First Birthday Cake

Thanks to everyone who was able to make it this past Sunday with such short notice! Thanks as well to all the well-wishers and those who sent b-day greetings. As you can see, thomas was little bewildered by everyone who was staring at us and the singing was loud so he was not smiling. No matter what we did he would not smile. he realized that there were a LOT of people looking right at him. ha ha... a least he is not self-conscious yet to the point where he wants to hide.


There was one moment at the end where we had the three babies, thomas, sara and joshua on the cart we use to move tables around. it was so funny - i can't believe we didn't get a picture. they all were clinging there, as the cart slowly moved forward. i think they actually understand that they are getting a ride. so sweet and funny :). thanks again everyone...

beautiful baby is growing up

there is still a little bit of baby face left from certain angles. babies really are beautiful! this is right after bath time. he loves being enveloped in towels when it is time to dry off.

but once he smiles it is pretty clear his face is changing. so soon, so soon. *sigh* the year certainly flew by. oh but wanna know why else he is smiling?


about a week ago, he made certain discoveries and it has made bath time pretty freaking hilarious every single time :D

never fails. now every time he catches sight of his belly button or his pee pee, he stops all action to examine and touch. doesn't even care that i have this camera flashing away (he usually wants to touch the camera, and he starts to cry if you don't let him have it).

pooh bear love and la la land

william and thomas were left all to their own devices this past weekend. explanation is coming but look what happens when i am gone. william spent the weekend posing thomas with pooh bear... and thomas' pants are all unbuttoned, plus he has no socks on. he even asked thomas to smile and he did! it is amazing what they understand at this age and that they want to please us. it is heartbreakingly cute. he loves this pooh bear. as you can see, he hugs and kisses on it all the time. see how he kisses??? that is how he has been coming at me lately. hard to deflect that!

look how happy he is to be smashing his face against pooh :)


-----------------------driving down to LA la land---------------------

i left the boys, william and thomas, all by themselves this past weekend. one of my best friends from college, Robin, is finally having a baby so i drove down to go to her baby shower and drop off a bunch of stuff for her to borrow (clothes, pump, etc). i must admit it was nice to just drive and zone out. i thought about all kinds of random things. one thing i noticed - people drive really fast on the I5. it has been a long time since i made that drive (the last 10 years it was almost always william driving so i don't really think about how fast we are going). it feels like i had to drive 80 just to keep up with traffic. so i think i averaged 80-85 mph and it took me a little under 5 hours to get there! amazing. only stopping once for gas and a bathroom break, it only took 4.5 hours. wow... and i was just keeping up with traffic most of the way. most... ha ha...

i got a nice hotel room all to myself too... no sweet baby to wake me up at 7 in the morning. it was a remodeled Radisson Hotel in Culvery City. everyone was friendly and the hotel itself was surprisingly nice (i thought they were more like Best Western) but they had to move me twice. the first was because i didn't want to be right across from the ice & vending machines. the second time was because the sleep number bed in the room did not work. but the third room finally was good - no ice machine to wake me up with some patron filling up an ice bucket at 7 in the morning and a working sleep number bed. part of the reason i booked this hotel (other than a good internet rate) was to try out the bed! i discovered that it is really only a glorified air matress. poo! i am SOOO glad that we bought a pillow-top, foam mattress, rather than the sleep number. the foam top sleeps really well and william and i sleep better on it than on the various firm mattresses we have been using for the last 10 years. who would have guessed that soft is better than firm? all these years, i thought firm was the way to go when it was actually foam that was the way to go.

anyways, i also got to visit my old college church. it was so nice to see my pastor and his wife. she looks the same as when i first met her - and this is after having four kids! and her oldest is 15! Faith was our flower girl when she was 4 years old. wow... time flies. i wish i had taken some pictures of my visit. stupid me - i even had my camera with me. i also got to meet the newest babies of some of our old friends. Congrats to Andy & Elissa on their beautiful baby Timothy and to Thomas & Phuong on their sweet little Sammy. I can't wait to see how head-over-heels Robin & Stanley will be when they finally has their baby Holden. My co-worker, Cynthia, is right - babies are so addicting :)

happy birthday thomas baby

ok ok i can't let it slide. i was trying to but people keep calling & emailing to wish thomas a happy birthday :) monday, jan 8th, was thomas' first birthday - we celebrated by getting a bunch of "new" toys (from craigslist) and william's parents even got in the act - a woman in walnut creek was selling a toy i wanted so his mom went to go get it. it was less than 1 mile from their house!

Sunday January 21st, we are going to have some finger foods and cake for Thomas at 4:30 after church. Come join us if you are free. Crosswinds church in the back. Look for the Living Bridge Fellowship signs. Give us a call or email us to let us know if you are coming. i will be calling & emailing all of you who are local to let you know too.

my dad got us this learning home/door toy that i have been looking for. i couldn't find it used after looking on craigslist for 3 months. so i gave up and asked my dad to get it. the best features are the doorbell and the big light switch. babies love that!

-------------------------walking teletubby---------------------------

as if right on cue, thomas started walking on the 10th. he took 3 deliberate steps, not just wild lunges, they were measured steps. he did this twice. by thursday and friday, he was walking like crazy. sometimes 10 to 20 steps at a time, even pausing to stand there and steady himself if he felt he was getting too fast, then continuing on his little wobbly way. i have a feeling that i am about to get a lot more exercise chasing him around...

here he is walking towards me with food ALLL over his mouth. he likes to walk over to me and plaster his mouth on the first part of my leg he can reach. i think he is kissing me... lovey little baby. learning to show their love by plastering you.

william and i haven't started kissing thomas on the mouth. i think part of it is that we were both sick for the first month of thomas' little life, so we didn't want to give him our germs. plus it feels a little funny kissing thomas on the lips. as he gets older and learns to pucker up, i'll kiss him on the lips. for now, he tends to try to put his entire mouth on top of mine (OPEN WIDE) when he wants to kiss me. we were taking an afternoon nap today. i was laying next to him with my eyes closed to show him that i was sleepy too. he was sitting up and fussing a little. all of a sudden, no warning whatsoever, i feel this warm, slimmy, wide open mouth right on top of mine! teeth and drool and everything. actually... i think i smelled his little stinky baby breath a split second before his open mouth landed on me. when he decided that he had kissed me long enough, he left at least a teaspoon of drool behind, all over my mouth and a little rolling down my cheek. eweeeiiieeee.... ha ha... it grossed me out but i thanked him for the kiss and as quickly & discretely as i could, turned around and wiped my mouth. *sigh* baby love...

soft things and how many....

babies are so funny - around 9 months or maybe 8, thomas started spontaneously putting his face down on anything that looked soft. he even did this to a bag of marshmellows that he found in the cabinet last week :)
at first we thought it was just big beds, but we have discovered over the last few months that babies really do know when something is nice and soft. and they like to feel it with their faces. or at least, thomas likes to feel it with his face.


now as he gets more and more aware, it is so cute watching him go around and test things out with his face. he usually does this only with beds, pillows and blankets (i forgot stuffed animals! he hugs and kisses his favorite ones now:). but he has tried it with other things that look inviting to him. i.e. marshmellows and scsi's grody fur-plastered blanket.


---------------------the next big question-------------------

how many children to have. that is so hard! i am constantly amazed that you can have as many kids as God blesses you with and not need a license or certificate or something. remember that couple in the Bible-belt state that had 16. SIXTEEN! that is crazy, a little excessive. although indicative of the fact that we do live in a free country. i would think after 10 you would need a permit or maybe a stamp.
i guess once we discovered how wonderful they are, i was ready to have 3 or 4. this is from me, mrs "i don't need children" dumbperson. ha ha... william has always maintained he wants 2 with a possible addendum for a 3rd if he really feels inclined. we had lunch with his parents a couple weeks ago and i mentioned the idea of adopting a girl if our second child is a boy and william looked uneasy. i realized that he had never mentioned this to his parents and weren't sure they would be so keen on the idea. made me remember that not everyone is so open to the idea of adopting. my thought has always been "why not??" now that we have our own, i understand why people want their own flesh and blood child. but i haven't changed my view on adopting. i still think it is a good idea. i mean, having your own child is a crapshot anyways - you really never know exactly what their personalities, physical makeups will be. i don't think adopting is that much farther away, in terms of what you might get as a grownup.

lately, i have been hearing from more and more parents that closer in age is better. why why?? well, first you get all the diapers out of the way faster. also they play together better. i have had people tell me of friends of theirs that waited, and wish they had had them closer. sheesh. i am actually dreading getting pregnant again. i told william the other night that i wish i could just incubate them, like an egg. yeah, if we could lay eggs, i would be all for that.