Jonathan Day

As a note on Liam’s development, he took his first couple of steps on September 9th, but has decided to wait a little longer before he officially starts to walk. He is getting very skilled at putting objects in places. We are teaching him to put different shaped objects in different shaped holes. He is not yet understanding the shape to shape concept, but he is remembering last successful shaped hole. When we point to a hole to put a shape in and he does it successfully, he will then try to put the next shaped object in the same hole until we point and show him where that object should go. But he does remember what shaped hole was the last successful hole!
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Jess is starting to feel more comfortable now that she is starting to make friends and have things to do outside of the house. On Saturdays, Jess and Liam go swimming at the YMCA with other parents and tots. This past Thursday, Jess went to a book club that will meet once a month. She also signed up at the Campus Recreation center on Wednesday and went to Yoga before the book club meeting. So that Thursday night, Liam and I had some father-son time. On Friday morning, there was a play group that Jess took Liam to. After the play group, Jess took Liam over to a friend’s house to play with her kids and have lunch.

Last week I went to the American Political Science Association Conference in Washington D.C. God blessed me with a wonderful trip. I was able to get a lot of work done, present, and make connections with other political scientists. I also got the full transportation experience – train, another train, plane, van, another train, subway, bus, car, and walking.
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Last night, Liam took his first two steps! He still is uncertain about walking, but his mind has been telling him to practice standing on his own. So he will stand up in the middle of the floor and get this great big grin on his face like he is realizing his new strength and ability- it’s amazing!
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Today Jess, Liam, and I plan to go to a department picnic and hopefully see the hot air balloons that will be flying from Macomb this weekend.

Liam had his one year appointment yesterday. He checked out wonderfully. He also received FOUR shots. In Iowa City, they had two nurses do two shots simultaneously, but in Macomb, one nurse had to do all four shots. Doing them one at a time seemed like it would be more painful, but Liam was such a trooper. He cried a little, but he fought through the pain better than I expected. The nurse had us fill out a survey of his development. One of the developments, we hadn’t experimented with. So Jess tried it when we got back home. She took a cup, placed a ball into the cup, and Liam mimicked what she did by placing another ball into the cup. AMAZING!!! It’s so wonderful to see new developments like that! Liam is 31.5 inches and 26 pounds and 12 ounces. He is in the 91st percentile in both height and weight and in the 83rd percentile for head circumference.