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.