Playtime

One of my favorite parts of the day is just sitting back and watching Liam play. He concentrates so hard and it is amazing to see his little mind working. Lately he has started reaching out and grabbing for everything in site. Although a bit hectic it is still really amazing to see him advancing right before my eyes. He now rolls over onto his tummy constantly and almost prefers it to anything else! He is also getting much sturdier at sitting up, so hopefully he'll be sitting on his own soon. Here are a couple of pics of him playing with his toys and then showing off his tummy skills to daddy.

2 Steps Forward. 1 Step Back.

That is how I feel lately. It seems that every time we make progress with Liam, something happens and we regress slightly.

About a month ago we went through the difficult process of "crying it out" at night so that Liam could get the full nights sleep that he needs. It took about 4 days and then we were finally sleeping from 7:30 - 6:30/7:00 consistently (2 steps forward). Then we went on vacation. With the pack and play, unfamiliar surroundings, and mommy sleeping 2 feet away, Liam woke up at 4AM. When I say "woke up" what I really mean is that he was literally screaming at the top of his lungs. Had we been home I'm sure we would have let him cry for about 15 min and he would have gone back to sleep. HOWEVER, with a house full of guests we had one choice....feed him. Of course this started us down a slippery slope. The next 2 nights on vacation he woke at 4AM again wanting to be fed. Once we got home, we went through the agonizing "cry it out" again for 1 night and then after that he would sleep soundly until 5AM but that was it. He would NOT go back to sleep unless he was fed. Soooo, here we are, 1 step back, feeding our boy at 5AM and then again at 7AM his normal wake time. Last night he woke at 5:30 and actually went back to sleep till 6:30 without having to be fed first so fingers crossed that we are headed back in the 2 steps forward direction again!

Food. We started Liam on food 2 weeks ago. He was doing great, so we introduced bananas which he LOVED (2 steps forward)! However, the very next day he woke up with a rash and a runny nose. The rash did not go away and seemed to get worse so we called the nurse and she informed us that it was probably a food allergy and we needed to stop all food immediately until the rash went away. Just when we were making progress (1 step back). SO, 3 days go by, rash is still there, runny nose is still there and eyes are very itchy. Finally went into pediatricians office and turns out he is NOT allergic to food...just has a summer cold that has caused him to break out in a rash. All this starting and stopping food for nothing! My boy is probably thoroughly confused why he got to eat such yummy food for 3 days and then it was abruptly taken away from him :(


Rolling over. As you saw from my post a few months back, Liam rolled from his tummy to his back when he was 2 months old (2 steps forward). He did it consistently for about a week and then it stopped. Completely (1 step back). He is now almost 5 months old and has not done it since. He rolls from his back to his tummy (which is supposed to be more difficult) ALL the time, but he can't for the life of him roll from his tummy to his back.

Motherhood is such an interesting journey. Its amazing how excited I get when he reaches a milestone and then how crushed I get when we regress slightly. It has tought me a lot about going with the flow and letting my type A personality take more of a back seat. I now realize that things will go up and down and I just need to be happy that I'm along for the ride :)

"Chhhanges"

Bear with me as I continue to make some changes to my blog. It literally has taken me about 2 years to figure out how to design a blog and even still I have a LONG ways to go. Finding the time to actually sit down and mess with it is my biggest challenge these days. Today we had a nice afternoon nap which allowed me the freedom to make some desperately needed updates. Lastly I want to give credit where credit is due....the beautiful picture of Liam that is now the header of my blog was taken by my friend Caroline. I'm in love with this picture and cannot thank her enough for being such a talented photographer. Hope you all enjoy the new layout and don't be alarmed if more things change in the coming months :)

We Started Food

Who knew food could be so much fun! I seriously was super excited to start Liam on food. Just to see the reaction of eating actual food for the first time was itching away at me. How crazy is it to think this is the first time he has ever had to gum something and then swallow something that was not in liquid form. What a strange feeling that must be!

So, this past weekend we went to the lake with some friends of ours who have a 7 month old (don't worry i'll post all about that weekend soon). Waylon has been eating food now for about 3 months so I plopped Liam down in front of him and made sure he had a good view of this other boy eating his food rather than drinking it. I've read a million times over that babies learn from watching others so figured that was a good prep for Monday morning's cereal. All in all, Monday went great. We started out in the bumbo seat on top of the table, but Liam was a little uneasy with that set up so we moved to the bouncy seat on the floor where he is most comfortable. Next came the cereal....after a few gags and a couple looks of "what the heck is this", he proceeded to literally eat the whole thing! Josh and I were impressed. Well, before you get all excited, it must have been a fluke thing because since then we have had 3 other food feedings all of which he has ZERO interest in. He'll take some bites then fuss because he is D.O.N.E. I'm really hoping that the flavor is just so boring that he could take it or leave it and once I introduce bananas and pears and all that other fun stuff he'll be all for it. I mean, we've all seen pictures of Liam...the boy loves to eat so I can't imagine him not enjoying the real deal!

Tomorrow I'm going to go buy some other goodies to start mixing in with his rice (blah) cereal and I could not be more excited. Oh how mommy hood changes you!

Jump Around

We put Liam in the jumper for the first time yesterday. I've been DYING for this moment as I just knew he would not only love it but would look super cute jumping around :) I finally felt like he was ready and his head was sturdy enough so we gave it a go. Needless to say it was a huge success and wore our little man out like I've never seen before. Following our jump session, he proceeded to take a 2 hour nap. This jumper is now a favorite of not only Liam's, but momma's as well!!

Bath Time Is The Best Time Of Day

According to Liam that is.

We have been giving baths to Liam since he was about a month old. Not because he is dirty by any means but it is just part of his bedtime routine. It used to calm him down right before his night sleep but lately it has become an outlet for the remainder of all his pent up energy. He has grown to LOVE his bath and if he could talk I know he would tell you it is the best part of his day. No matter what kind of mood he is in, the second we walk upstairs and start undressing him for bath he gets super excited and starts squirming all around. From that moment on until his bath is over he is the happiest baby on the planet. We finally decided to capture this happy time on film. We took lots of footage, but i'll spare you some of the film that only his parents or grandparents would find fun to watch :) Oh and to give him some privacy, we only videoed the top half which is sort of a shame because his legs going buck wild is half the fun. I guess you'll just have to picture it in your head.