6 4/5 months old! (?)

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!