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Play Group Fun

April 22, 2009

Today we hosted play group at our new house.  It was great to have everyone over and we even got outside to enjoy the sunshine.  We were given this Little Tikes slide from a friend of Mike's at work and the kids absolutely love it. 

Liam is working on mastering the stairs and the slide.  Practice makes perfect!


At the Zoo

April 18, 2009

So when spring finally arrives you better believe that everyone in Michigan takes advantage of the great weather.  Today we (and everyone in the city of GR) went to the zoo.  It was really crowded so it was hard for Liam to see a lot of the animals but he was able to have some hands on experiences.  His first was with a bunny rabbit.  He squealed with delight and kept patting it.

Then we headed to the petting zoo.  It was Liam's first time and he loved it!  He was a little rough with goats and kept grabbing their horns and yanking.  We did a lot of reinforcing "Gentle, Liam, gentle!"  thankfully the goats were very understanding :)
At the petting zoo there is a red line that is the animals "safe zone,"  they go there to get a break from crazy kids like mine.  As you can see from this pic there were quite a few animals that wanted nothing to do with us.  Can you blame them?

Early On

April 15, 2009

When Liam had his 12 month check up I had some concerns about his development.  For example, he could not get himself into a sitting position by himself, he could not pull himself up, and he army crawled.  My ped reassured me that he was fine and would catch  up.  

When we first moved to Michigan I signed up for a developmental survey every three months through the county (Mike thinks that it was for poor people) but I thought it was a great idea.  At his 9 month survey I wrote down some of my concerns and someone contacted me.  It took about 4 months but someone came out to the house. Erin came to the house today to do a play assessment on Liam.  It was very laid back but allowed her to assess his development.  

She found that his upper body strength is definitely weak.  His gross motor skills are at a 7-8.5 month old level with holes up to a 12 month old.  That means that while some of his skills are a 12 month level a lot of his skills in gross motor are delayed.  She found that he is army crawling instead of traditional crawling to compensate for his weakness.  She also said that he pulls up using only his legs.  She taught me a bunch of tips to help him relearn the right way of doing things that will help him build his strength.  

We discussed that he does not clap yet and when he waves it is a sloppy whole armed wave, she explained to me that it all ties into his upper body weakness.  She was encouraging in the fact that once he starts to gain strength everything will quickly fall in line and he will catch up soon.

After the appointment I was kind of upset.  I did not want to hear that anything was wrong with my sweet outgoing and happy boy.  I want him to be the strongest.  I do realize though that we are lucky we caught it early so that we can help him now when the problems are small.  A physical therapist will come out to the house once a month to check on his progress and we will bring him to a group meeting once a week for some pointers.

Since the appointment we have been working hard and encouraging him.  He has really started to crawl in the traditional position and every time he falls down I hold him under the hips to help him.   He is such a happy little guy which makes everything that much easier.  


The Happy Hounds

April 15, 2009

The poor hound dogs have not had much of a back yard now for a couple of years.  In Alabama we had a very big yard but it was loaded with gumballs which are spiky little balls that would get stuck in their feet.  In Michigan at our rental house the backyard was hardly big enough to poop in!  BUT now they have a beautiful yard that is fenced in with tons of space to run.  I have not seen them this happy or tired out in a long time.  
This yard also comes loaded with squirrels!  At first I thought it was great I would let them out the back door and they would peel out and chase the squirrels...all it takes is one dumb squirrel for the fun to end.  Today I let them out and a squirrel did not quite make it to safety and Fletcher got a hold of it.  I started screaming right along with the squirrel when he dropped it he was dripping blood.  I thought for sure he got cut up by the squirrel but it turned out to be squirrel blood all over. YUCK!  That poor guy probably did not last very long, maybe next time they could flat out kill it rather than letting it suffer a long death. 

Meijer Gardens...again

April 13, 2009

My parents are heading back to Chicago today but my mom wanted to visit the butterflies at Meijer Gardens so Liam and I took her there.  My mom had a blast with Liam, it is so much fun to watch the two of them together.

Happy Easter!

April 12, 2009
 
What a crazy weekend, we moved in yesterday and today we are celebrating Easter!  Wow!  My parents are still here and my mom brought all the fixings for an Easter feast so we were all set.  We spent the morning at the park, Liam had a great time swinging with Grandma Jean and Grandpa Bob.
Liam opened up his presents from the bunny and Grandma and Grandpa...it was sort of like Christmas :)  What a memorable Easter...


Moving Day

April 12, 2009

Moving day has finally arrived!  The past three weekends my parents have come up here so that we could borrow their minivan to move everything but the furniture.  We have made a million trips but all the hard work has finally paid off.  The moving truck arrived at 8am sharp and started loading up.  We were at the new house by noon to unload, it was so exciting.
My parents slept with Liam at the new house last night so that he could keep his normal routine in the morning.  It was the first time that I did not sleep in the same house as him, I woke up many times during the night thinking I heard him crying.  It seems as if the mommy brain just never turns off!  Once we arrived around noon my parents kept Liam busy riding around the block in his little blue car.  He had a great time.

The poor dogs were locked up in the small part of the kitchen but settled down quickly.  Overall everything went really smoothly and we are starting to make it our home.  

Egg Hunt

April 9, 2009

The play group I go to here is just the best!  It is a bunch of girls that are mostly new to Grand Rapids and have children ranging from 1 month younger than Liam to 1 year older.  We meet twice a week and have a great time together.  Michele and Mandy planned an egg hunt at Mandy's house and it was pure chaos :)

Almost everyone from play group showed up for lunch and a little hunting.  It was Liam's first official hunting and he was not quite sure what to make of it.  I pointed out the first egg and after a lot of cajoling he picked it up and put it in his little basket.  After that he just wanted to sit and play with his one egg, definitely not a greedy kid.
Liam spent some quality time with his two favorite buddies, his girlfriend Genevieve...

and his buddy Charlie. (Liam and Charlie are the same age by a couple of days, Charlie is running circles around Liam but in this pic Liam is trying to give him a ride.)



Easter is on it Way...

April 2, 2009

Hippity hoppity...  This year will be Liam's second Easter and the difference between now and a year ago is amazing!  Can that even be the same baby? :)
He discovered Easter eggs while staying with AmandaJ and it was love at first sight!  He sat with them forever dumping them out and then putting them back into the basket.  He liked to smack them together and chase them all over the floor.  It was great fun.
Grandma Jean has since bought him some of his own eggs so that the fun may continue here in Michigan.

Girlie Toys Galore

April 1, 2009

AmandaJ has 2 beautiful girls, Addie who is 2 years old, and Sophia who is 4 months old.  So needless to say they have a ton of girlie toys that Liam is very fond of!  He really got into playing with the tea set, play food, and the baby care station.  The kid has only had about 10 bottles in his entire life but he did not forget what it was for...too bad nothing came out!

He really had a great time as you can see from this grin on his face.  Thanks for a great week AmandaJ.


A Swinging Good Time in Indy!

March 29, 2009

Liam and I headed for a much needed trip to Indianapolis.  We stayed with my BFF AmandaJ and had a great time.  We went to the park for some fresh air and the kids loved the swings.


While there we met up with Hoa who was watching another nurses kids, they warmed up to Liam and loved helping him learn how to walk.  Must be hard to be surrounded by beautiful girls all the time :)

Help! He Has Fallen...

March 26, 2009

Poor guy!  What a predicament to be in, not only has he fallen but his tiny hiney is stuck in the dog bowl!  So sad...AND then Mommy ran to get the camera.  Life is not fair.