Mouther?!

'Bias went to Babies-r-Us today for what seems to be our weekly trip. I asked him to pick up some necessities on his way home from work. He got everything I asked him to get, but he added one necessity to the list that I had not thought of . . .

Never too early to start practicing

Opa- what does the official rule book say is the penalty for trying to eat the ball?!

Liam enjoying a break from training

Baby Björn

Thankfully Spring is here and we have time to go for walks in the evenings now. Today I decided to try Liam in his Baby Björn instead of the stroller. He seemed to enjoy seeing the world from a new perspective.

Unfortunately, he also seems to be having a hard time digesting the sweet potatoes . . . looks like it's time to try something new.

(For those that keep track of such things, Björn was one of the names I suggested for Liam before he was Liam. Tobias vetoed Björn almost as quickly as he vetoed Valjean.)

Sunday nap and walk

How Sunday naps have changed . . .

Just a quick look at how much Liam is growing.
His feet now hang out of his stroller.

Sweet potato

Liam got his first taste of real food today when he got to eat sweet potatoes. He ate them very enthusiastically. He kept reaching for the spoon to push it in his mouth. Each time I took the spoon out of for a refill he tried to follow it with his mouth.

I was so excited about Liam getting to try food that I forgot the bottle is supposed to come first. At least for today the men retired to the drawing room for after dinner drinks.

Sweet potatoes!!!

Keep 'em coming, Mom!!

After dinner drinks

Head and shoulders

One of Tobias' new games with Liam.
Pretty fun, as long as you are not Tobias' ear!! :)

Where?!

Poppa wins the caption competition . . . (Click to enlarge)

Counting sheep

It is really exciting to see how quickly Liam is starting to learn things. In the last couple days he has begun to hold his bottles. He can manage to keep control for about 30 seconds. Once it starts to fall he is beginning to start moving it back into place.

Yesterday evening Nanna told me that she put Liam in his swing and he began reaching for the sheep that are on the moving mobile. When I put in the swing today I remembered what Nanna told, but I was still surprised to see this . . .

Notice that he is holding one sheep that he already got down while reaching for the next.

Seriously, Mom?

This is one of the out takes from picture taking last night. I think the caption should be 'Seriously, Mom?'

6 month stats - way to GROW Liam

Liam tonight - totally wired! I thought shots and Tylenol made them tired?!

Liam went to the doctor today for his 6 month check. We were very happy to hear that we have a very healthy boy who has been GROWING. Liam has always been on the normal growth charts, but until today he as never been much above the 5th-10th percentile for his size and weight.

Length - 26.25 inches (66.7 cm) - 50th percentile
Weight - 15.3 pounds (6940 grams) - between 10th-25th percentile

The doctor said again that he only knows Liam was born at 33 weeks because his file tells him he did. He cannot look at him and tell he was premature at all. What great news!

Of course, another visit to the doctor means more vaccinations, but Liam handled all 4 very well. He didn't cry for more than about 15 seconds and he has been happy and playful this afternoon.

Fun in the exersaucer

Liam loves playing in his exersaucer. Every day he figures out something new with his toys. This weekend he discovered that he can get his mouth on everything. I tried to get a picture of him trying to devour his butterfly, but as soon as he saw the camera this is the look I got.

Come on, Mom. Can't I just eat my butterfly in peace?

Oh, look, the camera. This means smile!!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, back to eating . . .

6 months old

Liam is 6 months old today. He has his 6-month check-up with the doctor on Monday so we'll have official stats for you then.

His newest tricks include eating cereal, trying to sit up, rolling over (back to stomach and nearly stomach to back), drooling constantly, going on runs in his stroller, making lots of early talking sounds, grabbing, gnawing everything, and, of course, filling Mommy and Papi with love!!

Liam's passport application

We are now working on Liam's passport application. There is no difference in applications for infants and adults so we had some fun with some of our answers.

Name: Liam Christof Erich Janke
Occupation: Milk recycling engineer or
'He a baby' (Queen Latifa voice from SNL)
Eye Color: Too early to tell
Hair Color: Flesh, suffering from infantile male baldness or
'That cat is bald' (Brian Fellows from SNL)
Height: will be outdated before you process this application

Then comes the issue of the passport picture. We have not gone for his official picture yet, but we here are some of the poses we think are front runners.

Then and now

The past week or so has been one of those times when Tobias and I feel like Liam grew some every night. All of the sudden he looks bigger and he is doing new things. Here are some pictures that show his growth - then & now:

Bath time then (2 months old)
Bath time now (almost 6 months)
Liam looks bigger and 'Bias looks less tired!
As you can see, Liam is not interested in the camera anymore because he has discovered bath water!!

Shark attack then (1.5 months)

Shark attack now

In terms of new things, Liam is now rolling over, starting to recognize his name, beginning to help with diaper changes by lifting his legs 'up' and 'down' when we tell him, trying very hard to sit up, drinking 8 oz bottles (240 ml) and eating cereal twice a day . . . oh, and trying to eat anything that he can get near his mouth.

This picture was taken a few seconds before Liam sneezed on Tobias with a mouth full of cereal. Sensing the coming mess with his 'Spidy-sense' for messes, Tobias shielded with his hand. :)

Reading with Nanna

Liam gets to play with Nanna when I am working now. Today I got a sweet picture of them reading together.

Snow day - sort of

After two forecasts for snow the third time was the charm . . . or at least we thought. The snow started last night, as did the wind. And with that we lost power (as always). We usually lose power during hurricanes and Nor'easters, but not with snow. Being hot after a storm is not unusual, but being cold is. We lost power at 10:00 PM Sunday. By Monday morning the temperature in the house was 57 (13.8 Celcius). Tobias got the generator going and made sure we had the bare necessities . . . a fire, the deep freezer, the fridge, and the internet. It took until 7:00 PM tonight to get the power back on. Liam and I went to Mom and Dad's this afternoon since they did not lose power. Tobias stayed home to keep the home fire burning (literally). We are all now home again and enjoying the luxury of power!!!

The view of Granny's house from our living room

'Bias working in front of the fire

Object permanence

Liam is at the age where he will begin to establish object permanence. For now we can still distract him from things by turning his head when we need his attention moved. . . except for one thing . . . the TV with soccer on! This was Liam today while I was feeding him when the Bremen v. Bayern Munich game was on.

He didn't try to look when he had his bottle but as soon as he was upright to burp this is what happened . . .

But let the camera snap a couple times and you get to see a sweet boy!