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Last weekend we hit up REI to get Liam a bike helmet. A cute little yellow Bell that looks far too large on him. We set him up in the bike trailer and went for a little family ride. Clare even agreed to get on her bike for a quick ride around the block!

While shopping for the bike helmet we discovered that Liam loves skaters. A kid was skating back and forth and Liam was enthralled. Each time the kid did a trick Liam would laugh his head off… and then stare intently at him, waiting for the next one. It was super cute!

Also in the news… the pool safety fence was installed. Boooooo! It’s really not too bad, though. Kinda neat that it can hold up to 300 pounds (the installer demonstrated by leaning back against it).

Happy Half Birthday to Liam! He is now six months old! He weighs almost 18 pounds and is 27 1/4 inches long. The doctor said he is very very strong (as she always says!) and is doing great. He is alot more active and squirmy, he really wants to crawl. He raises his arms to be picked up , which is often! He still loves to cuddle and has just been the happiest baby! He still gets lots of comments about his big eyes and big ears… he’ll grow into ‘em!

Liam can now sit up all by himself! Last Monday (Nov. 21/Week 24) he did it, after just a few days of practicing with me. He sits upright on the floor and plays with his toys, like a big boy! Just in time for the Christmas photos at Sears on Thursday. I think it’s time to try sitting him in the grocery cart… Here are some more cute photos from Week 25.

Through various experimentation, we have discovered Liam’s favorite word…. “kick.” He starts laughing his head off when he hears it. Switching back to the “Boo!” game has little or no effect.

Through continued tests on our son, we’ve discovered that he reacts in a similar fashion to the words “rick”, “mick”, “sick”, “pick”, “lick”, “brick”, and “wick”.

Here’s a video of Liam being cute, with the word. I, on the other hand, sound like an idiot.

Liam is fast approaching 5 months! He’s so much fun, he loves to play and be tickled and kissed! He’s still pretty high-maintenance, although he has been playing by himself more and more, especially in his activity center.
We’re still giving him new foods every 3 or 4 days. We’ve discovered he hates green foods (as most kids do I guess), loves squash and carrots, and isn’t quite sure about applesauce. Josh mashed up a banana for him and he loved that too. He still looks at our food, like he’s not fooled by the slop we’re giving him!
We’ve had to take Liam to the doctor several times because he just can’t shake this mild case of thrush, we’re on the third dose of Nystatin… But they did weigh him yesterday and he’s just shy of 17 pounds!

Liam is so happy that we finally gave him rice cereal. He’s been yelling at me for weeks now! It went really well and it seemed like he already knew what to do. He opened his mouth for the spoon, chewed (kinda) and swallowed. Of course, it got all over his face but he ate more than we expected. It’s once a day until he really gets the hang of it all, oatmeal next week, and veggies after that. Once he’s getting solids twice a day, the Dr. said he’ll sleep longer (fingers crossed!). You’ll see in the photos that he’s in The Bumbo instead of a highchair. Trina told me about it and it’s great; lets him sit on his own, and not slide out or around like a highchair might.

He had his four month checkup today, and it went pretty well. He weighs a little over 15 pounds (only 50th percentile) and is 26 inches long (90th percentile!). He got his shots too. From the symptoms he’s been displaying, the doctor does think he might have acid reflux so we got a prescription of Zantac. Poor little thing, that’s why he’s been such a fusspot. Apparently reflux is quite common at this age, but I bet he got it from his Mommy.

However, we did get the OK to start “solid” (mushy) foods! We’re going to try rice cereal this weekend. That should also help him sleep longer at night, since he’s only been doing 4 or 5 hours lately. He only did 8 hours for about a two week stretch- what happened!? The doctor thinks it’s because he’s still in our room, but I know he sleeps most soundly when he’s in our bed. I don’t know how well Liam and I are going to do with trying to have him sleep in his own crib! I don’t think it’s very fair to make a tiny little baby sleep in a big, dark room all by himself! It’s going to take a lot of patience for that transition…

Liam is now having long cooing conversations with us! and he is doing really well at grabbing for things. He loves grabbing for his new plastic keys, and Mr. Caterpillar, but lately he’s been most interested in my plastic water bottle!

I think he is really ready to eat real food. He always stares at us, fascinated, when we eat, and smacks his lips. It seems like he’s been fussing alot when he’s breastfeeding, almost in protest! I want to wait until our next doctor’s appt (16 weeks) before I give him anything, but it will most likely be rice cereal.

Trina, Mark and Miya Whiteley drove down to The O.C. for a visit over Labor Day weekend! We had alot of fun and we were so happy to finally meet little Miya who was born 6 days after Liam. She is terribly cute and such a good baby! When we finally laid them down on a blanket together outside, they held hands! Adorable. They might get married someday, who knows?!!
It was really great to see Trina since she’s one of my best friends from UC Santa Cruz. She lives in Palo Alto, so we don’t see each other often, but we accumulate a pretty good sized phone bill . It’s funny because the same things always happen to both of us, and at the same time- and now with both of us having babies- both C-sections no less, within a week of each other!? Weird… but as always, we have someone to talk to about it all!

Liam is 14 pounds! He gained 1 1/4 pounds in 2 weeks! I knew he was going through a growth spurt, with all the extra sleeping and eating he was doing! They weighed him when he got his second half of his shots yesterday

He’s finally excited about playing with toys now! He’s also been exploring his hands, staring at them, grabbing things; and is starting to make funny mouth noises, like clicking. It’s obvious he’s trying to talk and studies our mouths intently. He even looked envious when he saw me eating a cookie today!