new exciting things!

Thomas is so full of surprises! about two weeks ago he started really smiling in reponse to our smiles. before that he would smile and immediately stop when he saw how excited we got. he didn't quite know what he was doing except that it made mom and dad very excited. but now - he really smiles - when we smile at him, it brings a smile in return (sometimes even a wide, open mouth, gummy smile) and it is the BEST THING IN THE WORLD! :)

the next exciting thing was about a week ago... he started "talking" to us. it was soooo neat - but he would only talk once or twice a day. so we were constantly trying to figure out how to catch it on the camcorder. as soon as he would see the camcorder, he would stop. same with the camera. he loves to just stare at the camera. he knows it is something funny, just doesn't know what it is for yet. but he knows it is something foreign. so he talks talks talks and as soon as the camera pops into his range of vision - all talking stops. well, something clicked on this past weekend because all of a sudden he talks a LOT now. i mean, right after eating, during diaper changes, when i am carrying him around the house... you never know when he feels like starting a conversation with you. it is SOOO cute. just talking away (all kinds of noises, esp "ou" and "oooo" sounds). we bought a digital camcorder a month ago, realizing that we didn't want to miss capturing his babyhood. i have a feeling we are going to end up with thousands of hours of footage, slowing stacking up through the years, gathering dust in the closet. then we can watch it when we are retired and he is married with his own kids :)

here he is throwing signs with his donkey posse... yo yo yo what's up!

perfect pose... just had to post this one

he seems to get cuter and cuter all the time. just want to eat him up! that's william's eyes and nose and my mouth. but it is hard to tell who he looks like and seems to change all the time. it probably depends somewhat on the expression on his face. below is another funny one - this is right after he has had a nice big meal and has fallen asleep towards the end. i just had to take this pic because from the side, he looks even chubbier. plus he is smiling a little - makes him look like a smiling budda doll.



we were talking about how horrible it is that there are people out there that try to kidnap kids. you just love these little guys so much, it is hard to imagine how it would feel if someone snatched him. you really can imagine killing to keep them safe, or sacrificing yourself to save them. william said that he would shrivel up inside if thomas were taken or disappeared. how sweet is that! one things kids do is bring you closer to your spouse. seeing them love and care for your baby just makes them all the more wonderful. of course, it helps a great deal that we are getting more sleep and have settled into a nice routine now.

on a totally different topic, i still can't understand how people think they can have kids to "save" their marriage. i mean, sheesh, kids put you both under so much stress, there is no way it makes a bad relationship better. even in great relationships, the first month with a new baby tends to accentuate your weaknesses. i stupidly thought that william would magically become more patient once the baby was born and that i would magically be able to efficiently prioritize my day so that everything could get done.
yeah right!! ha ha... in my dreams. :p

st. patricks day in Dublin, CA

we went out to the arts & crafts fair today. dublin always does a parade and festival the weekend of st. patricks day. we missed the parade this year, but we went to join our little community for some food and to enjoy beautiful weather today. here are the boys - including thomas. thomas was sleepy but there was so much to look at he stayed awake almost the entire time we were walking around (close to two hours). he totally crashed this evening and won't even get up now - even though he must be getting hungry.

at church today, we caught some great photos of thomas and two of the other infants at church. thomas lost his socks somehow. we left the house with two little socks. the socks i have are for "3-6 months" but his legs are so fat, that the band is too tight. so i cut the band thinking that would make it looser. it does make it looser... too loose making them fall off at random times. so he went bare foot.

too bad the other 2 couples with new babies weren't there. we could have had all 5 of them lined up! :) Thomas is now 10 weeks old. Little Dylan in the middle is just about15 weeks old. Tyler on the end is 10 months - the big brother.

Sometimes, you just need someone to lean over on. luckily, little tyler on the right was strong enough to put his arm out and support the other two before they all fell over...

chubby christmas

here is a picture from monday. isn't he cute?? ha ha.... i know, i say that way too much. surprisingly the chubbier/more bulldog his face is, the cuter he gets. ok, so i have this little christmas suit from a year ago. i bought it for someone then realized it was the wrong size. then lost the receipt so never returned it. so now, we have a baby and he was born after christmas and by next christmas will be too big. so we popped him into it this week because he is big enough to fit into it (more or less). he was so cute, all smiling, in bright red, that we had to take photos. even though christmas is done and gone, he is the best christmas gift ever~

he had his 2 month checkup yesterday and he is 12 lbs 13 oz and 22.5 inches. at least he is not in the 25% for weight and height anymore. for awhile there, i suspected God was going to give us a short stubby son for all those times william made fun of people who are overweight. what goes around does tend to come back around. and if it doesn't, God still gets you in the end... heh heh...

he got 4 shots yesterday. it was hard watching the nurse stick all these long needles into him. and she did it so fast, just JAB right into his fleshy thigh. and then one fast pump to get all of the vaccine into him. it had to hurt, but he was a good little kid. he just cried while the shots went in and then would stop a couple sobs after. luckily, he didn't develop any symptoms that evening so we are clear.

at his one month visit, he only got one shot but i cried. it was terrible! i think with little sleep and not feeling well, i was so emotionally stretched that i couldn't handle them sticking him with a needle. so all i could do was cry. i am sooooo glad that the first month is over! (thank you God for helping us survive that!) at least now, i am get enough sleep (at least to function) and he is settling into a routine (of sorts). much more managable and such a joy as well!

outings

at 6 weeks, we started taking him on his first outings to church. that week, we also took a stroll through Target and Ross with him. it isn't that bad getting around with him - just inconvenient. at first i tried lugging the baby seat around. that got heavy really fast - it is not the easiest thing to carry around. round and over 15 pounds, it keeps banging into your knees & legs at the wrong time. so i gave in and started using the snap-n-go which is a light frame that the infant car seat can just fit on top of. that's much easier, even has a nice big storage compartment underneath for all your stuff. i just wish it had a cup holder.

we found he likes going out. there is a lot more to look at than at home. he likes to look around as it is - but outside is totally new. it is so funny... we'll be walking around the house with him and he will be nice and calm. then you try to sit down (because you are getting tired and your arm muscles are starting to burn), and if he is not ready to for you to sit down, he will start crying waaaaah, just like that. then there are other times when he is just fine and dandy laying on the sofa by himself like in this photo. just finished eating, nice clean diaper and he will lay there talking, making all kinds of noises and all smiles. he is sooo chubby!

burps, farts and repetitive stress injuries

it is really amazing how loud babies are when they burp and fart. sometimes when i hear thomas from the next room, i can't tell if it is william or thomas who farted. i mean, you would think that since their bodies are so small, that their expulsions would be small. but no, they are loud and adult volume. no masking it in public. i guess the advantage is if you do fart in public and you are holding a baby, you can just smile and say, "he is a loud little guy isn't he?" and no one will know better :) unless they are standing right next to you.

ok, for any of you who don't have babies yet - make sure you keep your arms, shoulders and back in good shape. stretch those muscles and keep up the strength training. william and i both have developed repetitive stress injuries from holding thomas. my wrists, elbows, shoulders and neck are all pretty sore now. and of course, the best treatment for these types of injuries is rest. HA. rest, ha ha ha. so work on those areas now while you can. i used to scoff at ergonomic injuries and people who complained about work-related injuries from bad ergonomics. i thought it was just an excuse, a reason to not work hard. while i still think that people could be better about making sure they are sitting correctly, i take ergonomics very seriously now. i had no idea it extended to baby! my wrists ache in certain positions now. my elbows and forearm muscles ache when i fully extend them and my neck - i can't look down or to the right without feeling the pinch in my spine. terrible! and the worst part is, this is not exercise. don't be fooled. that burn in your bicep is not a work out. it is lactic acid building up in the muscle fibers and that acid has no where to go, because the muscle is not allowed to do reps and rest b/w reps. it is just locked/contracted for long stretches of time with no break in between. and now that it is injured, i have to be careful with regular workouts, i.e. free weights, because overdoing it, will only do more damage. be good to your bodies... we're only getting older, not younger. of course we are still young at heart. at least that we have some control over :)

Big burping pic

william has asked for a big file of thomas so that he can click on it at work and see every single detail of his chubby little face. so mr. silly dad... here you go... :)

Dreams

amazingly i have had some very vivid dreams in the past months despite the lack of sleep. i have always been able to remember certain dreams. i kept track of some b/c i have several since high school that have made repeat showings but have changed as i have gotten older. so here is a sample. obviously some of them have to do with fears regarding thomas :)
the first one is a repeat. i used to dream about walking towards a HUGE tree city. i would be in the desert and in the distance, i see this huge tree that has a city built into it (kind of like LOTR). in college, i would dream about walking up to the base of the tree city and seeing people go in and walk up but never walk into it myself. so last month, i dreamed i was in the desert walking towards the tree city, but william was there and there was a old run down shed. we walk in the shed and it is pretty gross/dirty but there is a horse in there. (wierd!) for some reason we don't ride the horse. we just walk with the horse towards the tree city. then i am alone and walking up into the tree city. it looks like a narrow, densely packed, european cobbled street with houses and business packed in on both sides. then for some reason my mom appears and we walk in a restaurant. we start to eat a meal and she starts nit picking about things. i get really annoyed and start yelling at her. then i wake up!
my second dream was a nightmare. i actually woke up screaming causing william to come running from downstairs where he was watching thomas. he asked me what it was about and i was so sleepy, i just mumbled that i dreamed i was in the room with thomas and something bad was trying to get in and hurt both of us. i don't know what it was, a monster or a demon or someone that broke into our house. then he said that i said that even though i didn't know what was trying to break into the room, but that i had this feeling that it represented my mom trying to break in. funny thing is that i didn't even remember having this bad dream until william mentioned it a day later!
the third one was us trying to escape some sort of natural disaster. the whole region had been given the order for mandatory evacuation (probably my brain processing katrina or a show i am watching "surface" where the the season ender had a tsunami). so we are getting all our stuff together and joining all the thousands of other people fleeing the coast. then i get distracted and enter a building with a long hallway, like a school. there are tables all down the hallway with trays/baskets full of supplies that people have left behind. and for some reason, i am obsessed with picking all of the green markers and crayons out of the baskets. i finally get to the end of the hall and run outside, where i see a stream of people walking down the street (who knows why we all aren't driving) and i look frantically for william and thomas and finally see them in the distance.
the last one is pretty obvious (meaning wise). i dreamed that i took thomas to the doctor's office. there was an assistant there that i had not seen before. she took thomas for his weight/height check and she stuck him on the exam table as if he could sit up on his own. of course he tumbled off unto the hard floor. i freaked out of course, picked him up carefully and he was so shocked he couldn't cry. and he didn't look right. so i started yelling at the assistant and telling her that she would pay for his ER exam and that if he had any permanent damage, i would sued her for every penny she has as well as future wages. just screaming at her! that's when i woke up, thankfully not screaming this time. :)
anyways, those are the interesting ones. i guess now that i am getting 6-7 hours of sleep, i am remembering dreams when i wake up and they are definitely reflective of worries and things on my mind. funny subconscious...