More smiles, more active and Liam's first trip to Anokijig

It seems that after what feels like an eternity of waiting, Liam is finally entering that phase where it seems like he is taking in the world so eagerly, and learning and developing all these little new skills.

Sometimes progress comes in little things. Before I would have to sort of coerce his little chubby hands open and then put the rattle into his hand. Only then would he grip it, notice it, and shake it around. Now he seems to reach for it and grab it on purpose.

Three days ago Terry gave Liam his rattle (thank you Rachel for the gift that keeps on giving). For the first time, Liam transferred the rattle from one hand to the other. He then of course promptly dropped it, and he hasn't done it since. But even so it was a moment of excitement for us. We both crowded around him cooing. Liam's response was something like "yeah, I suppose, but have you seen how exciting the fan is?"

We are still dutifully doing tummy time. He usually hangs out for a while there before he gets fussy, so gains there come in small strides. He looks around interested at the stuff I put in front of him (trying to make the visual field interesting enough to justify lifting his head up, which really resembles push ups). Whenever we transition into and out of tummy time I roll him over so he gets introduced to the mechanics of rolling. When on his back he now does a lot of leg kicking and moving, which totally resembles pilates. A couple of times when he was particularly vigorous with his leg antics he has rocked himself over onto his side. Once he did it while I was sitting next to him, so I just gave him a little assist and helped him finish rolling over. So we are not ready to decree a roll yet, and it may still be some ways off, but we're working on it.

He now smiles much much more often. That alone makes all the difference. It is much more reactive. In addition to the smile you can get a nice long musical cooing sound going sometimes. Terry had him on the bed the other day and finally got him laughing from a sort of tickle. Terry would kiss his belly right where those hamhock thighs connect and Liam would break into a grin and "gooooo!" his little heart out. Terry had him going like that for a couple of minutes. Precious.

We also took the little guy up to Camp Anokijig for his first trip to camp. We volunteered at an open house event they were running.

McDonnell clan taking a family photo in front of the boat pier.

Standing in the very same spot we took a belly picture back when I was pregnant and we'd just started feeling the baby kick.

Liam in his camper onesie from Grammy Mac.

Little chilly in the morning so he's in his bear suit. Bear. Suit. That's right. Adorable.

And underneath that bear suit? Any true camper is a flannel man.








Obligatory photo at the Camp Anokijig sign. I've been taking pictures at this sign every time I visited camp since I was 8 years old. This one is a little Lion King style.