Eight Months!

Baby Monkey turned eight months old!  To celebrate, he posed not only with Mr. Monkey, the traditional monthly photo friend, but 'lil monkey, his new buddy (the new buddy hangs out at the changing table in hopes he will provide a distraction long enough to get the new diaper roughly on before the wiggle worm breaks out).

It goes without saying that he's getting big!  Two weeks ago he was 20 pounds 10 ounces.  Eating hasn't slowed much over the past two weeks, but he's picking up speed and mobility, so I'm hoping his weight gain will start to plateau here soon.  He's been averaging almost 3 pounds every 6 weeks.  Craziness!

Without further delay, here is the official eight month portrait...I've included his 4 month photo below as well as a comparison. Enjoy!

Three Little Monkeys (8 months)

Monkeys 1 & 2 (4 months)

The Trauma of Teething

Lamb's first two teeth popped through with hardly any commotion.  No real fuss, no real bother, just a bit of a fever and runny nose and within a week, we had two little pearly white emerging from the lower gum.

That, however, was apparently just a teaser, to make us think that teething wouldn't be a problem.  And then came this past Saturday.  Holy bells batman, was this kid unhappy from the moment he got up.  Those two little teeth had decided to make a major move and emerge to be more than just two little nubs.  He screamed and cried (the hey mom, I'm in pain can't you DO SOMETHING about it type of cry) just about every moment he was awake through the morning, and nothing we could do helped.  He wasn't a fan of the teethers, cold or frozen.  The ibuprofen didn't help, he didn't even like taking a bath!  We tried everything we could think of, but we still had a horribly unhappy baby who wouldn't sleep and who kept chewing on his fingers.

A desperate post on Facebook led to some awesome help and suggestions, so thank you all!  During the 20 minutes he napped, I ran down to Target and stocked up on a bunch of suggestions.  The Hyland Teething tablets are A-MA-ZING.!!!  I got home to a screaming baby, put two tablets under his tongue and within 20 minutes he was clam...and pretty darn happy, especially when compared to the previous 6 hours.  Wow.  They lasted a couple of hours, we did one more tablet, and he was pretty much good the whole rest of the night.  We never did get much napping, but a little ibuprofen before an early bedtime and he slept all night.  I'm a huge believer in the Hyland tablets, I can't believe the difference they made, and so quickly!  When desperate, those will be my go-to remedy from now on, when nothing else seems to help.

We also did cold bottles and ice water in a sippy cup (he liked both) and another trip to the store stocked us up on fruit we could freeze, as we'd gone through all our pears and discovered that while frozen blueberries 1) helped and 2) were greatly enjoyed, they were NOT the smartest thing to give a baby laying on carpet (oops).  We tried frozen waffles, which Liam and Harley both enjoyed.  We are also prepared for the next go around, as we have stocked up (I think) on just about every suggestion that was made to us on Facebook. 

Luckily, Sunday was a totally different kind of day as he woke up with a smile and was his normal, happy baby (for the most part).  We didn't need the teething help yesterday, but we will never be unprepared again for emerging teeth!

The Clown

Mr. Liam was quite the clown on Friday; he decided to be the little entertainer.  He's a funny kid :)

And no, he's not in the hospital here, just a crib with a clear end!

Perfecting his "Mime trapped in a box" act

Bath Time!

Bath time has quickly become one of Liam's favorite ways to spend time.  When he starts to get cranky and fussy at night and it's that twilight time between dinner and bedtime, a bath calms him down and provides major entertainment!  He would stay in there as long as we'd let him...I usually have to make him get out when the water gets too cold and his little lip starts to tremble.  This month we have discovered the joy of toys, as well as how to splash.  And not just little splashes, but SPLASHING!  I love watching him play in the tub, bath time is happy time around our house!

August in Review

What a month August has been!  The growing and learning is always non-stop with Liam, but this just seemed to be a busier month than normal for milestones.  I'll have to keep updating this list as the month goes on.  The rate this kid is going it will be much longer!

• August 2-4        Started & mastered crawling.  Watch out world, Liam is on the move! Poor  
                            Harley, another big adjustment for her
• August 10         First tooth popped through on the bottom!
• August 11-        Went to first wedding reception.  Proceeded to pee all over mom, who luckily  
                            had an extra dress with her (I will now forever have an excuse for packing
                            extra!)
• August 12-15    Pulls self up to knees using the coffee table and footstool...might be able to go
                            all the way, but gets distracted the the edge of both, apparently they are
                            awesome teething toys
• August 14         Official weight - 20 lbs 10 oz.  Luckily just a summer virus that took us to the 
                            doctor, not something more serious
• August 15         Held own bottle for an entire feeding!(He did it the next day again too)
• August 16         Second tooth popped through on bottom! Requested steak for dinner,
                            request denied
• August 16         Pulled self up to standing all by himself for the first time.  Apparently the crib
                            rail was too tempting a chew toy to resist

Chunky Monkey

Not just an ice cream flavor, this might also be Liam's newest nickname as the kid continues to grow and grow!  We were at the doctor's today for a visit, and he tipped the scale as 20 lbs 10 ozs!  It's been a busy, busy week or so around here.  Liam has mastered crawling, the first tooth popped through, and he's just about figured out how to pull himself up to standing.  I think he's got it down, but the problem now is that he gets distracted by the top of the coffee table or the top of the footstool and has to stop to chew on them for a while.  We have so much fun with him too, even with the teething, he's still the same good-natured kid (just slightly fussier).

Here's the most recent photo, showing off one of his favorite school's gear :)

Lights, Camera, Action!

What's that?  You want to see some video of two babies being adorable?!  I can help you out with that.  Nothing too exciting in either of these, but Liam and Emma had an impromptu playdate today at the law school, and of course, it was preserved for posterity.  In the longer video, watch Liam make his move at about the minute and a half mark :)

Moving on Up!

Well, he's not standing up and dancing (without help) yet, but it's been a big few days here for Liam as he is now moving!  Crawling has commenced, and as he continues to improve in speed everyday I have a feeling he'll be finding stuff to get into that I had no idea was there in no time.  In addition, we have a bottom tooth that is "thisclose" to popping through, so far no major pain seems to be associated with it, which is lucky for Liam (and us!).  And not only does he crawl, he's isn't content with just that achievement and seems to think that he needs to learn how to stand up already.  He has just about mastered pulling himself up to standing using the coffee table, and is NOT happy with us when we move him over to the overstuffed footstool instead to practice over there.  Something about hard edges and table legs make us a bit nervous to watch him try to master that skill.

 

I managed to get a short video this morning, but no matter how much I enticed him with the rattle, he didn't want to show off too much. We are entering in to a whole new world here.  We're excited for it, I'm not so sure about Harley Sue though. She may be spending a lot more time in her "safe place" under the guest bed, hiding from little fingers and a little boy that is fascinated by his dog.

Liam's Vacation Adventures Part III - California

July continued on in a whirlwind of fun with a brief 4 days at home after our time with the Zwagerman family in Okoboji.  With just enough time to do laundry and clean up the house, we packed up our bags and hopped on a plane to Sunny California!  This time it was vacation with the Williams family, as we went out to Palm Spring to visit the newest member of the family, little Kaeson!

Grandma and Grandpa Williams flew in from Michigan and we headed in from Iowa to go see Uncle Russ, Cassie and Kaeson.  Kaeson was a month old, and I forget how little babies are at that age!  Then again, I'm pretty sure Liam's head was never as small as Kaeson's :)

Liam's head is gigantic compared to Kaeson's!

Liam was a perfect baby on the flight out.  We flew at night, hoping he would sleep most of the time, but while he was awake more than I thought he would be, he was as good as can be and was entertaining everyone around us on both flights.  The way home involved a bit more fuss, but overall, he did really well for a 6 month old!

While the visit wasn't nearly long enough, it was so fun to meet the newest family member and spend time with the whole family.  Grandma and Grandpa were loving having both babies there together to play with and hold and spoil rotten.

While there, Liam learned a new trick: how to go from laying down to sitting up, all on his own!  Every time he did it, he would sit there and just grin, so proud of himself! And rightfully so of course :)

We're already trying to figure out when we can get back out to Palm Springs again...but next time I'm aiming not to head to the desert in the middle of July!

UPDATE 8/7/12: For some reason the slideshow won't work for this album...until I get it figured out, here's a link to the CA pictures and you can see a slideshow from that album page

Liam's Vacation Adventures Part II - Okoboji

Liam's summer of fun continued on through June with lots of weekends spent at the lake with Grandma and Grandpa Zwagerman.  The big trip though was the week of July 4th, where we were at the lake for over a week!  On top of all that lake time, Liam got to meet his Uncle Jed for the first time.


Jed and Tira brought their two dogs, so with the whole Zwagerman clan there we had 8 (semi) adults, 5 dogs and 3 kids in the house for the week.  Plus assorted visitors of all ages and sizes :)  It was fun and a good time was had by all.  It was also HOT.  Perfect weather to spend lots of time in the water.  Liam hasn't gone swimming in the lake yet, he'll have to wait until next summer to tackle that adventure. 


While Liam didn't get to swim in the lake, he did get to drive the boat with Grandpa!  Plus, he got lots of cousin time with Hattie and Amelia.  All in all, it was a wild, loud and awesome week.  We managed to take lots of pictures from the week, which if I've done this right, will be in the album below.