10.07.09 ~ Taking a Stand

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:

No Parallel Play for Us. from Nina Philipsen Hetzner on Vimeo.