Prepare to have your heart melted

We tell Liam that we love him all of the time. His usual response is "bye bye!" This morning, as we were eating breakfast I said "I love you, Liam." He stopped, looked at me and said, "Love you, mama."

It was possibly my best parenting moment to date.

Still Here

It's been a rough few months. First we had to get back in the swing of the full-time work/day care routine, followed closely by LD being laid flat by a nasty cough. Then D was traveling for work, I was out of town for a wedding, then LD got a nasty stomach bug (which he generously shared with me) that knocked him down for a week. In the midst of all of this, he transitioned from the infant room at day care to to toddler room, switched from two naps to one, and generally grew into a real person instead of a baby.

Our kid:

• has 4 molars
• calls both D and I "da da" (though when referring to D, he uses a harder DA-DA)
• has an awesome sense of humor and has started cracking jokes
• gives kisses, hugs, and high fives on request
• is a little mimic and tries to repeat everything we say: good boy, that guy, CAT!!!, bath, ball, waffle, blueberry, milk, MOREFREAKINGWAFFLE, book
• loves to dance. I can't tell you how much this kid loves to dance.
• and finally, Liam is, as of this week, walking.
  

Video proof of that (and his love of putting things in their place).

Bringing the bowl:



Putting it back:




And some more funny videos from tonight:

Thanks Uncle Justin and Aunt Frannie!

They gave Liam this shirt over 4 weeks ago, but I'm just now getting around to posting this picture. Justin and Frannie gave Liam his Stud Puffin shirt and it was a huge hit. Especially at daycare. Thanks Uncle Justin and Aunt Frannie!

Going back a ways...

Liam recieved his transition paperwork this week at daycare. That means he will be moving up to the toddler room within the next month. I simply can't believe how fast it has gone. In honor of this occassion, I thought I would post an older video of Liam when he first started climbing up the climber in what will soon be his old room. This is how we would spend our mornings because the place was still fairly deserted when we arrived. Now he is off on his own as soon as we get there.

Father's Day 2010

A little late with this post also. But these pictures were too cute to ignore. Ashley planned a picnic at Herrick Lake for Father's Day. It turned out to be a great day and Liam really seemed to enjoy it.

I heard from several loyal readers that they loved the video I posted a while back of Liam laughing. Well. Liam is still laughing, this time at Damian. (At the beginning you can see a second of the corny smile he's started doing whenever he sees a camera. He sticks out his chin and squints his eyes. I have no idea where he got this or why he does it!)

Oh look! Even older pictures!

Y'all can blame Damian. He has this fancy-pants camera, which he uses to take amazing pictures, but he hardly has time to download them to his computer, let alone edit them, upload them, then post them here.

So. Anyway.

At the end of March, the three of us took a little road trip to Memphis to visit the Maurers (before they packed up and moved to Pittsburgh). We had a fantastic visit.

We skipped Graceland (we decided that we didn't like Elvis much at all, let alone enough to shell out 25 bucks a person), but did eat at the Arcade in his honor. While we were there, we were interviewed for Japanese TV and had to explain that, no, we didn't order the peanut butter and banana sandwich and, no, we don't normally eat them.

We also stopped at the Peabody for a cocktail, er, to let the kids see the world-famous ducks.

Jane, mesmerized by waterfowl.



Liam, mesmerized by the water. Not sure what the deal is with the ducks.

We also visited the Memphis Zoo.

Checking out the sea lion show. Well, Scott is. Jane appears to be checking out the exit.






LD, rocking Jane's sunhat.

We had some downtime, too.

And LD loved the Maurer's coffee table.

A very, very belated thank you to Scott, Jonnett, and Jane for their hospitality. We can't wait to visit you in Pittsburgh!

Memorial Day

While we're waiting for those birthday pictures, I can at least put up the pictures from Memorial Day.

Every year we head to Cleveland** for Uncle Graham's 5th Annual Memorial Day Cookout and Cornhole Tournament. This was (obviously) Liam's first time, and he had a ball. Endless attention, delicious food, and an inflatable pool from Uncle Graham? What's not to love?

**video has some language. you've been warned.

Lovin' from Mimi.



Peas and ... Chicken, maybe?



Peekaboo with Poppa Phil



A Refreshing Dip in the Pool






Lovin' from Great Grandma Mona



With Aunt Jessa



Family Pile



Investigating the Cleveland Flora with Uncle Graham



Lovin' on Daddy



Fierce Cornhole Competition





Gettin' Mama



Even Hobo got in on the lovin'

Filler (but at least there are pictures!)

LD had his big first birthday bash last weekend. The pictures from his birthday and the party are upcoming, but until then, here are some from the past month.

Scorecard

Megan mentioned that Liam's teeth can be seen in the videos I posted a couple of days ago. You may remember that Liam didn't get his first tooth until April 30. I thought it was time for an update:

Number of teeth on April 29th: 0
Number of teeth on June 29th: 6

It's been a very quiet, restful two months.

This Is How We Spend Our Days

This game never gets old.

Nap Fail

I took this about 20 minutes after I put Liam down for his afternoon nap and about 25 minutes after he almost fell asleep in his lunch. But he's definitely not tired, as you can see.

Oh man.

This kid of ours. He is getting too big.

Chutes and Ladders

Liam loves to climb the stairs and slide down the climber at day care. It's one of his new favorite activities. He is quite fast at it, but you could never tell that from this video. The problem is, when he sees a camera come out, he stops whatever he is doing and begins to ham it up for the camera. He has always done this. Since birth. It's really funny except we can never record him doing anything but smile. Here is a long drawn out version of what he does every morning when I drop him off.

10 Months (minus 1 day)

Tomorrow, our kid will be 10 months old. Holy guacamole! (note the cleaned up language ... someone is already mimicking. More on that.)

I had to post early because this morning, 1 day shy of 10 months, Liam is FINALLY getting his first tooth. There's a little tiny eruption on the left side, bottom. As D said, just in time for grilling season. Corn on the cob for everyone!

He seems to be feeling fine today. No tears, no fist gnawing. The past two days, we've definitely seen that. He was trying to cram both hands in there and seemed to be pushing down on his lower gums. Totally a new move that made us wonder if the tooth was coming. (Of course, when your kid doesn't get teeth until 10 months, everything from, oh, month 5 or so makes you think the teeth are coming.)

Despite not having teeth, the kid loves food. LOVES it. He really got the hang of feeding himself earlier this month and has run with that. Cheerios are, of course, a favorite and he still loves his pears, but will pretty much shovel in anything we put in front of him. Veggie burger, salmon burger, peas, italian sausage, sweet potato fries ... anything he can pick up and feed himself. It's getting a little tougher to sell him on the purees, but it goes a little smoother if we give him a spoon and let him, uh, "help."

This past Monday, we went to Ad Hoc when we were in California and the kid ate more than I did. Before we went in, he nursed and had a jar of fruit puree. When we got in there, he ate some of all four courses, plus his cheerio amuse bouche. He ate fresh salad with golden beets, radishes, and fennel, BBQ ribs and chicken with fingerling potatoes, a cheese course of aged cheddar, and homemade ice cream sandwich with vanilla ice cream and toasted coconut on fresh brioche. (Guess which course was his favorite?)

Liam is totally mobile now, but he has opted for the belly-dragging army crawl rather than the hands-and-knees traditional crawl. He can and has pulled himself to standing, but just doesn't show much interest in it at home. At day care, he's a totally different animal. Pulling himself to standing on anything that's not moving, climbing the steps to and sliding down the slide on his belly ... crazy kid! And he's super fast with the crawl. Like lightning.

And we have words! He's got bye-bye down, complete with a goofy wave and a warm up. We'll try to get a video, but picture this. He puts his right hand out flat, palm to the floor, stares at it intently for a second then curls his fingers in while whispering "ba ba ba." Once he's sure he's got it, he looks up and the "ba ba ba" gets a little louder. He also seems to have ma ma ma down and uses it in context (yay! for me!) The entire D sound seems to have dropped for the moment. It used to be one of his favorite babbling sounds (i.e., not used in context) but now we can't get a da da da to save our lives. We're working on it. He's also pretty close to ball (a more forceful version of bye: bah! bah!)

He loves to watch our mouths when we're talking or singing to him and is clearly trying to mimic. He's great at getting the intonation, but not the letter sounds. One that he taught us, and we have no idea where he picked it up, is his growl. He'll roar at us, we'll roar back and it is ENDLESS fun. ENDLESS. Really.

I mentioned we were in California earlier this week. Damian had a training in San Francisco on Tuesday and Wednesday, so we decided to make a mini-vacation for all of us and headed there Saturday. Liam was a champ on the plane, magically knowing to fall asleep just before every single take off and landing. That made me happy. I was most worried about those times, especially since he'd been dealing with a cold. I know how miserable it is for me to fly when I'm congested and I understand what's happening to me! Little guy did not have that last benefit.

We had a great time walking around the city on Sunday and headed to Napa Valley on Monday. We only made it to one winery because little man really needed a nap if he was going to make it through dinner, so we drove around wine country instead. Better for the wallet. And dinner, after all, was the goal. Damian (and I, but especially Damian) really wanted to eat at a Thomas Keller restaurant, and Ad Hoc was the family-friendly choice of the three in Napa Valley.

There are a ton of great pictures on D's camera, along with the many from Memphis. Maybe someday we'll see them. I'm not holding my breath.

In the meantime ...

Little Traveler, First Plane Ride



In the rental car after getting off the plane. He fell asleep with his hand halfway in the snack trap. When I unbuckled him, he started shoveling the cheerios in his mouth before he even opened his eyes.



In the stroller, walking to the bay



(In this picture, you can kind of see the eye issues little man had while we were there. Very teary, turned into very, very goopy prompting an emergency consult with Dr. Scott to see if we needed to dig up an urgent care in San Francisco. Answer: no. Thanks, Dr. Scott. We love you!!)

Yeah, yeah. I know.

So here are some videos.

(Also: feel free to comment and make Damian feel bad. He has a ton of fantastic pictures that he hasn't uploaded.)

Our kid on the day that he learned how to clap.




Caught in the act of turning his crib aquarium on with his mouth. Is is possible for an eight-month-old to look sheepish?




I was making dinner and Liam thought it was a freaking RIOT when I smashed the garlic cloves.

So cool

Liam is happy to see the sun after a long winter.

Lovin' on Scout

Liam's Great Aunt Sue and Great Uncle Jim gave him a Leapfrog Scout for Christmas. Scout can be hooked up to a computer so we could tell him Liam's name and favorite things, and Scout uses things in songs and games when you squeeze his paws. Liam loves this little guy. His face lights up whenever he hears Scout's voice.

Tonight, Liam was playing on the floor with his pile o' floor toys. He scooted over to Scout and started babbling at him. The next thing I knew, he had squeezed the paw that plays lullaby music and laid his head on Scout's belly for a little rest.

The Tongue

Liam has his tongue out all the time now.

The Beginning of the End

We've had two huge milestones in the last week. Last Saturday, after one of his usual pre-milestone long naps, Liam woke up with things to say. He's been babbling like crazy since. We haven't captured any video but we'll try to soon.

Along with the babbling has been an increase in laughing. He's been laughing for a few months, but only when we gobble his belly or tickle his thighs. This week he started laughing on his own. Wednesday night he was in his swing, zoning out after dinner and he turned his head to look at me and started laughing. His laugh is pretty much the greatest sound in the world.

The second milestone, God help us, is forward motion. Liam started scooting backward maybe a month ago and has been doing the 360 roll to get around for a while longer than that. Maybe two weeks ago he started pulling himself onto all fours and rocking back and forth. This week, he began pulling himself across the floor, army crawl style. He looks like a really, really cute inchworm. I figure it is only a matter of (very, very little) time before he puts the rocking on all fours and the army crawl together into a little racing real crawl.

Note to self: buy baby gates.

Ay Lake to Eat Ay-pples and Banaynays

Liam was double fisting his lunch today -- a slice of apple in his right hand and lefty was holding the mesh feeder with bananas.

Peas Are Good

Sleepy

This weekend, we went to the Hunter Ice Festival in Niles. Little guy
missed, oh, all of his naps for two days. He took some time this
morning to catch up.

Rip Van Liam

Our kid slept for about 16 hours yesterday. When he woke up, he could sit on his own.

Foodie in Training

After meeting Thomas Keller, Liam seemed really interested in food. We had planned on waiting until 6 months to start cereal (6 months = New Years Day. Thought it would be a big milestone day) but got too excited.

Liam tried cereal for the first time about two weeks ago.

At first, he wasn't a big fan:



But then he seemed OK with it:



He got better with the cereal each day and was soon opening his mouth and yelling if we didn't shovel it in fast enough.

On New Years Day, we did celebrate his unbirthday with some avocado. I first tried handing a slice to him to see if he would grab it and gum it himself:



No dice. So I mashed it in a bowl and used the trusty spoon.

He tried it:



He thought about it:



He went back for more:



And I think we have a winner: