Liam turns 10 months old!

It has been a long time since my last blog entry.  Many factors have contributed to my absence, from travels, busy life, and lack of free time raising two wonderful kiddos.  Honestly I can't believe 5 months has flown by as fast as it has, moreover that it is 10 months from today that Liam was born!  It is even more shocking that Liam is so close to turning a year old, time needs to slow down!
The past 5 months was full of adventures and family fun from Christmas, Bush/Woodall/Barrett annual Beaver Creek Ski trip, Valentines Day, my parents visit, and Easter.  Over this time Liam went from being a baby you hold in your arms to a mobile active bigger baby on his way any day now to be a toddler.
Liam is very active, around 6 months old he began to stand against furniture and use it to side step around the living room.  It seems he no longer wants to army crawl and roll as way of mobility, but rather go from one piece of furniture to another.  When he does get up on his hands and knees I call him towards me, he will move one hand and knee forward and then sit back on his bum or try to do a downward dog into a standing position.  He is so determined to walk and we believe he is going to just skip crawling all together and go right to walking.  Lets just say he has become an excellent side stepper!  These pics show him making his way around the room via exer-saucer.

Liam or Lee Lee as I and O like to call him is the sweetest baby and absolute joy!  As you can see in pics he is always smiling and happy and that pretty much sums up his personality all the time.  He is very easy going, can be held by anyone, and left to play with his toys all by himself.  Very low maintenance with an occasional need to get some lovin from Mommy, by holding out his arms for a hug, snuggle and kisses.  His little laughs and ear to ear smiles are contagious and he literally makes people stop in their tracks just to interact with him.  I even find myself smiling more often throughout the day because of him.  Not sure I could love anyone or anything more, he holds a special kind of love in my heart that I have never felt before.  Not saying I don't love my husband, daughter, or rest of family any more or less, it is just different.  My own sister warned me of this and that there is nothing else more like the love and bond between a Mother and Son.  I totally get it now.

L has been teething since he was 4 months old.  It started with one of the front bottom teeth and then it seemed like overnight he had all his top and bottom teeth, except molars.  Due to this there was a couple of rough nights sleep because he was in pain with all those little teeth coming in at once, poor little guy.  But since he has most of his teeth his sleep is back on track for the most part.  He goes to bed around O's bedtime and is asleep by 8:30 pm.  He wakes up as early as 6 am or as late as 8:30 am.  I love the mornings when it is close to 8! :)  I won't lie there is some random nights were he wakes up at 3 am.  He also takes a nap in the afternoon from 1:00-4:30 pm, which is very similar to the schedule O was on at this age.  Thank the heavens we have children that are relatively good sleepers, we feel like we won the lottery on that one.

Besides sleeping and snuggling, L loves to eat!  He devours his bottles, which is 4 6oz bottles a day, currently we are increasing the night time bottle to 8oz.  He also receives breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the form of baby food I make.  So far bananas and sweet potatoes seem to be his favorite.  He also seems to enjoy blueberries, mango, strawberries, carrots, and apples.  Avocado not so much, unless it is guacamole.  I think we might have another Mexican food lover on our hands.  But really his favorite thing to eat is pizza crust.  We found this out in March when my parents were visiting they gave him their crust at dinner.  I was a little afraid of the chocking hazard, but we haven't had any problems so far.  I am sure sucking and gnawing on the crust feels good on his teeth.  Actually I have had more problems with chocking on store bought teething cookies and crackers.

Liam loves pizza crust so much that I made a batch of crust just for him when we made pizza from scratch at home.  He couldn't be happier, the boy loves his carbs!

Liam playing with my hairdressers son while I get my hair done

 By doing his side step action around the furniture L gets really excited when he finds a new piece of furniture.  On this day he found a seat I bought for him while I was pregnant.  He looked so cute in it and it melted my heart when he started to act like he was reading.  He is such a smart and observant little guy!
He is also an ever growing little guy, for a long time now he has been wearing 9-12 months clothing.  Although due to his increased activity level he has tapered off on gaining weight.  He has even lost some baby fat in his legs, which makes me sad, but at least he fits into pj legs better.  Today at his 9 month checkup on his 10 B-Day (oops, I forgot to set up an appointment) he weighed 21 lbs., which is only two more lbs. than he weighed at his February check up.  Putting him in the 49% for weight, now he is just average, ha!  Although for height and head circumference he is still way above average with 29 1/2 (78%) height and 18 1/2 (86%) for head.  Cha has been concerned of the size and shape of L's head, but the pediatrician said he looks fine and that size is based on genetics, ahhem...Daddy's big head. ;)
Overall L is progressing as he should and is right on track.  We couldn't be happier and are truly blessed to have this special boy in our life!  He is simply a ray of sunshine!