Thomas 2 years, Sophia 3 weeks old

Just a short update this week. Matthew has been home for about one month out of his 6-week leave from work. Sometimes he looks so tired from waking up with Thomas in the middle of the night, I'm sure he's thinking good thoughts of a hotel room all to himself! He's still pretty much the primary caregiver for Thomas these days, so much so that when Thomas wakes up grumpy from a nap, he'll wail inconsolably for Daddy until Matthew comes in to give him a cuddle! I tell you, it feels pretty weird to play second fiddle! We only have a couple of weeks of his leave left, so I have to start learning how to take care of them both by myself! Or at least, get through the day until dinner time, when Mom and Dad arrive!

Thomas met Santa at the Mom's Club Christmas Party the other day. He was pretty wary, accepting Santa's present by stretching his arm and body to the utmost from the maximum possible distance. And then we put up our Christmas tree yesterday. Thomas loves the lights and was pretty interested at first about putting ornaments on the tree. He hung several ornaments on the same branch, so we had clumps of ornaments in a ring a couple of feet off the ground. He rapidly lost interest after that, though. He is much more interested in the inflatable snowman family in our next door neighbor's yard, so we often take him outside to check on them. Then we check on our other neighbor's inflatable Santa and his reindeer and polar bear made of Christmas lights.

Sophia is growing a lot. She's already outgrown a couple of her smallest onesies! She's also having longer periods of wakefulness, and her voice is getting stronger and stronger. She's had her first bath, and she only complained once, I think because I let her get a bit cold. What a patient, mellow girl! I remembered Thomas' first bath as I had Sophia in the tub, and what a difference! He did not like it at all and did not hesitate to tell us so. Ahh, good times!

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Orlando International Airport. Current temperature in Orlando is 86 degrees."

"I though YOU knew how to get there!"

Thomas 2 years, Sophia 2 weeks old

Helping Mommy clean up marker from the carpet and table

Exploring sand for the first time at Warren Park -- just across the road!

We just put a real bed in Thomas' room in addition to his crib to make his transition a little easier. His sleep issues still haunt us. Today he didn't take a nap at all; it was two hours of me walking him back to his bed. On the other hand, it meant that tucking him into bed tonight was a breeze. Other times, his nap is fine but it takes him two hours to fall asleep at night! Or I wake up at 4am and find the playroom light on, and Thomas about to start playtime! What is happening? Are we transitioning to no nap at all? Or is this just a reaction to moving house and new baby? To be fair, it all started a week before the move date, and has been going on for about a month now. It's pretty awful sometimes, especially when we're all short on sleep. He's also started transitioning to full-blown toddlerhood. We've had a lot more crying outbursts when things don't go his way, the old going limp act and yelling "no no, no no!" response when he doesn't want to do something. On the other hand, he appears more confident and social these days. Nowadays he is much more open, playing with our friends and talking to them after only a short warming-up period, follows along with the motions to the songs at Rhyme Time at the Library, and interacts and "talks" with the other kids in his playgroup. I swear he also put on a few pounds during the two nights he spent at Mom and Dad's house when we were at the hospital!

He still likes the new baby. He pats her gently on the blanket, pointing out her hands or eyes or comes to tell me when she's crying. I watch him like a hawk just in case he gets a little too energetic like he still does with Chloe (pulling tails, etc).

Sophia is doing well! Tomorrow is her two-week checkup with the pediatrician. She is nursing easily (mostly), and sleeps well, especially when she's being held by someone. I think that's how I'm getting so much sleep at night! After a nighttime feeding, I hold her upright for a while against me to get rid of any air bubbles, and I usually fall asleep accidentally in the recliner, sometimes for hours! The new "nursing recliner" has more than paid for itself in the past two weeks! In fact, she sleeps so well, it's a bit of a worry! Can it really be this easy? The mind will always find something to worry about, I guess!

Mom and Dad have been a lifesaver (again!!), making dinner every night that they aren't dancing, babysitting Thomas so Matthew and I can take naps and get things done around the house, restocking our refrigerator, and generally being very supportive. Also, Matthew has been very supportive too, taking care of Thomas so I can have a nap or feed the baby, getting the house fixed up, making breakfast, putting together new furniture, etc! Thank you to Mom, Dad and Matthew! I couldn't do it without you!

Thomas 2 years, Sophia 1 week old

Sophia Michiko Perry!

Sophia Michiko Perry, born November 22, 2009 at 1:15am. 7 pounds, 8 ounces.

Water broke at 10:45pm, which started the contractions. I called the nurse line to see if I really HAD to go to the hospital, or could I stay at home for a while first? They told me I had to go! So we called Mom and Dad, who came back to babysit Thomas. Matthew and I arrived at the hospital, "racing" another couple down the hall to triage ... which was otherwise empty! Got checked-in at about midnight ... and then the contractions became very intense. Good thing Matthew told them that labor was very fast last time, because they whisked me up to a delivery room without even putting in an IV. The contractions were coming thick and strong and my brain power was rapidly diminishing, so I was relying on Matthew to do all the thinking and answering of all the tedious questions!

Up in the delivery room, it took the nurses three tries to find a good place to put an IV. In the meantime, I practiced relaxation techniques I learned from Michelle ... between contractions. During contractions I squeezed Matthew's or the nurse's hand, pretty hard I think. I did notice that none of the nurses came round to my side of the bed ... only Matthew in the end! So, after an hour and fifteen minutes of being in the hospital, Sophia was born! She was crying loudly straight out of the womb! The doctors and nurses even put her on my tummy right afterward, which was so fulfilling! We donated her cord blood, and took some pictures, and Matthew cut the cord. Yay!

2 years and 1 week old

Things are puttering merrily along here. Matthew has been back for a week now, and he's contributing greatly to the moving-in process, which is great as I seem to have run out of steam! We have just come back from Ikea with a few pieces of needed furniture like a dresser and a computer desk. We've also been social butterflies for the past week or so, having 6 people over for dinner amongst the boxes over a few days. And more on the way! One night we even played cards! It was awesome!

This week, Thomas' new trick is climbing out of his crib. He can do it with ease now, so we really have to be careful. In the middle of the night last night alone, we caught him coming out of his room three times. It's hard to remember through the fog of sleep deprivation! We learned a new trick, that if we put him down to bed, leave his door open, and then sit in the chair in the computer room (where you can see his crib), he stays lying down in his crib and will eventually fall asleep. The next step is to figure out how to keep him in his bed all night! It's only been a week, and already I'm tired of waking up so many times in the middle of the night (wait, what will I do when the baby comes? uh-oh!)

No big news yet on the baby front. Tomorrow is another of my weekly visits to the doctor, so we'll see how things are looking. Technically I have one week to go before my due date (Thanksgiving)! Yay to Marsha Jr. for waiting until Matthew came back! She's getting bigger and bigger, and her movements are getting so strong that it gets uncomfortable at times. Sometimes you can even see her elbow sticking out, making an eerie lump on my skin, or I can feel her movements all the way down to my hip bones. It makes sitting down sometimes difficult. I've been telling people that I'm hoping she'll come this weekend so that Thomas' birthday, her birthday and Thanksgiving will all be evenly spaced out. We shall see if she listens to Mommy.

Almost 2 years old!

We moved into the new house on Halloween, one day after closing, which is why we don't have any Halloween-related pictures of Thomas. We had a couple of guys come in and move all the heavy furniture and all the boxes that we'd packed up until that point, which was a lifesaver. They did it in 2 1/2 hours using one huge truck that we didn't even fill halfway. Mom and Dad had just arrived the day before, and they helped us move which was also awesome! There are still plenty of our personal effects lying around the old house that are slowly making their way to the new house, thanks to them. I think we're all adjusting to the new house pretty well, except for Matthew of course who had to go on his trip after sleeping in the new house for only two nights. He worked really hard getting the major systems of the house running so that we would be comfortable while he's gone. Every room is full of boxes of course.

Thomas will be 2 years old tomorrow! I can't believe how quickly it's gone. His comprehension is growing by leaps and bounds, so I can ask him to put on his shoes, or put various things down, or velcro Mommy's shoes so that I don't have to bend down to do it myself! He's learning new words very quickly these days, like "mailman" and "boom-boom" which is his word for speed bump. He also understands that FedEx, UPS and USPS trucks are "mailman" and that a lake is a "big pool." He no longer points out every mail truck with a loud "MAAAAAAIL!" but he does like to point out all the yellow school buses. He's settling into the backseat of the car much more easily these days: we no longer have to entertain him every moment to keep him from crying or screaming, but he does have a limit of about 15 minutes in his car seat before he gets restless. Amazingly, I have found a set of CDs that he will listen to, called "We Sing" which is just children singing nursery rhymes and silly songs, like "Twinkle Twinkle" or "John Brown's Baby." It's a great soother for Thomas, and I keep one in the CD player at all times. He mimics us from the backseat of the car often, and loves to laugh when the adults are laughing. He's also just started nodding his head and saying "oh yeah!"

These last two weeks, Thomas' favorite book is "Days with Frog and Toad." He will sit quietly through all five stories if you let him! It's the only book he wants to read before naptime and bedtime. He also knows about the baby in mommy's tummy, and which room will be the baby's when she comes. He seems to be adjusting to new house pretty well, and is (at this time) not really curious about the contents of the many boxes strewn around the house (thank goodness). He seems to be content watching Totoro or Blue's Clues on the new TV set, playing with his toys in the toy room, exploring outside, and riding his tractor around and around the house. He's even been great (after a couple of minor mishaps) understanding that Chloe's cat food and water are "no-no" (we've had it fenced off at the old house). I'm not sure if this is related to the move or not, but for the past couple of weeks, the going-to-bed process has been on-and-off difficult. He'll be SO tired but unable to fall asleep for one reason or another, which makes for a cranky Mommy (and Daddy when he was here). Who knows what it is, maybe growing pains?

Baby getting big, only 2 weeks to go! Matthew is coming back on Sunday so Michelle my hypno-birthing teacher and I created that this time the baby will wait until Daddy comes back before coming out! Some of the mommies in my Moms Club got together and threw me a little shower, which was very nice! They brought all kinds of clothes that their little girls had outgrown, so now we have enough little-girl clothes for three more babies! Seriously, these clothes are cute. Pink, ruffles everywhere, skirts, shoes, even a little hula bikini for a 6-month old. Really. Cute overload.

23 3/4 months

Matthew and Thomas at the pool-- where we watched the plume of smoke from the Ares rocket (to be used on manned missions to the Moon and Mars) rise into the air as they tested it for the first time!

We're moving! More later!