My Little Mimic

Of all the things Liam could learn from me, he has learned to spit. Teeth brushing is a big event in our house. He sits on the toilet because this is a treat and it keeps him from trying to run after the dog with a toothbrush in his mouth. When we are finished, he watches me rinse my mouth. Since I spit, he leans over and makes a "pphhhuuu" sound. This is cute in and of itself but my little Booba had to take it a step further and fake spit every time he is at the sink. After yesterday's brave finger painting episode, we went to the sink to wash up. After I turned off the water, he had to lean over the sink and "ppphhhuu."

Mike often says I need to make things as difficult as possible for myself. Liam is following me. He is up to about twenty words, most of which are not very useful. He says sea"shell," "picture," and "button." He yells "button" and "books" whenever we enter the library. Books for obvious reasons and button for the elevator. And, yes, he yells these words out in the library entryway. When we get to the children's library, he runs off calling out "fish." How excited am I that my kid already knows his way around the library? He's trying to work together sentences. "Where's dog?" and "Hi moma/dad." are his two right now. He won't say "cup" or and food items, but he can say "Jeep." He can say "more," but prefers to sign it. I love when we don't see him do it or immediately jump to get him whatever it is he wants and he signs it faster, almost as if yelling.

In taking after Mike and I, he is an independent player. At Babies and Books, he prefers to play with the beach ball or the wall hangings himself. He isn't antisocial; he just likes to figure things out himself there. He was very comfortable with his friends in daycare so these other new kids will take some getting used to. If he wasn't such a social butterfly at daycare, I'd be worried. Mike and I have both always preferred solitary past times. I read, write, and play with my camera. Mike makes his models. Liam will play outside for a little bit by himself then make it clear that he wants us. He is much better about playing alone outside. In his defense, we don't really ask him to play alone. We like playing with him. I guess this is just one of my few "One and done" worries.

Liam's best friend is Jake. His first word beside moma and dad was dog. When he wakes up, his first word every morning is dog. On the one morning Jake had gone downstairs, Liam looked everywhere, looked at me lovingly, and asked "Where's dog?" There was some confusion for a bit that every dog was a Jake so we are trying to teach Liam names. He calls our neighbors' dog "Jakedog." They get along like siblings. Jake has the patience of a saint and lets Liam love him a lot. He will stay a few feet ahead of Liam to tease him and play tag. He instinctively knows not to take food from Liam, even when Liam picks up one of Jake's treats and tries to give it to him.
We used to take Jake everywhere and, as new parents do, we have been neglectful of our first parental responsibility. We took Jake with us to the park Sunday afternoon.

Like a true old man, Jake pretends to be crochity. He is such a good "big brother" to Liam.