Learning to Play with Others

At 15 months old, Liam is learning how to play and communicate with others.  Since Liam is currently an only child, he doesn't get many opportunities to practice his social skills with other children.  When he does come across a small person, he often squeals at them.  It's his way of saying "hello," and "I'm excited to see you."

Liam's cousin, Lucas, is 8 months older than him.  Lucas already has a great vocabulary, and struggles to understand Liam's squeals when our families get together each week.  Often Liam's lack of communication and loudness drives Lucas to be afraid of Liam, but lately the two are starting to learn how to play with each other.  A couple weeks ago they played chase, and this last Sunday they played a kind of cops and robbers game.  Lucas pulled out an empty squirt gun and pretended to shoot Liam.  At first we tried to deter the shooting action, but when we saw how much fun the boys were having, we let them be boys.  I felt it was more important, at the time, for them to learn to play together.  Lucas has been afraid of Liam for months.

Another social issue Liam is having is possessiveness of his mommy.  Often if my parents are hugging me, or even Brent, Liam will yell and push them away from his mommy.  This is amplified even more when I'm holding another child.

Last Sunday was a real challenge.  Brent and I volunteered in the nursery for the first time.  I was excited to help out, and get to play with Liam and the other babies and toddlers.  Unfortunately, whenever I held, played with, or comforted another child, Liam got very upset.  He was fine letting Brent assist the other kiddos, but would cry, yell, push, and hit if I didn't reserve my attention only for him.  At one point I was sitting on the floor with a toddler on my lap and Liam ran up and smacked me in the face.  I of course told him "no."

Maybe, over time, the nursery will be a good way to teach Liam that he has to share his mommy.  Someday he won't be the only child anymore, and he'll have to learn to share my attention.

On a lighter note... I wanted to share one of my new favorite activities Liam does.  He dances!  I love watching him get excited and dance around to the music.  A sure fire way to bring this on, is by turning on Yo Gabba Gabba.  When the intro starts and the theme song is playing, Liam will run from wherever he is at and start dancing.

The pure joy expressed by Liam makes me smile every time :)

-Anna