Some news

Well it looks like I haven't posted for a while again. We've been pretty busy. Granny had a heart attack and was in the hospital. We went to see her last weekend (the 14th). They released her the next day and then she was back in again by Monday. That explains the second trip that Liam, Mary and I took on Tuesday.

On Thursday Liam had his 18 month doctor's appointment. Since these are always traumatic for him I decided to take Grover and the camera and take pictures for a "Grover Goes to the Doctor" book. Hopefully that way we can be more prepared for the next visit. The doctor thought this was a great idea. Liam was sort of distracted by Grover and the pictures.

Liam had not gained much weight since his last visit, but the doc said that's normal because at this age they are more active. She asked us about his language development and it's clear that he's way ahead on that. He knows way more than 20 words and can name more than a few body parts.

Today I have a sore throat. Liam is spitting out almost everything he puts in his mouth - even stuff he usually likes. He chews on it OK, but doesn't want to swallow. I think he has a sore throat too.

Eight hours

Last night Liam went eight hours without nursing! He did wake up a couple of times, but Allen was able to get him to settle back down fairly quickly. Actually, a couple of times he just went back to sleep by himself.

He did this a couple of times before Christmas, but apparently he was not really into the pattern when we went to Louisville because when we got back he was back to his old pattern of waking up every hour or two. Getting back to the longer times between nursing is a relief to me!

Of course he may just have been extra tired from our trip to Lima yesterday. We saw Granny at the hospital. She went in with a heart attack last week. We visited on Sunday and then Mary drove down with Liam and I yesterday. Granny was released (for the second time) before we left.

Liam has used the potty a couple of times now! I still don't think he really understands what he's supposed to do, but it's a start. So far it seems to be a fairly positive experience for him.

Living in the present

I'm reading a book that says it's good to be "in the present" when parenting. It seems that I'm pretty good at that, since I have much more trouble now keeping track of appointments than I used to. Instead of organizational skills, I have been working on the following skills:

• building train tracks
• finding library books with just the right amount of actions and not too many words
• changing poopy diapers without getting poop on myself, the baby, or our clothes
• teaching Liam to say "thank you" after I change his diaper
• teaching Liam to make a fish face
• moving around the kitchen without tripping over blocks or stories
• keeping things far enough from the edge of the counters
• mousing with my left hand while nursing
• getting Liam into bed without waking him up]
• anticipating head bonks and deflecting them
• interpreting Liam's new words
  

Bath!

I have been saying for a while that I will be glad when "Uh, uh, uh" while reaching for something is not a major part of Liam's communication repertoire. I am happy to say that I believe that we are well on our way to the extinction of "uh, uh, uh!"

My reason for thinking this is that Liam has started to use words and signs that he knows to request things he wants - like baths, cookies, stories, and nursing. With a little prompting he will also ask to be picked up, and sign please.

Speaking of baths, Liam asked for one last night and I told him he could have one tonight. Plus I need to take a shower and we should get to bed soon. Should be interesting when we get up tomorrow to see how much snow has fallen! Allen already shoveled the driveway twice today.

Repeat after me - or don't

I got a book about "dumb bunnies" out of the library. The bunnies in the story are truly dumb and Allen doesn't like the book very much. He just read it to Liam and when he finished reading Allen said, "That is a stupid, stupid book."

Liam said, "Tupid, tupid."

Obviously we need to be careful what we say around him these days.

At the library on Thursday we talked for a while with a couple of Chinese moms and their little ones. I told one mom that my dad thinks it would be a good idea if Liam could learn Chinese. She said that when her kids get into school they don't want to speak Chinese any more. One of the little boys got a little mad at his mother and screamed a few times. This made Liam nervous, but before they left the little boy gave Liam a hug and they were friends again.

In case you are not on Facebook, here are a few pictures of Liam getting his first haircut. This happened while we were in Louisville. Liam's Grammy went in with him so that I wouldn't have to risk getting a migraine from the chemicals in the beauty shop. Liam didn't like the haircut much.

New skill

Liam has mastered the skill of opening zippers. He loves to get into my purse. When he finds my keys or the cell phone he's pretty happy about it. Thankfully at the moment he usually opens the main big part instead of the pocket on the front which has my money and credit cards in it. Also, so far he leaves his coat zipped up.

Back in Business

After taking the month of January off from blogging I am back with more news and adorable pictures. The big news from January is:

• We had a nice family celebration of Christmas in Louisville at the beginning of January.
• Liam got his first haircut and first pair(s) of real shoes.
  
• Liam is now walking more than he is crawling.
• Liam is talking more and more all the time. His new words include "oops!" "bump!" and "no!" (He's big into exclamations at the moment.
• Allen started the spring semester. He is teaching one face-to-face class as well as his online classes.
• It seems that we've had lots of doctor's appointments in January. In a few weeks we have Liam's 18 month appointment.
  
• January was definitely cold and snowy. I know it's been cold for way too long because Allen walked home last night in 29 degree weather, with snow, and said, "It wasn't very cold."

Liam got some new bath toys for Christmas. He enjoys them both when he is in the tub and when he's hanging out in the bathroom with Mommy or Daddy.

Liam wants to do more things by himself these days. He still doesn't always understand how much to tip a glass in order to get a drink. We don't actually usually let him drink by himself from such a big glass!