One Year

One year ago today, at 12:34, Liam was born and life hasn't been the same since - in a wonderful way! We threw a big birthday party for him today and had his friends and relatives over for a big celebration. We went whole-hog on the pi day connection and put up a "Happy Birthday Q T 3.14159" banner, several of us wore our "simple as 3.141592..." t-shirts from Mental Floss, we ate pizza pi(e), mixed-fruit pi(e), muffins in pi-formation, a big cookie with pi icing, brownies and cookies shaped like the pi symbol, and showed some pi(e) charts about Liam (like % time spent sleeping, eating and playing).  You might also notice that the fruit and pita dishes spell Liam's initials (LOL).

Many of Liam's friends from his "mommy and me" group were there to share in the fun and that created a really energetic and fun atmosphere.  Albert Einstein was also born on March 14th, so we put up a poster of him and added some captions wishing Liam a happy birthday.

We put together a movie of some pictures of Liam and a couple videos set to "Birthday" and "Here Comes the Sun" by The Beatles.  We put the pictures of Liam in chronological order and it was amazing to see how much he's changed over the past year.

Liam enjoyed the big get together and was thrilled with all of his new toys and clothes.  His aunt Michelle also gave him a framed version of the poem she wrote for him when he was born.  We really appreciate everyone joining us for the occasion!  A special thanks to my mom for helping us set everything up the day / evening before.

Purr-fect Fur-niture

Our cat (Yuki) has been very tolerant of Liam's recent affection for him in the form of full-on tackles followed by using the cat as a pillow. We had a cozy little snuggle on the couch yesterday during our weekend sick-in.

Yes, unfortunately, we all felt under the weather this weekend to varying degrees of severity. Everyone is feeling better now though - I think the weekend of lounging around the house helped :)

Signs of the Times

A couple months ago, we started teaching Liam some sign language.  He's really started to pick it up recently and its been great.  When he wants something or is interested in something, he can communicate a little better than just pointing and grunting.  I got the camera out today and asked him to say "more" (which is putting both hands together - above).

Then I asked him to say "eat" (which is putting your fingers to your mouth):

Finally, I asked him to say "cat" (which is the most difficult one for him because it is an "OK" sign that you slide from your mouth to your ear - representing whiskers).  After looking around for the cat, he figured out that I just wanted to see the sign:

  

 
He's gotten the sign for milk (squeezing your hand) and dog (patting your thigh) mastered and is working on light bulb (looks like holding a piece of paper in front of your face and letting go).  We can certainly tell that he understands a lot now.  If we ask him where something is (socks, a toy, the light, etc.) he looks and points at it.  I'm excited to teach him more signs and communicate even more with him :) A video would capture these better... I'll have to remember that next time.

Standing tall

About a month ago, I turned my back while Liam was just waking up from a nap. When I turned around, he was standing up and laughing at his new accomplishment. He still doesn't pull himself up very often. He seems to have a smarter way to approach such things--Find a person who is mobile, say "Ba" and point until they bring you to the item you want. He has also found his own method of communication: "Da" is "this is fun", "Ma" is "I don't like this" and "Ba" is "I want." What more could a baby need?

Snow Day

Liam had his first "real" snowfall this week and it trapped him inside for a couple of days. We used the time to play with all of his toys, practice his sign language and we didn't worry about getting out of our pajamas.

He observed the older kids in the neighborhood having fun on the ice covered lawns and street.

How big is Liam--SOOOO Big!

Give Daddy a high five!

Even though we really don't watch TV with Liam around, he quickly figured out what the remotes were for. In a couple of years, I am sure that this will be done on snow days.

Baby "Proofing"

As Liam gets more mobile and curious, we've had to start trying to baby-proof our house. We plugged some of the outlets with little stubs and put up a gate at the top of the stairs. The gate is really nice, was fairly easy to install and works well.

However, most of our other attempts at child proofing have failed. We've had to return over $100-worth of various cabinet locks, door stops, and other little devices because they didn't fit our cabinets etc. We had to return another gate because it didn't work. So, we're on round 3 (at least) of buying baby-proofing stuff. Which is why it was particularly funny when - one day after installing them - Liam figured out how to take off the cabinet locks we got yesterday!

I guess we'll just have to try harder next time!

9 month stats at 10 month birthday

Liam hit 10 month mark today and I realized that we never posted his 9 month stats. At his last check-up, the doctor pronounced that he "is one of the healthiest babies at the practice." He weighed in at a slim 23 pounds (90th percentile), was 31 inches tall (95 percentile) and I can't remember his head size, but it is big (97th percentile).

One of the more common questions I hear is "Is his Daddy big?" Actually, both of us were big babies, so it is hard to tell if he will take after his dad in the height department. So far, with his coloring and cheek size, he seems to resemble me a little more, but you can definitely see the Luke in him. Here are some baby pictures of us around that age (I will try to find a close up one of Steve and post it later on).