8 months old

Thomas is 8 months old! Hooray.

Mom and Dad have been here for a visit, which was fantastic! They got to see Thomas in action for the first time. They had only seen him 3 weeks before, and at that time, he was just starting to use his arms to push himself around, legs trailing behind. Now, he is crawling, standing and moving while holding onto support, playing hide-and-seek (I hide, he seeks), even pulling himself up to stand using other people's legs. He is so mobile and so curious, you really must watch him all the time. He can hold food and wear it down with his teeth and grab small cut-up pieces and put them into his mouth. He likes Cheerios the best so far, with banana chunks coming in a close second. Michelle has lent me this great book called "The Well-Fed Baby" book and it's got a lot of great ideas for taste combinations. One I wouldn't have imagined is a banana-avocado mash, which Thomas loves! And for those of you who I haven't told, we got the results of the allergy test: he is allergic to milk, eggs and cats. Sorry, Chloe. You're going to have to put up with the vacuum cleaner harassing you a little bit more these days. So I'm trying an experiment where I avoid dairy and eggs for a couple of weeks to see if it makes a difference in his excema (since I’m still breastfeeding). Man, it's hard! Not only do the yummiest things have one or the other in them (chocolate, muffins, pancakes, cookies), but you really have to read the ingredient label closely! Did you know that malted beverages, marshmallows, and mayonnaise all have dairy or eggs? And that lactalbumin and hydrolysalates are milk-based? Fortunately these days most ingredient labels will have a big bold-faced warning: contains eggs, dairy, wheat which makes it much easier. Can't say that it's doing a lot of good, though, since I'm far too susceptible to the occasional cheese or ice cream treat, especially when eating out. And he still breaks out into a rash, even when I keep my diet pure!

Anyway, no more teeth yet. He's really having a hard time falling asleep these days, so there's a lot of crying and chewing and drooling and frozen things and Orajel and Motrin. I'm tired at the end of the whole putting him down for a nap/bedtime process!

Matthew is back and we are going to go to New Zealand on Sunday! Yay! Starting today, there will be 3 days of planning and thinking and shopping and weeding of stuff from our luggage. We're looking forward to seeing Jocelyn and everyone else over there! I'm afraid we will descend on her house like a baby twister, scattering baby stuff all over the place. We'll stay for about 3 weeks, and our only plan is a trip to Wellington to see everyone down there. Lots of people to visit! Thank you to my work for letting me have so much leave of absence. YAY! I plan to continue updates from New Zealand, so be prepared for photos!