Liam is finally crawling! Really crawling. On all fours. It started last Thursday morning at school. As I was dropping him off in the morning, I set him down to put away his coat and lunch, and he got on all fours and crawled toward me. Before that morning, he had been doing it for a few "steps" every now and again. But that time he covered about 4 or 5 feet of distance on all fours. He must have practiced a lot around his childcare room on Thursday, because when I picked him up that afternoon, brought him home, and set him on the floor, he just crawled off. Since then he's been getting steadier and faster. I think his progress was accelerated because we were at Kim and Greg's house in the "country" (in Suffern) this weekend. We went because we hadn’t seen Kim and Greg in ages, hadn’t met Ethan yet, and wanted to do something outside of the city for Jason’s birthday. There Liam honed his skills, since he had new toys (well, Ethan's toys) to crawl to and lots more space for exploration. Now he's pretty fast and also pretty pleased with himself. I imagine that being able to get to the shoes by the front door, the computer cables, and the trashcan whenever you want is pretty liberating. Of course our job of keep him safe (and relatively clean) just got a bit harder. But the delight of watching him get around on his own far outweighs the extra work.
Liam and Ethan were pretty adorable together this weekend. Ethan is such a cute baby and has such a laid back personality. He's friendly and smiley and easy going. On the other hand, he is also ambitious. He enjoys being on his tummy and is already making moves like he wants to crawl (or run) away. I'm glad Liam figured out the crawling thing before Ethan is crawling circles around him!
We took advantage of the beautiful fall weather and spent Jason’s birthday afternoon pumpkin picking on a pumpkin and apple farm. We have some pretty adorable pictures.
I love that face.
The birthday boy and happy Liam.
A Dragon sleeping in his cave.
Sarah!
Also here’s a video from this morning of Liam crawling. In the background we’re listening to our latest WhitMix. Thank you, Whitney!!
Today I tried to get Liam to nap early so that he would have slept before his appointment with Dr. Zbar to get a flu shot. However, instead of sleeping, he talked to himself for half an hour before I went in to rescue him from the dark, boring room. When I opened the door, he was standing and holding onto the rails of his bed and beaming at me. That was the first time that he’s pulled himself into the standing position without help. And I could see the little gears turning in his head. He was thinking to himself “It was a lot of work to get up there, but clearly it worked. I stood up, Mom came in, and I didn’t have to nap.” I think we’ll be seeing a lot more standing from now on.
Liam has been doing so many new things lately. He can consistently get from the tummy down position to a seated position, he now moves from room to room with his little squirmy, swimmy, crawl, and every once in a while he tucks his knees under, pulls his belly up and crawls the traditional way for a few inches. He’s also saying Dada all the time now when Jason is around. It’s so cute because he definitely knows what he’s saying and is definitely directing it to Jason. And Liam has started to dance to music. When we turn the stereo on or sing to him he bops up and down and waves his hand to the beat. He’s got pretty good rhythm for a little white boy.
But in my opinion the cutest new thing he does is feeds himself (even some slimy things now, whereas before he would only feed himself dry foods like cheerios and puffs) and helps himself to his own drink of water. Liam got a new sippy cup with a straw in it so that he can pick the cup up and take a drink without having to worry about tilting it way up – which he was not able to do with the old cup. Now, when he’s thirsty, he reaches for his own cup and takes a drink himself. Nothing makes him seem more grown up to me than that move.
Here’s Liam with his friend Claire. Claire’s mom, Elisabeth, generously watched them both last week while I went for a run in the park. We plan to keep trading off so that we each get a chance to run or go to the gym. Anyway, she took these amazing pictures of Liam and Claire together and added in their hysterical dialogue. It had me laughing for days so I had to share:
A Dragon sleeping in his cave.
Sarah!
