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We went to the San Diego Zoo for my 30th birthday! It was great, a beautiful sunny, breezy day, wasn’t too crowded since it was a Friday. Liam liked it, but I think he is too young to really ‘get it.’ He was very excited t see the large cats because that was something he recognized, since he’s in love with our kitty at home. They were BIG kitties and pacing at the front of their cages so we got a real good look at them for a long time. He seemed to like the elephants and the alpacas too. There was a lot of walking involved since they spread out the animals so far, so we got tired pretty quickly. We didn’t see everything, but it’s okay because we bought year passes, so we can go back whenever we want to! We were there for over three hours, came home and Josh made me a birthday cake!!

We were starting to think he was going to go straight to walking! He’s been much more interested in standing and walking along the couch and other things. But finally (at Week 38) he crawled a few steps, waited a couple of weeks, then crawled across his room. He’s much happier now he has some freedom, but we’re teaching him the word “No” now! He’s pretty good, although he’s obsessed with the laptop and any wires associated, but he’s not hyper or unmanageable, which is a relief.

Liam is 9 months now, and is such a happy baby, and we have so much fun with him! He taught himself how to play peek-a-boo and now he puts everything on his head. He’s eating more table food (although I’m still nervous about it) and is learning to recognize more words. He now knows: kitty, jump, shake it, clap, yay, hi, bye, daddy, mommy, and is very good at waving to everyone in the grocery store He’s been babbling alot more too, which is fun because Liam has been pretty quiet these last few months.

Here’s a video of Liam’s first week of crawling (he’s much better at it now!). And here’s a video of him playing peek-a-boo!

At the beginning of March we all headed to Philadelphia. And I mean all. Grandma Ginny, Uncle Andy, his girlfriend Tara, Clare, Liam and myself. We went for my cousin Jennie’s wedding, to see all of the family coming to town for it, and to see Philly itself.

Liam was very well behaved on the flights, eventhough we were on a cramped little plane, near the back. Everyone on the plane (ok, not EVERYONE), commented on how well he was behaving. We checked in at the Downtown Courtyard Marriot. It was the nicest Courtyard we’ve ever been to! It was fairly chilly out, but we did take a look around the city.

The day after arriving was my cousin’s wedding. We had a great time. It was held at The Union League in Downtown Philadelphia. The UL is two hundred years old, and Abraham Lincoln was supposed to be there two days after he was shot. It was the original club for proponents of the Civil War. Gorgeous, old. Unfortunately, children were not invited to the wedding, so they all congregated up in a suite my Aunt booked. Pure chaos up there, let me tell you.

The next day we had brunch with the whole family, and then we all went nearby to my cousin’s house to visit with everyone. They had a birthday cake (two, actually!) for my mom. It was a great time, but too short.

Our last day in Philadelphia was spent sight-seeing. We took a narrated trolley around the city, which showed us all of the sights. We toured Independance Hall, where the Declaration was signed, saw Benjamin Franklin’s grave, the Liberty Bell, and Christ Church, which George Washington used to attend.

For our flight home we were in the very last row (though we had requested a few days earlier to be nearer the front), and Liam wasn’t feeling too well. It was a pretty miserable flight, and we were all glad to be home! We loved Philadelphia though, and had a great time with our family!