Well, Thomas and I have had a nice week together. Matthew is on a Toledo - Guadelajara trip, and Lloyd and Anne have gone home to New Zealand a week ago (already?). This week Thomas had his six-month checkup. He is now 20 pounds 4 ounces and 28 inches long -- just heavy enough for knees to creak when picking him up and back to start hurting when holding him too long. He had another couple of vaccines, and the doctor prescribed us something new for his eczema which wiped it out at last! He has baby-soft skin again, so cuddly and smoochable! The doctor thinks he might be allergic to something I'm eating, so she suggested a blood test instead of those patch tests or prick tests. It might have been better, but it was still harrowing for both of us! He cried from the moment the tourniquet was put on. And they had to put the needle in him twice because the first time they couldn't find blood. Thank goodness that's over, and all we have to do now is await the test results in a couple of weeks.
In the meantime, he has met his new babysitter Dolores, a woman who I worked with at Northwest who lives just down the road. She's a sweetie and totally reliable. She's been retired now for a few years, but her body still remembers how to wake up at 4 in the morning to come to work! How lucky for me!! She comes to my house so that I don't have to wake up Thomas. They seem to get along really well-- Dolores' grandchildren are in Houston so she doesn't get to exercise her grandma skills as often as she'd like. She's so tenderhearted, she even dotes on Chloe -- feeding her little bits of cat food during the day. We'll make her a little more hardhearted, I hope, so she can resist the piteous cries of our "starving cat."
Thomas has been fussy the past couple of days -- I think another tooth is coming. The front bottom has erupted, and now it's the one right next to it that I can see under the gums. He seems to have lost some interest in eating recently. These days he's eating rice cereal, pears, sweet potato, squash, banana, and raw apple (still makes faces at that one). Also he doesn't stay asleep very long for his naps, and goes to bed fighting/crying. Thank goodness for Tylenol.
I've noticed a thing he likes to do these days is hold something in his hand and wave it back and forth and flap it around a bit. Then he transfers it to the other hand and flaps it around some more. Then he transfers it back to the other hand: flap flap flap. It's very cute when it's a blanket (he gets a big smile on his face) but it's not so cute when it's a sippy cup with water or a spoon with food on it.
This week ... Mom is coming to babysit! Our plan is for her to come on Thursday, I go to work Friday and Saturday, Matthew will come back on Sunday, and then we will all leave for Wisconsin on Sunday or Monday. Of course, this plan (which is actually plan B) is subject to load status of our flights. Plan A was to see me going up there today and then bringing Mom back with me on Thursday, but suddenly the flights were jam packed! I think school just let out for summer vacation. Hopefully in another week, the flight loads will not be as bad. Crossed fingers!
A week and a half ago, Mom came down to visit and babysit while I went to work for my two days. She and Thomas had a great time. He still remembered her even though he hadn't seen her for 3 and a half weeks! I'm pretty sure he would have remembered her anyway, but we've been making an effort to keep his memory of them active: we show him their photos almost every day, and we chat together on speakerphone every few days so he can hear their voices. While Mom was here we took him out to eat at Sweet Tomatoes and Hanamizuki, and then we invited his babysitter Dolores and her husband Mike (both former co-workers of mine, now retired) over for dinner on the third night. They brought over a very yummy wine and a good time was had by all.
Then on Father's Day, June 15th, we met Matthew at the airport (he'd just come back from his trip to Guadalajara) and we all hopped a flight back to Minneapolis! Dad was waiting at the airport for us, and he and Thomas had a great reunion. How great to be able to spend Father's Day with them again! While we were there we were visited by Michelle and John and their new bundle of joy, Dominic! He's four and a half months old now and such a cutie! It was great to meet him at last and see 
Michelle and John in a new role as parents. How amazing that the four of us became parents at the same time! It was also very interesting to see Thomas and Dominic meet each other and wonderingly stare and poke at each other. The second day, the newness wore off and Dominic and Thomas largely ignored each other and played in a parallel way, which I hear is normal for children at that age. (Hey, all you JETs who had kids/are pregnant: let's do Heidi's idea and get together with kids! It'll be fun!) Thomas also got to meet "Granny Alayne" and our next-door neighbor, Mary Lou. Unfortunately, those meetings didn't go as well as he was pretty tired. Thomas also had a nice stroller ride in the country and a close-up tour of all the trees and flowers at Mom and Dad's place. He seemed pretty interested. And once, his Mommy and Daddy snuck out to their favorite hangouts, the Acoustic Café and Legacy Chocolate, for a couple of hours of blissful "date time," while grandparents babysat.
Nowadays Thomas can stand up for short periods of time if he holds onto something. He's also gone from lying on his stomach to sitting up ... by himself! His second tooth has just broken the skin, so now he has two bottom teeth. We can now take him to Sweet Tomatoes and he can amuse himself in the high chair with cucumbers, peas and spoons for almost the entire time we are there. But he's crying a lot more often, especially when it's time for bed. We say, "It must be his teeth" so often that we wonder 
if it really could be his teeth causing all those tears! He also seems to be getting some separation anxiety, right on schedule. Matthew keeps him entertained, carrying him around on his shoulders, playing peekaboo and singing songs .... They have lots of fun together!
This morning I was listening to him babble in his crib as usual before I got him up (they call it "learning to amuse himself" -- I call it a few precious moments to get dressed and eat breakfast peacefully) when I heard him say "mamamamama"! It was mixed in with a bunch of other syllables, but "mama" was all I heard. Boy, did I go running to his crib with a big smile on my face! He said the "ma" syllables a lot more today, and it was a delight each time to pretend he was saying "mama". 
