narrating kayoz

archiving

I am moving Liam's log to blogspot for archival purposes, but all new posts remain at narrating kayoz. Unfortunately this is going to mean some broken links to posts from the old main journal. Sorry. There could be other broken links too, say to photos. If you come across some, feel free to let me know via the comments.

Narrating kayoz is open

Liam's Log is now closed. For new entries join me at Narrating kayoz.

more imaginary play

Today's imaginary play highlight:

Liam decided that our little indoor watering can was a washing machine. So he started washing things in it. A teatowel, a face washer, a scarf... each time the game would get a little more elborate.

First he was just washing the scarf in the watering can, then took it out, pronouncing it to be 'all wet now' and hung it up on the (actual) drying rack.

Next he started calling the watering can a washing machine, turning it 'around and around' with the item in side.

Next item he put the imaginary lid down and took the can off to the 'laundry' (around the corner in the living room), and left it 'for a while'. He went back, turned it around some more ("The spray rinse," he explained) then pulled the tea towel out. "It's all wet now," he said shaking it out. And hung it up to dry.

Next (another tea towel), repeat all steps as before, up to but not including the spray rinse. "It needs some more water," he says, and takes the watering can over to the cat scratcher to fill up. Then back to the laundry for the spray rinse, shake it out, and hang out to try.

At that point I ran out of things that I was happy to have washed in a dusty old watering can, so we moved on to something else, but I'm sure he would have kept going for quite a while.

Not weaning, but cutting down a little

Hey, Liam forgot to nurse tonight before bed! How weird is that? He's never ever done that before. We were finishing off his book, and some custard (a regular evening treat of late) and I asked him what we would do next.

"Go to bed," he said.

"Yeah, but what do we do first?" I asked.

"Get your dummy," was his reply.

"OK, but what do we do before that?"

No answer.

"Well maybe you better call Daddy," I said, thinking to prompt him with the next part of the routine.

"Daddy!" he called "Dad-dy! Turn that light off. Turn that light off too." This said while pointing at the relevant lights (not that Chris was even in the room yet, but that's all part of the routine). Daddy came and did his thing. This is the point when Liam usually throws himself back and starts saying "Mummy milko, mummy milko" with feverish excitement, as though it's the only time of day he gets it or something (it's not - not even close).

Instead, he was saying "Get your dummy now. Liam wants his dummy." So, off we went (Chris had already exited off to the bedroom) to the kitchen to clean his teeth and get his dummy. All the while I'm expecting "Mummy milko now" to pop out of his mouth at any second. A few times in recent months he's only nursed on one side, then we're half way down to the bedroom when he suddenly realises and demands the other side. But not today. Today he completely forgot. And so far there is no sound coming from the bedroom, so I assume he's really going to sleep. Amazing.

I am making no effort to wean, and truly, unless he really dislikes the taste once I get pregnant or something, I think he will be nursing until he's about 10. But he does sometimes forget in the morning these days, particularly if he wakes up with me (which is not all that common any more). Usually his first priority is to come and find me and have mummy milk, but if I'm right there then he's often happier to get a book and bring it into bed, or go wake up Daddy.

Also, I have started refusing him mummy milk when he wakes up from a nap and needs to go back to sleep. Even though we don't nurse in bed at night anymore, we were still doing it during the day. He still nurses to sleep during the day about half the time (or, about half the time that I am there). The rest of the time he nurses then falls asleep in my arms. Then I get up and get an hour-an hour and a half to myself. Then when he wakes up he wants to nurse again. But lately the waking up nursing thing has not been getting him back to sleep - quite the reverse: Chris could get him back to sleep (sometimes for another hour) but I couldn't. So the past week or two I've been saying the mummy milk's all gone, but he can lie in Mummy's arms. And he's been OK with it, and gone back to sleep. And if I stay with him then we usually get at least another hour, often more. On Saturday the two of us ended up sleeping from almost 2 until almost 4, and he's been asleep for over an hour before that too. Of course, this is tending to push his bedtime back to 7:30 or sometimes later. But it is nice to get that nap - for both of us.

Anyway, it's just interesting to me that although I am not actively intending to wean him at all, in a way I am doing it a bit. I certainly practice "don't offer/don't refuse", but in Liam's case I don't think that could be described as a real weaning technique - getting him to nurse multiple time each day has not involved me offering since he was - I don't know, a week old? Well, for a long time anyway. That whole nursing every hour or two around the clock thing (from six months to 18 months, on-and-off) pretty much turned me right off offering!

**This post was orginially published on Ocean View Verandah using Blogger. Please let me know of any down links (especially to photos).**

New furniture and a new room for Liam

We went shopping for a bed for Liam today, in the end of financial year sales, and we ended up buying a package: a double slat bed for Liam (I'll explain why later) with an attractive wooden bed head and an OK mattress; a tallboy; two bed-side-tables each with three drawers, and a blanket box - all in matching wood.  Which would be more relevant if it were all going to be in the same room. It's not of course.

Liam gets the bed, we get the rest.  Up until now we've had horrible, ugly wood-look laminate bed-side-tables/chests of drawers which we bought second hand for $40 when we first moved in together. They were a good deal and what we could afford at the time, but frankly they do not provide enough drawer space for our clothes, and they are, as I said, ugly.

But the exciting thing from my perspective is the double bed. At the moment Liam sleeps on a mattress on the floor next to our bed, and usually comes into our bed at some point during the night.  If I'm on 'night-duty' he usually doesn't get into our bed till around 4 or 5, although last night it was 3:30.  If Chris is on night duty he often comes into our bed quite a bit earlier.  This is because Chris falls back asleep much more quickly than I do, so if he has to get down into Liam's bed to settle him he usually falls asleep there.  This bothers me not at all, because most of the time: I sleep in the spare room. 

At least, I've been sleeping there most of this past semester. The reasons are two-fold.  One is that I was getting up at 5am to study quite often, and if I had Liam in bed with me that wouldn't work so well.  The other is that I have been trying to remember to take my temperature first thing in the morning in preparation for trying to conceive later this year, which has involved setting my alarm to wakeup at a set time - not so good for trying to get Liam to sleep as long as possible (he mostly wakes up by about six am, but sometimes it's as late as 6:30).

So I've only been sleeping in the bedroom when I am on night duty, and I haven't been doing that all that often.  Some people find our sleeping arrangements astounding and feel worried for us: don't. The way I see it, we are only going to have small children for a short part of our life.  Even if Chris and I slept separately for that entire period, so what?  Our kids are secure and happy, and to be honest, now that Liam sleeps pretty well, and now that I am not the sole night-time parent, I kinda like sleeping with him.  In fact, when we first started talking about buying him his own bed, Chris said he wasn't sure that he felt ready to have Liam sleep in his own room yet!

However, whether we feel ready or not may not be the point any more.  A few weeks ago, Liam started saying he wanted to sleep in the change room, aka his would-be-bedroom.  There is a bed in there, but it is a horribly uncomfortable single bed that Chris used to have at his Dad's house. And the room itself is a bit of a storage room (although a lot of the boxes are of Liam's clothes - clothes he hasn't grown into yet, or clothes he's grown out of). So we decided to get a new bed and tidy up the room, before moving Liam into it.  Hence today's shopping expedition. Liam was with us and he approved the bed. He was rather put out that we couldn't bring it home with us today actually. They had to order it in which could take 4-6 weeks, so hopefully Liam forgets about it for a while.

The reason we decided to get a double bed is that given that Liam is used to sleeping right next to us, we figure that Chris might end up sleeping in his bed for the second half of most nights. It'll be Chris because of course at some point later this year, hopefully, I'll be pregnant and will be needing all the sleep I can get. We'd wondered exactly how and when Liam was going to start sleeping in his own room. We figured we'd rather wait until he initiated it, but I had thought that might not be until he was at least three or so. He's only 2&1/4 now. Which is great, because we also figured it would be ideal to have him in his own room before the next baby is born. Mostly because we don't want them waking each up all night. Also when I'm pregnant I will definitly not be wanting to have my sleep disturbed any more than it will be by pregnancy. Still, we had figured that if Liam was still wanting to sleep in our room we could always just arrange it that he and Chris sleep in there while I (and eventually the new baby) sleep in the spare room.

But this way is better I think.  Of course, Liam might not take to his new bedroom, but here's hoping he does.

The other reason for the double bed is that we think/hope that eventually when the next child is old enough, he/she can sleep in there with Liam. It will, of course, depend how s/he and Liam feel about it, but I'm hoping they'll like the idea.  I have read a bit about the family/sibling bed idea, and I like it.  I think it can really help with that sibling bond, and after all, who wants to sleep alone?  Not Liam, clearly.  Not yet anyway.

Anyone with experience moving a child into their own room feel free to leave your tips/stories in the comments.

PS The reason Chris was able to come shopping with us on a Friday is that he's off work with pericarditis - inflammation of the lining/fascia around the heart (pericardium). He's supposed to be resting of course, not shopping.  But mostly he has been resting.  Sleeping in and lying around on the couch.  And we'd already done our research, so it wasn't really too much shopping today.

**This post was orginially published on Ocean View Verandah using Blogger. Please let me know of any down links (especially to photos).**

make believe

"Zhoom, zhoom, zhoom," says Liam as he swoops his plastic bowl above the bath water. "It's an aeroplane," he tells me, "Zhoom, zhoom. Now it's a spaceship." Swoop, swoop, swoop.

It amazes me the sorts of make believe games Liam comes up with these days. Some are clearly learned from watching TV or from other kids and parents at play group - like when he wrapped his arms around himself the other day and said he was a caterpiller. I think that was something they did on Play School recently. But other things are totally him.

Another example: A few nights ago he decided he was a bird, and wanted to climb into the laundry basket full of clean clothes. Actually, I think he wanted to climb in first, deciding he was a bird and it was his nest was just the rationale.

But I didn't want him to climb into the clean clothes, so I made him a nest on the couch. He climbed up into it and then pointed to his bunny rabbit. "He's a bunny-bird," Liam explained to me. This ability to decide that a thing will be something else is wonderful I think. He doesn't need everything to be just right or to have heaps of different complicated toys, he can pretend. It so impresses me, and reinforces the idea that really specific toys are not as great as the toy companies would have us believe - they just can't encourage creativity in the way more simple toys can.

Last night Liam decided he

Last night Liam decided he was a bird, and needed a nest to sit in. I dissuaded him from sitting in the basket of clean clothes, by helping him to make a nest on the couch. He quickly saw the advantages of this rather larger nest, and decided to add to it.

"Little hoot's a bird, he could come in the nest too," I said, in response to his command that I pass him his toy owl. Okay, that made sense, but next he wanted me to pass him his toy rabbit.

"Bunny-bird," he explained. Then there was tiger-bird, bear-bird, piglet-bird...

At one stage, since Liam was flapping his 'wings' I flapped mine too. But: "Mummy's not a bird," he said "Ee's a mummy." (Liam uses 'ee' instead of he or she, most of the time.)

I hadn't seen Liam play this way before. He uses his imagination plenty, but to specifically decide that something he knew to be a rabbit would now be a bird, that sort of thing's new.

And the other interesting thing about this is that he's become very didactic lately. He might say, for instance, that an owl is an owl, but not a bird. Or, a real example, he has a bear that looks a bit dog-like, so this week he told me that it is not a bear, it is a dog. I had interpreted his sort of thing as simply misunderstanding. Now I wonder if it isn't actually deliberate creativity.

"go to Jacob's house"

From an email to my best friend, who we visited in the States earlier this year, and whose son, J, liked to sing the Lion King song, a LOT.

This morning Liam was 'singing' the Lion King song (the bits of it he remembers), which he does fairly often, encouraged by the frequency with which we see bits of it on video in various stores, or just posters advertising the DVD.  The out of the blue he said he wanted to go to J's house.  He hasn't said that in a while now.  I told him I wanted to go too...  Then after a bit he came out with wanting to get J's lawn mower "wheel go round and round inside" he said.

And the other thing I've been meaning to say for ages (who knows, maybe I already said it)- remember how you commented that J cried a lot more than Liam?  Well, Liam cries a lot more now too, and in similar sorts of situations.  Maybe not as much yet, but, he's definitely getting there.  So I'm thinking maybe it's a developmental thing.

'go way mummy'

Check it out, for the first time in ages (probably since I started having papers due, around Easter time) Liam is really excited that Chris just got home from work, and told me to 'go way mummy'. Hence, I get to sit in here and type. : )

Admittedly, Chris was home late from work (didn't get here till 6:30), but I think maybe the extra effort I've been making to have some really focused time with him on our days together might be part of it too. We didn't go to play group today, and last Thursday-Friday we didn't have any visitors or visits - we did get out for a walk and play at the park each day (and today too) but that's it.

Anyway, it's made all concerned very happy, because lately Liam's been telling Chris to go away a lot, and telling me not to go to work ("No mummy go to work, Daddy go to work" he said yesterday morning, and the day before too), and generally behaving as though he hasn't been seeing enough of me. His propensity to use a lot of the words 'no' and 'don't' might have something to do with that too I think, although he's also definitely going through an independence thing generally?wanting to climb into and out of the car seat himself and so on.

Liam, two years old. Just

Liam, two years old. Just a photo, for the record. I took it this morning while he was 'painting' with water, on the back deck.

Today Liam wore real shoes

Today Liam wore real shoes - converse all stars, size 4 - for the first time. They were a gift from his Uncle Murray for Christmas, but until now he was not really ready for them. Now he's been really walking - as in, basically not crawling at all - for two weeks. So we decided it was time. He looks really cute in them.

(So, he's still my baby, but he's also totally a toddler.)

Click here for a very cute photo of Liam from today - he was wearing the shoes, but I'm afraid they're not in the photo...

Two firsts today. Having just

Two firsts today.

Having just said yesterday that Liam can't yet stand up without something to push up on, today he did it. The first time (first time we saw it anyway) seemed a little difficult - a bit of an effort. A minute or so later he did it again without any apparent effort. Did I just say that that was my definition of a toddler? Nah, he's still my baby.

Another first was bubble blowing. While he was in the bath I made a bubble wand and blew some bubbles for him. I've been meaning to do it for ages, but not getting around to it. Well he loved it. Giggled for the longest straight giggle either of us have ever heard from him (or possibly from anyone). It was a lot of fun to watch.

Another new thing we're doing is trialing having dinner with him. We've moved our dining arrangements into the family room, where the floor is not carpeted, and tonight we all ate together, moreorless the same thing. His was cut into bite sized portions - finger food, not spoon food - he's not upto that yet. We'll see how it goes. Tonight it meant he got to bed late, between us cooking and him taking longer to eat. That was OK today because daylight savings time ends tonight (Fall=back) so going to bed later just might mean not waking up at 5am tomorrow. But in future that wouldn't be so good. So we'll just play it by ear.

All that stuff about sleeping

All that stuff about sleeping aside, Liam really is a lot of fun to have around these days. Can you believe he turned one last week? Yep. And he's walking better and better all the time. Almost a toddler. Not quite though. He still has very little hair, for one thing, which gives him a real baby look. And for another thing, he can't quite get up to standing yet with out something to push himself up on. It only needs to be a few inches high, but there needs to be something. I reckon once he can do that he'll be a real toddler. But for now, he's still my baby.

Could that have been my

Could that have been my last entry? He was sleeping. Well, let me tell you, he practically hasn't slept since!

Since sometime early last week - (or was it the week before?) Liam has been sleeping like hell. After his first stretch at night (usually about two hours at the moment) he just will not sleep out of my arms. I put him down, he sleeps for 10 minutes, wakes up crying. Last night he was fidgity on the breast that I thought it must be morning (or maybe I just wanted it to be) but when I finally looked at the clock it was only two something. He didn't really settle until finally at about 3:45 I sat up with him and fed/held him tilll he was properly asleep, then put him down and got up to stretch/pee/get a glass of water. My back was killing me by this stage, from trying to sleep with him in my arms and feeding half the night, so I really needed to walk around a bit. Anyway, I got back to bed at 4:02. He stirred and dropped his dummy at 4:11 and was awake a crying for the breast (nothing else would do) again at 4:20. And that was a pretty good stretch.

I just keep telling myself, this too shall pass. The other thing is, it's not only at night. He wants to b/f about 100 times a day at the moment, and sometimes climbs (wriggles) down off my lap as though he's done, only to complain as soon as I do my bra up. "Don't put it away mummy, don't put it away! I might want some more. In fact, I do." I don't know if this is his version of separation anxiety - which he still doesn't really seem to have thank goodness.Chris still usually takes him down to the bedroom and gets him to sleep at night, and he hasn't complained when I've left him with Chris the past couple of mornings (as a prelude to when i go back to work next Thursday-Friday and Chris stays home with him). He was a bit cranky when he woke up from his nap yesterday afternoon and I'd gone again. But going outside quickly solved that! So maybe he doesn't have the common form of separation anxiety, but he making up for that by b/feeding a lot, I don't know.

It is possible, just possible,

It is possible, just possible, that Liam slept for the full 5 hours the night before last, for the first time in his life.

He went to sleep at 8:35, after Chris tried to get him to sleep for an hour followed by my b/feeding him for half and hour. He then slept until just after 11, at which point I went to bed and fed him back to sleep. Then I have a vague memory of him waking again briefly, but I think it was not much later - I don't think he'd fully settled yet. And then, he didn't wake again until 5:07, briefly, and then 6:33 for good.

After just a couple of nights ago having a night where he nearly slept for 2 hours once, and didn't make it much past one hour for the rest of the night, this would be phenomenal, even if he didn't go for a full 5 hours. But I think he did! In fact, I think I am going to enter it into the baby book as his first 'slept though the night' entry. Now we've only got that first haircut to go!

Have I mentioned lately how

Have I mentioned lately how great Liam is at the moment? OK, the sleep thing isn't so good (again) but aside from that he really is easier and more fun to look after now than at any point in the past. And he's been great the whole way along so that's saying something.

Also, have I mentioned how

Also, have I mentioned how well he's walking now? To start with it ws maybe two or three times aday that he'd take a few stpes, and a bit more often that he'd take one or two. now he's constantly walking, just for the ehll of it I think. His maximum is about 2 metres, but he walks one metre regularly. And while to begin with he was mostly leaning forward too far and therefore mostly almost running until he lost balance completely and fell, now he is much more upright and can walk quite slowly and deliberately.

One last thing Liam started

One last thing Liam started doing during his eleventh month was helping with taking his clothes off. Specifically, trying to lift his tshirts over his head and stepping out of pants. Especially before a bath. And now he also helps with getting dressed, holding up one leg and then the other to put pants on.

The other eleventh month trick

The other eleventh month trick I forgot was pointing.

For quite a while now Liam has been reaching out with his hand towards the object of his interest, be it something he wants to grab or somewhere he wants to go. But in the last month (or so) he's turned that into pointing with his index finger. It can seem a bit peremptory, but it's also very cute. He points at food, at the outdoors, at photos he wants to look at and at people he wants to hold him.

Also last week he started clapping (finally) - until then he'd never opened his hands when banging them together, but now he does. And he gets quite a kick out of it when we clap at him when he does something clever (like walking).

I forgot to mention that

I forgot to mention that Liam went to his first politcal rally (anti-war march) the other week. There'll be photos and all.

Some other eleventh month tricks

Some other eleventh month tricks that I forgot to mention:

We sometimes sneeze back at him when he sneezes to make him laugh. And of course, once he laughs once we keep doing it, because we like to hear him laugh. So one day a couple of weeks ago we were doing this, and he pretended to sneeze back. It was so funny, and we laughed so of course then he kept doing it. He's done fake coughs before and laughed, but this just seemed to be more of a deliberate joke.

There was something else, but I've forgotten it again. I'll come back to it later.

In the meantime, yesterday's new skill: he can now climb up onto our lower couch. This is not so great since I had gotten our living room completely child proofed (well, safe for him anyway, not so safe for the books) so that I could feel that I didn't have to be in there with him to know he was safe. Since he can't get down off the couch (but can fall) that is no longer true. But, still quite cool. And he's taking more and more steps each day.

As I write my sister is trying to get him to go to sleep in the bed room. I have the monitor on, and I don't think it's going to work.

Liam was eleven months old

Liam was eleven months old on Friday. Eleven months! So hard to believe he'll be a one year old in only a few short weeks.

It doesn't seem like he could possibly change as much between now and then as he has over the last month. I swear he's made more cognitive connections in the past month than in the previous ten months combined.

Most excitingly, he's started trying to walk. He took his first controlled step the Wednesday before last (ie at a bit over ten and a half months) and has been taking several a day since then. Yesterday he progressed even further, taking his first steps out from the couch, rather than between two things. Usually he will be cruising the furniture and not be quite able to reach between two things, so take a step or two not hanging on to get there. Yesterday he twice set out into the middle of the room (once towards Chris on the other side of the room actually) and took about four steps before going down to all fours.

He's also started to put things back into bowls (or boxes, baskets, whatever) and back onto towel racks, instead of just pulling them out and off. Of course, most of what he puts back still ends up on the floor a minute latter. But it is a definite change in behaviour. He even tries to get the shapes into the shape ball (you know, the yellow and blue Tupperware one) that mum got him for Christmas - unsuccessfully of course, but he has the idea.

This past week he finally said 'cat' really clearly for the first time. I've been thinking for a couple of months that he was saying 'at' for cat - in fact, since before we went to Melbourne I think, so when he was only 7 or 8 months old. But I've not been sure. But then on Monday he crawled over to one of our cats and back, and then halfway back to him again he stopped and said "cat" so clearly it was incredible. And I wasn't the only one who heard it either! Then he did it again on Wednesday, 3 times. First to the same cat and then twice to our other cat. Those last two times were less clear, but still clearer than anything he's said before. He also, I think, calls the dogs 'dig'. A few times he's heard them bark when we can't see them and exclaimed 'dig dig'.

We have my sisters dogs staying with us at the moment (along with my sister) and Liam absolutely loves them. He likes the cats, but dogs are way more exciting. Whenever we go somewhere with dogs he gets all excited.

More on the speech thing - While my sister was holding Liam last week he said 'no' clearly. Not with meaning, but it's a new sound for him. Usually he just says 'nanana' or 'nan-nan' when he uses an 'n' sound. In fact I think the 'oh' sound is altogether new. Also, two mornings in a row last week I said to him "can you say 'mummy'?" and he said "mum mum mum mum mum." He's said that before, he's been saying it for ages in fact, but never by request before.

Liam's mission in life at the moment is to be outside as mush as possible, dogs or not dogs. He gets so cranky when we bring him in (unless we can cleverly distract him with something exciting inside just at the moment we cross the threshold) and spends a lot of time in front of the glass door staring longingly out at the dogs. And not quietly either.

Towards the end of the time we were in Melbourne he started to get sick of hat wearing, and had a phase after that where he would take it off as soon as we put it on. But in the past month or so he's learned to associate the hat with being outdoors, and so he accepts it. He even looks towards the door as soon as we put it on often. Sometimes he takes it off outside and we say to him that if he wants to stay out side the hat stays on, and he accepts that (usually).

And perhaps more exciting even than walking or talking - Liam can now sleep, almost like a normal child. That's not to say that he sleeps through the night or anything. But he usually sleeps for 3-4 hours before waking up (last night it was 4½, the most so far is 4¾), then has a feed and often then sleeps for another 4 hours. In the past week, the only times he has slept for 4 hours between say 1-5 or 12-4 are the two days when he only had one nap. He seems to need a morning and an afternoon nap, preferably of an hour or more each.

The difference this week has been that Chris has slept with Liam. They've been sleeping in our bed (or Liam sometimes on his own mattress next to ours) while I've been sleeping in another room. The first two nights I didn't feed him at all, and Chris settled him every time he woke up, but those two nights he woke up about every hour after midnight. Not so much fun. So then I started feeding him the first time he wakes up after about 10 (usually around midnight, sometimes later if he had a late bedtime or woke up sometime before 10) and immediately he started sleeping better.

Last night Chris had the night off and I slept with Liam, and he woke up at 3:30 and 6am (for good), but that still wasn't too bad. And to begin with he slept 4½, not waking up until two hours after I came to bed.

Oh, did I mention that he got 5 teeth all in one month? They were mostly in January, with the last one coming through in the first few days of Feb. And since then I've started giving him toast to eat - not just breaking bits off and putting them in his mouth as I had been doing, but giving him a quarter of a slice at a time. A lot of it still gets squashed into the carpet, but he does bite pieces off, and even pick bits up that he's dropped and eat them. I've held off on bread until recently because yeast is one of the things Chris was allergic to as a child, but he seems to be OK with it so far.

More changes still - he's learning to get up stairs. He can crawl up on all fours, or he can clamber up on hands and feet, but that's a bit slower. He 'crawls' now as much on his feet as his knees. He can also now get off the bed (which has made bedtime a lot more drawn out). Not, unfortunately, going backwards. He throws himself over the edge and lands on his hands, pulling himself along till he's on all fours on the floor, and then takes off at a run for the walk-in-robe. One night this week Chris said he sat at the edge and scootched along until his feet were off the edge on the floor, then scootched some more until his but plopped onto the floor too. That must have taken too long though, 'cause he's gone back to throwing himself off face first since then.

He love to play with balls and frequently 'plays ball' with Chris or I, throwing it back to us with a fair degree of accuracy. Othertime he just throws it off somewhere else in the room and chases after it, throwing again when he gets there. It's rather like watching a cat actually.

He finally started to wave goodbye this month too, but he seems to have stopped again. Although now he will wave to himself in the mirror, which is very cute.

Liam took his first unsupported

Liam took his first unsupported step two days ago (Wednesday). Or at least, his first step that was more a controlled step than a lurch, which is what he's done before. He let go of the couch he was holding on to, and then took a step over to someone to grab hold of. Of course, I didn't see it! It was at mother's group, and someone said "Does she know he can do that?" I turned around and they told me.

He also slept for 4 full hours in a row that night. Unfortunately more than three of them were before I went to bed, and then he failed to sleep for 3 hours. So for the that and the previous night each night I had about 3 hours of proper sleep. I was a zombie yesterday. Happily, Chris slept with him last night while I slept in the study. Not so happily for Chris he had one period of an hour and a half of sleep, and that was the longest. But I slept for over seven hours and only woke up once. Of course that once I ended up being up for over half an hour expressing milk, to relieve the very great pressure!

Also he did not sleep during the day yesterday except in the car, and did not have a nap this morning. Thank goodness he is sleeping now, and has been for an hour and a half.

We have just had nearly

We have just had nearly two weeks of hell. Liam was sick - not horribly sick, just a cold: low grade fever, snotty nose, that sort of thing. And as a consequence couldn't sleep.

For three nights after my last entry he woke up in the middle of the night, and cried. We had to take turns walking the floor with him, sitting up with him sleeping on our chests, for the first time in months.

Then last Friday night I stupidly waited till he woke up to go to bed, and by then I was engrossed in something on TV so I got him bac to sleep and went out to watch some more. Well, when he woke up again at 12:30 I finally went to bed. But not to sleep. Because I couldn't get him back to sleep.

Chris has been sleeping in the other room for the past week, because he too has been sick and needed to be able to sleep. Well, at 2am last Saturday morning I took Liam in to him and said I didn't want to see him again until morning, unless he was actually screaming. I heard him crying twice, but both times Chris got him settled again. So I got to sleep by myself for over 4 hours.

In the morning I asked him how it went, and he said Liam didn't sleep for more than 45 minutes in a row the whole night, and Chris had to stand up and walk with him every single time he awoke. Fun.

Nonetheless, I made him do it again the next night, only this time for the whole night. I just felt like I needed a break, or I was going to break. So I got Liam to sleep a little before 9, and I went to bed (in another room) at 9:30. My theory was that doing it two nights in a row he might improve. And I was right. The next night he woke up at 2 and 3 hourly intervals until 5am. At 5am Chris was able to just stick the dummy back in his mouth instead of getting up with him, but then he woke up every ten minutes or so until at 5:30 Chris stood up again, and got him back to sleep properly. Then he slept until 7:15.

The next night was back to normal with me. Not fantastic but not too bad either. And then last night was a red letter night. He slept from 8:30 to about 10:45/11, then woke up sometime after 2 and sometime after 5. Then for good at about 6:15. I think that's right, or maybe he woke up after 4 as well as 5, or didn't wake up after 5... Anyway, he only woke up 3 or 4 times at the most the whole night. An excellent night.

Did I say things were

Did I say things were improving? And that we'd consolidate current successes before getting Chris to settle Liam?

Yesteday Liam barely slept at all. Normally he sleeps between two and a half and four hours a day, over two naps. Yesterday morning he slept about one and a quarter hours, over two naps, and with a break in the middle of the second one. The first one was 15 minutes in the car, after I'd spent 2 hours trying eveything I could to get him to sleep at home. This was particularly frustrating because he'd slept badly the night before and so I planned to share his naps during the day - or at least one - to try to catch up on some sleep for me.

Then last night, after waking up about 4 times in 3 hours after I put him to bed, he was awake for between 2 and 3 hours in the middle of the night. From around 1:30 to sometime after 4. And then slept fitfully in my arms for the rest of the night. I got up at 6:45 with my back so stiff it hurt to breath deeply.

At one point during the night I said right, that's it, I'm leaving. I went out to the living room to try to sleep on the couch and left Chris to look after Liam, but he immediately started crying. I waited for a few minutes, hoping Chris would get him settled, but it quickly escalated, so I ended up just going back.

This weekend, without fail, Liam and Chris are going to work it out. Goodness knows how, but they are.

On a positive note, having decided not to do that last weekend, Chris was able to get Liam to fall asleep on his shoulder twice during the day, which he hasn't been able to do since about Christmas. And Liam's just had another tooth through and two more still coming (that's 3 since the start of January plus the two coming, after none for 5 months). So Chris settling him with that on is pretty good I think. Just wish it would happen at night.

So , I think things

So , I think things are starting to improve on the sleep front.

Yesterday morning, for instance, it only took about 2 minutes to get Liam to sleep. That's unusually good of course, but this morning it only took 10, and that is becoming increasingly common.

And, three nights ago, Liam slept for 3&3/4 hours when I first put him to bed, then slept for another 3 hours between 2am and 5am, which is when I really want him to sleep well.

Then last night, he slept for 3 hours 55 minutes when I first put him to bed. Woke up at 11:25, was back to sleep in 10 minutes. Woke up again at about 1am. Then he woke up again once - I think only an hour later, but it may have been more like two - and then didn't wake up till 10 to 6. Of course then I couldn't get him back to sleep, but I did get him to kind of doze/rest for nearly another half hour. So he had at least another 3 hour period of sleep, maybe 4. That's twice in one week he's done that. And until the week before, he'd never slept in bed alone for more than 3 hours at night, and that rarely. So yeah, I think we're getting somewhere with this no cry sleep solution business. Also, I didn't have to sue the dummy at all last night, and the first time he fell asleep it was on his own mattress, no breast or dummy in his mouth, facing me lying on my mattress (so a foot or so away, but hands touching).

Liam stood, unassisted, for several

Liam stood, unassisted, for several seconds again today. Chris reckons ten or fifteen. He is also getting easier to get to sleep, I think because both his middle front teeth are now right through.

So both this morning and

So both this morning and yesterday morning it took only about a half hour (or less yesterday) to get Liam to sleep for his morning nap, and he has now slept for nearly an hour and a half with no intervention (and yesterday went for 1 hour 40 min). This used to be normal but for the past couple of weeks at least has not been. I think it actually started with Chris not being able to get him to sleep for morning naps when he was on holidays, so I don't know if it has to do with that, with the holiday madness, or just with these teeth. But I am happy to have my day time happy napper back, even if it's only for the morning nap so far.

OK the archives are fixed.

OK the archives are fixed. Again.

I'm having trouble with my

I'm having trouble with my archives again. The november ones are there, but not showing up in the index. The url is http://www.users.bigpond.com/kayoz/liam/2002_11_01_archive.html just in case anyone happens to be looking for it.... I'll try to fix it later. Right now I need to go get some matchsticks for my eyes. Or maybe I'll just go join Liam in bed.