5 1/2 months old

Happy birthday, Matthew! He's gone back to work: Bermuda. His friend from work is bringing an extra snorkel and mask for him -- what a crushing work schedule he must have! Poor guy!



Thomas is doing well this week. He's starting to be awake for two hours at a time, and sleeping two hours at a time, which means two long naps and a shorter nap every day. He's still not sleeping through the night, but he only wakes up once and sleeps for four- to six-hours at a time. When he is being fed by bottle, he can hold it by himself. I wonder if I'll ever witness that -- or will it be like Clark Kent and Superman never being in the same place at once? These days he is reaching for things, especially the remote, cell phones, keys, magazines, books, and food on a plate. We still haven't introduced solid foods yet, but he is very interested in the whole eating process, staring at us as we eat and reaching for our food. When we're at Sweet Tomatoes, we can successfully distract him for quite a while with spoons. As he drops one, we pass him another, and when we leave there's quite the spoon graveyard under our table!

A few days ago, we celebrated Mom's, Dad's, Shauna's, Matthew's and my birthday all at once with dinner at an Indian restaurant. What a nice meal, and it was great to spend time together, the seven of us. In another month or two, Mom and Dad will be going back to Wisconsin, so this will be one of the last easy, casual get-togethers for a while. I'm sure we'll have many more get-togethers, but it was kind of sad! Thomas had a great nap in the car on the way there and back, putting the car ride to perfect use for once!

He's also developed a powerful kick that he demonstrates on the diaper changing table. Getting his diaper or his pants on is like getting into the ring with Rocky! And as you can see from the attached photo, Thomas' eye color is changing a bit. Not really sure what color to call it, but I suppose it's still sorting itself out.

And this other photo is Thomas is showing his Florida roots. Tight t-shirt revealing soft tummy, remote at his side, staring at the TV. All he needs is a beer can. I really don't like the idea of Thomas looking at TV (baby DVDs), but I have found that it is great for cutting his fingernails and toenails. He will only stay still when he's mesmerized by something, and those baby DVDs are great for that! Matthew found one in New York that is in Japanese and English, so hopefully he's learning a little bit. Even I'm learning from that one!

5 1/4 months old

What a busy week this has been! This week has seen Dad's birthday, my birthday, a glider ride in Clermont, Matthew doing recurrent training, and lots of celebratory eating-out. We've had all-you-can-eat seafood buffet for Dad's birthday, Southern-influenced food in downtown Sanford for my birthday, and delicious Indian food at a restaurant where the service was so good that they even held the baby while we ate! They were so nice there and the food was so flavorful and delicious, it's the best I've had in Central Florida!

A couple of days ago, we sat Thomas up on the bed and let go. He can sit unassisted (though a little wobbly) for a minute or two before tipping over! If I sit behind him, he uses my legs as armrests to steady himself and can sit for much longer while I read him a story.

He's been a little fussy of late, finding it difficult to settle down for naps. But on the lighter side, he's drinking from the bottle very well -- usually 3 ounces in the morning and 6 ounces before I come home!What a relief that is!

As you can tell from this photo, he's gaining lots of weight! He's getting so gloriously chubby!

Video: Giggling Thomas

5 Months old!

Everyone here is doing very well. Mom and Dad are still dancing, though not as often since the season is winding down and all their dancing friends are going back up north for the summer. Matthew came home last night from his Toledo-Guadalajara trip, much to the delight of everyone here. I am still working twice a week, and thinking about our first big trip with Thomas: where, when and HOW?? Let me tell you, I was carefully studying all of the families and their mountains of luggage at the gate today, evaluating, judging, condemning! I just hope that I can live up to my own standards of how carry-on luggage should look when we're carting Thomas around!

Thomas is getting very coordinated these days, reaching out and grabbing things. As he's nursing, he'll look at me earnestly, then reach up slowly and unsteadily grasp my glasses, or nose, or mouth, and stare at what he's captured. He's also grasping toys . . . . and letting them drop. These days he will hold a toy between five seconds and five minutes before leaning over with his arm stretched out full length, looking down, and dropping the toy to the floor. He's learning how his different toys sound as they hit the ground, and just how often Mommy will pick up his toys and give them back!

He's also developing his verbal skills: this week it's the raspberry. There's no cuter sight than seeing him purse his lips with wide eyes and make "bbbbb" noises. I'd say he can do a full-blown raspberry about half the time.

His eye color is definitely changing, too. They are still predominantly blue, but in bright light there's some greeny-yellow in there, too. I'm a little sad that I won't be able to look into those gorgeous blue eyes any more, but I'm sure whatever color they will be next, they will be just as gorgeous!

And to continue with the 'firsts', this week was his first time being babysat by a non-family member. I wanted to go to the Creating Happiness Event, but Mom and Dad were going to a good-bye dinner with their dancing friends and so were not able to babysit. But my friend Sandy from work graciously offered to babysit. When I took him on his "meet and greet," they got on like a house on fire! Thomas was all smiles and giggles, and so was Sandy! Her little girl, who is 20 months old, was a little shy at first but warmed up rapidly. She is such a darling and can even say the alphabet! But apparently the next day was a different story. I drove off with a light heart, but apparently after the door closed behind me, Thomas started crying! And then her little girl became upset and started crying too! Poor Sandy! Two crying children on her hands! How heartbreaking that was to hear about later! Boy, do I owe her big time! Good thing I had just gone to a Creating Happiness Event and not a Creating Guilt event or I would have vowed never to leave him again!

That's all at this time!

4 3/4 Months

Hi everybody!

This week has gone by in a flash! I'm still dazed (or is that more a by-product of being immersed in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows?) It was very eventful, and Mom and Dad had quite the workout as babysitters. Last Wednesday and Thursday, thanks to Mom and Dad, I went to work as a part-timer. The first day was spent catching up on some recurrent training and hugging everybody, and the second day was divided between the ticket counter and the gate. It was scary how quickly everything came back, and I hardly felt as if I had been gone, let alone gone four and a half months! A big change from before was how exciting it was to come back home after work -- now I look forward to seeing Thomas and the family instead of coming home to only Chloe (sorry, Chloe, but you're only a cat). I hurried to the bus as fast as my aching feet would take me! It was half excitement to see the family and half worry that Thomas was dying of hunger. No need to worry, though, because Mom and Dad had done a stellar job taking care of the baby . . . . even successfully feeding him from the bottle! After two days, a bottle-feeding pattern emerged: Thomas would drink about an ounce and a half for the first feed of the day, then when he was presented the bottle for the second feed, he would gulp it down as if too hungry to hold out for Mommy. What a relief! And it was also such a relief to have only a two day workweek, too!

Then Friday my friend Kayo and I went to see Turandot, the opera (I had a buy one, get one free ticket). It was very impressive in terms of the voices, music, costumes, the set, and the sheer number of people on stage. I spent most of the opera unmoved, thinking, "Well this is nice. Too bad I don't recognize any of the music" until the last two songs. Suddenly I recognized the piece they were singing and was carried away by the romance of the story, swept away by the sheer beauty of the music and tears came to my eyes! I had been to a few operas before, but it was the first time for me to be really swept away like that. I was so happy I was there!

Saturday was a test-excursion with Dad and Thomas to visit Utaka and Shauna. How would Thomas do travelling? We drove up, they did a bunch of yard-work, then we went to a "mini" Art Festival and went to dinner, then drove back. The lesson learned was, make sure Thomas gets enough naps or he will be one cranky baby in the car ride home. And for goodness sake, try not to overstimulate him! Still working on that last one.

As for Thomas, he has well and truly found his feet. Every time I lay him down to change his diaper, his feet swing up and he holds them there and plays with them throughout the entire process. How helpful he is to keep them out of the way! In fact, I have to pry his feet out of his hands in order to do up his diaper or put his pants back on! He's also rolled over from his back to his front on the playmat in front of Mom, who was very excited. His various excemas come and go. He's staying awake longer and taking longer naps, which is very nice for me. Today is his second day of two-hour naps, and I use it for eating, cleaning and reading Harry Potter. I hardly know what to do with all that time! Long may it last!

Love, Marsha