When Three Become Four!: Ma Mama

I am finally caught up on posting some pictures!! This week Liam has been a lot of fun, and it's getting harder and harder to keep up with writing everything down. Before long, it will be harder to keep up with him as well. He is getting closer to crawling day by day. I have a video here showing some of his first crawling moves this past Tuesday. Family and friends can verify now, he has progressed even farther. He now gets up on his knees frequently, and also started rocking around and scooting. He hasn't figured out to move both legs independently, currently he tries to keep both legs together as he pushes forward like a seal. I need to take a new video soon and I will post that!

Here are some other cute pictures from Tuesday!

His cute pajamas from our friends in Boston!

He let me put the hat on him with ears (without throwing a fit)! He actually gave me several cute expressions!

I love this Liam smile! He looks very confident and proud.

Liam tries steamed baby carrots (they are very soft, and we have been trying a variety of textures (more smooth and more chunky to see if he had a preference since all babies are different).

Here he is trying some Trader Joe's applesauce

Looks like he was singing to the spoon

Here are a few funny and new highlights from this past week.

1. Liam now is saying "Mama" regularly. He will say it to me or when I enter a room, he also says it just generally and to other people when he is hungry or overtired. I counted it as his sweet little mother's day present to me this year!

2. As already mentioned, Liam is a little man on a mission to move. He can roll over both ways with ease now, he also can pivot around easily on his belly to turn any direction he wants.

3. This past week, I had moved the Rainforest Soother on Liam's crib to the center, so he could practice reaching for it (and it didn't matter which direction he head was facing in the crib). That night when I went to bed, I found the little guy sleeping mostly on his belly, with his head and little hands both to one side. He was so cute, even though I was a little nervous about letting him sleep on his belly, since there are no hazards in the crib and he can freely roll around I let the sleeping baby lie this time. At 3:30am, I woke up wondering what was going on. I noticed the Rainforest Soother had been turned on, and the little guy was doing his push ups and concentrating on working out!! He wasn't crying, or fussing just concentrating on his work. He's quite dedicated, I can tell. Wonder if he has mommy's determination and perseverance?

Back on Thursday night, just an hour after Liam was put to bed for the night we both suddenly heard the soother come on over the baby monitor. Then I heard Liam huffing and puffing, apparently working out again!! I was laughing, and joking the little guy liked working out to music (who doesn't, right?). We just listened, since again he wasn't fussing. By the time it went off, he was back to sleep on his own!

4. We do have Liam on a very flexible schedule. We learned he needs at least 2.5-3 hours of daytime sleep. This is spread out over 2-3 naps. His bedtime and wake up times have stayed consistent. He has been sleeping fine. He might have done two 7 hour stretches last week, but I honestly wasn't sure when I woke up in the morning. I've been very busy, worked 22 hours this past week but had a bunch of other things to do so it felt more like 40. I was happy to get my work done by 12:30pm on Friday, and I got the weekend off!!

5. Liam has started taking a pacifier a little for sleep. Some nights he wanted to use me as a pacifier, but this just isn't practical when I need to get work done. So, we started slipping him the pacifier and to our surprised he wasn't immediately spitting it out. He's still not a big fan, but he did learn how to pop it out of his mouth and put it back in. I watched him doing this while riding in the back seat next to him. One night I had to sneak in the room for something, after he'd been asleep at least a half hour, and could still hear him sucking away. If it helps him fall asleep and mostly stay asleep better, we don't mind it (those of you who have had to break a pacifier habit might be thinking famous last words, right ;-).

6. Back at International Friendships this week, it was hilarious watching Liam "talking" with a 9 month-old Chinese girl. They both kept reaching for each other, and Liam kept failing around and acting silly...trying to bounce. Then he let out this super loud screech that made everyone stop and laugh. She was a little more quiet and kept staring at him, and I couldn't help but imagine she was thinking "Boys are weird!" He also got a hold of her hair, but I quickly pried open his fingers before he pulled! I picked him up after that. Cute, yes, but too disruptive as Michael was trying to teach!

I think those are all the main updates from the world of Liam. I'll have his new stats after tomorrow when he goes in for his 6 month check up!

Also, in honor of Mother's Day here are some of our family pictures: