08.23.09 ~ Babbling and Crawling (or not)

I’m not sure at what point we’re allowed to claim that Liam has said his first word. He can definitely say both Mama and Dada, but it’s questionable just how meaningful those sounds are to him. He seems to say Mama (it actually sounds like “Mum Mum Mum”) when he sees me, when he doesn’t see me, when he wants something he can’t reach, when he’s hungry, or when something tastes good. He says it a lot. He says Dada a lot too. And he definitely says it more when Jason is around, but also plenty when he’s not. Liam is also getting really good at repeating both sounds and intonations. If I say “Dada” he says “Da!”. If I say “ball” he (sometimes) says “Buh”. If I say “duck”, he says “Da!” (You can see why I’m suspicious about meaning, right?) But Liam definitely has a mind of his own. Don’t expect him to demonstrate any of these talents when asked to. He has made it very clear that he is not my show monkey. As soon as I try to get him to do something in front of an audience, he stares at me blankly or ignores me altogether. But I did catch a bit of it on video this morning:






On the crawling front, there is still very little progress. As soon as I put him onto his front he usually rolls right to his back. He resists picking his belly up off of the ground by supporting his weight on straight arms. If he does stay on his belly, he lays his head down every few seconds and rests comfortably. If I prop him up on his hands and knees, he stays there bewildered by his own posture for a few seconds before he flops back to the floor in a flat position. He has gotten more confident in the sitting position though. He now can scoot on his butt to get around (well, only backwards). He will also lean, while sitting, so far that he almost tips over in order to reach for a toy. He’s almost in the crawling position when he does that so very sneakily I place his toys almost out of reach so that he has to lean to get them.

To balance out his sad large motor abilities, Liam has totally conquered fine motor skills. And after discussing all of this with the pediatrician at the last visit, I feel totally fine with that. He has long mastered the “pincer” grasp with his thumb and forefinger. Dr. Zbar told us that a neurologist friend of hers believes that is the single best predictor of future intelligence. And, crawling isn’t even a developmental milestone since there is so much variation in how and whether babies do it. So, I’ll take the pincer grasp over crawling any day!


Last weekend Jill and Josh were here. It was Josh’s first time meeting Liam. I think they loved each other very much. And Liam also rekindled his love with Jill. Anytime she laughed he would squeal and laugh back. He was very flirty with her which means Liam is developing a very good taste in girls!