19 1/2 months

Matthew left for his trip yesterday, on Tuesday. While he was here, he gave Thomas a haircut (thank goodness! I was getting nowhere) and they went to the pool many times. I was also at work a lot these two weeks, so Matthew had a lot of solo time with Thomas. I think they got very attached to each other again! I have never heard Thomas giggle so much. Matthew's work people are changing his trip around because they don’t have enough captains, but if he's very lucky, he may have 24 hours to visit Mom and Dad in Menomonie! I'm sure they're very excited, and I'm very jealous! I've already asked him if he's going to visit everyone, and stop by Acoustic Café and Legacy Chocolates. He said, "we'll see how much time I have." May I interpret that to mean, "Yes, but I don't want to make you jealous"? In other news, Delta has disapproved my request for family medical leave, or maternity leave. Apparently you have to have been 1)employed with your company for the last year (check) and 2)worked 1250 hours last year (apparently, I was 221-- thank you, 2-day workweek and later, coworkers trading with me!) So, my days are numbered at work -- my last day is the eleventh! I'm sad, but also relieved. Finally. I've been thinking about this for the past 19 months! More, even!

I’m thinking about the new nursery (we're thinking the computer room at this point), and remembering how uncomfortable it was to nurse on a bed, I would like a proper nursing chair this time. So we went to a couple of furniture stores to check out what they have. At one of the stores, for almost the very first time ever, Thomas wandered away from me. Without looking back, he just walked and walked. One time he ducked around a corner, and when I peeked around it, he wasn't there at all! I had a moment of horror: This huge store with so many places to hide! Where could he be? When I called him, I heard him babbling to himself. It turns out that he had squeezed behind a dresser and was playing with the on/off switch of a power strip, turning lights on and off. He was finally entertained! And then I realized I couldn't squeeze back there to get him out! So I started telling him that we were going to go home, and then have a snack, and then kiss da-da good-night, and then go night-night. Wouldn't that be nice to go night-night? And he came out! Whew! It could have been soooo bad! What a good boy he is! But it looks like separation anxiety has worn off!

These days Thomas also loves to knock on doors, mirrors and windows. He gets a huge grin on his face and says, "kno kno kno!" as he knocks. He used to run up random people's driveways on our morning walks just so he could knock on their garage doors, but he doesn't do that anymore. But these days he does pause behind parked cars to point at the letters and numbers on the license plates so I can read them to him. He also likes to point at the letters on my shirts, and sometimes gets "R", O (he calls it "no"), "E". I think it's that Phonics Bus from my friend Dawn! It says all the letters and sings the sound they make. He loves that bus.

I'm not sure what is going on, but he's also starting to make faces. I would interpret these faces as tantrum-faces, teenage you've-got-to-be-kidding-me faces, but when I make the same face back at him, he breaks out into giggles, so I think he's just realized he's got facial muscles (I hope). He does pull some funny ones, though.