Merry Christmas everyone! I know that I haven't updated in a while. Things have come up and I have been busy with work and my little one. The last time I updated you, it was just after Thanksgiving. Things with our health have been well and we are both due at the doctors at the end of this month.
Update with Liam: Nothing much to report with Liam. He is a wonderful, strong willed, energetic, fantastic little boy. He recently has learned to kick a ball and drink from a water fountain. The only thing that we worry about (besides the lead) is his speech. Currently Liam has not really gained much of a vocabulary. He says, Aye (for both Hi and Bye), vroom (to mimic a car), mama, dada, ish (I think for fish), ssshhhh (not sure if that counts as a word), ack (for quack, again, not sure if that counts), ut-oh, go, and an assortment of grunts. We purchased a DVD called baby babble, hopping to encourage him to speak. Most of what the DVD encourages, we already do. I read to him every night, we repeat words, and we give lots of praise. He understands much much more than what he can say and can follow simple commands. If I say, "It's dinner time, wash your hands" he will go to the other side of the kitchen, grab the stool and push it over to the sink. I am sure that some toddlers just take more time when it comes to speech but it is something I plan to bring up at his next doctors visit.
We also discovered that he is afraid of the dark. He was crying out multiple times during the night, and it was creating bad sleep habits. I was bringing him into our bed at times or climbing into his crib at night to calm him down (I still climb into his crib on occasion but that's a different matter). I put back in his room a night light that projects fish onto the ceiling and this seems to have helped. I was also leaving a sippy cup of water in his crib at night (there were times he would wake up very thirsty) but that it a habit I am slowing trying to break.
He is doing excellent at daycare and they say that he is thriving. He is using baby sign language at lunch more, signing all done and more. He also has excellent balance and was able to copy some of the other older toddlers when walking across the balance beam (his teachers were very impressed). He is off from daycare till the 3rd of January (same day at my citizenship test). I am on winter break from work till January 13th.
A couple weeks back we had some snow. We actually had two storms totaling about 8" of snow. He LOVED being outside in the snow and loved playing with the shovel even more. He actually refused to let go of the shovel and we had to carry both him (and the shovel) to the front door before prying it out of his hands.
Due to the winter break, I have been bringing him to the library a lot more. He loves to play with the trains, climb up and down the stairs, play with the kitchen and the legos. It's a great place for him to interact with other toddlers (when they are there). This past Monday, we went to a neighboring library that was offering arts and crafts to children all day.We tried to make a Christmas ornament (which I was more interested in than Liam) and we played on the computer. About 1 hour after we got there, it got quite busy. Liam decided that he was bored, ran over to the elevator and pressed the button. I was right has his heels and got into the elevator right after him, but not in time to stop him from pressing the first button he saw... a bright red call button. The same button that patches directly to the police department. I heard ringing and frantically looked for a cancel button (there was none). I soon heard, "Hello, dispatch". I quickly explained to the officer that everything was ok and that my 1 1/2 year old had pressed the button by accident. He hung up and I decided it was time to leave the library for the day.
In my past post I had mentioned that I wanted to post a review. The two products are "little green pouches" and a new cloth diaper. I still do plan to post the review but have been a little behind on my blogging. These, hopefully, are soon to come as well as a Christmas, part two post. My mother will be coming into town and I plan to blog about the visits by both Grandmas.
