11.04.09 ~ Show-Monkey Tricks

I’ve gotten a bit behind with the blogging lately. But I promise to catch up within the next few days. Obviously I need to post some Halloween pictures of Liam in his costume. Unfortunately, those will have to wait a few more days until I have Photoshop up and running on my computer again.

Ever since Liam started crawling, his little personality has really started to bloom. His likes, dislikes, and wants have become so much more apparent. Just seeing him crawl to where he wants to be is pretty telling. We’ve learned that he loves our shoes, loves emptying the cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom, loves checking out what’s in the trashcan, and loves following us from one room to the other. And if you turn the radio on, he’ll drop whatever he’s doing and sprint-crawl over to it to dance. He loves turning all of the knobs and making the music come on and off. Here’s the dancing DJ:

The Dancing DJ from Nina Philipsen Hetzner on Vimeo.

When Liam wants to be picked up he crawls over to one of us and either hovers over our feet or tugs on our pants. Once he’s in your arms he begins to point at where he’d like to go next. The pointing is really great because it’s such a clear form of communication. When we’re seated at the table eating dinner, he points to his cup when he wants more water or points to the food he’d like more of. Between the pointing, crawling, and Liam’s “talking” (which is more like a secret language than it is English), I feel like most of the guesswork has been eliminated from my job. Nine out of ten times I know exactly what he wants at any given moment.

We’ve also learned that Liam is a little entertainer. He’ll do anything for a laugh. In fact, if you laugh at him and he’s not quite sure what it was that was funny, he’ll start trying out different things to see if you’ll laugh again. Today at lunch he must have been chilly (or peed in his diaper) because suddenly I could see him get a chill as his little body quivered for a second. As soon as I giggled at him he looked up at me, smiled, and then shook his arms and shoulders trying to repeat the shiver. Then he burst out laughing at himself.

We’ve also taught Liam a few little show-monkey tricks. When we say “touchdown” he lifts his hands over his head, when we say “monkey feet” he claps his feet, and when we say “yay” he claps his hands. Jason also taught Liam to squeeze his nose when he says “honk honk”. Liam can also wave bye-bye and says “bu bu”. But only when he feels like it.

As we’re rounding the last corner before his first birthday, it amazing to suddenly witness this transformation from baby to one-year-old.

And until I have Halloween pictures to share these photos from Liam’s school from the first half of October will have to do!

Here Liam has ditched his diaper bin (behind him) and is playing with someone else's diaper.

The "dance space" is where they go when the weather is bad and they can't go to the park.

Self-help skills = very wet shirt.

I swear his head doesnt look this shiny in real life. He is getting some hair - promise.