Liam Turns 8 Months Old

Apparently January has gone by really quickly. Liam’s past month started with Christmas celebrations, New Year’s celebrations and a very sad goodbye to NanaPapa who returned home to New York on January 2nd. Ben returned to the office full time at the beginning of the month and Michala became a full time stay at home mom. Liam continues to grow in every way possible. He’s wearing mostly 6-9 month and 9 month clothes, he babbles all the time, and threatens us with crawling on a daily basis. He loves to sit in his room and play for hours on end and has discovered that he can roll all over the place to get anywhere he wants. He also loves to stand, but thankfully hasn’t showed much interest in pulling himself up on his own.  He has loved cousin time and enjoys hanging out on play mats with Avery. He’s slightly wary of his big cousin Asher, but when Asher isn’t right in his face he is completely mesmerized by everything that Asher does. His relationship with the dogs has continued to grow as he becomes more and more aware of them. He loves to stand holding onto Yuki and will sit and laugh at Tashii for no reason at all. Both dogs have also become more comfortable around him and have even become slightly playful with him now that they realize he’s not so breakable.

Liam continues to teethe on a fairly regular basis, but still no teeth have arrived. His hair seems to be holding steady lately at a light brown blonde color (darker in the front and lighter in the back) and his eyes are still a blue green brown color. The blue seems to be gradually fading and giving way to the green and brown though.

It has been fairly cold out lately so we’ve been enjoying mostly indoor activities including storytime at the local libraries, play dates with cousins and neighbors, a few trips to badminton, a few trips to indoor ultimate frisbee, and lots of play time. We have been so lucky with all of the various hand-me-downs we have received and the latest gift was an exersaucer (re-named the baby play station). He loves spending time in his play station and will laugh, babble, jump, and squeal with the many toys attached to it. He also received a little play table that he loves to stand at while pressing all of the colorful buttons to make lights and music appear.

We’re looking forward to his next month which we expect will have lots of new developments!

Our First Snowshoe Adventure!

Yesterday we took Liam out on his very first snowshoe adventure with some awesome friends! It was also his very first time in his fancy Kelty baby carrier. He seemed to do really well with both. In typical Liam fashion he was a really great baby who didn’t complain about anything and seemed to enjoy being out and about in nature with friends. We went up Brainard Lake in Ward, CO with our good friends Lindsee, Eric, Amelia and Cory. It was a fun milestone trip for all of us because a few years ago when we went out snowshoeing together for the first time Liam was not alive, Cory wasn’t a part of our lives, and Lindsee and Eric were not engaged. Lots of fun and happy life changes for all of us!

Merry Christmas

Not only was this Laim’s first Christmas, but it was also the first time that we hosted Christmas at our house. We had a lot of fun with everything and Liam loved having the tree and lights in the house. We had fun picking out the tree just the three of us, decorating the tree with Nana & Papa, and celebrating Christmas with the whole Peabody family. We also went to Zoo Lights and got to see lots of really amazing lights and a few of the animals were even still awake! A highlight was getting to finally “meet” his Tasmanian cousins on Christmas Eve. We were able to do a three-way skype with Gammy, Poppy and Uncle Owen in Long Island and the Coles (Uncle Andy, Aunt Cat, Lilith and Bey) in Tasmania! It was so fun to see the Coles since we haven’t seen them since last Christmas.

Liam Turns 7 Months Old

This past month went by fairly quickly with lots of family time, the end of Michala’s semester, and preparations for Liam’s first Christmas. We have continued to introduce some new foods to Liam, spent lots of time with cousins Asher and Avery as well as Nana and Papa. Liam has continued to grow and now fits into 6-9 month clothes and even some 9 month clothes. His “little” cousin Avery is rapidly catching up to him though and soon they won’t be able to share clothes because they’ll be the same size. He seems to talk all the time and has begun to sound like he’ saying actual words. He is still teething on a regular basis, but still no teeth.

Liam Turns 6 Months Old!

These past few weeks and months have flown by and somehow we already have a little 6 month old in our lives. The last few weeks have been quite busy with lots of family time, a few more exams for Momma, a few hikes, a few snow storms, lots of dog walks, and a nasty cold that was almost kicked and then came back full force to knock Momma on her butt and kick Liam a cough for a little over a week. We also celebrated Halloween (see the Halloween post), Liam’s first solid food (see Bananas post) and our very first family vacation (see the previous post).

Liam continues to teethe constantly and we can now feel little nubs on both the bottom and the top. We also think we can actually see a tiny little nub on the bottom, but it hasn’t changed for a few weeks now. His hand coordination has rapidly improved over the past few weeks and he has gotten very good at getting everything into his mouth. He appears to be more coordinated with his left hand and has much better fine motor skills on the left side, but he is very active with his right side and attempts to do everything with his right hand first. He now sits on his own for several minutes at a time and will balance himself with his arms instead of tipping over. Also while sitting he likes to chew on his toes and has started to lean forward into what appears to be a crawling position. No crawling or attempts to crawl yet. He discovered his toes one day when we sat him up on the floor and he can’t get enough of them now and chews them every time he’s on the changing table.  He still talks quite a bit on a fairly regular basis and is beginning to string a few syllables together to make things sound like words. After being able to roll onto his sides for weeks he has finally started showing interest in rolling and has rolled all the way over a couple times now. Since his first taste of banana he has gotten extremely efficient at eating solid foods and only makes a mess when he insists on shoving the spoon into his mouth faster than momma or dada want to.

He turned 6 months old on Thanksgiving Day and got to celebrate at Asher & Avery’s house with the entire Feldman family (the non-Peabody/Williams side of Asher and Avery’s family), and all of the Peabodies including Liam’s Great Uncle Gene who made the trip out here all the way from Vermont! This brought the total of family members “sitting” at the table to 13 adults, 4 kids, and 3 babies (about 1 year and under)! Slightly hectic, but priceless for my sister to have her entire family together in one place.

Along with turning 6 months old Liam also got another Well Baby visit which included yet another round of shots. He weighed in at 16 pounds 15 ounces, and is now 25 and 3/4 inches long. This keeps him holding steady between the 25th and 50th percentiles. We’re guessing if they kept track of data on foot length then he would be close to the 90th percentile there. So far he has been doing OK with all of the shots, but he’s definitely not himself and has been quite sluggish.

Below are a few of our favorite pictures from the past month.

 

First Family Vacation

This past weekend we went on our first overnight family vacation. Each fall while living in Colorado we have made a tradition of going on a “family” vacation during our long Thanksgiving weekends with our dogs. We have gone to places including Moab, Santa Fe & Taos, and Northeast Utah. This year we decided to leave the girls behind on their own mini vacation at Nana & Papa’s and we packed up Liam and the car for a trip to Ouray, Colorado. We’ve been hearing for a long time that Ouray is the most beautiful place in Colorado and it’s a must see so we finally made the trip. After work and class on Thursday we packed up the car and started out west on I-70. Liam instantly fell sleep in the car and slept all the way to Glenwood Springs where we stopped for a quick dinner. He was then happily awake for another 2 hours before falling asleep for the rest of the trip. We arrived at our hotel in the dark (around 10:30pm) so we had a pleasant surprise when we woke up in the morning to beautiful snow covered mountain views surrounding us in every direction.

We spent Friday and Saturday going on beautiful hikes and exploring the town. Liam did the majority of his napping in the Ergo while we were out hiking, but also loved looking around everywhere on all of our hikes. He seems quite content to be outside where he has so much to look at. On Sunday we packed up and decided to take the scenic route home instead of I-70 and stopped at Black Canyon National Park (Liam’s first National Park) on our way home.

Throughout the entire trip Liam went under Loveland Pass and went over Vail Pass (10,666 feet), Red Mountain Pass (11,018 feet), Cerro Summit Pass (7,958 feet), Monarch Pass (11,312 feet), Trout Creek (9,346 feet), Red Hill Pass (9,993 feet) and Kenosha Pass (10,001 feet).

Friday afternoon hike

Mountain View from town

 

Sleepy boy after our day 1 hike

Day 2 Hike…can you see us?

Day 2 Hike: Dada took over on the way down

View from the Million Dollar Highway

Liam & Dada at the top of Red Mountain Pass

View beyond Red Mountain Pass

Frozen Lake along the Million Dollar Highway

Sunrise on Sunday Morning

Mountain view from Black Canyon National Park Entrance

View Down into Black Canyon

View into Black Canyon

Dada & Liam at Black Canyon

View of Black Canyon at the End of the Road

Stretch Stop on our way home

First View of Blue Mesa Reservoir

Blue Mesa Reservoir in Curecanti National Recreational Area

Another View of the Reservoir

View from the top of Monarch Pass

Collegiate Peaks

Park County

View from Red Hill Pass

 

Bananas

Yep, that’s right! Liam had his first food and loved it! We mashed up a nice and ripe organic banana into a soupy mess and used one of his special little spoons and he couldn’t get the spoon into his mouth fast enough. The whole swallowing the food part took a little more work and there’s definitely room for improvement, but the good news is that he likes the taste of bananas.

Liam attempting to shove the spoon into his mouth

Bananas are fun AND messy

All done for today!

 

 

Halloween Fun

This year, Halloween involved lots more activities than usual. Thankfully, we had so many different Halloween outings so Liam actually had a chance to wear all of his different costumes. We started our festivities back on the 19th (Dada’s birthday) with a visit to the Pumpkin Patch. Asher wore a sweater that was handmade years ago for Aunt Karyn. Avery wore a handmade sweater by Liam’s cousin Rachel and handmade hat by Liam’s Great Aunt Pi (both were too small for Liam already) and Liam wore cute hand-me-downs from Asher!

The 3 Boys!

Nana with her 3 Boys

Asher & Liam

Nana & Her 2 Littlest Boys

The following Friday we had a Pumpkin Carving party at Asher & Avery’s house.

All the finished Pumpkins!

Nana & Liam

Silly Face

Little Skeleton came out to play

Little Goofball

The 3 Boys

The Boys & Their Letter Pumpkins

We then went to a Saturday night party at our friends’ Christen & Jesse’s new house where Momma and Dada got to dress up as well!

Liam then got to go to a Barn Parade on Sunday morning where he got to finally meet Aunt Karyn’s horse, River! All three boys got to dress up as little dragons for the parade and River got to be a unicorn.

Liam kept giving River hugs

3 Dragons on a Unicorn

All 3 Dragons!

Liam & Asher with River

Momma with her 2 little dragons

Then on Halloween night we went back to Asher and Avery’s house for a trick-or-treat kids party.

The boys

Cousin Love

Cave Man & Woman find Baby Dino

Family Portrait

Tough Bikers found 2 Cute Babies!

It got late and somebody turned into a Pumpkin!

 

Liam Turns 5 Months Old!

OK, how did that happen? Liam’s fifth month started with a visit from Grandma Susan and a big BBQ party in the park with friends. The following weekend we then took Liam out to celebrate Oktoberfest in Olde Town Arvada. The weekend after that Dada got to go to the Great American Beer Festival with Tia while Momma stayed home sick and studied for an exam. We then celebrated Dada’s 40th birthday in style with a pub crawl through Olde Town Arvada with a bunch of friends and family. Liam was a great sport and thanks to Nana & Papa his parents got to stay out until almost 11pm!

Liam has continued to gradually develop and grow. He loves interacting with the dogs and they are still in love with him although big cousin Asher has taught the dogs to be wary of any human smaller than an adult. He has begun to sit for little bits at a time before tumbling over. He enjoys spending time sitting in his bumbo and has in general become much more interactive with everything around him. He is still shoving absolutely everything into his mouth and occasionally gets fussy with all the discomfort of little teeth moving around under his gums. Still no teeth visible though.

Tummy Time on the Mat

Sweet Sleeping Boy

Nap Time with Nana

Silly Time with “Uncle” Eric

Liam’s contemplating his attack on Eric’s beard (blueberry hat made by Great Aunt Faith)

Fun with “Aunt” Arline!

Liam with “Uncle” Jesse & “Aunt” Tin Tin

 

Snuggles with Jesse

 

Chilling with Monty

 

Hello World

 

Constant Wiggles and Smiles

 

Sitting with Nana

 

A Busy Weekend with Grandma

Grandma Susan came to visit for a long weekend and we had lots of fun! We started the weekend with dinner at Nana & Papa’s house and then Momma went home to study for an exam and Dada took Grandma and Liam to watch him play ultimate. Thursday morning Nana and Grandma come over to the house to play with Liam while Momma and Dada were at school and work. Friday Grandma played with Liam on the sidelines while both Momma and Dada got to play ultimate at the same time! We then had a nice family dinner at home with all three grandparents. Saturday we had a big fun BBQ with lots of friends and a total of 5 grandparents, one pre-schooler, 3 toddlers, 3 babies, and 8 dogs! We concluded Grandma’s visit with a beautiful trip to Roxborough State Park on Sunday with Nana & Papa where we got in some hiking, lots of family pictures, fresh air!

Reading, one of Liam’s favorite activities, with Grandma

Liam with Nana, Grandma & Tashii

 

Liam Dada & Grandma after our hike in the State Park