HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY LIAM!

I’m so proud to say that we’ve successfully raised such a marvelous baby! My how the time has flown!

To celebrate, I’ve made a timeline of all of his recorded milestones from his first year! ENJOY!

19th December – Liam Was Born!
20th December – Liam Met Family And Friends
21st December – Liam Met Family And Friends
22nd December – Liam Met Family And Friends
23rd December – Liam Met Family And Friends
23rd December – My First Official Night Looking After Liam!
24th December – Liam Came Home From The Hospital.
25th December – First Family Gathering.
25th December – First Christmas.
25th December – Liam Met His Great Nana Amy and ‘Uncle’ Dez For The First Time.

1st January – Liam’s First New Years!
1st January – Liam Met Our Next Door Neighbours.
6th January – First Time Liam Was Breastfed in Public – Cafe Bonjournos Lunch.
7th January – First Time Liam Enjoyed Nursery Rhymes.
7th January – Liam’s First Full Day of Exclusively Breastfeeding.
10th January – First Vlog With Liam.
13th January – Liam’s First Official Photoshoot.
15th January – Liam’s Nails Were Clipped For The First Time.
15th January – Liam’s First Pram Outing To The Local Park. (First “Outside Time”.
16th January – Liam Slept For A 5 Hour Stretch For The First Time
16th January – Liam’s First 2 Hour Feeding Session. (First Time He Drained Both Breasts.)
18th January – Liam Could See His Lamb Mobile.
19th January – Liam Turned One Month Old.
20th January – Liam Weed On His Mum For the First Time (exterior) 😉
20th January – Liam wore A Headband For The First Time.
24th January – Liam Tasted (and hated) Hot Salami.
25th January – Liam’s First Shopping Trip.
25th January – Liam’s First ‘Picnic’.
25th January – Liam’s First Day Trip / Road trip.
26th January – Liam Joins Mealtime At The Family Table.
26th January – Gave Liam Tummy Time On Playmat In His Cot For The First Time.
26th January – Liam Tried Pink Lemonade For The First Time.
26th January – Liam’s First Near-Death Experience.
26th January – Liam Met my cousin Ryan and his wife Kathryn.
27th January – Liam Met His Great Auntie Lynne.
28th January – First Daddy / Son Dance.
28th January – Liam Started Staring At Me
29th January – Liam Slept For 8-9 Hours!
29th January – Liam Survived his first fall (Bed to bouncer)
30th January – Liam Slept Through The Night.
31st January – Liam Smiled At Me!
31st January – Liam Loves SINGAMAJIGS!
10th February – Liam’s First Train Ride
10th February – Liam’s First Playground
10th February – Liam’s First Slide.
13th February – Looked After Liam All By Myself!
15th February – Liam Learns To Smile Socially, and Begins To Play Games.
15th February – Liam Sleeps In His Cot.
16th February – Liam cried “ba”.
17th February – We Put Baby Bath In The Big Bath.
18th February – Liam can vocalize “ng”.
19th February – Liam Turned 2 Months Old!
20th February – Liam’s First Swing!
22nd February – Liam Took His First Photograph.
27th February – Liam Experienced Light Rain.
28th February – Liam’s First Cloth Diaper.
3rd March – Liam’s First Massive Smiling Session (With Michael.)
3rd March – Liam’s First Baby Massage And Stretch Session.
4th March – Liam Begins Playing With His Hands.
4th March – Liam Began To Drool.
4th March – Liam Fits 000 Clothes!
6th March – Officially Moved Liam From 0000 to 000.
6th March – Liam Went From Belly To Back.
6th March – Liam Started Sucking His Fingers.
7th March – Liam’s First Babysitter.
8th March – Liam Got His First Balloon Animal.
8th March – I walked with Liam In The Pram To The Shops. (2 Hour Round Trip.)
9th March – Liam and I Went Outside and Experienced Nature!
12th March – Liam’s First Pay Day (Arrears From Centrelink.)
15th March – Liam’s First (Assisted) Steps!
17th March – Liam Learns To Grasp With His Left Hand.
19th March – Liam Turns 3 Months Old!
19th March – Daddy / Son Matching Outfits.
19th March – Liam’s First Piggy Back Rides!
26th March – Liam Discovered His Feet and His Penis.
26th March – Liam Tried Icecream (And Liked It.)
26th March – Liam Enjoys His Mobile (And Prefers Eeyore.)
27th March – Liam’s Worked Out How To Pull Dummy Out (And Tries To Put It Back In.)
28th March – Liam Rolled Front To Back.
28th March – Liam Learnt To Splash.
28th March – Liam’s First In-Home Swimming Lesson.
28th march – First Daddy / Son Bath.
29th March – Liam Is 100 Days Old!
31st March – Liam Tried And Liked Banana!
1st April – Liam’s First Brown Poo.
1st April – Liam Began Playing With Toys On His Swing.
3rd April – Liam Turned His First Paige Of A Book “Pig The Pug”.
5th April – Liam Scoffed 3 Huge Gulps Of Coffee. (He Loved It.)
5th April – Liam Laughed For The First Game (‘Thrum Tika Ta’ Game.)
5th April – Liam Began Exploring The Texture, Look, and Feel Of My Boobs.
7th April – Liam Began To Baby Babble and Coo.
7th April – Liam Reacts Positively To People Saying “He He.”
10th April – Liam Learnt To Blow (and began pushing soothing fingers out his mouth by blowing on them.)
14th April – One Year Since Liam Was Conceived!
15th April – Liam Begins To Have Full “Conversations” With Michael And I.
16th April – Liam Discovered Fish In A Tank.
16th april – Liam Met Kiki For The First Time
16th April – Liam Tasted Mozzarella Cheese.
17th April – Liam Said “Ba”.
17th April – Liam Tasted Potato and Chicken (And Peri PEri Sauce) And Loved It.
17th April – Liam Plays New Games Involving Distnce, itch, Volume, and Speed.
17th April – Liam Learns To Blow Bubbles Out OF His Mouth.
17th April – Liam Began Making A “What The ….” Look When HE’s Unsure OF Something.
18th April – Massive Laughing Session With Michael.
18th April – Liam Begins To Appreciate derivations of “Peekaboo” and raspberry blowing.
18th April – Liam is Awake and Happy for around 3 hours straight!
18th April – Liam Begins To Request Tummy Time!
19th April – Liam Turns 4 Months Old
19th April – Liam Pulls Out My Hair, Plays With It, And Turns It Into A Hairball!
19th April – Michael Holds Liam By All 4s In 1 Hand.
19th April – Liam Went For Well Over 7 Hours Of Mostly Awake Time Without Requesting His Dummy.
19th April – Liam stops crying when he is shown a full bottle
19th April – Liam kicks me HARD in the arm for the first time.
19th April – Liam peed on his dad for the first time.
20th April – Liam discovers BACON!
20th April – Liam tried beetroot!
20th April – Liam tried egg!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIAM!

We can’t believe Liam is already a year old! He’s walking pretty confidently now, and has been for at least a month or two – we think he started walking around October – will confirm that and update soon. Liam weaned himself off of breastmilk altogether at 11 months. At the time he had a cold, and 2 weeks or so later his first 2 teeth came in (bottom front) so that may have had something to do with it. I haven’t completely dried up yet, and am considering switching to cows milk and adding some of my milk to boost the vitamins in there.

He’s in between size 00 and 0 clothes at the moment, but really he’d still be a 00. size 1’s are absolutely swimming on him. He’s having 3 meals a day now and there’s not much food he hasn’t tried honestly. He has quite a diverse pallate, and even likes raw onion, lemon, very hot salami, vindaloo, and chili! he has an aversion to mustard though 😛 He has 2 naps a day (but sometimes goes without one of them,) and has on average 2x 260ml bottles of formula, and water with most meals.

This month (besides the mountain of work I’ve been catching up on, I’ve been working hard on updating the baby book, now that just about finished with, and keeping on top of Liam’s milestones / my “good things” journal which I’ve successfully updated daily for the whole year 🙂 For his second year I’m aiming to do a photo a day journal – which will be a whole lot tougher!

Some other things Liam is doing include:

CLIMBING
learning to climb – he can currently climb the ottoman with enough determination, and has been seen climbing on toys, boxes, and cushions to try to get higher. He can’t quite get onto the couch from the floor unless the cushions are off or loose, and he can now climb up the couch arm rest from the seat part.
He’s also learning to climb the wrong way up a slide. He still crawls through doorways that are raised / lowered from the ground, and he’s trying to do headstands or summersaults it seems.

EXPLORING
He’s always picking up everything and exploring by touch, and his mouth – even rummaging in drawers now and learning to open cupboards and sliding doors. we are constantly telling him off for exploring the bin!

WANTING TO PLAY WITH ELECTRONICS
It’s funny because his dad is always playing with electronics, and did the same at Liam’s age. I’m not sure if he’s just copying or if he’s actually attracted to technology – it’s as if he knows what the things are for…

BABBLING
He has lots of new sounds – so many that I can’t write them all down or remember them all. 4 very recent ones are “baba”, “nan”, “nay” and “gah.” We think he’s on the verge of saying “no.”

USING TOOTHPASTE AND BRUSH
He’s now regularly using a tooth brush and actually has 2 of them now 🙂 We are getting him into the habit of brushing at least 1-2 times per day, and have just started baby toothpaste. He doesn’t usually like it, but what kid does?

USING A PILLOW
We noticed that when Liam was tired in the lounge room he would find a cushion and lay on it, so now he has his own thin monster pillow in the cot since his birthday.

FEEDING HIMSELF
Liam is now a very confident eater, and is trying to feed himself with a spoon. Sometimes he will refuse us feeding him because he wants to do it himself, so we try to give him a spoon to hold as we feed him, and when there’s not much left we guide his hand to let him try it himself. I’ve also been occasionally feeding him with a baby fork, and this week I’ve even used adult spoons once or twice. He knows how to drink from his water bottle with a straw, as long as the cap is open, though he can’t always remember that he needs to lie down to drink his bottles as he can’t hold the bottle high enough for the liquid to fall to the teat if he isn’t laying down. His next foodie challenge is tackling spaghetti strands. He laughs out loud now when he sees me slurping up spaghetti strand by strand.

He can now suck through regular straws, and can blow bubbles in drinks on occasion, but he’s starting to prefer other drinks to water, and will often refuse his water bottle now, or spit the water out and laugh. He loves milk based drinks, and the taste of coffee and chocolaty drinks – not that he’s ever had his own, or had much / had them often. He did try his first slushie in November and he LOVED it.

READING
Liam loves reading, opening books, and has just this week learnt to pull tabs and lift flaps.

MAKING MUSIC
Liam still loves music. This month he’s learnt to shake a maraca, bang a drum, and even strum a ukelele 🙂

PLAYING WITH WATER
He loves all things water, and bath time. The funniest thing he does in water is drink from the tap extension 😛

PLAYING WITH BLOCKS
He’s learnt to knock my block towers over – which he finds hilarious, and he can stick 2 bits of leggo together and take them apart now.

SHOWING AFFECTION
He’s really become social, and has little games he plays with people, like tilting his head to the side and wanting others to reciprocate, playing peek-a-boo, and blowing raspberries on people (especially my upper arm).

CLAPPING
He can clap now, and has just mastered Hi-fiving 🙂 Next steps are waving and baby sign language 🙂

BEING MORE TICKLISH
He realizes now that tickling is a game, so he reacts to chin, arm and feet tickles sometimes now, as well as just his belly.

HAVING REGULAR PLAYDATES
Liam’s having play dates with our photography clients. We’ve made a friend or two from the business, and he now sees a little girl called Marrissa about once a week / fortnight at a local play cafe 🙂 He also now interacts and plays with our little neighbours about once a fortnight. I’m hoping to start up a kids music group in Feb to get him some more kids to play with.

FAVOURITE COLOUR
We think it’s yellow at the moment

FAVOURITE SHAPE
Seems to be a circle / round

RIGHTY OR LEFTY?
I used to think lefty but now I’m thinkin’ righty.

WEIGHT
8.8kg(ish)

HEIGHT
77cm