Developmental Update: Toilet paper, standing, spinning and more

It has been a while and I still havent even posted all the Christmas photos. And now there are a mountain of photos to go through from my 30th birthday and LIam's first birthday. But before the little bits of information are out of my head, here are a few details from the life of Liam.

While we were staying at the cabin for my birthday, Liam discovered toilet paper. Oh what fun to unroll it all over the floor and then toss it around!

For the entire middle of January he was busy standing on his own without support. We would put him down, say "stand" and he would stand for anywhere from 15 to 30 seconds before he would slowly crouch down and go off crawling. But this past week it is as though he is willfully resisting. If I try to put him down to stand he either goes straight down onto his knees, or he leans backwards into my hands so heavily that he is more inclined than perpendicular, so if I let him go he will fall immediately. Unclear why he is resisting it. But he can clearly still stand on his own, because when he forgets to resist he will let go of whatever he is holding onto in order to use both his hands to manipulate some little thing he finds interesting, and there he is standing.

He has also been fascinated this past week with spinning things. He goes through all his toys to see which ones will spin. He bats them back and forth between his chubby baby hands on the coffee table, watching his toy spin in circles between his hands. He LOVES to take the pot tops out of the cupboards and try spinning those around.

He has also developed a wide range of fascinating facial expressions. He already seems capable of expressing a complicated array of human emotion, including disbelief, incredulity, vaguely manipulative sorrow etc. He has become a master of the lower lip all sad and trembly. Woe woe to us if we cannot learn to resist that cute little face.

He has also started shaking his head back and forth, a gesture regular adults might recognize as "no." I'm not sure where he got this from, because I dont believe Terry or I shake our heads no with any frequency. But Liam picked it up or discovered it and now it is in his repertoire. The only thing is that it doesnt seem to actually mean "no." In the morning after he wakes up and I change him and sing his little morning song to him ("good morning to you, my little magoo, you look like a monkey and you smell like one too") I take him out into the living room. And there he sits, beaming smiles at me, sitting on my lap doing nothing in particular, and he starts shaking his head back and forth. It is almost as though he just enjoys the sensation of his brains sloshing around. Or while in his high chair he will sometimes shake his head with a big smile and a wide open mouth as he puts food in his mouth. Other times he will look at me very sternly and shake his head.

I'm clueless. It is a good thing that I have not been entrusted with deciphering and translating some important alien communications. Because my baby's use of a seemingly simple gesture baffles me.

We've been doing baby signs with him for eons now it seems and still he does not sign back. Or at the very least, he does nothing the baby sign guide books suggest, like doing some poor immitation of the sign or repeating the sign back to me when I do it, or trying to make the sign at any appropriate time. For example: the sign for more is tapping the fingers of your two hands together in the center. If made messily, it sort of looks like bumping your own fists together or clasping hands. I do more with liam while he is eating (do you want MORE food?), after one book (do you want MORE reading?) or in the tub (do you want MORE water?). But he only seems to grasp his hands together while laying on his back having his diaper changed. And it seems more introspective (hey look, hand, other hand. wow) than communicative (hey mom! i'm looking at you, I want you to do something). And if it were to mean more, what in heavens name would he want? more diaper cream? more diapers, one isn't enough?

He has been having a grand time playing with his birthday presents. Terry and I got him a little cozy coup walker, so he pushes it around and around the island in our kitchen, smiling broadly, and occasionally taking breaks to open cabinets. He also loves the Learn and Groove table that he got from Grandma and Grandpa McDonnell (it was a Christmas present that we just got down here because we couldnt bring it back with us from Carolina in our luggage).

Thats all for now. Hopefully some more photos soon!

Baby's First Pickle

As a young teenager I remember my cousin Delaney's first Thanksgiving. I remember it so well because in front of the entire gathered family, they gave baby Delaney a pickle, and she made the most dramatic, hysterical face. Maybe it is a bit sadistic of me, but I've been looking forward to giving Liam his first pickle at the holidays in front of my family in the grand family tradition. He has such expressive faces, I was sure his reaction would be a riot.

But actually, what is most remarkable about his reaction is how non-plussed he seems to be. In fact, I stopped recording after a while because it was just a baby eating a pickle. And after the end of this record, he goes on to snarf most of a pickle, even picking up and preferring the pickle pieces to his favorite: blueberries. Really? a baby who prefers a pickle over fruit? What worldly little taste buds :)




Update: Liam is STILL a pickle monster. Pickles are his new favorite food. At lunch most days he gets one third to one half of a Vlassic dill pickle cut up into cubes. If I'm lucky I can sneak some of his "real" lunch into his open maw while he's busy shoveling pickle cubes in as fast as his chubby fingers will allow.

Triplets Playdate

Shortly after we found out I was pregnant, I had the totally unanticipated urge to know other women who were also pregnant for the first time, to have someone else going through all of this for the first time. Most of my friends in Chicago already had babies. But I found out through Facebook that a friend of mine from back in high school was not only pregnant, she was pregnant with triplets!

Erinn kept a very excellent blog of her pregnancy that has transformed into a lovingly chronicled narrative of life with triplets. Their blog Merrits Plus Three is a great read for anyone into baby blogs.

Erinn was on bedrest for a while, and her boys wound up being born just two weeks after Liam. They also did some time in a NICU before they got to go home. And now they are just as lively and cute as can be! Being able to read about Erinn going through the experience of an early birth and NICU time was very therapeutic for me, it has made me realize a lot of my feelings and worries are normal and common among moms with preemies.

Over Christmas break we took Liam over to meet the triplets one afternoon. Although every day is like a playgroup when you have three babies, Liam was the first unrelated baby friend the triplets had over...their first playdate!


Cooper crawls through the exersaucer to check out Liam


Noah hanging out in the toy box.


Discovering quickly how tough it is to get a good picture of four mobile little babies.


Cooper hamming it up for the camera


Little Noah makes a break for it, with Cooper hot on his trail

Liam Goes Bowling

We had so much fun bowling with Keith and Emily's family over Thanksgiving, that we wanted to give it a try with the McDonnells over Christmas. So we got the whole crew together the day after Christmas and went to a really nice, very family-friendly bowling alley. Good times were had by all.





Liam gets tickled by Grammy


Liam and Uncle Larry have a meeting of the minds.


The whole crew.

The Annual "Brupper" tradition with the McDonnells

"Brupper" (breakfast for supper) has become something of a Christmas tradition at the McDonnell household. In one of the days before Christmas, all of Denyse's family who live locally get together in their jammies to eat pancakes, sing songs, play games and be festive. There's almost always a signature drink (this year it was the maple-tini). There's also a gift swap/steal game that involves dice and small gifts under $3. It is a really wonderful time and always nice to be surrounded by such great family members. I really struck gold when I married into this clan, and Liam is one lucky boy to grow up with so many fun relatives!


Pop making the traditional pancakes, with sous chef Jack.


Everybody wears their PJs for Brupper, so Grammy McDonnell got Liam a cute pair of jammies for the occasion.


Liam with Aunt Bri


Terry with Kalie, the very much grown up flower girl from our wedding.


Connor, our grown up ring bearer, now plays the guitar.
He played along as the group sang Christmas carols.


The whole crew in their jammies
(minus Jenny and Brian who came after Liam went to bed)

Visiting the McDonnell Clan

Over the holidays we got to spend a week with the McDonnell family, which was lots of fun. Liam got to see Aunt Bri and Uncle Jesse for the first time since he was just a little lump of potatoes last spring. This time he was an interactive little charmer.

Grammy Mac Makes Liam Laugh



Reclining on Aunt Bri's lap is very comfy.
Maybe someone could feed me peeled grapes?


Hanging out with Grammy. I like racing down the hallway and then going up and down stairs (with Grammy's help).


Taking my bottle on mommy's lap. I like looking out the window at the golfers.

Liam Laughs with GG Pfingsten

Liam also got to log some quality time with my Grandma Pfingsten. I was surprised at what a great baby comic she was, but she really yucked it up with Liam and had him in gales of laughter.


Giving Grammy a big smooch!



and that constant baby favorite, the "swing"