December Cuteness

Liam continues to grow so fast I can't even keep up with it all! Some new firsts in the last weeks of December include:

• Crawling better and better, farther and farther, everyday!
• Learning to transition into and out of sit when he is on the go
• Sitting up in his crib all by himself
• So many new sounds
• Once, he pointed and grunted towards his snack of choice
• Watching, watching, watching our signs with him
• Reading, actually participating, in reading books
• Choosing his own toys and playing on his own for a few minutes
• Soooo Big
• Giving kisses to mommy when she makes kissing noises
• Giving pacis and other toys to people randomly
• Showing his temper more and more... lots of arching and screaming fits lately
• trying to pull to stand, although not very reliable yet
• growing like a weed... solidly into 12-18 month clothes... in fact growing out of some already!
• getting his two front teeth... quite a process on top of his ear infections... poor baby :(
• recognizing himself in the mirror and making faces... "loves peek-a-who" book
• eating lots of new finger foods... he loves chicken and turkey pieces!
  
  
  We went to the zoo in the middle of december... check out the flashback from June!

Playing Ball

Liam just started learning how to 'play ball' with Daddy... adorable!

Christmas with the Wests

Since Liam's ear infection slowed us down a bit over the holidays, Mary and Clancy came down to us just a couple days after Christmas... Liam got some fun things: a new 'blankie' for his new stroller, a new hat and gloves, some fun blocks and a new tractor!

Liam was showing off just 'how big' he is....

Christmas with McClyman's

Christmas day we drove up to my dad's house for Christmas with the McClyman side of the family. Liam loved seeing everyone there... although he did think the car ride got a bit long :)

Christmas Morning...

We opened presents as a family on Christmas morning (video is being processed!)
Liam got some new cars, bubbles, books, and a racetrack toy from us. Santa brought him a mailbox to play with... :)

'Twas the night before Christmas...

Liam left cookies for santa with our elf on the shelf...

Christmas with Grandma Roxanne and Grandpa Dave

My parents came up Christmas Eve day and brought lovin oven cake... with an extra large polar bear in frosting (heaven!)...

Here's the tree all loaded up with presents! Liam loved his new kitchen...

and piano... which is technically his first video game since the piano has some tv games Liam can grow into :)

Christmas with Great Grandpa and Grandma Bacon

We had Liam's first Christmas with my grandparents... cute pictures follow! Liam's favorite thing from this Christmas was his car race track and all the bows!

Peek-a-Who

Kaycee reading Peek-a-Who to Liam - pay close attention to Liam at the end of the story (there is a mirror on the last page: peek-a-you!)

Christmas 2010

We're coming to the end of our first Christmas as a family.  Thanks to everyone for the wonderful company and the great gifts.  There is no doubt that Liam is a very loved (and spoiled) grandson!  We've got lots of good pictures and video from the various celebrations; we'll try to get some posted in the upcoming days.

Unfortunately, Liam woke up with a 102 fever this morning so we weren't able to get up to Sturgeon Bay or Luxemburg to celebrate Christmas with my side of the family.  We will have to get that rescheduled for later in the week.  The good news is that Liam's fever went down some throughout the day and by later in the afternoon he seemed to be acting more like himself.  Hopefully the fever will be gone in the morning - if not, back to the doctor and probably another round of antibiotics :(

In other news, Liam is quickly becoming a pro crawler.  Today he figured out how to crawl on the wood floors and was off to the races.  He decided that he wanted to check out what mom was doing in the kitchen so off he went to find out!  Plan for tomorrow - finish baby proofing the downstairs!

Learning to Crawl

Teasing Mommy...

Liam decided he was going to 'take control' of the mommy kissing game. The game previously went like this... mommy would make kissing noises, Liam would put his hand out, mommy would kiss it, Liam would laugh... (mommy thinks this is a very fun game!)

The game now goes... mommy makes kissing noises... Liam sticks his hand out... Liam pulls his hand back just before mommy can kiss it... Liam laughs at mommy :)

Alright, I admit, the new game is just as fun!

Little Mover

Liam crawled/scooted his way across the living room today to raid a shelf full of toys.  I think this parenting thing is about to get interesting...

Happy Birthday Grandpa West

Feeling a little better...

Liam was at daycare today and made it through pretty well. The big downside to daycare is that Liam doesn't sleep much there. Mon-wed he was taking two 2-3 hour naps at home, which he desperately needed; however at daycare today he took two 40 minute naps (which is a good day of naps at daycare) that just didn't seem to be cutting it for him. He is currently napping at home...

His runny nose seems better and hopefully we can continue to trick Liam into taking his antibiotics since he seems especially angry to having them given to him this time...

He is still coughing, but full of smiles again. A few extra cuddles here and there and he is happy as can be! Hopefully tomorrow he feels even better and we can take it easy this weekend... snuggling and visiting and taking long naps!

Double Ear Infection

Well... doctor said Liam has an ear infection in each ear. The good news is his lungs are clear, which is a relief. We will start him on some antibiotics this afternoon and hopefully he will be back to himself in no time! He is doing a bit better today: no fever, a little more playful, and not quite so much coughing.

Still sick...

Well I stayed home with Liam today since he woke up with a fever. We did some sleeping, some cuddling, and some rushing. His cough is getting a little worse and he had his first 102.1 fever tonight before bed. Daddy will be home with him tomorrow and off to the doctor just to make sure there is nothing to be concerned about... Will post an update when we have more info...

More moving...

CRAWLING!

To the best of our ability, with Liam's cooperation! He did take 2 distinct crawls previous to this video :)

Notice the crawling motivation... Daddy's boy!

Sick again...

We had such a good run these past few weeks... Unfortunately, Liam has a cough, runny nose, and fever... :(

He has been having a few rough nights becuaseof the coughing... It has been a throw back snuggling a Liam in the chair again! Hopefully he will start to feel better soon...

Crawling!!

Liam crawled (just a little bit - but it still counts!) video will be posted soon

First Christmas Celebration of 2010

We celebrated Christmas with Kaycee's mom's side of the family today.  It was great to see Kaycee's grandparents again!  We had a wonderful lunch and a nice, relaxing afternoon together.

"I found a button!"

*view in 460/720 pixels for clearer image (lower right hand side)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA!

Liam wanted to say "Happy Birthday Grandpa Dave!"...

Don't be grumpy about growing older...

New Foods...

Liam has been trying lots of new foods.... Here are some of the new favorites:

• beets... yep, eats them by the handful at daycare
• yogurt.... loves, loves, loves!
• chicken... yum
• bread pieces... pita bread especially
• orange banana puree

Some just ok things:

• pear pieces
• peach pieces
• pasta bits
• organic apple and banana puffs... really prefers the sugary ones already!

4th tooth!

... Broke through today! Bottom left... Do you think all Liam wants for Christmas is his two front top teeth?

Liam's Artwork

Just a sampling of the artwork we have gotten home from daycare...

Crawling or getting ready to leapfrog?

Who's So Big?

Liam has been spontaneously holding his hands up above his head... we are trying to teach him sooo big now!

Sledding

Getting my first Christmas Tree...

Mommy and Daddy kept telling me over the past few days that we were going to go get our Christmas Tree. I had no idea what they were talking about, but I am always up for anything!
Here I am, all loaded up and ready to go...

As if the one full-length jacket wasn't enough, Mommy shoved me into another, even puffier one AND put my hat on... At least daddy had a hat and puffy coat too, that made me feel better :)That Mommy kept snuggling me and saying, "Are you ready to pick out the fluffiest, fattest tree you can find?"Then Mommy plopped me into a 'sled' and starting pulling me around in this white stuff called 'snow'. I thought it was pretty fun though. Sometimes the snow would blow in my face, but that was ok. I liked to talk and scream on my sled ride to let Mommy and Daddy know I was still there! We looked at lots of trees... they were everywhere you could see! We looked at a lot of them, but Mommy kept saying they just weren't quite right...
Finally Mommy found one and I thought it was just great. Truthfully it could have been the smallest tree out there... my nose was cold! A couple more pictures and then all I could see was Daddy's back. Mommy and Daddy stood around the tree for a couple minutes and all of a sudden IT FELL DOWN... The good news it that we got to take that tree home with us. The funny thing is, now it is in our living room all lit up. Mommy let me touch it and that was pretty cool.

Also, there are these odd things called ornaments that Mommy and Daddy say need to go on the tree, but really I just want to eat them to see what they really are.

Hmm... maybe I can figure out how to make my way over to that tree and investigate. I will have to figure out what to do with all those odd shaped wrapped things though...

Trying, Trying, Trying...

40 Weeks Old!

This past saturday was Liam's 40th week! Hard to believe...

This past week has brought with it some more firsts:

• Starting to get up on his hands and knees
• Loves "falling backward" and "falling forward" when you are holding him
• So many new sounds
• "BaBa" with communicative intent for "mama"... (held hands up and said it straight to me!)
• Tried more meat, yogurt (yum!), fruits, bread and more veggies
• Opening and closing the door on the piggy bank
• Looking inside the fire truck to get out blocks
• Having a bit of separation anxiety... really wanting to be held by mommy and protesting loudly when he is put down
• 4th tooth still working it's way out... big bump one day... then gone the next :)
• First snowfall!
• Cutting down first Christmas Tree!