Sushi chef

Nothing beats Friday night sushi!! Tobias very graciously took lots of time making sushi that we devoured very quickly.

Bruce and Traci joined us for dinner. Just to clarify, Bruce did NOT eat sushi.

The chef hard at work

3 of the 7 rolls he made.
We enjoyed spicy tuna, tuna & avocado, and krab, avocado and cream cheese

Big chair

After much fussing and discontent over the weekend, we think we may have figured out what was bothering Liam. It seems to have been a little teething and his need to start rice cereal. He is now getting cereal twice a day and life seems to have calmed down (at least for the moment). Here is a picture of Liam in his big chair getting ready to eat. (Thanks Ann and Abby for sharing your chair. We'll return it to your brother in a couple months!!)

Sunday soccer

How to bribe a baby to stop screaming and crying . . . let him watch Sunday soccer with Dad.

After the Bayern v Cologne game, Tobias was the one screaming and crying!!

The better to eat you with !!!

Did we mention that everything now goes in Liam's mouth?!

Swinging single

The part about teething that really stinks for the parents is the inconsolable crying that occasionally happens. Last week Tante Traci got it and today Tobias got it. I went out to lunch with GG and Tobias was watching Liam. I had been gone about 45 minutes when Tobias called. He said Liam had been screaming the entire time I had been gone and nothing (not even letting him watch soccer) worked. I could tell Tobias was frustrated and I told him to put Liam someplace safe (swing or crib), close the door, and take a break. He said Liam screamed another 15 minutes and then fell asleep. He hasn't really liked his swing much for months so we moved it in his room when we set the exersaucer up. At least today he could get comfy and sleep in it.

Just for comparison . . .

Liam swinging 5 months

Liam swinging 2 months

On the lookout for teeth!

After doing some reading it now seems that Liam's behavior the last week makes total sense. He is not hungry and in need of more food. (So we will not be trying rice cereal again for another 2-3 weeks.) Instead, all of the symptoms he is displaying are consistent with teething: drooling, biting and gnawing, fasting (or in his case - only taking a bottle), low-grade fever, and irritability. We don't see swollen gums yet but we are on the look out for teeth!!

What Liam looks like most of the time now . . .

And when he's not gnawing on whatever he can get in his mouth . . .

Rice cereal

We are trying to figure out when to start Liam on solid foods. The doctors said it was fine to start after 4 months, although they encouraged waiting until closer to 6 months if possible. We were told that we didn't need to start solids until Liam was no longer satisfied with milk. When we asked how we'd know, we got the recurring frustrating answer that people seem to give to parents a lot . . . 'you'll know.' We figured 'we'd know' because Liam would eat his normal feedings and still act like he was hungry. The only problem with that plan is that Liam's old hunger cue was sucking on his hands and fussing. Now he sucks on his hands all the time and not just when he's hungry. The last couple of days he has been very fussy and off schedule in the evenings. So this evening I decided to see if giving him some rice cereal would help things at all (since none of the normal tricks worked).

First bite

Hmmm . . . this is interesting, Mom

Hey, look! A spoon!

My dad is not going to like this messy mouth

I think I'm done, Mom

No, really done!!!

I am still not sure if Liam needs to eat cereal, but we'll see how the next couple of days go. Hopefully we can hold off a little longer. Who 'knows'?