January Update - 21 Months

2009 has started with another nasty round of the flu bug. This past week we took an overnight trip to Vancouver to watch a hockey game - Liam had been coughing slightly with a runny nose which took a sudden downturn to violent coughing coupled with vomiting. On our ferry trip home he decided to upchuck all over the cafeteria and Ian’s work outfit. While Ian tried to calm him down I grabbed napkins and starting wiping his shoes and the floor – definitely not the highlight of my day. To top it all off he went for round two and barfed all over his car seat while we were driving off the boat. This upset him so much he screamed for 15 minutes and then promptly passed out only to be woken up 20 minutes later to go to the doctor’s office. At this point I was feeling immensely frazzled and Ian had to go back to work so I was left to deal with my screaming, vomit covered child wrapped in a blanket outside the clinic. The doctor felt so sorry for me that I got in to see him right away and it turns out that Liam has a double ear infection and fluid on his lungs so he’s on antibiotics for a week three times a day. Poor little bugger. After getting his prescription at the pharmacy (where Liam got mad at the bubble bath bottles and smashed one on the floor) we finally made it home, drugs and broken bubble bath bottle in hand. What a week!

In some ways things are so much easier now and in others so much harder. Taking Liam to grocery stores or other places of the shopping kind is always a challenge. We have become the type of parents that bribe in order to keep him happy – to the point now that he knows that a grocery store trip equals a cookie. Recently he’s taken to pushing around the kids sized shopping carts which keep him occupied – only problem is that he is still learning to steer and prefers to crash into the sides of the aisles taking out products along the way. Typically you’ll find myself running around after beans and his tiny cart picking up items off the floor while Ian madly grabs things we need. Eventually we’ll learn to have one person go out and do the shopping.

We have been teaching Liam to say his name – at first he would say “Nemo” if you asked him what his name was, but over the course of the month he is now saying “Neeman”. “L’s” and “R’s” are the hardest syllables for him to say so it’s a good thing we didn’t name him Larry or Leroy. His communication skills are amazing and it is so nice to be able to ask him a question and for him to answer back. He consistently speaks in 3 to 4 word sentences and a couple of days ago said “no thank you” when I offered him a snack – what a polite little man! Well polite to Mommy anyway – Daddy tried to get his hair cut a few weeks ago and when the hairdresser came towards him with the scissors he pointed his finger at her and said “don’t!”. Most of the time I can understand what he is saying to me, and if I don’t I’ll ask him to show me which helps. Sometimes the things he comes up with are too funny – the other day Daddy was talking to him and apparently he wasn’t in the mood for listening as he suddenly interrupted him and said “too loud Daddy”. Another time we were walking down our street and he was going up and down the neighbourhood driveways saying “up goes Boo Boo” and “down goes Boo Boo”. Yelling is a favourite and he likes to yell “mooooommmmmm” and “mommmyeeeeeee”. Daddy gets the yell too. The funniest thing is to hear him yell out when he counts – he starts quietly at one and by the time he gets to six he yells out at the top of his voice – “six!!seven!!eight!!” - makes me laugh! Other words that are cute are “abudah” for ambulance and “helicopet” for helicopter.

In word world we have been working on letters and Liam can recite almost the entire alphabet – gets stumped on “LMNOP” and “QRSTUV” but otherwise can say all the other letters. He also recognizes almost all the letters when you point to them and will say them out loud. I think his magnetic fridge phonics have also been helpful as he plugs a letter into the phonics base and a voice says the letter and how to say the sound. This coupled with the animal farm phonics and it’s enough to drive you batty. Not only that but Liam is in full throwing mode lately and everything gets chucked everywhere. Once again I spend more time with my face close to the ground than not. If you’re back doesn’t give out carrying your heavy bundle around everywhere for the first year, the constant picking up of tiny objects will get you.

Now that Liam is older we have decided to start looking at going back to the regular 9-5 Mon to Fri work schedule and have some semblance of normality back in our lives. We accepted a spot starting in April in the toddler program of a really nice daycare that has a wonderful arts program and lots of great activities for the kids. Liam’s big brain would definitely be stimulated all day and Mommy & Daddy would be happier with evenings and weekends off together. So I’m putting out my feelers and we’ll see how my work situation goes.

Since my New Years resolution was to “preserve our memories” I have been working away like mad and so far managed this month to create 3 albums of our recent vacations as well as a first birthday book for Liam. My biggest project is his storybook which will take me all of February to complete. In addition we finally got to see our professional photos from our shoot back in November which are amazing. I’ll be dropping some big bucks for the prints for sure! The goal is to have all of the albums, storybook, photos and baby book done by April 1st – no pressure! Now if only I could find time…….