Thanksgiving / Seven Months

The Holidays are here which means time speeds up, right? I feel like November lasted about 4 days!! We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are gearing up for a great Christmas too! We were able to see family and eat yummy food over the Thanksgiving weekend. Lots of folks were able to meet Thomas for the first time and spend some good time with him. He is becoming quite the social baby. He does really well with other folks holding him.


Thomas is now a pro at sitting up by himself. He also rolls all over his blanket, front to back and back to front. He'll roll a number of consecutive times and end up across the living room. He's getting quite good at it. He reaches for toys that are far away and can support himself and usually can sit himself back up, although sometimes he reaches a little too far and topples. Just tonight, he was sitting in front of his exer-saucer and grabbed the top and pulled himself to a almost standing position. We were amazed. Maybe crawling and pulling up is closer than we thought?


This past weekend, we put up our Christmas tree. It's been a couple of years since we've had a tree so it was fun to decorate again and get out all those ornaments. Thomas likes all the lights and hasn't rolled over to disturb the tree yet. We'll see how that goes...

Just today we went to the doctor for a weight check and Thomas is now about 19.5 lbs, in the 73rd percentile. He's still loving his solid foods and we'll start giving him some finger foods soon. We've been having a great time getting to know all his little quirks and his personality. He is so much fun these days. Lots of smiling and laughing. His top two teeth seem to be breaking through, as well. Lots of new things going on all the time!

Hope you're having a great December and staying warm. Until next time...

Thomas' Baptism

This morning Thomas was baptized at our church in Durham, Triangle Presbyterian Church. We were so blessed to have lots of family and friends join us for the special occasion. Thomas did great during the service. He was very tired and a little fussy but as soon as Pastor Ray held him, he was on his best behavior. :) The congregation got a good laugh at Thomas, as he lay in Pastor Ray's arms with his hands behind his head. He looked as though he was hanging out in a hammock and not in a church service. Ray mentioned what a great example that was of how we should be comfortable in Christ. How true! Kids really have the right idea when it comes to God and his love for us!

Six Month Checkup

Thomas turns 6-months today and to celebrate, we went to the doctor for shots! He had 4 shots including his flu shot and an oral vaccine. He was a trooper! Just a little cry when the shots were given and as soon as I had him in my arms again he was smiling at the nurse. :) We have such a brave little boy. His 6-month stats are:

Weight: 18 lbs, 2 oz (60%)
Height: 28.5 in (97%)
Head Circ: 46.7 cm (98%)

His weight is not as high as it has been in the past so the doctor suggested we adjust our routine to try to get him to eat a little more. When talking about his height, the doctor said "Look at it this way... if Thomas was in a room with 99 other 6 month olds, he'd be shorter than only 3 of them." So, overall, it was a great visit and he's growing up entirely too fast!! He's sleeping right now (and that doesn't happen a lot during the day) so I'm off to get some things done.

Happy Halloween!

We hope you all have had a great halloween! We had a great day. We had a play date this morning. All the kids wore their costumes and we had yummy treats to eat! Here is a cute picture of the little ones, all lined up on the couch. We had a pea pod, Mack, a flower, a sugar plum fairy, little red riding hood, a lion and a bug. So cute!!

Tonight we went to our church for Trunk or Treat. We had hot dogs and saw all the other little kiddies in their costumes. Thomas did great in his costume again (although it was a little small). He was a pea pod this year. I told Shawn that this was the only year that I would do a cute little baby costume and next year he would be into all the little boy stuff. He agreed. :) We unloaded 6 big bags of candy and by 7:15 Thomas was falling asleep in his costume. He was all snug and warm, I guess. We fed him at church, got him in his pj's and he fell asleep on the way home. He's currently sleeping like a baby (ha!) in his crib. Overall, we had a great time. I can't wait for him to be able to walk around and trick-or-treat next year!

The Big 3-0!

Well, here comes Fall! I can't believe Halloween is tomorrow and I can't tell you how weird it is to see Christmas decorations and shelves of Christmas stuff in the stores and malls. I swear, I think I saw a worker at Target setting out some Valentines candy the other day. This is getting ridiculous!

Shawn celebrated his 30th birthday at October 19!! We celebrated by going out to dinner and out on the town with some friends. We had a great time and all-in-all, I don't think the big 3-0 was too traumatic for him. Thomas and I got Shawn a Mario Williams Texans football jersey. It hasn't made its debut yet, but I'm sure it will soon.

We also celebrated our friend Evie's 4th birthday last week. We went to Marbles Kids Museum and saw fish and all kinds of neat stuff. Thomas is obviously a little young and didn't quite know what was going on but we'll be going back when he is older...it is a very cool place!

Thomas has really been learning and changing a lot. He is now babbling a lot. His favorite sounds are "ma" and "ba", which become "mama" and "baba" repeated over and over...and over and over. We're working on "dada" for Shawn but he hasn't quite gotten it yet! He is also sitting up really well these days. He can prop himself up on his own and only tips over every once in a while. I still stay very close because I don't want him bonking his head on the floor too hard. He recently went through a growth spurt and was eating 8 oz bottles four times a day and eating lots of cereal in the morning and a whole container of baby food in the afternoon! He's since slowed down a little but still loves his solid foods. He's made it through all the vegetables and is now working on fruits. He just finished apple sauce...it doesn't seem like he liked it too much but he still ate it. Feeding him can be a lesson in patience but it is a lot of fun.

Thomas smiles a lot and giggles and laughs when we tickle him. He is so much fun and such a good little boy. Overall, his personality is still pretty laid back. He is a very easy-going boy! The only hiccup is napping. As some of you know, he pretty much refuses to take naps during the day. IF he falls asleep at all, it's usually for a max of 30-40 minutes and then he's up crying again. We've tried a few different approaches at this and none have worked yet. So, any great ideas, let me know!! He's currently sleeping soundly after getting only 1 hour of sleep during naps today, total. I don't know how he does it, but apparently we have a strong-willed little boy on our hands!

We hope you all have a fun Halloween and safe Trick-or-Treating! We'll be at the Trunk or Treat event at our church and Thomas and I are getting together with some friends to enjoy treats and take pictures of the kiddies in their costumes. Should be fun! Happy Halloween!! :)

GOOD NEWS!!!

Just an update, TW's head is perfectly fine!!! Thanks for the thoughts and prayers!!!

Where have you been?

The real question is, "Where have WE been?". Sorry it's been so long since an update. It seems we've had quite a busy month. So, I'll break it up into a couple of different updates... (for my sake and yours)

So, we did take Thomas to the NC State vs. ECU football game. He did great! He enjoyed tailgating and walking around to visit friends. His friend, Grayson, was there too. Grayson is a couple of weeks older than Thomas. When we got to the game he was a little startled at the yelling and loud noises but eventually got used to it and had a great time. He stood in our laps and watched the game and all the fans around us. He was especially interested in the bright yellow ECU shirt behind us. He took a couple of naps while we were there, but he was perfectly fine in the Baby Bjorn. I turned him to face me and covered his ears the best I could. He slept right through a touchdown, which was great! Only negative was that I couldn't cheer. Oh well, I'll take it! Oh yeah, and we won!! Yippee!! Go pack!

Shawn and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary with a road trip to the Outer Banks. My dear friend, Lindsey, got married in Kitty Hawk and we stayed in a house for the week leading up to the wedding with most of my high school buddies in Duck, NC. Thomas did so well. He was a little weary of being passed around at first, but he eventually got the hang of it and got lots of lovin from everyone. We had a great time catching up with good friends, playing cornhole & ladder golf and watching the wind and the rain. That's right...we were there at the very time that big noreaster came through. The wedding went off without a hitch, but some very last minute decisions were made concerning venue. Congrats to Lindsey and Justin!! What a wonderful week it was!
This past week, we had a follow-up appointment regarding Thomas' head circumfrence. He was remeasured and is measuring even further off the charts than last time. During the month, he should have grown 0.5 cm but he grew 1 cm. So, we have to take him for an ultrasound this Thursday at WakeMed. The docs want to make sure that all of the fluid in his head is the way it should be. We are confident that everything will be fine but it's no fun to wait on the ultrasound. So, please pray for us on Thursday that everything would be normal and that Thomas (and Shawn & I) would be comforted during the process and waiting. Hopefully, we'll be updating you all with good news very soon!

A good pic from our first trip to Pullen Park: