first Christmas

we got these canvas bins at Big Lots - only $7.50 each and great for throwing all the toys into at the end of the day. thomas, like many babies his age, now must examine all things that are new on the house (just like our kitties). tests them for playability, studyness and of course, edibility.


Wow... first Christmas with Thomas. what a crazy year and how fast it has gone by. many older/wiser parents have told me to enjoy the first 5 years because they go by so fast. they weren't kidding. the past two weeks have been amazing developmentally. it seems like he does something new every day!
- 1st time he stacked blocks together! 3 of them and he can do 4 if you straighten out the first 3 for him :)
- he cruises like crazy now
- he can do the dylan lu "sumo squat" for a few seconds
- stand on his own, even claps while standing
- signs for "all done" when he wants to get out of his high chair
- says mama and dada purposefully (although sometimes he says mama with a really really whiney tone... not so wonderful ha ha...)
- drinks by himself from a sippy cup
- even responds to simple commands, like "give it to me", "push the button", "give me a kiss", hug the bear", "put it in there" and "don't go over there". of course, he doesn't always listen to us... but it's a start!

baby cereal mustache!

i started reading "Wisdom of our Fathers" by tim russert. it is a collection of stories about fathers, kind of like reading "reader's digest". it has some very sappy stories in it that have made me teary, plus having our own kid makes it so much more meaningful. it has some great reminders in it about what matters to kids. the best one for me is that the best gift you can give your kids is time, your time = attention and love. no one ever writes "the thing i remember about my dad is when he gave me that awesome TV/computer/car" ha ha ....

eating puffs

thomas really got the hang of feeding himself this afternoon. he has done it before, here and there, and like i said below, he will put one in my mouth. but this afternoon, he suddenly realized what he was doing and started cramming them in his mouth. he wouldn't even give me one!! :)
i couldn't pick the funniest one. there were so many funny ones!


normally, as soon as he sees the camera, he stops and wants to touch the camera. this time, he didn't even care. just kept cramming those puffs in his mouth. this pic makes me laugh - his face is so distorted...

i had to start using the shoulder straps when he sits in the high chair, so it's a 5-point harness now. he was getting too good at squirming out of the lap belt (just around his waist). every time i put him in the high chair now, he starts screaming when i snap him in. then he screams like he is dying until i get the first spoonful in his mouth. as long as he is hungry, he will sit and eat after that. just have to keep his attention away from the belt. tricky...


-----------------> still not a "natural mother"

the other week, i confirmed to myself that i do not have natural mothering instincts. we were in sunday school watching all the babies and toddlers. besides ethan and dylan, we had a fourth baby (about 14-15 months). he started crying the moment he realized dad was gone and pretty much didn't stop except to breath here and there. naomi was very matter-a-fact. she just picked him up and started rocking him. he didn't stop crying but she sure looked like an old hand. well, dylan bumped his head a little, so she put him down and liz took a turn with him. he actually stopped crying for a moment with her - she was walking and rubbing his back. she put him down to go after ethan and there i was staring at this poor crying baby.
i did not want to pick this little boy up. i know it sounds terrible, but he had slimmy snot stuff coming out of his nose, mouth, tears, and his bib was so wet, i think it was dripping too. see, no mothering instinct whatsoever! just thomas... i can have his spit and gooey snot on me and it is ok. well, i think if it was a baby i knew better (one of my close friends) it wouldn't be so bad, but it was a baby i didn't know as well. so absolutely no urge to comfort came to me. isn't that terrible?! we were joking that this is what's to come as our cute little babies grow further into toddler-hood. yikes!

-------------------> finally over...

yes praise to God and hallelujah, william is finally done with school. MBA acheived. now that he is done, i can go on and on about how much it sucks when one person in a marriage is in school. i hated it with a passion, that was buried as deeply as i could. of course, i am human and it surfaced here and there. i think i kept it down as much as possible but i hated that he was in school. so it is finally done. no more 2 nights a week with thomas alone. no more project/school meetings in hayward. no more late nights up studying because he did not take my advice to start working when school was over. i mean who starts a new job the same as the last quarter of MBA, two classes that are actually kind of hard??? anyways, there is my beef. three years of beef all out. :p now we can actually be a family and have free time together without studying hanging over william's head.

more pics and a different doctor

peek a boo! the baby book wasn't kidding when they said most babies have a voracious appetite for peek-a-boo...

look at that big pout! i had just told him that i couldn't pick him up yet and sat him down with a toy. he definitely understands not getting picked up when he wants up.


about the 11 month height and weight check... i couldn't leave it alone, so last week i called the doctor. our pediatrian, Dr Tosaic, works with a group so when she is not in, sometimes the other doctor, Dr Quan, will call back. i feel a little bad because we originally were referred to dr. quan, but we didn't feel she was right for us or thomas, so we met the two other docs in the office and liked dr. tosaic better.
part of it is that quan has only been out of residence for a couple years and has never had kids. now that we have a kid, we understand why people always say "you'll understand when you have your own kids" it really opens your eyes. so everything she does is by the book, b/c she has nothing else to go by. i think her book knowledge is very good, but another thing we noticed is her style is a bit forceful (or rather authoritative) and she doesn't give you alternatives unless you push for them. tosaic is more mild mannered and she has 3 kids, has practiced for over 15 years. her voice is kinda funny though, almost sounds like a child on the phone.

anyways, dr quan called me back on thursday and after talking to her about thomas' diet and activity level, she said he was not where he should be. she said babies want to play, not eat, so you have to find ways to make him eat. it really worried me and i thought about it until the next day so much that it gave me a little heart burn. i decided to call dr tosaic and see if she thought the same. i am so glad i did, b/c after hearing the rundown of thomas, she said he sounded fine and that we didn't need to worry. as long as he is active, happy and regular (ha ha), she said we were doing fine. i feel much better about where thomas is!

-----------------> holidays

what a busy month... friday last week, we went to hang out with cousin joshua. he had a few friends over so thomas got to play with different babies. girl babies! we don't know many girl babies so it was fun to watch him surrounded by girls :). he also got jealous when i was holding baby joshua. he saw my infidelity, speedily crawled over, climbed up my lap and tried to push joshua out of the way. how funny that was! i have never seen him react that way before. well, i guess, i have never tried to hold other babies in front of him. i was so tickled that he noticed and decided that he was not going to take it. funny funny.

we also had both dylan and sara's first birthday parties in the last week. wow. can't believe it has been a year. amazing!

no change at the doctor's office

i went to weigh in at the doctor's office today: 28.25 inches and 19.75 lbs... very little change in 2 months! i tried to be nonchalant, but i have to admit, i feel a little worried that he hasn't gained any weight or gotten longer. you start to wonder, am i feeding him enough (he sure poops enough! 2 good sized ones every day), does he sleep enough? is he getting enough vitamins?
ok, calm down mamma! i am not going to let it bother me...

forgot to add below that he gives us kisses now, started about 2 weeks ago. we're working on blowing kisses to people :). also just this morning, he figured out that he can feed us back by putting puffs or spoons in our mouth. now he loves putting things in my mouth. ha ha...


i can't remember who gaves us these drums, but thomas loves it! that's my crooked smile bending his lower lip :)

-----------------> update

so i called the doctor and they said he should be eating more than he does right now. i am going to call to get a second opinion b/c the doctor that called back is not thomas' primary care doc. but i am going to start using william's method of following thomas around until he is packed full at each meal and maybe add another snack time.

11 months

hypnotized by the avocado oracle...

william's mom's favorite cutie pose: when he is speed crawling and suddenly stops and turns around to see if you're watching him.

i have been taking a bit of a blogging break. thomas was sick/clingy/needy and my mom was with us for a week. no energy to write, even though there is stuff going on. so i am going to do some lists - i don't want to forget stuff, so this is more for recording sake...

piano player in the making! look at his excellent banging form :)

his appetite hasn't changed much - still takes infant cereal with milk in the morning, number 3 jars for lunch and dinner. added table foods - tofu, soft chicken or fish, steamed veggies, pb sandwich. so for lunch and dinner, he usually has one 6-oz jar and random bits of table/finger foods until he doesn't want to open for food any more. every day he takes around 8 oz of milk plus whatever he gets from me. i try to limit snacking to one in the late morning and one in late afternoon - milk, fruit or some cheese/crackers. here's a big difference b/w william and i: william likes to pack him full of as much food as he can. even after the meal, he will follow thomas around with a spoon and try to plug up that last bit of empty stomach. ha ha :) for me, as soon as i get 3 rejections of food, i take him out of the high chair and meal-time is over.

anytime i hand him an orange, he closely examines and then tries to bite it.

---------------> the Thomas update:

he is 11 months this week and happily, back to his "normal" wonderful self. when he got sick last month, we did a lot of cuddling/stuff we don't normally do b/c we knew he wasn't feeling well. so everytime he woke up at night (at least a couple times a night) not able to breath well, we would pick him up and rock him until he could settle down again. well, two nights of that and he learned pretty quick that mom and dad were responding to crying. babies are SMART and learn REALLY fast! then he had two more teeth come in the week after he recovered so that further messed with his sleep. he is finally back to his old pattern of sleeping at 8 and waking up around 6-6:30. no coddling needed. william sometimes goes to sleep with him, but that is just cause william loves to co-sleep. big softy!
a couple times or more, a day he plays by himself pretty well. i had thought that i was doomed because around the end of october, all of a sudden, he didn't want to play by himself. i thought it was the beginning of a needy/separation anxiety phase! but a week ago, he just as suddenly decided that it was ok to play by himself. whew...

wondering what to do with all those travel size hotel shampoos and soaps?


he is soooo playful now. he can clap, throw a ball to you, hand you things, open the door in response to a knock, and he imitates things he sees me do, like when i put my head down on a soft blanket, he crawls over and puts his head down next to mine! of course, the next moment, he is off again looking for the next interesting thing to play with. he "reads" his little board books and gets excited with every page he turns himself. he talks so much, very cute. i try to remember to keep up a stream of conversation with him. he also discovered magnets - now at least once a day, he grabs them and sticks them back on the dishwasher door over and over.
another funny tidbit - we finally had to buy formula. he started drinking milk out of a bottle at the beginning of November - so we ran out. ha ha... until now, we have gotten away with free formula (from the hospital, a couple cases of ready to use bottles from the gadads and a lot from our doctor's office).

i still nurse him, but more for comfort, about 2 sometimes 3 times a day. i don't think i have more than 4-6 ounces (that's both sides) and he is so very efficient, it goes pretty quick unless he is sleepy. i think i might nurse this way until the cold/winter season is over just to provide him with those antibodies. i guess it depends on when he gets tired of how slow it is compared to the bottle.

his naps are so inconsistent i never know what i am going to get day to day. that is one of the things i really haven't tried to train on. sometimes he naps in the morning, sometimes he doesn't. sometimes he naps for 30 minutes, other times, 2 hours. i usually wait until he is sleepy so i don't have to let him cry too much. but it is hard to tell too. i used to think the eye rubs were a sure sign of nap time readiness but there have been sometimes when he just has eye sand or an eyelash in his eye that causes it. sometimes i put him down for his nap and he just starts howling away. that's when i know he isn't ready. i have tried letting him cry - but after trying it for 3 days, i've learned that when he cries for a long time (30-45 minutes) before falling asleep (b/c i think he should take a nap instead of going by him), he only sleeps for 20-30 minutes. and he wakes up crying. every baby is different, so for thomas, i don't force naps. i just wait until he is tired enough to fall asleep when i put him in the crib with minimal objections. sometimes he is so tired, i push his head down and he doesn't even object. :)


------------------> my mom's visit

my mom drives me bonkers. she stayed with us for 8 days until this past sunday and now she has moved all the way out in sacramento. that will make visits a lot more time consumming. but as crazy as she is, i have to admit she really knows how to play with Thomas, babies in general. he just LOVES her, like crazy. every morning, as soon as he sees her, he would start talking, a steady stream of excited babble and reach out for her as soon as she was close enough. she talks to him a lot, and does a lot of motion games that he really loves. he actually learned how to clap and shake his head from her. and of course, playing the piano. he loves to sit in her lap while she plays. these pics - he is trying to uncover her face, look what a little ham he is! he just eats it up. like a little dog watching to see what she will do next.

of course, even though it was nice to see her relax around thomas, now it will take me two weeks to unwind from her being in the house. she would follow me around all day (ok, not all day, but definitely over half) telling me what i should do, what would work better, what she wishes i would do, what she thinks william is doing on the computer at night, what i should rearrange, that i should not have a cat in the house, on and on. it made my head spin but i knew it was temporary so that made it more tolerable. for christmas, i am going to see if i can lure her back here with thomas. try to avoid the 2 hour drive if we can...

------------------> reading again! finally...

since thomas has decided it is ok to play by himself, i have started reading again. also at night, instead of sitting at the computer, i'll read. i have forgotten how enjoyable it is to read a good book. "what to expect the first year" baby care guide, "an inconvenient truth" by al gore and "big russ and me: father and son" by tim russert. all three of them are really good.

here's my little go green earth plug: read "an inconvenient truth" if you have the time. it is a really quick read and will just blow you away. this has nothing to do with politics, more about making sure that our kids and grandkids have a future worth living on this planet. i truly believe that if everyone contributes a little, we can at least slow the terrible destruction down. the facts of planetary change are hard to ignore. read it or rent the DVD, now available.

william's office make-over

I've added a clock to my cubicle. Now I know when to leave!!

happy thanksgiving

visited our old college friend, michael in berkeley a week ago. hi michael and grace! it was nice to catch up with you. grace, we'll see you soon...


this year, we had 3 thanksgiving feasts.. ha ha... the first one was on thursday - with my dad, my sister and her family and william's parents. the food was courtesy of Whole Foods. unfortunately, i overheated the turkey so it was a little dry, but everything else was fairly good. william's mom also brought a lot of food - she said she would bring one dish, but she brought four. unfortunately william's parents took off first and we forgot to ask them to stay to take a picture.


on friday, my sister and her family came out again so we could all spend some time with my mom. that was nice to see her kids again, especially princess ariana (my favorite neice :)
she is so precocious! and precious too! as you can see baby cousin joshua is asleep in his car seat. he is so good about sleeping in his car seat. we should train thomas more on that... would definitely make life easier.

on friday evening, we went over the johnny & betty's place for their amazing thanksgiving spread. they always cook up a storm for all of us - especially nice for those that don't have family around (like them, and the lu's). it was nice to see everyone and the babies were having a good time too. they were all grouped around the coffee table like little teletubbies. dylan was dancing to "we will rock you". hilarious!

random picture of thomas sitting in the laundry basket. he tried to climb out shortly after and did a hard face plant into the floor. gave him a nice big bruise on the forehead just in time for thanksgiving. :)


-------------other news--------------

my mom has come to stay with us for the holidays. she has some odd "preferences" when she is here (like locks on her door) but otherwise, it will be nice having someone watch Thomas while i eat and take showers, etc. it will probably be a week or two. we'll see if she wants to stay through christmas or not.
wow christmas is only 4 weeks away! this year has FLOWN by....


----------thomas updates----------

two weeks ago he got his first cold. it wasn't that bad, but his nose would switch between really stuffed up and really drippy. so when he was eating, poor little baby had to stop chewing to open his mouth and breath. i felt so bad. you really do want to take all of the bad stuff for your baby so they don't have to suffer. here he is taking a break to breath... too funny. i put on sesame street so he would not be as fussy while eating. he is usually good while he eats, but the cold made him very fussy. it is a whole new experience for him, not being able to breath through his nose.


also, he has 6 teeth now! the last two nights he has been very restless in his sleep, crying a little here and there because it is not comfortable. william has been a real trouper, comforting him as much as he can so that i get to sleep in! :) and we give him baby tylenol before bedtime.

oh and the best news - william only has 2 and a half more weeks of school to go and he is done. completely done. with a new set of letters to add after his name :). yay all around! counting the days down....

not getting anything done...

this is me during the day. whenever i am on the phone or computer, this is exactly what it looks like at our house...

Bowling Thomas

Thomas and bowling pins. Not much to comment..just daddy posting pictures for his enjoyment at work....

He's so cute I just wanto crush him flat when I get home these days.... -William

Untitled-Yet

This picture was taken by Catherine while she was on the laptop. Thomas has a very "annoyed" look on his face because mommy is ignoring him for time being.

Isn't it hilarious they're already showing these "personalities"?! What a difference between month #8 and #10!


And thanks for all the suggestions for my cubicle. I'll work on it next month...and post an updated picture later. -William

Daddy's new home away from home...

Well, PeopleSoft sure did spoil their employees at the Data Center.

Back there I had my own office with doors and what not. Now at Siemens, I've joined the ranks of cubicle dwellers. No doors, 6ft grey walls, and no privacy!

I need some decorations in my cubicle, any suggestions?

tea and teepee

thomas discovered teepee today. i tossed him one of those costco rolls to try to keep him in the middle of the bathroom (away from dustier toilet closet). not only did he find it interesting, he figured out how to get the wrapper off and with his sticky little fingers, picked at it until it started unwraveling.... i grabbed my cellphone and got these shots - so the quality isn't good but at least it captured the moment.


victory over the teepee!!! ha ha... his little stubby, charlie brown arms barely clear his head.

at this point, i interceded before too much teepee was wasted :)


----------------tea on tuesday-----------------

i was running an errand in pleasanton tuesday around lunchtime and decided spur of the moment to have tea with thomas. we were right here, i was hungry, might as well treat myself and thomas! i had read both bad and good reviews but my experience at the english rose tea room on main and neal st. was very pleasant.... maybe because i went when they weren't busy, who knows. the server was very nice and paid a lot of attention to thomas which he loved. he gave her lots of smiles and talked up a storm to her. plus there were two little girls there (maybe 5-6 years old) having a birthday tea and of course he watched them closely. they were also fascinated with him and came over to ask "can we pet him?" that was hilarious. they proceeded to pet him and talk to him like a little kitten.

after being seated, i got a ginger cookie and the ‘tea of the day’ to sample, as well as a scented hot cloth to wipe hands. it was perfect to clean thomas up with! she didn't mind at all when i asked for another one at the end so i could wipe him down. they had a special queen anne's tea which is a thanksgiving dinner in miniature. thomas tried both of the sandwiches, a little of the stuffing roll, a lot of the little stuffed potato pastry and some scone with heavy cream. he liked everything. he also tried tea for the first time, a decaf "lavender lace". he took a couple quick gulps and promptly spit out what was in his mouth. ha ha... he was probably expecting water or milk. i guess lavender tea was a little too strange. i was feeding him the EB veggie beef pilaf but as soon my food came out, with the shiny platter and colorful leaves and roses on top, he stopped eating and began eyeing me every time i put something in my mouth. so he only ate half the jar. luckily, there was enough food to fill me up and give him some. the savory items were probably not cooked on the spot - i am sure they don't have a full kitchen staff back there (doesn't look big enough) but to me, it tasted fine. thomas did really well right up until the end when he started getting a little tired, so i got to relax a little too. it was a little pricey, but i like supporting local mom & pop shops. at the end, the server, Carol, asked me to sign the guest book and to include any prayer requests i had. that was a nice touch too :)

halloween

Thomas's first halloween last week - we answered the door as a two headed ghost.... or a maybe we were impersonating kuato from total recall :) ha ha... look at how big his head is! he was in front of me but still - wow - they are so big now!

william has one more quarter of school left, ending dec 12th. thank goodness! the thing that sucks is he chose classes back to back monday and tuesday. so it is basically me and thomas from monday morning until wed evening. and even then he only sees thomas for 1.5 to 2 hours on a good traffic day. if he leaves work at 5:30, gets home by 6pm, thomas usually goes to sleep around 8. oh well, only 5 more weeks to go.... *sigh*


funny thomas - digging for candy. it will be worse when all the babies know what it is... he held that snickers for a long time and by the time i took it back, it was melted into the shape of his hand.

so mondays and tuesdays are really long days for me. i have been using his crib as a playpen when i need 15-20 minutes to get stuff done. he has continued to be clingy. i used to be able to plunk him down with his toys or in his walker for a good 30 minute stretch at a time. in the last couple weeks, he has decided that he wants to be held more. so at least one of my meals a day, i eat while he is trying to climb up my legs or ramming himself into my chair in his walker. a couple times last week, just gave up and held him while eating. although, he is getting pretty good at trying to swipe my food on its way to my mouth.
oh and my joints still ache in my neck, hands and arms. another friend of mine said she had the same issue and that it does get better but she said she felt joint pain/stiffness until she stopped nursing. man, only 2 more months of nursing and i can start weaning him off. i love nursing, but it does literally suck the best out of you and it is hard to eat enough every day to keep it up. i will be glad when i know that i just have to eat enough to satisfy my stomach and not two!

he started pulling himself up on things last week. before it was just onto his knees. this week, he finally took a couple hesitant steps while supporting himself on the sofa! this pic is funny -the look on his face, "i am concentrating here, don't mess with me"



he finally gets the gumball machine... at the beginning of november, i noticed him trying to get at it. so i pulled it out into the open (i had stuck it in the back of the play area because other toys had usurped it. lo and behold, when i showed him how to drop the ball into the top, he copied me! and he didn't stop for almost 10 minutes. just kept dropping the balls in and pushing the lever to make them come back out. it was amazing! this last weekend, he showed off his new adeptness to william too.
and he just started clapping (finally!) - i was visiting my mom last Thursday and she took his hands to clap. when she let go, he kept on clapping! he has spontaneously started clapping at least several times a day. on sunday morning, he actually started slowly clapping while he was nursing. so funny!


they are so smart! sometimes i try to get away with just giving him a big hug and leave his feet on the ground. but he whines a little and starts bouncing on his feet, you know that kind where they jiggle their legs at the knees. very whiney! he knows when i have not picked him up off the ground. i mean, what is wrong with a hug?? it is still mommy's arms wrapped around him. why does it have to be off the ground???? smart little oinker.

--------------- "um" ------------------

another thing i noticed is that he is VERY tuned to the noises i make. seeing as how he is verbalizing but not actually saying anything yet, i guess noises are very meaningful. if i just grunt at him once (you know, that sound that means "hey check this out", his head whips around to see if i have some new activity or toy or food for him. :)

random thoughts and updates

sorry this is a long and rambly post. more to get pictures up for william to look at from work. also just to record stuff for blogging keepsake...

wheee! thomas riding a roller coaster on dad's shoulders.

look how tightly thomas is grabbing william's hair in both fists :)

thomas is about 9 and a half months old. a few funny things we have observed... his fourth tooth finally came in. he was fussy for about 4 days this time. definitely not his usual happy self. i also think he is starting to have a little separation anxiety. he has been unusually clingy lately and sometimes just wants me to hold him. he is still afraid of the dancing elmo doll we got from my mom. i turned it on for the first time in over a month and he crawled right into my arms and clung to me the whole time it was going. and he even turned away a few times as if to say "ah turn off the devil doll, it is burning my eyes!"

sara and tomas switched toys a few weeks ago - thomas is enjoying her toy very much. he's discovered that he can cram the giraffe's entire foot in his mouth. unfortunately i didn't get my camera out fast enough to capture that. i just got the guilty bird in the mouth look. but sara - we'll make sure it is throw in the washing machine before you get it back!

now that he has teeth, another thing that i started noticing is that his spit smells. you know, before teeth, they have such sweet smelling baby breath. just warm slightly moist air. now with food and teeth, sometimes, it smells a little like sour milk or rotten fruit. ha ha.... probably has to do with the last thing he ate. i try not to be too fussy about getting his spit on me. i figured that is just part of being a mom. but these last couple days, i noticed that by the end of the day, I smell like spit. just my whole self, smells like a spit ball. you know, they get spit on your clothes, arms and hands and since he likes to hold onto my neck, i get spit there too. he likes putting as much of his hands in his mouth and then putting that drool covered hand all over the back of my neck. it wasn't so bad when it didn't smell, but now it smells! so i spend the rest of the evening getting whiffs of his spit here and there. yucky!

we spent the day at Berkeley on Friday. as i mentioned below, we volunteered Thomas for participation in their locomotor study. it was actually really fun! we got to see how thomas did in the moving room (a room with moving walls to see how he responds to the movement), to an obstacle course that got progressively more difficult, and the visual cliff. we didn't think that they still did that one - it is the plexiglass on top of a 4 foot drop. they want to see when babies start to realize that there is a drop off and when they will hesitate as opposed to just charging ahead.
to our great surprise, thomas would not crawl off the "cliff" the first time we called to him. we really thought he would just crawl over to us with no regard for the fact that there was a drop, but he didn't. for 2 minutes, he just sat there staring at us and making his noise that he makes when he calls to us. by the 3rd time, he started crying a little and hesitantly stepped off and started towards us. but he was not crawling fast and was obviously distressed that he was crawling in mid air with nothing underneath him. it was so cute and so amazing, he wanted to get to us so badly, that he overcame his apprehension to crawl over. i just scooped him up into my arms and hugged him tight when he made it to the edge. babies are so smart - it has not ceased to amaze william and i.

-----------king size bed----------------

we got our bed! it is big and we love it. we all rolled around in it sunday morning hee hee... and thomas can lie with his head touching william and his feet touching me and we still have space to spare. can definitely fit at least two kids on there. we are ready! and andy - you are right, we are going to get so spoiled in this bed. i don't know how you fit into our full-size guest bed when you come to visit. we are going to have to upgrade that to a queen at least.

of course, i wanted to sleep in the bed the nght we got it, so i spent all saturday afternoon buying sheets for our new bed. i didn't want to wait for Overstock.com to mail it (even though they have some truly fabulous deals on there) so i went to TJ Maxx and Marshalls to see what i could find. the first thing i got was a king duvet cover and sheet set. 400 thread count and even made in italy! i bought 600 thread count sheets for our queen and i don't think the high thread count made them wear any better. maybe if i sat there and ironed them after each washing... but who the heck has time to do that! ha ha... anyways, i figure we are not that high brow. plus we can't feel the difference while we are sleeping in it so as long as it looks nice, that's all that matters. but i LOVE the big bed and thomas loves it too - he did his 4 limbs-thumping-all-at-once happy dance. we got two king pillows thrown in when we bought the mattress, so i bought two accent pillows as well which just happened to match the color of our bedroom set. might as well buy into the whole "bed ensemble" thing right? :)

---------------william's back at work---------------

i spent the day with thomas and we actually spent a lot of time at safeway because he got hungry about half way through errands and i didn't feel like going home to feed him. so i picked up some taco bell for me and went to safeway to get him some food. turns out a LOT of people eat lunch at safeway! i was really surprised but at 1pm, safeway was pretty darn busy. there were a lot contractors just sitting out in the parking lot, eating lunch. inside, the line at the deli never was below 5 people deep and i just managed to get one of 4 tables for thomas and i. lucky timing. we saw young people, old people, working people, high school kids. it was so funny - i never knew so many people ate at safeway. i guess once safeway remodeled their stores and made it more inviting for people to come eat, people came!

---------first gate installed---------

sunday evening before william started work, he installed a gate at the top of the stairs. if i close the bedroom doors, i can hang out in the den upstairs with him and it is relatively safe. he has quickly learned that the gate bars are easy for little hands to hang on to, so he likes to go over and pull himself up. then, he holds on with one hand, while slapping the bars with the other. it is metal so it makes a ringing sound that he likes. also, he likes to stomp his little foot. i tried to capture it - but the picture doesn't do it justice. he is this little, solid 2 foot person, standing there, stomping his foot up and down, while calling out to me. if you look closely, you can see he is even standing on his tip top on his one foot. maybe he will be a ballet dancer... or a broadway dancer... heh heh...

finally, in the den, thomas is always taking all the tapes off the shelf and trying to find a way to stuff his hands in the VCR. yes, we still own one :)

one last week...

boy oh boy i have been taking advantage of william all this week. on Mon, tues and today, i let william take thomas for the entire morning so i can go run errands, as well as just toodle around and do some random window shopping... hee hee. i figure after next week, i won't have the liberty to do this so might as well now!

plus i am posting various pics of thomas that i haven't had time to post, so that william has some pics to look at next week when he is missing thomas. here he is letting us know that he is getting hungry.

tomorrow should be a fun day. we signed up on a couple different baby product mailing lists, so we get all kinds of marketing and product promo junk mail. last month, we got a letter from the UC Berkekley child development lab. they are looking for babies in various stages of locomotion for their studies. i told them i was only interested in the one day studies so they called us this week and said that they have a study needing babies who have just started to crawl. so tomorrow we are headed into berkeley at 10:30am to test his motor control and decision making skills. i am sure it will be funny. speaking of funny - here is thomas' super smilie face. it is his smile that he uses when he knows we want him to smile and he wants to please us and smiles really really big. it is so funny!

anyways, after the study (1.5 hrs) we are going to get some lunch in berkeley and head over to Dirt Cheap Mattresses, featured on Eye on The Bay earlier this year. we are finally going to buy our king bed so after shopping around a bit, i found they had the best deal of those deluxe mattresses with foam toppers built in. they actually have the simmons top of the line one right now that has a removable topper that you can machine wash if you have a front-loading washer. after sleeping in full size bed for 8 years and a used queen (from CL) for 2 years, we finally have a new king bed! woo hoo!

i am sure all babies do this - flapp all four limbs up and down when they are excited or happy or very pleased with something they have just accomplished. this pic actually captures that somewhat - just all hands and feet a blur with excitment.

even though days are warm, evenings have been nice and cold, so we bundle him up at night for sleep. usually a long sleeve onsie and a full body fleece sleeper. sometimes, i even put little long-john pants on under the fleece sleeper. once it starts getting really cold at night, we are going to set the thermostat so that the house doesn't go under 69 degrees. babies are such blanket kickers, there is no other way to keep him warm. and i can't imagine putting more clothes on him - he would be like this little hot dog boy with 5 layers of clothes on :)

here he is bundled up on one of our early evening walks. funny how he tolerates the hat when he feels the cold air. any time it is warmer and we try to put a hat on him (like a sun hat) he just rips it right off. including sunglasses. the days where he just sits passively wearing whatever i put on him are OVER. O - V - E - R. boo hoo...


----------mattress info------------
by the way, if anyone is interested, dirt cheap mattresses (in oakland and SF) has the Simmons Exceptionale King with eurotop/superpillow for $1000 (or $1100 if you want the box spring/foundation). i checked sleeptrain, mattress discounters and mancini sleepworld and it retails for about $2400-3000. they also have the beautyrest plush for $800. good deals for mattresses if you like the foam toppers. these also have the removable top that you can wash - simmons calls it their healthsmart feature. plus the removable top provides a layer of breathable fabric/fill between you and the foam so it sleeps cooler too. when you sleep right on foam, it can be a little warm. so if you are a warm sleeper (aka sweaty) you want some sort of buffer that breaths between you and the foam. but foam is awesome! we are test driving the 3" foam topper that william's sister got from costco and we are completely sold on foam (high density viscoelastic, yadda yadda). we can sleep in and not wake up sore. in fact we can roll around as long as we want (or as long as thomas let's us) and our backs don't get sore. if anything, tummies start to get hungry before any other part of our body gets sore from sleeping for too long. it is great! definitely worth it for a great night's sleep.