Liam and His Band...It's Getting Very Near the End

Wednesday we went to Cranial Technologies to have Liam's band adjusted. Last time we were there, two weeks earlier, we were told he would have about another month left, possibly longer if the trend of no head growth continued.

So going in, I knew this could very well be his last adjustment. I knew his band seemed tighter, but it's been like that before but his head stayed the same size. She measured it, and thankfully he had 3 mm of growth! Triple what he had in the past month. More foam was shaved out, so much that no more can be taken out. This is it. We are in the home stretch!

He will stop wearing the band Wednesday, April 11th. We're still praying that some good changes occur with his head, because it is still not perfect. I've gotten used to the fact that it will never be perfect. He will still have some slight flattening on the left side and up top. His cranial therapist (or whatever she is called) said she would not be recommending him for a third band, which is fine because he would not be getting one anyway.

I am very happy with the way his head is shaped now. It is a million times better than it was. His ears are even and his forehead doesn't bulge on one side anymore. Exit pictures and another DSI scan will be done on the 11th, and we will really be able to see all the changes then!

Liam has been in a band for 21 out of the nearly 46 weeks he's been out of the womb, so pretty much half his life! I'm excited about moving on, but I know I will be wishing he still had a "crash helmet" at times, especially as he is learning how to walk.

One thing I do know, is that when and if we have another child, I will obsess about their head! I'm worried that another child will come out with a flat head like Liam, because Liam's flatness was caused in utero. Oh well, we will worry about that if we have to, and that child will get a band too, if he/she needs it.

Now some pictures of Liam in his band helping daddy play guitar...and lots and lots of drooling. Thanks, gray shirt!

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!

During hand, foot, mouth disease

See my tooth coming up?

Pretty much the cutest baby ever

Playing = take two things and bang them together

Take that, Louisiana!

Loves to look at books

Nice hair coming in

Liam's spring and summer cap

What is this on my head?

Yes, my parents are from Louisiana.

 Lovely Louisiana pillow made my Amanda Blackwelder.

Liams First Fever and Illness

I was really hoping he would be fever free for at least his first year, but he made it to nearly ten months old. For that, I am thankful. I really do have a very healthy boy. A virus finally caught him this week, though.

Monday night, we noticed some red spots on the lower half of Liam's face. We weren't really sure what they were. I thought they might be bug bites because we had been walking around outside at night a little earlier. I knew that I ended up with a few little bites myself. They didn't seem to bother him at all. I put him to bed, and the next morning when he woke up, he was really warm. I took his temp, and I think it was 100.9, which was the highest I'd ever seen his temperature. I dressed him in cooler clothes and made sure he drank a lot of liquids.

I called the pediatrician's office and spoke to the nurse. She asked me questions and determined over the phone that it wasn't chicken pox. She said they don't like kids to come in when they have chicken pox because it's so contagious. So I made an appointment and took him in. By then he had more red spots on his wrists and his legs. Over the course of the morning, his fever had gone down some, but he was becoming progressively crankier. At the pedi's office, the nurse took one look at him and said hand, foot, and mouth disease. I freaked out a little on the inside because that sounded bad...the word "disease" is in it after all. Then she said it wasn't a big deal, that it was a virus, and that it would just run its course. Then she said the sores would get worse and that he would get some in his mouth and throat. The doctor then came in and confirmed the diagnosis and looked in his mouth. He didn't have any sores in it at that point. His temp was 100.1 at the pedi's office. I was told to make sure he stayed hydrated and that I could give him infant tylenol for the fever and discomfort. I had to buy some on the way home because I never needed it before. I also called the preschool minister at church and let her know Liam had this virus. He had been in the church nursery Sunday morning, either picking it up there or possibly spreading it. I don't know if it's possible to have it and spread it without any symptoms, though, and he certainly seemed perfectly healthy all day Sunday.

At home, Liam started refusing to eat anything, but at that point was still drinking bottles on a regular basis. He was really whiny and I spent pretty much all afternoon holding him. He was still pretty warm with fever, but not scary hot or anything. I decided to try giving him a little bit of tylenol (I actually didn't get tylenol brand, but Little Fevers since it had no artificial dyes in it. Same ingredients otherwise, though.) We were both sitting on the floor, and I squirted the medicine in his mouth...and then he immediately threw up. In my hand. Gross. I had no choice but to wipe it on my shirt. The joys of motherhood, right? Will's probably going to be mortified that I wrote about that, but I know other mothers can relate. After the whole clean up process, Liam was even more pitiful and that was when he stopped wanting to drink much. I think it also coincided with him getting some sores in the back of his mouth and having a sore throat.

Then the objective became not letting Liam get dehydrated. He was still feverish and now didn't want anything in his mouth. I knew that was a bad combination. I tried several different cups and bottles as well as formula and water, but he pushed it all away. At some point I strapped him in his high chair and squirted water and formula in his mouth with a medicine dropper and closed his mouth to make him swallow. He was not a fan of that, but it was for his own good! Sure enough, despite getting what little bit of liquid I could in him, he went seven hours without a wet diaper. Seven! I was freaking out. Then he drank a few ounces and had a wet diaper...and then he went seven hours again before the next wet diaper! I will say that he was asleep for a lot of those seven hour stretches. That's where we were on Wednesday morning, only 3 wet diapers in 14 hours. But he wasn't acting dehydrated-still smiling, playing, and his fever was completely gone by Wednesday morning.

At some point when he still had a fever, I tried giving him tylenol again. And he threw up again. This time though, I had a cup handy. Note to self: don't give him that kind of tylenol again!

All day yesterday, we played and smiled a lot. Liam was acting completely normal except the refusing to eat thing. Thankfully, he did up his bottle drinking frequency although it wasn't a lot at each feeding. I could only get 2 or 3 ounces in him every few hours. I tried all the time though and made sure he got at least some liquid every hour. Thankfully, Liam had regular wet diapers yesterday! Not much in them, but something regularly. I tried feeding him food a couple times and he didn't want it. He did eat some puffs a few times throughout the day, though. Then at bedtime he threw up yet again, even though tylenol was not involved at all.

Today is like yesterday, acting normal but he doesn't want to eat and will only drink occasionally. Regular wet diapers, smiles, and lots of playing. Still will not eat, though! How long can he go without real food, just with occasional formula and pedialyte? I don't think his mouth hurts anymore, because he's been chewing on toys. His throat may still be sore, though, and I suppose he has a decline in appetite because of the virus. Tonight was rough. He really needed to drink, but he kept refusing it. We tried lots of different ways to get liquid in his mouth. We got some in, but he wouldn't drink a bottle. It's so frustrating to me because I don't want him to get dehydrated. He fell asleep. I'm praying he wakes up thirsty.

The virus generally takes a week to ten days to run its course. The sores on his face already look better, but the ones on his wrist and legs still look bad. His legs are pretty much covered. Thankfully, they are not itchy and he doesn't mess with them at all.

So that's Liam's first illness. Poor kid.


ETA:

The above was written on Thursday and I never got a chance to post it because it's been kind of crazy around here. Will came home sick on Thursday and went to the doctor Friday. His flu test was negative, but they prescribed him flu medicine. Thankfully, if it is the flu, it's pretty mild. Liam still didn't want to drink much for most of the day Friday. He would eat puffs (seriously, with Liam, puffs cure everything) and yogurt bites. I had to give him most of his liquids with a medicine dropper because he refused to drink from anything. Thankfully on Friday night, he did start drinking from a bottle again, and I finally got him to eat some oatmeal. Today (Saturday), he has drank pretty well from his bottle, but still won't eat much except the puffs, yogurt bites, and some oatmeal. At least he's getting some greens from the puffs and fruit + probiotics from the yogurt bites! He's having full, regular wet diapers again. The sores on his legs have also gone down a bunch, but he stills looks like a swarm of mosquitoes got him. I think he's on the upswing finally :)

This and That

I've been wanting to blog for awhile, and now I'm afraid I've forgotten some of the stuff I wanted to blog about. I think I will just start typing and hope it all comes back to me.

Last week, on the 23rd, Liam had his first tooth pop through! It is the front bottom left one (from Liam's point of view). Finally at 9 months old, he's starting to get some teeth! However, Liam is such a bad teether and we've had so many rough nights that I wished he would be toothless forever. But now that things seem to have calmed down a little bit, I retract that thought! He has been mostly fine during the day, but there were some nights when he woke up a million times because of it. He hasn't been screaming in pain, but it's been messing with him for sure. He also has been more irritable and hasn't wanted to eat as much solid food. Thankfully, he hasn't had a fever. (Can I just say that I'm thankful Liam has NEVER had a fever? I probably just jinxed it, though.) I think the right one will pop through soon as well, and the front top two seem like they won't be too far behind. Mr. Chompers!

Last year, Dallas in February meant lots of snow and ice and being trapped indoors for 6 days because the outside stairs were too treacherous for me at 6 months pregnant. This year, Dallas in February has meant mild and warm pleasant days with temps in the 70s. So we've been able to get out and go for some walks. On Leap Day, the weather was beautiful so I decided that would be the day Liam got to swing at the park for the first time. Of course, we could've let him swing before because he's been big enough for awhile. We just never did. So we drove to the park (it is close enough to walk to, but we didn't have a ton of time). There were just a couple kids at the playground and no one on the swings (school wasn't quite out yet). I plopped Liam in the baby swing and gently pushed him. He smiled! I was hoping it wouldn't make him nauseous, and it didn't. Of course he had to look at everything going on around him. I think he was too distracted watching the kids play, people walk by with their dogs, and the ducks at the pond to really get into the swinging. After the initial pleasant reaction, he didn't really look at me much! After the swinging, we walked down to the pond and watched the ducks. Then we watched some people feed the ducks some bread. It really was a lovely day at the park!

Swinging is just ok

No wait, it's fun!

Watching the ducks

Eating puffs at the park

Gnawing on his crinkle book at the park

Also on February 29th, Liam had an appointment to get his band adjusted. Our regular therapist was there this time. She measured his head and it had only grown 1 mm...in a month! So, we really need some prayer that he will have a significant growth spurt soon and that his head will grow, grow, grow. It won't make any progress unless it grows. Since he had so little growth recently, It's likely he will be able to wear the band longer than 5 more weeks. He needs to. There is still shapening (pretty sure I just made that word up!) that needs to be done! If it ends up like it is now, that's not horrible. With more hair, it will probably look fine. But, yes, let's hope it does change some more!

Last night Liam was playing with his push toy. He usually just messes with the toys on it and will occasionally pull up to standing while holding on to it. I was in the kitchen and Will was playing with Liam. The I heard Will say, "Great job, Liam!" so I asked what he did. He said Liam took a few steps standing behind his push toy (holding on, of course). I had a to get a look, and sure enough, he was taking some steps! So proud of him. He definitely has a desire to stand up and walk. He keeps getting better at standing by himself. I think the longest has been 10 seconds. And he loves to walk if we hold his hands. He will even kind of run doing that. So now he's putting the steps together! I really do think he will walk independently before he's a year old.

Also, we are now looking for a house or (more likely) a duplex to rent. Once Liam starts walking, he will start running, so we're hoping to find a place around here we can afford. No luck so far, but I'm hopeful that we will find something. Please be on the lookout for us!

Tutorial for Easy Name Wall Art (If Your Child Has a Short Name)

So I bought the stuff to do this simple project months and months ago. It took me going to a craft night at a friend's house to finally do it. The letters were given to me at one of my showers. They were on a diaper cake. The inspiration for this project was the name wall art featured here. However, I knew I didn't want to put that many nails in the wall for each individual letter. Since I scrapbook (or did in a former life), I decided to use paper instead. Unfortunately, this won't really work if your child has a long name. However, if you want to try it, long and skinny frames do exist, and you would need to get rather large paper for the project to avoid seams. You could also just do a short word, such as Love.

Materials:
wooden letters (Mine were given to me, but you can find lots of wooden letters for sale on the internet (try Etsy), in a store, or if you have a pal who's handy with a jigsaw and can make them.)
picture frame (I used a very cheap 8X10 frame)
scrapbook paper (one 8.5X11 sheet for the background, plus sheets in whatever colors you want to use for the circles)
circle paper punches in 2 sizes (I used a Creative Memories circle punch with 2 sizes: 1 1/2 and 1 1/4 inch)
paper trimmer
glue stick
hot glue gun
acrylic paint
paint brush  


Step 1: Paint your letters with acrylic paint and let dry. Drying doesn't take very long. Do more than one coat if needed.

I used an old Relevent magazine for my paint. I apologize for the big ole S-word!

Step 2: Trim your 8.5X11 paper down to fit the 8X10 frame. Thankfully I bought more than one sheet of paper, because I trimmed off too much the first time!

Step 3: Punch out your circles and glue them together to get the layered look. Of course, you can use other shapes, other pictures, or skip this altogether if you just want the name. I think stripes would be super cute too (use your paper trimmer to make those!).

Step 4: Lay out your circles on the paper and glue them down. Now you have a good guide to use when placing the letters.

Step 5: Lay out your wooden letters where you want them to be and use hot glue to glue them down.

Step 6: Place it in the frame. Put the glass behind your art to fill up space and keep it handy if you decide you want to use it as a regular frame one day.

The green looks a little off, but the colors are white, brown, aqua, and lime green.

You're done! SO easy. It took about an hour, and that includes paint drying and chatting time.

Liam at Nine Months

Yesterday was Liam's nine month birthday. It was also Valentine's Day! We spent the vast majority of the day away from home because of Moms' Connection at church in the morning and his nine month check up and a quick trip to Whole Foods in the afternoon. Poor kid didn't really take a nap until 5:00 p.m., which of course threw off his bedtime, but it did allow Will and I to eat our Valentine's dinner of takeout veggie Chinese food by ourselves in peace.

Stats:
Weight: 21.1 pounds (60th percentile)
Height: 30 inches (95th percentile)
Head Size: 17.5 inches (25th percentile)

I definitely would've sworn he weighed more than that, but I know for sure he is longer than that. His leg was scrunched up a little when she made the marks and she rounded down. Head size varies so much depending on where the tape measure is placed on the head. For example, today Liam had a DOC Band adjustment and we had to see a different person than we normally do. The lady today measured his head twice and got a smaller number than our regular lady got two weeks ago. I know his head didn't shrink. I guess no one really knows the size of his head! Growth has definitely slowed down, and he is getting taller and thinner. He needs new pj's, and he's now pretty much wearing all 12 month size clothes. (Why do baby clothes jump from 12 month to 18 month sizes? Why no 15 month sizes?)

Personality: This past month, Liam has started to throw little fits sometimes. It's not uncommon for him to now get upset when we put him in the highchair or lay him down on his back to change his diaper. And when I say fit, I mean he cries a little, usually without tears. Although, sometimes he cries a lot if it's something he really doesn't want to do. When I feed him, he usually calms down after the first bite, but changing diapers has become so difficult! He wants to roll over, sit up, or crawl away the second we lay him down. Thankfully, his changing pad is on the floor. Although, maybe he wouldn't try these shenanigans if it was up on the changing table. Nah, he probably would. Liam will also arch his back and throw his head back now if he doesn't want to be held. I'm not sure how much of a baby's future personality you can see by this age, but if you can, then Liam will not be a timid soul. He does not like being contained. He is strong and determined. He goes after whatever it is he wants. I am already worn out by him. We are definitely going to need a back yard where he can run around. He is, as they say, "all boy," whatever that means. However, he can still be very sweet too, and the kid loves to laugh! He has an amazing sense of humor. He is a fun, fun kid. I know we are going to have lots of great times with him! We already do.

Skills: This month, he's been perfecting his crawling, pulling up, and cruising techniques. He has also gotten very good at walking while holding our hands. He will pull himself up and start bouncing on his legs. Liam has also pulled up and let go of whatever he was holding on to several times, thus standing independently. He can now bend down and pick up a toy on the floor while holding on to something with one hand. When he stands back up, he will sometimes want to hold the toy with both hands, so he ends up standing independently for a second or two. Then he will either sit down on his bottom or put one hand back on whatever he's holding (usually his playard that dominates our living room). We're so proud of him! He also just sometimes lets go without a toy in his hand. He's working out that balance! I really do think he will walk before he's a year old. He did start saying "Mama" this month. It seems to be the first word that he has actually associated with the correct person or thing. I hear it a lot these days, usually when he wants out of his cage (er, playard)! Will says he says it a lot when I leave the house by myself. Liam will wave to himself in the mirror. He likes to see himself. He doesn't really wave at anyone else yet! Liam has been blowing raspberries for a long time, but now he can carry on a "raspberry blowing conversation" with us, going back and forth. He understands the words "no" and "up" (and others, I'm sure, but he always responds appropriately to these two). He still loves to look at books and turn the pages. Overall, he's right on target or maybe even a little ahead of what he should be doing!

Food/Drink: The "Foods Liam Has Eaten" list has greatly expanded this month. Just a few of the new foods include mango, pumpkin, spinach, and raspberries. He has had little tastes of blueberry muffin and tortilla now as well. I did give him yogurt in the past month, and so far he seems to have no trouble with it. Perhaps the milk sensitivity is gone or at least lessening! He's still just drinking water and formula. Liam wasn't showing any progress with or interest in the regular sippy cups, so I thought maybe he would drink from a straw cup. Turns out I was right, so we've bypassed sippy cups and gone straight to the straw cups! Now that he's nine months old, he can eat pretty much anything we eat (except peanut products and honey), so I'm going to start giving him many more different foods. I am still trying to give him only organic food until he's one year old. So far, so good on that! Everything he's had since we switched him to soy formula at one month old has been organic. At nine months old, Liam is still a toothless kid. As far as finger foods go, I've only tried puffs since he has no teeth with which to chew. And up until today he would never feed them to himself. He would open his mouth for me to feed him, and he would pick them up over and over, but, just like with the sippy cups, he never put the two motions together. Never even tried. But he did today! I put some puffs on his tray as I often do, and he played with them at first, then picked a few up, and then to my surprise put one in his mouth! He did it several times and with both hands too. Tonight he fed himself some more puffs and some tiny bites of tofu. So yay, hopefully he will keep this up!

Events: A couple of weeks ago, Liam's grandparents (Will's parents) came to visit. We had a nice time with them and they got to spend good quality time with Liam. Liam thinks his grandpa is the funniest person ever. I had never seen Liam laugh so much and so hard! Last weekend, we went with friends to eat at the new Johnny's Pizza in Addison. It's nice to have something so familiar out here now! It was Liam's first time sitting in a high chair in a restaurant. I know we're a little behind on that, but he's usually sleepy when we go to restaurants, so we just leave him in his carseat. We'll probably put him in a high chair from now on, though. He also loves sitting up in the front of the buggy when we go to Target or Whole Foods. He is such the people watcher, whipping his head back and forth to look at everyone and everything. He doesn't want to miss anything!

Loves to walk!

 These next few were my attempt at his nine month photo shoot. He would not stay put for more than a second. I gave him the card to keep him still, but then he wouldn't really look at me! I got a few, though.

Waiting to see the pediatrician. Dr. Porter had to put his chart on another table because Liam kept going after it. He crawled all over the table. He showed Dr. Porter how busy he is!

People watching at Whole Foods

Liam and His Band...About Halfway There!

Tomorrow, Liam will have had his second DOC Band for six weeks. He's doing great in it, and there are definite improvements. Each time we go for an adjustment, his head has grown a millimeter a week. So since we go every other week, each time I'm told he had 2 mm of growth. So overall, his head has probably grown 6 mm in the new band. I think it only grew 7 or maybe 8 in the total time in the previous band, and we still have 6 or 8 more weeks to go in this one. I honestly wish his head would grow faster, but there's obviously nothing we can do to speed things up there! His head looks so much better, but you can tell there is still more that needs to be done. I'm trying not to think too much on it, but I often wonder if even this second band won't be enough to "fix" his head. Even if it's not perfect (and really, we don't expect it to be perfect-no one has a perfect head), he will not be getting another band.

I am ready to be able to kiss that sweet baby's head all I want (and it not smell like gym socks), but I have to admit it's handy that he has a "crash helmet" at this stage of his life. Liam is fully in the crawling and pulling up and starting to cruise stage. He falls down a lot. Bumps his head sometimes (not hard). So yeah, I think I am much more willing to just let him fall since he has the band on. At the rate he's going, it's possible he might be walking by the time he gets the band off. Maybe not, though. I think he'll definitely get all the steps together before he's year old. Such a determined little dude. He will not be still anymore. Fast too. With the crawling at least. He's still cautious with the cruising. Probably won't be for long, though!

January 28 - stood up in his crib by himself!

Almost bedtime, so his band was getting cleaned.

Crawling after the cats. They have no idea what's in store for them once he can walk and run!

Pulling up and cruising from table to stool!

Standing up is fun!

It's my new favorite thing to do!

And I can do it while watching TV? Score!