First of all, we went to New Zealand with the two kids to see Matthew's family. They were all pretty excited to see us, how big Thomas has gotten, and meet the new arrival of course! We were there for three and a half weeks or so, and it was wonderful. On the way there, we stopped in San Francisco for a day to see Utaka and Shauna, and to break up the trip a bit. It was so wonderful to see them, their new house and their town. They took us around here and there, and we just enjoyed hanging around. They got to know Thomas a bit, and he did like his "Uncle Taka" and "Auntie Sha-na." Sophia was a dream on the long-haul flights, sleeping for practically the entire time in her bassinet. Thomas wasn't bad either. And yay Air New Zealand! So accommodating and helpful, good service and good food. We actually bought real tickets this time! We stayed with Jocelyn, Matthew's mother in Auckland and then zipped down to Wellington to see everyone down there. Thomas met a huge number of people, and he remembered so many people's names and faces! And he loved meeting his cousins. I think that's really where his language wheels really started turning. Anyway, we were there for almost a whole month, and I could write a book about the time we were there....suffice it to say for now that it was wonderful to be there, thanks to everyone especially Jocelyn for having us and spending time with us, and it was so great to see everyone and we had a fabulous time and thank you, thank you, thank you everyone! I posted some pictures of the first couple of weeks on the website, and will post more later.
So in three months, Thomas has gone from stringing three words together to full-blown sentences and paragraphs. Sometimes I hear him reciting parts of stories or his videos (mostly of Thomas the Tank Engine). "Diesel 10 naughty engine. Henry boilerache. Uh-oh, Emily all wet. Mister Hatt 'Thomas, my car, ..." "James have Tommy hands. Just wheels down here." "Tommy try open that one. Look look! Rock, Mommy, rock. Hold that one, Mommy." "Poor Mommy. Mommy not happy." He is still obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine, especially when we visit other people's train sets, but other things close to his heart are Ivor the Engine, digging in sand at the lakeside, going to the park, "BabaJiji crackers" (graham crackers), Barnes and Noble, and of course he still talks about BabaJiji (Baba = my mom, Jiji = my dad). Matthew can snap him out of any funk by playing a ring tone of a guy singing "boom chicken wow wow". As soon as Thomas hears it, he immediately grins and sits up. I'm not sure if sister Sophia comes into this inner circle, judging on the number of times I have to tell him to be gentle with her, but he does talk about her a lot. He calls her "Baby Dophia," once holding up a miniscule broccoli floret at dinnertime and naming it "Baby Dophia broccoli!" Right now the big issues of the day are sharing (or lack thereof), be gentle with Sophia, Mommy can't understand you when you talk like that (whining), and be still when I'm changing your diaper. Sounds like categories in Jeopardy! "Yes, Alex, I'll take 'Acting like the Baby' for $200!" But it is WAAAAY better than being at the airport, from what I hear from my friends these days! Especially now that he can say "I duv you, Mommy!" or puts a pretend band-aid on my boo-boo and gives it a kiss.
Sophia, three months ago, was struggling up from her reclined position on the floor. These days, she sits up with confidence and bounces up and down, sometimes moving several inches! When on her tummy, she can move around 360 degrees, sometimes push herself backwards and has started to get up on hands and knees and rock. Her "circle of influence" is getting a lot bigger, so we really have to clear a big swath around her to make sure she doesn't get anything inappropriate, because it all goes straight into her mouth! When we stand her up, we hold her hands for balance and she looks around and smiles her beautiful huge smile. See a picture of Sophia standing up on the website in last week's picture bank. She has twice pulled herself up halfway to standing, once in her crib, and once on Thomas' bed. No teeth yet, but she's drooling a lot and bites down with zeal anything that comes near her mouth, especially knuckles or big sticks of carrot, or Thomas' Thomas the Tank Engine Ice Pack. Her latest foods are pureed carrot. She does a great job playing by herself unless it's dinnertime or Thomas' bedtime. Then she gets noisy, bouncing up and down, trying to crawl around, getting really vocal. When I'm reading a goodnight story to Thomas, sometimes I have to really concentrate on what I'm reading because she's so distracting! I don't know what it is, but she seems to be only slightly quieter when she's on the bed with us. I guess she just wants to be a part of the action, or she's getting really hungry and ready for bed. She takes three naps a day still, the first in the morning, the second at the same time as Thomas', and the third right around dinner or dinner preparation time. When everything is on time, it's really convenient!! And then she goes to bed around nine and usually sleeps until after eight in the morning. I'm not spending as much time doing "enriching things" as I feel like I should with her, mostly because the other one takes up so much time and energy! I'm sure she's getting a lot out of her big brother, though. She loves to watch what he's doing.
Well! As for the rest of it, Matthew's gone to Mexico, Mom and Dad are back in Wisconsin for the summer and we miss them lots. I've been busy going to a chiropractor to get these aches out of my spine, meeting up with my friends, and rereading some of my favorite novels in between housework and stuff. Whew! This, madam and gentlemen, is a faithful narrative of events concerning our lives in the past three months. I intend to be a regular correspondent in the future!
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