Crawling?

We have an unconfirmed case of crawling!

According to today's babysitter, Liam was spotted crawling this afternoon.

When I was finished teaching, the babysitter said,"So Liam is crawling now?"

My response was one of complete shock,"What?!"

Apparently she saw him crawl about two feet. She even checked to make sure he wasn't just dragging the other leg behind in a half-crawling attempt like he usually does.

Leave it to Liam to demonstrate a new skill during the only 2 1/2 hours that I was away from him all day!

We'll see if he can repeat it tomorrow!

It has been really interesting to see Liam's rapid development this past week! It seems like his brain is making some significant connections.

He is able to stand much more confidently now and has even stood without help for about 2 seconds. He is starting to "talk" a bit more, saying "Dee dee" (Daddy) a lot in the past few days. When we praise him for something by saying,"Good boy!!", he will smile proudly and clap. His sign language for "more" actually looks like sign language, not just moving his hands together in a clapping motion. He can sit still for an entire storybook without trying to tear the book out of our hands or turn the pages prematurely. Today after I was showing the girls some Zumba moves, Liam began waving his arms in the exact way I had just been moving. And he can scoot across the room on his fire truck toy now faster than ever!

This is the dump truck he received from Omi for Christmas. Dressed in his brown construction jumpsuit, he looks like he's ready to go to work. All he needs is a hardhat!

I had always assumed that Liam would be walking by his 1st birthday (which is this Sunday), simply because the girls did. But he is doing things on his own schedule, seemingly in no rush to grow up. This is fine with me, but I just wish he would start sleeping though the night! We are still struggling with multiple wakings and it is exhausting.

Unfortunately Liam's birthday is a small blip in the radar. Why is that!? When Amanda turned 1, we had a party with lots of guests, a mix of family and friends. For Eva, we had a party with immediate family only. For Liam, we will celebrate with ice cream cake and a single gift rubber frogs for bathtime play. (Thank goodness Grandma Jo sent a gift so he'll have something to open!)

Poor kid... Not only is he the third child, but his birthday also falls right after Christmas. Talk about getting the short end of the stick! But whatever we lack in fanfare will undoubtedly be made up with an abundance of affection and love.

We have warned the girls that Liam probably won't get many gifts because he got plenty of new things at Christmas time. Amanda's eyes filled with tears and she pleaded,"But Mama, you can't SKIP his birthday!" (Amanda keeps telling me that she is knitting him a scarf, with the help of Omi, but I have yet to see it. Maybe by his 2nd birthday?)

We're planning to spend his birthday at the Cape Cod Children's Museum though, so if nothing else, he'll get plenty of family time.