Let's do a Liam update since he turned 18 months old a couple of weeks ago.  I'm going to break this down into different areas to keep my thoughts straight.

Gross Motor Skills
This is Liam's biggest weakness.  He just started to get himself into a sitting position from his belly.  He can pull himself into a stand from a seated position, like if he's sitting on a stool and pulls himself up to a table.  Other than that, no big developments.  It seems as if his biggest issues isn't low muscle tone or coordination, but motor planning.  He just can't figure out how to get the skills to connect.

We should get SureSteps today.  I'm hoping that we'll see an increase in standing and cruising with the SureSteps.  Liam's ankles pronate inward pretty badly.  Imagine that when you're standing, you're standing with the weight on the inside edge of your foot and not the bottom of your foot.  That's how he stands. 

Fine Motor Skills
We're stacking blocks now.  He's working on putting puzzle pieces back into the puzzle.  He's graduated from big knob puzzles to little knob puzzles.  His pincer grasp is hit or miss.  Sometimes he nails it, other times he doesn't even try.  We're working on self-feeding.  Finger foods tend to be thrown.  The spoon may get in the mouth or on the forehead or it may be thrown.  We are off the bottle!!  He's drinking from a sippy cup.  He won't hold it on his own, but I'm willing to give it time since we've just started drinking from a cup.

Speech and Communication
Big, big, big developments here.  The signs are coming fast and furious.  He's got 11, maybe 12, signs that he uses regularly.  Sometimes he just needs to be shown the sign a few times, and he'll pick it right up.  This week he's learned "block" and "baby".  We have some words as well.  He says "hi" at least 50 times a day.  He also says "ook" when he's signing "book" so we think he's saying "book".  He has a couple of other words that we haven't deciphered yet.  "Esh" is maybe "yes".  "Ah lala" might be "I love you".  Hard to tell on that last one.

We started private speech last week.  I've got no impressions of that yet since we've only been once.  My biggest goal for speech is still working on chewing.  It's improved but it's still no where near adequate.

And, the imitations.  He imitates everything.  Coughing, sneezing, throwing up (that was funny!), letter sounds.  He also imitates hand gestures.  He imitates EVERYTHING.

Other Stuff
Liam is smart.  There's just no other way to say it.  Every kid has their strengths and weaknesses.  Liam's may very well be his cognitive skills.  He's learned most of the parts of his body.  He'll identify them when asked.  He tries to sort shapes.  He's mastered putting squares in square holes.  He's trying to figure out the circles and triangles and the other shapes. 

He's also becoming a sneaky man.  He is obsessed with one particular electrical socket in our sun room.  He knows damn well he's not supposed to grab it (yes, it's babyproofed).  He'll subtly push a toy closer to it.  Then move over and play with the toy.  Push the toy closer and move closer.  He looks over his shoulder to see if we're watching.  Then he'll bang the toy on the wall next to the socket and glance around.  Then he moves as fast as he can to grab the socket.  If we say "Liam, no socket!" or whatever, he moves at lightning speed to get there.  Repeat this sneaky scenario for power cords and curtains and tablecloths.  He gets a few warnings now and then goes to timeout.  Or what Doug calls "handcuffs".

He has an occasional tantrum.  He definitely lets you know when he's unhappy.  There's vigorous head-shaking and whining, then he'll arch his back and stiffen up and then yell. 

I worry about his gross motor skills.  Because of his personality and because he learns so much other stuff, we focus on working on that kind of stuff.  Teaching signs, singing songs, building block towers, etc.  I think we should focus on the gross motor skills when we're home, but it's hard when he fights and we both get unhappy.  Overall, I'm extremely pleased with the developments he's made.  He's such a sweet, interactive kid.  I need to upload some pictures since there haven't been very many pictures of him lately.