Saturday, July 25, 2020

Liam 8 months old

I know it's so cliche, but I really can't believe that Liam is growing up! The other day I looked at the date and was shocked to see it was the 22nd and that all of a sudden he was 8 months. 

At his 6 month check up he weighed 21 pounds, and he's probably right around there still. It's so much fun to see how different he is than Benjamin and Peter. Words I would use to describe him are intense, determined, focused, and serious. I think there's only one time I've heard him giggle (when a puppy licked his toes). Otherwise when he's happy he shrieks or spits. He communicates a lot by spitting. He also has certain sounds he makes for people. It's so cute to hear him call his brothers. 

3 weeks ago our renter got married and moved out. We were so sad to see her go! Liam was definitely ready for a nursery, though. It was hard having him in our room that whole time because he would wake up when we went to bed and woke up with us in the morning. It was also where he napped. Now he has his own room and a crib. He takes his naps in there really well. He still is on a nap-awake-nap-awake-nap-awake schedule, but it's starting to morph into 3 bigger naps. He usually has a nice long afternoon nap of 2-3 hours. At night he likes to nurse for a couple minutes then sleep for 30-60 minutes then repeat all night. We've been cracking down on that. The last few nights between 12-5 Lamoni goes in there and offers him a pacifier or bottle. He usually ends up screaming for an hour plus because of it. Since he's very determined and insistent it's taking him awhile to learn that he can sleep without nursing. Benjamin was a year before sleeping through the night, if I remember correctly, and I always told myself I would never let that happen again, and here we are at 8 months old with the same thing! I am a much nicer mom when I can get a few hours of sleep. :-)

Benjamin is such a help with him. This last week every morning he gets him up, the boys play with him and then Benjamin changes his diaper, takes off his owlet, gets him dressed and brings him downstairs! We found a safe way for him to go down the stairs with him - sitting and scooting down each step with Liam on his lap. It's really helpful for when I'm teaching and Liam wakes up. Benjamin brings him down and puts him on the play rug with toys. Liam spends most of his waking time on the toy rug.

A couple of Liam's cute quirks are sucking on noses and spitting. He grabs our faces and pulls them forcefully to his mouth and eats our nose. He thinks it's funny (but doesn't laugh of course). Spitting is a form of communication for him. It's so cute. I will be showered with spit sometimes when he's really excited about something.

He doesn't really eat much besides nurse. He enjoys sucking on fruit. We'll give him cut up apples or melons. At his 6 month checkup we told his doctor that he wouldn't eat *anything*. He would try a bite and then turn his head away and refuse any more. She suggested we try butter! It seemed so wrong to feed a baby straight softened butter, but he loved it and would beg for more and more. Now we mix butter with avocado or banana and he'll eat some. 

He is trying hard to figure out crawling and it probably a week out from getting it. He can get around really well scooting and rolling. He'll quickly cross the rug to get to Benjamin's cello, the kid's book shelf to pull all the books off, the computer cord and pulls it out of the computer... or really anything else that catches his interest. When we hold him he is always squirming and grabbing at things. He rarely sits still, but is always curious and grabbing things. I can't imagine when he's a toddler and can actually get to everything himself!

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