Off and crawling

August has been a busy month. We made some trips to the neighborhood pool, where Charlie easily made friends with whatever kids happened to be there. We went to the zoo on one really hot day-- for the Chin Baby Reunion. Charlie made a safari hat, and Liam got to see a snake close up. Charlie stayed clear of the snake, as his month has been peppered with bad dreams about snakes. Beth stayed with the boys last weekend while John and I went to California for a wedding. While we were gone, they visited the aquarium, ate at Skyline for dinner, and went to the pool. We are extremely grateful for Beth's willingness to take on this task, because we don't often get even a few hours away from the kids together, much less a few days.

Both kids were a little clingy to Mommy for a couple of days after we returned. But we all survived the separation.

Liam continues to grow bigger every day. He's into size 4 diapers now, and wearing 12-18 month clothes. He still has only 2 teeth, but he's starting to enjoy some soft finger foods like Kix and Gerber puffs. He babbles a lot now, and kind of says "mah mah." He's not been sleeping all the way through the night, but usually only wakes once about 3 or 4 AM to have a bottle and then goes back to sleep for a couple of hours.


Charlie has been making progress with the potty training. We're not all the way there yet, but hope to be turning another corner soon. I sure will be glad to stop buying diapers for two kids! Charlie has been trying to learn some of his letters, and surprises me sometimes with the numbers or letters he doesn't willingly admit to knowing, but which he clearly does. He likes to talk about how he is "a really good _____" or "a really fast _____"-- fill in the blank with runner, eater, climber, walker, drawer, etc. Today he almost changed one of Liam's diapers all by himself. He really is a good helper for Mommy and Daddy.

Liam finally took his first crawling "steps" today. Even without actually crawling, it was amazing how quickly he could move around the family room, especially when wires and cords were within sight. It's time again to pull out the big heavy boxes to block the entertainment center from little hands!

Yesterday we spent the day in Oxford for Broomfest. John and I played on different teams, and neither made it past the first bracket round after the preliminary round robin. We were tired after 3 games each, and the kids were ready to go home then, so it was just as well. We were happy that cousin Morgan, a freshman there at Miami, got to stop by and visit for a while. She and Charlie had a lot of fun playing and he showed her what a fast runner he was as they circled the lobby again and again.

The band, now with five members, is finally ready for their first event over Labor Day weekend. I don't know yet whether I'll try to head down there with the boys, since I'd want to head home before the fireworks start anyway. Maybe I can get Charlie to watch them on TV with me.

I can't believe it's almost September-- time to finalize plans for Liam's first birthday. It will be here before we know it. In the meantime, the boys say "Who Dey!"

Growing up fast

We've had more milestones this past week. We told the teachers at Charlie's daycare that we wanted him to work on going to the potty, and he went 5 times on the first day! Charlie also had his second visit to the dentist last week, the first time for a cleaning. He did great. Charlie has been developing a "sense of humor." He asks me things like "is this Dad's car?" while pointing at my car. Then he says "just kidding!"

Liam is still not rolling over on his own, but just in the past couple of days he has started to reach out from a sitting position nearly into a crawl position. And he no longer cries immediately when he's stretched out on his belly. He's been really interested in reaching for Lucy's feet when she's nearby-- it might just be the motivation he needs to crawl. (until he gets scratched by her claws!) We have been putting "finger food" in front of Liam on his highchair tray for about two weeks now, but he still is not very interested in putting it in his mouth. He does like to play with it, though.

Liam had his 9 month visit to the pediatrician on Friday-- he measured 21 pounds (70th%), and was 28.5 inches long (70th%). His head was, of course, in the 80th% at 18.25 inches. He still only has two teeth, and everything else checked out fine. The doctor encouraged us to get him in to see Charlie's dermatologist about the rash on his face, and so we did that this morning. We were able to get an appointment sooner once she knew the situation. She gave us a prescription for his eczema, and suggested we use the same special sunscreen we use for Charlie on his face daily. She also followed up with the rheumatologist to see if he wanted to see them both, and he does.

Meanwhile, Liam is now going on a week of being home from daycare, due to a bug that has been going around his room. He finally cleared up the diarrhea symptoms today, and then came down with a new rash all over his back and belly, so he'll be home again tomorrow. Between his face, the eczema, and now this, he's one spotted baby!