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| Liam and Grandma V |
First Birthday: At the end of this post I will have more birthday photos. He had a great first birthday at his Grandma Vs, considering the circumstances. We were going to throw another at my moms but I was just too sick and wiped out. His first taste of cake was Strawberry Short Cake (my favorite!) and he LOVED it. He didn't want to let go of the spoon the entire time (we kept the spoon). He did get his hands dirty in cake but it wasn't an all-out mess. Next year will be different.
He received some great presents, including a singing toucan flashlight, bedroom glowing sea-horse, Legos, clothes, and stacking cups (to name a few). He got to spend time with his Great Aunt and Great Grandma and had a really great day. Later, during our trip to see family, my mom (Grandma S) got him his first pair of shoes (Nike sandals), his first chair (see pic below) and tons of clothes. All in all, I think he had a great first birthday.
Milestones: We have a walker! Liam took his first steps for Daddy on July 3rd and more on July 4th. He still prefers to crawl but will walk from one stationary object to the next. He becomes very proud of himself when he does walk and very upset when he falls but he's doing such a great job.
He is "talking" up a storm, mostly saying "yaya", "dada", "momma", "baba" and baby gibberish. He points, sings, and just is such an animated little boy. His personality really is starting to shine through. We taught him to share but he is still getting used to the idea of giving something up. He will hand an object to me but will still want it and take it back. It's pretty cute. He is also understanding more phrases. He knows the word no (and will yell "YA" back), he know "Give it to me" or "Let me see" and he will pass something to me. He is also getting into shows a bit more. His favorite are Veggie Tales and the Despicable Me 2 Trailer Banana Song. He could watch them over and over and over.
I noticed last night (a bit late) that he has his 7th tooth (probably about 1 week old) and the doctor says that his back right molar is coming in as well.
Weaning: I am going to right a separate post on weaning but here is a breakdown of how it is going. As of June 25th, Liam was weaned cold turkey off the breast. I would NOT recommend this to anyone unless you have a great support team AND it was medically necessary. I am still very emotional over it and so is he. There are days where he will take the sippy cup with no problem, and there are days where he will throw it at me and pull up my shirt. Things are slowly getting better but those first few days were rough. He doesn't like the taste of cows milk and so I am mixing in my frozen stash. I currently have about 130 oz that I am going to try and space out. I haven't pumped in about 1 week and its still pretty uncomfortable (I will spare you all details).
Naps and Bedtime: Naps are a daily battle. Some days are great and he will sleep for 2 hours in the morning, an hour in the afternoon. Other days, he won't nap. Bedtime, however, has become a bear. He goes down relatively well but his night wakings are wearing me thin. The next couple of weeks, we are going to have to come up with something new. I am still in the process of figuring that one out.
Doctor's Visit: Well he had a great visit minus a couple of issues. Good news first: he is just under 25lbs (90 percentile), 32" long (98 percentile) and on cue for all his milestones. Bad news: He is anemic and has elevated lead levels. His finger prick test came back at 9.9 for hemoglobin and 5.5 for lead levels. We have searched the house and have discovered door nobs that are positive for lead, as well as hinges and a lamp. We are planing on hiring an expert to walk through our home to access our options and look to see if there was anything else that we may have missed. We are pretty sure that the water is lead free but we are testing that next.
So that is the update thus far. I am sure I have missed something here or there but I will be trying to make more frequent updates as things calm down.
Liam's First Steps for Daddy!
