18 1/4 months

How are you all?  Everything is ok here.  Matthew has been away for one week now.  Three weeks to go as he will be away for a whole month this time.  Mom and Dad are fine, and they have graciously agreed to stay in Florida to support me and Thomas as ... I am three months pregnant!  The new one is due on Thanksgiving Day, two weeks after Thomas' second birthday.  Thomas will soon be an older brother!  Well, in several months' time.  It's funny because this time around I have been SO tired and icky feeling compared to what I remember of last time, so it's been such a boon to have Mom and Dad here.  I can't imagine how normal people cope with a toddler and this exhaustion!

For the past week or so, Thomas hasn't been sleeping well, and he's pretty touchy and very opinionated about what he wants and when he wants it, which makes life pretty tiring for all of us.  On the other hand, Thomas has learned --and uses-- the sign for "food," and he sucks air through his teeth when he wants something to drink, which is pretty helpful.  Also, he has learned how to say "thank you" and sometimes uses it spontaneously and appropriately!  For him, "thank you" is a head bob accompanied by a "Do" -- I think it's part of "Domo arigato" in Japanese.  It's so cute!  And we're working on the sign language for "please," which he now can mimic.  His understanding is growing a lot too.  This morning he pointed at the TV and said, "Dodo?" which is his way of saying, "I'd like to watch my movie My Neighbor Totoro, please" and I said, "Thomas, you can watch Totoro when Grandma and Grandpa get here."  And as soon as they arrived, he took them by the hand and led them to the TV and said, "Dodo?  Dodo?"  Yay!  Maybe next will be the understanding of the statement, "Thomas, you can have something to eat after we wash your hands."  Usually he stands on a little stool and I help him wash his hands under the faucet.  When he doesn't want to wash his hands, he goes limp like a spaghetti noodle and sort of slides down the front of the sink with his soapy hands while I desperately try to keep him standing as he sinks down, down, down.  Then I grab him under the arms with my own wet hands, and he ends up with a damp shirt.  Oh well, I guess this stage will pass too quickly when we look back at it!

Thomas has been doing a lot of walking and running around lately.  As he runs, his arms flail around and there's just as much side-to-side and around-and-around motion as there is forward motion.  He can walk all the way to the tennis courts/swimming pool (about 2 blocks) and he knows more than I'd guessed about the neighborhood.  One day, I was pushing him in the stroller and, just for fun, whenever we came to an intersection, I asked him which way he wanted to go.  He took us straight to Mom and Dad's apartment complex!  I couldn't believe it!  I think that Matthew would take Thomas over there for a little visit on the days that I worked, and Thomas now remembers where Mom and Dad live.  What a smart little guy.  Definitely a boy. 

 

Video: Playing with Auntie Rose and Auntie Pam

18 months old

Happy Mother's Day to everyone!

 

Utaka came down for Mother's Day!   We had a lovely pancake brunch, courtesy of Dad and Matthew and Utaka, and otherwise just hung around and played around with Thomas and my coworker Andrea's 5-month old baby Javon.  Andrea worked for me so that I could have the day off, so in return I babysat.  It was a great deal!  What an easy baby!  Feed him, burp him, a little playtime, naptime....  Thomas has met him several times now, so he's used to seeing Javon, but he still on occasion stares at him suspiciously, especially when Javon's making baby noises or seems to be stealing too much attention. 

 

Rose and Pam came over for dinner the other day.  We played Evil Uno and I cooked ribs (Alton Brown's recipe -- yum!), and Mom took care of everything else!  How wonderful it is to have Mom and Dad here!  Rose and Pam had lots of fun playing with Thomas, teaching him how to use the chair as a combination jungle gym and slide. Lots of smiles and fun.  Also, our friends Louise and Nick are in town on vacation from England, so yesterday we all went out for drinks and dinner.  It was very nice to catch up with them again, after we figured out that it had been about three years since we've seen each other!  They were kind enough to bring a Paddington Bear and a few books for Thomas(including a Thomas the Tank Engine story that makes train noises --- VERY exciting!) and some real English tea and chocolate for us grown-ups!  I already see myself jealously guarding these treasures from anyone who would do anything but savor, appreciate and nibble. 

 

It's cooled down a bit -- down to low 90's instead of muggy mid-90's.  This means that all walks and pool excursions are early in the morning or late in the afternoon, when it's just cool enough to function.  Matthew takes him here and there, and sometimes I go, too.  

Thomas "helped" me dust the floor yesterday, pushing the duster around the house.  He seemed quite intrigued.  He still doesn't like the noise of the vacuum cleaner, though.  He's only ok if he's in the other room with another person, or being held while the vacuum is making noise.  He's still eating pretty heartily, and getting very active in walking all over, running unsteadily and starting to climb onto things, including Chloe's new cat tree.  Uh-oh.  We're also starting a new campaign to stop Thomas' screeching.  Now, after Thomas makes one of his high-pitched screech/screams, we tell Thomas that we will put him in his bed if he screams again.  And when he does, we do.  It's been two or three days now, but I'm not sure if it's having an effect or not.  In general, screeching comes in waves.   We don't hear 

any for weeks and then suddenly he'll start screeching again.  But, now, when we tell him what we'll do if he screams, he seems to think about it.  Seems to make a difference in the moment, but invariably a couple of minutes later or more another screech will come out.  We'll just have to give it a few more days and then see how things are going, I guess.  

17 3/4 months

How are you all doing?  We are fine here.  Matthew just came back from Mexico on his birthday, Friday the first.  And he didn't bring home any swine flu!   Yay!  He says that the company gave them hand sanitizers and masks while they were down in Mexico, and they didn't go out and about while they were there, either.  And everyone on the flight back was wearing a mask, too.  Good job, Matthew!  

This week I have been at work for four days!  It was quite a shock after almost a month of working only a couple of days a week.  We just had a new bid, so everyone's schedules got all changed around, so the people who were trading with me regularly have had to stop.  Time to start seriously recruiting more people to work for me!  This four-day a week thing is seriously draining!  Also at work, they've been training me on the basics on using the Delta computer system.  It's a bit clunky, but 

it's kind of fun to be learning something new.  And now I can actually help (some) Delta passengers instead of standing around like a lump.  Always nice.  

Thomas has been practicing walking around on tiptoes.  He's also got a new word that he uses when he's happy:  "Den".  He says it with great emphasis and a big happy smile.  And I have no idea what it means.  And he also knows that a cow says ooooo, a dog says ar-ar-ar, a bee says pbtzzzzzz (raspberry), and a cat says eeeeeeeee ( like Chloe's high-pitched meows).  And he loves to make raspberry noises (pbtzzzzz) whenever he sees pictures of motorcycles, helicopters, cars and trucks.  And he still loves "Dodo" or the movie My Neighbor Totoro, a Japanese animation by Hayao Miyazaki, the Walt Disney of Japanese animation.  Whenever we mention Totoro, he perks up and demands, "Dodo?!  Dodo?!"  He even pats his rocking horse's ears and says "Dodo" because the ears stick straight up like Totoro's.  He watches in 30-minute segments, and I fast-forward to the scenes that have Totoro so we don't have to watch the whole movie. Sometimes Mom gives him "Totoro ears" in the bath by pulling his shampooed hair into two tufts sticking straight up. 

 

It's been getting pretty hot and humid out there, with high 80's (low 30's Celcius) during the day, so we are going to have to be careful about using sunscreen, staying cool and drinking water.  We're also going to have to be more careful about bugs, since Thomas has several bites from something that he keeps scratching and scratching.  The bites are starting to get pretty red and swollen.  Must start putting more hydrocortisone on them to give him some relief.