constantly changing and our first road trip!

man they were not kidding when they say "don't get comfortable." as soon as you think they have a pattern down, they change on you. after 3 months, thomas was pretty good about falling asleep around 10pm and sleeping until 4am, then sleeping from roughly 5:30 to 8:30. it was a good schedule. for some reason unknown to us, he decided around 4 months that 10pm was not a good time to go to sleep. so he started staying awake until 11 sometimes 11:30pm. BUT he was still waking up around 4:30 or 5pm for a feeding.

we went to audrey & alan's wedding down in LA. it was Thomas' first road trip! as you can see from the pic, he got his own bed and we discovered he LIKES soft fluffy beds. he would fall asleep and sleep every night for anywhere from 7 to 9 hours straight! it was amazing. the little guy saw so many new things each day and met new people that he was exhausted by 11pm and slept a full night's sleep. it was wonderful for william and i the entire 5 day vacation. the only thing that sucked was that i was still waking up here and there after 4am to see if he was still ok. but that is ok! so now the first week back at home, he still refused to go to sleep until 11pm. yesterday, william watched him for a few hours so i could get some stuff done. i usually try to make things fairly quiet and non-active after 8pm to let him know it is night time. but william worked him last night. he had him on his tummy, practice standing, in the bjorn carrier around the house. all kinds of exciting things. so by 10pm he was all tuckered out and fell asleep! so i tried it again tonight. all kinds of activity, right up until 9:30. lo and behold - he was asleep by 10pm again! so i have learned that i need to tire him out if i expect him to get sleepy earlier. i was not expending all his little baby energy the way i was doing it. we'll see if this new pattern can be sustained or not...


on another note, thomas is getting better and better at sitting with a little assistance. i have to find one of those bumbo seat things on craigslist. look at how focused his little face is at trying to maintain his balance.






babies are pretty funny - i think they really know when they are succeeding at something because their little faces reflect so much pride in themselves when they do something new. esp anything that involves movement.

mother's day

just to recap for posterity...

i can't believe we are all mothers! i mean, of course i can, but it is so amazing what a change all of us new parents have gone through this past year. it is humbling and humiliating at times. but at the same time, it is joyful and so completely fills your heart. kind of like becoming christian. before i accepted Christ as my savior, i didn't realize what i was missing,. once i found Christ, it was like my heart was full where it had been empty. with kids, i didn't realize what i was missing out on, until we had Thomas. now i think, wow how stupid was i to think i didn't need children to complete my life. i can not believe we waited so long. we were idiots!
anyways, it was really nice because i received a card, half "from thomas" and half from william. thomas gave me my first mother's day card! :) it was very cute and i kept it in my purse for a week so i could read it whenever i wanted. william said it was supposed to come with a little flower picked from outside, but "thomas didn't quite get to the backyard before i woke up that morning."
then i found out that william's sister, Jenny had been getting on his case on my behalf (thanks jenny!). but to give the william credit, he spent almost three months serving me meals in bed when i was on bedrest so he's off the hook for all future mother's days and birthdays. ha ha...

Some Recent Pics

Crafty Thomas continued! Heh heh I finally gave mom a heart attack because I escaped from the bowl today! I'm so proud of myself when I landed on the ground...luckily mommy put pillows around the swing. Now she straps me in all the time... :(


My BEST friend DONKEY!! Guess what I'm doing? Whispering a secret joke to him or chewing on his foot?

I Can Touch my Toes!!

8 hour milestone (not)

Thomas hit a milestone last night - he slept for 8 hours straight! and i think he would have slept for another half hour but i just had to wake him up. before this he has always done 6 hours or close to 7. wow! i mean wow, i am not sure he will repeat it tonight but it sure made me feel proud of him :)


Interesting Website
have you been to www.zillow.com? if you type in your address, it gives the current est. value of your house, as well as all the other houses in the area. if you click on "See Home Details" it gives year built, sq ft, recent sales history, property tax info and accessed land/building value. recently sold comparable homes in your area... all kinds of info. i know it is all public information, but I think this it the first website that has made it so readily available, all in one spot without having to sign up for anything. kind of addictive... i just spent the last 30 minutes looking up every single house i ever lived in, along with anyone i know that lives in a house. sorry... heh heh i am being nosy! :p

Happy Thomas & Mom

I wanted to post these 2 pictures up of a smiling Thomas and his beautiful mother....happy mother's day! -William

beware hot soup

on Sunday at church i was talking to one of the guys (cindy's husband, andrew). he told me that a friend of theirs had a terrible accident with their 3 year old daughter. they had chinese take out on the counter and she reached up and was able to just reach the soup. it spilled and she got THIRD degree burns from it. THIRD DEGREE BURNS!!! it touched her chin, shoulder, neck and part of her chest. they were trying to help her and run her under cold water and her skin just FELL off. i mean, he said that they said her nipple just slid off along with portions of her poor baby skin. it made me cringe, i mean your heart aches when you hear stuff like that. so they rushed her to the hospital and their poor kid needs skin grafts now. all from a stupid freaking container of take out soup.
just reminded me of how careful we need to be with our precious little ones...along with a good dose of prayer for God to keep them safe when we can't.

Thomas and his cousin Ariana

i was looking at pictures of my little niece that my sister, Anita and her husband, Brian have posted and Thomas and Ariana look soooo alike at certain angles! i tried to get a shot today where he had the same expression as in the photo Brian took, but it was hard. Ariana is quite fixated on tv in the photo he got.... hee hee. plus his camera (costo mucho dinero) takes these awesome, clear beautiful pics. but take a look and tell me they don't look alike to a certain degree. they are definitely cousins. who's who??? :)

Crafty Thomas

Hm...I've learned something new in the last few days. I've figured out that my right hand can touch my left hand. Wow..check out all the fingers I have!









I'm trying to plan my grand escape. After being trapped by my alien parents, I must find a way to get away!









Darn!
My attempt to get away was foiled by the stupid bowl...when alien mommy went away for a few minutes, I tried to escape but got myself stuck! Crafty Thomas' plan is foiled!

wonder woman :)

hey, i finally took the superhero test from johnny's blog. and the best part? it's bound to make everyone feel good about themselves! :)
oh one of you html whizes, please tell me how to get rid of all the space! thanks :)

I am Wonder Woman

a beautiful princess with great strength of character

Wonder Woman 82% Superman 80% Robin 72% Green Lantern 70% Supergirl 67%

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test


The test for "Which Star Wars Character are you?" was a funnier result for me. it almost rings true... just kidding hubby! :)

You are: Padme
You try to be a good person, but your boyfriend/husband doesn't.
At least you look great.

Padme 76% Princess Leia 69% R2-D2 65% Han Solo 61% C-3PO 60%

Click here to take the "Which Star Wars character am I?" quiz...

tv or not tv

i know a lot of sources out there say tv is really bad. and who knows, maybe by allowing thomas to watch a little tv, i am dooming him to a life of ADD or the inability to sit still. but hey, dad can not sit still either and he seems to be doing ok... :)

about a month ago (after thomas hit 3 months) i started watching sesame street with him. he especially likes elmo's world. usually not more than 10 minutes in the morning before he takes a nap. also when we are watching news, if he watches a little along with us, we don't mind. i do guard him from any images that might be too strong for his little developing brain. and william lets him watch bicycle racing footage when he watches.

when he first became aware of the TV, he would get easily distracted by it, cranning his little neck around to see where it was and giving me frustrated grunts or schrieks when he couldn't locate the source. this was around 2 months old. we were actually shocked at how early babies learn to be fascinated by tv! but now, at 4 months, he usually doesn't look for more than a minute (esp for news... booooring, no bright colors). he doesn't mind not being able to see the tv where he hears it and i can watch stuff i have recorded while he feeds. so for now, the "don't let them know it's not allowed" is working for us. william's mom actually did that to all three kids one halloween. she just let them go to town and PIG out on candy until they all felt sick. after that, none of them were into sweets. she must have been laughing inside watching them all with their little bellyaches. clever grandma.

so we have our own little mini social experiment. most of our friends with same age babies are sticking to no TV until 1 or 2 years of age. i'll have to wait and see if thomas' attention span is shorter than all of them.