Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is Tara's 30th birthday! Happy birthday Tara! T is going to celebrate her birthday with a Thai yoga massage, which I think she'll enjoy. During the massage, Liam and I are going for a hike. Temps this week will be in the 50s, and I'm willing to bet we've seen the last skiable snowfall (at least on the coast). So, welcome spring.

Speaking of spring, I discovered this morning that Liam's first tooth is starting to emerge. Bottom tooth, left side from Liam's perspective. The crown is just peeking through the gums, and it probably cut through yesterday or overnight. I'd post a picture, but it would take three of us to hold him down, hold his mouth open, and snap a picture which would inevitably be blurry. Sounds humane. But it's exciting that he's on the breach of another new development.

Liam's is getting better and better at crawling around the house and we are learning to be very watchful. I think just as kids slowly learn to move around and explore and satisfy their curiosity, so does 'parental radar' develop and become more refined. So by the time a kid is 16, the radar is pretty much like a walking NORAD station.

Liam is crawling between rooms - going from the living room to the entry way where he can play with a big pile of shoes. Yesterday, he criss crossed the kitchen as I was trying to bake Tara's birthday pie and cake - going from the shelves on one side to the trash can on the other to the stack of cookbooks, and then in the middle of the floor, I put a wooden spoon and few other toys. I was baking and redirecting and saving him from potential pitfalls all at the same time. It was more fitness than baking. He's also starting to get into a crawling position and push himself up by his feet into a brief quasi-downward facing dog position.

We're also hearing a few new sounds like mamamamama and Brian and I are almost certain he said Emma. As Tara was holding Liam the other day, she and I swore he turned around and gestured with is hands and said 'hi'. Probaby a great coincidence though. Not sure if anything qualifies as a first word, but Tara is pretty excited about mamama.

Finally, I know who's going to protect me from the neighborhood toughs now...

A little break and crawling

So, I think we have a pretty good excuse for our recent lack of activity (at least online). Tara, Liam, and I went skiing the weekend before last at Saddleback Mountain. Incidentally, Saddleback is a neat little ski area in western Maine. It gets very little attention because of Sugarloaf and Sunday River, and I think most of the skiers are Mainers and not from unmentionalble states to our south. We had a great day skiing until, naturally, the last run of the day, when Tara decided to break her thumb. At first we though it was a dislocation, but xrays confirmed a pretty decent fracture. During all the chaos, Liam was enjoying himself in the slopeside daycare facility (another reason why Saddleback is nice; plus, the day care is cheap, and qualified to watch kids). A few days later she underwent surgery to set and pin the bones back into place. Of course it was her right hand.

It's been interesting around the house, especially for me, as Tara is just now able to help with Liam a little more. She can sort of move him from place to place, and she can feed him and play with him, but she's still unable to change diapers, change clothes, give baths, or really anything that requires two hands. And since Liam is incredibly squirmy, that's basically everything.

While Mom is injured, Liam has been doing great. As I think we reported before, Liam has shown tremendous progress in easily getting from his belly to a seated position, and even getting up onto his hands and knees. He was able to crawl in reverse, but when he tried to go forward, he would plop back on his belly again, much to his frustration. As of Wednesday, though, Liam has started to tentatively crawl forward! And he seems to be figuring it out at an increasingly fast pace.



Liam's favorite toy right now is our iPod cable, or really any white computer cable. We put it on the floor about four feet away from him, and inch by inch, he made his way over to the cable, and was able to grab it with one last lunge at the very end. It's very cool that he can get around a bit on his own. I think it makes him even more content, and he rarely cries now when he ends up on his belly. He must know he is now able to extract himself from any position if he rolls around, or sits up, and now he can crawl away. He was upset yesterday when he somehow managed to get himself stuck under the couch up to his waist. He was just stuck there and couldn't pull himself out. It was rather funny.

The other new thing is his mobility in his crib. We always put him to bed on his back, but he almost immediately rolls over to his side, and curls the blankets around his head. Tara and I have been peeking in a couple times a night just to see where he has ended up. He could be on his back, belly, or side. Sometimes he has crunched himself into the corner or one end of the crib.

It's exciting to see him move around, and strike out in different directions. I think the major activity this weekend will be baby proofing the house.

in only 8 months...

I think this is just amazing...

Skiing

We had a great snow storm on Friday. The storm dropped quite a lot of snow on us. Sadly, we also had some sleet, which compressed the snow a bit. At the end of the storm we did end up with some nice snow to cross country ski on today. Our first attempt at skiing with Liam a couple of weeks ago was not so successful. Today, we had a great ski with our friends Chris, Joel, Natalie and Rich (that's Rich in the picture with Mike, and Joel, Natalie and Chris, below). Liam babbled and blew raspberries almost all of the time we were out. It was great to listen to him on the trail. He seemed to love the downhills and his raspberries appeared to be his means to get Mike to move faster.

Tomorrow, we are heading to Saddleback Ski resort in western Maine to downhill ski. Liam will be spending the day in the daycare run by Saddleback. Mike checked out the daycare the last time he was at Saddleback earlier this season. It appears to be a clean and well organized place. Hopefully, Liam will have a good day. Mike and I are certainly looking forward to being on some of the powder that fell on Friday.

Mimi Visits

My mom was here for the past week. It was a fantastic visit in which Liam got to spend great amounts of time with his Grandma. Mom flew in the 22nd of Feburary and left on the first of March. She babysat for Liam all week long and even let us go to the movies and on a cross country ski over the weekend. Liam and Mimi got along famously and they both seemed to enjoy going for afternoon walks, hanging out in the mornings, reading books and of course just playing. It is always a joy to have grandparents around for extra love and support for our little guy.

As far as new things that Liam is doing.... he has finally figured out how to let go of the crackers once he gets it to his mouth. He is so very close to crawling that we think it could literally happen at any second. He gets up on his hands and news and rocks. He does this for awhile until he finally decides that he will try to move forward. As soon as that happens he tends to fall back onto his belly. He seems to get stronger each day though. He has been rolling around the floor a lot. Rolling and hopping on his bottom see to be his best means of getting from one place to another.

Liam has a favorite book. He loves Hop On Pop by Dr. Suess. It is pretty much the only time that he sits completely still. He will sit and listen to that book and just soak it in. As and experiment we will often try out another book right before and right after Hop on Pop but those never quite get a quiet little boy. It is so amazing to us that he can already have a book that he adores. He actually squeals with happiness when he even sees the cover. Mike and I on the other hand might be getting a little tired of reading the same book over and over again.

As always, each day brings Liam new delights. He continues to soak up the world around him. We love that he is so active and curious.