Liam at 13 Months

Here we are, a month after his first birthday. I feel like Liam is now even more so in fast forward mode. I can tell that he will grow up a lot this next year, which is good. I think we're heading into a time of frustration as he is becoming more physically able but still can't communicate effectively. He's always learning, though, so I know this is just a short stage. I admit I am looking forward to the day when he can tell me what he wants or what's wrong. I'm over the screaming, and he doesn't just do it if he's upset. It actually happens more when he seems perfectly fine. I think he just likes to scream. I think he does it because he doesn't know how else to show some of his feelings yet or voice demands.

I'm dropping stats for awhile. Liam won't have another pediatrician check up until he's 18 months old. So I'll just say he's a little bigger than he was last month. He's a large, solid, strong kid.

Personality: Liam shows more personality all the time. He also seems to have more than one personality! He's becoming more affectionate and cuddly, which is so sweet. When I'm reading to him, he likes to lay his head on me or even sit in my lap now. He snuggles more than he used to. He will also show affection towards people other than us. Liam is a social little guy. He doesn't appear to be shy, even though he may act that way at first to get more attention from people! He actively seeks attention from other people, especially in restaurants. And of course people usually give it to him, so there's usually random people coming to our table or always looking towards us. Will and I are not used to that! It's cute, though, but waitresses especially seem to take a liking to him so they're at our table almost constantly. Liam's other personality is that of The Screamer. Sometimes it's just random screaming, but other times I can tell he wants to tell us something or do something that he just can't do yet and so he screams. It's SO loud. I feel like this age is somewhat frustrating to him. He just can't do everything he wants to do or say what he wants to say. Lately, he's been really frustrated during meal times and screaming a lot during them. I honestly don't know what it is. He's typically ok when he's feeding himself, but starts freaking out when I feed him. However, I give him the option of feeding himself non-finger food things like oatmeal and mashed up fruit (still won't feed that to himself, remember?) by putting some of it and a spoon on his tray for him to try. He just plays with it. He doesn't feed himself with a spoon yet, so I have to do it. It's the only way he eats fruits and veggies, so it must be done. He doesn't even try to put food on the spoon and put it in his mouth yet, but still he gets frustrated. Too many meals lately have ended in tears, both from him and from me. Any suggestions are welcome!

Skills: Now that Liam has mastered walking as well as any 13 month old can, I'm hopeful there will be a verbal explosion over the next few months. He still hasn't added any words he says on a regular basis, but he will randomly say words. In the past month, he's said door, thank you (dankoo), and get down (apparently. Will and I didn't hear it but 4 family members claim to have clearly heard it!). He still says "good" all the time, but lately his most favorite word has been "Dad." Liam has been saying it all the time! No daddy, just Dad! It's cute! He has also gotten better with his mimicking skills. I taught him how to turn his palms up and shrug his shoulders like he's asking a question or saying "I don't know." That's really cute, especially when he just randomly does it. He's starting to understand more words, even if he doesn't say them. He's also pointing to things more often. One thing Liam has learned in the past month or so is sharing, or at least handing objects to us. He does this a thousand times (it seems) a day with me. Nine times out of ten, he hands me a book. That's usually followed by some babbling and perhaps some feet stomping that means he wants me to read it to him...now! I always read the book if he hands one to me. He LOVES to be read to! It is seriously his most favorite thing in the world. I read a lot of books everyday, and a lot of the same ones over and over. I don't think I can emphasize enough how much he loves this. He also loves to look at books on his own and sometimes babbles "reading" them. I hope he always loves books!

Food and Drink: As mentioned earlier, there is sometimes some drama at mealtimes. I started this post last week, and things have been somewhat better the past couple of days since I wrote that. Liam is doing pretty good with feeding himself, but still won't touch the fruits and veggies. However, he did feed himself a small bit of pickle at a restaurant the other day. That may be the first veggie he's fed himself! Since he still doesn't have much in the way of teeth, the fruits and veggies I deem safe enough for him to eat are usually pretty slimy since they are soft. So maybe he just doesn't like touching the slimy stuff. He doesn't like to get messy when he eats. He will feed himself pretty much anything else that's a finger food. His favorites are bread and cheese and little fruit snacks. One thing about Liam, he is a slow eater. With anything I put on his tray, there is usually a time of playing with the food before he eats it. He likes to smush the cheese, but then he eats it. When I feed him something, unless he's super duper hungry, he likes to rest between bites. But, even though he is usually slow, he is the type of kid to put lots of food in his mouth at once. With snacks, I have to regulate them and put out a few at a time, otherwise he will have 10 cheerios in his mouth in a few seconds.

One major change is that Liam no longer drinks formula. I was sad when breastfeeding didn't work out as planned and he had to drink formula in the first place, but I was actually also sad when he stopped drinking the formula. We ran out of it about three weeks after his first birthday. I didn't know it would be an emotional thing, but it was, I guess mainly because that means he's not a baby anymore? I don't know, but it was somewhat of a big deal to me. Since then, he's been drinking milk: mostly cow's milk with some soy. It seems he has outgrown the milk sensitivity he was "diagnosed" with at one month old. He's had more dairy in the past month than in the previous 12 months combined, but he's had zero problems with it. He has refused to drink milk (beyond the first sip) from his straw cup, so I've been letting him drink it from a bottle. I know that's bad, but I honestly feel like he needs another month or so before trying to go full-time with the straw cups. He drinks water from one throughout the day, but he sometimes takes a sip then lets it fall out of his mouth, just for fun. I'm trying to teach him not to do that. He did it with milk the other day, so until I can break him of this habit, I'm ok with him still drinking milk from a bottle.

Events and Firsts: Liam had two first birthday parties in May that were a lot of fun. He got to ride in a car facing forward for the first time. It was in a friend's car, as we still have him facing backwards in ours. We probably won't turn him around until the end of the year when we're planning on getting him a seat that only faces forward. He'll be about 19 months then, but I'm sure he will be the size of a two year old! Liam had his first play date at our house with his friend, Addy. They played really well together! On June 9th, we finally got a new vehicle! We got a Scion xB! The old, tired Camry is gone (traded it in). The xB (which is classified as a wagon) is the perfect size for us. We love it so far! Liam has a much safer ride now! His seat is in the middle of the back seat and it's so easy to get him in there. It was the best decision!

Teeth: Finally, there are more teeth to report! After several nights of waking up screaming, Liam's top middle left (from his perspective) tooth popped through on June 1st! Then the top middle right tooth popped through on June 7th! They are still in the process of coming down, so I guess he has about the equivalent of 2 and 1/3 teeth right now. Hopefully it won't be too long before more come in. As far as I can tell, no more are getting ready. These two coming in were tough on him. Lots of crying. He fell on his book, "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom," and that's what broke the skin for the second top tooth to pop through, so there was a little bit of blood involved with that one. Liam's smile looks so different already. He has a large gap between those two top teeth!

Now for some pictures! He is on the go (constantly, all the time) so it is extremely difficult to get him to look at the camera. I didn't really even try this month. These were taken at the Japanese Botanical Gardens in Fort Worth.

I can sometimes get him to look if he's strapped in the stroller!

Walking around the rock garden.