Perry Family Updates: 2010

Matthew has gone back to his Mexico line! Boo! On the other hand, Mom and Dad are here for the winter! Yay! They drove for about three days and finally made it, safe and sound. We have had a great week and a half with Mom and Dad already. They made it in time for Halloween and our one-year anniversary for being at the new house! Thomas was an train engineer this year, or as he says, "I'm en-near." He wore Oshkosh overalls and his Thomas train hat and a bandana around his neck.

We went trick-or-treating this year for the first time. We got -- and needed -- a lot of practice for the big night! Three days before Halloween, Thomas wore their costumes at his Mom's Day Out Program. I gave up trying to get him into a Thomas the Tank Engine costume, but his teacher managed by promising him a cupcake if he wore it. And as soon as he was done eating his little goodies, he said, "now I take it off now." The next day we had our Mom's Club Halloween party, so I got him into his engineer costume with the promise of another cupcake. There was only a minor protest this time. The day after that, he willingly put on his costume, and we went to Publix grocery store to practice the "trick or treat" part of Halloween! They were having a special event at the store where the different departments gave away candy to kids. It was fun to see Engineer Thomas and Blue Fairy Sophia squished together in a grocery cart, Thomas shyly murmuring "trick or treat" and "thank you" when prompted. So by the time Halloween came around, he knew what to do and was actually excited! Mom, Dad and Sophia held down the fort at home and gave away candy, and Thomas and I ventured out with the other hordes of trick-or-treaters in our subdivision. I thought we would just do a few houses, but Thomas started pointing to the next house and saying, "How about that one, Mommy? How about that one?" We ended up going all the way around the block, and he collected about two-thirds of a plastic jack-o-lantern of candy. I thought it was getting pretty heavy, but every time I asked him if I could hold his candy for him, or tried to hold his hand carrying the bucket, he'd say, "No, Mommy, I carry it myself!" Towards the end, Thomas stopped pointing at houses and started walking slower and slower until about half of a block away from our house, he actually gave me his bucket of candy to carry! We average a piece of candy every few days, and his favorite so far seem to be M&Ms and lollipops.

Sophia can walk through a couple of our rooms by holding onto our fingers or her little push-car! She can also stand up by herself, hold herself there for several seconds, and then sink back down to the floor without holding onto anything! Pushing her car or chairs around is starting to be lots of fun for her, too. She also seems to like pulling clothes out of dresser drawers, DVDs down from the shelf, and diapers out of her diaper bag. A week ago she was putting her knee on the toddler chairs or her little car as if to climb onto it, and now she does it with ease. Now she stands up on the seat of the chairs!

When I'm changing Thomas' diaper in the bathroom, she crawls in, climbs onto Thomas' step stool and stands on it as if trying to see herself in the mirror above the sink. Oh, and she finally got her first tooth! At 11 months, I was starting to wonder if they were ever going to come! Can I say, breastfeeding for 11 months has been pretty carefree, but now it's time to be more careful!

Thomas is getting a serious handle on language. He's adding new words to his vocabulary every day, and constantly amazes us by what he says. One day at dinner, Mom said to him, "yes, Thomas, you can have some more rice if you eat a carrot first" I see him eat something miniscule on his plate. It turns out to be rice! Mom laughs, and then Thomas says, "Baba's tricking me" and then he gets it the right way around and says, "I'm tricking Baba!" His most impressive sentence so far is, "I'm like to have a piece of apple while I wait for dinner." He also is starting to pronounce the "l" in words like "blue" or "glue"...but he over-pronounces and rolls his tongue so he says "bLOO's cLOO's!" So funny! He's still going to Mom's Day Out program twice a week. Often he brings home little crafts or paintings that they have done, which he puts on the refrigerator himself with a magnet. He loves to play with the watercolors so much, they make sure to do it often. One day I asked him what he did at school, and he said, "I have time-out today...I hit Henry!" So forthcoming, without any guilt! Better enjoy this while I can!