Go Bananas!

A couple of weeks ago, Liam tried his first fruit--banana. As you can tell by the photo, he didn't much care for the first few mouthfuls; by the end, however, he decided that food is food and was fairly content--even though most of the fruit ended up on his bib. He is very funny to feed with a spoon. Used to having a constant flow of nourishment when eating, he is frustrated and tries to speed the process up by guiding my hand with the spoon to his mouth. While clever, this action actually slows the process down because he brings the spoon to him so the side of the handle goes into his mouth. This makes him mad and after a few times of the handle providing no food, we have to stop this silly spoon thing and return to the delicious milk.

This past week Liam has had his share of visitors: my friend Rell from New Mexico, cousin CJ and his 2 children from Chicago, and Steve's friend Alex from California. Unfortunately, we failed to get pictures of all of our guests, but we did get one with Rell. We were always goofy in high school and being around a child didn't necessarily make us the adults--I think the title of this post is more for us than for Liam.

5 months and movin' on up

For a few weeks now, Liam has been taking his baths with his knees in his face, crammed up into his little baby bath tub. Finally, his parents decided that the whole point of the bath was to relax him and how comfortable can you be in a bath that is as big as you are. So, Liam moved on up to the big boy bath tub. Because he can't physically hold himself up, he has to sit in a chair in the bath. As is typical with Liam, he wasn't so sure of this new concept of bath time, but after thinking about it and seeing his rubber ducky, he decided this new bath isn't so bad.
As we say happy 5 months to Liam, we should also remind him to get used to this concept of change. He is outgrowing everything. His infant carrier, his bumbo chair and he is getting a new high chair very soon. As Steve says, "soon, we will be giving him the keys to the car."

Happy Liam a couple months ago in his baby tub

Liam enjoys the before and after bath time routine too--Dad usually gets him ready for bed.

First taste of solids

I had to have a medical procedure this week and because of some of the medications I was taking, Liam was forced to have bottles of stored milk for a day and a half. I wonder if there has been a study done on whether bottle fed kids are more patient than other children? When Liam is hungry, he in no way wants to wait for you to prepare a bottle. Because of this, we decided it would be a good idea for him to have his first taste of rice cereal. We were hoping that it would help him sleep through the night better and groggy parents wouldn't have to do any bottle preparation at 2 in the morning.
To begin with, we tried it with a spoon--which Liam definitely did not like. This was demonstrated by crying and spitting the food back up; we, however, were not so easily deterred and we cleverly put a tablespoon of the cereal in his bottle. He drank it all up. It is rather comical to watch Liam drink a bottle. He is all business and I am pretty sure he can tell if there is more in the bottle and will not let it out of his sight until every last drop has been drunk.
The rice cereal along with his recent self soothing technique of sucking his thumb has been helping him sleep through the night. Now we just have to conquer using a spoon!

2nd cousins

As mentioned before, I come from a pretty big family...to put it in perspective, Liam has 48 cousins-once-removed. If each of those cousins has 2 kids, Liam would have close to 100 second cousins. In the past couple of weeks, Liam has had an opportunity to meet a few of his second cousins. While in Portland, he met Grayson (9 months old). He is also a sturdy boy and is at the top of the charts for weight and height...it is in the genes.
When we got back from the trip, Liam had a chance to meet Paige, Shannon and Lindsey--Steve's cousin, Mary's, kids. They loved observing him on the video monitor.

Hopefully, Liam will soon be able to meet his new second cousin's: Finn and William. Also, while not related by blood, Liam will soon need to meet a possible friend. One of my close girlfriends, Kitty, had baby Luke on July 31st. Congratulations to all the new mamas and papas!

Ginormous Child

We are back from the west and are trying to get back on East Coast time. I am beginning to feel like Liam is a night-owl like his dad because going to Pacific time was a pretty easy transition for him, but lately he has been sleeping in and going to bed later than usual.

I continue to be amazed at the rate of Liam's growth. Whenever I take him out, people will ask how old he is and be amazed when I say four months--they say things like "he is strong" and "what a healthy baby", but I know they are thinking "what a ginormous child". Before we left for the trip, we had Liam's check-up and he was 18.28 pounds and 27 1/2 inches long. This put him in the 97th and 100th percentiles respectively. Much to the doctor's surprise, he even has two little teeth coming in.

While we were in Portland, the we put the moby through its paces--when you have a big baby, sometimes you need a little assistance carrying him :) Sadly, we did not get a picture of everyone who tried out the moby, but here are a few. I also wanted to share a picture of my mom's side of the family. We were there to pay tribute to her and it is so nice that she comes from a big family...they say it takes a village; here is just some of Liam's village.

Liam's First Trip

Liam had his first trip out of state Thursday and his first plane trip. He was upset in the airport as we waiting for our delayed flight, but went to sleep soon after we boarded and stayed sleeping for the entire flight. It was a bit awkward to have so much stuff along with carrying the baby, but overall, it really wasn't bad. I think Liam was pretty happy with it and barely cried any more than he would normally at home. We arrived really late Thursday night and, after a short introduction of Liam to our hosts, we went to sleep. Liam only got up once during the night and then we got up and went for a 6 mile walk with the extended family. We strolled along the esplanade and saw downtown Portland a little. That evening we went to a wedding and Liam was, once again, very "well-behaved" (i.e. quiet and happy) during the ceremony and slept through most of the reception. He was up for a while though and got a fun ride in the Moby with his "fisherman" hat. He slept through the night last night and continues to be wonderful on this trip.

What's so funny

WebMD published an article recently saying that a child's smile is a natural high for his mom (you can read the article here). Lucky for this mom, Betty really discovered something the other day: if you ask Liam, "what's so funny?" he will respond with a big grin and a laugh. As this video shows, we really got him going as he found the phrase to be downright hilarious. I think he really knows what is funny, but he finds it funny that we have to ask a baby.
In other Liam news, last night, Liam FINALLY slept through the night. From 11pm to 5:30am, he was in the land of nod. Unfortunately, his mom did not make it through the night undisturbed. After 2am, I was up every hour awaiting his nightly feeding and paranoid because he was sleeping on his tummy. I was also upset because I was missing a rare opportunity to get some REM sleep--if only he would have woken up, then I could have at least had a natural high by asking him what is so funny!