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!