10 1/4 months old

Well, we had a spectacular visit from Utaka and Shauna this weekend! We all took things easy, and I got to play around in the kitchen a bit. Utaka and Shauna played with Thomas a lot (they were great babysitters/playmates and Thomas loved them!), and we all went for a walk at Moss Park (got rained on again!), ate lots of food, watched a bit of football and TV and chatted. It was a very relaxed and happy weekend! Those two have so much going on that we were very excited and pleased that we could spend a whole relaxed weekend together! Yay!

Thomas' new "word" this week is "no." He says it indiscriminately "nonononononono" like Jim Trott on the Vicar of Dibley. One morning when we were on our usual stroller ride around the neighborhood, Matthew was telling me how he noticed that when Thomas is on the attack, he'll get a big grin on his face and laugh as if he's rubbing his hands together, a special "hahahahahahaha!" Thomas said from inside the stroller a clear, "nooooo" and the two of us laughed and said simultaneously, "yes you do!" Gave me a glimpse what future conversations will be like!
Thomas is also starting to stand by himself. This seems to happen when he stands holding a support and a toy and then puts both hands on the toy. Today he stood, holding onto the stereo remote, for about 4 seconds, then lowered himself carefully to the floor -- again, without holding onto support! Wow.

I don't know what it is, but Matthew is a magician when it comes to feeding Thomas. He got Thomas to eat so much last night that he slept for 12 hours and didn't even wake up in the morning crying from hunger! I've been grilling him on what his tactics are but I haven't got the touch yet. Good thing we still have Matthew for another week.

Video: Thomas crawling

As Mom says, "How many times do you make me [crawl from one side of the kitchen to the other] ???"

10 months old

This week we visited my parents in Wisconsin. What fun it was to see them dote on Thomas while I sat on the couch and drank tea! We all did our usual Menomonie things like have lunch at the Acoustic Café, visit the farmer's market and buy oodles of things to take home from Legacy Chocolate. We even went to Weaver's Country Store and Old Country Buffet! We also got together with Michelle and Dominic and an old high school buddy Kate and her daughter Grace! Now that was exciting! Dominic and Grace are seven months old and sooooo cute. It was fun to see them interacting together and remember what Thomas was like at that age (seems so long ago already, but only three months ago!).

Matthew's home! He arrived yesterday morning, and seems to be adjusting well to the "new" Thomas. He's been gone from home a month and the last time he has seen Thomas, it was two weeks ago and only for a few days! We'll just develop his anticipation skills and reaction time (oh, Thomas is heading toward the cat food! Get him! Quick!) !

Thomas is expertly crawling along. He still loves to push things with wheels but I think the novelty has worn off a bit as he's not as singlemindedly rolling things as he once was. He's getting better at opening drawers and once managed to open up the pocket door of the bathroom by leaning and falling to the side. Thomas has been learning how to circumvent the baby fence that keeps him in the solarium, and how to get down off the couch (with my help, just in case). He also can slowly walk while holding the edge of the couch if he has sufficient motivation: for example, he loves to "pet" Chloe the cat--which, unfortunately for her, means grabbing her tail and pulling her fur. She has been pretty good so far, just "meowlping" when he gets a handful of fur or running away when she sees him coming.

Matthew fed him his breakfast today and he ate more than I have seen him eat in weeks, which was such a relief! Today it was a white peach/rice/banana combination. It looks like he is getting teeth number seven and eight, on the bottom flanking the two he already has down there; it's pretty red and swollen.
This week we will get a visit from Utaka and Shauna! We are looking forward to spending some time with them even though it'll go by very quickly what with being research subjects for Utaka and chasing Thomas around the house. Still, I'm anticipating babysitters enough so that I can play around in the kitchen a bit! I anticipate a happy weekend!

Video: Grace, Thomas (and Dominic) Playdate

Bouncing Grace

9 4/5 months old

We're recovered from our trip to Newark to visit Matthew, and I think Thomas is over his cold (at least, his nose has stopped running quite so much). Unfortunately, the camera is still missing despite Matthew's best sleuthing. But, life goes on and thank goodness we still have the big camera with which to take zillions of photos of Thomas! And, after Thomas' 9-month checkup tomorrow morning, Thomas and I will be going to the airport to visit Mom and Dad in Wisconsin if the loads permit (Hurricane Ike doesn't seem to be a factor). It will be great to see them after all this time (even though it's only been 1 1/2 months!!), and Thomas will have playtime with Michelle's son Dominic and Grace, the daughter of my high school friend Kate, who I haven't seen since high school! Tonight I'll be packing cold-weather stuff again. It was only a month ago that we were in New Zealand wearing layers and layers of clothing, and already it's time to break out the warm clothes again for America!
These days it feels like I am forever chasing Thomas and digging things out of his mouth or his hand. I'm trying to teach him "Aaaaah" to show me the inside of his mouth without having to stick my finger into dangerous toothy territory. I've let him into the living room to explore, and I'm discovering what needs baby proofing. So far it's been pieces of leaves, Chloe's food bowl, her water bowl, the folding screen, leaves from the fake tree, the VCR tapes, the CD rack, ... you get the idea. But he loves the hardwood floor for rolling things, especially the vacuum cleaner and Old McDonald's tractor. He sends the tractor flying and then chases it down and then sends it off again. It keeps him busy for half an hour!

Thomas still hates to take a nap, but I think we're turning a corner. For a while there he was taking two naps a day, each one between 30 minutes and an hour long! Not enough time for me to recharge my batteries, and I was getting pretty grumpy. Thank goodness he goes to bed at night without fuss and sleeps eleven hours, or I would have been roaring my tiger roar at everyone! Today and yesterday, however, he took one hour-long nap and one one-and-a-half-hour nap! What a good boy to sleep so long! I managed to get some housework done and take a nap. I woke up glowing! Refreshed! All I needed was a chocolate chip cookie and I was on top of the world!

Video: Thomas and the vacuum cleaner

9 3/4 months old

We're back from visiting Matthew over the weekend! While we were up in Newark, several things of note happened: two more teeth erupted; Thomas had a fever, rash and runny nose; we lost our camera; we went to Kinokuniya Japanese bookstore; we walked through Bryant Park while they were getting ready for Fashion Week.
Here are a couple of pictures of Thomas and his new-ish teeth. He has four on top now and two on the bottom. They are quite sharp! He can really bite things now, which makes me more wary than ever of giving him chunks of food in case he bites too big a piece and chokes. He seems to be having fun biting his Cheerios in half, though. He feels much better now that they are erupted, and his fever and runny nose are better too. His stuffed/runny nose kept waking him (and thus, us) up every hour or every half-hour on the first night, and every three hours the second night. A great improvement (unless you're used to sleeping by yourself in a quiet hotel room)!
Even though we were in New York this weekend and took some great photos, I haven't included any in this update because we lost our compact camera. The nearest we can figure, we may have lost it in the cab coming home from Newark Penn Station to the hotel. It's the second time in all of our travels that we have lost something important (the first one was tickets! And that was on the last trip, too! My friend says that when you have a baby, you lose your brain, and now I'm inclined to believe her!) so the shock value is big for me. Oh well, we're doing and calling everyone we can think of but don't have much hope of recovering it. Just a little bit of hope. I guess I should be proud that it's taken us this long to lose something valuable on our trips! A sacrifice to the travel god.
Thomas and I visited Matthew for three days, and on one day we visited Manhattan. Thomas had just gotten over his cold, so we just went to Kinokuniya to check out their Japanese Café and books and things ... it felt just like being in Japan again. This time Thomas wasn't overtired so we were able to enjoy our time there -- oh wait, I was able to enjoy my time there because Matthew wheeled a sleeping Thomas around Bryant Park while I wandered. Thank you, Matthew! Isn't it funny how soon we forget? It was worth the trip up there for the extra hands to take care of Thomas, ha ha!