Liam at 17 Months

This past month has definitely been a time of learning for Liam. He says more words and can identify a lot more objects than he could just a month ago. That brain is working hard!

Personality: Liam loves life. He loves to explore and learn. Sometimes he likes to explore places he shouldn't, but I suppose those times are learning opportunities as well. He has a very curious personality and wants to check out everything. He still runs away the second we let his feet touch the ground in public. There is no fear in this one. At least not yet. Animals and dogs in particular are some of his favorite things. As mentioned in previous posts, he's had opportunities to be around animals lately, and he loved it! Too bad our cats still avoid him like the plague. We will sometimes hold a cat and let Liam pet her back. He's very gentle when he does it, and it's exciting for him. The cat usually hates it and only tolerates about a minute of petting from him. So sad. Hopefully one day he and the cats will be pals. He's still showing more and more affection all the time. If I'm on the floor with him, he's most likely in my lap. He also still gives his stuffed animals smooches when prompted. He also likes to lay down on the floor for brief moments with his blanket or anything else snuggly. It's super cute. He loves to go. When we're about to leave, he stands by the door, does a little stompy dance, and says, "Go, go go!" In the past couple days, Liam has entered the "No" stage. A week ago, I had heard that word come out of his mouth once, maybe twice. Now I hear it all day long, in all kinds of situations. He uses it correctly about 95% of the time. The rest of the time, I think he's just saying it to hear himself say it. He has a really sweet voice, so it actually sounds cute when he says, "No, no, no." I have to keep from smiling, though. I usually just reply with, "Yes, yes, yes." His sense of humor is being sharpened all the time, and he laughs at things that are actually funny. I truly love him and his sweet (most of the time) personality.

Skills: Liam is definitely going through a language boom right now. Bana or nana for banana, hat, eat, peek boo (leaves out the "a"), cracker (crackah), and chee for cheese are some of them. He says something that sounds like "pupple" for apple (not the color). I think there's more, but I'll have to remember them. He says "meow" when asked what a cat says, and "choo choo" for a train. He will also say "baa" for a sheep. Lately, he's learned to identify squirrels and apples. The apple thing surprised me. I'd shown him pictures of apples a few times, but never really focused on it. A couple weeks ago, I just randomly asked him to go find an apple (our little fetch game), but I wasn't expecting him to find one since I didn't think he knew what it was. He went off to his room and was in there for a long time (well, like 5 minutes...which is a long time for a toddler to be alone, but we could hear him making noise). I finally decided that was long enough, so I got up to go to his room, and out he came carrying a picture of apples on a tree. I guess he had to really dig for it! I was impressed! A few weeks ago, the only body part he identified was his feet, but now Liam can point to his feet, head, belly, hands, teeth, and usually toes and sometimes his nose. He usually puts his hand on his mouth when I ask him where his nose is located. It seems like almost everyday he learns a new word or sound, or can identify a new object. He will sometimes try to repeat a word we say. If we say "cockadoodledoo" when showing him a rooster, he will usually say, "cadoo," but that's a long word to attempt! I love this learning stage. It's fun! One GREAT skill that Liam has learned this past month is falling asleep on his own all the time! That goes for naps and at night! I think there's been 2 or 3 times in the past month where he wanted to be held to fall asleep at night, but that's it. It's been wonderful. I'm super proud of him for learning this on his own. I feel silly now for trying to force it upon him a few months back. He's also doing a great job of sleeping through the night. He recently had a rough night where he woke up about 4 times, but that's been the only time that's happened recently. He usually takes close to a 3 hour nap during the day.

Food and Drink: There's not really anything new to report in this category. He's maybe a little better when it comes to feeding himself with a spoon or fork. He's not great at scooping yet, but he's got the putting the spoon in his mouth part down. He still eats most things with his hands, and will still allow us to feed him with a spoon. We let him do it if he wants to (and he usually wants to), but sometimes he has no interest in using the utensil. He still, yes still, refuses to drink milk out of anything but a bottle. He never liked regular sippy cups, but drinks from a straw cup (full of water) all the time. The moment I put milk in the straw cup and he takes one sip, he throws it on the floor and refuses to drink anymore. I've tried lots of different cups, and they all get thrown on the floor. He is quite stubborn in this area. As for drinking from a regular open cup, he does a great job of taking a sip...if there's nothing in the cup. But if I put water in the cup (that's all I've attempted so far), it's like he forgets what to do and just ends up pouring out the water before it gets anywhere near his mouth. Oh well. We're working on it. If there's anything I've learned as Liam's mom, it's that he won't do anything until he's ready. I can show him how to do something over and over, but what usually happens is that it just clicks one day and he starts doing something all of a sudden. I'm really hoping that's what happens with the milk in a straw cup. Surely one day that will be acceptable to him!

Events and Firsts: October has been a busy month for the little guy. First festival, pumpkin patch (for something other than just pictures), and state fair. He had his first bite of funnel cake. He didn't seem impressed. We've played at the park many times. He likes to climb up to the top of the tallest jungle gym. I have to go up with him, of course. Then we slide down together. He loves being outside. We've gone on lots of walks lately since the weather has been much bearable. He's had close encounters with dogs and ducks this month, and seen lots of new animals in person for the first time. He got a new carseat, a Britax Marathon, that he will be sitting in for years. He's still rear-facing since that's the safest, plus he doesn't really know any better yet. So far October has been a busy month, and there's still more fun things coming up the next couple of weeks!

Teeth: At this point, I'm pretty sure Liam is just fine with being able to count the number of teeth he has on one hand. Yep, still just four teeth. I'm assuming more will come in at some point, although I sometimes have my doubts. (Not really...I can see all the bulges on his gums.) Tooth brushing had become quite the struggle, so we started showing him the Meow Mix commercial on Youtube while I brushed his teeth. I know, I know, some may think it's shoddy parenting, but I thought it was genius. For the past two weeks or so, tooth brushing has been a breeze. Liam even asks for "Meow Meow" when he's got his cozy pj's on and has had his milk. He knows it's coming. Unfortunately, the past couple of nights, the magic has faded. He still enjoys it, but is starting to squirm a lot again and push my hand away while I'm trying to brush. So this great era may be ending soon. Or we may need to find a new video to entertain him. I'm ok with that as long as his teeth are good and clean!

Favorites:
- "Meow Meow"
- dogs
- playing with a cardboard wrapping paper tube
- "go, go, go-ing"
- identifying body parts
- making diaper changes difficult (It's become quite a physical and mental event. I now have to think of something that will distract and amuse him long enough to get it changed.)
- playing with his new FP Little People barn

ETA: I can never remember all the new stuff he has learned or done when I actually do these posts. I thought of a few things, so I'm adding it here. He can identify his ears. He can say kitty and wow. He can identify trains (by saying choo choo). He locked himself in his room for the first time recently. That was pretty scary for me for a few minutes. Thankfully, we figured out that there is a way to unlock it from our side, so if it happens again, we can quickly unlock it.

These pictures were taken yesterday at a park in Plano. It was chilly! Liam turned his head at the last second for most of the pictures, since he thought if he got too close to me I'd pick him and keep him from walking around. He just wanted to go!

Most of the pictures I took are like this one.

The park was right by a school. A PE class was running laps outside. This is Liam chasing after them.

Swinging before it was time to leave.

A Trip to the Texas State Fair

The day after our trip to the pumpkin farm, my mom returned to Louisiana and the three of us (Will, Liam, myself) ventured down to the state fair of Texas. It was Will and Liam's first time, and my second. I went on a staff trip there three years ago. I had wanted to go back ever since because there were still several things I wanted to see and do, plus it really is something everyone in Texas (at least the Dallas area) should go to at least once.

We took the DART train down there. Liam stayed in his stroller the whole time on the train. Thankfully, it never got too crowded and awkward. There was a girl about Liam's age in a stroller next to us on the train, so he wasn't alone. There were lots of people for him to stare at, so he was very well-behaved.

The first thing we did was go through the American car show. Will had fun sitting in different vehicles, especially the Corvette. It's his dream to own one someday! Then we saw Big Tex, who was talking and letting us know his clothes were provided by Dickies. I still think he looks like the cowboy version of Abraham Lincoln. We then came upon the food court and decided it would be best to eat before there was a rush at lunchtime. We didn't go for any fried food at that time (that happened later). I really wanted to ride the Texas Star Ferris wheel, so once we were outside the food court, I looked up to see where it was located. Then we headed in that direction, passing the Cotton Bowl and part of the Midway. Thankfully, the line wasn't horrendous, and it appeared that we wouldn't have to ditch the stroller until we got pretty close to the ride. We decided to go for it. Liam just made the 34 inch tall cutoff to ride free! He did very well on the Ferris wheel, only squirming a little. It was windy! I loved being up high and seeing the fair below and the downtown skyline in the distance. I only wish the ride lasted longer.

After that, we decided to go find an activity Liam might enjoy. We headed towards the petting zoo. Once again, we had to ditch the stroller at the door and just leave it. I hated that part of the fair. It's unnatural to leave a valued possession unattended, but we had to do it. I comforted myself with the fact that ours was not the nicest stroller there, so if someone were to come through and go stroller shopping, they'd pass over ours for a Maclaren or something. Except for the Ferris wheel ride, Liam had been in the stroller our entire time at the fair. So when we let his feet hit the ground in the petting zoo (animals stink, ya'll), he was off! It was crowded, and he just put his head down and started running. I'm pretty sure he did run into a couple people. Will snatched him up and we tried to distract him by showing him the animals and coaxing him to pet them. It worked a little bit, but really he just wanted his freedom. Unfortunately, we couldn't really give it to him there. The Little Hands on the Farm area was next to it, so we then went there so Liam would be in an enclosed area to walk (run) around in. Liam literally ran through all the stations, didn't get an apron or a bucket, or his corn, or anything. Poor thing tripped and fell down several times too since he was going too fast. We were just chasing him through it, hoping he wouldn't knock anyone or anything over. At some point, a lady handed me a fake dollar to spend in the General Store there. The kid is supposed to pick out a snack and pay with the dollar. Since my kid was long gone, I picked out a granola bar and gave it to Will. We then managed to get a screaming Liam back in the stroller, his freedom once again taken away from him.

We were all tired at that point, and it was HOT that day at the fair. I think we then ended up in the Food and Fiber Building and having a snack and a cold drink. I think this was also when we went through part of the Embarcadero Building and saw an underwhelming butter sculpture and a close to life-size Lego version of Dirk Nowitzki. Since it was almost time for one to start, we decided to see the dog trick show. Liam loves dogs, so we figured he would get a kick out of it. We had to wait about 15 minutes before it started, with Liam squirming and complaining (of course we had to leave our stroller on the ground while we sat in the bleachers). It finally started and the dogs performed a couple tricks, but the trainer guy kept talking TOO MUCH and it sounded like "Whomp whomp whomp" to us. We couldn't understand a word. We wanted less talk and more tricks so Liam might be entertained, but it just wasn't happening. We left about five minutes into the show. Liam was losing it! He was tired and cranky. So we put him back in the stroller, reclined it, put the shade over him, and made him go to sleep. And he did. After dealing with Liam and a lack of water and food, we were cranky. We went back to the food court and had a twister tator (basically potato chips), and once we had eaten that and had some water and calmed down, we decided to go for the funnel cake. Of course it was delicious, but I did feel yucky the rest of the day.

Liam was out, so we decided to go through the other half of the car show that featured foreign brands. It was nice to be in the air-conditioned building. After that, we headed back to the train station to go home. I think we spent about five hours total at the fair. Liam ended up sleeping about an hour and a half in the stroller and woke up around the Deep Ellum stop on the Green Line train. He woke up in a good mood, thankfully. When we got to the Pearl station to switch to the Red Line train that would take us back home, there was one there waiting, so we got off one train and right on to another. This time it was more crowded, and we had to stand for part of the ride.

That was our trip to the state fair. We've decided Liam is not going back to the fair until he's old enough to really enjoy it and walk around the whole time by himself. So probably like when he's four or five. We still didn't do or see everything. I wanted to see the bird show, but there's no way Liam would have the patience to sit through that. It was still a fun family outing!

Flirting with a lady on the train

I love being at the fair!

Will taking a picture of some people on a photo scavenger hunt

Will in the Vette

Big Tex and his awkwardly bent arm

Ferris wheel!

Looking down on the midway with the Starplex/Superpages.com Center/Gexa Energy Pavilion in the background

Looking out over Dallas

Family picture!

Dallas skyline

Sitting calmly on the Ferris wheel

You're gonna let me touch this animal?!

There, there. Nice animal.

That ostrich annihilated that cup of feed. I was scared of him a little bit.

Liam reached out and touched that girl before petting the goat.

More "dogs!"

Cute little goats

Real-life Sophie

Waiting for the dogs to start jumping

Texas Beetle

Zonked

The Big Orange Pumpkin Farm

My mom (Liam's Nana) was able to come for a quick visit last week. While she was here, we decided to take a trip to The Big Orange Pumpkin Farm in Celina. Thursday morning, we made the drive north to McKinney and then found ourselves out in the COUNTRY! I'm talking roads with no middle lines. Now, I grew up in the country outside of a small town on a road with no middle line, so it wasn't a foreign concept to me. But when you live in the Dallas 'burbs for awhile, you start to forget those places exist and that they exist fairly close by. It was nice to be out of the city.

We pulled in and parked on the grass near the school buses (field trip time!), paid our admission, got our cups of animal feed, and was then greeted by a longhorn cow (or bull). Liam was excited to see her (or him...not sure which), and promptly said, "Dog!" At home when I show him pictures of a cow, he says dog. I can't tell if he's trying to be funny or not. But "dog" is the only proper animal name he says, so everything is usually a dog. I gave the longhorn a treat, and then all the other cows sauntered over to see if I would hook them up as well. As with all petting zoos, they've been trained to beg! We then made our way over to the sheep. I held the cup of feed where a sheep could get it, and he promptly took the cup from my hand, tipped it back and let the feed fall in his mouth (although most of it went on the ground). What a sight! I did get Liam to say "baa" when I asked him what a sheep said. Then we checked out the goats. They were professional moochers as well and stuck their heads out of the fence in hopes that they would be the one to get the precious cup of feed. Liam was really amused by them. They got really close to him and a couple even licked his shoes. He loved those "dogs." Same thing happened with the cup of feed...it was jerked from my hand and gobbled up in one motion. Petting zoo animals don't play.

It was a misty morning, so everything was kind of damp. It even sprinkled a little while we were there. Misty morning + ground not covered by cement = a muddy mess. Even so, I knew I couldn't keep Liam in his stroller the whole time. So I let him out to explore the pumpkin patch. For some reason, there were lots of dips and ridges in the patch, so treacherous ground for a toddler, especially one who had just been given freedom and wanted to run. Liam fell down a few times, got muddy hands, and finally picked out a pumpkin he could carry. I had to clean off the pumpkin before it was allowed in the stroller. At this point, Liam's shoes were caked in mud, so then it was time to walk on hay to make sure they got good and gross! We entered the hay bale maze and let Liam lead the way since he seemed to know where he was going. (That turned out to NOT be the case.) We encountered a dead end and lots of school kids running through. Then Liam got turned around and started going back towards the entrance where lots of kids were running in. He almost got trampled by some first graders. After exiting through the entrance, Liam just took off walking/running. He was going as fast as he could and swinging his left arm. When he does that, it means he DOES NOT want to be caught. He just wants to go! My mom caught him and I took him to a safer area to walk around. Then I caught him again and put him back in the stroller.

After that, we decided to go on the hayride since the school kids seemed to have all had their turn on it and it was now available. It was a pretty long ride and went around a pond and by a small church and a large barn. Decorated hay bales dotted the path. It sprinkled on us for part of the ride, but it wasn't too bad. Liam did a great job of sitting still in my lap for the ride. He tried to chew on some hay, but it tickled his mouth whenever he tried to chew it. After the hayride, we decided to leave. However, the leaving part took forever! This was because we had to deal with all the mud and grass/hay that accumulated on anything that touched the ground. Thankfully, I had thrown a fresh roll of these in the diaper bag. Off came Liam's shoes and they went straight into a plastic bag. I then got him buckled in his seat. The biggest challenge was the wheels of the stroller. I'd brought the big Chicco, so it had 6 wheels instead of just 4, and they were all caked in mud and grass. Since we had parked on grass, there was no concrete to help get the mud off. I didn't really want to put the stroller with nasty wheels in the back of my still new-ish car, but I figured that was my only choice. Until...I figured out that I could cover each wheel with one of the plastic bags! Thankfully, the bags did fit, and my mom held the stroller up while I covered them. Then I was able to put it in the back without getting dirt on everything. Mommy engineering. I got as much of the mud off my shoes as I could, but the floor mat still needed to be cleaned later. Those shoes (as well as Liam's) are still out of commission and needing to be cleaned.

When we finally left, we headed to Allen to have lunch at Uncle Julio's. Liam ate most of his PB&J and amused himself by swinging around a spoon. Then we went to the Stride Rite outlet store, and Nana bought Liam some new shoes! So it no longer mattered that his other ones were still dirty! It was a fun morning/early afternoon together, and Liam was so wound up afterward that it took him over an hour to fall asleep for his nap at home.