Godzilla Baby Attacks Tofu

Today was quite a day. Liam woke early and took a short morning nap before we headed out to run errands. One of our stops was the birth center. I had hoped to stop in to see our doula, Mizti, but she was not feeling well and didn't come in this morning. Instead we saw a baby goat that someone was dropping off for Kip, the midwife. It was super cute brown and white with little horns. Liam loved it. He even imitated it's little bleats.

We also stopped by one of the consignment shops that specializes in baby gear. I found Liam a great little life jacket for next year - or once he outgrows his current one. I also decided it was time to buy a training potty. They sell the Boon Potty Bench, which I had seen online at a couple places. I was happy to buy it at a local store and not pay shipping. I know it's rather early to start potty training, but Liam seems receptive and I thought it would be a good time to get him used to sitting on it and comfortable with the potty. He also tends to have fairly regular bowl movements in the morning, so that seems like a good place to start.

Once we came home, Liam didn't want to nap. So I prepared him some lunch. I cubed some soft tofu and peaches for him. He's tried peaches before, but tofu was new. Lunch turned out to be quite the sensory experience for him. He spent the first five minutes pounding and smashing the tofu into his table. It was total devastation! I sat and watched, while eating my portion of the peach. Eventually he realized that he could eat it his meal. He tried putting the mashed bits in his mouth. As usual, he made a face. Then he ate some more. Most of the tofu and the peaches ended up on the floor, but at least it was fun!

Today was another hot one, so I decided to take a stroll to the new water fountain park they installed nearby. I put on my swimsuit and dressed Liam in his swim shirt and shorts. By the time we got their, we definitely needed a cooling off. I held Liam and walked through some of the running water. The water was cold and he wasn't too happy at first. Then I let him do the walking, with a little support from me of course. He would wander around through some of the baby-sized fountains and eventually got brave enough for some of the bigger ones. We stopped to warm up and dry off often. We stayed at the park for nearly two hours. It's a really nice place. They even have awnings to keep the sun off you. The whole time we were there and during our walk, Liam was pointing at things. He was taking it all in and watching everything. He has started including the same number of syllables as my words when he imitates my speech.

At home this evening, Liam continued to work on trying to stand without support. He puts one bent leg under him and one leg straight out in front of him. Then he tries to straighten the bent leg and push up. He's come really close to standing a few times. While we were playing, he let go of my hands and stood on his own for a couple seconds. Surprisingly, he didn't fall, but rather put his hands down in front of him and sat down carefully.

Look! It's a bird, it's a plane, it's the cutest baby ever!

I am so blessed to have just the cutest little boy ever! Liam sure doesn't look like a baby anymore...he's really starting to look like a toddler. The doctor even called him a toddler last week. Not only does he look like a toddler, but he acts like one too. He's constantly trying to communicate, usually by pointing. He has a real sense of humor. He thinks it's so funny to make me chase after him or to startle me by blowing raspberries while I'm feeding him purees. He's gotten very good at amusing himself and playing by himself (as long as I'm nearby in the room with him). But it's always more fun to try to play with whatever mommy has - like the checkbook I was attempting to balance tonight.

Here he is in one of the Hawaiian shirts I bought for him yesterday at the thrift store. Liam has been trying to stand up unsupported for the past week. He's gotten close, but hasn't succeeded yet. I'm sure he'll be standing up and walking in no time...I have to admit I'm not particularly eager for him to start walking, he's enough of a handful already!

Standing Ovation at the Ren Faire

Today we packed things up at the cottage and headed back towards home. Our plans were to spent Memorial Day at the Mayfaire Renaissance Festival. Liam napped on the drive there. We arrived around 11am. As usual, I carried Liam on may back in the Ergo carrier, which got many comments from the faire participants. We wandered around looking at the booths and people. Liam had a lot of fun (despite how he looks in the first photo - he was trying to figure out what mommy was doing, not really scowling).

We stopped to watch one of the performances - this one was a group of singing pirates. Out of the blue, Liam started clapping! He would clap during and after the songs. He also giggled and squealed very loudly. So loud, in fact, that the performers and the audience took notice of him. I was so please and proud of Liam, not only for clapping, but for doing it at an appropriate time! It was as if he were just waiting for us to take him to an event worthy of a clap. Later, at home Sean captured him clapping in photos. Liam kept clapping while I was trying to feed him at dinner...apparently singing pirates and peach yogurt both warrant standing ovations!

At the faire, I got some ideas for sewing garb for the family. We currently don't have any fun outfits to wear to these sorts of things, but I hope to make something for the next faire we go to. There are several more later in the summer.

Super Sunday (May 27, 2007)

Sunday was a busy, yet lazy sort of day. Liam slept very well the night before in the cottage. He slept in a pack-and-play next to my bed. He woke once in the middle of the night and instead of crying, he had found his pacifier, stood up, and started poking me to wake me up.

We had a relaxing morning in the cottage. Mom and dad fixed a big breakfast. Liam sat at the table and ate cheerios and played. Liam also got to see the local swan, who was hanging out in the lake in front of the cottage. When Liam went down for a morning nap, my dad stayed in the cottage to keep an eye on him while the rest of us went for a paddle. I took out my old kayak. Sean took the canoe. We explored the lake, since we had never been there before. My mom joined us in her kayak. We were lucky that Liam took a long nap and he was still sleeping when we came back due to rain.

It was still kinda rainy after he got up. We had lunch and then decided to take a drive to see the cottage that Sean's parent's had just bought. Their cottage is only around 20 miles away from my parent's place. Sean's folks are planning on retiring there in a few months. How exciting and how great is it that both our parent will be in the same area?! We really liked the cottage when we saw it. We also took a drive around the lake to check it out.

When we got back to my parent's place, my mom and I decided to go to one of the local antique malls with Liam. This would give Sean a chance to paddle while we were out. Liam had a lot of fun looking at all the things in the mall. He especially liked the large concrete sculpture of a raccoon holding an ear of corn that we saw. He kept squealing and pointing at it.

Afterwards, Sean agreed to watch Liam so that I could go paddling. They played on the porch for a little bit, but soon retreated into the cottage due to mosquitoes. Meanwhile, my mom and I paddled. We had such a great time at the lake! I never seen Liam so happy and relaxed. He loves the water just as much as his parents! We are so lucky to have parents with cottages and look forward to making many memories with Liam.

Liam's First Voyage (May 26, 2007)

While the weather was stormy here at home, we hoped for the best and packed up the car and headed to my parents cottage in northern Indiana for the weekend. Luckily it turned out to be a lot better down there...we enjoyed a fun weekend at the lake.

Saturday afternoon, Sean collected our kayaks and canoe from storage nearby and brought them to the cottage. While Liam took his afternoon nap, we took the canoe out for a short paddle. (We bought it last spring while I was pregnant with Liam. We tried it out once before he was born, but it didn't go well. It was a windy day and the lake was choppy and I had a poor sense of balance while 7 months pregnant. Needless to say, we were worried that we weren't going to like the canoe after being kayak paddlers for many years.) This time we had a lot of fun and the boat wasn't tippy at all.

After Liam woke up, we decided to take him out for his first voyage in a boat. He wasn't very happy with me when I put on his life jacket. He cried and then had a pouty face. We all had a laugh at his expense, because he acted like he couldn't move - kinda like a little kid in a snowsuit. At first, we tried the paddle boat that came with my parents cottage. However, we soon found out that the boat was not very easy to maneuver.

Then we decided to try the canoe. Sean and I paddled, while my mom sat with Liam in the middle of the canoe. My dad captured it all on film. We had a great little trip. We paddled around the portion of the lake with cottages. Liam was very calm and took everything in and watched the water. I will add photos of the trip once my dad e-mails them to me. Stay posted...

(Paddle boat photos added June 12th, 2007)
(Canoe photos added July 8th, 2007)

Miscellaneum

Ok, here are some assorted odds and ends that I keep forgetting to post about.

First, Liam has shown a strong interest in communicating with us during the last couple weeks. About a month ago he started pointing at things occasionally. Now he is constantly pointing at objects, people, and animals and says "ga" or "da". I usually try to figure out what he's pointing to and tell him the name of whatever it is. I am kinda excited about this new stage. It clearly shows that he is observing the world around him and try to understand and interact with it. Sometimes he smiles when I tell him what he was pointing at. For example, he typically points at our pet birds a couple times a day and when I tell him "birds" he smiles and tries to imitate my word. So cool!

Even though Liam's sleep has been kind of erratic this week, I did want to mention that last week he went almost seven days sleeping through the night with no waking or nursing! Let's hope this will keep up once his infection is gone!

I have been wanting to order Liam some nice leather sandals with soft soles, but didn't know what brand to buy or where to get them. There are many different brands of soft-soled baby shoes, like Jo Shoes, Pedoodles, Pediped, and Robeez. I like the look of Pediped the best. My friend Alissa had ordered a pair for Ashtyn and I got to look at them in person and they were very nice. She told me about an online shoe store that sold them with a discount and free shipping, so I decided to go for it. Liam's shoes arrived this past Monday. They are really nice. You can't see them very well, but he's sleeping in them in the photo in today's first post.

Sean has successfully taught Liam to go "vroom" when he pushes his truck and bus around on the floor. He also makes sound effects when he pushes other toys too. He's also started to pick up on the game of putting animals into the bus as well as taking them off.

At daycare on Wednesday, I think Liam did his first definitive wave bye-bye. We were saying goodbye to friend's son Aidan. Liam watched everyone wave and finally reacted by intentionally waving his left hand and forearm. Yeah! Now if I could only be as successful with clapping hands. Liam has resisted doing these sorts of things...I think he thinks their silly.

Health Update

In case you're wondering...I'm feeling a little better with each passing day. The antibiotics seem to be doing their job. I'm just worried that the infection will return as soon as the antibiotics end...

Liam is also doing better. He slept a little better last night and seems less congested.

Now if we can only keep the inevitable yeast overgrowth at bay...

It's too hot!

Yesterday we had quite a heat wave here in Michigan. I think the official high was 89 degrees here in town, which is unseasonably hot for May. Liam and I ran our errands in the late morning after my dental appointment. By the time we got home, the apartment was already quite hot. I was determined NOT to use the airconditioning though. So we kept the lights off and the blinds closed to keep it cooler. Liam resisted taking a nap, but eventually I got him to fall asleep after noon and we both dozed in the armchair together.

Liam woke up just before Sara arrived with Elli. I normally take the babies for a walk, but the heat kept us indoors. Instead we found some different things to do. We made "music" by banging toys together, read stories, ate lots of crackers (it's amazing how hungry such little people can be!), watched Curious George, stacked and unstacked cups, etc... Even with a fan running, it was so hot in the apartment that the babies were sweating. I decided to let them go naked, except for a diaper. They enjoyed it immensely.

After Elli went home, Sean, Liam, and I went to Target to buy another floor fan and a blender to replace the one I broke a couple weeks ago. We can't make it through the summer without being able to make smoothies. Once home, Liam crashed and took an evening nap. When he woke up, he was fascinated by the new fan and was determined to try to touch it. Sean and I each had to scold him and tell him how dangerous the fan is. We tried to buy one with really small slots, but his fingers are just so tiny. I kept the fan behind a chair to prevent him from getting to it. He enjoyed standing in front of it with the air blowing over him and tousling his hair.

Time for Healing

I don't have too much to say today. Liam was at Sara's for half of Tuesday and at daycare all of today. I missed him, but really needed the time to heal and rest. I'm feeling a little better, but far from perfect. Last night Liam was running a fever too, so I made a doctor appointment for him this evening. Sean and I picked him up from daycare and went to the doctor. His sinuses were packed again...another sinus infection...more antibiotics. I just wish we could break this cycle of illness!

Liam has been very happy and feisty despite being sick. Yesterday he got to wade in a baby pool at Sara's house. He also tried hummus and pita bread for the first time at dinner. He now crawls everywhere in the apartment to find me if I step away for a moment. He's especially good at tracking me down in the bathroom. Sean taught him to make "vroom vroom" sounds when he plays with his toy bus and car. Now he makes vroom noises whenever he pushes his toys around on the floor. Too cute! He was a real flirt at the doctor's office, especially with the women doctor who saw him tonight.

Fish-face Liam

The past couple days, Liam has been making a fish-face a lot. I wondering if the rest of his lower incisors are coming in? I haven't been able to capture his face-making in a photo yet.

Sunday I was miserably sick...coughing so much that I ached. Luckily daddy was around to help care for Liam. Sean was so wonderful playing with Liam all day. They would play make-believe with the toy school bus and Liam's stuffed animals. Liam helped daddy put the animals on the bus and then they would take them on various field trips around the apartment. It was so cute to watch. While I was feeding Liam pureed green beens for dinner, he startled me by blowing a mouthful back out at me. He laughed and laughed at my reaction.

This morning I was still pretty bad off. I took Liam to Sara's for daycare and took myself to the doctor's office. My doctor ordered a chest x-ray to rule-out pneumonia. I won't know the results for a couple days. I got home with just enough time to wash Liam's closes and sweep the floors before Sara brought Liam and Elli over. I watched Elli for her during the afternoon. I took the babies out for a long walk again. At first they both resisted sleep. Liam napped first during the walk through Scott Woods. Elli fell asleep just as I was leaving the woods, so I continued to walk through the neighborhood for another 45 minutes so that she would get a nap too. Sean played with them when he came home, so that I could prepare dinner. They all had fun playing and giggling in the tunnel. They weather was so nice, that after Elli went home we all went for another walk. This time we looked at houses for sale in the neighborhood. Liam giggled up a storm when I brushed his teeth tonight...boy am I glad he likes getting his teeth brushed!

Seven Happy Years

Yesterday was our seventh wedding anniversary. In keeping with (recent) tradition, Sean and I wanted to spend our anniversary at the Great Lakes Kite Festival. Luckily I was feeling well enough to make a day trip to Grand Haven. We packed up picnic lunches and all our great kites and made it there by 11am. Our first stop was at the tent to shop for more kites and line laundry. Then we headed for the beach and grabbed a good spot south of the professional exhibits. We put up the sun shade we borrowed from my parents and then went to work flying kites.

We put up our huge power sled and hung the 15 foot octopus, 24 foot tube tail, and piranha drogue from the line (which you can see in the first photo). Then Sean got out his stunt kite and flew it with a 20 foot tube tail (second photo). Sean did stunts for a couple hours. Meanwhile, Liam and I played in the sun tent and watched kites.










While Liam has qualms about grass, he absolutely loved sand. This was fun at first, but I soon found out that babies and sand don't mix well...Liam decided that sand was taste-worthy. He liked running his hands through the sand and then licking his hands. He's also dip his toys in sand and then sample the grit. Needless to say, sand was soon all over and in him! While daddy was flying his kite, Liam and I also took a stroll barefoot in the sand. What fun!

Later in the afternoon, we took a stroll down to the surf to show Liam the lake. He was kinda sleep at the time, but seemed impressed by the crashing waves. Liam was so sleepy that he fell asleep on my back before we made it to the car. He snoozed, while Sean and I got takeout at our favorite Chinese restaurant in Grand Haven. What a lovely day we had!

The Wheels on the Bus Go...

Well...this morning didn't start so great for us, because I was still quite sick. The situation forced us to cancel our plans to go to the Great Lakes Kite festival today and camp on Grand Haven beach for the weekend. We were all really bummed. :(

To try to make the best of things, we went to story book time at a local childrens book and toy store. Today's theme was "In the dirt"...something I know a lot about and am very fond of! I was impressed that Liam sat through two whole stories, "Mud" and "Duck Stuck". Before we left, we looked for a truck for Liam and found a nice heavy-duty red plastic one for him...It's Viking Made! Liam has shown an interest in pushing his toys around on the floor, so Sean and I have both been looking for a nice wheeled toy for him.

Later on the way home, we stopped at a bunch of yard sales. We ended up walking through the neighborhood next to us, where our friend Alissa and her daughter, Ashtyn live. We ran into Alissa and Ashtyn, and spent part of the afternoon talking and playing at their house. Liam had great fun with all of Ashtyn's toys. But he wants to apologize for taking a bite out of one of her board books.

In our yard sale wanderings, we found Liam a sleeping bag and a cute Tykes bus complete with little kids. He had a blast playing with it once I cleaned it up. He thought it was really funny when mommy made it drive over her and daddy and Liam. He also thought it was really funny when mommy made a surprised face...I don't think I've ever heard him laugh so hard. My antics even gave him the hiccups!

Thursday is Try New Food Day!

Today has been all about eating. This morning Liam tried cubes of avocado. He ate a few, but wasn't too enthused. Later he tried organic vanilla cookies while grocery shopping. Yum! He also had plums for the first time at lunch. Then at dinner he tried a little of my chicken...he's not too crazy about chicken.

In addition to the edible items, Liam also tried several inedible things too (much to my dismay). He chewed the corners off one of his new board books and may - or may not have - eaten some cellophane off of another book (I can't say for certain because I only found a bit of cellophane on his cheek). Both incidents were not shinning moments for me as a mother. It's amazing how much trouble he can get into even when he's being watched all the time...even supposedly baby safe items can be dangerous sometimes.

I'm still feeling ridiculously sick. I just hope that I will be better by the weekend.

Flowers for Mommy

I forgot to mention that Liam's daycare providers potted marigolds to give all the mom's for Mother's Day. What a sweet thing to do! Now I have a little pot with yellow marigolds that says "To Mommy, From Liam". That was a nice surprise.

Don't tell my landlord, there's pee pee on the floor!

On Tuesday, Liam spent the morning at Sara’s. I was feeling really sick, so instead of working I rested. I went to pick up Liam a little early and stayed to chat with Sara & Lindsey for a bit. Liam was tired, so we both got a nice afternoon nap before daddy came home. Before Liam woke I checked my temperature and found out that it was 103!

During one of Liam’s diaper changes, he crawled away from me before I got a fresh diaper on. While I was reaching for a cover, I looked up to see him peeing on the floor and smiling like a Cheshire cat as he did it. He giggled and laughed at me as I mopped up the mess. Apparently he thought that was extremely funny!

Liam slept through the night last night. I had a rough time though. The crazy fever dreams and the hives I got from taking Tylenol made for a really long night. Why is it that the baby always sleeps great when I can't sleep?

Today Liam was in daycare all day. I spent the morning doing laundry and trying to rest. In the afternoon I had an interview for a tutoring position. The good news is I got the job, the bad news is they don’t have any summer hours for me. Sean and I both went to pick up Liam in the evening. They said he did really good today and even drank his bottles for once! I am pleased to hear that he is getting more comfortable being away from me and playing with other babies.

Once home I fed Liam yogurt and dried peas. Liam has been a real chowhound the past few days. I can’t seem to give him enough finger-food snacks, especially in the evening. He’ll eat cheerios, dried peas, cheddar crackers, graham crackers, bananas, and more. In addition, he still nurses quite a bit too. I think he might be going through another growth spurt.

We also played a lot this evening. He loves to roughhouse and be tickled and surprised. Peekaboo is another favorite. Liam has also shown a real interest in books lately. He loves to play with his board books and will giggle to himself as he looks at the pages.

Playing Catch-Up

As you've noticed I am terribly behind in this blog. With all the traveling and then getting sick with the cold that Sean had, I haven't had the time or energy. But I will do my best to summarize the past few days.

Sunday, May 13th

My First Mother's Day! We had a rough night last night. Liam didn't want to sleep and Sean was feeling bad. This morning my mom made me a latte with the raw milk I bought down...YUM! Dad made us all ham and eggs. Sean and Liam gave me a lovely card and a gift. By late morning we got things all packed up and headed to the nursing home that my grandfather is in. He was sleepy from an insulin reaction the night before, but we stayed to have lunch with my grandma and Aunt Chris, who were also visiting. Just before we left, grandpa woke up a bit and got to see Liam. I am happy that we got to talk to him for a little while.

Liam slept the drive home. Sean and I were both tired, so we took turns driving. We picked up Chinese take-out for dinner, because we were tired. Liam played happily. I noticed him try to whistle by curling his tongue and blowing. It was really funny to watch! He actually made a little sound too!

Monday, May 14th

I took Liam to Sara's house for her to watch him. I got a chance to catch up on some of my work. Then around 1pm I watched both Elli and Liam for the afternoon. Both the babies were tired, so I put Elli on my back and Liam in the stroller and we took a long walk in the nearby Scott Woods. Both babies napped and I got a relaxing walk. Once back at the apartment, they played very well together. They enjoyed making "music" by banging cups together...we had quite the cup symphony! Liam kept trying to hug Elli like he hugs his stuffed animals. We had a nice relaxing evening after Elli went home. Liam got a bath and slept well last night...he must be feeling better.

BTW: I'm not sure whether I've mentioned this already, but Liam has learned to ask to be nursed. He says "nyny" when he wants to nurse! This is great, because he doesn't have to bite me anymore. He has been doing this consistently for the past couple weeks.

Liam's Christening

On Saturday, May 12th, Liam was christened at the same church that my parent's were married in, I was christened in, and also where I received my first communion and confirmation. It was a really lovely mass and ceremony. We were blessed to have most of our families there. On Sean's side: his parents, brother & his family, Aunt Beth & Uncle Rick, and friend of the family, Rebecca. On my side: my parents, maternal grandmother, Aunt Chris, Aunt Jan & Uncle Scott, Aunt Mara & Uncle Mike, Cousins Samantha & Nolan, as well as my sister (Godmother to Liam) and cousin Douglas (Godfather to Liam).

Liam was such an angel and very well behaved through it all. He did cry a little when the water was poured over him, but the water was cold. After the ceremony, we all went to my parent's house, which wasn't far from church. Everyone had a great time chatting and passing the baby around. There were lots of munchies for all - I made a custard pie & baklava for the party. As usual, Liam was spoiled with too many presents. Thank you everyone for coming and for all the lovely gifts! It was a very special day for us!

No Sleep Marathon

Well, it seems that Liam has the same talent for surviving on next to no sleep that both his mommy and daddy had in their youth. Liam was up all last night and refused to nap most of today. So, I'll keep it brief 'cause I wanna go to bed!

Thursday morning we pretty uneventful. Sara and Elli came over for a visit late morning. Liam and Elli played. Liam got rather possessive over his mini See-and-say toy...I had to put it away to keep the peace. Then we ran our many errands for the week. I got Liam some new snacks. I bought some organic cheddar crackers and some freeze dried peas. He tasted the peas for the first time on Monday, when Eva gave him some of Hannah's. He loves them so much that he kept begging me for more of them all afternoon.

In the evening, I watched Elli. She really missed her mommy at first and clung to me. This made Liam a little jealous. Sean and I took the little ones out for a walk since the weather was so nice. Sean carried Liam on his back & I carried Elli in a sling. Elli got really excited and started saying "doggy" when she heard a neighbor's dog bark (she has a pet dog). She began to relax after that and the rest of the evening went smoother. Elli sure likes to "talk" a lot. We could make out a few words in her cute little voice. Sara's class didn't get out till 9pm, so we were pretty late getting Liam to bed after Elli went home. He really needed a bath, so it was nearly 10pm by the time I put him to bed.

He was up and down most of the night. Nothing appeared wrong with him. He would only cry if you tried to rock him to sleep or left him in the crib. By 4:30am, I was desperate to get him to sleep and let Sean get some rest for work, so I took Liam for a drive...worked like a charm. Though gasoline is getting too expensive to go for a drive every time the baby won't sleep!

This morning he was in a good mood, which was surprising considering how little sleep he had. He played with fluffy puppy and was very content watching Sesame Street. (According to the show today is national try a new food day...Liam tried two new foods yesterday.) He resisted nap time though and started to get cranky by late morning. We went to the crawlers playgroup in the afternoon and I left early so he could nap in the car again. Liam had fun pulling toys out of the baskets and playing with the Thomas the Tank Engine table and toys. We saw our old friends Lisa and little Leslie. We hadn't seen them for over a month, ever since we left the pre-crawlers group. It was good to see them again. Hannah and Elli were there with their mommy's too.

Liam finally took a long nap after we came home. I used the time to prepare some food for his christening party tomorrow, rather than taking a nap myself. This evening, Liam's daddy taught him to smack his lips like he was eating. Sean would say "How's that peanut butter" and Liam would start smacking his lips...what a laugh!

Conjunctivitis - AKA Pink Eye

Yesterday was Liam's 9 month check up. We found out that he is 29 1/2 inches long and 22lbs 8oz. This puts him in the 85th% for height and 80th% for weight. He's still really big, but has slowed his growth down considerably...He's no longer off the charts. I noticed yesterday afternoon that his left eye was a little weepy, the doctor told us it was pink eye. Ick! I'm not sure where he got it from, but it means that his misses another day of daycare that I have to pay for. Ugh! Why is it that the one day of the week I need him to be healthy, he's always sick?! To make matters worse, I had a job interview scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. I made a bunch of calls Tuesday night, but wasn't able to find anyone to watch him on such short nitice. I rescheduled the interview for next Wednesday...Hopefully he will be able to go to daycare that day.

Earlier on Tuesday, we went to mommy's doctor. Liam was well behaved for the long wait in the doctor's office. We read a book about Thomas the Tank Engine in the waiting room. He eventually took a nap while we were in the exam room. Afterwards, we went shopping for a christening gown. It was hard to find one large enough to fit him because he is so big and because we waited so long to baptism him. We also went to Sara's for a bit in the afternoon. Yes, Tuesday was quite a busy day!

Last night Liam didn't sleep well at all. He vomited before bedtime and again during the night. We ended up sleeping most of the night in the recliner together. This morning he seemed a lot better. I wonder if his baby food was bad?

Today Liam stayed home with me because of the pink eye. This morning was stormy and Liam liked to watch the rain out the patio door. He was very playful and silly today. One of his favorite toys is a fabric strap that I bought to fix a piece of luggage...It looks like I won't be getting it back any time soon. He often snuggles with his big stuffed ducky from Auntie Rae. He also loves to be surprised and tickled...at one point I had my hand on the floor while I was leaning over in the chair. He crawled over and nuzzled my hand and I tickled him. He giggled and crawled away. Then he'd come back and I would get him again. Sometimes I would pretend to be asleep and then surprise him. We continued to play this game for nearly a half hour. It was so much fun to hear him giggle and laugh with delight!

I think I forgot to mention that Liam tried cheese for the first time last weekend. He really loves cheese (he takes after his mommy!). Now whenever I eat cheese and crackers I have to feed him some of the cheese. Today he ate quite a lot of cheese.

PS - Today I had to move the finches to a hanger on the ceiling. Liam nearly pulled their cage onto himself in his eagerness to play with them. The finches wouldn't stop singing after I hung them up...I think they were happy to be away from Mr. Grabby-hands. Afterward Liam kept pointing at the birds as if to tell me that he wanted them to come back down. Later when Sean and I were talking about the birds, he turned to look up at them and pointed...he clearly recognizes the word "bird".

Spring Blooms

Last night was very trying for everyone. Liam woke up in the middle of the night and wouldn't go back to sleep for nearly five hours. Consequently, Sean and I got less than four hours of sleep. Ugh!...Not a good start to the week. I took this picture of Liam this morning and I think it pretty much sums up the sort of mischievous mood he was in.

I was so tired this morning that I almost canceled the playdate we had set with Eva and little Hannah, but I'm glad that I didn't. The playdate was just what both Liam and I needed. We went to MSU to stroll and enjoy the beautiful blooming trees that are so abundant on campus. We sat near the Beaumont Tower for a while and the little ones played and ate cheerios. We also visited several of the gardens on campus. The last picture is of Liam and I at the Beal Botanical Gardens.

This past week Liam has started doing a couple new things. First he has started parroting our sentences by babbling in the same rhythm or sound. He has also started handing things to us. Whether or not he intends to "share" is dubious, but he has gotten the knack of passing objects to another person. This has also led him to share food with us. He will often try to put his snacks or pacifier in Sean's mouth or my mouth. Last night he laughed at me when I refused to chew on his blanket when he offered it to me. Another thing he has done is discovered cabinet doors in the kitchen and bathroom. Now he tries to head for the bathroom whenever he can so that he can open and close the cabinet doors. Since we live in an apartment and can't childproof the cabinets, we've decided to keep the bathroom door closed to keep him out. For many months Liam has watched Sean and I feed the pet birds every day. This week he decided he could pull the food dishes out of the bird cage himself. Now I have to keep a close watch to make sure he doesn't pull the bird cage off the end table...I've been contemplating hanging the finches up along with the canary, who is already out of reach.


PS - I forgot to mention that on Sunday we went to a local arcade as a family. Sean and I managed to win a lot of tickets playing various games. We cashed them in for a monkey hand puppet for our little monkey.

Charlotte's Blog

Here is a link to my friend Valerie's blog of her adorable daughter, Charlotte. Valerie and I had the same doula for the birth of our little ones and Charlotte is only a couple weeks younger than Liam. Valerie is a very talented photographer. She takes the cutest pictures of Charlotte. Unfortunately, they both moved up north so we don't get to see them anymore. Luckily the internet keeps us all connected!

First Haircut & First Grass Exploration

You've probably noticed in the last few photos of Liam that his hair pretty shaggy. This morning Liam got his first haircut! Actually the whole family got their hair cut today! I took him to Smita's Salon, where Olivia usually cut's my hair. Liam sat on my lap and was extremely well behaved and calm. He watched all the hairdressers and was curious about Olivia's tools. I was expecting the whole thing to be much more difficult, but he was an angel! Now he looks more presentable for his christening next weekend. (Note to Family: Gifts are not necessary. If you wish to give Liam a gift, we prefer books, religious items, or money to add to his savings account. Please, please don't buy him clothes or toys. Thanks!)

Once I got my hair cut too, we ran some errands. First stop was a discount sporting goods shop to see if we could find some affordable bikes to replace the ones that were stolen from us...No luck there. Then we went to our favorite gyro shop for lunch. I brought yogurt and graham crackers to feed Liam. We got some looks from the local police when they saw me changing his diaper in the car afterwards. Hey, the world isn't made for taking care of babies...sometimes you've gotta change a diaper in the car. Either that or use one of the restaurant tables...now that would have gotten some looks!

Liam fell asleep on the way home, so Sean and I decided to go to the park. Today was quite windy and we thought we might be able to get one of our stunt kites in the air. Liam woke just was we got there. He and I played on the blanket while daddy tried to do stunts. Sean had a trying time, since the wind was so variable. Meanwhile, I tried to entice Liam to touch the lovely green grass. As you can see, the bright yellow dandelion was enough to get him over his fear and actually touch the grass on his own accord. It was so much fun to watch him explore the grass. He had such a pensive look on his face as he studied it and considered touching it. Daddy eventually got him to put both his hands in the grass and crawl and bit too! There is hope yet!

After all our other adventures, we went to church this evening. Sean got to see how much work it is to keep him entertained and relatively quiet during mass (he missed church the last couple times due to illness). I always leave church totally exhausted. Sean said it was "like wrestling an angry monkey" the whole time. We fed him snacks, change a diaper, took him for a walk in the foyer, fed him more snacks, let him play with his stuffed turtle, cuddled, tickled, played peekaboo, you name it...If he's this much work now, I can't imagine how bad it will be when he's a full blown toddler! Church was so much easier with a newborn...(sigh).

He's a Swinger! (May 4th, 2007)

Friday morning Liam and I went back to the rummage sale for the "bag" sale. I went through the piles of baby clothes, most of which were severely stained. But I managed to walk away with three paper grocery sacks full of clothes! Now he's set for the next year. I got tons of 18mo. clothes for this summer, as well as 24mo., 2T, and 3T clothes for the fall and winter. So Liam won't be needing any more clothes for a while! Yeah!

In the afternoon we had a playdate with my friend Alissa and her daughter, Ashtyn. We decided to carpool to a local park so that we could take the babies swinging. On the drive over the little ones got too hot and were in tears by the time we arrived, so we took a break in the shade under a tree to nurse and snack. Then we went over to the playground. While I've taken Liam swing on my lap in a regular swing, he'd never been in alone a baby swing before. I think he enjoyed it...when I stopped pushing him, he would rock back and forth in the swing to make it move. He spent most of his time watching the other babies and toddlers swinging. Silly me, I forgot my camera. Fortunately Alissa had hers...I'll post some pictures as soon as I get them...stay tuned!

On the way home we stopped at ceramic sale. The babies were so worn out that they both quickly fell asleep once we left. Liam continued to nap at home. He probably napped too well, because he didn't want to go to bed. Here he is protesting bedtime. I was too tired to post on the blog last night.

Happy 9mo Birthday!

Liam turned the big 9 (months that is!) today. He slept well last night...he stirred on a couple occasions, but settled himself back to sleep. This morning at 8:46, the time he was born nine months ago, we were napping on the recliner together. He did pretty good today, even though he wasn't feeling well and had a doctor's appointment to go through. Before the doctor, I stopped in one of my favorite toy/book stores. I got Liam a little frog finger puppet. It came in handy because we waited a long time to see the doctor. To my surprise, he didn't cry this time when he had his ears examined. The doc said Liam had a sinus infection. AGAIN!?! Oy! This time he prescribed two courses of Azythrimycin. Supposedly this antibiotic doesn't kill all the good bacteria like the other ones do. So hopefully Liam won't get yeast again.

After the doctor visit we went to Kroger to get his 'script and grocery shop. I never usually get groceries at Kroger, so it took a while to find everything on my list. On the drive home Liam feel asleep. He stayed asleep when I brought him in and put him in his crib. After I put the food away and took care of a few odds and ends, I also took a nap since I wasn't feeling the greatest either.

Liam's bottom is looking better, but he still cries at diaper changes. The nurse told me that commercial diaper wipes are the culprit. I don't used them at home, so it was during daycare that he had the reaction. I may have to tell them to use cloth diapers and wipes to prevent this problem from reoccurring. The nurse also told me to put mylanta on his bottom and to use a blow-dryer to dry it off. It seems strange, but so far I have noticed some improvement.

This afternoon, we made a quick trip to Aldi before daddy came home. Then we all went to the church rummage sale down the street. I found Liam a cute tied-dyed romper. Sean and I were is a summer time mood, so we made turkey burgers for dinner, complete with toasted bun, red onions, provolone cheese, and a green salad and potato salad on the side. Yum! I gave Liam a couple tastes of my turkey burger. He ate it up eagerly. He also ate some pureed spinach and carrots for dinner too. After dinner, we took a stroll around the neighborhood. We noticed a lot more houses up for sale now. We're not looking quite as hard for a house right now, because there is a threat of layoffs at Sean's job. We're going to wait and see...

Both Sean and I read Liam stories tonight. I also played around with him in the tunnel. He has gotten so proficient at crawling that he can move as fast as I walk! He can also stand while leaning against the furniture and play with a toy. He has gotten braver about walking and sometimes let's go, but always falls when he does. Today he babbled "B's" a bunch. We worked on words like: ball, baby, bird, boy, and book.

Sent Home Early

As you know, Liam goes to daycare on Wednesdays so that I can work on my dissertation. Well, today I received a call from the daycare director at around 2:30. They wanted me to come pick up Liam because he was "really fussy". They saw him pull on his ear and thought that he might have an earache. When I got there he was fine, although I learned that he refused to eat most of the day. I'm sure being hungry was making him cranky! So I fed him the pureed bananas that send with him to daycare and then breastfed him too. We played a little with the other babies before leaving. I think it's more likely that he is teething again. I know he has a little sinus congestion, but it's not an earache just yet. We're going to see the doctor tomorrow morning just to be sure though. (I am a bit miffed that Sean and I didn't get our hour of time alone this evening. We have gotten used to having a little time each week to ourselves before we pick Liam up from daycare.)

When I got home I discovered that he had a terrible diaper rash - this made him cry! Sean and I tried our best to console him. We gave him a soothing bath, some juice to drink, and cuddled a lot. Once he calmed down, Liam roughhoused with me...he loves to craw all over me. In the process, he accidentally head-butted me in the nose. Ouch! I still have a headache from that! We also had fun crawling in the tunnel and playing peekaboo. And we read some books too. Before bed Liam ate some peach yogurt. This was his first taste of peach and he loved it!

Double the Playdates, Double the Fun

This morning I had an appointment with the dentist and unfortunately Sean couldn't get the morning off work. Luckily, my friend Eva was able to come to the rescue to watch Liam. She came over with Hannah and the little ones got to play while I was out. It was really good to catch up with her afterwards...with all the craziness during the past couple months we hadn't found the time to have a playdate. Hannah was adorable, as always. She was showing Liam how to put toys IN the toy baskets.

After Eva and Hannah left, Liam ate a big lunch. He tried pureed spinach today and loved it. Later, Liam and I went to Sara's house for our Tuesday playdate. The usual suspects were all there today: Elli, Scarlet, and Marlow. We gave Scarlet a belated birthday gift (she turned 1 in March). And Elli and Marlow got birthday gifts too (their birthdays are May 3rd and 15th). I found some adorable vintage outfits for them last Sunday. Marlow wore the little shirt we gave her...it was too cute! We also gave each of them a book as well.

For whatever reason, the babies were all a little whinny and grumpy today. We attributed it to the rainy and stormy weather outside. The frequent and random downpours prevented us from going outside and taking a walk. I took Liam home a little before 4pm because he was tired and cranky. He fell asleep on the way home and took a long nap once home. I made a tasty dinner of Caribbean jerk chicken, fried plantains and rice. For the first time in ages Sean and I actually enjoyed a quiet dinner alone!

Sean gave Liam a bath tonight. It was nice to relax a little in the evening...another thing that I never get to do. Then I read Liam a couple short books before bedtime. He giggled and laughed at the pictures in the books. I am so happy that he enjoys being read to. He resisted going to bed at first. He even bit me! But he eventually drifted off in my arms.

PS - I almost forgot to mention that Liam had his first ice cream today. We stopped at the Fleetwood diner for desert after running some errands this evening. I ordered the glazed apple pie and Sean had strawberry shortcake. I also ordered a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side for Liam to taste. At first he didn't like that it was cold, but then he ate a few bites and seemed to enjoy it.