Liam at 11 Months

11 months! The one year mark is coming up fast! Am I ready? I think so. The past year has been tough, but worth every minute. I sincerely hope we're blessed with another child one day. Surely I will be better prepared for next time. However, for getting through this year (so far), I feel like I deserve some kind of reward...like getting to take a nap more than one day in a row or a night out to a concert with Will. We've still never had a babysitter except my mom a few times and taking him to parent's night out at church a few times.

Stats: I think he's bigger than he was last month, but no change in clothes sizes. I think I need to switch him to size 4 diapers for the times I use sposies.

Personality: The squealing has lessened greatly, but still occurs. He's vocalizing frustration more and more, usually with a "grrr" sound, and sometimes with a scream! He has one toy in particular, his lil zoomers car ramp, that brings out his frustrations. I think maybe it's because the car tends to get stuck on the ramp sometimes. He does know how to get it out, but I usually hear the "grrr" when he's playing with it. However, most of the time, he does really enjoy the toy! Speaking of playing...he's all about it these days! Playing does consist of a lot of taking two things and banging them together. Liam loves to make noise. Anything that makes noise when shaken is also a big hit. He still loves to laugh and has his own sense of humor. Something new this month is that Liam now gives kisses. He kisses us and his stuffed animals. However, his kissing involves opening his mouth as wide as possible, pulling your face to his, and him putting his mouth on your face, all while saying "ahhh." He will also occasionally bite our noses or chins, but that happens more often to Will. Liam is definitely becoming more affectionate towards us, cuddling, hugging, and putting his head on my shoulder more. It's very cute. Liam also likes to stare at people, which can make for some awkward times in public. At Chipotle last weekend, he just kept staring at a lady at another table. No matter how I positioned his high chair, he would turn however he needed to to stare. And he doesn't smile when he stares either...awkward! He always stares at girls, usually kids, so staring at a grown woman was different! I really think she was creeped out. Unfortunately, he's too young to learn that staring is impolite. He should at least smile when he does it! It takes him awhile to warm up and smile to other people. If a random stranger stops and says hi to him (happens all the time), he will just stare at them. However, if they stick around a couple minutes, he typically loosens up and smiles at them. Liam still doesn't seem to be scared of strangers or has separation anxiety. Last Sunday, I helped out in his room at church, so I got to see him interact with other babies. I was afraid he might be clingy, but other than giving me a hug once, he didn't really acknowledge I was there! I guess that's a good thing. He was also showing off some of his new skills...

Skills: On his 11 month birthday (April 14) Liam took his first real step. It was just one, and so far (3 days later) he hasn't done it again. For several weeks leading up to that, he had been putting one foot forward, and then plopping down when trying to put the other foot forward. He came so close so many times! I counted his first whole step as putting both feet forward, and then he plopped down when trying to put the first foot forward again. Liam has also learned to stand himself up independently, just using his leg strength. I've seen him do it several times, but it is still more common for him to hold on to something for balance when pulling up. His balance has gotten much better. He can now stand on his own and do something else, like play with a toy or clap his hands. So at church, he was doing a lot of independent standing while playing, standing up on his own, and putting just one foot forward before plopping. He's getting close to having upright mobility! Liam has also starting doing some mimicking. He will mimic blowing raspberries (he's been dong that for awhile), but now he also mimics clicking his tongue. He still doesn't say many words, still just mainly mama, da da, hey, and hi, but now he's added "good." to the mix. One of his favorite sounds to say is is "guh," so whenever he says it, I say "good" back to him. About a week ago, he finally started saying "good" too! I don't think he knows what it means, but I usually say it while he's eating. Liam is good (haha) at manipulating objects: putting one thing into another, some simple stacking, and my mom told me that when she watched him while we moved, he put the two halves of easter eggs together. A new skill he's been working on this week is holding his bottle with his feet while sitting in his high chair. He'll drop it and try to catch it and hold it with his feet. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but he loves doing it! Dropping anything over the side of something else has became a favorite past time in general!

Food/Drink: I pretty much don't adhere to the four day wait rule anymore. I'll let him try anything I think he can handle size and chewing-wise. I'm still working on getting him to feed himself something other than grain-based snacks like puffs or organic cheerios. He won't pick up fruits and vegetables and eat them yet. And a spoon is still just for swinging around and playing with. So I still feed him all his meals and he feeds himself snacks. I wonder if he would do better feeding himself fruits and vegetables if I weren't around, since he associates me with feeding him. Liam is still not a big fan of holding his own bottle, but he does it a lot more. I read that it's not such a big deal if a baby doesn't hold their bottle, since it's supposed to be a replacement for the boobie, and it's not like breastfed babies hold those on their own. Therefore I've been trying to focus more on getting him to drink out of sippy cups on his own. It's hit or miss. I've tried different kinds of spouts and straws. He prefers the straws, but will only drink out of some of the cups some of the time. He's definitely not eager to make them his go-to liquid holders. A year old is the recommended time to ditch the bottles, but we probably won't be able to do that! Still, I'm 99% sure he won't still be drinking out of a bottle when he grows up. I'm leaving a 1% chance because I'm sure crazier things have happened! He's also had more dairy this month, mostly yogurt and some cheese. It hasn't caused any problems, so I'm curious to see if his stomach an handle cow milk now.

Events and Firsts: He stood up independently for the first time this month and took his first step. Liam celebrated his first Easter, along with his first egg hunt and first basket of Easter goodies a week and a half ago. Fun times. The biggest event happened just a few days ago when we finally moved to a different apartment. My parents came and watched him during a lot of the move. There was a little (but not much) sadness in leaving our old place because it was Liam's first residence. It's where I went into labor, where Liam cried for two days when we first brought him home, and where he lived almost all the first year of his life and experienced all the milestones that come along with it. Liam won't remember it. I was happy to leave because I tend to just focus on why I don't like a place, but Will reminded me of all the important stuff that happened there, and I did get a little sentimental. We are trying to get settled in to the new place. We have way too much stuff. Liam will be sleeping in his own room here, and does already. However, we are actually sleeping in his room this first week as well, mostly because we don't have a working baby monitor yet and we finally need one, and Will is spending most of this week on a business trip, so I want to be close to Liam. Once everything is situated here and we have a monitor, we will sleep in separate rooms. That's kind of a big deal sine he's always been in our room and I could hear him breathing. However, I am ready to not share a room with him as well. I'm also finally, FINALLY, going to decorate his room and make it cute. I can't call it a nursery anymore. It'll be more like a toddler room. Liam also graduated from his DOC Band this month!

Teeth: On March 22, Liam's second tooth popped through, so now he has both bottom chompers, and boy does he love to bite with them! He will gnaw on pretty much anything if I let him. I'm hoping his top ones come in soon. Liam loves to have his teeth brushed, thankfully. He seems to really like the way the brushing feels.

I now have only one month to plan Liam's fab Beatles first birthday party! Somehow in all the moving craziness, I did manage to design and order the invitations!

These pictures were taken on an evening stroll to the local park. Lots of sweet smelling honeysuckle was around us. As you can imagine, it was extremely difficult to get Liam to sit still for pictures. He enjoyed exploring the grass.

Liam and HIs Band...Done!

Today is the day...the last day in the band! Actually, the appointment was at 8:30 a.m. so Liam hasn't worn it hardly at all today. It's been nice to see and kiss his head again. Will was able to go to the appointment this morning, and I actually took pictures of stuff since it was the last time we would ever be there.

The first thing was his last DSi scan. I finally took a picture of him with the stocking over his head. He has never freaked out with it on. Cindy, his cranial therapist is the one holding him. I know he doesn't look happy, but he was fine!

Then we were able to see the progress his head has made with the 3D pictures. Left to right is: 1. his head before the first band 2. his head after the first band 3. his head after the second band. You can see that he still has a flat spot (and always will), but really the changes have been tremendous! The flatness is now just up top, where most people have some flatness. The back and bottom have evened out, whereas before he had much more flatness on the left side.

Then I took some photos while we were hanging out in the room between having the scan done and having the regular pictures taken. I didn't take any pics of the regular photos being taken, but we got a pdf of the pictures from the 3 milestones (before band, after 1st band, after 2nd band). If I can attach it, I will.

So we are done! It's hard to believe that the end of this has come. He really wore the band half his life so far. As predicted, his head isn't perfect, but that's ok. A third band wouldn't be able to do much, he wasn't recommended for one, and plus we can't afford it! I will definitely be warning him against shaving his head one day!

PS: I can't upload the PDF. Well I could, but it involves uploading it to another site first and I don't want to do that. So let me know if you want to see it, and I can e-mail it to you!

Liam's First Easter

Liam's closing in on 11 months old, and I think it is a great age for his first Easter egg hunt. He likes to pick up items and put them in something else, so picking up plastic eggs and placing them in a basket is squarely in his current skill set.

Saturday, April 7th, was the annual Spring Fling at First Baptist. I've been to a couple of them before, as the preschool ministry assistant. This was my first with a child of my own. Most of the activities are geared for older kids, so he was an interested observer this year. We watched other kids petting rabbits, pigs, and ducks in the petting zoo area. We watched kids ride ponies. We watched kids decorate cookies and jump in bounce houses. Lots of fun things are in his future! But this year, we mainly came for the egg hunt, or more aptly, the "egg pick-up."

Liam enjoyed picking up the eggs and shaking them (everything gets shaken these days). He put a couple in his basket, but more so enjoyed just picking them up and getting to crawl on the grass. His eggs had cheerios, goldfish, and teddy grahams in them. I'm not going to lie, mama ate the teddy grahams and most of the goldfish. He also did a little bit of walking around in his sandals, his first time walking in shoes. There's a bit of a learning curve with that!

It was a great day to spend time outside, and it wore Liam out because he took a really long nap afterward.

The next day was Easter Sunday. We went to church, and then visited a nearby car dealership and went to Whole Foods. So pretty much a typical Sunday. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pics of him that day.

I'm looking forward to the day when Liam understands what Easter is all about!

Liam's First Easter basket:

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!