Liam and Gibson: Liam at Ten Months

Ten months. Really? It's kind of scary how quickly time seems to pass now. He will be 5 before I know it...and I will be sad. Seriously, they do grow up so fast!

Stats: No more official ones until his one year appointment. He was sick about a week ago and didn't want to drink much or eat anything for a few days, so I wouldn't be surprised if he lost some weight. He's still on the larger side for his age and is wearing 12 months clothes, and 12-18 months in the funky Old Navy/Gap sizes.

Personality: It seems Liam will not be just like Will and me (quiet and calm). At the moment, he's usually the opposite of that! He has his quiet moments, though, and he's fine playing alone for awhile. He's also pretty quiet and calm in public. Ok, so maybe he's not totally unlike us! He's still throwing his fits occasionally to protest having to do something he doesn't want to do. How dare we make him sit in his high chair to be fed! He has incredible bursts of energy and excitement that cause him to make a funny face and wave his hands. He's a little daredevil. One of his new favorite things to do is hold on the bars of our headboard on the bed, let go, and fall backwards. It's fun because mama is always there to catch him! He just really doesn't stay still much at all. Wears me right out. Given the chance, he will get into everything he's not supposed to...and do it quickly. He makes his grievances known. The squealing has come back, either in delight or distaste of something. One thing he loves to do is "read" books. Liam likes to look at books by himself, turn the pages, and babble as he goes. He makes the sweetest noises! He really has so much personality already. I'm curious and anxious to see how it evolves over time!

Skills: Liam is focusing his skills on those which will help him learn to walk. He has taken a few steps behind his walking push toy. He will now pretty much run with you if you hold his hands to walk. The main thing he's been working on this month is standing independently. He's gone from letting go of something for maybe one or two seconds, to standing on his on for over a minute! He hasn't stood himself up on his on yet, but he's really close. He loves for us to lay on the floor and use one of us to get his balance and stand up. We usually count for him because he loves counting and it seems to make him focus better. He really does try to stand up for as long as he can like it's a competition. He's gotten to where if he's losing his balance some, he will bend his knees and squat to get it back. He typically doesn't stand all the way up again if he does that, though. In general, he is starting to squat more if he wants something on the floor. He's building up those leg muscles for walking! I've said it before, but I think he will take his first steps before he hits the one year mark. In general, he's just a strong kid. One of his favorite "toys" is a two-pound squishy weighted ball that he co-opted from me at some point when I exercised that one time. He likes to roll it around with his hands and with his feet. He can pick it up, but I don't like for him to do it much. I don't want him to pull a muscle. The other day, much to our surprise, he lifted it with one hand. Impressive since I can barely palm the thing (but I have rather small hands for an adult, and he has large hands for a baby). Mama and Hey are still his two favorite words, but he has been saying DaDa and Daddy more, and I'm pretty sure he's associating it with Will now. He knows objects still exist even if he can't see them.

Food/Drink: He's had many more different foods this month. I've eased up a bit on the Four Day Rule. A few of the new ones include strawberries, kiwi, black beans, and banana bread. He also ate pasta for the first time. We also recently started giving him teething biscuits. He does well with his half a tooth! Liam is feeding himself more and more, but still won't pick up slimy things like fruit. He still loves his puffs! Puffs can turn around a difficult situation rather quickly. I've discovered that he has a sensitive gag reflex, and some textures make him gag a little bit. Also, a few days ago, we got a regular high chair to replace the space saver one we have that sits on a dining room chair. We wanted the use of the chair back and wanted Liam to sit higher so it's easier to feed him standing up. I love it so far! Liam thinks it's ok. He doesn't really like using a tray, and this one has a little bar that his legs go under and the real tray sits on. So it's always there. He usually starts trying to escape halfway through a meal. I guess he feels trapped. He's doing better about holding his own bottle, but about halfway through drinking one, he either wants me to hold it, or he starts flinging it around. So I end up holding it then as well. He's drinking more from regular sippy cups in addition to the straw cups. He's finally figured out how to tip it up to get liquid out.

Events and Firsts: The big one was his first illness: hand, foot, and mouth disease. My previous post was about that. Thankfully, he's completely over it except for a few lingering scabs from the sores. He never got dehydrated! I think it was going around the church. Liam wasn't the only one to get it. He swang at the park for the first time on Leap Day. He had his first official playdate February 21 (which is also our wedding anniversary) with a baby whose parents we got to know in our Bradley childbirth class. She's about two weeks younger than Liam. It wore me out because I spent almost the whole time trying to keep him from getting all up in her face and giving her back her toys that Liam took right out of her hand. Yes, my child is the one who takes other kids toys. I know he doesn't know any better yet, but still I was embarrassed. I had no idea he did that until then! He's actually pretty bold with other kids.

I'm adding a new category:

Teeth: Finally, at 9.5 months old, Liam's first tooth popped through. It showed itself on February 23. It's taking its sweet time coming all the way up, though. It's not even halfway up, and it's now been almost 4 weeks. The one next to it has almost popped through as well. I guess he finally got the memo that it'll be easier eating birthday cake with some chompers.

And now for some pictures of my handsome little man! His hair is growing a lot and starting to flip out. I think he's going to have the precious baby curls!