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!!)
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