Friday, September 23, 2011

The Zoo!

Liam and I headed to the zoo today with some friends from our old apartment building.

I think Liam's favorite part was when I gave him his own ice cream cone!

We are trying to get in all the fun we can before fall comes and brings the rain.

going to see a marmot sculpture

liking the sea lions

our friend Angie and her daughter Jordyn

ice cream!!

had a lorakeet buddy

Saturday, September 17, 2011

The Weepies

I try to be a happy person. I can fake it till I make it when I am feeling down but most of the time I am quicker to smile than frown I think. I have run the range from gleeful and slightly manic to horrifically depressed and lower than the lowest ooze on the ocean floor. I have been every shade of sad, most shades of happy and every emotional color you can find in between.

Ever since getting pregnant though, I have found a new emotional place. I call it "The Weepies".

I always had a soft spot in my heart for kids and puppies and cute fuzzy things but until I had my own child I never knew that fierce drive to protect him, to protect someone other than myself. To nurture him and encourage him but to always be there to keep him safe and sometimes I look at him and realize that I love him SO MUCH more than I ever imagined love could be that it makes me tear up a little. This is one side of this new emotional thing, the flip side of it is that when I read a news story involving kids I get sad when bad things happen, have this surge of rage against the people who would hurt their babies and end up sitting here feeling... well... weepy. Sometimes angry at the bad guys... and sometimes it makes me feel like it is time to go change the world.

You all know the kinds of stories I am talking about, so I won't link to them or say them because I don't want to give YOU all a case of the weepies.

Liam has changed my life in more ways than just the normal baby ways that everyone thinks of, he not only brings me the joy and love that a child can bring but he also brought me a new way to look at the goings on in this world. I hope that he and I never have to be part of a story that will give other people the weepies, unless it is the good kind, like... "Mom and Son raise billions of dollars to end world hunger and cure cancer and bring every child their dream toy"

Awwww, I'm getting all weepy thinking about how much that would make some one smile. I guess this is the feeling that people get when they decide it's time to change the world. I wonder what Liam and I can do to start....

Monday, September 12, 2011

Not Ready

It is hard to admit that there are things your child can not do yet when other babies CAN do them.

One of these is eat off a plate/bowl for Liam.

Or drink from a cup.

Or use silverware for even half of a meal. 

He will do it for a while and then want to turn the plate over to see what is under it, or stick his hand in the cup and lift it into the air, thus dumping the water all down himself.

I even set up his dishes on a shelf and put cups there and his silverware so he could get use to seeing them and he puts the bowls in the dog room, stacks the cups like blocks and throws forks across the kitchen.

He just is not ready for this level yet. We will keep trying, we will keep offering him cups and bowls... but it makes me feel like I am not doing things right, that I can not have him do these things. I suppose if I offered him nothing but cups for a week he would drink from a cup. And it would only be a week of extra clean up, extra laundry... With the plates it would just be a week of feeding him things that were safe for the dog to eat so that when it all ended up on the floor it wouldn't mean I had to scramble to keep her away from them.

Granted I think it would take longer with the plate thing. He gets done eating and if I don't get him down from his chair in TWO SECONDS FLAT MOMMY GET ME DOWN NOW! then he tosses food onto the floor and throws things from his chair.

Now, how to keep him from taking the plates on the shelf and using them to play with... that is the next question.

I wonder if my lack of patience for cleaning up after him a billion times a day is hindering his learning. He can do so many other great things, he is smart and can figure out how to put blocks into their shaped holes, he can stack blocks, turn pages in a book, remember where he left his sippy and go get it, he can lift up his feet to make putting pants on easier, he can turn on the faucet, and the lights, he can open doors, undo and redo his shoes (velcro!) and so much more, but he can not or will not eat off a plate or NOT tip his cup upside down.

We try a few times a week and each time it turns into a mess and I feel like I am missing something.

I have to remember to NOT compare him to his cousin Dotty, she has three older sisters who showed her how to do a lot of this kind of stuff as well as a mama who has had three other babies to figure out how to teach this stuff to. I bet that makes a huge difference. Liam will just have to bear with me as I figure out how to teach him and how to let him learn.
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