1 year Check-Up

Liam had his 1 year Check-Up today.  He weighs 21 lbs. 4.5 oz., and is 30.5 inches.  He's in the 27th percentile for his weight, and 74th percentile for his length, and his head is in the 93rd percentile.  So he's thinning out, growing tall and has a HUGE head !  : )

Happy First Birthday Liam!

Liam is walking really well now, he even is standing up on his own.  He is starting to get sick of his baby food.  We think it's because it's too bland for him.  He wants to eat our food now.  We have to get creative when we want him to eat something that he doesn't want.  Sometimes we add apple sauce to his food, or apple juice to his cereal and it usually works.  Liam's favorite toy is Elmo, and a few times we heard him say 'Elmo'. 

 

On Saturday the 6th, we had a Birthday party for Liam with our family. We had some good food, and Grandma P. made a Winnie the Pooh cake that was like Mike's when he was a kid. He got some new toys (thanks everyone!), and then we sang to him and enjoyed some cake and ice cream. He held up pretty good, although toward the end he was pretty overwhelmed with all the attention and tired too.

On the 7th, which was his actual Birthday, we gave him birthday hugs and kisses at his birth time at 10:27 am. He enjoyed playing with all his new toys. He tried some salmon and cow's milk, both foods that our Dr. recommended waiting till he was one.

We reminisced about the day he was born, which was one month early. Even though it was pretty scary being a month early, and a little frustrating getting him to eat in the hospital, we both have fond memories of that time. We also can not believe that an entire year has flown by already. Although at the same time it's hard to remember life without him. He is such a joy in our lives and we are so grateful he is in it.

Liam is 11+ Months

Liam's walking is improving everyday.  It seems a few weeks ago he went from walking a few steps to walking across the room overnight!  On Nov. 22nd we met some friends at the aquarium and Liam seemed to enjoy the fish.  The stingrays and sharks were especially fun to see.  That evening he felt really warm, and he spiked a fever.  We took him to the after hours clinic, and the Dr. said he had a virus, and not to be surprised if it's Roseola and he breaks out in a rash when the fever breaks.  Sure enough he did after 3 days of 103 degree fever, he had a little rash.  When he was sick he wanted us to hold his hand while he walked around, and every time he bumped himself a little he started to cry.  He usually is pretty independent and not so clingy, so we knew that he must have been feeling awful!!  After a few days he started to feel better and his walking picked right back up.  He now can walk and turn directions, and balance himself walking over objects on the floor.

 

His new word lately is 'Bear', it sounds like 'Behr'.  He calls things he likes bear like the dogs, and us, and Elmo.  Although, he does call the dogs, 'dog' too.  He loves our dogs, and thinks the chihuahua is especially funny.  He laughs every time he sees Wilhelmina, he just thinks she's the funniest looking thing.  He will clap his hands when we sing pat-a-cake, and he is also starting to mimic us.  He will click his tongue when we do.  This past weekend Mike found some old Sesame Street episodes online and we all have been watching clips of it.  Liam seems to like Sesame Street which makes us happy because we love to watch it too!  Plus it brings us back to our child hood.  His Birthday is coming up in a week, and we just can't believe just how fast his first year flew by!!  It sure has been a great one with him in it.

Liam is 11 Months!

Liam is changing in leaps and bounds lately.   He is getting really good balancing and he's taking more and more steps everyday.  A few weeks ago he went through a faze where he was scared to take a bath.  He would be excited to get in, but once he was in, he got scared and cried.  We worked with him, being really quiet and gentle, and thankfully he is OK now, and even likes to splash the water like crazy. 

 

Liam had a really fun Halloween.  We went to Pumpkin Land to pick out some pumpkins, and we got some cute pictures of him with the BIG pumpkins.  We also went to the zoo the Saturday before Halloween.  He wore a tiger costume that Grandma P made that Mike wore when he was a kid.  He was really cute in the costume.  On Halloween we carved our pumpkins, and handed out candy to the trick-or-treater's.  Liam's cousin Baloo, who was dressed as a bear, stopped in for a visit, and we got some cute pictures of them together.

 

Liam really loves food, and especially loves the food we eat.  Some of the new foods he's tried lately is our 'Lemon and Caper Pasta' meal, a Moroccan stew, guacamole, and mango salsa.  We are hopeful that this is a good sign that he won't be a picky eater later on.

 

In the morning when we are getting ready for work, he loves to watch 'Elmo's World' and 'Word World'.  He squeals when he sees Elmo on TV, and also when we let him play with Tickle Me Elmo.  It is sooo cute!  His favorite sound lately has been 'Da Da'.  And it seems he tries to say 'Dog' when he sees a dog.  It's crazy to think that our little 6lb. 6 oz. bundle we took home almost a year ago is a soon to be a talking and walking little boy!

10+ months (Liam is 45 weeks)

Liam is starting to balance and stand and sometimes he will try to take some steps. He also has a Lion walker that he helps him to walk too.  We are pretty surprised how quickly he is learning to walk. He points at things he wants, and his new sound lately has been 'ba ba'.  One habit he started recently has been blowing raspberries while he has food in his mouth.  It was pretty funny the first time, but then got pretty messy.  Thankfully he doesn't do it all the time now.  He's getting really good at chewing, and he really likes cheese.  When he likes something he will say 'mmmm' while eating it.  He will also point and do the milk sign if he wants more.  One morning I brought his bottle up to the play room and a yogurt for me.  He got really excited, and I thought he was hungry for his bottle, but he pushed that away, and came over to me and wanted some of my yogurt.  He gets cuter and cuter everyday, and we ask each other all the time how we got so lucky!

Liam is 10 Months!

Liam's personality is emerging now, which also means he's developing a mind of his own!  He is now starting to let us know if he wants to do something, but more so if he doesn't want to do something.  We can see 7 teeth now.  He went through a brief faze where he wasn't interested in eating food, but that seems to have passed because he is now eating really well, and a lot too!  His new foods that he can have now is processed dairy, and he absolutely LOVES his 'Yo baby' yogurt.  He also loves mashed bananas.  He started clapping his hands, and scrunching his face.  He's also a little chatter box, talking to us, to the dogs, to the window, and to himself.  The sounds he says most these days is Mama, and Dada.  He can turn a bad day into a good day in seconds just by giving us a big smile!  Happy 10 months Liam-WE LOVE YOU!

9 months 12 days (41 weeks)

This week has been another big week of changes.  His crawling gets better and better everyday, and he is getting really fast too.  He is getting more stable at walking around the furniture. His dismount from his standing position is getting really steady too.  He is starting to take a new interest in his toys, and he's starting to play more with them rather than just chewing on them.  We gave him some Cheerios this week, and he's starting to get the hang of eating them by chewing them up.  I get nervous that he's going to choke, but thankfully his dad is standing by to reassure me, and step in if anything happens.  He's starting to sound out words more and more.  One day this week I thought he was trying to say 'dog'.  He is also getting so BIG.  Whenever someone asks how old he is, they are surprised at how big he is!  He is already busting out of some of his 12 month clothes, and already fits in some of his 18 month clothes!  We were somewhat surprised to find out that he is only in the 40th percentile for his weight (at 20 lbs. 3 oz.) and 35th percentile for his height (28 in).  Although, maybe it's his head (18.5 in.) that makes him look so big, which is in the 88th percentile!

His questionnaire was for 10 months this time, so some of the communication and personal-social areas are not quite there yet, but he scored really high in the gross motor, fine motor and problem solving areas.  The doctor says he's doing really well, and he advised to start feeding him more food, and less milk since he will be weaning off of formula and breast milk in a few months.  They did a blood prick on his toe to check for anemia, and he is good.  They also gave him a flu shot.  The nurse put a band-aid on his toe, and when we were in the car I heard him gagging, I looked in the rear view mirror and he vomited.  I pulled over to check on him and he threw up again!  I called the Dr.'s office to ask them if that could be a reaction to the vaccine, and they said it was not.  I decided to go to my families home to clean him up, and I found the band-aid in his car seat.  I am thinking he tried to eat the band-aid and he choked on it.  We won't be leaving band-aids on him for now on!

After I cleaned him up, I took him to Toys R Us, and got him a bunch of new toys.  He was a super good boy this week!

Liam is 9 Months (40 Weeks)

We think that Liam has made the most changes thus far in the past 2 weeks.  He went from sitting up on his own a couple weeks ago, to learning how to crawl, to standing and walking along the furniture!  He is now into everything!  And he also has decided that his jumparoo is boring, and wants to be out and exploring around the house.  The main floor is not very baby friendly, so we are grateful we have a bonus room upstairs that we can shut the door and let him play and explore with out too much worry.

His taste buds are getting used to fruit because he doesn't make as many funny faces.  We have been getting fresh local peaches, and we made him some baby food, but he also likes to take a bite of our peaches when we are eating them.  He practically attacks the peaches, and tries to get as much in his mouth as he can...we have to be careful he doesn't take too much though.

He's starting to get his little boy face too, although he still has cute kissable chubby cheeks.  His new little boy face also comes with 2 more teeth coming in on top and also his little boy personality that is forming.  He is a lot more sensitive to sounds and tones.  If something is loud or scary, or if we have a certain tone in our voice he can sense it and his lip will start to quiver and he'll cry.  He often will look to us for reassurance.  

The other milestone that he had this week that made our hearts soar was he started to sign.  I was feeding him his milk a few days ago, and he was moving his fist, and I thought it was a new thing he was doing randomly, until I realized that it was the sign for milk!!  Mike started doing the sign again, and then Liam did it back.  He has done it several times since, and now we are excited to start teaching him more signs.

Liam LOVES our dogs, and the dogs love him too, especially Gretchen.  We were most concerned about Gretchen because she doesn't do well with strangers, but she has been nothing but sweet with Liam from day 1.  Gretchen likes to keep watch from our bonus room window, which is low to the floor and Liam likes to use the window sill as a walking perch, so they enjoy looking outside together from that window.  He also found Gretchen's tags quite interesting.  He will point and grab her tag and try to put her collar in his mouth, and she will just lick him silly.  They are sooo cute together!!

Liam is 38 Weeks

At the beginning of this week Liam started to sit up on his own.  After he did it for about a day, he was an expert at it.  He is also crawling a little better too.  I made him some apple sauce, which he liked 'OK'.  He still seems to like vegetables better since they are not as tart, but he will eat fruits even though he makes faces.  Over the labor day weekend we went to the Davis Family reunion.  I haven't seen most of that side of the family for about 10 years. All my cousins now have families of their own, and it was good to see everyone. We learned a couple things about the Davis side, and that is Liam fits in well with his blond hair and fair skin, and I get my taste for salt and green apples from that side of the family. The family planned activities with the kids where they celebrated the different holidays. We were there on Saturday when they had an Easter egg hunt, and later in the afternoon we decorated cookies for valentines day. We thought that was a creative idea.  Liam was pretty good the whole time, although he did not want to take a nap.  At one point, he was so tired that he fell asleep on my dad's shoulders, it was pretty cute!  We thought when we left that he would sleep in the car, but he didn't.  Thankfully, he finally crashed when we got home.

Liam Crawling http://www.vimeo.com/1593412 "He is starting to get the hang of this crawling thing, but here is an example of his version of crawling (so far). He likes to scoot with his head down. This was taken on Aug. 24th 2008, he's about 8.5 months."

comment by mom/grandma on 09/10/2008
I am so glad you got this. Just in time too, now he has the regular crawl down you aren't likely to see this one much more.

Liam is 37 Weeks

Now that Liam is close to sitting up on his own, we decided it was time to lower his mattress in his crib.  We also, thought he could use a more sturdy bumper, since he likes to pull down on it. 

Lately, we've noticed that he gets bored really easily, and we have to think of new things to entertain him.  We got him a pretty cool toy called 'Learn and Groove Musical Table'  made by Leap Frog.  He thinks it's pretty fun!

Liam has now decided that he wants to sleep in his crib full time. We had him in our room at night because it's on the main floor and his bedroom is on the 2nd floor, and both of us are zombies if we are waken in the middle of the night. But alas, he just couldn't sleep in his hard playpen any longer, so we decided it was time to buy a video monitor. We hesitated for a while getting one because we read some reviews that it interferes with the other electronics in the house. But, we bit the bullet and decided to just get one, and return it if we had problems. We went with the Summer brand, 7 " LCD Screen Monitor. So far it has worked great. The sound is staticky, but we turn that down and use our other monitors for that. The picture works pretty well, at least for what we need it for, and that is just to be able to see how he's doing. Before with just the sound, any little cry or whimper in the middle of the night was exaggerated 10 fold when I was half asleep. It made for many restless nights. Now I can just glance over on my nightstand and see that he is well. It wasn't cheap, but having peace of mind and better sleep is priceless! We love watching him on our L-TV (Liam Television).

Liam is 36 Weeks

Liam had his first sit-up bath this week.  We were concerned about doing it earlier because he wasn't sitting 100%, but he's pretty much there except for the occasional time he gets excited or distracted and loses his balance.  We just made sure one of us was there to hold him, and he did really well.  He seemed to really like sitting up in his bath.  His new thing this week is pointing his finger at things.  We are constantly amazed at how well his dexterity is.  He is very precise with his fingers, and picking up things.  He's fairly mobile now, even though he hasn't quite caught on to the crawling thing.  Other than the 'worm' move, he also does this move where he lifts his bottom in the air and scoots with his head.  (If you are familiar with yoga, it is similar to the downward facing dog position).  We have noticed that his legs are super strong, and he also likes to use them as if they are extra arms and hands.  He will wrap his legs around things to get stuff to him.  

Some of you may know that I do not eat meat (other than fish), and I have had mixed feelings about giving Liam meat, but I do know that as a growing baby and child he will need protein and having too much soy is probably not a good thing.  So I have decided that if he's going to have certain meats, I would like it to be organic.  So this week we let him try organic mangoes and chicken, and he seemed to really like it.  My friend also let me borrow her book on making baby food.  I got a little carried away with the first week, making a meal for him that had lentils, onions, carrots and celery.  He ate it OK, but I think it was a bit much for him for the first time making him food.  I have decided to go back to the basics and make him the simple stuff like single fruits and veggies, and then work up to the fancier recipes.

He had a bit of a rough week this week as far as sleeping goes.  He hasn't been taking his bottles as much this week either, so we think maybe his gums are sore from teething.  One night this week he actually woke up around 3 or 4am and thought it was play time.  After giving him some extra milk, he finally drifted back to sleep.  Several weeks ago I had to convert his bassinet to his playpen because he was just too big for the bassinet, but I still wanted the option for him to sleep on the main floor if he was getting up a lot in the night.  However, it seems he's decided that he really doesn't like sleeping in his playpen anymore, and tends to sleep much better in his bed...can't say I blame him, his bed IS more comfortable!  He has also given up nursing all together, and takes a bottle in the night now.

On August 14th he had his IN/OUT day, which means he has been in the outside world as long as he was inside me.  HAPPY in/out day Liam! WE LOVE YOU!

Liam is 35 Weeks

Liam found his tongue on Sunday and likes to stick it out now.  He also has a third tooth coming in.  His new game this week is throwing his toys and watching us pick it up for him.  He has also started to growl. He mostly likes to growl at his toys, especially his stacking cups because it makes his voice louder. Today I had a dentist appointment, and our dentist told us to bring him so he gets used to going there.  He watched with wide eyes as the hygienist cleaned my teeth.  I thought he might cry at the loud sounds, but he was a perfect angel!  

Liam turned 8 months yesterday!!  Here is a list of 8 things we LOVE about Liam:

8 THINGS WE LOVE ABOUT LIAM
1. His smile and laugh is contagious
2. He loves new things
3. He is sweet natured
4. He's beautiful!
5. Good sense of humor
6. Super healthy and strong
7. Good with other people.
and last but not least...
8. He loves us!

Liam is 34 Weeks

Liam had a pretty busy week this week.  His teeth are coming in quickly, although they are quite crooked.  We've read that is fairly common and they should straighten as the others come in...crossing our fingers on that one.  He's getting quite the workout pushing his tummy off the floor, and he's gotten super fast pivoting around on his tummy.  He also does what I call 'the worm' where he scoots forward similar to an earth worm.  As close as he is to crawling, he still prefers to be upright, and we think he will want to walk as soon as he's old enough.  One morning when he was in his playpen, Mike had put him in laying down, and when he went to check on him, he was sitting up.  Unfortunately, we didn't see it happen, so we don't know how he did it.  We figure that he used the side to help him up.  Although he wasn't too thrilled about his new accomplishment since his leg was folded back!  He had 2 new foods this week, the first was oatmeal and the second was prunes, he seemed to really like both of them. On Saturday we took him to Park City to the Art Festival.  It was pretty hot, and we were there for quite some time, but he just loved to see all the people, and he was an angel the whole time.  On Sunday my grandparents were in town and they came over to our house for dinner with our family.  He put on a show for them, and they all thought he was adorable....we agree! 

Liam is 33 Weeks

Liam's big milestone this week is he has 2 teeth coming in!  His new food this week was green beans, and he really loved them!  He's sitting very well now, and he can go from sitting to his belly without toppling over.  Today we went to brunch with his cousin Madison, and Aunt Tiffany.  He sat in the booster seat for the first time!  After we went to Toy R Us and got 2 new toys.  One is stacking cups, and the other is a Fisher-Price phone that teaches the alphabet, numbers and plays music.  Liam's pictures also came in the mail, they turned out so well.  When Mike went to pick up the prints at Costco, they asked what his name was, and then they said; "Oh, you are the one with the really cute baby".

Liam is 32 Weeks

Liam goes through different phases where one week he's fairly quiet and another week he is more 'talkative'.  Well this week was one of his 'talkative' weeks, and probably the loudest and most vocal we have heard from him so far.  It's most pronounced when he's excited, he will just scream and blabber on, as if he's telling a story about something that happened that day.  He has taken a liking to our dogs too, and he will stare at them and just start giggling.  His two new foods that he tried this week were butternut squash and peaches.  We also gave him some apple juice in a sippy cup...great pucker for that one!  He also got two new toys, a toy piano and a toy cell phone.  He has been doing new sounds and movements with his mouth too.  One new one we noticed in the last couple days was he started clicking with his tongue. The other impressive move we noticed today was he was able to get his toe into his mouth!!  He has also started to reach his arms up to us when we go to pick him up.  It is such a subtle thing, but it is so sweet and endearing.  We just are constantly amazed at what this little person can do!

Liam Laughing
http://www.vimeo.com/1369864

"We LOVE LOVE LOVE this video of Liam laughing. It was taken on 7-6-08, one day before he turned 7 months."

Liam is 31 Weeks

We have been pretty lucky lately with Liam, he had another happy week.  It seems we have finally got a routine down.  It varies a little each day, but generally speaking he has been pretty easy going.  His sitting is improving more and more.  I would not say it's quite 100%, but fairly close.  He is not crawling yet, which is OK with us because we are not in any hurry for that one!  He does scoot on his tummy though, and rolls like a champion now.  He started doing this clapping thing last week, it's not quite clapping hands together, but rather up and down, almost like rolling them.  He continues to teethe, but still no teeth poking through yet.  He tried 3 new foods this week, first one was carrots, he really liked those, second was apples, and the third was pees.  He seems to like the vegetables a little more since they aren't as tart.  He has been doing this really cute thing lately, he likes to blow raspberries on our shoulder or arm, and sometimes our face.  It's pretty funny.  It seems like we waited so long for him to start laughing, and now he laughs and smiles a ton!  It doesn't take much to get him to be happy, even when he's upset we can usually coax a laugh out of him. Although we have noticed that he gets bored pretty easy, and we constantly have to find ways to entertain him.  We look at him each and every day and feel so grateful to have him.  ( I know I say that all the time, but it's so true!)

Liam is 30 Weeks

Liam had another pretty good week this week.  Early in the week we went to visit some friends who were having a brunch at their home, and he was really cute with all the new people.  The older kids were playing in a wading pool and Mike put his feet in the pool, he wasn't too happy about that, might have been too cold for him.  For a couple of nights we had him in his own crib during the night, although it's pretty rough in the middle of the night to go up and down the stairs, so we are taking that one with baby steps.  One of the questions for his evaluation for the doctor last week, it asked if your baby can pick up small items like a cheerio, we tested it out, and we were amazed at how meticulous he was picking it up with his thumb and pointer finger!  He tried a couple new foods this week.  The first was banana flavored rice cereal, which he seems to like better than the plain flavor.  The second was mashed banana baby food, which he made the funniest faces with the new tastes.  He has been sitting so well this week too, each day it seems he gets better and better at it.  And now that he has discovered that he is mobile he is always on the move.  He rarely likes to lay down anymore except to drink his bottle.  He just loves to roll all over the place, and with help he likes to stand and jump!  He has also been more sensitive to sounds around us, and if he gets startled he will look to us for reassurance and comfort.  He also has started to cry when we leave him in his crib for a nap, he has outgrown the wrap, and he doesn't want his binky any more either which makes nap time a bit difficult at times.  Thankfully though he usually will settle down after about five minutes.  On Thursday we had a professional photographer come over and take pictures of him.  She said he was such a good model baby and did some positions that were hard to get other babies to do-we were proud parents for sure!  He wasn't shy at all with her or our good friend Heidi who came to visit us from Seattle.  She played peek-a-boo with him, and made him laugh a ton!  He was really cute!

29 Weeks

Liam has been a pretty happy baby this week.  He's at the age now that he wants to be entertained, or he gets bored.  One day I needed to get some work done around the house, so I put the Jungle Book in and he enjoyed watching it (well most of it anyway).  We have been getting him some new toys to help entertain him, and teach him new motor skills.  He really likes the cookie jar toy that has different shapes, and sings about the different shapes and numbers.  He now remembers he can roll in both directions, and will now do several in a row to get to where he wants to be.  He can lift his mid-section off the floor with his legs, so we think he will be crawling fairly soon!  He tried 2 new foods this week, the first was sweet potatoes, and he really liked those.  The second one was pears, and he wasn't too fond of that one, he gaged and made funny faces.  We'll keep trying on that one!  He smiles and laughs all the time now, especially when we sing to him or make funny faces or sounds.  He had his 6 month check up today and he is a big boy at 18 lbs. 6 oz. which makes him just above the 50th percentile for weight, he's 27.5 inches (about 75th percentile), and his head is in the 76 percentile!  Dr. says he's doing great, and luckily so far has only seen him on on his well-baby check ups!  Liam has opened our hearts in ways we never knew imaginable, and we are grateful every day to have him as our son.

Liam at 6 month wellness check-up http://www.vimeo.com/1273426 "This was taken 6-27-08 while Liam is waiting for the Dr. He just weighed in at 18 lbs. 6 oz. (up exactly 12 lbs. from his birth weight). He found the paper to be a fun new toy!"

Liam is 28 Weeks

Liam's new thing this week has been grabbing both his feet with his hands and holding them in the air.  Sadly, he had a really bad night early in the week, part of it was from teething, and part of it was he was really hungry.  We decided we need to be more consistent with feeding him food in the evening.  One night we were able to catch him at just the right time, and he ate ALL his food, and slept fairly well that night...then one night he was too full still from his bottle, and only ate a little.  It's a work in progress, but hopefully we can get into a routine soon.  He has decided that he really likes to sleep on his belly now, and usually doesn't cry anymore when he rolls over.  He's starting to sit fairly well too, although if he sees something, he will fall over. It won't be long till he's sitting unassisted!  We have noticed recently that he has lost interest in his binky, which seems somewhat early for a baby, but we are fine with it if he is. We decided that we'd like to teach him a little sign language and have started with the sign for 'milk', 'mom', 'dad' and 'doggy'.  We just want to start with a few until he starts to catch on, which can take a couple months.  When we show him the signs, we can tell he's really thinking about it.  We are excited for when he starts to sign back to us, it will sure make figuring out what he wants so much easier!  Anyway, other than the teething, this week has been fairly good for him...he just gets cuter and cuter every week!

Liam is 27 Weeks

Liam has been a lot more social and more interested in things around him and will try to reach for stuff that is beyond his reach.  If he can’t get it, he lets us know that he’s not happy about it.  He has also been more vocal, and has started to communicate with screaming lately.  He rolls onto his tummy a lot, and sometimes he’s happy about that, but sometimes he gets mad about it, but he still doesn’t remember that he can roll himself back.  This new development presents a problem when he’s trying to sleep and rolls over and decides he really didn’t want to be on his belly.  He will cry and we will roll him back, then he will roll again onto his belly.  Thankfully he has found a comfortable sleeping position on his belly and will sleep that way sometimes.  We started giving him rice cereal a couple weeks ago, and have been practicing eating a few times a week.  It has been a bit tricky to know when is a good time for him to want to eat.  He has to be in the right mood, and just the right amount of hungry. If he’s too hungry, he will get frustrated and won’t eat, if he’s not hungry enough he won’t eat.  The dogs also create a distraction for him because they mill around waiting for him to drop some food.  It seems like they are more interesting to him than eating.  Although, we know with time and practice, and a little patience it will get easier.  And we look forward to introducing him to all the new foods out there!  On Saturday we went to our sis-in-law’s family’s house and took pictures with their photography equipment.  He was really cute and held up surprisingly well considering the amount of time it took.  We got them done just in time before his teeth started hurting him again today.  It just breaks our heart to hear him in pain.  We would do anything to take that pain away for him!

Happy 6 Months Liam!

It is so amazing to us that Liam is already 6 months old today! We started to feed him rice cereal a week ago, but we had to hold him in our lap because we hadn't bought a high chair yet. Before he was born I had seen some fancy (and spendy) Swedish ones online that I was pretty sure that I wanted, but since our dining space was pretty limited we were not sure we wanted a full size highchair. After seeing the Fisher-Price booster seat that Liam's cousin has, and also a friend of mine has, we really were liking the idea of having one that was small, portable, and inexpensive. So for Liam's half birthday we got him his very own booster seat. When we put him in it, his face lit up at the new experience of sitting up in a chair. We fed him his rice cereal, and he ate it pretty well. We also tried giving him an empty sippy cup to see what he would do, and he grabbed it and brought it straight to his mouth to drink from. We love watching him grow and change and experience new things. He is such an amazing and wonderful baby, and we feel so lucky to have him in our lives. We love you Liam! Happy 6 months, and many many more!

Liam is 25 Weeks

The past weekend was pretty rough for Liam because he has been teething.  He also has not been sleeping well because of it, and woke up several times in the night.  He even woke up crying real tears one night, it was soo heart breaking!  Thankfully we were able to spend a little extra time comforting him because we both had Monday off for Memorial Day.  We also gave him a little infant Tylenol to lessen the pain when it got unbearable for him.  Thankfully the pain let up for the rest of the week and he has been a rather happy baby.  He continues to get more and more social and we can get smiles and laughs out of him pretty easily now.  He absolutely LOVES to jump in his Jumparoo now, and will get bouncing fairly high in that thing.  He even loves to jump when we are holding him.  He has started to show an interest in the dogs and will watch them and smile when they are near him.  His appetite just keeps growing and we've had to increase the amount of formula because I just can't keep up with him.  Although, recently he has favored smaller bottles, but more frequently.  We think it is partly due to the pain with his teething.  We are constantly amazed at just how wonderful he is and how lucky we are to know him!

Liam is 24 Weeks

Now that Liam can roll over, he does it with ease. Although sometimes he will roll from his back to his tummy and then get frustrated and cry. We think he either has forgotten that he knows how to roll back, or he really wants to crawl, but can't yet. When he was learning to roll over, we noticed that he didn't 'talk' as much, but this week he has started to 'talk' more again. Instead of saying different sounds in a row, he will try to sound out stuff, like he will say “buh” over and over. Sometimes he will get quiet, and you can tell he's just trying really hard to concentrate on what he wants to say next. Towards the end of the week, he started to get really fussy, and he started to chew on things with more intensity, so we figured he has started to teethe! For the longest time, we have been waiting for him to laugh, and it seems it was one of those things that happened gradually. Earlier he had a squeal that was somewhat like a laugh, but we weren't sure if it was or not. But this week, when he started to get fussy, I mimicked his face and sounds, and he stopped, a bit confused, and smiled and laughed at me. He also has started to be ticklish, and will laugh when we lightly tickle his underarms. He is officially out of his size 2 diapers and onto size 3! He's just growing so fast!

Liam is 23 Weeks

Liam has had a pretty eventful week. For one he has started to roll over in both directions. He started with the front to back, (which he had done earlier, but not for us because he usually was too tired when we got home after work). Then today, he finally did back to front! He was always so close to rolling back to front, but often times he would stop himself half way, and roll back. He has been playing with his binky for the past several weeks, but he would always need help getting it back in the right direction, but now he can take his binky out of his mouth and put it back in the right direction. He is getting so strong and is practicing sitting up. He does not have the balance yet, but he's getting close. We weighed him on the home scale, and he's around 17 lbs. It's so hard to believe that this time last year he was slightly bigger than a grain of rice!

comment by Julie on 05/22/2008
Wow! Sounds like he is really making progress. I can't believe he is rolling over ... that's crazy. He's such a cutie!

Liam is 22 Weeks

This week flew by because my boss wanted me to take another day off so that my vacation wasn't so close to hitting it's limit again. I only had to work 2 days, so it was very nice to have that extra time with Liam again. He was at Grandma D's house on Tuesday, and he rolled from his tummy to his back a few times for her. I actually saw him do it once when I picked him up, but he hasn't done it since. I'm sure he will do it again soon enough! He still makes his sounds, although now it's more like he's trying to communicate with us. He LOVES to 'talk', and he's such a chatter box. He'll even 'talk' while he's eating, and will spit out his binky because he wants to keep 'talking'. His appetite keeps getting bigger, and he's eating more often. I haven't been able to make enough milk for his growing appetite, so he continues to get formula when needed. It's hard to believe that he will start to eat real food next month! On Thursday we went shopping with Grandma D, and I got him a ton of new outfits for summer. He fits in the 6-9 month clothes now, although he's growing so quickly, I hope they last him through the summer! The other night Mike was feeding him, and he was so tired that he fell asleep on his shoulder. He rarely falls asleep in places other than his bed, so it was a sweet moment for him. Liam is such a good and sweet boy, we often ask ourselves how we got so lucky.

Liam is 5 Months Today!

Five months ago Liam came into this world, and changed our lives FOREVER! The time just seems like it flew by, but at the same time it's hard to remember life without him. He has made our lives so much brighter and more fulfilled in ways we never imagined he could. Just yesterday he rolled over from his belly to his back for the first time! Every week he just changes and grows and we are just loving every minute with him! Happy 5 months Liam, we LOVE YOU!

Liam is 21 Weeks

This week I got an e-mail from my HR department saying that I'm approaching my vacation accrual limit, “So please, take some vacation-go spend some time with that beautiful baby of yours! : )” OK, don't have to twist my arm!...so I took my normal Friday off, and Monday too, so I had a 4-day weekend with Liam. It was GREAT! Although, I do have to admit he keeps me on my toes ALL day long, and I end up more tired than going to work. But the extra time with him is soo worth it. He is very close to rolling over this week. He is getting really strong in his Jumparoo, and now that he can reach the floor, he just jumps like crazy. He loves the toys and all the sounds it makes. And he squeals a lot, and laughs a little, when he's playing in it. He still sucks his hands a little, but tends to favor his thumb now. He wants to check out everything in his sight. Usually though after he inspects it, it ends up in his mouth. He finds comfort in his toys, especially the soft ones, as well as his blanket. On Sunday, he was hanging out on dad's lap, and he leaned over and found his feet. He started to inspect them, like they were a new toy. Later in the week, I was changing his diaper, and while I had his feet in the air, he grabbed his feet, it was pretty cute! He just smiles and talks a lot more lately too. Some of the sounds he makes are: “th”, “hey”, “ha”, “hi”, “oh”, “ah”, “eh” “da”, “ma”. One day dad said he heard him 'sing', he made a sound, and each following sound he made was a note higher (like the do- re-mi song). He did it for about 4-5 notes, no breaks between the notes, just a little song for daddy, so cute! His personality just keeps blooming with the spring season, and we are just loving every minute with him!

Click this link below to see it:

http://vimeo.com/990363

Liam in Jumparoo http://vimeo.com/990363 About this video: "This is around the time that Liam really started to enjoy his Jumparoo. This was taken on May 2nd 2008, he was almost 5 months old."

Liam is 20 Weeks

This week was pretty good.  It seems we are getting into somewhat a routine.  Liam has started to hold his bottle while he eats.  He can’t hold it up the whole time, but he’s getting close.  His motor skills just keep getting finer and sharper each week.  He is also really quick with his hands.  He will grab something nearby before we even know it. He is also getting really strong.  While at a friend of mines house, we had him lying on the floor on his back.  There were some toys behind him, and as he was trying to see them, he nearly rolled over!  On Friday I took him to the petting zoo with a friend of mine and her family.  You can read about that adventure and see pictures here>>

http://4fayz.blogspot.com/2008/04/adventures-with-liam-part-1.html

Liam is 19 Weeks

Liam is growing so fast, I can barely keep up with him. I ended up supplementing with a couple bottles of formula this week since he was too tired to nurse, and I did not have any available pumped milk to spare. Thankfully, by the end of the week, I was able to catch up a little. We saw some neighbors at a meeting from our old neighborhood, and he was almost the same size as an 8 mo. old girl that lives at the complex. One of the neighbors asked: “What are you feeding him, pure cream?”

He has really started to use his hands to examine things. He will examine our hands and fingers, and our faces. When he was laying in his Jungle Play Yard, he will try to grab the toys, especially the one that turns and plays music. One night he was so determined to get the music to go, you could see he was concentrating and being very precise with his fingers to turn the ball. He's having a lot more awake time lately too. When we think he's ready for a nap, he lets us know that he's not happy, and will stay up and want to hang out for a little longer.

He had his 4 month check up with Dr. Bailey today. He scored really well on his questionnaire, especially in the problem solving section. He now weighs 14 lbs. 14 oz. and is 25 inches long. He also had to have his vaccines, which weren't quite as bad as the previous time because the nurse was quick and experienced, and not in training like the last one. The Doctor also noticed that he was starting to get a flat spot on the back of his head, so hopefully with more awake time now it won't get any worse.

With the warmer weather, we are looking forward to taking him to some fun places, and watching him explore new things. We often wonder what kind of person he will grow up to be, and we can already tell he is going to be smart and sensitive!

Liam is 18 Weeks

This week was probably one of the most stressful weeks I’ve had since Liam was born.  I’ve found that if he wakes from a good nap, he will nurse, but if he’s been up for a while and needs a nap or if he doesn’t get a good nap in, he is too tired to nurse and will cry until he gets a bottle.  This past weekend, he was off his sleeping schedule and got so tired he would not nurse.  It lasted most of the day on Sunday, and I ran out of fresh pumped milk (that was for work on Monday), and I had to use 2 frozen milks that I have reserved for when I’m at work, or emergencies (like that).  When I started work a month ago I had around 10-15 bottles worth saved up, and generally used them at the start of the week, then just used the milk I pumped at work for the following day. Then during the week the milk I was able to pump dropped nearly in half.  I’m thinking the lack of him nursing over the weekend, and the stress it brought on must have caused the decrease.  One of my friends had sent me some Mother’s Milk herbal tea before Liam was born.  It has fenugreek and other herbs that are supposed to help increase milk production.  It had some pretty positive reviews online, so I tried it, as well as started to pump more frequently, and thankfully I have been able to increase it up again.  Although, he wants to eat so much, I can barely keep up with him.  He has also been fussier lately, and he also is having a hard time napping during the day.  I have read that can be caused by a developmental change.  So it seems, he is going through a growth spurt, and developmental change all at once!  He does sleep pretty well during the night, he does get up to eat at times, but thankfully he will go back to sleep without much effort.  I am grateful for that!

Liam is going in for his 4 month check up and vaccines next week.  We are guessing he will weigh at least 15 lbs. We will also be working on filling out his 4 month questionnaire this week.  We have briefly looked it over, and think even though he’s a preemie, he will score pretty well on it.  Liam has started to relax his hands more and is grabbing things more with them, as well as chewing on his hands.  He tracks objects very well now, side to side, and up and down!  He has a lot more interest in his toys, and also the TV.  He also has started to jump a little in his Jumparoo.  Fussy or not, we love this little guy more and more each day!

comment by Gaylene on 04/24/2008
That's so awesome that he is doing so well. Can't wait to meet the fella

Video of Liam sleeping

Click the link below to watch it:

http://www.vimeo.com/885062

Liam Sleeping (6 Days Old) http://www.vimeo.com/885062 About this video: "This is a video of Liam sleeping. You can see just how tiny he was! It was taken on 12-13-07, when Liam was only 6 days old."

Liam is 17 Weeks

This week Liam is starting to get the hang of his fingers, and is starting to grab stuff with them and not just his fists.  He is “talking” more and more each week too.  We finally got the Bjorn Carrier this week.  We are looking forward to taking him on walks and to new places as he gets older.  He really loves being up high and seeing stuff from our view.  In the meantime we use it when he starts to get fussy, but isn’t quite ready to go down for a nap. Usually when we want to buy something new, we go to Amazon or other sites on the internet and read other peoples reviews of it.  A few people mentioned their baby falling asleep in the carrier.  Liam doesn’t really fall asleep unless he’s bundled up tight in his bed, so I kinda laughed at that and thought he wouldn’t ever fall asleep in it.  Then the first time we had him in it, sure enough he fell asleep.  It was short lived though because I tried to transfer him to his bed so I could get some stuff done, but he ended up waking up.

The other fun item we purchased this week came from a recommendation of a friend of mine whose son was born 2 days after Liam (thanks!).  It is the Rainforest Jumparoo from Fisher Price.   We saw that it also had really high reviews, and it looked so cute and fun so we decided he HAD to have one.  He’s still a little small/young for it right now, but we think in a few weeks he will absolutely LOVE it.  In the meantime it’s a new place for him to hang out and explore the new toys.

He just continues to grow and change right before our eyes.  His eating habits change just as quickly too.  I usually have about 15 oz. of milk pumped for him to have while I’m at work.  Most days that is plenty, although he actually ran out of milk early one day this week.  I had to make a milk run during work to give him some more.  Then on the weekends he will nurse a little, but if he’s really tired he refuses to nurse and will cry until he gets a bottle.  It can be a bit frustrating at times, especially if I don’t have enough milk pumped for the next day. The combination of going back to work and him growing so fast, it’s hard to know if I will have enough milk pumped for him while I’m away anymore.  But before I know he will be old enough to start eating, so it’s only going to be an issue for the next couple of months.  Anyway, taking care of a baby is definitely a lot of work, and can be so tiring and frustrating at times, but the second they give you a big smile all the hard work disappears and you know that it’s ALL worth it.

comment by mom/grandma on 04/08/2008
So, so cute, he looks like he loves the jump-a-roo already. You are doing a great job, he's amazing, and I'm not biased or anything:)

Liam is 16 Weeks

This week has been a bit crazy.  The past weekend Liam was off his schedule for some reason and had a bit of time taking his naps, we hardly got a minute to relax.  By Monday we were still tired and it felt like we didn’t get a single chance to recharge for the coming week.  Part of the reason he had a rough time was he started to not want to breast feed during the daytime.  He still will at night, but generally he wants a bottle when it’s light out.  This has really only started after I went back to work, so we are thinking he just is used to getting a bottle during the day, and that is what he expects now.  On the bright side, Liam started blowing raspberries this week.  We are still waiting for him to laugh, but he has had a few squeals of delight which has been the closest thing to a laugh so far. Although, he has been smiling A LOT more these days, he will just grin and then if we smile back at him his smiles get bigger, it’s super cute!  It’s really fun when we talk to him and say something and then he smiles as if he knew what we said.  He is holding his head up really well now, not quite 100% yet, but as soon as it is, he will get to hang out in his Johny Jump Up!  We got out an interactive Pooh toy that was given to him as a gift.  It’s a 6+ month toy for learning shapes and such, but we figured he would enjoy watching the lights, and hearing Pooh talk and play music.  Not only does he LOVE this toy, he actually has learned to push the Kanga button, pull Tigger down, and tilt Pooh bear to make the different sounds!  He is growing and changing so much from week to week, we are just so proud to be his parents, and a part of watching him discover this world.

Video: Liam with Hair

Click the link below to watch it:

http://www.vimeo.com/832248

Liam with Hair http://www.vimeo.com/832248 About this video: "Liam is just turning 16 weeks in this video. This week he just started blowing raspberries. Mom was playing with her hair, and put it on Liam's head. So cute!"

Liam is 15 Weeks

This week we bought Liam a mattress for his crib. We haven’t officially moved him to his room yet, but he has been taking some of his naps in there this week. We think he really likes his new room because it’s quieter in there, and it’s darker in there with the blinds closed. His mattress in his crib is much roomier and softer than his bassinet too. It is nice for us too because we don’t have worry about waking him while he naps. We aren’t sure when he’ll go up for good, but for now it’s baby steps. This week Liam has taken more interest in his toys. He is starting to try to grab them, he doesn’t quite grasp them, but he’s getting close. One night he was even snuggling his stuffed bunny, it was really cute! This week he has really taken a liking to splashing up a storm in his tub, so much so we have decided it’s time to move his bath time to the big tub (well, his little tub in the big one). This way he can splash all he wants and we won’t have a huge flood to clean up : ) He also seems to be getting used to our new schedule this week. He even has started to sleep more during the night. He slept through the whole night twice this week!! He is such a fun and sweet baby; we are constantly amazed and grateful that he is ours!

Liam is 14 Weeks

Well this week was a bit rougher than last week.  For one it was probably because I worked the full week, and didn’t take Friday off.  And also because daylight savings started this week, and it just threw our whole schedule off.  Liam woke up at different hours, sometimes waking just an hour before we needed to get up.  I’m hoping this next week will be easier, as we will hopefully get used to the new time.  All the items I purchased to make things a bit easier have really helped too.  The new pump is great, it’s light, easy to use, and I love that it doesn’t need to be plugged in.  There are a couple things I’m not thrilled with, but overall it’s a nice pump.  I was concerned before starting work that I wouldn’t have enough milk, but I do pump plenty while I’m at work for the next day.  The sterilizer works great too, and has been a great time saver.

This week Dr. Karp, who is a pediatrician, was on a radio show that I listen to.  He has written books on kids. You can see his website at www.thehappiestbaby.com  Anyway, he was talking about how to calm your baby, and the basic idea is to recreate being in the womb.  The 5 ‘S’ techniques are 1. Swaddle 2. Side/Stomach Position 3. Shushing  4. Swinging  5. Sucking.  He was saying that being in the womb is louder than a vacuum, and this is why babies aren’t bothered when you vacuum.  This is also why babies like car rides.  This is true of Liam, he isn’t bothered in the least when I vacuum, and he just loves car rides.  He also loves being swaddled. We learned this early on when he kept waking up when his arms flailed about.  We started to swaddle him like they show you in the hospital, and he slept sooo much better since then.  Grandma P. also made him some new blankets that made it easier to swaddle him.

Liam continues to be more aware of things around him, mostly us.  He LOVES to smile at us, and we are just waiting for him to laugh.  We think it’s really close.   He is growing so fast too.  Clothes that looked so big when we first got them, are either too small now or going to be very soon.  He’s already nearly outgrown the 1-2 size diapers?!  (Which go up to 15 lbs.)  15 lbs. is also the maximum weight his bassinet will hold, which means he will need to move up to his bedroom soon, which makes us very sad.  In our new house, the master bedroom is on the main floor, and the rest of the bedrooms are on the second floor…while this will be nice when the kid (s) are teenagers, it REALLY is no fun for babies!  We are looking at getting a video monitor for when he’s up there. Although, even with the monitor, it just won’t be the same.  I imagine sending him up to the second floor will be like sending him off to college, except I don’t think he will approve of us setting up a video monitor in his dorm room, haha!

Liam is 13 Weeks

He also is 3 months old today!  I just finished my first week of work.  It was pretty stressful and tiring, but all in all I think it went OK.  I know there are a few kinks to work out, but I think if we get into a routine, we’ll both get used to it.  This week we got up at 5 am, and we were out the door between 6 and 6:30.  I take him to work with me until business hours, which is around 8am.  Most of the people that work there come in even later, so as long as I’m getting my work done, it shouldn’t be an issue for anyone…hopefully!  That extra time with him in the morning does make working a little easier for me.  I am very grateful that I have a job where I can do that, and that also has flexible hours that I can work around.  I would say I spent the first weeks and probably the 2^nd weeks wages to purchase items that will make working a little easier on me. 

1. The Freestyle Medela breast pump. (Seen here: www.medelafreestyle.com) This pump is brand spankin new in Feb. 08.  It is very small, and weighs less than a pound.  The cool thing about this pump is that it has a rechargeable battery, which means you can pump anywhere!  You don’t have to find a plug. The other cool feature about it is it is hands free, which means it has some weird contraptions to hook to it, so you don’t have to hold it, you can do stuff around the house, like check e-mail, read a book, etc.  This purchase came late in the week, so I’ve only used it a few times at home.  So we will see this next week how well it works.
2. The other big purchase item that I ordered was a large sterilizer.  The first night I came home, I realized just how much stuff needed to be cleaned.  We have a small bottle warmer that also sterilizes things.  It works great when I’m at home and can clean and sterilize right there, but when you have been gone all day, the amount of stuff just piles up.  This item will hopefully be coming early next week.  In the meantime we ended up just boiling it all at once in a large pot.
3. I ended up getting another small bottle warmer/sterilizer to keep at work, so I can sterilize the pumping equipment in between pumping.

 Anyway, as for LT (Liam Thomas), he is such a trooper.  This week hardly fazed him.  He continues to grow, and get more adorable by the minute.  I was able to weigh him on a home scale, and I’m not sure how accurate it is, but he weighed 13.5 pounds!!  He loves to be read to, and is very attentive of the pictures as we read to him. We got him 3 new puzzle books this week, one for the alphabet, one for numbers and one for shapes.  Music is very important to his dad, so I have been playing the Ipod more in the car, and at home.  This week he is starting to follow objects more, another milestone for his age.  By the way, at the start of this week, we were fortunate to have had the opportunity to be invited to our sis-in-laws family’s house where they have all the equipment to take professional pictures.  He was very good, and just hammed it up in front of the camera.  We got some really adorable pictures that you should check out!  We just are constantly amazed at this little person that we made, and we look forward to getting to know him even more.

Liam is 12 Weeks Today!

I knew this time would fly by, but I just didn’t realize just how quickly!!  I am really dreading going back to work this week.  It is going to be so hard to leave him.  Before Liam was born, I was a bit concerned about my motherly instinct, whether or not if I had any.  I was not one that awed and cooed over other peoples babies.  But there are NO worries now; my motherly instinct has kicked in full force.  I have become a mother bear.  I have bonded with him on a level I never even knew existed, and I would protect him with my life.  All the stuff you hear about being a parent just makes sense once you are one.

This past week Liam has been such a great baby.  I do feel that we are getting the hang of one another, and it has been easier to figure out what he wants, when he wants it.  I do fear this next week is going to be a whirlwind for the both of us, trying to figure out our new schedule.  It will probably be a lot of trial and error until we figure out something that works for everyone.  One of the many reasons it is going to be so hard to leave him, is he is growing and changing so quickly, and I don’t want to miss a second of it.  He has officially grown out of his newborn diapers and clothes, has been for a while now.  He is actually nearly grown out of his 0-3 months clothes as well, and will be into the 3-6 month clothes before I know it!  He is not only smiling more, he is smiling back at us.  A couple times this week when he woke up for his 2-3 am feeding he just laid in his bassinet “talking” and smiling at me.  I just sat there watching him grinning from ear to ear.  He has started to play with his hands, which is a developmental milestone for babies his age.  His neck is pretty strong now and he can almost hold his head up without any support.  He continues to kick his legs and arms like crazy too.  He has started to grasp things better, like his rattle; he will hold onto it and shake it for a while before he throws it.  He also has started to recognize us as his caretakers, and is comforted when we walk into the room, another milestone for his age.  One thing that isn’t such a pleasant development is he is spitting up more.  He really didn’t spit up before, but now it’s almost like his appetite is growing quicker than his stomach can hold.  Although the past day or so it hasn’t been quite as bad, so hopefully this means it’s catching up.  Anyway, this week will be interesting if nothing else, and I’m sure I will have lots to write about….wish us luck, (and hopefully enough sleep!)

They Grow Soo Fast Don't They?!?!

About this video:
"Liam hanging out with mom on December 13th 2007. He's only 6 days old!"

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO


comment by Becky P on 02/28/2008
I can't believe how much he has grown, it is so fun to see the video. Thanks for posting it.
Love, mom