 different times of day to try to sit on Santa's lap. All 3 times, we were turned away because as the sign stated, "Santa was feeding his reindeer." It is important to note that the sign does not say when these feedings are to occur each day.

Liam really didn't seem to mind not waiting in the long line and I am guessing he would prefer Daddy's lap over Santa's, so it really worked out well for him. And even though I tell myself that I don't need the famous Santa picture for every year, there may be some clever photoshoping in my future.

We will fill you in on Liam's first Christmas after the holidays, but we sincerely hope that everyone has a safe and wonderful Christmas and a fantastic New Year. Oh, and if you are going to the mall to visit Santa, you might want to bring some reindeer food to help speed up the process.

A couple of firsts

2008-12-13T21:17:00.010-05:00

Liam has had some new experiences lately. He played Picasso for an afternoon and experienced "painting" with his play group. I put this is quotes because having a baby paint is more like letting them swim in non-toxic goo. Just getting him to stay still long enough to make some hand prints and foot prints for the reindeer was a challenge. He had a great time though and I think I am going to have to make it a regular thing for him.

He also attended his first birthday party for one of the babies in his group. Adrianna was supposed to be born around the same time as Liam, but was 4 months early. She is doing amazingly well and Liam was thrilled to celebrate the day with her. His personality is a lot like his father's: very gregarious and social. He loves to be around people: one of the other fathers even remarked, "Liam seems to be the center of attention and it is not even his party!"

If you are painting using their hands and feet as a stamp, I recommend using a sleeping baby.

Another recommendation: Make sure you realize that only a very small amount of the paint will end up on the paper.

Liam had his face painted at the party. This lasted for about 3 minutes.

Not only is Liam a ham, but he is, unfortunately, kind of a bully.

The birthday girl enjoying her first taste of sugar.

Sweetness

2008-12-07T21:39:00.003-05:00

Liam had a really tough time falling asleep tonight, so I went up to his room to try to help. At first, I tried holding him in the rocking chair, but he just struggled. So, I turned on the lights and got on the floor with him to play. We quietly played for about 20 minutes and then I gradually dimmed the lights and started to pretend I was going to sleep on the floor. Over the next 20 minutes, the room got darker and Liam played and crawled less and less. Eventually, he crawled over to me and put his head on my arms to fall asleep :) While falling asleep, he kept reaching back to hold my hand or grab my finger :) That was a highlight of my life so far.
After he seemed to be asleep for about a minute, I got up (he popped his head up too) and put him in his crib. He feel right back to sleep and we haven't heard him since.

Lingua Liam and Giving Thanks

2008-12-01T22:43:00.001-05:00

We've started teaching Liam sign language because babies can learn to communicate with their hands before they have enough control over their voices to talk. As the book on sign language I got from the library points out, babies use sign language without instruction. For example, if Liam lifts both arms up, he wants to be picked up; if he reaches toward something with one arm and out-stretched hand, he wants it (or to be taken to it); rubbing his eyes means he's tired. These signs seem to be pretty universally used by babies and understood by parents without any coaching.

The book recommends teaching no more than 3 signs a day, no more than one sign per sentence and recommends starting with "more", "eat", and "milk" because they are usually the easiest to learn. They're easy because they don't involve much dexterity and they are things babies frequently want and need help getting. The book also recommends opportunistically teaching a simple sign for something of particular interest to the baby. For Liam, this has usually been "cat" so far. He now studies our gestures as we sign. If we're consistent, the book says he might mimic a sign in the next 8 to 10 weeks.

Thanksgiving was terrific. We got together at two big family celebrations and Liam loved it. He has always loved being around lots of people and new things. Since he's happier, and we have so many helping hands, we can relax and enjoy ourselves too. Liam got sick just before Thanksgiving and woke up every 3 hours during the night like he did as a newborn. It was sad to hear his little coughs and labored breathing while he tried to sleep. He seems to be over it now and slept through the night last night for the first time in days. In honor of Turkey day, Liam had his first meat in the form of some chicken and sweet potato baby food. He liked it, but he's liked almost everything he can eat so far, so he's not too picky. Just don't try peas and rice together (separately is still fine)!

Liam is still learning new things each day. As this blog also serves as our baby book, I'll list some: army crawl across the floor (necessitating some child-proofing measures), clap his hands with a huge open-mouthed smile, wave, stand up (while holding something for support like a foot-stool), point at things he's interested in (right hand only), turn off the electric piano, and make one of his toys play "la cucaracha" ad nauseam :) while rocking back and forth to the beat.

Happy Birthday, Aunt Ria

2008-11-21T22:27:00.005-05:00

1 score, and 16 years ago, Liam's Aunt Ria was born (109 years to the day that the Gettysburg Address was given.) To celebrate, Liam, his mom and his Aunt Ria all ventured to Gettysburg where they stood in some chilly weather and took in a bit of history. While visiting, Liam was lucky enough to meet a troupe of Union soldiers and a skinny lawyer turned Senator turned President from Illinois.
Unfortunately, a day after these pictures were taken, Liam came down with his first fever and head cold. Luckily for his mom and aunt, the doctor assured them that the cold was not brought on by the trip. That certainly doesn't make it any easier to see a temperature of nearly 103 on the thermometer. Infant's Motrin is a great thing, but I wish there was a medicine that would allow the parent to carry the pain of the cold instead of the baby.

A new direction

2008-11-08T10:34:00.008-05:00

Liam began the week by visiting the polls with his parents; despite all the media about long lines, we amazingly walked right up the booth and were able to cast our vote for Obama in a matter of minutes. If you look closely at the picture, you can see both Steve and Liam are sporting their "I voted" stickers. Go Obama! We are looking forward to seeing this country grow in a new direction.
Liam is also starting to go in a new direction...well, a direction anyway. He is in the beginning stages of crawling and is now slugging along like he is doing a slow and messy military crawl. It is a little disconcerting when you leave your once immobile son in one place and then turn your back for a second only to find him in a whole new place. The doctor said his weight would prevent him from being an early crawler and it does seem to cause him to work pretty hard at it. I am guessing he will be in full motion by Thanksgiving. You can see the struggle in the video below.

Toucan Liam

2008-10-31T20:47:00.007-04:00

We have all heard of Toucan Sam, but did you know that there is also a Toucan Liam? He has a much rounder head, has legs far from those of a bird, and is still too young to eat fruit loops--he also loves to participate in Halloween events.
Liam celebrated this holiday without the candy, but he did participate in a few get-togethers. On Thursday, he played with other dressed up babies from his play group. The photo shown was one of the best we got. I don't know how catalogs take group pictures of babies--it seems that only a few of the little guys were content in their costumes and some would never look at a camera. He also donned his bird suit for a luncheon at my work where he joined other animals like a cheetah, cat and bunny. With the weather being rather mild, Liam and his parents ended the evening on the porch handing out candy to the neighborhood kids. All in-all, not a bad Halloween. I wonder, though, is he going to look back at this costume and ask, "Mom, why did you make me be a butterfly!"

Entertaining Liam

2008-10-29T08:06:00.005-04:00

There is a book out now called, "Naptime is the New Happy Hour". Unfortunately for me, that is all I get--one hour. Liam likes to take two 1/2 hour naps a day and he also likes someone to interact with him at all times during the periods that he is awake; this can be very exhausting for his caretaker. For this reason, we have a colorful assortment of chairs, toys, pillows and bouncers sprinkled around the house for his enjoyment. As he gets bored with one method of entertainment, we move him to another. His latest (and I think greatest) gadget is the jolly jumper from his grandparents Luke. We have a small video of Liam being "jolly" but I don't think it shows how much fun it really looks. The other video shows how we have to get creative with playtime since he is up for about 12 hours a day.

In other Liam news, he officially says Ma-Ma. This is not as wonderful a milestone as it sounds; I do not think he associates it with me and seems to only say it when he is frustrated and wants something. I think this might be why women are referred to as Ma-Ma: back in the day, cavemen must have been sitting around when suddenly their little one would get frustrated and call Ma-Ma. The men would probably look at each other, grunt, and say, "Woman, I think he is calling for you."

Fall has fallen

2008-10-20T09:50:00.007-04:00

This past weekend, Liam went to a local farm where he met up with some friends, saw his first pumpkin and helped his mom and dad pick some apples. I think the main reason you take your 7 month old out to a place like this is for the picture opportunities. Lugging a 22 pound baby through the apple orchard does not making picking fruit any easier, but it does make it more fun. We met up with the other babies, moms and dads from the mommy and me group. It was funny to see one parent with a baby in a carrier and the other with a big bag of apples. It was also neat to see how consistent all the babies were; at the beginning (around noon), all the babies were wide-eyed and excited, but by the end, some were sleeping on their parent's chests and others were fussy--anxious to get back in the car for their 2:00 nap.

As it has been a while since we have posted, I will do double duty on this post and show some video as well. Liam seems to be picking up on the rules of peek-a-boo. I can't really tell if he really understands or if his arms are just in automatic flapping mode and I happen to be saying the phrase at the right time. He has given us several repeat performances, so I am going to say that he is a smart baby and understands this game perfectly.

Happy 31st, Daddy!

2008-10-05T14:39:00.004-04:00

Steve turned 31 on Friday and Liam has been busy celebrating with his Daddy. We started with a trip to a steak house and because Liam can now sit in a high chair and is on a somewhat predictable schedule, we were able to have a good family meal out. We just have to be sure to be home by 8 for bedtime (Liam's rules, not ours) and have a diaper bag filled with toys and some baby food. We also celebrated by having people over on Saturday for games. Liam loves being around a bunch of people who will oogle and make funny faces in his direction. We closed the weekend with some time with Steve's mom, dad and sister where he saw his first birthday cake--after this picture was taken there was a nice little baby sized hand print in the icing! Happy Birthday, Steve--thanks for being born and thanks for giving us Liam.

Out of arms length

2008-10-02T20:51:00.005-04:00

At our last doctor's visit, the doctor encouraged us to start baby proofing the house. While it seems ridiculously early to make sure that all cabinets and drawers can not be opened, we do have to do a bit a baby proofing every time we sit Liam down. As he takes a seat, we must now look around and see what is in his radius and ask ourselves "should he have access to that." He grabs everything. The problem, as these pictures show, is that even if there is nothing within his reach, sometimes an animal will accidentally cross his path. I have seen Liam literally throw himself on the poor creature. So far, all pets have been amazingly patient while he grabs a tuft of hair or an ear. He also can't seem to get enough stuff in his hands. In this last picture, he has a small ring in his mouth while he uses his hands to toy with the bag it came in.

The 6 month doctor visit was uneventful. The doctor said he is perfectly healthy. He is still big (29 inches long and 20 lbs), but not as big--he has gone from the 97th percentile to the 95th. As Steve says, that is still a solid A.

Back from Bean-Town

2008-09-17T10:26:00.008-04:00

Steve had a conference up in Boston these last couple of days, so Liam and I decided to join him so that we could visit our old (and one very new) friends. Liam was once again an excellent traveler and enjoyed the hour long plane ride trying to figure out how to unlatch the tray table in front of him.

Liam seems to be very extroverted and is enthusiastic about being around people. He was thrilled that our friends Kitty and Jamie not only have a new friend for him to beat up (6 week old son Luke was not harmed during the taking of these photos), but Jamie's parents were also in town and he really put on a show for them.He was so wound up from our days hanging out with friends, he had a hard time going to sleep in the hotel room. We would give him a bath and put his pajamas on him, but he would just sit on the bed ooohing, cooing and sucking his toes. When we returned last night, he was very excited to tell his Papo (thanks dad for watching over our house) about his trip and forgot all about his 8 bed time.

Happy 6 month Birthday

2008-09-13T22:43:00.007-04:00

To my little (or not so little) Liam:

The days and months seem to be zooming along and every day I wake up and am thankful you are in my life. On a daily basis, I love to look at you and watch you grow. To steal some words from my own mother: "You are like a prism--I want to hold you up to the light and see all sides of you." You are becoming your own little fascinating person: curious about all things including tv screens, people and paper. It is funny what a mother becomes proud of. I am proud of your chubby little hands, your ability to sit up at a young age, your amazing growth, but especially your smile. I love to make you laugh. Some words that get you going are boggles, boggie-woggie-woo and odd mouth noises. I like to play "where's mommy" and hide from you for a few seconds only to see your look of delight when I reappear. We also play "stack the blocks." I can stack about 6 blocks before you reach out and tear the whole thing down. I fear for the house and the animals in a couple of months; the girls in your play group lightly touch and reach for their toys while you seem to be on a seek and destroy mission.
Happy 6 month birthday, Liam! You took all the expectations I had about becoming a parent and threw them out the window, but you are so much better than I could have imagined.

Telekinesis

2008-09-01T21:51:00.002-04:00

Liam is getting really good at sitting up on his own. He started out trying to sit up a while ago, but can now really sit on his own for a couple of minutes and interact with us, play with toys, and turn around a bit.

It's really interesting to watch his learning process. Right now, he's learning how to coordinate his movements - something we all take for granted once we're past a few years old. At first, he would concentrate hard on moving his arms and hands to grasp things. It is cool to think about it from his perspective - it must be like slowly discovering you have telekinesis ("hey, I can move these things on the end of my arm with just my mind!"). He is still sometimes fascinated with his own hands and how he can literally manipulate them.

Now he's learning about moving his legs and feet in a similar way - it started with random-looking leg movement when he's excited, but each day the movements become more purposeful. He can grab a toy between his two feet and bring it up to his hands, which then put it straight into his mouth. I can see the early stages of crawling as he lifts himself off his tummy onto his knees and elbows, and then almost pushes himself forward. One of the cute things he does now is to lift his head off the mattress while he's on his tummy and peek over the crib wall to see me. This, of course, usually draws me right back over to the crib to continue playing instead of letting him go to sleep :)

There's a similar process with his vocalization. It started with random sounds when he's excited, but is starting to get a little more speech-like at times. At first, his favorite phrases were "ra" and "la" but he now loves to say "bthv." Of course, without more than his two teeth, the "th" is very fuzzy and cute.

Speaking of teeth, he's got some coming through up top. The middle two, and the two on either side are starting to show. Beware of offering a finger for him to hold, it's likely to be thrust straight into his mouth for a nice bite!

He always makes me smile. No matter how tired I might feel sometimes, I brighten up when I walk into a room and see Liam. He's got an extroverted, easy-going and sometimes bubbly personality and an infectious laugh and smile. He's become very cuddly too, which I love. My favorite thing is to make him laugh. He loves to laugh at funny noises and faces and getting tickled or kissed on the cheek.

Go Bananas!

2008-08-29T21:51:00.006-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, Liam tried his first fruit--banana. As you can tell by the photo, he didn't much care for the first few mouthfuls; by the end, however, he decided that food is food and was fairly content--even though most of the fruit ended up on his bib. He is very funny to feed with a spoon. Used to having a constant flow of nourishment when eating, he is frustrated and tries to speed the process up by guiding my hand with the spoon to his mouth. While clever, this action actually slows the process down because he brings the spoon to him so the side of the handle goes into his mouth. This makes him mad and after a few times of the handle providing no food, we have to stop this silly spoon thing and return to the delicious milk.

This past week Liam has had his share of visitors: my friend Rell from New Mexico, cousin CJ and his 2 children from Chicago, and Steve's friend Alex from California. Unfortunately, we failed to get pictures of all of our guests, but we did get one with Rell. We were always goofy in high school and being around a child didn't necessarily make us the adults--I think the title of this post is more for us than for Liam.

5 months and movin' on up

2008-08-12T13:45:00.010-04:00

For a few weeks now, Liam has been taking his baths with his knees in his face, crammed up into his little baby bath tub. Finally, his parents decided that the whole point of the bath was to relax him and how comfortable can you be in a bath that is as big as you are. So, Liam moved on up to the big boy bath tub. Because he can't physically hold himself up, he has to sit in a chair in the bath. As is typical with Liam, he wasn't so sure of this new concept of bath time, but after thinking about it and seeing his rubber ducky, he decided this new bath isn't so bad.
As we say happy 5 months to Liam, we should also remind him to get used to this concept of change. He is outgrowing everything. His infant carrier, his bumbo chair and he is getting a new high chair very soon. As Steve says, "soon, we will be giving him the keys to the car."

Happy Liam a couple months ago in his baby tub

Liam enjoys the before and after bath time routine too--Dad usually gets him ready for bed.

First taste of solids

2008-08-03T21:20:00.000-04:00

I had to have a medical procedure this week and because of some of the medications I was taking, Liam was forced to have bottles of stored milk for a day and a half. I wonder if there has been a study done on whether bottle fed kids are more patient than other children? When Liam is hungry, he in no way wants to wait for you to prepare a bottle. Because of this, we decided it would be a good idea for him to have his first taste of rice cereal. We were hoping that it would help him sleep through the night better and groggy parents wouldn't have to do any bottle preparation at 2 in the morning.
To begin with, we tried it with a spoon--which Liam definitely did not like. This was demonstrated by crying and spitting the food back up; we, however, were not so easily deterred and we cleverly put a tablespoon of the cereal in his bottle. He drank it all up. It is rather comical to watch Liam drink a bottle. He is all business and I am pretty sure he can tell if there is more in the bottle and will not let it out of his sight until every last drop has been drunk.
The rice cereal along with his recent self soothing technique of sucking his thumb has been helping him sleep through the night. Now we just have to conquer using a spoon!

2nd cousins

2008-08-01T16:45:00.006-04:00

As mentioned before, I come from a pretty big family...to put it in perspective, Liam has 48 cousins-once-removed. If each of those cousins has 2 kids, Liam would have close to 100 second cousins. In the past couple of weeks, Liam has had an opportunity to meet a few of his second cousins. While in Portland, he met Grayson (9 months old). He is also a sturdy boy and is at the top of the charts for weight and height...it is in the genes.
When we got back from the trip, Liam had a chance to meet Paige, Shannon and Lindsey--Steve's cousin, Mary's, kids. They loved observing him on the video monitor.

Hopefully, Liam will soon be able to meet his new second cousin's: Finn and William. Also, while not related by blood, Liam will soon need to meet a possible friend. One of my close girlfriends, Kitty, had baby Luke on July 31st. Congratulations to all the new mamas and papas!

Ginormous Child

2008-07-24T21:13:00.029-04:00

We are back from the west and are trying to get back on East Coast time. I am beginning to feel like Liam is a night-owl like his dad because going to Pacific time was a pretty easy transition for him, but lately he has been sleeping in and going to bed later than usual.

I continue to be amazed at the rate of Liam's growth. Whenever I take him out, people will ask how old he is and be amazed when I say four months--they say things like "he is strong" and "what a healthy baby", but I know they are thinking "what a ginormous child". Before we left for the trip, we had Liam's check-up and he was 18.28 pounds and 27 1/2 inches long. This put him in the 97th and 100th percentiles respectively. Much to the doctor's surprise, he even has two little teeth coming in.

While we were in Portland, the we put the moby through its paces--when you have a big baby, sometimes you need a little assistance carrying him :) Sadly, we did not get a picture of everyone who tried out the moby, but here are a few. I also wanted to share a picture of my mom's side of the family. We were there to pay tribute to her and it is so nice that she comes from a big family...they say it takes a village; here is just some of Liam's village.

Liam's First Trip

2008-07-19T12:43:00.000-04:00

Liam had his first trip out of state Thursday and his first plane trip. He was upset in the airport as we waiting for our delayed flight, but went to sleep soon after we boarded and stayed sleeping for the entire flight. It was a bit awkward to have so much stuff along with carrying the baby, but overall, it really wasn't bad. I think Liam was pretty happy with it and barely cried any more than he would normally at home. We arrived really late Thursday night and, after a short introduction of Liam to our hosts, we went to sleep. Liam only got up once during the night and then we got up and went for a 6 mile walk with the extended family. We strolled along the esplanade and saw downtown Portland a little. That evening we went to a wedding and Liam was, once again, very "well-behaved" (i.e. quiet and happy) during the ceremony and slept through most of the reception. He was up for a while though and got a fun ride in the Moby with his "fisherman" hat. He slept through the night last night and continues to be wonderful on this trip.

What's so funny

2008-07-08T13:42:00.004-04:00

WebMD published an article recently saying that a child's smile is a natural high for his mom (you can read the article here). Lucky for this mom, Betty really discovered something the other day: if you ask Liam, "what's so funny?" he will respond with a big grin and a laugh. As this video shows, we really got him going as he found the phrase to be downright hilarious. I think he really knows what is funny, but he finds it funny that we have to ask a baby.
In other Liam news, last night, Liam FINALLY slept through the night. From 11pm to 5:30am, he was in the land of nod. Unfortunately, his mom did not make it through the night undisturbed. After 2am, I was up every hour awaiting his nightly feeding and paranoid because he was sleeping on his tummy. I was also upset because I was missing a rare opportunity to get some REM sleep--if only he would have woken up, then I could have at least had a natural high by asking him what is so funny!

Stronger than yesterday

2008-06-26T21:17:00.004-04:00

Even though Liam is an early roller, he hates being on his tummy. While face down, he makes a lot of uhh and ehh groaning noises which are usually followed by cries. While he still prefers lying on his back, he has started to at least tolerate being on his stomach. My friend Mariel and her mother bought Liam a nifty little tummy-time tool which resembles putting Liam on a clock so he can spin around and see 5 different play stations. For the first time this week, Liam might have enjoyed himself while spinning around. His neck is getting much stronger and he is realizing that his arms can help him lift up. This is great news for his parents, who, after getting a second opinion from another doctor, have decided to let Liam sleep in the crib instead of a chair at night.
He is also getting more coordinated and is actually holding onto objects. While he still is not grabbing at his toys, he will, when an object is placed on his stomach, grasp it and put it in his mouth. It doesn't seem like much, but the books say this is helping him develop hand-eye coordination...something this parent has always lacked.
While we might not have a soccer player on our hands, we do have a music lover. Today, during mommy and me, we had a music teacher who inspired the infants with bells, drums sticks and fun little ditties. Liam loved the whole program, especially the part where we banged on sticks. I have a feeling I better lock up my pots and pans.

Nach Vorne, Nach Hinten

2008-06-20T22:08:00.004-04:00

During my freshman year of highschool, my German teacher, Frau Luchini, taught us a German song: Nach Vorne, Nach Hinten. Translated, this song reads "To the front, To the back, To the left, to the Right, to the Up, To the Down, To the Left, To the Right." During this song, we were required to actually make the directional movements. Little did I know then that over 15 years later I would use this German song to bring laughter to my first born. You have to excuse the singing and the camera work, but you will get a glimpse of a Liam laugh.
As a parent, it is very rewarding to be able to make your child smile and laugh. For a long time, I was convinced that Liam would be identifying with Oscar the Grouch.

Rock and Roll

2008-06-19T20:16:00.004-04:00

I'm blogging while monitoring again and have just watched Liam roll onto his tummy, and then roll himself back onto his back! Although he could roll onto his tummy already, I think this is the first time I've seen him do the reverse, which is the more important skill considering the extreme warnings about letting your baby sleep on his/her tummy. Although my entire generation always slept on our front, it is now considered a dangerous activity to be avoided at all costs - including not letting mom and dad sleep because they must constantly monitor baby.
Just as I finished writing that sentence, he rolled onto his tummy and got stuck. I had to go up and roll him back, so I guess we're not "out of the woods" yet!

Happy Father's Day, Steve

2008-06-16T22:26:00.006-04:00

Steve's first father's day was filled with family and even a small little laugh from Liam. His first father's day coincided with Liam's 3rd month birthday, and true to all the baby books, it seems to be a major milestone. He is gradually stretching out his feeding times to be 3-4 hours during the day (although he is still on a 3 hour schedule at night--argh!); he also seems very happy during the times that he is awake as long as you dance, sing or make funny faces to entertain him. I am excited for the day that he can play peek-a-boo and worry that I might be making it rather trivial as I keep trying with no reaction from Liam besides a look of, "Yeah, so what. I've seen you do that since the day I was born." He is also holding his head up almost all by himself and he seems less fragile than before (although, at his weight, I am not sure if fragility was ever an adjective I would have used to describe him).

Moving and Talking

2008-06-12T20:24:00.004-04:00

I'm currently watching Liam on our video monitor as he "sleeps" in his crib. His head is now where his feet were 30 minutes ago. He keeps curling up and rolling onto his side, then uncurling. He always does this on his left side and it always rotates him a little bit counter-clockwise, so he just keep spinning around in the crib. His eyes are definitely open and he keeps sticking his hands in his mouth, so we'll see when he actually goes to sleep...

Liam is also doing a lot of "talking" recently. He seems to especially get talkative when I am around. He usually says some combination of "Lah" and "Rah" but has a few other cute sounds in his repertoire. I've been trying to capture these phenomena on video to post here, but as soon as he sees a camera, he is fascinated by it and stops everything he was doing. He smiles more each day and sometimes lets out a joyful little shriek and that always makes us happy and laugh.

Since Liam is now able to roll himself over on to his tummy, but is not quite 3 months, our doctor directed us to not let him sleep in the crib over night while we sleep, until he is at least 4 months old! So, now he sleeps in the papasan chair Mariel gave us over night.

OK, he seems to have fallen asleep while I wrote this (30 minutes of moving and then 3 minutes to fall asleep). Good thing we have this video monitor - thanks mom and dad!!

Mommy and Me

2008-06-05T14:19:00.009-04:00

Liam and I have been exploring our world lately. We have been so adventurous that we have made it to the mall twice, Target and the grocery store once, and even to my office a few times. He is getting to the point that you can count on him not to cry for at least two hours. Getting out seems to be good for both of us--the activity mat can only be so entertaining for so long.

Once a week, Liam and I go to a Mommy and me support group sponsored by the county that we live in. There are 4 other moms and babies in the group and we mostly just sit around and talk about the progress of our children and what issues we are personally dealing with. We usually have a guest speaker such as a nurse practitioner or a baby massager. During the meeting, I can't help but notice how active and alert Liam is. He seems very interested in all the other babies sleeping in their mom's arms and I think he gets a kick out of making me walk around so he can see everything. Every time I go, I am also struck with how big Liam is...he always looks like he is ready to eat the other babies for breakfast. The pictures don't seem to show the enormity of the weight difference, but some of these babies (all older than 5 weeks) don't even weigh as much as he did when he was born. One thing this group has taught me is that all babies are different.

Gavs weekend

2008-06-03T11:23:00.007-04:00

Once a year, my girlfriends from Boston and I get together to talk, shop and do "girly" things. We named ourselves "The Gavs" and even came up with a little ditty to sing when we are all together. This year, Gavs-fest was a little different--no longer was it about finding a cool destination and sitting on the beach with a glass of wine. Instead, the Gavs were kind enough to journey to Liam and we found ourselves working around a baby's sometimes unpredictable schedule. Luckily for us, Steve was around and did a lot of daddy duty so we could get out for a bite to eat and even saw Sex and the City. Future Gavs weekends will probably be more of the same as one Gav, Kitty, is pregnant with her first and is due in August. Another Gav, Melissa, is in her 2nd trimester with twins. You can guess that wine was not a hot commodity this weekend, but fortunately for Liam, holding a baby was. In the picture above, Liam is trying to be part of the Gavs, but by the end of the weekend, he is showing how tired he is of all the girl talk.

First Visits

2008-05-27T20:34:00.005-04:00

My sister came to visit for the first time since Liam was born and met her first nephew! She was a natural with him and dove straight into activity time with funny noises and funny faces. In this photo, Liam shows off his ability to "walk" from mom to aunt. My sister gave Liam a rattle-blanket combo that should prove to be a nice "b'anky" for him. A few of my college friends drove in to town this weekend to visit and meet Liam too. Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pictures while they were here. They gave us two fun toys (they help keep us parents entertained too!) and played with Liam on the activity mat. I actually got him to laugh a couple days ago during activity time. He's been smiling a lot, but this was the first ha-ha-ha I've witnessed. It was extremely rewarding :)
Liam is getting much more settled into his routine over the past month. He gets up between 6 and 6:30 AM, and begins his Eat, Activity, Sleep cycles. At about 7:15 each night, he wants his bath and bedtime ritual. He still gets up every three hours at night for nursing. He's gotten good at going to sleep with minimal help from us. We decided to let him cry for up to two minutes before rushing in to "shush-pat" him. At first, it took a couple rounds of crying and "shush-patting" before he'd go to sleep, but now it usually takes only one, and sometimes he just goes to sleep without any crying. That has freed up a lot of time for us (we used to spend 30-60 minutes each nap-time getting him to sleep).
Liam is also getting better at holding his head up and sitting up as you can see in these photos. He's still a bit of a bobble-head, but he doesn't need the constant support we gave his head just a few weeks ago. As always, he gets more and more alert each day and that's really fun for us as parents.

Addicted

2008-05-22T15:29:00.001-04:00

As a follow up to Steve's post about how Liam gets to sleep, I feel the need to tell all of you that I and (if I can be so bold as to speak for him) Liam are addicted to the swaddle. It looks terribly uncomfortable, but it quiets him down almost from the minute you velcro him in (we use the swaddles for dummies). I spoke to the doctor about it, and he thinks it is fine to keep swaddling him. Unfortunately, the pre-made swaddles only go up to 20 lbs, so we have been trying to phase it out. As you can see from the video below, moving to the sleep sack instead of the swaddle has not been an easy transition. He is obviously very tired in the clip, but can't seem to get to sleep because his silly arms keep hitting him in the face. In comparison, the swaddle lets him be as snug as a bug in a rug.

There's Always a Bigger Fish

2008-05-16T10:09:00.002-04:00

No matter how little sleep Liam allows us to get (or especially Annika to get), or how little sleep anyone else got while a new parent, we all have/had it better than this poor family in Florida:

http://www.local6.com/health/16276040/detail.html (you might have to scroll down a ways to see the actual article)

Their son was born with a rare problem that caused him to NEVER sleep (no naps, no nighttime sleeping) for 3 years! His parents had to take shifts sleeping so that someone was always awake to watch him. His dad quit his job to take care of him full time while his mom took an extra job to help pay for medical bills. Just this month, he underwent an experimental surgery that seems to have corrected the problem.

2 month check-up

2008-05-15T10:49:00.007-04:00

Liam turned 2 months yesterday and the occasion was marked by a trip to the doctor for a check-up and some shots. As was suspected, Liam is doing great. The doctor was very impressed by his weight gain. Since he hadn't been weighed since his last check-up, his parents were also in awe by the 14 lbs 11 oz that was read on the scale. Turns out, he is in the 97th percentile for weight and at 2ft and 1/2 inch, he is in the 93rd percentile for height. He also passed all the tests such as lifting his head up while on his tummy and following an object from the midline.
The shots were not pleasant and seemed to make for a tired Liam and a worried mommy, but he is doing fine today and doesn't even seem to notice the few sticks that he got with the needle.

Below are some pictures of Liam; the first one is of him on St. Patty's day (3 days old) and the other one is of him as he is now. You can see that he has really filled out the outfit that my Aunt Jannie gave to him. In fact, that is the only 0-3 month outfit that still fits him. He has moved into the 3-6 month range. I guess he is an over achiever! Now, if only he could figure out the code on the wall!

Activity Mat

2008-05-08T22:55:00.005-04:00

Liam spends some time every day on an "activity mat." This is basically a piece of cloth with two arches crossing above it. From the arches hang various items that might interest a baby like toys and mirrors. In the first picture, we see what Liam looks like on one of the mats from our point of view. In the second, we see Liam's point of view while lying on the same mat and looking up. Of course, he can also look around and see other dangling toys and he always does. We usually put him down on the mat and talk, read and sing to him while he looks around and bats at the toys. After a while, he gets bored and we pull him half-way out so he gets a new view. When he starts getting cranky again, we pick him up and walk or dance around with him as he settles down.

In my last post, I might have given the false impression that Liam is easy to put to sleep. Let me expand on that a little. Sometimes, it takes an hour or more to get Liam to sleep and it might involve a fair amount of crying. However, sometimes (especially after a long period of activity time) it only takes about 30 minutes - 10 minutes of put down, cry, pick up, repeat - 10 minutes of calmly lying there or "dozing" - 10 more minutes of pick up, walk, put down, cry, repeat. After that second round, he tends to really fall asleep for a while (at least 30 minutes). Here's a video of Liam during those middle 10 minutes of calmly lying there.

And we're back

2008-05-07T22:00:00.006-04:00

Its been too long since we posted anything here. Liam is still growing and staying awake longer during the day. His bedtime ritual is pretty established and we're getting into the eat-activity-sleep cycle on a fairly regular basis. We can now put him in the crib awake and he can fall asleep on his own. However, he usually needs to be picked up and walked around a few times before that happens. We're slowly phasing him out of the full swaddles and into sleep sacks (though he still gets a full swaddle for night-time sleeping). He tends to nap for about an hour each time except for one long nap usually in the mid afternoon. He's been getting to sleep by around 9 each night and still wakes up around 7am. Don't get me wrong, he still wakes up during the night for nursing, but 6-7am is his real wake up time - he usually sleeps through the midnight nursings. We take him on two walks a day and he loves those. He generally sleeps through them and it gives us a chance to just talk to each other. To protect his little bald head from the sun, we sometimes put a hat on him. Sometimes, the hat makes him look like he's a woman going for a swim in the 1920s like the one in this picture :)

We've read quite a few books to Liam already during his many activity times. He loves to lie on his "activity mat" and look up at the dangling toys and mirrors. This is a picture of Liam on one of those mats. He likes to bat the toys around with his hands and legs and look in the mirrors. We also still do the Elmo chicken dance every time (thanks again Beth!). Sometimes, we hold his feet so he can push himself along the ground by straightening his legs. He enjoys being able to move himself around like that.

He also loves to stand up (with us making sure he doesn't fall over). He's got strong legs. The main thing he's lacking is balance. A close second to standing is sitting up like he is in this picture. He looks so much older to us when he's upright and he looks much taller when he's standing up.

Fully Dressed

2008-04-28T09:55:00.005-04:00

There is a song in the musical Annie that says, "you are never fully dressed without a smile." I am very happy to report that as of last week, Liam is fully dressed. He is starting to become much more animated and I feel as though he is starting to imitate us. During activity time, Steve and I make faces at him and he seems to really enjoy it, although sometimes I wonder if he is thinking, "these guys are nuts". He has also recently noticed himself and spends some time admiring his cute little face in a mirror--I guess he can't resist either.
Here is some video of one of his first smiles; I also edited a small little coo that we heard. (Amazing what parents thrive on!)

Nurser(y)

2008-04-24T22:27:00.007-04:00

I took some time off to watch Liam while Annika went back to her office today. Liam slept for two hours and then woke up hungry, so I put him in the Moby and gave him a bottle, which he chugged like a frat boy chugs beer. Now, he only drank about 3-4 ounces, not a pint (or yard), but still, he was hungry. After some activity time, he got tired and eventually fell asleep in the swing. It went very well and is the longest Annika has been away from Liam so far. He's got enough of a routine that we were confident that he'd sleep for most of the time she was at the office and only need one or two feedings (which we had enough milk for). I'm sure that once we get a routine down, he'll change it on us though.

Liam's activity times are still getting more interactive by the day. He "smiles" more each time and is more fun to interact with. Chicken Dance Elmo is still a favorite of his (thanks Beth) and, of course, he loves to stare at lights (and don't we all... we just switch from bulbs to LCDs and Plasma).

My mom bought a crib bumper and bed skirt from the Pottery Barn collection we used to decorate the nursery and worked with my dad to create a window valence and curtains for the nursery window. The valence is a section of the bumper pad that shows scenes from the Hey Diddle Diddle nursery rhyme. They look quite professional and custom-made to fit our window and the decorations of the room. They also got us a diaper stacker and sewed a section of the bumper on it to tie it in with the theme as well. Thanks mom and dad!

The Not-So Earth Friendly Baby :(

2008-04-22T15:39:00.017-04:00

I remember being pregnant and telling people that I was planning on using cloth diapers. I had gotten a recommendation that they are much more modern and easy to use--you just have to make the investment and pay the $15 a diaper price tag. After doing a little research, I found that you will change approximately eight thousand diapers per child; so, even though, the initial investment is steep, you end up saving money in the long run. Plus, I thought it was only fair that I go the extra mile in laundry for mother earth.
Neighbors, friends and relatives all asked me to let them know how long it was before Liam was in disposables. The answer is one day! It is not because Steve and I were lazy and didn't like the messiness or extra laundry--unfortunately, they haven't worked yet. I figured laundering his diaper, his clothes, my clothes, and the couch upholstery was worse for the environment than one disposable diaper. I haven't given up on them yet. I am still hoping that he will grow and they will stop leaking.

In honor of earth day, I wanted to show everyone these cute disposable diapers that Melissa, Kitty and my sister were all kind enough to invest in for us. They really are stylish and come in great colors. So, even if they are not as earth friendly as Al Gore would have liked, they might be in for Heidi Klum.

Better All The Time

2008-04-19T21:29:00.011-04:00

Like the Beatles said: "it's getting better all the time." Liam is sleeping for longer stretches and when he's awake, he's more likely to be alert and curious than he used to be. He's also becoming more predictable:
7am wake up and eat a lot
1-2pm cranky for a bit and then a long nap
8pm get really cranky, take a swing ride and / or bath
8:30 - 9pm get into bedtime routine of sleeping with intervals drowsy nursing every 2.5 hours.

He's also been riding in his stroller on two walks each day with us and he tends to sleep through them.

This routine is good in a number of ways - he sleeps more at a stretch which means Annika does also; he sleeps more at night than during the day; and he's getting a bedtime routine established. His awake and alert "activity" times are becoming more fun because they are lasting longer and he interacts more by following objects and paying attention to things and faces.
This photo shows Liam during one of his activity times today, looking up at Annika with curiosity.

In this video, Liam is entertained by "Chicken Dance Elmo" a gift from my co-worker Beth. Note: Annika is off camera moving Liam's legs for him... he's not that coordinated yet.

One Month

2008-04-14T23:33:00.004-04:00

Its been one month since we met Liam for the first time on his birthday. He's already grown so much! If he continues growing in length and weight like he has been, he'll be 131 feet tall and 1,568 pounds by the time he's 30! If he maintains his current length-to-weight ratio, he'll weigh only 36 pounds when he's 6 feet tall! That gives you an idea of how quickly babies grow at this age.

Over the past three days, Liam has gotten much better about sleeping. Its probably due to a combination of us figuring out how to meet his needs better, and him getting old and big enough to handle longer periods of sleep. Our friends Nate and Kris came over Saturday night for a wonderful dinner they prepared and a fun round of bridge. Liam was terrific throughout their stay. My parents came by Sunday and also brought Mexican take-out for dinner, which was delicious. As always, Liam was generally very sweet with the occasional crying fit. He seems to be cranky as we transition up to the bedroom at night and downstairs in the morning. He also seems to have an afternoon crankiness sometimes. Having just those 2 or 3 times a day is much more manageable than the less predictable patterns before.

We're also getting more competent and confident in soothing him. We've got the swing, Moby, rocking chair, pacifier, swaddlers etc. all ready to go as needed :) Taking him on a daily walk in the stroller also seems to help him calm down and sleep, and it helps us by giving us time to just talk like we always used to on walks. I think we're also finally starting to differentiate his hungry cries from his other cries which is helpful in quickly addressing his needs (and thus minimizing the crying). I'm very impressed with Annika's ability as a mom and I feel really lucky to have her taking care of Liam so much.

Happy 1 month Birthday.

2008-04-11T22:01:00.026-04:00

It is hard to believe that Liam has only been with us for one month. Our days seem so full with him that it is difficult to remember what our lives were like as a childless couple. Steve keeps trying to convince me that it was easier for me when Liam was in the womb. I agree that, although I was less comfortable than I am now, it was slightly less hectic. But, neither he nor I would want to see him back in my belly. Holding him and watching him grow (he is a big 23 inches) is worth the effort. Happy Birthday, Cutie Pi!

Everyone told me that once I became a mom I would be so busy I would not be able to do anything else. The truth is that while I can't do anything else, it is not because I am incredibly busy. Instead, I find myself doing a lot of thinking while he is nursing or I am just holding him, fearful of him waking up at my slightest movement.

One thing I have been thinking about are expressions or actions that may have been brought on by raising a baby. For instance, why is it that when you can't sleep, people say to try to have some warm milk...the thought of warm milk does not sound that appealing to me, but if you look at it from a baby's point of view....

Also, as I pat my son's back continuously for hours, I wonder if this is where they get the expression "pat on the back." He seems to love it and for now it is the only "praise" he really understands.

I am now very clear on what is meant by the expression "big baby" or "being a baby." A baby is one who will cry at the drop of a hat or for no good reason. Sometimes, I am convinced, he cries just to hear how loud he can get.

I would also like to know where they get the expression "sleeping like a baby." It has been my experience that babies don't sleep for more than 2-3 hours at a time and seem to be startled awake by hitting themselves in the face with hands they didn't know they had.

I am sure there are expressions out there. Actually, I am sure I have thought of them at some point, but I am too sleep deprived to recall them.

Our Alien Overlord

2008-04-11T15:26:00.005-04:00

Our magnificent, benevolent and omniscient alien overlord (all praise be unto him) is such a wonderful and wise ruler. We lowly slaves strive only to please his every whim (as is our duty and honor). For, it is only right for him to ask us to obey his every command. It is the natural structure of the universe (as we learned in our re-education). What difference does it make that we cannot understand his (assuredly superior) language? We are simply grateful when the overlord does not use his secret sonic weapon against us. In return for our efforts, his lordship will grant us periods of temporary tolerance, occasional bemusement and (when we are really lucky) ambivalence.

On a totally unrelated note, have I mentioned how much I used to hate sleeping in, going out to eat, and watching TV in a quiet room? Actually, this entire post is all a big [[REDACTED BY THE MINISTRY OF INFORMATION SHARING]].

Out for a Stroll

2008-04-09T21:26:00.004-04:00

We took Liam on his first stroller ride today for a couple of miles on our path system. Although it drizzled a little at times, it was a really pleasant walk and Liam slept most of the way. We kept him warm and toasty with a couple layers of clothes and a really nice stroller blanket from my cousin Mary. He was also introduced to a few of our friendly neighbors who have been really supportive. The stroller was given to us by my grandmother and is really neat. Its light-weight and folds and expands without having to go through the process required by most other strollers to do so (push this button with your right hand while pulling this lever with your left and stepping on this level with one foot... now bend to the ground and tie it off with your teeth). Instead, you simply pull on a handle in the seat to fold it up, and lift it off the ground to allow it to expand.

Makoto was well behaved on the walk - although he still doesn't like people with basketballs. I think he's in for a rude awakening when Liam starts bouncing balls around the house! Overall, Makoto is still very curious about Liam and Yuki is still very cautious. We'd like to keep it that way for a while longer until Liam is able to push the cat off if he decides to sleep too close. For now, we just keep the two separate.

Methinks this couch is a wee bit too big for Liam. However, he is getting bigger and bigger. He's almost too big for his newborn "union suits" (one-piece outfits that have feet).

Relativity

2008-04-06T23:48:00.003-04:00

How long does 25 minutes seem? Really short if its your lunch break. Really long if you're trying to continually make shushing noise while hunched over a crib. Its all relative.

Speaking of relative, we had a few over today for a visit. My parents and grandmom (now a great-grandmom) and Annika's dad and aunt come over today to see Liam. Liam was on his best behavior throughout the visit and was either quietly sleeping, or happily nursing almost the entire time. And, characteristically, he started crying sometime between when they left the house and all got into their car to pull out of our driveway :) He's been generally very good today though so I don't complain, its just funny how impeccable his timing is.

Although I intended to take pictures of the visitors with us, I have none. Annika's family just popped in for a very quick visit but my family brought lunch and stayed for a while. Our lunch was facilitated by the great swing our neighbor gave to us. That swing has enabled a few meals now and we appreciate having it - thanks Jen!

Sometimes I'm more tired than I realize. Yesterday, we went to Great Beginnings to pick up a couple things and Annika came and stayed with Liam in the car. She was hankering to get out of the house for a bit and this worked out well. When I came back out of the store, I told her that I ran into a couple people in the store. She asked who I had seen in there that I knew and I said "No, I literally ran into two people by accident."

Bedtime for Baby

2008-04-05T23:20:00.002-04:00

A couple nights ago, we started a bedtime ritual for Liam. To get a sense of how its going, the first night, the sequence started at 8pm and he finally went to sleep at 5am. The time in between was spent in shifts failing to console Liam between sporadic naps. Liam put us through our paces by only sleeping while we rocked/swung/patted him. The moby was one of the few techniques that worked to temporarily calm him (thanks again Nate and Kris). If I weren't busy during those times, I'd video tape them to scare soon-to-be parents and make the experienced parents happy those nights are over. I should at least get an audio recording of it and then use that to wake Liam up for school in a few years :)

Last night and tonight have gone much better. As I write this at 11:30, Liam hasn't really cried for about three and a half hours :) Of course, there was a little crying during his outfit change, but hey, its as good as it gets! Of course, the night is still young and we'll see how it goes in the wee hours of the morning (that phrase now has more than one meaning for me).

Liam is quickly growing physically and mentally. He's 22 inches already (grew one inch in one week) and is really starting to look around and react more to his environment - especially to faces that are close enough for him to focus on. Even though he's only three weeks old, he's changed a lot since those first few days... at least in our (biased) eyes.

We struggled to watch Atonement tonight. Note to soon-to-be parents: watch any complicated movies you want NOW because you won't be able to follow the plot once you have a baby. The multiple interruptions and intermittent baby cries left us wondering what that movie was about.

lulla bye-bye, hello rock n' roll

2008-04-04T16:23:00.004-04:00

After a few weeks of trying to soothe Liam with the lullaby music that is emitted from his swing, pack n' play and papasan chair, I have come to the conclusion that he doesn't much care for it. I thought about it for a while and it makes sense. When he was in the womb, he was exposed to my spin classes 4-6 times a week; he was bombarded with Kelly Clarkson, REM, Justin Timberlake and Jamiroquai. (I have only made 20 spin cds and I confess to using a few more than than the others). So, now, instead of playing lullaby music to help him fall asleep, I hold him close to me, either in my arms or in the moby, and I dance with him while playing one of my spin cds (The picture was taken by me after a dance session). He seems to enjoy the movement and the music much more than a swing or a vibrating chair. Unfortunately, he doesn't fall asleep instantly and we generally have to go through a whole 45 minute routine before he will close his eyes. Whether he sleeps or not, it does tend to stop the crying, which has grown in the past few days. Can we say colic??