Music

Liam has been having more and more fun with music lately. He likes to join in on songs like "The Wheels on the Bus" (although we do it with animal sounds) and "Doe a Dear." He also likes to play his drum and often dances to music. Our Chinese friends have keyboards that have rhythms programed in and Liam gets so excited when those are turned on and the kids all dance together.

Today I have heard a couple of two word "sentences" from Liam like "toys in" and "toys away." When he started to say "away" I thought that he was saying "hurray!" I had never heard him say "away" before. But he kept saying it in a way that made me think he was trying to make me understand him. Then he said what really sounded like, "I mean, away."

Liam has been more vocal about what he doesn't want lately. When we try to give him food he doesn't want to eat, or have him stop playing and go get his diaper changed he tends to wave his arms and give a little rant in baby language. Sometimes I have to try not to laugh as he seems to be explaining very emphatically why what I want him to do is a bad idea.

Busy weeks

I've been busy lately getting together with our new Chinese friends. Two get-togethers in one week, plus a counseling appointment for me is more than I'm used to. Plus, we had to buy a new microwave this week because our old one was catching food on fire. I'm exhausted now.

Liam is already benefiting from having more interaction with kids his age. On Wednesday he saw his friend Roger (14 months) climbing up some stairs. Later that day we were outside doing a little spring yard work and he climbed up the stairs to the porch all by himself - for the first time.

On Friday we met our friends at the park. Liam loved the swings and even went down a pretty big slide. He wasn't too sure about walking on the mulch, but he did pretty well. It was a little cold and windy, so we ended up coming back to our house for a picnic in the living room. Since that wasn't the original plan I hadn't cleaned up, but we had fun anyway.

Hopefully I can post some pictures soon.

A walk

Liam likes to tell us that he wants to take a walk. Today he and I walked to the library (well I walked and he rode in his stroller.) The weather was great for walking and we didn't have to try to find a parking space.

Things were much less traumatic for Liam today than they were last week. Liam had fun with the trains despite a rather large crowd at the train table. he even took a little tour of the big people part of the library. Before we left he said good-bye to his Chinese friends.

New words for today include "three" (Liam said "one two three" without prompting from me), "pumpkin" and "orange" (while pointing to a picture of an orange pumpkin), and "CD." It still can be hard to understand what he's saying, but if I don't repeat back what he's saying correctly he repeats it and sometimes points to an object or picture to help me understand.

A new season

Spring is promising to come. Most of the snow has melted and it was really almost warm today. Also the skunk that lives very near our house (possibly under the deck) has started spraying again.

Yesterday Liam said what I really think was his first sentence. He said, "A book...read...lap." I didn't know that he knew how to say lap, so I asked him if was saying lap and he nodded his head. He said this while laying on the changing table.

New words today included heart, purse, and dance. He also said "apple juice." I like to ask him "Who loves you?" He usually says, "Mama and Daddy!" Today he said, "Daddy and piggy and Grover!"

Today we went to the house of a lady we met at the library. A group of Chinese moms and their little ones meet every Tuesday morning at her house. We had a good time. It was great to be with so many friendly people. Liam was nervous at first, but he really seemed to enjoy himself later, in spite of being bonked a few times by accident. He was really exhausted afterward. He just wanted to nurse when we got home and fell asleep right away. They also meet at another house on Friday mornings, so we will try that too...

Opposites, verbs, counting

Liam is learning about opposites. Thursday night we were sitting at the table and Liam was in his highchair. He pointed to the living room which was lighted up with an overhead fixture and a lamp and said, "Light." Then he pointed to the kitchen window, and said "Dark." Sure enough, it was dark outside.

This morning while I was eating my breakfast he wanted to play with the box his breakfast bars came in. He lifted the box up above his head and said, "up high." Then he put it down on the tray and said, "down low." I have been playing "up high, down low" with him for a while, but usually he just puts his hands up and down and I say the words.

Liam has been using lots of verbs lately. Words like: go, walk, help, run, peeking, and (just now) read. We went for a walk yesterday with Liam in the stroller. He really enjoyed it. The first thing he said this morning was "go." Then "walk." Actually, I'm not sure if walk is a noun or a verb in this case....

I have thought for a while that Liam knew how much "two" was. He would say "two" when he had two spoons in his hands, or two Cheez-its. But it didn't seem like he knew how much "one" was. Yesterday, however, Liam was with Allen in the bathroom. Liam's shoe came off and he gave it to Allen and said, "one." Then Allen put the shoe back on and said, "How many shoes do you have now?" Liam said, "Two."

This morning Liam was playing with his blocks. He put one block on top of the stack and said, "One." Then he put another block on top and said, "Two."

The Tall Tower

Last night Liam and I made a very tall tower. Liam really enjoyed this. When we had used up most of the blocks near us he went in search of more and was always delighted when he found them. As you can see, the tower got taller than Liam. He is very good at building with blocks now.

Today we went to the library for story hour. We were a little late and while I was hanging up our coats I left Liam standing by the door to the story room. Another child came out of the room screaming and Liam started to cry. It took a while for him to get settled down and he had a few more upsets while we were there.

Words and actions

Liam's newest words include: big, apple, run, Liam, push, and potty. He also says bread, help, up, block and car. I don't think I could make an accurate list of all the words he uses because he seems to get new ones every day. Sometimes he uses a word for a while before I figure out what it means. For instance I didn't realize right away that "coke" meant "coat."

Last night Allen was reading to Liam (not an unusual occurrence.) He pointed to the word "foot" in the title of "The Foot Book" and said, "What does this say?" Liam pointed to his foot and said, "Foot." Now it is the FOOT book and there is a picture of a foot right next to the word. I don't know what would have happened if Allen had pointed to the word "book" and asked the same question. Still, it's pretty impressive for a not-quite-nineteen-month-old!

Liam has also started to dance lately. I think this was helped along by his friend Mary practicing some new dance moves with him. Yesterday while we were Skyping with his Grammy and Grandpa Liam decided to do a little happy dance. It brought smiles to all our faces.

The sore throats of last week are now basically gone. Not sure yet whether Allen will manage to avoid the worst of it. I've had a migraine since Sunday, although it seems to be somewhat better today.