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!)

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!! :)