12, 13, and 14 months old

I've fallen off the wagon with the Liam growth updates, so here are three months in one.  Bonus, right?!  I'm also going to change up the way I write about his growth & development, to more reflect how I think about the changes.  (Or more accurately, how I think about everything these days:  in bullet points).

The inner workings of my mind looks a lot like this:

• Wake-up
• Shower
• Make breakfast
• Make our meal plan this week
• Answer emails
• Liam started running today
• Prep dinner for tonight while listening to my favorite NPR show
• If it's a Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday - Work
• Liam discovered what a dog sounds like, and now barks on cue (Arf!)
• Call back a friend
• Etc.

We've taken a lot of photos, so half the battle was uploading them all and picking out my favorites.  This was a bullet point in my mental to do list.  Another bullet point has been to write this blog.  I've been thinking a lot about what contributes to my energy lately, and what depletes it.  And then trying to organize my activities around what gives me energy.  It's hard.  Especially hard when I'm used to saying "yes" - enthusiastically - to everything.  And then kicking myself later when I feel overwhelmed and stressed.

It's been a snowy and cold winter here, and much of our January and February have been spent inside.  Which, probably, has been good for both me and Liam.  I like always having something to do or someplace to go.  But, the past few months I've had to learn to get creative with indoor activities for a 14 month old.  We play a lot of hide-and-seek.  We look out the window a lot, and say hello to the squirrels in the tree.  (and then sometimes, we get confused about the sound that a squirrel makes, and we bark at the squirrel). We climb a lot on the furniture (always supervised, of course).

The other day, during our latest snow storm, I decided on a whim to make homemade finger paints (mix equal parts flour and water, mix in food coloring, and BAM.  Finger paints!)  That activity lasted 10 minutes.  But clean up lasted over an hour.  So, that gave us something to do for a while. 

Liam, your growth and development has really taken off, and it's been fun to witness.  I don't know how much you weigh or how tall you are right now.  But, I do know that a few weeks ago, you fit really well under our table and it was an awesome place to play fort and hide-and-seek.  Fast forward just a week, and you're bumping your head on the table trying to run underneath it.

You have 8 teeth, with your 1 year molars slowly (too slowly!) inching your way to the surface.  


You successfully:

• climb on our couch
• climb on the rocking chair in your room
• climb on the toilet seat (?!?!?!)
• open doors
• reach on top of our bathroom counters and grab random things

Words you currently say:

• Touch (first word!)
• That
• This
• Switch
• Hot
• Hat
• All done (while giving the all done sign language sign)
• High chair
• Dada 
• Bye-Bye
• (You also understand quite a few words:  vacuum, bubbles, magazine, book)

Words you currently sign:

• Eat
• Water
• All done
• Milk
• Mama (Mama and milk go together, a lot!)
• Dada
• Sleep/bed
• Light
• Diaper

Things you eat:

• All breakfast food.  It seems to be your favorite meal. 
• Still obsessed with blueberries & bananas & apple sauce
• Recently discovered a love for grapefruit
• Eggs
• Cheese
• Bread
• Snack packs
• Some meat - especially pork, turkey bacon, and sometimes ground beef
• You'll occasionally eat beans
• (Side Note:  I'm nervous you're not eating enough.  We offer you food all day long (3 meals and 2 snacks), but you don't always take it.  Even if it's really good!   I know I need to trust that you know when you need to eat.  But, it still makes me nervous!)

Sleeping:

• We had a rough go there for a while in January.  I won't speak about it.  It was traumatic.  You were teething, we had just gotten back from a week long trip on the West Coast.  You were probably in a sleep regression.  We also were sort of transitioning you from two naps a day to one.  I cried a lot. 
• Now, we're in a good space, so your Daddy and I are enjoying this new sleeping phase.  You're officially solid on one nap per day, usually around noon.  That nap is anywhere from 1.5-3 hours. 
• Depending on how your nap went that day, you'll go to bed between 7:30 and 8:30pm.  
• You'll usually sleep until 6 or 6:30.  Sometimes 7:30.  
• I feel like I've won the sleep lottery this week.  

Favorites:

• Your shape sorter toys
• A set of artfully done flash cards, where you ask me to name the objects on each card
• Running all over the place; Climbing on everything; hiding things in our boots & shoes
• Playing in the bath
• Pointing to a book, and then picking it up, bringing it over to me, and sitting down on my lap, settling in to read.  

My favorites:

• Hearing your reaction when you make new discoveries.  You go "ohhh!", with wide eyes.
• Watching you dance to music
• Spying on you when you play with your toys (you play remarkably well by yourself for a while).
• Looking out the window with you, saying hello to the squirrels, birds, and dogs.  
• Playing hide-and-seek with you

Liam's Birthday Celebration

Well, it's two months later, but it wouldn't seem right to track Liam's growth for most of his first year without reflecting a bit on his 1-year birthday.  I learned some big lessons with kid birthday party planning.  And that is - not to take on TOO much.  It was great.  But it was stressful.

My two favorite moments from the day were those that took no planning whatsoever.

On the eve of Liam's birthday, the husband and I lit a candle, read him a special bedtime story, and ended with the following poem from the Birthday Book.

“When i have said my evening prayer,

and my clothes are folded on my chair,

Mommy and Daddy switch off the light,

I'll still be 11 months old tonight.

But from the very break of day,

before the children rise and play,

before the darkness turns to gold,

tomorrow I'll be one years old…

One kiss when i wake,

one candle on my cake.

A goodnight kiss for the eleven month old

to send him to sleep and to dreaming.

And blessings to the one year old

who'll be carried from bed in the morning.”

Then I lay with him and snuggled him into sleep for a long long time.  I thought about our year together, our birth, and how much this little being has changed our lives in so many ways. 

The morning of the big day was a Friday.  Our out of town family had yet to arrive, and my husband went into work.  It was just Liam and me all day long.  And I was thrilled.  I made him a big batch of special pumpkin pancakes and we spent half the day in our pajamas.  

His birthday party was the next day on Saturday afternoon.  I did way too much and exhausted myself.  I had quite a bit of help from family, but still, it was too much.  The pictures below prove the party actually happened, but I honestly don't remember too much of it.  Instead, I'm happy to have the two memories above to mark his 1 year.  And I'm already thinking about how I'll simplify for his 2-year birthday party.  

 

11 Months With Liam

I can't believe that in just two short weeks, we'll be blowing out candles and singing Happy Birthday to our little 1 year old.  This day last year was my first official day of maternity leave.  I spent the next two weeks waiting.  And waiting.  And waiting.  This year, I'm hoping these two weeks go by slowly.  I plan to savor and soak up as I can from this first year.

Favorite moments of 11 months so far:

• Communicating with you via mimicry.  I copy your movements and hand gestures, and you laugh and laugh.
• Watching you play with your Daddy while he (attempts) to exercise on the floor.
• Seeing you in your owl costume for Halloween, and watching you run around our local fall festival, putting your hands in other kid's Halloween bowls to see what they had in there. 
• Taking you to your first pumpkin patch and watching your face light up in the vicinity of goats, chickens, and all the activity.
• Holding you and singing to you in the moments right before I lay you down in your crib for a nap.  
• Dance parties for three!  (Daddy, you, and me)
• Seeing you begin to express your preferences (shaking head no, reaching, pointing) 
• Our weekend morning routine.  Daddy brings you into our bed when you wake up, and we nurse, play, and ease into the day together.
• Hearing your little laugh.  You love to chuckle at things you see when we're out and about.  For example, you've recently started laughing when you see another baby nursing.  I don't know why you think this is so funny, but I love that you think it's funny.  

Your favorite things:

• Throwing toys and any other item into the bath tub.  (the other day I showered with a plastic egg, bath toys, a plastic cup, and the remote control to our fan - oops on that last one!)
• Having the freedom to walk and run around.
• Music!  You love everything from classical guitar to Daft Punk.  Daft Punk has been known to bring you out of a big meltdown.
• Playing in sand boxes.
• Playing with water.  A bowl of water and a few toys brings a lot of entertainment now (and a big mess).
• Opening and closing drawers and cabinets.  
• Storing random items in drawers. 
• Banging items on the wall and/or window to see what the noise sounds like. 
• Monkey on the back!  (You come around to my back, and ask to be lifted up.  We ride around the house and take a tour of everything on the wall)
• Touching items on high shelves.  
• To say "touch" from sun up to sun down.  You say "touch" when you pick something up, or when you pick up your food, or when you touch something you're interested in. It's basically a constant expression of "touch, touch, touch" all day long. 

10 Months with Liam

Considering Liam is turning 11 months tomorrow, I'm clearly weeks behind with this post.  But, the words for this one have been swirling around in my head, and there's so much I feel needs to be captured.  There's been an explosion of development, personality, and laughs going on over here, and my busy mind has wanted to remember it all.  My going back to work has really thrown off our routine, and I'm still trying to capture some sense of normalcy.  Needless to say, I never managed to take any photos worth sharing this month, but thank goodness the husband was inspired this morning, and took the few I'm sharing here.  It was right after breakfast, Liam was still in his pajamas, I was in the shower, and the morning light was so lovely on this Columbus Day holiday.

Growth and Appearance

You measure over 20 lbs now!  I'm not sure how long you are, but you seem very tall to me.  You have 7 teeth.

Eating
Your favorite foods are still anything sweet (blueberries, apple sauce).  We can also add bread to the top of the list.  You eat three solid meals a day, plus some snacks.  We're working on reducing your breast feeding sessions from between 6-8 to anywhere from 4-6 times per day.  Right now, we BF when you wake up anywhere between 6 - 7:30am, and then again before your morning nap at 9:30am.  Then you nurse before your afternoon nap, sometimes before dinner, and always before bed. 

You love eating off of anyone's plate but your own.  Even if I take the food from your tray, put it on my plate, and then give it back to you, that is somehow preferred to the food only residing on your tray.  We know you're finished when you start dropping your bowl, spoon, and pieces of food on the floor.

Sleeping
You take two 1-2.5 hour naps per day (typically around 9/9:30 and 2/2:30pm), and go to sleep for the night at around 7:30 or 8:30.  You're usually waking up somewhere between 4 - 6:30am, and I'm still trying to figure out if it's because you're hungry, or you just can't get back to sleep by yourself.  If I nurse you in the early morning hours, you sleep until around 7:30am and I usually have to wake you up.  I'm so grateful that this section of your monthly updates is so much shorter than it has been in the past.  Sleep maturity!!!

Development
The big news of the month is...you're walking!  You took your first steps the day before your 10 month mark, and you've been practicing ever since.  We're now at the stage where we have to put shoes on you when we go out!  You love pointing at things, and we talk all about the things you're pointing at.  Usually you want to touch whatever you're pointing at.  Many times, the thing you want to touch is way up high, and there's no way I can lift you up there to explore.  I love that you have this sense of wonder that you can touch anything you can see.  And I'm sad that we're grounded so you can't get everywhere you want to go.

You love to tease.  The other day you were crawling for our kitchen cabinets (where you're not supposed to be), and I chased after you to drag you back into the living room.  You laughed and laughed, and it became a game for us.  You would crawl away, I would grab hold of your ankles and tickle you, and you would laugh.

My favorite moments are on weekend mornings, when we're all sleeping in.  We usually bring you into our bed once you're awake, and we nurse, laugh, cuddle, and let you touch as many things as you can see around us.

Language
Your first word (other than dada or mama), surprise surprise, is touch.  You usually say it when you're reaching out to explore something, so we're pretty sure you know what it means.   You have a book called "My First Words", and it's recently become one of your favorites.  Before naps and bed time, you always want to spend a few minutes studying that book.  You point to different pictures and I tell you what they are. 

You have many little conversations with yourself, and I love listening to your babble.

One of the most exciting things (to me) that you've been doing is singing little songs.  You sing this one song that is a repeat of A flat to D flat (I know because I matched the notes on my flute).  This is so amazing to me, because you're singing a 5th interval.  It's always the same notes; always the same interval. 

Favorites
All of your favorites are pretty much the same as they've been the past couple months.  You love playing games, and one of your new obsessions is to crawl onto my or Daddy's back and ride around the house.  We call this "Monkey on the back".  You love anything with buttons.  Anything that lights up.  Anything in the cupboards (which are now locked up, thank goodness!)  And you love exploring.  You're usually very timid when we walk into a new place or situation.  But, once you have observed your surroundings for a bit, you'll jump right in and crawl/walk as much as you can.   And dancing!  You have one or two musical toys that you will dance along to.

It has been such a joy to be your Mommy for ten (almost eleven!) months, Liam.  I can't believe I'll be writing your 1 year post in just 1 short month.  It's flying by.  And we've barely even begun. 

Liam at 8 and 9 Months

It's been a while since I've posted.  Summer plans, fall preparations, and uncertainty about how to continue developing this blog all got in my way.  But, the time off was well spent, and allowed me to reflect and refocus.  So now it's catch up time!  We celebrated multiple milestones with Liam, who at nine months is practicing how to stand on his own, and showing his personality more and more each day.  We're pretty sure he'll be walking before his first birthday!

Growth & Appearance

Liam, you're looking more and more like a little boy each day.  You have 4 fully emerged teeth, and are working on your 5th and 6th teeth as we speak.  Your 5th tooth has been dramatic.  There was a lot of fussing, and very little sleeping last week.  But after a few days, you magically went back to your old self as that little tooth started popping through your upper gums.   

At your 9 month check-up, you weighed 18.7 lbs, were 29 inches long, with an 18 inch round head. 

Your hair is getting lighter, and your face is maturing. 

Eating

Your favorite foods right now are blueberries, sweet potatoes, and apple sauce.  I think you would eat an entire pint of blueberries if we let you.  You hate anything that is bland, which means avocados are out.  Bread is tolerable as long as I've spread hummus or something else on it.   I've been making you a lot of eggs, veggies, and cheese cooked in muffin tins.  I also make these little balls of chicken and quinoa with spices.  You like cheese and rice crackers.  Overall, you're a good eater.  Even if I do sometimes have to mix those chicken/quinoa balls with apple sauce so you'll be more inspired to try them.

We're still nursing quite a bit, but the doctor tells me that will start decreasing over the next few months.

Sleeping

Oh my gosh, you're MOSTLY sleeping through the night.  It's amazing.  On a normal day, you also take a 1-1.5 hour nap in the morning, and a 1.5-2 hour nap in the afternoon.  It's nice to have a predictable schedule that I can rely on, and it makes it much easier to plan and structure our day.  You go to bed between 7 and 7:30pm, and sometimes will sleep until 6:30am, sometimes wake up at 4 or 5am for a little snack or a snuggle.  I feed you, and then we all go back to sleep for a couple of hours.  For the most part, it's working.

Development

There is so much happening here!  As I mentioned above, you're standing on your own.  Your max is 15-20 seconds before you carefully sit down and take a brief rest.  But you're very good at standing while still playing with a toy, which I think says a lot for your balancing skills!

You also understand certain words.  You know when your daddy or I are asking for a kiss.  If you're not busy with something else, you'll lean in and plant one right on our lips.

And you've been practicing with your own sounds lately, repeating "ka, ka, ka" and "hot, hot, hot" over and over again.  You're not actually saying the word "hot", but your consonant focus on the letter "t" sounds like it. 

Favorites

You love everything that you're not supposed to have.  Today, I found you sitting on the dishwasher door that I left open, playing with the dirty dishes after I turned my back in the kitchen for 5 seconds.  Fabulous.  And then a few hours later, you ate a tissue (luckily, not a used tissue!)  We've done a pretty good job baby proofing, and I've got my eyes on you for the majority of the day.  Luckily we've had very few accidents.  But I know this will just get more challenging as you get older. Right now, I'm just grateful you're not walking yet!

You have your own drawer in the kitchen where you can play with all the tupperware and plastic kitchen utensils.  You like taking things out of that drawer and banging them on the floor.  

You do have a few favorite toys and books.  You love turning the page when we're reading a story, and we always let you.  I'll often find you staring at your picture books try to learn, and then flipping the book around to see what's on the next page.

You and I play a game together, where you shake your head back and forth and I mimic you.  You love this, and always laugh.

You like to take your toys and place them on the window sill.  And then you take them down again.

You love love love to go upside down, and recently started arching your head way back and flipping yourself over.  I hope you always enjoy looking at the world from a different angle.  It will serve you well in life. 

Nicknames

Nug-a-bug!

Little Bug

Liam at 7 Months

We're officially entered into the second half of our year with Liam!  It seems so long ago that we celebrated the 6 month milestone, and yet, it seems like it went so fast.  We've accomplished a lot in the past month!  We took our first vacation together as a family, focused on encouraging healthy sleep habits, and started solid foods.  We celebrated Memorial Day, my birthday, and Fathers Day.  The theme of this past month has been MOVEMENT - physically and energetically.  Lots and lots of movement!

By the way, I will also admit to the fact that while I wrote the text for this post over two weeks ago, I've been procrastinating on posting because I didn't feel like I had the "right" 7 month photos yet.  It's been difficult to get good photos lately, because Liam is moving so much and often lunges towards the camera whenever we bring it out.  Then, I went back and looked at some of the photos that we've randomly taken recently, and realized that they didn't need to be perfect.  They just needed to capture what Liam looks like at this moment in time.  So, here we are. 

Growth & Appearance

I'm not exactly sure how much you weigh or what your length is right now.  Your Dad (and the doctor) is in charge of all the measuring, and since we didn't go to the doc this month and your Dad has taken a brief hiatus from personally making sure you're growing, we don't know what your current status is.  But don't worry, I got your Dad this for Fathers Day.  I'd expect we'll start tracking your growth more closely in the future. 

No new teeth this month, so you're still rockin' those bottom two!

Eating

I finally got over my fear of feeding you solid foods, and we just jumped in with both feet.  We're following the baby led weaning philosophy, and you seem to be into it so far.  Your first food was avocado, and other than a brief sour face in the beginning, you ate two slices of that avocado (i.e. - some of it went in your mouth, most of it went on your shirt, and a lot of it ended up on the floor).  You've also sampled cucumber, sweet potato, broccoli, sugar snap peas, banana, pear, apricot, quinoa, and today we had scrambled egg for the first time!  You really enjoy eating, and it's so fun to watch you explore and experiment.

We're still nursing 7-8 times per day - When you wake up, before and after each nap, a snack in late afternoon, before bed time, and once in the middle of the night.  

Sleeping

I'm happy to announce that as of today, I have had two lovely nights of at least 6 hours in my bed by myself.  It's been a bit rough around here - not going to lie.  As I've talked about before, we gently coached you into a more structured schedule and taught you how to fall asleep consistently by yourself.  As a result, our day time naps solidified.  But at night, you were still waking up every 2-3 hours.  Torture. 

So, first step - I had to move out of your room.  Second step - your Dad started responding to your first and last awakenings so you wouldn't get frustrated if I wasn't nursing you.  I took the middle awakening, where I would feed you.  Last Sunday, you woke up at 6:30am, after keeping us up most of the night.  We were spent, and, sorry, but both your Dad and I put the pillows over our heads and tried to pretend you weren't crying for about a minute.  We promise - only a minute or two went by - and then we realized, you weren't crying anymore!  I grabbed the monitor, and saw you fast asleep.  Bliss!!  We just bought ourselves another hour of sleep!!!  Even more importantly, we realized we may be responding to you TOO quickly.

So - new rule:  When you wake up in the middle of the night, I wait 5 minutes before going in to get you.  Sometimes I feel badly about not getting you right away, but then I have to remind myself that I can't get too involved.  The exception to this is when you awake between midnight and 2am, when I will feed you because I still think you need a night time feeding.  Every single time I've waited, you've been upset for two or three minutes, and then put your head back down on your mattress and drifted off to a blissful sleep for another few hours.  Gold.

Your current routine/schedule:

• Wake between 7-7:30am
• Play while I make breakfast
• Eat breakfast
• Play a few more minutes
• Nap at 9am
• Wake up between 10am - 11am
• Play/take a walk/see friends
• Nap at 1pm
• Wake up between 2 - 3pm
• If you have shorter naps, I'll put you down for a third nap in the afternoon, but in general, if you sleep until 3pm or later, I'll keep you up until bedtime.   
• Dinner at 5:30 or 6pm
• Bedtime - 7 or 7:30pm

Development

More big news - you're crawling!!!  It happened the day before you turned 7 months.  In recent weeks leading up to this big development, you had been pulling yourself around by planking, and then using your arms to pull your whole body forward.  I love that you're crawling, but honestly, I'm going to miss the plank stage.  Sometimes, you would plank to reposition yourself when you were concentrating on a toy.  And it was so incredibly cute.  We're going to miss saying things like "Oh, Liam's just planking around" when people ask us what you're doing.  We're also going to miss announcing "PLANK!" to each other every time you did it.

You're beginning to use various tactics to get my attention.  For example, we were at an art gallery the other day, and I was in the middle of chatting with some people.  You strategically dropped your toy to get my attention.  Over and over and over again :)  And then on the way home you said "Mama".  Now, I won't assume you connected the sound "Mama" with the meaning, but it was so heartwarming to hear you say it.  Now that you're crawling, you also like to follow me around the house.  A favorite image that I never want to leave my brain is you peering your little head around the side of the big leather chair in our living room to watch me change out laundry in the hallway washing machine. 

Favorites

You're obsessed with little plastic eggs, and love chasing them around the room.  You've recently discovered bubbles, and I think we could occupy an entire day with my blowing bubbles, and you attempting to touch them.   Unfortunately, some of your other favorites are things you're not supposed to be getting into, such as exploring electrical wires and cords.  (We really need to baby proof).  You also love the big green yoga ball that is currently taking up residence in your room, and we always spend a few minutes playing with that before bed time.

My favorite part of your current favorites are that you love looking at our wall of family photos in the hallway outside your bedroom.  In the morning and after your naps, I'll bring you out into the hallway to gradually let your eyes adjust to the light.  We spend a few minutes of every day looking at our photos and talking about each of the people in them.  You always have the biggest smile on your face when we do this, and often reach out to grab a photo off the shelf.

Nicknames

Two new nicknames you have this month are "Nug", short for "Nugget".  And "Little Crab", because you look like a crab when you crawl around the floor.


Books and Songs you Love

• Before each nap, we read The Napping House
• Each night before bedtime, we lay out three books for you to choose from.  Every single time, without fail, you pick The Big Red Barn.  Your Dad and I have both of these books memorized by now.   

Liam at 6 Months

Wow, where did 1/2 a year go?  Liam, you started the morning by uncharacteristically sleeping in until 9:30am.  I found myself reflecting a bit on our birth today, probably because it's been 6 months and it feels like such a big milestone.  Although, we have many more milestones in front of us than what is behind us.  We snuggled a bit early this morning when you first woke at 6am, and it was lovely.  I hope we have many more years of napping together.  I'm often reminded of a lesson my yoga teacher taught me - whatever moment you're in, you will never have that moment again.  You'll never take a breath in the same way as you're doing right now.  Each moment that passes is unique and sacred.  I think about that each time I sleep next to you, my dreaming baby.

Growth & Appearance
 
You weighed in at 16 lbs 10 oz today, are 27.5 inches long, with a head size of 17.25 inches.  Everything seems very normal in this department.  You've been rolling like crazy.  I'll put you down on the floor, turn around for a second, and when I turn back you've rolled yourself halfway across the room.  Yesterday, I set you down with your toys (which included a ceramic bowl that you were very interested in), and somehow you moved that heavy bowl about 3 feet.  I'm still not sure how you did that.


You sprouted your first two teeth at 5.5 months old.  It was quite a surprise to us!  One Friday night about two weeks ago, your Dad and I had just settled in to watch a movie, when you woke us with some very painful sounding cries.  This was a distinctive, different cry from your normal fussing when you wake up, and we ran in to find you very upset.  I felt along your gums, and lo and behold there was a sharp thing poking out.  I had just bought some teething gel (not thinking we would use it so soon!), and that helped a bit.  We also gave you some things to bite on, and we nursed, and it all seemed to help you get back to sleep.  The next morning, tooth #1 was visible just above the gum line.  Tooth #2 debuted the next week.  I like how you planned these teeth sprouts to appear on the weekend so your Dad could join in on the waking up fun!

Eating

Still only breast milk.  I know.  I'm sorry.  I think you're ready for solid foods, but I've been a bit noncommittal as to what to start you on and really want to delay changing those solid poop diapers for as long as possible.   I promise we'll explore the food world very soon.

Sleeping

Uggh.  I don't even want to talk about it.  I mean, you're a pretty good sleeper.  But some days it's just really difficult to get you to sleep on your own, without someone rocking or nursing you to sleep.   We'll get you to the point where your eyes are closed and you're very relaxed, and then the minute we put you down in the crib, it's hit or miss whether or not you'll just roll over and go to sleep (the best scenario), or you start kicking your legs and fussing (potentially the worst scenario). 

I haven't felt the need to get us on a schedule just yet (which may be part of our problem), so I kind of just roll with whatever you need and adjust our day if I can.  While we're not on a clock schedule, we are on somewhat of a daily rhythm.  In the morning we get up, get ready for the day, eat breakfast, clean up and make beds, and have some time to play.  The morning is the best time for me to observe you quietly while you play on the floor.  Usually by around 8:30 or 9am you're ready for your first nap.  This lasts anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours.  After the morning nap, sometimes we'll take a walk, run errands, or see friends.  Your 2nd nap starts anywhere from 11:30am - 1pm and again lasts anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours.  We'll nap one more time at around 3:30 or 4, and this is our shortest nap of the day, being anywhere from 30 minutes to 60 minutes.  You're usually in bed between 7:30 and 8:30pm.

Development

You've managed to get your knees up under you and can now successfully rock on your hands and knees.  You scootch around a bit trying to go after toys or other interesting things you find around the house, and sometimes end up pushing yourself backward when you really want to go forward.  We estimate that we have about 1-2 more months before we have to Liam proof the house, so now I have to add "baby gates" to my list of items to research (and hopefully find second hand). 

You've been talking up a storm, and in the past few days have added "blah blah blah, dada, mamama, and lalala to your repertoire.  You also often speak in "dolphin" or "pterodactyl" and screech very loudly.  I'm sure our neighbors are pleased. 

Favorites

You're really into the wood bead and crochet teething/nursing necklace I bought off Etsy, and often pull it so hard that I just take it off, untie it (so it's not a choking hazard), and give it to you to play with.  This occupies at least 30 minutes of your time every day.  That necklace is like gold (if time were currency).  You're also still obsessed with your Indestructible books.  And you discovered grass the other day when we were playing outside.  That's another favorite texture of yours. 


Nicknames

• Toothy (for obvious reasons - see Growth & Appearance)
• Bunny (I don't know why I started calling you Bunny, but when you thump your feet and bounce up and down, it reminds me of a little bunny hopping around)

Books and Songs You Love

•  The bird song from Waldorf that took me forever to learn (you know, the one that starts like "Way up in the sky, the little birds fly high"...
• The lamb book that you got from Easter, mostly likely because the lamb is a finger puppet and sticks out of the book.