Wow - what a jam packed month of activities, talking and lots of running around after Mr. Mobile. Now I see why you start sleeping longer at night time - it's so you have the energy to chase your toddler around like a crazy woman during the day.
Liam is into EVERYTHING - plugs, knobs, plants (still tries to eat the soil), wires and his ultimate favourite - remotes (mostly because he likes re-programming the TV and making us spend ages figuring out what he did). You name it, he's into it. Our house has been given a complete baby proofing makeover. We've even had to go so far as to rig up a power button protective McGyver like contraption on the computer since Liam figured out how to turn it on and off - I must admit the blue power button light is attractive. He goes for it like a fly to a lamp. The next mission is to get a toilet seat latch - pain in the ass (no pun intended) but Liam keeps opening the lid and has stuck his hand in the toilet water once already. Yuck with a capital "Y". Then we'll be onto latching the fridge shut - hasn't figured out how to open it yet but makes a beeline whenever we open the door and screams when he can't get inside to pull out all the veggies & sauce bottles. We are DOOMED when he starts walking.
In the talking department Liam is in top form. He never stops talking. Just this past week he added "na-na" (for bananas), "cat", "uh-oh", "iam" (for Liam) and "baby" to his repertoire. My favourite though is "oh-no" - he repeats it over and over when he's frustrated. It's hilarious hearing this tiny blonde mop of hair going "oh-no-no-no-no-no" when he's mad. What a drama king. Speaking of drama - we are still dealing with the whole screaming issue. When he's not talking, he's screaming. High pitched, ear splitting, headache inducing screaming. I've stocked up on Advil to deal with it. It's like having a small veloceraptor or annoying little bird around. We try to get him to not scream but we're fighting a losing battle. Not cool when you're out in public and it sounds like you've brought Jurassic Park with you. I'd much rather deal with "oh-no-no-no-no" than a pint sized dinasour.
Now that the weather is warming up and it's far too much work keeping Liam out of things in the house we're spending a lot more time outdoors, namely at play places, parks & the pool. Anything that involves slides - Liam is obsessed with them. As soon as he sees a slide he tries to climb it - I'll push him up by his bum and then he turns around and hurtles face forward back down again. No fear at all. Climbing the slides has been great for his motor skills since he's determined to get to the top & scrambles up like a spider monkey- oh and the verbal skills are developing too since he usually screams while he scrambles. A few weeks ago we took him swimming at Commonwealth Place - they have a wave pool and giant waterslide. We plopped him on a foam mat and bobbed around in the waves which he enjoyed but soon enough he had his eye on the waterslide so Ian took him down. Was too funny seeing them zooming at mach speed round the corner - Ian with his face all scrunched up trying to keep Liam above his head before they hit the water and Liam with a total "yippeeeeee!!!!" expression. I think our kid is going to be an adrenaline junkie. We bought one of those toddler seats that attach to the back of your bike so Ian can take Liam around town - he loves it and will spread his arms out to the side and scream "weeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!" when you go down hills, tears streaming down his face from the wind. The faster you bike the more he likes it - I can just picture him being a minature maniac on his first tricycle.
Andrenaline junkie has gone from his downward facing dog yoga pose to downward walking dog pose. He'll walk around with his legs & arms staight out - I'm convinced he'll just simply stand up one day when he feels like it. He can pull himself up from sitting to standing and transfer from the ottoman to the couch quite easily but seems far more interested in the intellectual side of things than the physical. He is totally obsessed with books and we'll read at least four of them a day to him. For such an on-the-go little boy it's amazing that anything will capture his attention for more than 5 minutes but when it comes to books he'll settle right down for at least 10-15 minutes and read with you. He mostly enjoys Sesame Street, fuzzy feel or peek-a-boo books. For his birthday he received a Sesame Street toddler seek and find book - if you ask him where Elmo, Grover or Snufalufagis is he can point them out to you. Smart man. He also has a see through safari book with felt animals that he loves to touch. I have a feeling he'll be reading by the time he hits preschool. Of course he will - he's my little genius! Makes sense since he has a giant head.
Night time continues to be a challenge - Liam is a late night party animal and would stay up until midnight if you let him. If that's not enough he is going through a lovely "I hate my crib" phase - this all started when we repainted his room a couple of weeks ago and had to move him into our bedroom while the paint dried. All of a sudden on day two Liam would start screaming as soon as we laid him down on his mattress. We're talking full blown tantrum screaming. At first we thought this was just another phase and he'd be over it soon, but 2 weeks later realised we were in for the long haul - stubborn little bugger. So now we have resorted to whatever is necessary to keep out sanity - napping on the couch, sleeping in our bed (oh so comfortable when he stretches out sideways and depending on which end your on you get kicked or slapped in the face or better yet a tiny finger up your nose), you name it. Wherever he falls asleep is where we park him - everywhere except his crib of course. On occasion we will manage to get him in doom crib but have to Mission Impossible ourselves across the creaky floor boards. Hit the wrong board and he's instantly awake. My suggestion was to tape x's on all the non-creaky boards and create a silent path to freedom but Ian has discovered a much better solution: Crawl out on your hands and knees. Apparently this will distribute your weight more evenly and reduce the chance of creaking. I just about peed my pants laughing when he told me that - I can picture Crouching Tiger Hidden Daddy crawling for the door in the pitch dark. Hey - whatever works!
My second Mother's Day rolled around and Liam woke me up with a good smack in the face. He gave me a big red heart shaped card that he made at daycare as well as a card with his handprints on it & a poem about how his hands may be dirty at times and get into everything but one day I'll look back at his tiny hands and remember how small they were. Got all emotional and started choking up over my strawberry waffles that Ian made me for breakfast. I'm so sappy nowadays - everything sets me off, especially cute cards with tiny handprints. The boys met me for lunch at work and brought me sandwiches & cookies and then we met up for a bbq with my parents - my dad & Ian cooked my mom & I dinner while we relaxed, drank wine & opened gifts. Ian & Liam spoiled me with a gift certificate for a manicure, hand cream and a key chain with their a photo of their faces in it - really sweet. Hard to believe Liam was only 3 weeks old when I last celebrated Mother's Day. Ah - the memories of sleep deprivation, milk barfs, liquid poos and leaky boobs. Mommy life has definitely changed this past year except that I'm still exhausted, the barfing is now multi-coloured & stinks, the poos are super gross & Liam can actually say "booby".
Last month Liam and I entered into a mom & me modelling contest - while we were waiting in line a media guy came up to us and asked us if we would be willing to have our picture taken which got featured on the front page of a new paper called SNAP Victoria - you can see our pics (front cover and inside under Sprouts Model Search http://www.snapvictoria.com/. We didn't win the contest but got some great pics (you can view our pics at http://www.prairiechild.com/ - click on the Sprouts Model Search at the bottom of the page and then click on "Check out all the participants" - depending on your computer you can find us on page 3-5). Liam was a total ham and laughed at the fuzzy yellow duck on top of the photographers head. Amazing since he usually doesn't tolerate haven't photos taken all that much. In my opinion my kid's dead cute and he's a natural - Zoolander watch out - there's a new pint sized male model in town!
