Play? Or is it?

Every day the boys are playing together more and more. Liam is still not happy about sharing his toys and Luke is still trying to grab everything his brother has but they truly seem to have a good time together. They especially like to wrestle. I'm not sure where they learned that but I am guessing it's an inate boy thing. Luke is the one who generally initiates it by going over to Liam and getting in his face. It usually starts off fine - they are both laughing - but it nearly always ends with Luke falling over, cracking his head on the floor and crying. I suspect in about 6 months Liam may be the one to end up on the sorry side.

Keep it coming

Luke loves to feed himself. He is always much happier eating when it is something he can put in his mouth instead of being fed to him on a spoon. If I want to get something into him with a spoon, I make sure he's got something in his hand as well and just sneak it in. Beside cheerios, he like pieces of banana and string cheese, rice, beans and peas.

Last week we noticed that Luke would start getting fussy for no apparent reason - all his needs like naps, bottles, and meals were being met - or so we thought. I finally thought to give him a snack of cheerios in his highchair and he went town, polishing them off in a few minutes.

Hmmm...snacks! This kid needs snacks!

I figured he was so good with his hands he could handle one of Liam's Snack Trap cups (It has a perforated lid that kids can put hands in to get the snack without the snack spilling out.) and he figured it out immediately. He loves it! I attached it to his car seat on Friday and I could hear him eating and making umm umm noises. I looked in my rearview and saw that his eyes were closed. He was sleep eating!

9 Month Check-Up

Luke turned 9 months on Monday and just as he did, he accomplished two things. First: His belly-crawl became a real crawl - up on his hands and knees. When he wants to move fast, he still gets down on his belly and hauls himself across the floor but he is getting very adept at the real thing. Second: He is pulling himself up to standing. Imagine my surprise when I went in to get him from his nap and there he was standing up in his crib. He hasn't really figured out that if he lets go he will fall over though. He keeps pulling himself up on the toy box, losing his balance and then crashing over. Either that or Liam is pushing him over. Sometimes when my back is turned it's really hard to tell which.

9 month check-up stats were:
Weight - 21lbs 12 ounces, 60th percentile
Length - 29 inches, 70th percentile

Brothers - Friends

It amazing to watch Liam and Luke interact and play with each other. From Day 1, Luke has watched everything his big brother does. Now he follows Liam around and tries to grab anything he has. If Liam is eating, Luke wants to eat too. If Liam is playing with a toy, Luke wants to play with it. The trouble is Liam does not always like to share. Even if he is not playing with a particular toy and Luke starts to play with it, Liam will go and take it from him and say "share!" (Hmm...Liam...that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.) In the instance of this video though, he was quite happy to let his brother come and try to get his sippy cup and make a game of it.

Now we are two

This is the face of a two year old. A preschooler. A little boy. My baby is gone. Sigh.

Liam turned two yesterday and something has changed. It's been happening over the last few weeks really but it is like he has suddenly left babyhood behind. He is more content to entertain himself and his brother, he is able to communicate what he wants, his likes and dislikes and make deliberate choices. He has had fewer and fewer tantrums and has been listening better and wanting to please. He actually picked up his blocks today when I asked him the first time. Well, he got through about half of them before getting distracted but that's a huge start!

Over the weekend we had a two family parties for him. At the first, his cousins Quincy and Chloe and friend Ava were there so we had Sesame Street decorations and an Elmo pinata. Liam didn't really understand what the pinata was but Chloe, who is 3, gave Elmo a great big hug and told him "Elmo, you have candy in you" before she bashed him over the head.

Box-o-fun

Luke's new car seat arrived yesterday and it came in a great big box. What more fun can there be? Liam started dragging it around, rolling it over on all sides and beating on it like a drum. And then I suggested to him that it could be a house. Well, that was it. He climbed right inside until I dragged him out for dinner. This morning I cut out a door and windows and he was in absolute heaven. He even ate his lunch in it. When I put Luke down on the floor nearby, he immediately hauled himself over to it and squealed for his brother. The two of them playing together is just the best. I don't think I even got the best footage - when Luke tried to get inside and Liam tried to shut the door on him.

The Nurturer

We've known all along that Liam is a truly sweet child and now he is showing us just how much. He has grown quite fond of his stuffed bunny and has begun to take care of him like we take care of his baby brother Luke. A few weeks ago he started taking the changing mat, wipe box and a diaper out of my bag and laying bunny down on the mat. He then pulls one wipe out of the box and wipes bunny down with it. He can't really manage to get the diaper on him so he puts it on top of him and comes to get me to do it. He also puts bunny in the highchair to feed him and calls him "kiki" which is what he calls Luke. The topper was last week though when he disappeared and started saying loudly "ba ba" which means bath. Daddy got up to see where he was and found him in the bathroom holding bunny by the ears - in the toilet. Bunny got a bath alright - straight into the washing machine.