We are on the developmental speedway this month – verbally & physically Liam is absolutely leaping & bounding – his words are amazing and he finally took his first official steps while wading across the baby pool Sept 26th – YAY!!!!!
We are settling into our new place – well somewhat. I have dubbed our new house “Demolition Derby” as renovations are still underway and we have no bathroom, no living room and a toddler somewhere in the middle collecting pieces of drywall. To create a “safer” environment and to keep Liam contained we have set up baby gates everywhere and have become expert hurdlers. Smart boy is not all too happy with our maze and has figured out that if he lies down and kicks the gate as hard as he can it will fall over. Or his other strategy is to get his leg up and try to climb over – good thing he’s too short to huck himself over the other side. He seems to be the only one unaffected by all the chaos and loves having “Gabby” (Granny), “Papa” (Grandpa) and “Aunty” upstairs.
Liam’s words are incredible – he now has a vocabulary of about 50-60 words and has started to string together sentences like “it’s a wheel”, “it’s a car”, “I want booby” or “what’s that?”. It has become much easier to communicate as he says “no” or “yeah” when you ask him a question. He loves kisses and will say “kissie” and plant one on me. It’s the best feeling ever. Other words to add to the list are “towel”, “water”, “all done”, “all gone” , yucky (for garbage can and cat litter box), “hot tub”, “vacuum”, “woo-wee!”, “pee pee”, “poo” ,“potty”, kitty”, “cat”, “pool”, “car”, "pizza", "crab boat", "wood", "Ammee" (for Emily his daycare lady), "Eason" (for Emily's son Easton who he adores)“bus”, “fan”, “yayu” (banana and the colour yellow), “gagu” (yoghurt), “moo” for milk, “juice” and “aggy” (for eggs). The list goes on!
Every day he seems to pick up a word. We’ll be driving to our house and he’ll see my parents red van and scream “Papa!” for Grandpa. Or we'll be driving to daycare and will turn down the street to Emily's house and he'll start saying "Ammee and Eason". Driving seems to be a time of verbal expression – mainly in the form of buses. Liam LOVES buses – everytime he sees a bus he screams “bus!” and usually adds in “wheel” too. His favourite song is “The Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round” – as soon as he hears the tune he says “wheel” and “bus”. He also has a big interest in cars, wheels and things that resemble that shape. We are painting his room in October in the Disney Cars theme which should look fantastic when it’s done. Liam may never leave his room there will be so many wheels to look at! Since clocks are another round item that he is interested in we have learning to tell time with his Sponge Bob Square Pants book & have bought him a Cars theme wall clock for his room.
Speaking of new items we bought – we have entered into the world of potty training, mostly because Liam is so fascinated with the toilet and flushing and says “pee pee” and “poo poo” when I go to the bathroom. Bye bye privacy! Nothing like a set of eyes staring at you while you do your business. As I love to encourage Liam’s interests, and the fact that he actually said “poo” one day when he went in his diaper, we bought him a minature singing potty that comes with a flusher and toilet roll. When you go in the bowl a red light comes on and the potty starts singing its praises which you would think would make your child want to sit on it and go. Not so. Liam was most put out when I pulled down his pants and refused to sit on the seat – not only that but he figured out how to turn the red light on by sticking his hand in the bowl. Lovely. I can see this is going to be a loooooong process. For now we’ll just settle on the regular diaper changes where Liam says “bum” and then grabs himself and says “pee pee” and then “ow”. Not sure why the “ow” part but he thinks it’s funny.
Speaking of lights – if there is one thing Liam loves more than buses, fans & doors, it’s lights. As soon as we moved into our new place we started the “light phase”. Everytime he sees a light he says “on”. So you turn it on. Then he screams “on”. So you turn it off. Then he gets mad and says “on” again. So you turn it off. And so it continues. On and off, on and off, on and off. It’s enough to drive me up the wall. At first I couldn’t understand why he was getting so frustrated with me when he said “on” and I kept the light on. Then I figured “on” also meant “off” but he only occasionally says “off. How I figured this out I don’t know – we were driving home one day and Liam was screaming his head off pointing at the lights above the rear view mirror so to keep him calm (and keep my sanity) I started flicking the lights on and off with one hand on the steering wheel and one hand creating a strobe light effect. He instantly calmed down so I did it all the way home and just about went into muscle spasms in my arms – I can’t imagine how I must have looked driving down the street with one arm above my head flicking like a mad woman.
So you know your child is getting older & you are getting to the end of your breastfeeding days when they actually say “booby” and get really mad at you when you don’t comply right away. I am working on weaning boob man off but it will be a tough process – he loves the boob. I however am done with a capital “D”. Breastfeeding with a 14 tooth nibbler is just not comfortable anymore – it is much more about the comfort than the necessity. La Leche can kiss my behind – I am not one of those “my child is five and still sucking” kind of moms. Liam is still waking up during the night wanting “booby” and mommy is tired of dragging herself out of bed at all hours to provide a milk snack. Good news is that Liam is now drinking plain milk (no chocolate needed – yay!), bad news is he still won’t take a bottle and probably never will so it will have to be a straw and a soother as a substitute. Wish me luck – I’m gonna need it. At least he still eats well so I can stuff him before bed. Oh and did I mention he eats with a fork or spoon out of a bowl or plate? Yep, my kid is a big boy now!
Although we are still getting up in the middle of the night, Liam is sleeping in his big boy racing car bed and seems to be very happy. We got him a Cars theme fleece blanket that he loves to snuggle into and helps to drift him into sleepy land. If only it would keep him in sleepy land…..Doesn't help that he cut 4 more teeth this month and all within a couple of weeks - hello second set of bottom molars and nasty eye teeth! We are now at a total of 14 teeth and are halfway there - I better start saving up for when the tooth fairy comes. Wait -do boys do the tooth fairy or is there a manly version? Like a tooth elf or tooth gnome or something.
So in walking world Liam has now taken his first steps – the first week after we moved into our house we were in a store arguing over curtains and duvets for our bedroom when all of a sudden we realised we weren’t paying attention and looked over to find Liam standing up and pushing his stroller around the aisle. We both stopped dead in our tracks – go figure he would do something big when we weren’t looking! The second week of Sept (Thurs Sept 11th to be exact), Liam transferred from my leg to the patio and let go in the process and then the following day was pointing at the computer and took a step towards it. Apparently this was a big deal since he did not do anything again except try to stand up from a squatting position or letting go of our hands and standing in one spot for a few seconds (thinks that it’s funny when we let go) until this past Fri Sept 26th when he was wading with Daddy in the baby pool and all of a sudden walked across on his own. Then on Sat he walked from Grandpa to Daddy and on Sun he walked for Granny. I of course missed ALL of this since I was at work. I have been trying desperately to get him to do it for me but everytime I say “let go” he collapses to his knees and crawls to me. Since he loves to be picked up and says “up” I think it’s a way for him to ensure that I keep carrying him around. Maybe he thinks if he walks for me I won’t give him a free ride anymore. He’s probably right since my back is breaking!
So I’ve gone back to doing my own housecleaning and apparently I do a lot of house work since Liam has started imitating my cleaning habits by pretending to sweep and wipe things. Plus he loves helping me with the laundry and watching the washing machine fill with water – I usually fill the loader and he shuts the door and turns the machine on. Very entertaining. Vacuuming is his favourite though – we both grab our vacuums and go to town – now if only I could train him to dust and do dishes…….
We are loving the new neighbourhood - very family oriented with lots of parks and schools nearby. So much quieter than our old neighbourhood too. There is a resident family of deer consisting of a mom and her 3 little ones that graze on all the lawns - although they seem tame enough she always watches me when I get into and out of my car which scares me - have you seen those shows about tourists who get hurt because they thought the wild animal they were getting close to was nice and gentle and then get attacked? Well I'm not one of them. So I choose to use my Rambo moves and slink along the wall till I get to the shortest route to my car. Ian thinks I'm hilarious but I don't trust Psycho Bambi. Anyway, during the day I've been taking Liam in his little red wagon up to the parks - his favourite is one that has a giant lounging swing - he hangs out in it saying "weeeeee" and pretends to go to sleep. Too funny. It's great to be a neighbourhood with so many kids - we fit right in. Plus our neighbours are super friendly and wave at us (even though they have no clue who we are) when we go by. So I'm dubbing our street Pleasantville - next thing I'll start wearing skirts and ribbons and baking pies instead of running around like a mad hatter wearing dirty t-shirts & jeans and sporting drywall dust. Now that's attractive!
We are settling into our new place – well somewhat. I have dubbed our new house “Demolition Derby” as renovations are still underway and we have no bathroom, no living room and a toddler somewhere in the middle collecting pieces of drywall. To create a “safer” environment and to keep Liam contained we have set up baby gates everywhere and have become expert hurdlers. Smart boy is not all too happy with our maze and has figured out that if he lies down and kicks the gate as hard as he can it will fall over. Or his other strategy is to get his leg up and try to climb over – good thing he’s too short to huck himself over the other side. He seems to be the only one unaffected by all the chaos and loves having “Gabby” (Granny), “Papa” (Grandpa) and “Aunty” upstairs.
Liam’s words are incredible – he now has a vocabulary of about 50-60 words and has started to string together sentences like “it’s a wheel”, “it’s a car”, “I want booby” or “what’s that?”. It has become much easier to communicate as he says “no” or “yeah” when you ask him a question. He loves kisses and will say “kissie” and plant one on me. It’s the best feeling ever. Other words to add to the list are “towel”, “water”, “all done”, “all gone” , yucky (for garbage can and cat litter box), “hot tub”, “vacuum”, “woo-wee!”, “pee pee”, “poo” ,“potty”, kitty”, “cat”, “pool”, “car”, "pizza", "crab boat", "wood", "Ammee" (for Emily his daycare lady), "Eason" (for Emily's son Easton who he adores)“bus”, “fan”, “yayu” (banana and the colour yellow), “gagu” (yoghurt), “moo” for milk, “juice” and “aggy” (for eggs). The list goes on!
Every day he seems to pick up a word. We’ll be driving to our house and he’ll see my parents red van and scream “Papa!” for Grandpa. Or we'll be driving to daycare and will turn down the street to Emily's house and he'll start saying "Ammee and Eason". Driving seems to be a time of verbal expression – mainly in the form of buses. Liam LOVES buses – everytime he sees a bus he screams “bus!” and usually adds in “wheel” too. His favourite song is “The Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round” – as soon as he hears the tune he says “wheel” and “bus”. He also has a big interest in cars, wheels and things that resemble that shape. We are painting his room in October in the Disney Cars theme which should look fantastic when it’s done. Liam may never leave his room there will be so many wheels to look at! Since clocks are another round item that he is interested in we have learning to tell time with his Sponge Bob Square Pants book & have bought him a Cars theme wall clock for his room.
Speaking of new items we bought – we have entered into the world of potty training, mostly because Liam is so fascinated with the toilet and flushing and says “pee pee” and “poo poo” when I go to the bathroom. Bye bye privacy! Nothing like a set of eyes staring at you while you do your business. As I love to encourage Liam’s interests, and the fact that he actually said “poo” one day when he went in his diaper, we bought him a minature singing potty that comes with a flusher and toilet roll. When you go in the bowl a red light comes on and the potty starts singing its praises which you would think would make your child want to sit on it and go. Not so. Liam was most put out when I pulled down his pants and refused to sit on the seat – not only that but he figured out how to turn the red light on by sticking his hand in the bowl. Lovely. I can see this is going to be a loooooong process. For now we’ll just settle on the regular diaper changes where Liam says “bum” and then grabs himself and says “pee pee” and then “ow”. Not sure why the “ow” part but he thinks it’s funny.
Speaking of lights – if there is one thing Liam loves more than buses, fans & doors, it’s lights. As soon as we moved into our new place we started the “light phase”. Everytime he sees a light he says “on”. So you turn it on. Then he screams “on”. So you turn it off. Then he gets mad and says “on” again. So you turn it off. And so it continues. On and off, on and off, on and off. It’s enough to drive me up the wall. At first I couldn’t understand why he was getting so frustrated with me when he said “on” and I kept the light on. Then I figured “on” also meant “off” but he only occasionally says “off. How I figured this out I don’t know – we were driving home one day and Liam was screaming his head off pointing at the lights above the rear view mirror so to keep him calm (and keep my sanity) I started flicking the lights on and off with one hand on the steering wheel and one hand creating a strobe light effect. He instantly calmed down so I did it all the way home and just about went into muscle spasms in my arms – I can’t imagine how I must have looked driving down the street with one arm above my head flicking like a mad woman.
So you know your child is getting older & you are getting to the end of your breastfeeding days when they actually say “booby” and get really mad at you when you don’t comply right away. I am working on weaning boob man off but it will be a tough process – he loves the boob. I however am done with a capital “D”. Breastfeeding with a 14 tooth nibbler is just not comfortable anymore – it is much more about the comfort than the necessity. La Leche can kiss my behind – I am not one of those “my child is five and still sucking” kind of moms. Liam is still waking up during the night wanting “booby” and mommy is tired of dragging herself out of bed at all hours to provide a milk snack. Good news is that Liam is now drinking plain milk (no chocolate needed – yay!), bad news is he still won’t take a bottle and probably never will so it will have to be a straw and a soother as a substitute. Wish me luck – I’m gonna need it. At least he still eats well so I can stuff him before bed. Oh and did I mention he eats with a fork or spoon out of a bowl or plate? Yep, my kid is a big boy now!
Although we are still getting up in the middle of the night, Liam is sleeping in his big boy racing car bed and seems to be very happy. We got him a Cars theme fleece blanket that he loves to snuggle into and helps to drift him into sleepy land. If only it would keep him in sleepy land…..Doesn't help that he cut 4 more teeth this month and all within a couple of weeks - hello second set of bottom molars and nasty eye teeth! We are now at a total of 14 teeth and are halfway there - I better start saving up for when the tooth fairy comes. Wait -do boys do the tooth fairy or is there a manly version? Like a tooth elf or tooth gnome or something.
So in walking world Liam has now taken his first steps – the first week after we moved into our house we were in a store arguing over curtains and duvets for our bedroom when all of a sudden we realised we weren’t paying attention and looked over to find Liam standing up and pushing his stroller around the aisle. We both stopped dead in our tracks – go figure he would do something big when we weren’t looking! The second week of Sept (Thurs Sept 11th to be exact), Liam transferred from my leg to the patio and let go in the process and then the following day was pointing at the computer and took a step towards it. Apparently this was a big deal since he did not do anything again except try to stand up from a squatting position or letting go of our hands and standing in one spot for a few seconds (thinks that it’s funny when we let go) until this past Fri Sept 26th when he was wading with Daddy in the baby pool and all of a sudden walked across on his own. Then on Sat he walked from Grandpa to Daddy and on Sun he walked for Granny. I of course missed ALL of this since I was at work. I have been trying desperately to get him to do it for me but everytime I say “let go” he collapses to his knees and crawls to me. Since he loves to be picked up and says “up” I think it’s a way for him to ensure that I keep carrying him around. Maybe he thinks if he walks for me I won’t give him a free ride anymore. He’s probably right since my back is breaking!
So I’ve gone back to doing my own housecleaning and apparently I do a lot of house work since Liam has started imitating my cleaning habits by pretending to sweep and wipe things. Plus he loves helping me with the laundry and watching the washing machine fill with water – I usually fill the loader and he shuts the door and turns the machine on. Very entertaining. Vacuuming is his favourite though – we both grab our vacuums and go to town – now if only I could train him to dust and do dishes…….
We are loving the new neighbourhood - very family oriented with lots of parks and schools nearby. So much quieter than our old neighbourhood too. There is a resident family of deer consisting of a mom and her 3 little ones that graze on all the lawns - although they seem tame enough she always watches me when I get into and out of my car which scares me - have you seen those shows about tourists who get hurt because they thought the wild animal they were getting close to was nice and gentle and then get attacked? Well I'm not one of them. So I choose to use my Rambo moves and slink along the wall till I get to the shortest route to my car. Ian thinks I'm hilarious but I don't trust Psycho Bambi. Anyway, during the day I've been taking Liam in his little red wagon up to the parks - his favourite is one that has a giant lounging swing - he hangs out in it saying "weeeeee" and pretends to go to sleep. Too funny. It's great to be a neighbourhood with so many kids - we fit right in. Plus our neighbours are super friendly and wave at us (even though they have no clue who we are) when we go by. So I'm dubbing our street Pleasantville - next thing I'll start wearing skirts and ribbons and baking pies instead of running around like a mad hatter wearing dirty t-shirts & jeans and sporting drywall dust. Now that's attractive!
