13th Month

May 2007

Liam's 13th Month (May '07)

It's so hard to believe that our little boy is a year old already! It just doesn't seem possible. He loved making a mess with his frog birthday cake, squishing it between his fingers. It took spoon-feeding him some for him to realize that he could eat it. Once he got a taste of it, he went to town on it. In fact, he got rather angry when we tried to move the cake out of his reach so he couldn't make more of a mess.

Mom, Liam and Rachael took a trip to PA in early May for Great-Grandpa's 90th birthday. This was Liam's first time meeting Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa. Liam did great on the 6-hour car ride, and didn't do too badly sleeping in a strange place, either. Just like Rachael, he loved getting wet in the fountain in Grandma and Grandpa's back yard.

Liam is walking everywhere these days, but is still trying to get used to wearing shoes. He also loves to climb. Rachael has taken to pulling all the cushions off the sofas, making a mountain in the middle of the floor and going climbing, and of course Liam attempts to follow her every move.

The 8th tooth made it's appearance on May 23rd, finally giving Liam a symmetrical grin.

Feeding Liam has become especially challenging this month. We discovered shortly before his birthday that he is allergic to cow's milk, breaking out into hives any where the milk touches his skin. The same thing happened when he ate some baby cheese puffs. Blood tests confirmed the milk allergy and also showed allergies to eggs, peanuts, wheat, and chocolate. He will have to go through the whole range of skin tests in June to determine the extent of the allergies. He is eating table food these days, and his favorites seem to be bananas, Gerber meat sticks, and still Cheerios. He also seems to be a fan of broccoli!

Liam is getting more and more personality these days, but doesn't seem too interested in increasing his vocabulary. He follows directions very well, though. His favorite toy right how is a stuffed frog that is dressed like the Easter bunny. He carries it around by the ears, rubbing them on his nose.

14th Month

June 2007

Liam's 14th Month (June '07)

Well, Kay and Terry have officially ended their tour of keeping Rachael and Liam (sniff, sniff). For the summer, two teenagers, Kelsey and Noel, will babysit them while Mom works.

After the blood tests last month that showed Liam having allergies to peanuts, milk, eggs, wheat, corn and chocolate, he went to an allergist for further tests. He had the skin test done, and those tests eliminated the wheat, corn, and chocolate allergies, but still showed likelihood of reactions to peanuts, milk, and eggs. He went through a food challenge for the eggs and passed, so he is clear to eat eggs. He will go back for a milk challenge in August, but won’t be tested again for peanuts until he is four years old.

15th Month

Liam's 15th Month (July '07)

16th Month

August 2007

Liam's 16th Month (August '07)

Mom, Rachael, and Liam took a trip to PA this month and got to spend some time with Aunt Robinne and cousins Lochlan and Liadan, who were visiting from New Zealand. They all enjoyed playing in a plastic kiddie pool on Grandma and Grandpa’s back patio. This was the third time Rachael had gotten to see her cousins, but only the first for Liam (they had already moved to New Zealand by the time he was born.)

Liam went to the allergist this month for his milk food challenge. The fact that he doesn’t like drinking milk made the challenge quite interesting. We were able to get some milk into his mouth—enough to see that when he dribbled it out of his mouth, that it caused hives on his chin. So we went to cheese to try to determine if the reaction was simply a skin reaction or if there was internal allergies, too. He was only allowed a tiny piece of cheese every 15 minutes, so after an hour, he was very hungry and very grumpy. At that point, no reaction had been seen, so the allergist let us go home to finish the challenge. After all was said and done, Liam never reacted to the cheese, so we have determined that the milk allergy is just a skin reaction.

17th Month

September 2007

Liam's 17th Month (September '07)

Liam started going to a new babysitter this month, and he absolutely adores her (so does Mom). We didn’t think we’d ever find someone as wonderful as Kay and Terry, but Miss Fran ranks right up there with them. She keeps three other kids who are all Liam’s age, so Liam has made some new friends, which probably also helps keep him from missing Rachael too much now that she is in school full time. The first day Mom dropped him off, he simply went right off to play, never even looked back. Not all days have gone that easily, but once he gets into the play room, he is as happy as a clam. He has also officially given up his morning nap.

18th Month

October 2007

Liam's 18th Month (October '07)

Mom made Liam a jester costume for Halloween, and it fits Liam’s personality perfectly. He went to the Halloween party at church and had a great time with the ring and bean bag toss games.

19th Month

November 2007

Liam's 19th Month (November '07)

What an adventure we all had this month—we flew to Louisiana for Thanksgiving! This was Liam’s first time flying, and he flew as a lap passenger (on Mom’s lap). He did amazingly well, considering all the wait time we had in the airports. On both flights, he actually fell asleep as we were taking off, and slept for about half of both flights. The only time he got hard to handle was waiting in the New Orleans airport for our flight home. He was tired and pitched a flat-on-the-floor fit until he was just about asleep. He had a great time visiting Grandma Mel and Pop Pop

20th Month

December 2007

Liam's 20th Month (December '07)

Liam has a great time pulling ornaments and tinsel off the Christmas tree. He still didn’t quite get into the concept of unwrapping gifts, but he did enjoy playing with the toys Santa brought, especially a big plastic dump truck that he likes pushing from the living room to the family room. Grandma and Grandpa came and enjoyed Christmas with us.

21st Month

Liam's 21st Month (January '08)

Big news this month—Daddy is being transferred—to New Jersey! He will move in early February and Mom, Rachael, and Liam will hopefully join him over Spring Break in March. The whole family came down with the flu this month, but Liam seemed to suffer the least, maybe because he was put on good drugs the quickest.

22nd Month

Liam's 22nd Month (February '08)

Daddy moved to New Jersey early this month. Mom went with him the first weekend and they found a house. It has a nice flat driveway for playing outside and a basement that will be good for playing inside.

23rf Month

March 2008

Liam said goodbye to Miss Fran and his friends (Rachel, Jackson, Ella, Avery) from her house, and we moved to New Jersey during Spring Break. He is really too young to understand just what’s happening, but so far he has done pretty well. He was a little confused the day he came home and discovered that the movers had packed up all of our stuff, and he wasn’t too crazy about having to sleep in the pack-n-play in a hotel for a few nights. But at least the Easter Bunny found us in the hotel. We also found out this month the Liam is going to have a baby sister this summer.

24th Month

Liam's 24th Month (April '08)

Liam really hasn’t seemed to have been phased at all by our move. He’s moved from the crib to a big-boy bed and is getting ready to celebrate his 2nd birthday. He got his first really good haircut, and actually looks like a little boy now. He is quite taken with our new neighbor, 4-year-old Isabelle. Each morning at the bus stop, they run toward each other with outstretched arms (all that’s needed is the romantic music and the sound of waves crashing on the beach). He has also made friends with another little boy, Sean, at the other end of the street. They each bring toys to the bus stop and fight over sharing them. Mom and Liam took a day trip to New York to visit Maw-Maw and Pots, and Liam made himself right at home with Travis’ trucks and cars. He also fell in love with Aunt Emily.

The 2nd Birthday Cake