You know your child is growing up when you start giving them a book to read while changing their diaper - up until this point I would try and distract Liam with toys so he could hold still long enough to change him but when that stopped working I resorted to reading material - typical male - bathroom habits start early. We are on a better napping shedule now - usually one nap a day around 11am for an 1-2 hours and then bedtime at 8-9pm - no more late nights - yipee!!! So he wakes up once in middle of night - it's a tradeoff for some alone time in the evening.
We have launched into playgroups with enthuasiasm (hence the good naps mid-morning) - tried a different playgroup at Saanich Neighbourhood Place which is held at a recreation centre nearby - usually there are lots of babies his age but mostly he's the chattiest. He tolerates playing with toys for short periods of time interspersed with attempted escapes where he crawls at high speeds for exits. The playgroup has a set of stairs leading up to a platform that Liam just loves - can climb up stairs really fast but gets stuck at the top - I've been tryng to teach him how to go down backwards but he's not into it just yet. The centre supplies free coffee for the parents (woohoo) and snacks for the kids - added bonus. Liam gets tons of play stimulation & I get tons of caffeine stimulation - always a plus in parent land.
Liam's vocabulary is developing at a speed equivalent to his crawling. He can now say "bubble", "mommy", "Baboon" (for balloon), "ga-gu" (for yoghurt) and "ta-ta" when he waves goodbye". I am continuing to repeat animal sounds constantly to him and his favourite is"Twoo twoo" for an owl. Not only that but he he started clapping his hands when you sing "If you're happy & you know it clap your hands".
Speaking of moving along - it is impossible to keep the child still. I wasn't expecting him to sit silently on a fuzzy blanket and stare blankly at me while smiling sweetly until he was 18 years old, but I definitely wasn't prepared for the huge leaps in mobility. In addition to stair climbing, race car crawling etc. he now lifts his legs up onto everything and tries to climb up it. The latest is the ottoman - instead of leaning over it to get to his toys, he now climbs right inside to play. No need to bring his toys out to him - he simply goes straight to the source.
Eating has become a challenge again as the "food overboard" phase has returned with gusto. Now that Liam is older and stronger, the food gets chucked harder and further. I swear I spend more time crawling around on the floor than he does. I have now started giving him a fork and spopn to eat with at every meal - amazing how quiet it keeps him while he concentrates hard on spearing his chunks of chicken or carrots & transferring them to his mouth. The spoon is a bit more difficult still - I usually have to smush the food onto the spoon to make it stick - he still hasn't quite got the angle yet. Either that or he just enjoys watching the food fall off the spoon so he can huck it overboard & watch mommy crawl around for entertainment.
We decided to try out the Oak Bay Tea Party this past weekend - a family fun fair event held every year in June - in anticipation of our trip to San Diego. Liam was fixated by the spinning rides so Ian took him for his first ever carousel ride in a little car - he totally loved it! Grinned from ear to ear with me madly waving from the side and taking tons of pictures and video. I really am one of those annoying mothers who yells out their child's name twenty times while flapping like a bezerk peacock in a vain attempt to snap the perfect photo. I'm bound to get completely snap happy on our vacation.
I'm convinced it's far more challenging having a little boy than a little girl. Recently another one of the babies in my mommy group turned one so we went over to her house to celebrate. While the little girls sat in the garden all dressed up in their pretty outfits, Liam crawled around with just a diaper and his t-shirt on and hands full of soil. Not only did he not sit still - he tried to eat the garden mushrooms and screamed his head off everytime I tried to pull him out of the flowerbeds. I'm looking forward to the future when all the girls hit puberty & start screaming for makeup and push up bras and all Liam is worried about is whether the latest video game is out or not.
While on the subject of challenges - Liam is back in the "won't sleep in my crib" phase again - we have resorted to bringing him into our bed at night just so that we can get some sleep and keep our sanity since he's waking up every 3 hours. He must be cutting teeth again - has started drooling & biting me recently (usually a pretty good hint his teeth are bugging him when he goes vampire on me). He also got a cold from playgroup and has a snotty nose - I'm dubbing play group "snot" group since at least one child at every group has a germ bug just waiting to be spread. By some miracle we managed to bypass getting sick (this time round anyway). It'll be a nail biter trying to get to San Diego without drool, lack of sleep or snot getting in our way!
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