Lately, Liam has been adding words to his vocabulary at a fast pace. He still doesn't say a lot of words, but it's still impressive to hear a proper word come out of his mouth.
The new ones lately (just in the past couple of weeks) are:
ball
block
car
dog
Pretty much all related to toys..ha!
All of those he has said more than once, and can easily identify those things.
This past weekend, he started saying "mine" and "my," but not in any context. He's usually not holding any objects when he says them. He just walks around saying, "mine, mine, mine." So I don't think he really understands what it means yet, or he really does think he owns this place. However, he does pronounce the word very clearly. Some of the other words are usually missing the last sound. Car is typically "cah."
book - said once, while walking away from me going to get a book
He is also working on saying "down" and "dark." Dark came about because anytime I go in the bathroom and don't turn on the light, Liam follows me and closes the door. I always say, "It's dark." and he picked up on it and started saying, "dar."
The other words he says (and has been saying for awhile) are:
mama (still a fave of his!)
dad and dada
hi
hey
good
go (always said as go, go go)
cat-used sparingly
baby
He also said IKEA that one time. He also said "Thank you (dankoo)" one time. So all in all, not a lot of words, but he definitely understands more than this!
He also still loves to "babble," but I know even that will turn into words eventually!
As for sign language, the only one he ever uses is "more." He loves that one, though. He's an enthusiastic user of that sign. I've been doing several others with him for a while now, that he understands, but doesn't do. I've recently started teaching him more signs. hopefully he will pick up on them.
As for animals sounds, he does two of them now. "moo" for a cow and "ah ah ah" for a monkey. He can usually do them on command, too. Very cute.
I just have to mention this so I can remember it: he doesn't say the word "socks" but he's certainly a fan of them. He takes socks and lays them on top of his feet. Then he usually brings them to me and attempts to lift one of his feet so I can put it on him. Little dude loves socks.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
One Year Pictures
Back on Memorial Day weekend, my friend Jamie took Liam's one year pictures. She did a great job, and Liam is so cute in them! That was back when he didn't have any top teeth. Here are a few!
Thursday, July 26, 2012
July...Still Not Over Yet
The summer seems to be dragging along. When I was a kid, it seemed like it always took forever to get to August. I looked forward to my birthday and going back to school. Yes, I looked forward to school! Now I just wish I had a vacation to look forward to.
July has just been super hot and oppressive, as expected. We haven't gotten out much. Liam and I have been having a lot of fun at home, though, spending our days playing and reading books and having occasional play dates here. On Tuesdays, I've been going to a Bible Study at church, so Liam gets to hang out with his pals there.
As mentioned in an earlier post, Liam didn't do so well at his first summer play day at church. But yesterday, we went back again. I was needed to work, and Liam was a month older than the last time, so I hoped he would do better. And guess what? He did! He ate food, drank water, and even slept some. Go Liam! I did miss spending the day with him, though. One toddler is much easier to handle than ten, which is how many I spent the day with (along with an awesome co-teacher, of course!) I think now I feel good about working the three more play days I've committed to. Maybe his super cute lunch bag (that he totally picked out!) helped.
When we got home from the play day, Liam and I were both worn out, but he was wired as well and playing, but he wasn't very coordinated. Unfortunately, he tripped over his own feet and ended up falling and hitting his head on the wall. A big bump swelled up on the top of his forehead. Poor guy cried for several minutes, but then he was ok. I iced it as much as he would let me (not much), and ended up calling the pediatrician to see if we needed to bring him in since he hit right where his soft spot is or was. By then, Liam was playing and acting normal. He told me what to watch for, but said Liam would be fine. I was certainly rattled by it. I seriously never want him to get hurt! So that was his first bump on the head, and I'm sure it won't be his last. Thankfully, today I can't even feel the bump and there's only a small red mark. I guess he literally is hard-headed.
July has just been super hot and oppressive, as expected. We haven't gotten out much. Liam and I have been having a lot of fun at home, though, spending our days playing and reading books and having occasional play dates here. On Tuesdays, I've been going to a Bible Study at church, so Liam gets to hang out with his pals there.
As mentioned in an earlier post, Liam didn't do so well at his first summer play day at church. But yesterday, we went back again. I was needed to work, and Liam was a month older than the last time, so I hoped he would do better. And guess what? He did! He ate food, drank water, and even slept some. Go Liam! I did miss spending the day with him, though. One toddler is much easier to handle than ten, which is how many I spent the day with (along with an awesome co-teacher, of course!) I think now I feel good about working the three more play days I've committed to. Maybe his super cute lunch bag (that he totally picked out!) helped.
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| The flash gets him every time. |
When we got home from the play day, Liam and I were both worn out, but he was wired as well and playing, but he wasn't very coordinated. Unfortunately, he tripped over his own feet and ended up falling and hitting his head on the wall. A big bump swelled up on the top of his forehead. Poor guy cried for several minutes, but then he was ok. I iced it as much as he would let me (not much), and ended up calling the pediatrician to see if we needed to bring him in since he hit right where his soft spot is or was. By then, Liam was playing and acting normal. He told me what to watch for, but said Liam would be fine. I was certainly rattled by it. I seriously never want him to get hurt! So that was his first bump on the head, and I'm sure it won't be his last. Thankfully, today I can't even feel the bump and there's only a small red mark. I guess he literally is hard-headed.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Liam at 14 Months
Life with a 14 month old boy is pretty crazy, but it's also a lot of fun. Liam is showing his independence and making it known if he does or doesn't like something. He wears me out, but I'm so happy to be his mama!
Personality: Independent is the word on the street for Liam. Especially when it comes to walking. One day when Will got home from work, he left the door open a few extra seconds and Liam was off down the sidewalk...no pants, no shoes. If I set him down, he will immediately walk away from me. Not a bad thing in the right situation, but it could be scary in other situations. Obviously, we know not to give him the opportunity to walk away in potentially sketchy situations like in a crowd in public. But we are giving him more freedom to walk and explore in the right situations,and that includes some public places. (I fear that he will HAVE TO be one of those kids on a leash one day. That is, if I don't want to lose my son in a crowd...which I don't.) The real trouble comes once we pick him up to avoid a danger or even just when it's time to go. He screams and arches his back like it's the worst thing ever! I'm definitely hearing more frustrated "grrrrs" these days! Occasionally there's even a little foot stomping action. So dramatic! Walking and exploring and playing are his favorite things to do. He's typically a good-natured kid and in a good mood. If he's awake, he's moving. He's always on the go! "Stop" and "no" are his least favorite words. He knows what they mean, and usually screams in protest when he hears them. I'm sure they will be a frequent visitor in my vocabulary for years to come. He definitely likes to push his boundaries, and sometimes even touches something he's not supposed to just to see my reaction. I know this because when he does it, he looks at me with a sly grin on his face. The problem is that it's hard to keep an "I'm mommy and no means no" face in those situations. All in all, though, Liam is a wonderful kid, full of life, smiley, and curious about everything! He's a smart one for sure.
Skills: Walking has been mastered. Liam is now working on running. He's also working on climbing on furniture like the couch or the chair in his room, but is still just too short (even though he's tall). He tries though. He still babbles all the time, but is saying more words. He has said "cat" in the past, but the other day he looked at Squirt on two occasions and said it. Besides his usual words, he's mostly a repeater of words I say. Those include "go go," "dow" for "down," and "dah" for "dog." We've noticed that he does understand a lot more words now. If I ask him to go get a book, he brings me a book. There are also several specific books I can ask him to go get, and he'll bring me the correct one. If we ask him to go get a diaper, he goes and gets a diaper. If I ask for smooches, he comes at me with his mouth wide open and gives me a hug...smooches to him! I've said it before, but everyday I can just see him learning more and more things and processing them. That's fun! Stacking blocks is one of his new skills. He got wooden blocks for his birthday, but hasn't shown much interest in them except to throw them on the floor. Lately, though, he's been stacking them and can stack up to 6 at a time. Then he knocks them all down! He's getting pretty good at throwing things, whether or not that's good. He drop tests everything by throwing it on the floor (the tile by the doorway) to see how much noise it makes.
Food and Drink: Liam is finally feeding himself more and more foods all the time. He's gotten better at chewing food and eating in general. The big news this month is that he finally started feeding himself vegetables and fruit! So far, he's fed himself broccoli, blueberry halves, some watermelon chunks, and even a few random bits of steamed carrot. Now, he won't feed himself these things every time I put them in front of him (except the broccoli), but he's doing much better! He's also started feeding himself scrambled eggs and graham crackers. It seems like Liam might actually still have a bit of a milk sensitivity (definitely not an allergy), so I've stopped giving him dairy for the time being to see if the issue goes away. One of the issues has stopped, but still working on the other that was most likely caused by dairy. Let's just say he's been a little backed up, which can be cause by too much dairy as well. I'm thinking the problem may have just been too much dairy, and will cut back on it from now on but not cut it out completely. He's STILL drinking milk from a bottle a few times a day. He just will not drink it from his straw cups, plus he literally runs to the chair in his room grinning when he sees a bottle in my hands. I've learned that if he doesn't want to do something, he won't do it! I'll probably give him another month or so before I start pushing the issue and move away from the bottles. It's not like he's emotionally attached to them. He only drinks from one a total of maybe 15 minutes a day.
Events and Firsts: Honestly, not a lot has happened this month and we haven't done much. Liam started feeding himself whole meals this month. He went to his first playday at the church, but probably won't go to anymore. Tried sleep training and it failed. I'm still trying to figure out what may be the best strategy to try next. It took a while for his sleeping to go back to normal after the training debacle, so I'm a little hesitant to try something else right now. Liam did get to go to Guitar Center a couple of times with Will. The first time, they left quickly because Liam started pitching a fit. The second time, they managed to come home with a guitar (that will be resold at a profit!). Last week, Liam got to play in the fountain at Post Eastside in Richardson. It was a nice evening to be outside and it was 7-11, so free slurpee! I think that was my first slurpee...it tasted just like an Icee. Yesterday, he went to the Japanese Baptist Church for the first time and got to hang out with Japanese kids. We hadn't been in 2 years, but a friend who was in town from Tokyo invited us. We will try to do more this next month!
Teeth: He still just has four teeth. I think the top middle two are finally all the way down. He's had some teething pain recently, but no new ones have made an appearance yet. It takes two toothbrushes to brush his teeth: one to distract him with that he can hold and chew and brush his teeth with himself, and then one I use to actually do the brushing.
Favorites: I think I'll add this category to highlight what some of Liam's favorite things seem to be at the moment.
- eating graham crackers
- playing with toy balls
- throwing toys on the floor by the door
- being read books
- walking outside
- seeing cats and dogs
- playing with water (still need to take him swimming!)
- opening and closing doors
Personality: Independent is the word on the street for Liam. Especially when it comes to walking. One day when Will got home from work, he left the door open a few extra seconds and Liam was off down the sidewalk...no pants, no shoes. If I set him down, he will immediately walk away from me. Not a bad thing in the right situation, but it could be scary in other situations. Obviously, we know not to give him the opportunity to walk away in potentially sketchy situations like in a crowd in public. But we are giving him more freedom to walk and explore in the right situations,and that includes some public places. (I fear that he will HAVE TO be one of those kids on a leash one day. That is, if I don't want to lose my son in a crowd...which I don't.) The real trouble comes once we pick him up to avoid a danger or even just when it's time to go. He screams and arches his back like it's the worst thing ever! I'm definitely hearing more frustrated "grrrrs" these days! Occasionally there's even a little foot stomping action. So dramatic! Walking and exploring and playing are his favorite things to do. He's typically a good-natured kid and in a good mood. If he's awake, he's moving. He's always on the go! "Stop" and "no" are his least favorite words. He knows what they mean, and usually screams in protest when he hears them. I'm sure they will be a frequent visitor in my vocabulary for years to come. He definitely likes to push his boundaries, and sometimes even touches something he's not supposed to just to see my reaction. I know this because when he does it, he looks at me with a sly grin on his face. The problem is that it's hard to keep an "I'm mommy and no means no" face in those situations. All in all, though, Liam is a wonderful kid, full of life, smiley, and curious about everything! He's a smart one for sure.
Skills: Walking has been mastered. Liam is now working on running. He's also working on climbing on furniture like the couch or the chair in his room, but is still just too short (even though he's tall). He tries though. He still babbles all the time, but is saying more words. He has said "cat" in the past, but the other day he looked at Squirt on two occasions and said it. Besides his usual words, he's mostly a repeater of words I say. Those include "go go," "dow" for "down," and "dah" for "dog." We've noticed that he does understand a lot more words now. If I ask him to go get a book, he brings me a book. There are also several specific books I can ask him to go get, and he'll bring me the correct one. If we ask him to go get a diaper, he goes and gets a diaper. If I ask for smooches, he comes at me with his mouth wide open and gives me a hug...smooches to him! I've said it before, but everyday I can just see him learning more and more things and processing them. That's fun! Stacking blocks is one of his new skills. He got wooden blocks for his birthday, but hasn't shown much interest in them except to throw them on the floor. Lately, though, he's been stacking them and can stack up to 6 at a time. Then he knocks them all down! He's getting pretty good at throwing things, whether or not that's good. He drop tests everything by throwing it on the floor (the tile by the doorway) to see how much noise it makes.
Food and Drink: Liam is finally feeding himself more and more foods all the time. He's gotten better at chewing food and eating in general. The big news this month is that he finally started feeding himself vegetables and fruit! So far, he's fed himself broccoli, blueberry halves, some watermelon chunks, and even a few random bits of steamed carrot. Now, he won't feed himself these things every time I put them in front of him (except the broccoli), but he's doing much better! He's also started feeding himself scrambled eggs and graham crackers. It seems like Liam might actually still have a bit of a milk sensitivity (definitely not an allergy), so I've stopped giving him dairy for the time being to see if the issue goes away. One of the issues has stopped, but still working on the other that was most likely caused by dairy. Let's just say he's been a little backed up, which can be cause by too much dairy as well. I'm thinking the problem may have just been too much dairy, and will cut back on it from now on but not cut it out completely. He's STILL drinking milk from a bottle a few times a day. He just will not drink it from his straw cups, plus he literally runs to the chair in his room grinning when he sees a bottle in my hands. I've learned that if he doesn't want to do something, he won't do it! I'll probably give him another month or so before I start pushing the issue and move away from the bottles. It's not like he's emotionally attached to them. He only drinks from one a total of maybe 15 minutes a day.
Events and Firsts: Honestly, not a lot has happened this month and we haven't done much. Liam started feeding himself whole meals this month. He went to his first playday at the church, but probably won't go to anymore. Tried sleep training and it failed. I'm still trying to figure out what may be the best strategy to try next. It took a while for his sleeping to go back to normal after the training debacle, so I'm a little hesitant to try something else right now. Liam did get to go to Guitar Center a couple of times with Will. The first time, they left quickly because Liam started pitching a fit. The second time, they managed to come home with a guitar (that will be resold at a profit!). Last week, Liam got to play in the fountain at Post Eastside in Richardson. It was a nice evening to be outside and it was 7-11, so free slurpee! I think that was my first slurpee...it tasted just like an Icee. Yesterday, he went to the Japanese Baptist Church for the first time and got to hang out with Japanese kids. We hadn't been in 2 years, but a friend who was in town from Tokyo invited us. We will try to do more this next month!
Teeth: He still just has four teeth. I think the top middle two are finally all the way down. He's had some teething pain recently, but no new ones have made an appearance yet. It takes two toothbrushes to brush his teeth: one to distract him with that he can hold and chew and brush his teeth with himself, and then one I use to actually do the brushing.
Favorites: I think I'll add this category to highlight what some of Liam's favorite things seem to be at the moment.
- eating graham crackers
- playing with toy balls
- throwing toys on the floor by the door
- being read books
- walking outside
- seeing cats and dogs
- playing with water (still need to take him swimming!)
- opening and closing doors
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| Feeding himself a vegetable for the first time |
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| This picture shows why we call him Mr. Chunk |
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| Daddy and Liam |
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| Walking in the park |
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| Headed right for the street...until I stopped him, of course |
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| Walking away from me...off exploring |
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| Found some leaves |
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| That swoop is out of control. He needs a barrette...or a haircut |
Friday, July 6, 2012
Issues
I keep the blog pretty light, mostly documenting Liam and all that he's up to these days. Pretty much just the good stuff. But the past few weeks have been somewhat tough on me. Nothing major has happened. Nothing bad has happened. Plenty of good things have happened. It's just been one of those periods of time (and it's happened before) where I doubt my abilities to be a good mother. Now, I know I'm a good mother. My son is happy and healthy and growing and learning everyday. I've just been wondering if I've really done the best job I could possibly do so far. These feelings typically come up when hormones and emotions collide, and while I know it's probably silly to think about these things, I still do.
It probably started when Liam went to a summer play day at our church and I worked it, but was in another room. The longest Liam had been at the church before this was about 4 hours. This day, we were there closer to 7 hours since I had to be there early to work. We also had to take Will to work beforehand and pick him up afterward. That had us out of the house all day long. Liam was in the baby room with wonderful teachers. He behaved fine as far as I know, but he ate and drank very little all day long, and slept for about 5 minutes. The teachers did nothing wrong. It's Liam's personality, and the fact that when he's there, he's too busy playing to want to do any of those things. He's also easily distracted, so trying to feed him when other things are going on in the room must be quite difficult. It's difficult for me! Going into the play day, I really didn't think Liam would have any problems. I figured he might not sleep, since he never sleeps there, but I figured he would eat and drink since the only thing he had before we left the house was some milk. He needed to eat two meals and a snack while there, and drink milk! I felt like the worst mom in the world when I picked him up and got the run down of the day. He was extremely tired and hungry when I picked him up. His bottle of milk was still in the fridge, so I gave that to him before we left. I cried for several hours about it since it was my fault he was there, and he obviously wasn't ready to be away from home that long. Even though we need for me to make some extra money, we decided that I wouldn't work them anymore or send Liam anymore. Now, we may re-evaluate the situation in August and see if he would be ready for the last two.
I was helping in the room that was the next step up from the baby room Liam was in. That day really brought to my attention several things that Liam doesn't do yet that other kids around his age are capable of doing. Yes I know, don't compare your kid to other kids, or don't compare yourself to other moms. But seriously, who doesn't do that? And why can't Liam do these things? I figure it must be my fault for not pushing him to learn, or rather master, these skills. The two big ones that stood out in my mind were feeding himself an entire meal and falling asleep on his on.
So I've set out to work on him with those skills. Liam can feed himself just fine. There is no doubt in his physical ability to do so. He feeds himself several times a day. And he's feeding himself more and more foods all the time. I do still feed him some things from a spoon, though, like fruits, veggies, oatmeal, and yogurt. To him, a spoon is still just for playing with. I always give him one during meals and try to encourage him to use it, but he never does. I know he will one day, though. Up until this week, really, he wouldn't feed himself vegetables or fruit. He would just smear them around his tray, but he would let me feed them to him. This week, though, he has done an excellent job at feeding himself steamed broccoli, sometimes even shoving it into his mouth with both hands. So that's a start! Liam has also fed himself whole meals a couple of time this week. Those consisted of broccoli, cheese, and bread. I'm also working with him to learn how to take bites out of food. It's only been less than a month since his top two teeth starting coming in, giving him a grand total of four chompers. Before then, when I tried to get him to take a bite of something, he wouldn't do it. But now that he has teeth on the top and bottom, he's getting much better at it. So now, I'm a little less worried about him feeding himself. I still don't know if he could sit down in a chair (not a highchair) and do it, though. Pretty sure he'd be too distracted. It also can take him a while to self-feed a whole meal. He certainly doesn't mind taking his time.
The bigger issue is certainly the sleep one. Liam slept in our room until he was exactly one year old, and I always held him while he fell asleep. I've let him fall asleep in my arms for naps as well. Apparently, I've been setting him up to fail in life by doing that! I know that it's important for Liam to learn to fall asleep on his own. I'm sure it's why he doesn't sleep at church (that, and there's too much fun stuff going on to sleep). The times I've tried to let him fall asleep on his own have been met with many tears, so I'd give in and hold him. Last week, I decided to start some sleep training with Liam so he could learn to fall asleep on his own before he got even older and more set in his ways. I have several books about baby/toddler sleep, so I must have known this would be an issue one day.
I decided to try a gradual approach with me staying in the room until he fell asleep, and gradually moving closer to the door until I was no longer in the room. This way allowed for soothing from crying by picking him up and calming him down, but putting him back in the crib while he was still awake. The first night wasn't horrible, but he did start crying so hard I picked him. He was then asleep about two minutes later in my arms. At nap the next day, I did the same thing, and laid on the floor waiting for him to fall asleep. And he did, after some crying/whining and about 45 minutes. He slept for 3 hours! Things seemed to keep getting better over last weekend, and he started falling asleep faster. There was always some crying, though, and I was there to soothe him. I was not going to let him cry it out. We started putting him to bed earlier, and on Sunday night he was asleep before 8:00 p.m. That has been extremely rare for Liam. Then he woke up in the middle of the night. Trying to stick with my plan of not letting him fall asleep in my arms, it took an hour and half for him to fall back asleep, once again with a ton of crying and soothing. But, he eventually wore himself out and fell asleep...in his crib. I felt bad for him. Monday night it took an hour and half for him to fall asleep, and there was a lot of crying and soothing during that time. He was upset. Very upset. Then there was a repeat of the previous middle of the night awakening. 1.5 hours. Both of us awake. Tuesday night, the same thing happened again at bedtime, 1.5 hours of crying/whining/soothing/Liam freaking out. He had become scared of going to bed, the opposite of what I was aiming for. Bedtime was so very stressful. I had failed. I can't remember if I gave in Tuesday night. I think I did. I finally let him fall asleep in my arms. And I've been letting him fall asleep in my arms since then. The gradual approach was obviously not working. Not working at all. I did something wrong. I am against letting him cry it out. Liam is so stubborn and persistent that I have no doubt he would cry for hours until he was throwing up. And that won't be happening.
So, yes, I've gone back to the old way for right now. He has to become not scared of bedtime anymore. Even if that means I have to hold him to fall asleep. So it's the type of situation where I'm a bad mother for not teaching him to fall asleep on his own sooner, but I'm also bad for putting him through what was obviously becoming quite traumatic for him. Can't win!
I will be trying a different approach at some point, hopefully not too far in the future. I really do want him to learn to fall asleep on his own and stay asleep. By not doing this much sooner, I've only made it much harder on everyone. I know that now. I'm hoping and praying he does learn at some point, though. I know it will be much better for him to learn this skill, and learn it soon.
These aren't the only things I've been struggling with lately, but they're the big ones, especially the sleep. I think it's time for a mommy break.
It probably started when Liam went to a summer play day at our church and I worked it, but was in another room. The longest Liam had been at the church before this was about 4 hours. This day, we were there closer to 7 hours since I had to be there early to work. We also had to take Will to work beforehand and pick him up afterward. That had us out of the house all day long. Liam was in the baby room with wonderful teachers. He behaved fine as far as I know, but he ate and drank very little all day long, and slept for about 5 minutes. The teachers did nothing wrong. It's Liam's personality, and the fact that when he's there, he's too busy playing to want to do any of those things. He's also easily distracted, so trying to feed him when other things are going on in the room must be quite difficult. It's difficult for me! Going into the play day, I really didn't think Liam would have any problems. I figured he might not sleep, since he never sleeps there, but I figured he would eat and drink since the only thing he had before we left the house was some milk. He needed to eat two meals and a snack while there, and drink milk! I felt like the worst mom in the world when I picked him up and got the run down of the day. He was extremely tired and hungry when I picked him up. His bottle of milk was still in the fridge, so I gave that to him before we left. I cried for several hours about it since it was my fault he was there, and he obviously wasn't ready to be away from home that long. Even though we need for me to make some extra money, we decided that I wouldn't work them anymore or send Liam anymore. Now, we may re-evaluate the situation in August and see if he would be ready for the last two.
I was helping in the room that was the next step up from the baby room Liam was in. That day really brought to my attention several things that Liam doesn't do yet that other kids around his age are capable of doing. Yes I know, don't compare your kid to other kids, or don't compare yourself to other moms. But seriously, who doesn't do that? And why can't Liam do these things? I figure it must be my fault for not pushing him to learn, or rather master, these skills. The two big ones that stood out in my mind were feeding himself an entire meal and falling asleep on his on.
So I've set out to work on him with those skills. Liam can feed himself just fine. There is no doubt in his physical ability to do so. He feeds himself several times a day. And he's feeding himself more and more foods all the time. I do still feed him some things from a spoon, though, like fruits, veggies, oatmeal, and yogurt. To him, a spoon is still just for playing with. I always give him one during meals and try to encourage him to use it, but he never does. I know he will one day, though. Up until this week, really, he wouldn't feed himself vegetables or fruit. He would just smear them around his tray, but he would let me feed them to him. This week, though, he has done an excellent job at feeding himself steamed broccoli, sometimes even shoving it into his mouth with both hands. So that's a start! Liam has also fed himself whole meals a couple of time this week. Those consisted of broccoli, cheese, and bread. I'm also working with him to learn how to take bites out of food. It's only been less than a month since his top two teeth starting coming in, giving him a grand total of four chompers. Before then, when I tried to get him to take a bite of something, he wouldn't do it. But now that he has teeth on the top and bottom, he's getting much better at it. So now, I'm a little less worried about him feeding himself. I still don't know if he could sit down in a chair (not a highchair) and do it, though. Pretty sure he'd be too distracted. It also can take him a while to self-feed a whole meal. He certainly doesn't mind taking his time.
The bigger issue is certainly the sleep one. Liam slept in our room until he was exactly one year old, and I always held him while he fell asleep. I've let him fall asleep in my arms for naps as well. Apparently, I've been setting him up to fail in life by doing that! I know that it's important for Liam to learn to fall asleep on his own. I'm sure it's why he doesn't sleep at church (that, and there's too much fun stuff going on to sleep). The times I've tried to let him fall asleep on his own have been met with many tears, so I'd give in and hold him. Last week, I decided to start some sleep training with Liam so he could learn to fall asleep on his own before he got even older and more set in his ways. I have several books about baby/toddler sleep, so I must have known this would be an issue one day.
I decided to try a gradual approach with me staying in the room until he fell asleep, and gradually moving closer to the door until I was no longer in the room. This way allowed for soothing from crying by picking him up and calming him down, but putting him back in the crib while he was still awake. The first night wasn't horrible, but he did start crying so hard I picked him. He was then asleep about two minutes later in my arms. At nap the next day, I did the same thing, and laid on the floor waiting for him to fall asleep. And he did, after some crying/whining and about 45 minutes. He slept for 3 hours! Things seemed to keep getting better over last weekend, and he started falling asleep faster. There was always some crying, though, and I was there to soothe him. I was not going to let him cry it out. We started putting him to bed earlier, and on Sunday night he was asleep before 8:00 p.m. That has been extremely rare for Liam. Then he woke up in the middle of the night. Trying to stick with my plan of not letting him fall asleep in my arms, it took an hour and half for him to fall back asleep, once again with a ton of crying and soothing. But, he eventually wore himself out and fell asleep...in his crib. I felt bad for him. Monday night it took an hour and half for him to fall asleep, and there was a lot of crying and soothing during that time. He was upset. Very upset. Then there was a repeat of the previous middle of the night awakening. 1.5 hours. Both of us awake. Tuesday night, the same thing happened again at bedtime, 1.5 hours of crying/whining/soothing/Liam freaking out. He had become scared of going to bed, the opposite of what I was aiming for. Bedtime was so very stressful. I had failed. I can't remember if I gave in Tuesday night. I think I did. I finally let him fall asleep in my arms. And I've been letting him fall asleep in my arms since then. The gradual approach was obviously not working. Not working at all. I did something wrong. I am against letting him cry it out. Liam is so stubborn and persistent that I have no doubt he would cry for hours until he was throwing up. And that won't be happening.
So, yes, I've gone back to the old way for right now. He has to become not scared of bedtime anymore. Even if that means I have to hold him to fall asleep. So it's the type of situation where I'm a bad mother for not teaching him to fall asleep on his own sooner, but I'm also bad for putting him through what was obviously becoming quite traumatic for him. Can't win!
I will be trying a different approach at some point, hopefully not too far in the future. I really do want him to learn to fall asleep on his own and stay asleep. By not doing this much sooner, I've only made it much harder on everyone. I know that now. I'm hoping and praying he does learn at some point, though. I know it will be much better for him to learn this skill, and learn it soon.
These aren't the only things I've been struggling with lately, but they're the big ones, especially the sleep. I think it's time for a mommy break.
Friday, June 29, 2012
Splashin'
Since it's already 100 degrees or more pretty much everyday, the summer heat oppression has begun. We don't make it out for our walk everyday because it's usually too hot by the time we're ready to go. Obviously, staying inside all day is the coolest (temp-wise) option, but Liam still needs some outside time if we can get it. So yesterday, I set him up on a towel with a bucket of water (actually his Easter basket), and let him splash away. Will came home from work early and get here just in time to see the splashing. I think he had fun, but he would've enjoyed a bigger bucket more. I wish we could get him a little kiddie pool! We need to take him swimming in the regular pool that's 50 feet from our apartment.
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| I think Will had just poured water down his back. |
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| Love that belly! |
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Father's Day
This was Will's second Father's Day, but last year Liam was barely a month old and we were still in survival mode. I didn't really have it together enough to do much for him.
This year, we celebrated by going to Fort Worth. We went to two of our favorite places, the Japanese Botanical Gardens and the Spiral Diner. It was a nice morning and special since we rarely ever go to Fort Worth. It was Liam's first time at both places. He saw the huge koi, walked laps around the rock garden, and crossed the little pond with his daddy. Most of the terrain was too treacherous for a newbie walker, but he adored walking around in the couple of places he was able to do so. Liam is definitely happiest when he is free from all restraints!
Lunch at Spiral Diner was wonderful. It truly is our favorite restaurant. Yes, it's all vegan, but it is all delicious! Liam got to try the best potato salad in the world and their yummy bread. He spent most of the time goofing around with Will and looking around trying to get attention from people. Thankfully, he was pretty much ignored there!
Sunday, actual Father's Day, was very low key. We went to church and that was about it. Then I made a cake for Will on Monday.
I just have to say that Will is a wonderful father. He adores Liam and loves him with all his heart. He spends a lot of time with Liam and takes him for a walk almost every evening. He gets him ready for bed every night. Will lets me take much needed breaks and doesn't complain that our place isn't clean all the time. He works hard so that I can stay home with Liam, and he absolutely believes that's the best thing for our family. He loves playing with Liam, and I know they'll be best friends in the coming years. Liam and I are blessed that he is the head of our household. Liam has a huge advantage in life by having a father who loves him and is invested in his life. I know he will always be there for us. Will is the best!
This year, we celebrated by going to Fort Worth. We went to two of our favorite places, the Japanese Botanical Gardens and the Spiral Diner. It was a nice morning and special since we rarely ever go to Fort Worth. It was Liam's first time at both places. He saw the huge koi, walked laps around the rock garden, and crossed the little pond with his daddy. Most of the terrain was too treacherous for a newbie walker, but he adored walking around in the couple of places he was able to do so. Liam is definitely happiest when he is free from all restraints!
Lunch at Spiral Diner was wonderful. It truly is our favorite restaurant. Yes, it's all vegan, but it is all delicious! Liam got to try the best potato salad in the world and their yummy bread. He spent most of the time goofing around with Will and looking around trying to get attention from people. Thankfully, he was pretty much ignored there!
Sunday, actual Father's Day, was very low key. We went to church and that was about it. Then I made a cake for Will on Monday.
I just have to say that Will is a wonderful father. He adores Liam and loves him with all his heart. He spends a lot of time with Liam and takes him for a walk almost every evening. He gets him ready for bed every night. Will lets me take much needed breaks and doesn't complain that our place isn't clean all the time. He works hard so that I can stay home with Liam, and he absolutely believes that's the best thing for our family. He loves playing with Liam, and I know they'll be best friends in the coming years. Liam and I are blessed that he is the head of our household. Liam has a huge advantage in life by having a father who loves him and is invested in his life. I know he will always be there for us. Will is the best!
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