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.

09.28.09 ~ Making Progress!

I think that *technically* we can call this crawling. Notice how he isn't doing the roll-to-his-side thing anymore to move forward and is instead using his arms and legs. Though, I do feel confident that this is just a middle step and that he will soon lift his belly up for a proper crawl.

Making Progress! from Nina Philipsen Hetzner on Vimeo.

09.25.09 ~ Liam is 10 Months Old Today!

The trick with the sign doesn't work so well anymore!

Last weekend Liam and I went to Baltimore to attend Hannah and Toros’s wedding ceremony. It was small since it was just Hannah’s Dad, Toros’s parents and brother, my parents, Helki, Aunt Martha, Liam, and me in attendance. Hannah had encouraged everyone else not to come so that they could instead attend the big wedding reception she and Toros are planning for next spring. So they kept this ceremony nice and simple. They were married at the courthouse in Ellicott City and then we celebrated by having cake at our parents house and dinner near Silver Spring. The ceremony was beautiful because Hannah and Toros both looked so genuinely happy. Hannah was gorgeous in her white sundress… it was just as beautiful, if not more, than any formal wedding gown. Liam had no idea what was going on – but I am happy that one day I can tell him that he was there when his Aunt Hannah and Uncle Toros officially tied the knot.

The weekend was a little rough on Liam’s schedule – as traveling usually is – because all of his naps and bedtimes were totally thrown off. He came out to dinner with us on Friday and was awake way past his bed time. However, contrary to my expectations, he handled it beautifully. Although he was tired, he was very happy sitting on my Dad’s lap and tasting all of the food from his plate. Every once in a while Hannah or Helki came and took him from my dad to go outside for a quick change of scenery. He chatted and played and didn’t fuss at all. It wasn’t until we got back to the house after dinner and I was trying to get him in bed that he got cranky and started crying. Saturday was also packed with activity since we met Hannah and Toros for a tour of the Butterfly Exhibit in Wheaton and then had lunch with them. Later that night we went to Aunt Martha’s house for dinner. Liam really enjoyed the park and the butterflies – and, again, was delighted at lunch when my dad let him try tortilla chips and refried beans. But by dinner time, Liam wasn’t holding up as well as the night before. Luckily it wasn’t a late night and we were home relatively early. He slept really well that night. Over the course of Friday and Saturday Liam and my Dad seemed to really bond. Liam was very happy sitting in his lap or exploring the yard with him. My Dad would scoop him up anytime he started getting fussy and would have him engaged him something new and quiet again within seconds. And Liam started looking to him like he does to me and Jason. For example, if there was a loud noise or a stranger, he would check my Dad’s face for his reaction to make sure that everything was ok.

On Sunday we went to Jason’s Dad’s house for breakfast and had a delicious bacon and eggs breakfast. Ron and Joan had a Ravens outfit ready and waiting for Liam - so we suited him up for game day. After breakfast we sat in the living room and played with Liam on the floor. Liam was on his back staring up at his granddad who had him cracking up just by making faces at him. Then Jason’s mom picked us up and we headed down to her house to see everyone there. Jessica, Gram, Aunt Bar, and Ethan and Emily were there so we took the boys out to the backyard to play in the warm fall weather. Liam’s Nana and Gram gave him a whole box of new fall clothes – very, very generous as they always are – to replace all of his now-snug summer clothes. Now Liam has cute, new – and warm! – outfits to wear to school. The afternoon at the Steeles flew by and soon it was time to go back to the train station. Tim drove as Carol sat in the back and tried to keep Liam awake until we got to the train. The idea was that he would fall asleep once we were on and sleep for a good portion of the ride. Yet, despite all her best efforts at performing and entertaining, Liam fell asleep in the car anyway. At the train station we successfully moved him from the car seat into the Ergo carrier, said our goodbyes, boarded the train, and found a seat without waking him. But as the train started moving I noticed (much to my horror) that we were sitting in the quiet car. This was ok as long as Liam was sleeping, but within a half hour he was awake and squawking. I collected a few of our things to serve as a placeholder (and left all of our luggage in the quiet car), put Liam back in the Ergo, and started wondering around the jam-packed, standing room only, train to find a new (and baby-squawking-appropriate) seat for us. We walked all the way to the back of the train and to the front again and found nothing open. On the way back to the dreaded quiet car, I noticed a family of three (parents and a baby) sitting in the four family seats that face each other. I explained our situation to the mom and practically begged to sit with them – even though it would be crowded. Of course they said yes, so I put my purse on the seat and went back to the front to retrieve the rest of our luggage. As soon as Liam was out of his Ergo and settled into our new seating arrangement his mood lifted and he stopped fussing. It turned out that the baby we were sitting with was only a week apart from Liam in age so her mom and I had a lot to talk about and compare. The rest of the train ride went by quickly and peacefully.

All in all I’ll chalk this weekend up as a success: Hannah got married, Liam got to check in with all of his grandparents, and I had managed to travel to get Liam to and from Baltimore in one piece all by myself.

P.S. Liam had a doctor's appointment on Monday. He measured 18 lbs 11oz (13th percentile) and 29.5 inches long (85th percentile). We're pretty sure that there is a little bit of measurement error in either this length measurement or the last since it's quite a jump in percentile.

09.15.09 ~ VEGAS (without) BABY!

This past weekend I left Liam overnight (for two nights actually) for the first time. I flew to Vegas for Pia's bachelorette party while Jason stayed home with Liam. It was awful to have to say bye to him and leave for the airport alone. But, when I went to bed Friday night (in a cozy hotel bed instead of our living room futon) knowing I wouldn't have to wake up until I wanted to, I have to admit that it was kind of nice. It was also nice to have drinks in the afternoon by the pool, get dressed up, go out, and spend time with my friends. The downsides were having to pump and throw breast milk down the drain and wondering the whole weekend what Liam thought had happened to his mama. Apparently, back in New York, Liam did have a bit of a rough time during the first night. After having been put to bed by Jason and getting his midnight feeding from Jason (yes, I'm publically admitting he still wakes up once per night), I think he realized something was up. He woke up at 4am crying uncontrollably. Jason had a hard time consoling him until he started singing Liam's song which seemed to help. Then, after that crying jag, Liam and Jason reportedly had a really nice weekend together. It was comforting to know that Jason was able to console him - but simultaneously disturbing that it only took one song to help Liam recover after the sudden disappearance of his mother. However, when I made my reappearance on Sunday evening, Liam's greeting did not disappoint. He smiled and squealed and basically hurled himself across the room into my arms. He has been very affectionate and cuddly with me ever since then. He's been giving me lots of his slobbery open mouth "kisses" and has been nursing for extra long. I thought maybe this would translate into separation anxiety when I dropped him off at school this morning. But he started playing and I walked out without him shedding one tear, as usual. And when I came back he was happy to see me and eager to be picked up - also as usual. It was Jason who experienced the big change. When he was at the door about to go to work on Monday, Liam spun around in his high chair, looked at his dad, and started crying. He was reaching for Jason and clearly didn’t want him to leave. It seems the weekend provided quality father-son bonding time!

I thought that maybe Liam would learn to crawl while I was away over the weekend, but no such luck. Liam still can't crawl... but maybe that's because he's working on talking instead!

Uh-Oh! from Nina Philipsen Hetzner on Vimeo.

09.09.09 ~ Barely Mobile. Barely.

Barely Mobile from Nina Philipsen Hetzner on Vimeo.

08.24.09 ~ One more thing...

...I forgot a tooth update in the last posting. Liam now has 4 teeth on top, and 2 on the bottom.

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!

08.07.09 ~ Skinny Turkey

We went to the pediatrician on Tuesday for a well-baby check-up and got new stats on Liam. He’s now 17 lbs. and 8 oz. (13th percentile) and 28 inches long (56th percentile). Dr. ZBar said that she isn’t worried about his weight, but, at the same time, we don’t need to hold back at all in terms of feeding him. She said to give him lots of avocado and egg yolks (it’s the egg whites that you have to hold off until a year). She also said we could start feeding him whole milk yogurt in the next few weeks (yogurt and cheese are ok around 8 or 9 months, but you have to wait for a year to introduce cow’s milk). And now we can also start giving him protein, like beans and meat. So far we haven’t tried any of the new stuff, but I’ve been trying to stuff our skinny turkey with avocado and fresh summer fruit.

We had a little set-back a couple of weeks ago when he caught a stomach bug with fever and diarrhea and didn’t want to eat anything (and only nurse) for almost a week. Aside from that, Liam has been getting a bit more enthusiastic about the solid foods lately. So far we’ve given him mostly homemade fruit (apples, pears, banana, peach, kiwi, plum, blueberry, cherry) and veggie (winter and summer squash, zucchini, carrot, sweet potato, green beans, peas, cauliflower, avocado) purées. Sometime I mix the purée with either baby cereal or with breast milk or both. Or sometimes I mix two fruits together, like plums (which are pretty bitter) and banana. This past week I’ve also started giving him those little baby cereal puffs. It is so funny to watch him chew them up with his gums. And he’ll eat them only if I put it directly in his mouth. If I put one on the table or in his hand, he just plays with it. I don’t think he’s made the connection that he can feed himself yet.

Liam is also currently battling an eye infection in both eyes. Dr. Zbar gave us a prescription for antibiotic eye drops (they don’t absorb systemically, she assured us). However, she did say that most eye infections are viral and that the drops may not be helpful at all. We’ve been pinning Liam down and forcing his eyes open to put drops in them three times per day since Tuesday. I can’t tell yet whether his eyes actually look any better – if anything, they just haven’t gotten worse.

This week Liam’s August babysitter, Sarah, started coming for 12 hours per week. The childcare center is closed for the summer in August, and I didn’t want to give up a whole month of dissertating, so we hired one of the master’s students from the National Center for Children and Families. She was here for two six-hour days this past week. I was at school with my boobs filling up with milk when I realized that six hours is the longest I have ever been away from Liam in one stretch. Luckily, Sarah seems to be very attentive and loving with him, so I don’t think I need to worry. And I know I can consider myself very lucky since many moms must be away from their (often much younger) children for much longer.

Last weekend we rented a car and took a day trip to Mantoloking to visit Dirk, Wesley, Nik, and Sven at Wesley’s family beach house. It was so great to see them and to introduce them to Liam. Here are a few pictures:

07.29.09 ~ Liam Turned 8 Months Old! (Saturday)

Learning How to Wave:

07.19.09 ~ Cool Shades, Flamingo

Jason, Liam, and I just got back from a wonderful and relaxing week on the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Like last year, we went with Jason’s Mom’s side of the family and stayed in a big house just off the beach. This year we were an even bigger group of 15 people and two dogs. Liam had a full week packed with of his two favorite things: the outdoors and attention. Not surprisingly, Liam loved playing in the sand and water on the beach. On the beach and by the pool at the house, Jason’s mom and Tim set up baby pools for Liam and Ethan to play in so that they could enjoy the water in the shade. Occasionally we also took them down to stick their toes in the ocean water. Liam was slightly concerned about the waves, but not actually scared. He stared at the water coming in and rushing back out and made little “oooh oooooh” sounds. When we tried to put his feet in the water, he would only commit one foot and hold the other up like a little flamingo. In the baby pool on the beach he carefully sucked the salt water off all of his beach toys. Soon he learned he could use his shovel as a spoon, which resulted in a lovely diaper full of diarrhea later that evening.

Liam’s Nana took over quite a bit of his care (changing, bathing, and playing with him) so Jason and I got a break and were able to kick our feet up and relax. In the evenings when Liam was in bed, we played cards, watched movies, played mini-golf, and had a few cocktails (all activities at which Jason excels). In the mornings, when Liam’s internal alarm clock woke him at the usual 6am, we dropped Liam and his diaper bag off with Carol and Tim, rolled over, and went back to sleep. Bliss.

Liam also got to spend time with his little cousin Ethan. By the end of the week they seemed to recognize each other and (reportedly) greeted each other happily in the mornings. (Ethan was also dropped off with Carol in Tim each morning). We had been hoping that Liam would learn to crawl from Ethan over the course of the week. Instead, it was Ethan that picked up Liam’s terradactyl screech. Unfortunately, not as useful as crawling.

At the same time last year and in that same house I was less than 20 weeks pregnant, we didn’t know the sex of the baby yet, and we spent endless hours talking about what it would be like to have two babies along for the vacation a year from then. So much has happened in the last year since that first trip to the Outer Banks. Not only did we find out the sex of the baby, we went through the rest of the pregnancy, his crazy birth, my crazy recovery, and we’ve started the wonderful process of getting to know Liam. Now, at 7 and ½ months, he has so much personality and life. There we were one full year later, again on the Outer Banks, living all the things we had talked about one year ago.

And here is Liam’s tooth progress: two on the bottom totally in, the top left just popped through, and the top right looks like it will be here very soon!

And a few pictures of Liam at school during the month of June: