Video: Thomas walking with Matthew

More photos from Asheville, NC at Christmas

The Biltmore, Asheville, North Carolina

Video: Our family at breakfast

Thomas signs "more" cereal.

13 3/4 months

We had a great Christmas! This year we did something completely different: we took a trip to Asheville, North Carolina! Utaka and Shauna drove in one car, and Mom and Dad drove in another car, and Matthew, Thomas and I took US Air to Charlotte, where Mom and Dad picked us up on the way. The locals were all saying how warm it was, but to us folk from Florida, even 50 degrees caused us to put on heavy jackets and bundle up the little one in a snow suit! We stayed at a place called the Madison Inn and Restaurant, which was very nice. They decorated the place to the nines -- Christmas trees with tons of ornaments, animatronic Santas, singing wreaths, and lights everywhere, inside and out. It was so beautiful!

Anyway, we had a great time. There were warm leisurely breakfasts in the morning at the inn, seeing the Biltmore estate (twice!), going out to Asheville and Black Mountain the town for shopping and sightseeing, poking in all the gorgeous little shops, having dinner in town or at the inn, and collecting in our room at the end of the day, after Thomas was put to bed, to eat Christmas cake, do jigsaw puzzles, chat, watch TV and try to figure out how to play cribbage. A perfect end to a busy day. What a great little area that is. I would love to go back there again! Here is a photo of Thomas and Matthew at the Biltmore.

While we were in Asheville, Thomas really got a handle on walking while holding onto our fingers. We walked all the way around the inn one day! He is very opinionated about where he wants to walk, charging this way and that, spinning ninety degrees suddenly to change direction, going up and down and up and down stairs, dropping to his knees and crying out with frustration if we prevent him from going where he wants. You can see a video of him in action on the website. At his last pediatrician appointment, which was about a month ago, she gave him an assignment to learn three body parts. Now he knows nose, head, eye, ear, and sometimes toes. We also ask him, "Where's Mommy/Daddy/Grandma/Grandpa/Uncle Utaka/Auntie Shauna?" and he can point to the right one. And if we're standing in front of a mirror, I can say, "Where's the baby?" and he gets a big grin on his face and points to his reflection. He's also started this new thing of holding onto his nose with his whole hand and saying in a slightly muffled voice, "doo doo doo." It's almost as if he's trying to say "nose" but he's holding onto his nose too tightly so it comes out "doo" instead of "no[se]."

Thomas is pulling hair these days, so today I had a haircut to give him less of it to grab. I went to a slightly fancy place (for me) and she did a great job. Pictures later! I think he's pulling hair because he's teething again. Lots of drool, crying at naptime, chewing on fingers, lumps under gums. It looks like the upper canines and perhaps first upper molars are the ones on the move this time. They've been coming for months, so I won't predict any eruptions this time! We will wait and see.

Video: Bedtime story: Airport, by Byron Barton

"up front in the cockpit, the pilots get ready"

Video: Thomas sliding again

13 1/2 months

Not much happening this week, but I did post two video clips this week! The first clip is Matthew reading part of the book called "Airport" just before Thomas' morning nap. It was given to us by our friend Jerryl, and it's by Byron Barton. It is a really great book about what happens at the airport. Thomas can already point to Mommy at the ticket counter and Daddy in the cockpit (as you will see in the video). The other video is of Thomas at the local playground, sliding backwards down the slide. It was the first time he didn't need any "encouragement" to go down the slide: he seemed to know what he was doing! And he had a great big smile, too! He is a lot more confident on the playground these days. Here he is being curious about what the big kids are doing.

Today was day two of weaning him off the second feeding of the day. We have dropped the third breastfeeding of the day for about a month now, but he hasn't been taking it well. Even now he'll make "milk" signs and point to my chest and fuss. We'll see how it goes for a week at least before we drop the morning one, although I would like to keep the first and last ones for a while. Thomas doesn't seem to like goat milk or almond milk, so I've been giving him a little diluted juice or pureed fruit at one of those feedings, and a banana at the other, since he likes them so much. Got to give him something to look forward to! I've been trying to distract him with trips in the car and visits to the playground. It seems to work, and as an added bonus, he's gotten a lot more comfortable in the car, as well. He plays with his toys, and looks out the window, and sometimes I tickle his feet, or we play the "where's Tommy's nose?" game. He can find his nose, and sometimes his eye, head, ear, and mouth. Except when I ask, "where's Tommy's nose?" he'll point to my nose. Or up in the air, as if a bird has flown off with it.

Video: Thomas walking, assisted by Daddy

13 1/4 months

Matthew is back from his Mexico trip!  Sounds like they did some weird scheduling due to the holidays so he spent time flying between Quaretero, Guadelajara, and Toledo.  While he was in Toledo, there was a snowstorm, and it was below freezing!  And he walked to Borders in it!   He showed me pictures later of snow falling down in a curtain, white stuff everywhere.  It's amazing to think that when I was growing up, that was what life was.  And now I'm reacting with shock to such photos! 

 

The Conway Mom's group schedules a lot of playdates at the park, and so Thomas and I and Matthew, now that he is back from his trip, go to the park to play on the equipment, run around with Thomas' little walking truck, and interact with the other kids.  Thomas seems interested in the other kids, but content to observe them for now.  He does seem to be getting the hang of sliding on the slide.  He likes to crawl to the top of the slide, turn around, and slide down feet first and backwards.  Then he tries to crawl back up, but because it's so slippery, he can't get any traction and just crawls in place.  Matthew says that he looks just like a hamster on a wheel.  So cute!  

These days of course, there are a bunch of holiday parties to enjoy, like an ornament exchange, a cookie exchange,  the first joint Northwest-Delta Christmas party, a Conway Mom's party (attended by Santa!).  Thomas accompanied me to the cookie exchange, where he was the hit of my Northwest friends, even though he didn't like those adoring people taking him away from his Mommy.  Matthew and I attended the first NWA-DL Christmas party while Mom and Dad babysat, and the food was SO GOOD, it totally made up for the music that was so loud, it would have drowned out even Thomas!  And at the Conway Mom's Christmas party, Thomas' first meeting with Santa went well.  I held Thomas as Santa said hello in the most non-threatening of voices, which I appreciated.  I knew better than to try to put him on Santa's lap and back away to take a picture, so I just enjoyed the moment for myself.  Actually, it was really reassuring to see just how many kids were wary of the guy in the red suit, with a few flat-out refusing to go near without their Mommy!  I can so see Thomas doing that in the future!  Good to know he's not the only one!

Thomas is developing rapidly!  He starts clapping his hands the moment he hears "If you're happy and you know it," and he has just started raising both hands when I say, "How big is Tommy?  SOO big!"  He is also eating more, both finger foods and table foods.  In this photo you see him eating Mom's green beans with black sesame seed dressing, which is why his face is covered with black stuff.  He loved it!  He has also been going down for naps so peacefully for the past month!  No more screaming and crying.  Now I just put him down in the crib after reading him some stories and singing a couple of songs, and walk away.  He roams around in his crib anywhere from five to 30 minutes, talking to himself, turning on his music box, just being quiet.  And then he's asleep!  Amazing!  It is absolutely amazing.  

Video: Thomas sliding

13 months old

This week, Thomas took 2 1/2 steps all by himself! I had put him down at my feet so I could talk to Mom and Dad, and Dad squatted down next to Thomas and held out his hands -- and Thomas toddled two and a half steps toward him! We all stared at each other with happy amazement. He hasn't really done it since then, though. Sometimes he will take seven or eight steps when we are holding both his hands, but other times he will just lower himself firmly to the floor and take off crawling, as if to say, "no time to play around with that walking stuff!"

Thomas is back on the non-eating side of the pendulum, but he does seem to like feeding himself fingerfoods like broccoli florets and chunks of carrot. He won't even look at food on a spoon unless it's spaghetti. The other day, I was driving him to the park and he took a partially-eaten banana out of the open backpack next to him, removed the plastic bag it was wrapped in, and held the banana himself and ate it. I helped by peeling it down little by little. He looked like such a big boy eating by himself! It's good that he gets his calories where he can because I've eliminated the afternoon feeding for about a week now, and tonight is day four of eliminating the 5am (or earlier) feeding! That first night I didn't give him milk in the middle of the night (it was at 12:45am so I know he wasn't hungry!) he CRIED with rage when I offered him a bottle of water but quieted down after 20 minutes! And then he woke up at 7am cooing! So now it's a matter of just making it not worth his while to wake up at all, now that he knows that he doesn't get milk at night. I’m optimistic and also pretty tired. On the other hand, his naps are getting a bit longer now (1 1/2 to 2 hours today!) which would be great for me to get stuff done in if I weren't snoozing on the couch!

Tonight was a Mom's Night Out holiday party at one of the Conway Moms houses. And it turned out that the hostess is the daughter of one of my retired coworkers from Northwest! I couldn't believe it! What a small world. The other thing I came away with from that party was a newfound appreciation for how lucky I am to have parents that can babysit and are happy to babysit for hours on end so that I can go out and enjoy myself! And for how lucky I am to have a husband who will get up in the middle of the night with the baby and change diapers, etc! Thank you, Mom, Dad, and Matthew! This Mom's club is great for all kinds of stuff!

12 3/4 months old

Last week I wrote to tell you that Thomas' arm had gimped out again, but later, after I sent the update out, his arm healed itself! Today we finally had an appointment with a pediatric osteopath, and he said that it was probably nursemaid's elbow, and even showed me how to click it back into place so that I can try that next time before we do things like x-rays and visiting Centra Care! He was very reassuring and great with Thomas, who complained (loudly) about being examined. He really hates strangers touching him!

Matthew has taken off for Guadalajara again. This time his flights were delayed due to tornado warnings in Orlando, ground stop in Atlanta, and a mechanical! He finally made it to Guadalajara, arriving at the hotel at 2:30am!! We are sad to see him go after more than two weeks home, including a wonderful Thanksgiving with Utaka and Shauna, Mom and Dad, Matthew, Thomas and me. Matthew and Thomas visited the park often, taking his new truck, and had lots of shoulder rides. For Thanksgiving we had an amazing amount of food, including a New York cheesecake that was actually flown in from New York by a couple of our friends! Wow what a cheesecake!!!! Utaka and Shauna seemed happy to lounge around for a couple of days, and we all ate food and pie and cheesecake, went for a couple of walks, and watched part one of Lawrence of Arabia. A very low-key, relaxed, and lovely Thanksgiving.

Thomas is signing. The only difficulty is, the signs for "all done," "drink," "hi," and "bye-bye" all look the same, which can cause some confusion in the high chair. Sometimes he just points to what he wants: water, now food, water, more food, light, water .... sometimes I feel like the servant to the king! He is also signing "more," but it looks just like clapping hands. So he is either applauding Mom and me for bouncing balls and doing "this little piggy" or he wants more!

Thomas is very interested in dogs these days. When he hears the word dog, he will start barking short "arh, arh" noises. The other day we visited a friend's house (they have a boxer) and Thomas started barking as soon as we pulled up to the house! He has a good memory for where all the dogs in the neighborhood live and barks at them when we are near.

I’m ready for bed! It's almost freezing tonight, so time to pile on the blankets and kiss the tomato plants!

Video: Mommy and Daddy scuba diving

Video: Thomas pushing his truck