16 Months Old

We are in Bar Harbor for a little holiday break -- although watching Liam 24/7 is hardly a break at all -- in fact working is much easier than keeping him occupied. That said, the purpose of this trip is to ensure we get to spend some good quality time with him alone. It is something we've managed to do every few months since he was born, but it is the first time it has been a lot of work (yes, welcome to parenting I'm sure many of you are saying). He is a bundle of energy and is up at 6am every day ready to go. He's napping about 1.5 -2.0 hours and then is asleep around 8pm. During all the awake time he's mostly eating but also doing a fair share of toy playing, chattering, and lots of roughhousing.

Liam still loves his binky and has started to be a blankey boy too, but mostly just uses his bibs as blakeys. He needs both to go to sleep.

Over the holiday's he seemed to get a little extra brain power as he is now identifying his eyes, nose, ears, head, and belly. Last week he couldn't do any of that, so it is an amazing change in such a short time. It is almost as if a light switch went on and woke him up to it all. He is doing lots of grunting and babbling, but words are still hard to come by. But it is clear that he understands a lot of what is said to him as he follows lots of instructions like picking up toys, throwing things in the trash, and surprising us all the time with new examples of him doing what he's told. On the flip side, he laughs like crazy when we say NO. He is a crazy stair climber, bed bouncer, and just out-and-out daredevil -- we try to keep up and say no, but he just laughs at us and gets a greater kick out of the attention.

Yesterday we were grocery shopping and he was playing with an apple. Next thing we knew he was eating it whole. It was first time he'd taken a bite of a whole apple rather than the normal slices we'd been giving him. Just another example of his great love for food. Fortunately most of what he likes is fruit and vegetables with a particular fondness for grapes lately.

We watched video of him over the last year and it is incredible to see all the changes. He is so different, yet there are still lots of personaltiy that is a carry over from his early weeks and months. We are very blessed and are so thankful for all the love and joy Liam has brought to our lives.

The Official Santa Photo 2009

Liam visited Santa at the Burlington Mall on Saturday. He was extremly well behaved but just got shy when it came time to sit on Santa's lap. It was nice not to have him cry, but we wish he'd have cracked at least a little smile. Merry Christmas to all!