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