Our Beginner Walker

Liam can walk!  No, it is still not his preferred method of getting around (that would be crawling), but if he wants something and is within a 10 step range of it, he will walk to it.  As I mentioned, he started taking steps a few weeks ago, but the walking really picked up this week.  He is becoming much more steady and can take about 8-10 steps before falling.  They told us at school that once he started in the one's room it probably wouldn't be long before he started walking and it looks like they were dead on.  We go to the beach the end of July and I'm now VERY hopeful that he will be full on walking by then.  For some reason I think that Liam will enjoy the sand 10 times more if he is walking rather than crawling.  He is not crazy about anything textured so I just know that sand is going to weird him out at first.

Here are 2 little clips of us attempting to get his newfound walking on tape.  Of course the second we turn on the camera, he decides to cut way back on his walking skills, but at least you get a little bit of an idea....

Last Day Of Infants Room Party (Photo dump)

Liam and "Dada" relaxing at the party

Liam loving on his FAVORITE teacher, Ms. Marjorie

Pizza Party

Watching Quinn's dance moves

More pizza please!

One's Room

I can't believe it, but today is the last day my little guy will be in the "infants room" at daycare.  I swear I'm in denial.  We have all grown to love the teachers in the infants room so much and I still can't fathom them not being a part of Liam's everyday.  I really don't know what I would have done without them this past year.  I remember the first day I dropped Liam off like it was yesterday.  I was so nervous and for a good two weeks cried about the whole thing.  Luckily, his teachers were patient, kind and Liam grew to LOVE them.  They know exactly what they are doing and truly come to love each one of those kids as it were their own.  On a positive note, two of his teachers babysit for us all the time, and we plan to keep that up so even if Liam can't spend his everyday with them, at least he will get to spend plenty of evenings with them.  I've heard the "One's room" teachers are just as fabulous and I'm sure a year from now I will be saying the same thing about them, but I guess when you become so attached to people that help you raise that first baby it is hard to let them go.  Thankfully they will be right next store raising the next batch of little one's, so we can pop our head in any time and say hi.

This was me dropping Liam off on his first day of daycare.  He's so tiny here!

 Liam was out with the chickenpox when his class photo was taken, so josh doctored up the photo a bit and stuck Liam in :)  

Virginia

We just got back from a fabulous weekend in Virginia.  We had decided a few months back to fly up this weekend to visit Josh's nona and pop pop.  Luckily for us, it just happened to be the weekend that one of the family members also graduated college, so it ended up being a huge family reunion weekend.  Liam did great.  He was obsessed with the airplane and could not get enough of looking out the window and smiling for all the people.  He was quite the ham.  In fact, he was so excited to be on that plane,  I was worried that he wouldn't sleep, but sure enough about 10 minutes after the plane took off (both times) he was fast asleep.  Something about the hum of the plane and the slight movement that just knocks him out.

Once we arrived in Virginia, Liam was ecstatic to see his Captain and Nona and of course fell in love with his biz nona (great grandma) and pop pop all over again.  He even started saying "pop pop" before the weekend was over.  His favorite activities this weekend involved running around biz nona's house on his walker while she chased him on her walker (she just recently broke a bone in her foot so has to use a walker for now).  It was a riot and fortunately we caught it on camera.  He also enjoyed having lunch out with the whole family in Alexandria, strolling around town, playing at the water fountains in town, and finally playing with all of biz nona's instruments.  In fact, he was having such a great time, that we could NOT get him to nap on Saturday.  He just didn't want to miss any of the action.

We are happy to be home and in our own beds now, but look forward to our next trip soon.

Waiting for the train at the airport

Steps!

And we are officially taking steps.  Last week he took a couple small ones here and there and I was able to capture the tail end of it on video.  Looking at this video now though, it doesn't even do it justice. In just a week's time, he went from cautiously taking one or two "falling steps" to now taking 3-4 steps quite often.  Just yesterday I picked him up from daycare and they said he took his first steps for them as he was trying to get from one toy to the next.  Today when I dropped him off, we walked in holding hands and then he let go and took 4-5 steps over to his toy.  He is definitely VERY unstable and I have a feeling it will still be weeks before we can even consider him "walking", but it's a start and it is amazing the amount of pride I feel for him!

A Very Happy Mother's Day

Yesterday was my fabulous 2nd mother's day.  Last year's mother's day was such a blur as I had a 1 month old and didn't know which end was up :)  This year, was great.  I got to sleep in, enjoy some downtown while Liam took 2 long naps and then we all headed out to my parent's house that afternoon/evening for dinner, wine, and cousin play time.  Liam has become a MASTER at his push toy lately and literally ran all over his grammy and grandaddy's house while his cousin's chased him.  It was nice to have some "built-in" babysitters while the rest of us sipped our wine and relaxed.

Forgive me, for I have not showered here

"The moms"  Me, my mom and my sister

Playing

Standing

No walker yet, but we do have a stander.  He's been standing for a couple of seconds on his own here and there for awhile, but just this past week Liam starting letting go of things and just standing for long periods at a time.  His favorite is for us to put on a music video and he stands, starts clapping and bouncing up and down.  It's too cute.  According to our daycare teachers, taking steps is the next phase...who knows how long it will take him to do that, but it is going to be pretty cute whenever it happens.  The majority of the kids in Liam's class are already "toddling" around and it is adorable.

In other news, Josh and I are taking our 2nd ever trip away from Liam this weekend.  We are leaving Sunday and heading to Old Edwards Inn in North Carolina with our neighbors.  We are only gone 3 days, but I'm still a little nervous about leaving him.  Hopefully once he is out of my sight I can relax and enjoy the freedom for a couple of days.  Josh's wonderful parents are flying in to take over mommy and "dada" (as Liam says) duty for those few days.  I'm sure we will have great pictures and wonderful stories from them to share next week!