"The Knack"

 

As Scott Adams says in one of his Dilbert strips, Liam seems to have "the knack."

He's fascinated by mechanical and electrical devices and loves to "operate" them.

Recently, he learned how to take the vaccuum cleaner canister off and put it back on.

Now we just need to teach him how to dump its contents into the trash can :)

Mommy's little helper

I used to blame my lack of cleaning on Liam's need for entertainment--now I have no excuse. One of Liam's favorite activities is "helping" mommy. He likes to swiffer, is fascinated by the vacuum and he will even help me put away the laundry. The other day, I told him we had to go and put the dish towels away. He promptly picked one up and walked over to his play kitchen and put it in the sink!

Since I haven't posted in a while, I thought it would be nice to post a few more pics of the little guy.


Classic shmoosh the cat shot. I think this is only the 3rd on our blog--imagine how many more we have on our camera!


A look at his face while smooshing the cat. Couldn't be happier.


A visit from Uncle Muck wouldn't be complete without rock band.


One of the few family pictures that we have.

Kiss

I discovered that Liam learned a great new skill today - giving a kiss :) It's a wonderful new addition to our bedtime routine.
Liam is walking about 80% of the time now without help and I can tell we're on the verge of a new era of running after him. We took him to a terrific park yesterday with rubber padding all over the ground, and spent a long time following him around.

His signing vocabulary is getting bigger all the time and includes lots of animals (lion, cat, dog, pig, bird, fish...) and he's also starting to learn how to make some animal sounds (lion roar - which is adorable, woof, meow, moo).

On a visit to the zoo with his friends, he is fascinated by, of all things, a cow. To his credit, he did really like the elephant and the lion too--but he did indicate that the gorilla was a dog and had little interest.

Trying to play with the neighborhood kids that are twice his age, he ends up playing the role of the door-man.

Bedtime song

While we were getting Liam ready for bed (hence the sleep sack), he indicated he wanted the keyboard out. Apparently, he wanted one last bedtime song.

Stand Up

Liam continues to learn more each day.  He's added some signs, like book, dad, bird and done.  Interestingly, he'll sign bird when he hears one, even if he doesn't see one, so he's linked the sound with the animal in his mind.  One of his most powerful new tricks is to shake his head "no" and nod "yes."  This leads to a narrowing-down process where he'll sign "more" "book" and then we take out books one-by-one and ask if he wants that one until he gives an enthusiastic nod.  Of course, sometimes we have to make him do something he is clearly shaking his head "no" to (like leave the playground after playing for an hour), but that's just early practice for many years of not always getting his way :)

Liam's also getting more physically capable.  He can walk on his own for a few feet and stand himself up:

Go get it!

We have taught our dog, Makoto, 1 trick: You tell him to stay, you throw his toy and then he will wait patiently until you say, "go get it!" Upon that command, the dog will jump into action and retrieve his toy. We have just now introduced Liam to this and he seemed a little perplexed, but also eager to get in on the action. You can tell in the video that he is wanting to be the boss and tell the dog to go get it. Now, we just need to teach Makoto to respond to "BUHHHHHH".

Favorite Things

Liam definitely has preferences now.

He enjoys banging on laptops

The swing is great fun

Peek-a-boo is still a favorite

He loves the cat, but I am not sure the cat returns the sentiment.