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.