The return of the alligator push toy

I guess this constitutes cruising.  He has been doing this about a week now.  My guess is that Daddy will miss the first steps.

Liam got this toy from Dave's sister a little over a year ago,  You can see pictures of him using it at 15 and 1/2 months here: Liam's first hair cut and alligator toy

Almost missed a deployment milestone

With the tedium of everyday life, an early start this morning, a rough few hours (including dropping a baby food glass jar that tumbled and sent baby food flying everywhere), and Ben's talking, I totally forgot that today is day 100 of the dpeloyment.  I have been apart from Dave for triple digit days.  The good news is that in my little countdown, this is my half-way point.  Dave deployment is for 179 days, but that doesn't count travel time.  It took him 6 days to get to his location, which makes the deployment 185 days.  It should take him 6+ days to get home.  I figure if I expect it to be 200 days, I shouldn't be disappointed with him coming home late.

So we are half-way there!!!!!!!!!  It seems a lifetime ago that I posted about surviving 50 days and now it has been 100.  I should have less than 100 to go.  So in celebration, here are some old pictures of Dave and I together.....you know back when we took pictures together.....before kids. ;-)

New Year's Eve  2002

Engagement Photo in Fall 2003

April 17, 2004

Brugge, Belgium November 2005

Dublin pub, May 2006

SOG Ball, May 2007, 6 months pregnant with Liam

Ben's first word

At 10.5 months, Ben said his first word, kind of.  He said "uh-oh" and I caught it on tape.  I was taping Liam talking and said uh-oh, and I hear this little voice behind me repeat it.  I was shocked.



Then of course, I had to prompt Liam to talk to Daddy a bit.



After that, I haad to get baby Ben to talk some more and he complied.


Finally, I let the little guy played.  He had refused to crawl through our Gymboree play tunnel, but just realized that it isn't so bad.

Snow in Alabama

Ben got to see his first snow on Friday and was unimpressed.  Liam hadn't seen snow since this picture was taken:

It was Easter morning in early April (I believe) in England.

It actually snowed last March here in Alabama, but it was real early in the morning and it melted by the time Liam woke up and got outside.  Here is a picture before it was gone:

This storm brought about 2-3 inches, which is the largest snowfall in 10 years down here!  We were out early during the storm as Ben was ready to nap.  Ben was not impressed by the snow.  Liam kept telling me "Look, rain!"  I'd tell him it was snow and he'd repeat "snow" and catch some flakes on his tongue.

Videos showing new skills--Liam talking, Ben pulling up, and both boys' personality

I figured out how to embed videos--woohoo!  I am sure I am several years behind in this knowledge. ;-)

This first video shows Ben playing with his aquarium while Liam is trying to climb into Ben's crib.  You get to hear lots of Liam talking.



This video was before Liam climbed in the crib and shows Ben playing with his aquarium.



The 3rd video shows Ben's reaction to Liam in his crib.  Baby bunching provides lots of moments like this between the boys.



This video shows Liam's refusal to follow directions.  He is strong-willed and reminds me of that alot.  I'll keep my mouth shut about where he inherited his spirited personality.



This last video shows Ben's personality as he plays with a piano from his godparents.


It is snowing here today, and I got some pictures of the boys in the snow.  I hope to get some ore, but either way I'll get the snow ictures up soon.

Slowly but surely

Liam is making progress.  I sometimes often wonder if all the endless apppointments are worth the price of nap disruption for Ben and play disruption for Liam.  Today we went for a speech evaluation at Easter Seals.  Liam's last two speech evaluation placed him as speaking at the range of a 14-16 month old.  One was done as 24 months (showign a 8-10 month speech delay) and the other was done at 26 months (showing a 10-12 month speech delay).

Today Liam had his first standardized test for speech, and the results were very encouraging.  He is 29.5 months, but the evaluator scored it as if he were 30 months.  His overall speech tested at 23 months, which shows a 7 month delay.  His expressive speech was at the level of a 26 month old, which is barely clinically significant. His receptive speech has always been the main problem and is that of a 21 month old, so a 9 month delay. 

Based on this evaluation, Liam qualifies for outpatient speech therapy beyond what receives from early Intervention.  There is a waitlist, so extra speech won't start immediately, but eventually we'll add twice a week speech therapy sessions to our weekly Early Intervention appointments, weekly occupational therapy appointments, and twice a week ABA therapy appointments.

Keeping me on my toes

Poor Ben has been sick since he learned to crawl, and last week he was REALLY sick and not doing much movement of any kind.  In the last few days, he started feeling better and now crawls from one end of the house to the other.  I find him in a different room than I left him in, and he really likes to close doors as he goes.

He has also been trying his best to pull up, and as always, I am amazed by how much happens in the course of 24 hours.

On Sunday, he kept getting in this position:

He was grabbing onto my legs as I knelt down by him.

On Monday, he really focused on the coffee table and would get to his knees and stretch.  He just couldn't bring himself to straighten his legs all the way.

Today he is totally better.  His cough is gone and the sore spot under his nose from constant wiping has healed.  I am not surprised that when I put him down for his nap, I watched him on the monitor as he pulled all the way up.

He is exhausted, but keeps signing "more" then pulling himself up, then sitting down and clapping and declaring "yay".  Then he'll sign "more" and pull up again.

It is also clearly time to lower the mattress AGAIN.  The kid is tall and his face spells out trouble: