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!