Our little moth and German engineering

Tobias has a new nickname for Liam - unsere Motte (moth). He is attracted to anything that lights up . . . even if that means possible injury. We are on our toes these days . . .

Our little moth going after Tobias' computer

And now for something totally different . . . Tobias bought his car from an Audi dealership in Virginia Beach. It's a long drive any time he has to get work done on his car. Last night he got a warning that his left brake light was out. So, being Tobias, he got the manual out to see how to change the light bulb. He was very disappointed when it said, 'cars now have increasingly complicated design. Please go to your local Audi dealer to get your light bulb changed.' Tobias was NOT willing to drive to Virginia Beach for this, so he decided to snoop around.

I had to laugh when he came (nearly) running inside saying, 'this is beautiful German engineering to a "T"!' He looked around the lights, saw on big screw, wondered what it did. Unscrewed it and the entire light assembly came easily out. Tobias pointed out it was not like American cars (which have require much swearing and effort on his part). Everything simply came out and went back in - no tugging, no pulling, no bleeding, no swearing.

I asked him why the manual said to take it to the dealer if it was, indeed, engineered to be so easily fixed. To which he replied, 'they knew the people reading this manual were not Germans.'

Human jungle gym

Liam is quite the explorer these days. He isn't still for more than 10 seconds unless he is sleeping. He now thinks anyone on the floor is his personal jungle gym. This is why stretching after a run is so much fun now!

The Boston Bunns

Rob and Ginger posted this picture on their blog yesterday. It was taken during the 4th of July parade in their town. The expression on Wesley's face is priceless. As is Rob's shirt, which reads, 'got triplets?'. I love seeing how all three boys react differently to the passing parade!

Hats, chairs, and black eyes

Liam loves hats right now. Since he is going outside more and more he is getting used to wearing a hat to protect him from the summer sun.

When we were eating the other day I put one of my hats on him. He found this to be hiliarious. Like everything he gets in his hands, it eventually went to his mouth.



Liam is standing very well now. He is getting more and more balance and is starting to move between objects.


This morning he was pulling up on one of the bar stools and went from grabbing the leg of the bar stool to the bar across the back. Needless to say, I saw the chair falling right as I saw what he was doing. It feel right on top of him. His eye took the brunt of it. We'll see if this becomes his first shiner!!

Hitting the bottle

We are now working with Liam on learning to feed himself. He is also learning how to hold his bottles and drink from sippy-cups. Yesterday he held his bottle for nearly his entire lunch time feeding. He does well until he gets under the half-full line. It's then difficult for him to tip the bottle up to keep the milk in the nipple. We still give him his morning and evening bottles because that's snuggle time. We figure we only have a couple more months of that left. Gotta enjoy it while we can.

10 months!!

Liam - 10 months old

Liam was 10 months old on Monday. (Mommy is running behind this month!!) He continues to grow and change everyday!! Now that he is 10 months old we are starting proteins this week. This morning he got to try his first scrambled egg yoke. Hilarity ensued. :)

Hmmmm, what is this?

Looks kind of interesting

Ahhhhhhh!!!!!! What is this??

Hmmm, let's try again

I really don't know about this . . .

How about if I just look at them and play with them?

As you can imagine, the egg ended up all over Liam and his chair, but very little made it in his mouth. We'll keep trying.

Life is pretty typical for an infant who is mobile. He is very active and he loves to play. He loves being outside and he usually squeals when we reach for the doorknob. He also loves any cord he can get his hands on. We have found him (twice) at the receiver where he unplugged both earphone jacks and was sucking on the splitter.

He is learning what 'no' means and he has started looking at us and pausing before touching 'no touch' items. Mom and Papi are very consistent with this so we find ourselves in little battles here and there.

We moved his pack-n-play to the porch (AKA future playroom). This was his face today when he realized I could talk to him from the kitchen window.

Hard to believe we will be celebrating his birthday in less than 2 months!!!

Hats, boxes, and gates

Liam will be 10 months old tomorrow. His is a long, lean boy. In order for clothes to fit his length, he is now wearing size 12-18 months. His weight, however, is still a little under 'average' for his age so the clothes are usually very large around his middle if they fit his length. He also still has a smaller than average head circumference . . . but don't tell him that; he loves baseball caps!


Liam pulls up and on anything he can get his hands on, including the pull up bar. I held him up just to see what he would do and he immediately did a pull-up, which he thought was the funnest thing ever. This is one of the many happy faces we see when he is standing at the gate. Of course, he much prefers the gate to be down so that he can try to sneak to the grandfather clock, which he knows is 'no-touch' (but, that doesn't seem to stop him much).


Confirming that the best toys are free, Liam had an evening of fun with 'The Perfect Push-Up' box.

SuperLiam

He's faster than an attentive parent, more powerful that you think (just try to get the spoon out his hand when you're feeding him!), and able to crawl over Bumbos in a single bound . . . He's SuperLiam.
Traci, Bruce, Ann, Abby, and Brett came by for a visit on Friday. It was Liam's first time seeing Brett. Normally, when Liam gets excited, he starts swatting and wacking things. We had to explain to him that he could not swat or hit Brett!


Liam was excited to see Brett, but he was REALLY excited to see his old car seat. This car seat is now a family tradition. First, the Boston Bunns used it. Then Liam. Now Brett.


Liam continues to eat very well. We have had no issues with solid foods this time. Further proof that he is like his Papi T, he LOVES blueberries. So far he has eaten everything we have given him. Next week he will be 10 months old and we will start proteins for the first time. We'll see how he likes meats!!

Stair master

I was at work yesterday when Mom called and started the conversation by saying, 'Guess what your son can do!' After my pause she said, 'Apparently, he can climb stairs with no one showing him how.' She was in the kitchen with Ann and Abby and Liam made it up the first two stairs to the landing before the main stair case before she realized what he'd done. I think it's an early sign that he has shares his Onkel Christof's love of climbing. :)

We now also see two teeth buds on his bottom gum. We'll have teeth soon!!

See you later, alligator

Nanna and Poppa always have the coolest toys. By far one of the favorites is their alligator pool. Mainly because it's a pool, but also because the pool had a fountain which sprays water into the pool. Sadly, it seems the alligator is leaking around the valve and needs to be put to rest. Today was one final play time.

Liam got to sport his bathing suit from Win, Wes, and Charlie. :)

Our little monkey

We are still amazed at how quickly things change. In the past couple weeks Liam has gone from rocking to crawling, moving over obstacles, standing, and trying to take steps.

Happy 4th of July

Liam celebrated his first 4th of July at Connie and Terry's house. Nanna took Liam outside to play on the hammock. He had a blast. Kaci's dog, Stolli, thought he needed to get in on the action. He went under the hammock and started licking Liam's head through the hammock. It was really cute and Liam just laughed and cackled.


Liam is a little too young to stay up late for fireworks, so this year we had to head home in time for him to get to sleep. Next year, though, we plan to stay and watch the Boston Pops on Connie's outdoor movie screen!

Happy 4th of July!!

Reading

Liam loves his book from Onkel Dodi that teaches his German words. One of these days we will get him to read it. :)

In other news, Liam has now moved himself from laying on his stomach to standing. He still needs things to hold him up, but not only is he standing, he is trying to take his first steps. We'll have a little cruiser one our hands before we know it!

Fat and happy

Brett is now nursing and doing very well. Traci calls this picture 'fat and happy.'

Brett unplugged!!

Brett is now breathing on his own and feeding all by himself. Hooray!! Looks like he will be coming home soon!!! (BTW - Looks like Brett shares Traci's latex allergy. They noticed this when they took off all of his tape.)

Santa Claus, turtles, and standing

Liam is showing a preference for toys that are green. During his bath he picks up all the toys that are green and nearly ignores the others. He has a turtle, which has a green head, arms, and legs, that stayed is his mouth the entire bath. We cracked up because he just left it there even and used his hands to play with other things.

Liam is now learning to 'play' musical instruments. This morning he was mastering the cottage cheese container and wooden spoon drum set.


Liam loves to stand. He still gets frustrated because he can't pull himself up, but he is happy once he's up. Right now Liam thinks he's Billy Elliot, but one day we will get him off his toes.