One Year Old & Mother's Day

There's our little (ok, not so little) one year old. Thomas celebrated his first birthday Wednesday, May 6. The celebration started the Saturday before at his birthday party. We had a great time at Lake Wheeler cooking out, eating cake and enjoying friends and family. Thomas had a great time getting passed around from grandma to grandma with others in between. He wasn't terribly interested in his cake. He needed some help to get into it and once he figured it out he only ate a few small bites and then wanted down. Oh well...

On his birthday we celebrated with a trip to the doctor (I now know that this is not a great way to spend his birthday). He did really well, but shots are not a very nice present for anyone, let alone a one year old. Thomas is now 24 lbs, 1 oz (70%) and 32.5 in (>97%). His head is still off the charts too. Nothing else too interesting came from this appointment. No news is good news, I guess. He is happy and healthy!

A couple of exciting changes:

-Thomas now sits facing forward in his carseat (for all the non-parents out there...this is VERY exciting!)

-He has been drinking whole milk for about a week now and seems to like it.

-Tonight is the first night that he's gone down without a bottle of formula and I haven't heard a peep so......NO MORE FORMULA!!

-He is officially a walker now. He has been waddling around for a while, but just yesterday decided to make walking his primary mode of transportation. Now he walks everywhere!

-He is quite vocal these days. Nothing that we can understand yet, but he's getting there. He tries very hard to mimic our words, especially "balloon".

Speaking of balloons - he LOVES them. We went to the grocery store the other day and before we were fully in the cart and in the door, he saw the balloons at the checkouts and started pointing and saying "buh buh buh".

This past weekend was a busy one but a great one! On Saturday, Thomas' friend Ryan had his first birthday party. We played and enjoyed cupcakes, yummy strawberries and great friends! My mom's birthday was Friday so we went to her house for supper on Saturday night to celebrate. We had a great dinner and watched a really short but strong storm roll by.

On Mother's Day, Shawn got up with Thomas so that I could "sleep in" (which, these days, means that I lay in bed awake but lazy for a bit longer than usual). Sunday afternoon after church, we went straight to Mom's for a mother's day lunch with family - Mom, Gaga, Chip, Cissie, Devin, Whitney, Paul and Carrie. What a great time we had! We cooked out burgers, had lunch, played outside, relaxed, sang (thanks Carrie). It was such a wonderful Mother's Day, getting to see family that we don't get to see often enough. Also, it was very cool to have 4 generations together!

Overall, May has turned out to be a great month already! I cannot believe that our little boy is one. It still is just so hard to believe that I'm a mom. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband and such a sweet little boy. Here's to many years to come and lots of memories to make!

First Steps

Well, Thomas finally took his first real, honest-t0-goodness steps this week! He doesn't do it often but every once in a while when necessary, he walks a very short distance. His preferred method of transportation is still crawling.

Finally got video of Thomas doing TOUCHDOWN!!

We're wondering if Thomas is headed for a career in cooking?! Every time I'm doing anything in the kitchen, with the dishwasher or the stove/oven, he whines and whines to be picked up so he can see what is going on. Sometimes I'll even put him in his highchair, in the kitchen, while I'm cooking dinner so he can watch. He is captivated! His grandparents have purchased him a play kitchen for Easter, so hopefully, he'll be excited to have his own cooking operation going on. (I hope!)

We've had some great play dates in the past week or so. On Monday we went to Duke Gardens. The weather has been so great recently (other than the rain), so we were itching to get outside. Thomas pushes everything he can get his hands on these days, including his stroller.

He is still eating pretty well. He eats whatever we eat. No more baby food, just the good stuff. :) He particularly loves pears and recently he's been devouring cereal bars and bananas, anything that he is able to take a bite of on his own. Overall, he's just a lot of fun. He's getting more and more strong-willed. (He gets that from his dad) ha ha :) No really, he's a sweet kid and seems to be learning new things every day. We cannot believe that in one short month, he will be ONE!! Can't believe our little guy has been with us for almost a whole year. My how things change in that first year and what a joy he has been!

Getting Ready for Football Season

That's right, we're getting ready for football season. Thomas can officially call a touchdown now! He does it mostly at the dinner table but we say "touchdown!" and he holds both hands up high above his head. It is terribly cute, I must admit. So, we're proud of our little football fan and hope that he'll be able to put that skill to good use, come September.

When we put the cabinet latches on the kitchen cabinets, Thomas had to improvise so he went straight for the pots & pans drawer under the oven. He opens that drawer and takes out every pot and pan and lid we own! They proceed to get tossed around the kitchen, banging and clanging against each other. Because we thought it'd be cute, we gave him a wooden spoon to make even more noise with. It is so cute.......for a little while. He loves it and it keeps him occupied, so we're going to stick with it, for now.

He has taken a couple of little stutter steps in between cruising, but no big steps on his own yet. We think it will be any day now, but who knows!!

Sun Glorious Sun!

Happy Spring everybody! I don't know if it's really spring yet, but I'm pretending it is anyway. The weather we've had here recently has been great! We've spent a good amount of time outside in the sunny 80-degree weather. Thomas just recently hit the 10-month mark. Before you know it, he'll be ONE!!

We were able to go to lunch with Aunt Whitney, Uncle Paul and Meme (my mom). We went to a great little place in downtown Raleigh called The Rockford. If you go there, order the ABC. ABC stands for apple, bacon and cheddar. It's weird, but it's good, I promise!!

This past weekend mommy & daddy got to go on a date! Woo hoo! While Thomas was at home playing with Papa & Oopsy, we went to dinner and met up with some friends for dessert. It was nice to get out, just the two of us. On Sunday we went to a park with our friends, Brian & Jennifer and their 4 month old, Benjamin. I didn't get any pictures (bummer!) but Thomas had fun crawling in the grass, sliding down the slide and swinging with mommy. It was a nice relaxing day!

Thomas is busy as ever. Shawn installed the cabinet latches this weekend so that I don't have to play keep away while I'm cooking dinner. Thomas can crawl around and pull up without me having to worry about what he'll get into. Unfortunately, I think we're nearing the end of the exersaucer, which was the last way that I could keep him stationary while I did what I needed to do. The only time he stays in one place, pretty much, is when he's in his room with his books. He'll play with his books for a long time (relatively), and loves shutting his bedroom door.

I hope you're all getting outside and enjoying this beautiful weather!

Nine (plus) months!

Ok, it's been a ridiculously long time!! I was without a computer for a while but I'm back online and have a moment or two to update. Thomas is just next door in his crib sleeping. :) Hopefully, I can get a full update done with some pictures.

Well, the little guy is really closer to 10 months than he is nine months!! We did the nine month check-up earlier this month and he was 21 lbs 9.5 ozs (80%), 30.5 inches (97%) and his head circumfrence is in the 100+%. Yes, they wrote the plus sign on the top of his growth chart!! So, he's tall and skinny and he's got a big brain. :) They gave us a clean bill of health except for a little blocked tear duct which I'm still stalling to get fixed. I'm praying that it will resolve itself before we have to take him to the eye doc.

He is a busy guy these days. He creeps along the floor on his belly, crawls, pulls up on anything and everything and walks along while holding onto something. No independent steps yet and he won't stand on his own but we think it will be soon. He's quite vocal - "mama" and "baba" are his most common "words". He makes lots of other conversational sounds but none that can be understood. Just this week, he seems to really enjoy laughing. He'll be sitting in his high chair and just start giggling, which makes me giggle ... and so on!

What's happened in the last month?

-Thomas saw his first snow!

-We celebrated a first birthday with Brinley Rich!

-Thomas went to his first Super Bowl party at Matt's.

-We went to Charlotte to spend some time with Thomas' great-Papa. Just a day trip but Thomas did great, especially considering he missed his afternoon nap!

-Lauren was able to spend time with some of her high-school girlfriends. Husbands and kids joined us one night for a great dinner at the Justice's and some Rock Band!!

Thomas really seems to have his daddy's personality when it comes to being social. As long as there are people around and things going on, he's good with or without a nap. We may pay for it the next day but he has a blast with people. He is just so much fun these days and such a busy-body. He keeps me running around all day long. My saving grace is that he loves to read books. He will sit in my lap for a relatively long period of time and look through his favorite books.

Thomas has also continued to be a great sleeper. He takes great naps each day - about 3 hours total, on average. He also sleeps GREAT at night. Down between 7:30 and 8 and up at 7:30 or so recently. He's turning out to be a great eater too. We are still having 4 bottles a day but he's not quite as interested in them as he used to be. We also have 3 meals a day. He pretty much eats what we eat at supper and has various foods at lunch. Some of his favorites are toast, applesauce and cheese. I have a feeling the cereal for breakfast isn't going to last much longer. He's not digging it much anymore. He'd rather have half a banana...something he can sink his teeth into.

Speaking of teeth...he now has 8!! Four on the top and four on the bottom. Well, hopefully this gets us up to date and I'll be updating more frequently now. FYI...if you want me to send you picture updates regularly, let me know and I'll add you to the list. Hugs!!

Laugh Out Loud

I'm currently sitting on our couch, watching American Idol auditions. So, if this posting is a little disjointed, it's because I'm stopping every few minutes to belly laugh with America. Some of these folks make me wonder...hmmmm. Really??!! But, thanks for the laughs. :)

Thomas is such a joy. He is so much fun these days. He's been standing up A LOT! He actually will fuss a little if I sit him down when he's in the mood to stand (which is pretty much all the time). He seems to be starting a little separation anxiety, but not too bad yet. I hope that phase doesn't last long! He's eating lots of different types of food and seems to like most of it.

We've recently started brushing his 5 teeth! Most nights, before bed, he gets a good brushing and then he gets to "brush" a little himself, which means he's pretty much chewing on the toothbrush. I mention this so that his future dentist, Jennifer, will be super proud of his clean teefies!!!! Ha!

I'm looking forward to a girls weekend with my mom, sister, grandma & aunt this weekend. So, Thomas and Shawn will be having a guys weekend at home! Hopefully no one will get into any trouble. :)

Christmas / Eight Months

Happy New Year! We hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years. We kept busy visiting with family and friends and enjoying Thomas' first Holiday. The Williams' came up to our house to visit and open presents on Christmas Eve. They brought Thomas a stocking that was about 3 feet long....Thomas could actually fit in it! We have pictures, but my computer is messed up so I'll have to post them later. Sorry! We saw my family on Christmas day, some during the day and some in the evening. Thomas was definitely spoiled by his grandparents and aunts and uncles! We had a great time. We were able to see some extended family, as well, before the holidays. Thomas kept everyone entertained. He seems to be quite a ham when he's around other people.

Just because it was the holidays doesn't mean Thomas hasn't been working hard on all kinds of new things. He can now pull himself up by holding on to the couch cushions or anyone's fingers. I sat him down in front of a toy while I made a bottle last week, when I came back around the corner, he had moved over to the couch and was standing up, leaning against the couch and reaching for the remotes. Uh oh! Mommy can't do that anymore!! We're not sure whether he will be crawling or walking first. He seems to have more interest in standing than crawling, but we'll see. He's also starting to "cruise" around the living room couches. He holds on tight and takes a few steps side-to-side to reach something that catches his eye - a passie, his burp cloth, the throw pillows (which he loves to snuggle with). He will get up on all fours to crawl but eventually lowers himself down to his belly to "creep" along the floor. He does make some great forward motion but just on his belly instead of hands and knees.

Thomas is slowly getting into finger foods. He still loves his baby food, but when he sits at the dinner table with Mommy & Daddy he eats some of his baby "pick up" food and also eats some of what we're having for dinner! He does great...Mommy & Daddy are still a little nervous about it. :) The funny thing is that usually EVERYTHING that gets into his hands eventually makes its way to his mouth....except food!! We give him little puffs (sort of like cheerios), and he will not put them in his mouth. The only way he will eat them is if we put them in his mouth. We did give him a larger cracker tonight and he held onto it and gummed it a bit....ate the whole thing. Way to go buddy!!

One other exciting thing is that we lowered his crib to the lowest setting, which makes him seem so much older to me. He used to kick an aquarium that hangs on the side of his crib, so when he went to do the same thing, his leg hung through the crib bars. He found that funny. Hmmmm.... an aspiring escape artist, I can tell!

Thomas now has five teeth and they seem to be coming in so fast, we can't hardly keep up with them. He is still saying "mama" & "baba", but he doesn't quite know what they mean yet. He recently picked up "dada". It took him a little longer to get, but now he says it quite a bit. He's babbling more now in a way that sounds a lot more like he's trying to have a conversation. He is now also able to let us know exactly when he's unhappy about something. He will squeal at the top of his lungs. It can be hard to tell the difference between a happy squeal and an upset squeal sometimes.

Shawn and I were recently reflecting on how blessed we are and what a big year it has been. We've had such a good time watching this little man grow up and develop. It is going so fast - we can't believe he'll be 8 months old tomorrow! What a blessing he has been to us!! While we're on the subject of blessings, we've also been so blessed by all of you - all of our friends and family. Thank you so much for the love and support. May we all enjoy a wonderful 2009!

(Pictures will be posted soon, hopefully!)