Liam is 14 Months

Liam is 14 months now, and just gets cuter and cuter everyday.  He has learned to use a straw and really prefers it to the sippy cup now.  He is climbing on everything, and can just about get on the couch without help, although he does not understand edges and the concept of gravity yet, so he will sit right on the edge backwards and we have to be really careful that he doesn't fall head first.  He also doesn't want to crawl up or down the stairs, he wants to walk, but he's not quite tall enough yet so we have to spot him very carefully!  He loves piggy back rides and when we sit on the floor he will come up and tap us on the back for a ride.  We will sing 'datadatada' around the room, and then when we put him down he will run around the room shaking his head side to side and sing 'datadatada'...it's so cute!  He also has started to bounce up and down to music when he's sitting on the floor.  He will find little pieces of fuzz or fur on the floor and he will bring it to me.  Then I say 'Thank You' with lots of enthusiasm.  He has Winnie The Pooh sheets in his crib, so sometimes when we get him from his crib he will pick up imaginary pooh characters to give to us.  We thought that was so adorable.  He tends to do something or say something once and then he won't do it again for a long time so we have to really relish it.  Like one day he waved AND blew a kiss to me, but then hasn't done it again.  That also applies to food too. One day he will like something then the next he doesn't.  Ever since we gave him gold fish crackers he has sworn off Cheerios.  And after a bit of a delay on our part we finally tried giving him peanut butter, and thankfully he is not allergic!  He loved the PB and J sandwich we gave him the first couple of times, then he decided he didn't want any the last time we gave it to him.  He has now learned he can spit out his food if he doesn't want it...hopefully this is just a faze!  He gets really frustrated when he points and cries that he wants something and we don't know what he wants.  Usually this happens if he's really tired, but sure can be frustrating for us too!   Although, even though we can all get frustrated, the minute he does something cute like smile or pat our back, all is forgotten!!

Liam is 13.5 Months

Liam is starting to look less and less like a baby, and more like a little boy.  He's starting to have a bit of an attitude lately, mostly when it comes to eating.  Although now that we are transitioning from his baby food to big people food, he tends to be more agreeable.  It surprises us the types of food that he likes.  He eats (and likes) bell peppers and onions!!  And he really likes hummus.  Now that he has some molars he chews a lot better now, and we are more comfortable feeding him.  He really enjoys graham crackers and goldfish crackers too.  His favorite food is still cheese and cottage cheese and he will now say 'Mmmmm' when we get it out of the fridge.  He tends to point at the food if he wants more, and will cry a bit if we aren't getting it fast enough.  We are teaching him the sign and word for 'more', so that he won't get frustrated when he wants something.  He started to get part of the sign down, and we are pretty sure he said 'more' a few times too. He is starting to climb onto stuff now.  We showed him how to climb onto his riding train, and now he gets on and off all by himself.  He knows how to crawl up the stairs, but is not so good crawling back down, he wants to stand and go down that way, but he's not big enough to do that, so we have to be really careful when he's around stairs.  One cute thing he started doing a while back that I'm sure I mentioned is he will 'Roar' when he sees a picture of a lion or tiger.  His favorite word lately has been 'Uh-oh'.  I saw him trying to open our door knob the other day, and I said 'Uh-oh', and I think he was concentrating so hard that I scared him, and he started to cry.  His other cute thing he's been doing lately is singing to us.  He will start with a sound and either go up or down.  Over the weekend he decided that he did not want his afternoon nap, so we are thinking he might be going to one nap a day soon.  When he doesn't have a 2nd nap he tends to be a little more tired in the evening which makes him more cuddly.  He will sit on our lap and hang out for a while. It's a rare treat for us, since he's usually such a busy body!

Liam is 13 Months

Liam's walking has improved a lot in the past month, and he walks pretty quickly and is even starting to run.  It's so second nature to him now, that sometimes he doesn't watch where he's going.  We decided it was time to get him some shoes, and found a cute pair of Nike's.  We expected that he would be pretty wobbly learning to walk with shoes, but he surprised us a bit how quickly he learned.  Another new item we needed to purchase when he turned one was a new car seat.  Mike did some research on a safe seat, and it came down to the Britax and the Recaro.  Both are well made and safe.  Recaro is a new brand for baby car seats, but are well known for making seats for racing cars.  We ended up buying the Recaro, and so far we really like it.

 

It's so cute how much of a 'boy' he is.  He likes to throw stuff, and has a pretty strong arm too.  He is also starting to roll his cars along making the 'Vroom, Vroom' car sounds.  His favorite word lately is 'No'.  He usually says it if he's mad or upset.  One habit he is learning that isn't so fun is he is starting to throw tantrums, and whine when he's upset.  Although to be fair to him, he's also starting to cut his molars, so that could be part of it.

 

His chewing has improved quite a bit lately.  He doesn't gag near as often as he used to, and that makes feeding him certain things a lot easier.  He really loves cheese, and cottage cheese.  And lets us know if he really loves something by going 'MMmmmmm'.  Although, if he doesn't like something, it makes feeding him really frustrating.  He will hold it in his mouth, or turn away and cry or whine.  We usually will have to mix something else he likes with it to get him to finish it.

 

Both Mike and I had a some time off for Christmas.  We spent a lot of time with Liam, which was fun.  This year was his 2nd Christmas.  I actually put up the tree this year!  He got a lot of toys for his birthday which added to the plenty he already had, so we decided to get him mostly books, and a couple of toys for Christmas.  His attention span is all of 5 minutes, if we are lucky, so it worked out good.

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!