Liam update

I keep wondering what it will feel like to sleep through an entire night again.  There are days when I definitely feel exhausted, but then others I just feel normal.  Is it just that night-time wakings have been happening for so long I dont know how to feel any other way? Or...is the day going to come that I sleep  an entire night and I'm going to come out of some exhausted fog that I didn't even realize I'd been in.  It is a mystery that is yet to be seen.  So the sleep department is still not where I want it to be with Liam, but it has improved since the past couple months of ear infections, sickness, teething, more sickness, more teething, and so on.  He now usually wakes up once at midnight, then at 3 or 4, and then usually wants to sleep being held from 6 o'clock on.  Sometimes I don't really know how good or bad a night was as I just fall asleep in the chair accidentally when I wake up with him.  It is nicer that Jeff can usually put him back to sleep now, so that gives me a little break.  When he was sick he would only let me be with him, so that is a most definite improvement.  As far as napping, he spoiled me last week and would take 3 hour naps every day, but I think he was just teasing me and getting my hopes up since he has gone back to just one nap for an hour and a half.  Nursing, yeah we are still nursing, enough said.

So on to his fun stuff...

Social:  He is super social, it's kind of rough on his anti-social parents.  My family was here a week ago to help us get our sprinkling system and grass in, and he loved it when everyone was here.  He was super low maintenance, hardly ever fussy, and really entertained himself well.  He loves it when there are lots of people to look at him, and applaud when he does anything cute.  He is always really sad when we have visitors and they leave, poor guy.

Speech (and other stuff):  He still talks mostly in his gibberish, but adds lots of intonation and different emphasis.  He is really into pointing at what he wants, and gets mad if you don't get what he means.  We do have a few words now.  He says mama, which he mainly uses when he wants something.  Then its the shriek of MAMA!  He has called Jeff dada as well.  His first really clear word was doggie, and he loves looking at doggies.  He doesn't really like being close to dogs, but will watch them for forever from a distance.  He also says shoes, and the kid has a shoe obsession.  I didn't really have any shoes for him, but recently was given a shipment of a ton of shoes from a cousin to use.  He then brought me shoes to try on for an hour.  The really funny thing was his favorite were these pair of Lightening McQueen slippers.  He loved them and would make us put them on him and he would just prance around the room like he was so cool.  Funny thing is he has never seen the movie, has no real reference to what it is (I've been trying to do the no TV before two).  He does have a Lightening McQueen walker/car, but thats it.  He had to have these slippers with him constantly for a while.  When we were walking they fell off his feet while he was in the stroller, and he just started sobbing.  It took me a while to realize that he was upset because he had lost his slippers.  So when I picked them up from the bottom of the stroller, you heard an audible sigh and smiled so big.

Motor:  Walking very proficiently.  Now starting to run quite well.  He can put different shapes into the holes of whatever those toys are called.  He loves pushing things, the stroller, the grocery cart.  He used to be so easy to shop with, and now he is a nightmare.

Swimming:  Yes, when you are me swimming gets its own category now.  Our new rec center just opened today!  Liam and I went swimming for the first time in quite a while, as Provo has had no pool opened for a while.  Liam loved it.  We were in the pool for two hours.  I was quite impressed.  He went under water on his own...accidentally, several times.  It never made him cry, but would kind of freak him out.  Definitely need to work on that.  We need to get it to where he enjoys it.  He loved jumping into the water to mama so that was lots of fun.  He also liked the slides and playing on the stairs.  Hopefully things will get even better now its summer time.  Woo hoo.