15 1/2 months old

Just a quick note today as we are in the midst of vacation preparations!  After two weeks of working four or five days a week, Marsha is ready for a break and is taking vacation!  Tomorrow Matthew, Thomas and I will use flight benefits (perhaps for the last time) and board a Northwest flight (perhaps for the last time -- we are merging with Delta!) to Japan.  We will see family in Tokyo and Kyoto and introduce Thomas to them for the first time.  I'm excited for them to meet him! 

 

Matthew has been babysitting every day that I am at work.  Sometimes they even ride the bus to the airport, then accompany me home!  It's great to have a welcoming committee as I get off work!  I do miss spending so much time with Thomas.  And I will miss flight benefits.  There.  I said it. 

 

So, it's time to tally up the number of socks that we're packing, and arranging Thomas' food for the next 18 hours.  Mom and Dad have graciously offered to cat- and house-sit, which is a great relief to know that she is in such great hands.  Then after we come back (we'll be there about a week), Mom and Dad will be taking off for a week of dancing!  I'm sure Thomas will be so excited to see them on the day that we're all here together.  Even when he is reunited with them after a day's absence, he grins hugely, hums happily, runs in circles excitedly and then into their arms for a cuddle.   It's so wonderful to see how much he loves them and is excited to see them!  This is why they come to Florida!  Yay!

 

15 1/4 months old

Things in Orlando are good.  Matthew came home for a few days and then left again for a couple of days of overtime.  I think he's trying to escape all the Tommy-duties I've delegated to him!  Northwest just changed their schedule, changing me from two 8-hour days to five six-hour days.  I've been trading a little, but it's not going to be easy getting to be off as much as I like.  A couple of days ago was the Daytona 500 race, which brought lots of people to Orlando by plane, meaning work was very busy.  Next Tuesday, one week from now, is the start of my 2-week vacation, so I have a little bit of time to contemplate what is next.  Embrace it?  Quit?  I'm leaning towards the latter but am nervous about making the right decision in this economic climate.  Especially considering my addiction to travel.  Well, we'll think about it for a while and see what comes up.

 

As for Thomas, he is doing very well.  He misses me when I'm at work, says Matthew.  Good thing Matthew is at home to babysit!  I think they are getting some quality bonding time in the morning while I am gone.  Thomas has been drooling a lot the past few days, and pulling his hair, too.  I'm not sure what the pulling of his own hair means, but I'm happy that he's stopped pulling mine!  He still likes to hold it when he's in my arms, so I usually have to remind him that we don’t hold Mommy's hair.  Mom has been taking him for walks down the street to the corner, about six houses down.  He walks all by himself.  It takes about 25 minutes to walk there and walk back.  It takes a real effort to keep moving in one direction!  So many things to investigate!  Acorns!  Leaves!  Ants!  Grass!   I think he likes the acorns the best. 

 

A few days ago, I decided to take Thomas for a walk in the stroller since he was getting fussy.  He twisted and squirmed when I tried to put him in, making it impossible!  I held him still for a moment, and said to him, "Thomas, would you like to go for a stroller ride or would you like to go to bed?"  And there was a pause in the action while he thought for a few seconds, and then he pointed to the stroller.  And then he let me put him in there without any more struggle!  I thought, Wow!  Now that was real communication!  It's so exciting to see language abilities develop more and more!

 

We're still transitioning to one nap a day.  Sometimes he has one nap a day, occasionally he has two.  Today he woke up at five (from cold) and fell asleep again until 6:30am (WOW!)  Then he stayed awake until noon, and I put him down for a nap.  He slept for an hour and a half, and he was awake again but not happy!  Well, hopefully we'll get the kinks ironed out soon.  

15 months old

What a week!  Mom and Dad attended another Boot Camp, this one for Latin Dances like the Rumba.  It sounds like they had a great time with their friends, especially the ones who were down from Minnesota,  and they really developed a new understanding of what the dance is all about.  Matthew is still in Calgary, and he took a trip with a couple of other crewmembers to see Banff on one of their days off.  Thomas and I spent a lot of quality time together, getting over his cold, and starting to go out and about again to the grocery store, the park and to the library. 

 

So toddlerhood is definitely on its way.  Thomas is walking walking walking everywhere, even on our stroller rides around the neighborhood (he likes to stop and pick up acorns or help push the stroller).  He's started to dance a little --and loves to be picked up and bounced around the room to They Might Be Giants' "No!"  Peekaboo is still a favorite game, played in the playpen by crouching down and popping back up again, or in the high chair by lifting and lowering his bib, always with a toothy grin.  He's been busy putting marker pens into cups and emptying them again, and saying "doo doo doo" into anything that will give him an echo:  cups, toilet paper tubes, rolled-up posters, blocks, pens ...(??)  Mom and Dad say that today he was playing in the playroom and he took a cushion off one of the chairs and stood on it so that he could clamber up onto the chair!  Wow!  Now that's a smart monkey! 

 

Sometimes I wonder if he's quite all there, or is this constant testing over and over again just part of being a toddler?  For example, here's a typical interaction between Thomas and Chloe:  *Chloe sleeping*  Thomas delightedly puts his finger on her nose, as Matthew taught him "gentle."  Then he excitedly rubs his hands back and forth on her fur.  Then he  grabs her tail and gets swiped by Chloe.  Then he grabs again and gets swiped again.  And again. And on and on until Chloe starts biting (enough to startle him) and Mommy steps in because she can't stand watching it anymore.  How many times does he have to get swiped before he gets it?  For that matter, I wonder if Chloe is quite all there, for sitting and taking it instead of running away!  Or how about the time that Thomas is in the tub, and he spots the rosemary soap that Gretchen made for me.  It's soft and quite worn down to a stub and so it's just the right size for him to grab.  And put into his mouth.  And then he fights Mommy off to keep it in his mouth until he realizes it doesn't taste good and he spits it out.  And then ten seconds later I see him lunge for the soap again!  I hope he doesn't develop an aversion to rosemary after this! 

 

Well, it's all an adventure I guess, and these moments are offset by lots of lovely cuddles and giggles.  In fact I feel so proud when strangers talk to him in the store and he stares at them suspiciously and points to me and announces with a tinge of belligerence, "maMA" as if to say, "Watch it buddy, that's my mama so you'd better not try anything!"  Ha ha!  

February 7, 2009

Rose and Pam took us to Islands of Adventure!  Thomas got to check out Seuss Landings and the Caro-Seuss-el (carousel), and Mommy and Pam got to ride the Hulk and Fire of the Deuling Dragons, thanks to Auntie Rose, who expertly looked after Thomas.  

14 3/4 months old

Matthew left on Sunday for his trip to Calgary. They've brought back the Calgary trip after a long absence, so it's been some time since Matthew's been there, at least a year. I visited him once there, and the hotel is nice, and there is a great Asian mall just around the corner full of stuff: Asian groceries, small appliances from Japan, tea shops, Japanese ceramics, Chinese knickknacks and furniture, and karaoke videos. Very fun. Before Matthew left for his trip, we went with a few friends to see the Budapest Festival Orchestra with violinist József Lendvay Jr. WOW. At first, when I heard that the Eagles were playing just around the corner on the very same night, I was not very excited about seeing the orchestra, truth be told. But the orchestra was wonderful and the violinist made my hair stand up on end. He was amazing. What a performance!

This week, Thomas is sick with a cold. It's his first one! We visited the doctor just to make sure that it was a cold, and she reassured us that really, it is just a cold and that everything is fine with his lungs (Matthew says he used to come down with bronchitis often when he was younger). She also said that colds last for about 2 weeks. Yikes! We're one week in, and Thomas is already getting better; his nose isn't running quite so much, but he hates to have it cleaned and I think it's sore from constant wiping. Also he isn't coughing as much, but when he does, it's longer and very phlem-y, and he whimpers afterwards as if it hurts. Otherwise, he's in pretty good spirits, considering that he hasn't left the house for four days, even to do his usual stroller ride around the neighborhood or go to his playgroups. AND considering that he's teething as well. He's getting his top two molars! I just had a peek, but they are well exposed already. I think they are what I was feeling -- canines and molars coming in together! So now it's eight on top and two on the bottom!

We're trying to transition to one nap a day instead of two naps in an attempt to keep him sleeping after 5:30am, as suggested by my Conway Mom's group. For the first few days, we'd take him out and about to try to keep him awake as long as possible, but he'd end up taking a little catnap around 10am or so, and then a real nap later in the afternoon. Bedtime has been all over the place as we get adjusted, but last night he went to bed just before 8pm, and this morning he woke up after 7:30am! I couldn't believe it! That's even after the sun comes up! He did make noises in the night, but whenever I checked on him, he was sleeping. He was pretty fragile and cranky after three hours of being awake (when he'd usually take his first nap), so we'll keep with it for a few more days to see if it gets any better. Otherwise, I suppose we may go back to two naps a day, but this schedule is pretty convenient for any travel that we may do ... more on that later as we decide.

That's all for now! Oh yes, the black stuff on Thomas' face is Mom's signature Black Sesame Green Beans. Very yummy, and Thomas loves it.