Just a few quick updates (especially since he's hanging around right here trying to help type).
This morning I was motivated by the Montessori in the Home (0-3) book I've been reading, so I started teaching Liam to drink from a regular open cup. The book recommends that a shot glass is a good size for small hands, so I used the plastic shot glasses that we have, and I poured a little bit at a time, and much to my surprise he was great! He picked it up with two hands, and took a big gulp. The only problem is that he's like a little Ghanaian. When Ghanaians perform a ceremony honoring their ancestors, they drink from a common cup and then the last person pours the rest out on the ground as a "libation" to the ancestors. You get the picture already. Liam drinks about half of the water and then like a Ghanaian pouring libation, he tips the cup upside down and pours the rest out on the tray of his high chair.
We also seem to be very very close to walking. There are a couple times when I have caught him taking a step or two between the couch and coffee table. But no amount of excited persuading will get him to walk between me and terry. The minute he isnt holding onto one of us he looks at the distance, judges it too great, and carefully gets down onto his knees to crawl. But he has gotten progressively steadier when walking with assistance (using his push cart) and can now walk well just holding one of our hands at his side.
The other thing we've been working on is intentional pointing. Part of getting his communication skills going is him giving intentional indications of what he wants. Even if he isnt doing the official signs, pointing will get going. So today I started a game of excitedly pointing at the Cheerios box during snack time. I made super enthusiastic faces and said "Cheerios? Cheerios?!" and pointed at the box repeatedly. First he just laughed at me, but as soon as he pointed to the box, I rewarded him with cheerios. We did it three times and each time he eventually pointed at the box. I'm hoping with consistent practice he'll become a pointer, and we can use that to start to make sense in his head that he can use sounds and gestures to communicate his desires to other people.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Early Intervention Services
This is a strange bittersweet thing to write. But then again I suppose much of parenthood is, almost by definition, about the strange and unexpected convocation of emotions.
Some of you may know already that I have been pressing to have Liam evaluated for delayed communication. Many people have told me not to worry, or that there is nothing wrong with him, or that I am over-reacting and he will develop in his own sweet time. At times, I have doubted myself, because I certainly don't want to be some infant version of the soccer mom incessantly pushing him at all times. But I couldn't shake this nagging feeling that something wasn't quite right.
In lots of areas he seemed on, or at least keeping pace with his due date (in which his "adjusted age" will be one year in five days). He was crawling well, pulling up, scooting around on furniture, and showing every sign of interest in walking soon. He uses his little fingers to manipulate small objects. Cognitively, he seemed like a little baby engineer (with perhaps a speciality in hydraulics): he can turn on the faucet, make the tub go from faucet to shower, flush the toilet, turn off and on the light switch, turn on Terry's XBOX on the console or using the remote, turn on the television with the remote, and make the phone's ringer volume go up by pushing a button.
But for the life of me, he does not show signs of communication. I have been doing baby signs with him since he was 7 months old. Terry and his other caregivers do as well. We consistently sign "milk" "eat" "more" and "all done." I have now been doing this for six months. He shows not an indication in the world that he either understands the signs or wants to sign them back. (Though I should mention that terry swears that last night he signed milk back to terry before his good night sippy cup of milk).
He does not seem to understand any verbal communication, though he does react to the words "no" and "Liam." But other children his age seem to be displaying an increasing understanding of a variety of nouns, which they show by their reactions or movement (looking towards the book, crawling towards the book, showing a facial expression at the mention of the word book). Liam is attentive to people when they talk, but the content of what they say doesn't seem to produce any variation in the expression of that attention.
So it was with all that on my heart that I pressed our pediatrician to submit him for evaluation in the Tennessee early intervention program. In the initial short screening, he showed that he was delayed on communication, but doing fine on everything else. So he went forward for a full evaluation. The caseworker just called today to tell me that his evaluation shows him to be 40% delayed in communication, but on target for everything else.
The good news is that 40% is the magic number that means we will qualify for TEIS to pay for his therapy services. Which I suppose it far better than finding out that your kid is 38% delayed, and so wont qualify for state aid to help cover the therapy services. But it is a horribly bittersweet thing personally. I pushed for this because if my son needs it, I want him to have everything he can have to enable him to be the best Liam he can be. But as his mother my heart is so very heavy and sad and guilty to have in front of me objective "proof" that he is developmentally delayed. Somehow I want soon to feel free of the terrible burden of guilt that I felt when he was born early, when my body betrayed us both and I couldn't keep him in for as long as he needed to do the developing he should have done. And most days I don't feel the heavy burden of that guilt the way I felt it in the early days. But now it is weighing on me again, because somewhere between his preemie start and whatever nurturing I have given him, it just wasn't enough, and so somehow both of those things feel like my fault.
I felt such a strange mix of emotions hearing her tell me he was 40% delayed, and that she was going to come by the house on friday so we could set goals for his next year and talk about getting "services" in to help him reach those goals. And I was so happy for him that he will get all the help he needs and that I don't have to worry that he needs help but we can't afford to pay for it privately. And it wasn't until later, calling to tell my mom the news, that my chin started quivering and my voice broke and I cried a little. I suppose I wasn't really crying for Liam, I'm not sure he knows yet what he is missing. And he's such a happy little guy. So maybe I was just being selfish and crying for myself. Because more than anything I want to know this little person. I want to know what he thinks about, and what he wants. I want to understand him and let him understand the world around him, and understand me.
Some of you may know already that I have been pressing to have Liam evaluated for delayed communication. Many people have told me not to worry, or that there is nothing wrong with him, or that I am over-reacting and he will develop in his own sweet time. At times, I have doubted myself, because I certainly don't want to be some infant version of the soccer mom incessantly pushing him at all times. But I couldn't shake this nagging feeling that something wasn't quite right.
In lots of areas he seemed on, or at least keeping pace with his due date (in which his "adjusted age" will be one year in five days). He was crawling well, pulling up, scooting around on furniture, and showing every sign of interest in walking soon. He uses his little fingers to manipulate small objects. Cognitively, he seemed like a little baby engineer (with perhaps a speciality in hydraulics): he can turn on the faucet, make the tub go from faucet to shower, flush the toilet, turn off and on the light switch, turn on Terry's XBOX on the console or using the remote, turn on the television with the remote, and make the phone's ringer volume go up by pushing a button.
But for the life of me, he does not show signs of communication. I have been doing baby signs with him since he was 7 months old. Terry and his other caregivers do as well. We consistently sign "milk" "eat" "more" and "all done." I have now been doing this for six months. He shows not an indication in the world that he either understands the signs or wants to sign them back. (Though I should mention that terry swears that last night he signed milk back to terry before his good night sippy cup of milk).
He does not seem to understand any verbal communication, though he does react to the words "no" and "Liam." But other children his age seem to be displaying an increasing understanding of a variety of nouns, which they show by their reactions or movement (looking towards the book, crawling towards the book, showing a facial expression at the mention of the word book). Liam is attentive to people when they talk, but the content of what they say doesn't seem to produce any variation in the expression of that attention.
So it was with all that on my heart that I pressed our pediatrician to submit him for evaluation in the Tennessee early intervention program. In the initial short screening, he showed that he was delayed on communication, but doing fine on everything else. So he went forward for a full evaluation. The caseworker just called today to tell me that his evaluation shows him to be 40% delayed in communication, but on target for everything else.
The good news is that 40% is the magic number that means we will qualify for TEIS to pay for his therapy services. Which I suppose it far better than finding out that your kid is 38% delayed, and so wont qualify for state aid to help cover the therapy services. But it is a horribly bittersweet thing personally. I pushed for this because if my son needs it, I want him to have everything he can have to enable him to be the best Liam he can be. But as his mother my heart is so very heavy and sad and guilty to have in front of me objective "proof" that he is developmentally delayed. Somehow I want soon to feel free of the terrible burden of guilt that I felt when he was born early, when my body betrayed us both and I couldn't keep him in for as long as he needed to do the developing he should have done. And most days I don't feel the heavy burden of that guilt the way I felt it in the early days. But now it is weighing on me again, because somewhere between his preemie start and whatever nurturing I have given him, it just wasn't enough, and so somehow both of those things feel like my fault.
I felt such a strange mix of emotions hearing her tell me he was 40% delayed, and that she was going to come by the house on friday so we could set goals for his next year and talk about getting "services" in to help him reach those goals. And I was so happy for him that he will get all the help he needs and that I don't have to worry that he needs help but we can't afford to pay for it privately. And it wasn't until later, calling to tell my mom the news, that my chin started quivering and my voice broke and I cried a little. I suppose I wasn't really crying for Liam, I'm not sure he knows yet what he is missing. And he's such a happy little guy. So maybe I was just being selfish and crying for myself. Because more than anything I want to know this little person. I want to know what he thinks about, and what he wants. I want to understand him and let him understand the world around him, and understand me.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
A day in the life...
Today was a great and tiring day.
First I got up and went to the gym for my saturday morning ritual: Zumba at the YMCA. It is a class of approximately 120 folks shaking it and getting down to loud latin and hip hop music while sweating profusely but generally smiling.
I got home to quick shower and then head out with Terry and Liam to drop Liam off at the house of another mom from my mom's club. We have a babysitting coop in the club, so we can swap free babysitting with each other. Although he is sometimes showing a bit of separation anxiety, he was immediately in love with the whole family. He's met Lauren (the mom) and Lottie (the daughter) and Lem (baby) before, but this was his first time meeting Hank (the dad) and Liam had an immediate man crush. He made a goofy grin, crawled right to Hank, and just started playing.
Then Terry and I went off for a nice relaxing couples massage. An hour later I felt almost drunk I was so peaced out. Blissful and more relaxed, we went out for lunch. I've been plotting this lunch for seriously months and months. As part of my ongoing "lose the baby weight" campaign (yes yes, it has been too long. I don't want to hear it) I decided I would get a Five Guys Burger when I lost half the weight and kept it off for a set period of time. So today was the day to celebrate that halfway point (actually more than halfway now). So Terry and I got Five Guys, and split a coke and cajun fries. It was a near religious experience. I have never eaten a burger so slowly, eyes rolling back in my head from total joy. It felt a little strange to get a massage at a wholistic healing spa with scented oils and a vegan yogi giving the massage, and then transition to high fat fast food burger, but man, divine.
Then we went to pick up Liam who was up from his nap and playing with Lauren, Lem and Hank. Liam was sitting in Hanks lap happy as a clam knocking down block towers. We wound up hanging out at their house and talking for more than an hour. Turns out they are both also graduated Wahoos (University of Virginia) so of course Terry was immediately bonded. They are just fun wonderful people who are easy to talk to. It made for a wonderful way to pass the early afternoon.
We got home and poor tired Liam went down for nap #3 of the day. He has been down to two, or sometimes one, naps daily. but he only took a short mini-nap while at Lauren's, so he went down for a third. It was a beautiful afternoon, seemingly the first true spring day in Nashville.
So Terry fired up the baby monitor, mixed two margaritas, and we went outside to sit on our deck in the sunshine and soak in the 50 plus degree day. I put my feet in his lap and we talked for a while. it was just slow and nice. Then he got the genius idea to play bocce ball in our clover-overgrown lawn...so we did. We have a sort of bumpy, uneven, sometimes soft lawn that is a thicket of clover that is probably 4 inches high in places right now. It has random hills and small valleys all over the place, so half the time you couldn't even see where the little yellow ball landed. Terry was beating me early on, I made a dramatic come back, got within one point of winning, then he came back and took the game in the end. It was fantastic.
Then the baby woke up, and it was still sunny, though a bit cooler, so we decided to take him to the playground. While I was putting his shoes on, he got impatient and slammed his head back into my jaw while trying to squirm off my lap. As I write this six hours later it still hurts like heck. So after some ice and Ibuprofen, we took him to the playground near our house for about 45 minutes of swinging, sliding, climbing, and chasing the older kids. Liam is enamored of older kids, especially older boys. He likes nothing better than chasing after them and trying to do what they are doing. So he crawled up to the stairs where some kindergarteners were running around. I explained to the kids that he came over because he really likes older kids. One of the boys was particularly interested, and fully of questions: why did he like school kids? why did he want to do what they were doing? And he took a little liking to Liam as well, making fun faces at him and seeming quite pleased when Liam smiled and goooed at him.
We got home and I made Liam a little baby version of Indian curry (thats what Terry and I were having for dinner later on, but ours was spicy and not remotely ready to eat yet). I mixed up steamed carrot, red pepper, peas, and potatoes with brown rice, mixed curry powder, ginger powder, garlic and garam masal together with plain yogurt, and stirred it all together. He's been practicing more and more with using a spoon, but he doesnt yet understand the concept of balancing it upright, so I try to offer him things that are thick enough that they are easy to get onto the spoon (eg by dipping rather than scooping), and hard to get off of it (eg by flinging or tipping upside down en route to his mouth).
After dinner he was a terrible mess. But I've made peace with the idea that in order for him to have room to practice and learn life skills, there will be some mess involved.
So I took him into the bathroom to wash his hands (and face...and ears...and hair). And on the way out he started squirming towards the wall. I stopped walking, and he reached out...and turned off the light. WooHOO!
Months ago, after he showed such interest in turning the water faucet on and off, I tried for a while to teach him about turning the lights on and off. But at the time he didn't seem interested. While I was trying to hand-over-hand him into turning the lights, he was turned around looking at the faucet and trying to reach out for it still. So I call out to Terry excited to tell him about the lights thing. And he calls back "Oh yeah, I was showing him that and he started doing it yesterday or today." All casual he says it. And I just smile, while the lights phase on and off, on and off. The baby just goes in slowly and carefully with his little pincher grip out, grabs the switch, and carefully flipping it up and down. Can we say ADORABLE?!
First I got up and went to the gym for my saturday morning ritual: Zumba at the YMCA. It is a class of approximately 120 folks shaking it and getting down to loud latin and hip hop music while sweating profusely but generally smiling.
I got home to quick shower and then head out with Terry and Liam to drop Liam off at the house of another mom from my mom's club. We have a babysitting coop in the club, so we can swap free babysitting with each other. Although he is sometimes showing a bit of separation anxiety, he was immediately in love with the whole family. He's met Lauren (the mom) and Lottie (the daughter) and Lem (baby) before, but this was his first time meeting Hank (the dad) and Liam had an immediate man crush. He made a goofy grin, crawled right to Hank, and just started playing.
Then Terry and I went off for a nice relaxing couples massage. An hour later I felt almost drunk I was so peaced out. Blissful and more relaxed, we went out for lunch. I've been plotting this lunch for seriously months and months. As part of my ongoing "lose the baby weight" campaign (yes yes, it has been too long. I don't want to hear it) I decided I would get a Five Guys Burger when I lost half the weight and kept it off for a set period of time. So today was the day to celebrate that halfway point (actually more than halfway now). So Terry and I got Five Guys, and split a coke and cajun fries. It was a near religious experience. I have never eaten a burger so slowly, eyes rolling back in my head from total joy. It felt a little strange to get a massage at a wholistic healing spa with scented oils and a vegan yogi giving the massage, and then transition to high fat fast food burger, but man, divine.
Then we went to pick up Liam who was up from his nap and playing with Lauren, Lem and Hank. Liam was sitting in Hanks lap happy as a clam knocking down block towers. We wound up hanging out at their house and talking for more than an hour. Turns out they are both also graduated Wahoos (University of Virginia) so of course Terry was immediately bonded. They are just fun wonderful people who are easy to talk to. It made for a wonderful way to pass the early afternoon.
We got home and poor tired Liam went down for nap #3 of the day. He has been down to two, or sometimes one, naps daily. but he only took a short mini-nap while at Lauren's, so he went down for a third. It was a beautiful afternoon, seemingly the first true spring day in Nashville.
So Terry fired up the baby monitor, mixed two margaritas, and we went outside to sit on our deck in the sunshine and soak in the 50 plus degree day. I put my feet in his lap and we talked for a while. it was just slow and nice. Then he got the genius idea to play bocce ball in our clover-overgrown lawn...so we did. We have a sort of bumpy, uneven, sometimes soft lawn that is a thicket of clover that is probably 4 inches high in places right now. It has random hills and small valleys all over the place, so half the time you couldn't even see where the little yellow ball landed. Terry was beating me early on, I made a dramatic come back, got within one point of winning, then he came back and took the game in the end. It was fantastic.
Then the baby woke up, and it was still sunny, though a bit cooler, so we decided to take him to the playground. While I was putting his shoes on, he got impatient and slammed his head back into my jaw while trying to squirm off my lap. As I write this six hours later it still hurts like heck. So after some ice and Ibuprofen, we took him to the playground near our house for about 45 minutes of swinging, sliding, climbing, and chasing the older kids. Liam is enamored of older kids, especially older boys. He likes nothing better than chasing after them and trying to do what they are doing. So he crawled up to the stairs where some kindergarteners were running around. I explained to the kids that he came over because he really likes older kids. One of the boys was particularly interested, and fully of questions: why did he like school kids? why did he want to do what they were doing? And he took a little liking to Liam as well, making fun faces at him and seeming quite pleased when Liam smiled and goooed at him.
We got home and I made Liam a little baby version of Indian curry (thats what Terry and I were having for dinner later on, but ours was spicy and not remotely ready to eat yet). I mixed up steamed carrot, red pepper, peas, and potatoes with brown rice, mixed curry powder, ginger powder, garlic and garam masal together with plain yogurt, and stirred it all together. He's been practicing more and more with using a spoon, but he doesnt yet understand the concept of balancing it upright, so I try to offer him things that are thick enough that they are easy to get onto the spoon (eg by dipping rather than scooping), and hard to get off of it (eg by flinging or tipping upside down en route to his mouth).
After dinner he was a terrible mess. But I've made peace with the idea that in order for him to have room to practice and learn life skills, there will be some mess involved.
So I took him into the bathroom to wash his hands (and face...and ears...and hair). And on the way out he started squirming towards the wall. I stopped walking, and he reached out...and turned off the light. WooHOO!
Months ago, after he showed such interest in turning the water faucet on and off, I tried for a while to teach him about turning the lights on and off. But at the time he didn't seem interested. While I was trying to hand-over-hand him into turning the lights, he was turned around looking at the faucet and trying to reach out for it still. So I call out to Terry excited to tell him about the lights thing. And he calls back "Oh yeah, I was showing him that and he started doing it yesterday or today." All casual he says it. And I just smile, while the lights phase on and off, on and off. The baby just goes in slowly and carefully with his little pincher grip out, grabs the switch, and carefully flipping it up and down. Can we say ADORABLE?!
Friday, March 5, 2010
MOMs Club
Since we moved to Nashville, I've been active in the MOMs Club of East Nashville. It is a pretty amazing organization that is a super active group of about 40 moms and kids. They have activities almost every day of the week, including playgroups for each birth year, large group activities, story time, picnics, stroller walks, craft activities and more. There are weekly brunches, a pizza making pot luck, a morning muffin party and a monthly night out for the mamas (last month I went wall climbing!).
I worked with a friend to put together a website for the club, so I thought I would share the link so any of you who are curious could see a bit more about what it was all about. If you are interested, you can check out the national organization to see if there is a chapter near you.
I worked with a friend to put together a website for the club, so I thought I would share the link so any of you who are curious could see a bit more about what it was all about. If you are interested, you can check out the national organization to see if there is a chapter near you.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Playgroup and the evolving social self...
I realize that what I write in retrospect about events is so much more basic than the narrative that runs in my head as things are actually happening, or immediately afterwards. And that is a shame. Sometimes it is nice to capture the actual rich texture, complete with minor details, even if it means posting without pictures, or writing about the minute elements of life.
And so it was with this week's playgroup. The MOMs Club that I am in is VERY active. They have an event nearly every day of the week, including weekly playgroups that meet based on birth year (so we're in the 2009 group). This week the playgroup was hosted by Katie, mama to Rowan who was also born in January of 2009. We haven't seen Katie and Rowan for months, so it was a reunion of sorts for the boys, who suddenly found themselves much more in possession of little personalities and better able to move around than last time. And suddenly they were thick as thieves.
When we walked in Rowan was sitting in the middle of a 3 foot by 3 foot inflatable square pool (no water though), happy as a clam to be climbing in and out of it. And just like that Liam charged over, all smiles and squeals of glee. He leaned on the soft inflated side of the pool along with Benjamin (who is younger, maybe 8 months?). And though they were just babies, it had the feel of young boys playing king of the mountain.
For a while Liam and Rowan sort of chased each other around the room. I would not have said that Liam usually plays with other babies, and the books all say that truly collaborative play doesn't really happen until they are much older. But it was obvious that the boys were really checking each other out. At one point, for about three or five minutes, they just sat very close to each other and sort of gently poked and prodded one another in turn. Liam would press his index finger gently into Rowan's cheek. Rowan patted Liam's hair, and then Liam patted Rowan's hair. Tapping each other on the shoulder, pulling at each other's shirt.
Both boys are exceedingly well tempered kiddos quick with a giggle or a smile. So much so that another one of the mamas who has a younger son commented that she hoped her kiddo grew up to be as happy as those two.
At one point the two boys took to crawling through the long soft tunnel in the middle of the room. For a while they went in circles politely treating the tunnel like a one-way street. But then at some point both boys started down the tunnel at the same time from opposite directions. About a quarter of the way in, they both seemed to realize it. They stopped crawling and erupted into squeals of laughter. Then they apparently decided to charge, because from the outside as we watched the tunnel suddenly looked like a large blue worm with the hiccups as both boys plodded towards the center laughing like crazy. I can't even say for certain what happened when they met in the middle (was it like a particle collider? did they start a black hole?) but the soft blue tunnel roiled, and there was laughter, and little baby knees and elbows occasionally dimpled the fabric. And in the end two happy babies came back out.
It was really the first moment of observing Liam as an increasingly social human being. Before this playgroup I had only really ever seen him engage in play with Cora. He plays often with Cora, his number one gal pal. And clearly they like each other and move to greet one another when he gets to her house. But when he is there it is just the two babies and they play together even though they have very different styles. He is boisterous and physical, eager to muscle around and over things. She is a bit more intentional and cerebral and delicate. Liam is glad to squish and pound his food just to see how it will splat. Cora can eat an entire meal without needing a bib because she can eat so delicately. When I have seen them play together, it seems often that they are drawn together around an object of play (often this script takes the form of "Oh you are playing with that and therefore I think that looks really interesting...hmmm....give me that...[grab]").
When I saw him chasing around with Rowan, it seemed more like Rowan was the object of play.
A similar thing happened today when we went to Monkey Joes today. The MOMs Club has an outing monthly or so, at least during the cold winter months. It is sort of like a Chucky Cheeses geared towards kids mostly under 6, but it is entirely filled with those giant inflated castles and slides and jumping rooms. I wasnt sure how Liam would fare, but ecstacy is putting it too mildly.
He was in heaven. His first lap around the simple inflated jumping room was tentative, but once he got the hang of crawling up and over the scalloped floor, and discovered he could bounce around a little, there was no stopping him. But one of his favorite things was chasing around the older boys. We spent some time in a large inflated castle type thing, and at one point a group of three and four year old boys came in. Liam's face just lit up. As the group of three boys tussled and ran around, Liam squealed and crawled after them, looking for all the world like he fully intended to be involved in their play. Once the boys fell down in a heap as they slipped over the scalloped floor and Liam redoubled his crawling speed so he could plow into the heap as well. I suppose as a sociologist I shouldn't say this, but I am floored at what a little man's man he is already. I will write more about the Monkey Joe's experience when I post pictures.
And so it was with this week's playgroup. The MOMs Club that I am in is VERY active. They have an event nearly every day of the week, including weekly playgroups that meet based on birth year (so we're in the 2009 group). This week the playgroup was hosted by Katie, mama to Rowan who was also born in January of 2009. We haven't seen Katie and Rowan for months, so it was a reunion of sorts for the boys, who suddenly found themselves much more in possession of little personalities and better able to move around than last time. And suddenly they were thick as thieves.
When we walked in Rowan was sitting in the middle of a 3 foot by 3 foot inflatable square pool (no water though), happy as a clam to be climbing in and out of it. And just like that Liam charged over, all smiles and squeals of glee. He leaned on the soft inflated side of the pool along with Benjamin (who is younger, maybe 8 months?). And though they were just babies, it had the feel of young boys playing king of the mountain.
For a while Liam and Rowan sort of chased each other around the room. I would not have said that Liam usually plays with other babies, and the books all say that truly collaborative play doesn't really happen until they are much older. But it was obvious that the boys were really checking each other out. At one point, for about three or five minutes, they just sat very close to each other and sort of gently poked and prodded one another in turn. Liam would press his index finger gently into Rowan's cheek. Rowan patted Liam's hair, and then Liam patted Rowan's hair. Tapping each other on the shoulder, pulling at each other's shirt.
Both boys are exceedingly well tempered kiddos quick with a giggle or a smile. So much so that another one of the mamas who has a younger son commented that she hoped her kiddo grew up to be as happy as those two.
At one point the two boys took to crawling through the long soft tunnel in the middle of the room. For a while they went in circles politely treating the tunnel like a one-way street. But then at some point both boys started down the tunnel at the same time from opposite directions. About a quarter of the way in, they both seemed to realize it. They stopped crawling and erupted into squeals of laughter. Then they apparently decided to charge, because from the outside as we watched the tunnel suddenly looked like a large blue worm with the hiccups as both boys plodded towards the center laughing like crazy. I can't even say for certain what happened when they met in the middle (was it like a particle collider? did they start a black hole?) but the soft blue tunnel roiled, and there was laughter, and little baby knees and elbows occasionally dimpled the fabric. And in the end two happy babies came back out.
It was really the first moment of observing Liam as an increasingly social human being. Before this playgroup I had only really ever seen him engage in play with Cora. He plays often with Cora, his number one gal pal. And clearly they like each other and move to greet one another when he gets to her house. But when he is there it is just the two babies and they play together even though they have very different styles. He is boisterous and physical, eager to muscle around and over things. She is a bit more intentional and cerebral and delicate. Liam is glad to squish and pound his food just to see how it will splat. Cora can eat an entire meal without needing a bib because she can eat so delicately. When I have seen them play together, it seems often that they are drawn together around an object of play (often this script takes the form of "Oh you are playing with that and therefore I think that looks really interesting...hmmm....give me that...[grab]").
When I saw him chasing around with Rowan, it seemed more like Rowan was the object of play.
A similar thing happened today when we went to Monkey Joes today. The MOMs Club has an outing monthly or so, at least during the cold winter months. It is sort of like a Chucky Cheeses geared towards kids mostly under 6, but it is entirely filled with those giant inflated castles and slides and jumping rooms. I wasnt sure how Liam would fare, but ecstacy is putting it too mildly.
He was in heaven. His first lap around the simple inflated jumping room was tentative, but once he got the hang of crawling up and over the scalloped floor, and discovered he could bounce around a little, there was no stopping him. But one of his favorite things was chasing around the older boys. We spent some time in a large inflated castle type thing, and at one point a group of three and four year old boys came in. Liam's face just lit up. As the group of three boys tussled and ran around, Liam squealed and crawled after them, looking for all the world like he fully intended to be involved in their play. Once the boys fell down in a heap as they slipped over the scalloped floor and Liam redoubled his crawling speed so he could plow into the heap as well. I suppose as a sociologist I shouldn't say this, but I am floored at what a little man's man he is already. I will write more about the Monkey Joe's experience when I post pictures.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Independent Standing
The week before my 30th birthday Liam began standing independently. He wouldn't push himself up from the ground, but if he pulled up on something he could then let go and stand for a few seconds. Terry and I would make a game out of it, setting him up and then letting him stand and balance by himself. Sometimes we'll count out loud how long he's been standing. And whenever he decides he's done we clap for him.
During my birthday weekend he set a record, standing by himself for thirty seconds before he got down!
Just after his first birthday he seemed to start boycotting independent standing. When I would try to set him up and let him go he would lean heavily back into me, so that he was almost horizontal and if I took my hands off his back he'd flop over unceremoniously. This boycott went on for about a week. During that time, the only times I saw him stand independently would be when he was leaning against the coffee table and wanted to pick something up with both his hands. Without really realizing he was doing it, then he'd be standing a bit apart from the table intently examining whatever had caught his fancy. Soon he'd realize he was standing, and very cautiously he would slowly squat down to a kneeling position. But in the past few days he has started independent standing again, and seems like he may be ready to take some dramatic first steps (perhaps more like stuntman dives) soon.
Here's an video of Liam's early standing efforts.
During my birthday weekend he set a record, standing by himself for thirty seconds before he got down!
Just after his first birthday he seemed to start boycotting independent standing. When I would try to set him up and let him go he would lean heavily back into me, so that he was almost horizontal and if I took my hands off his back he'd flop over unceremoniously. This boycott went on for about a week. During that time, the only times I saw him stand independently would be when he was leaning against the coffee table and wanted to pick something up with both his hands. Without really realizing he was doing it, then he'd be standing a bit apart from the table intently examining whatever had caught his fancy. Soon he'd realize he was standing, and very cautiously he would slowly squat down to a kneeling position. But in the past few days he has started independent standing again, and seems like he may be ready to take some dramatic first steps (perhaps more like stuntman dives) soon.
Here's an video of Liam's early standing efforts.
Liam's First Birthday
Grandma Schultz came into town for Liam's first birthday, but she just barely made it, because even as I drove to the airport to pick her up, the flurries had begun. Nashville doesn't usually get much snow, so the city more or less shuts down when it gets even an inch. But the weekend of Liam's first birthday we got SIX INCHES! It kept us at home on Friday (ice + no salt = dangerous even for a chicago girl) so I didn't get to go out and get the birthday decorations I had wanted. No balloons, no streamers, no party hat for the birthday boy. I was feeling seriously bummed. I was committed to not going overboard for his birthday (ahem, no pony and clown etc). But still I had wanted to make it a fun and festive and memorable occasion. After all, a baby only turns one once.
And I knew also that the snow might mean that no one else would come. I thought our next door neighbors would brave the trek, but all of Liam's friends from playgroup seemed unlikely to come.
So it was with great happiness that I got a few emails that morning saying that some of his friends who lived nearby were going to brave the snow! In the end it wound up being a wonderful group of folks and just the right size that none of the babies got overwhelmed. Liam's gal pal Cora came with her mom Ariana. Dillon, a february girl from Liam's playgroup, came with her mom and dad. Quetzal Sol, a march baby from Liam's group, made the trip out with his mom and dad. There were babies crawling all over the place, chasing balloons, crawling under the coffee table and hiding out together, and shaking noisy toys. It was delightful.
Singing Happy Birthday (aka Flame Swallower)
Liam Eats Cake
Birthday boy with mom and dad
Eats cupcake
Liam LOVED the balloons. He chased them all over the house with glee.
Liam and Core play with Liam's new Leap Frog table
And I knew also that the snow might mean that no one else would come. I thought our next door neighbors would brave the trek, but all of Liam's friends from playgroup seemed unlikely to come.
So it was with great happiness that I got a few emails that morning saying that some of his friends who lived nearby were going to brave the snow! In the end it wound up being a wonderful group of folks and just the right size that none of the babies got overwhelmed. Liam's gal pal Cora came with her mom Ariana. Dillon, a february girl from Liam's playgroup, came with her mom and dad. Quetzal Sol, a march baby from Liam's group, made the trip out with his mom and dad. There were babies crawling all over the place, chasing balloons, crawling under the coffee table and hiding out together, and shaking noisy toys. It was delightful.
Singing Happy Birthday (aka Flame Swallower)
Liam Eats Cake
Birthday boy with mom and dad
Eats cupcake
Liam LOVED the balloons. He chased them all over the house with glee.
Liam and Core play with Liam's new Leap Frog table
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