odds and ends

for those of you who haven't noticed, william posts random pictures of thomas because he wants to see them at work. he likes to admire thomas from all smilie angles (as many dads do). i end up adding text later. :)

it has been so hot - i have had a really hard time sleeping these last couple weeks. as a new parent you all know how precious sleep is. it sucks! thomas sleeps from 9 to 6 and i am awake at 4am, twiddling my thumbs for 30 minutes sometimes longer, until my body will let me go back to sleep. this last week however, thomas has been waking up at 4am for no reason. i think it is because he is too warm and uncomfortable. i have let him cry it out in the past and he does go back to sleep but usually cries for 20-30 minutes. when i feed him, he is back asleep in 10 minutes. so many times i just feed him. i am too tired to listen to him cry for 20 minutes.

i was talking today with another mom about how limiting breastfeeding is. you have no life! (at least not your own) and when you do go out, that baby is tied to your boob. Thomas used to be so good about taking a bottle from william so i could stay out for 3-4 hours. then william went back to school. during finals in May, there was about 2 weeks where we didn't bottlefeed consistently because william was in class, studying, meeting classmates, earning extra points, etc. that week before his finals was the last time Thomas accepted the bottle. ever since then, the little trickster just refuses to feed from the bottle (even though it is the same milk). he feels that silicone and just starts chewing around. then when some dribbles out, he won't swallow - just lets it run out the corners of his mouth. when he realizes that the bottle is not being replaced by boob, he starts crying. and once he winds up, he can really get going. and he cries and cries and cries, until i give in and feed him. i am a wimp!

anyways, we started him on solids on july8th and he was more than ready. besides the rice cereal, he is eating peas, carrots, squash, pears, and potato.... pretty much anything pureed we put on a spoon and move towards his mouth. i have been adding new items every three days and so far, thomas has not had a bad reaction to anything. i have been lazy and jars are so easy so he has been eating all Earth's Best baby food. safeway has them on sale: 8 of the 4 oz size or 10 - 2.5 jars/$4 at least a couple times a month so that is the best time to stock up. another mom friend of mine has been badgering me to make my own food. the last time i told her i still haven't tried, she said, "oh catherine, i am just going to make you some so you can see how easy it is." but i threatened to retaliate with an elaborate thank you gift if she did that. regina also mentioned on her blog how easy it is to make. i guess i started with jars, so i am reluctant to pull out the blender. plus you gotta clean, peel (for some) and steam the veggies, you can't just pull them out of the ground and throw them into a blender/processor... more work!! don't want more work at this stage. so thomas will have to settle for jar food. at least it is only a little while. by the time they are 10-12 months, i figure he will want chunks of what we are eating (along with chicken nuggets, noodles, hotdogs, and juice boxes). seems like most toddlers are pretty picky eaters and tend to want to eat non-healthy options.
the BEST thing about starting solids? william can feed him again so i can leave the house for longer chunks of time. plus it is also really funny watching him open wide for that spoon :)

thomas discovers the jumper

we found a jumperoo on CL for about $50. i read they were safer than the door jumpers. thomas examined the toys for about 10 seconds before discovered that it was LOADS of fun to be able to move his feet. jump jump jump - silly giggly squeally FUN! get one for your babies!

whooooa!

finally some nice shots of mommy and thomas

william has a ton of pictures with thomas and i don't have many. this is mainly because william is always saying "hey grab the camera and get a shot of us right now!" for some reason i don't ask him the same thing. maybe he is always looking busy when a good camera moment occurs, or that i simply forget to ask... who knows why i don't ask as often.







last weekend, william finally got another set of shots of the two of us that was really sweet. just the two of us with our matching mouths. thomas has william's eyes and nose no doubt, but he has my lips! :)











look, he is winking at you!















and here is the ever popular mommy kissing baby on the cheek shot. but i couldn't help myself. babies are so kissably cute and their cheeks are so chubby you just want to eat them up. no wonder the old fairytale talks of a witch who eats little children and babies. they are so irresistible!






this is from another series of photos he took of thomas on his little helper seat. this was a lucky shot though. usually thomas is bent over almost in a U, trying to reach things on the floor around him. he gets really frustrated in the seat when he can't reach things. so he starts yelling out in loud grunts. aah! eeaaah!

this morning, he was in the seat and i heard him grunt a little. then he let out a little fart. then another little chain of farts.
these were hard won farts - it has to be hard getting them out when his butt is pushed down into that foamy seat. i am fairly certain he has not realized that tilting to one side facilitates passing. when i looked over, there he was, with a look of strained concentration on his little face. he was pooping! i went over, bent down to pick him up and phew!! his poops and farts are truly getting malodorous now that he has started eating solids. when he has no. 2's to change, i try to breath as little as possible and turn on the bathroom fan. luckily our changing table is in the bathroom. we are going to have to start using the diaper genie or champ soon. the age of sweet smelling diapers has faded and with it's passing comes a new and challenging age of odor.

diaper face-off

we've found that diapers are like clothes. the different brands all fit and are constructed a little different. you have to find the brand that has the right fit for your baby. we tried several different brands from left to right: huggies supreme, luvs, pampers and target brand. the kirkland signature diaper is a direct rip off of huggies supreme. given that thomas has a very economically minded daddy, and that you do go through a LOT of diapers daily, we considered price as well. the target diapers are 13.5 cents and pampers/luvs/huggies all run about 19-21 cents each. kirkland lands in the middle at 16 cents. this is for the 104-170 count cases.


we started with the target diaper. that seemed to work, but we had lots of problems with leaks at night. he would wet himself, wake up and start crying. so we tried pampers at night. that worked better but he still would have a leak once in a while. all the leaks would occur when he was lying down. we tried the luvs brand diaper next and that did the trick! so for rolly polly babies, luvs has a better fit. we haven't had any leaks since then. however, i discovered the kirkland huggies rip offs a week ago. they have this great stretchy waistband that allow you to get it snug, but still allow baby to move around. we are going to start trying it this week at night. if we get no leaks, then kirkland wins the diaper battle :)

i also did a face test with several different diaper wipes. pampers for sensitive skin is by far the gentlest wipe. huggies and kirkland tied for second and target came in last. i have to say, i was surprised when i rubbed the target wipes against my check - it is almost rough. definitely not something you want to be rubbing on babies bottoms.

the best diaper rash creams are boudreaux's butt paste and aquaphor ointment. the butt paste has the highest concentration of zinc oxide (16% per mommy Liz) and the aquphor ointment is a great alternative protective screen for their tender skin. it's primary ingredient is petroleum jelly. that actually got rid of thomas' diaper rash after 2 weeks of 24/7 zinc oxide cream application did not work. go petroleum jelly! go costco! :)

Thomas tries some rice cereal!

for about a week or maybe even close to two, thomas has been making these funny little chewing gestures with his mouth... like he is biting or chewing down on something with his little gummy jaws. i have been letting him taste things like banana, peas, cucumbers and apples but not actually eat any of it. well, last night, we found out that thomas was ready and more than willing to eat rice cereal. in fact, as you can see from the pics, he was demanding and trying to help william get the food faster to his mouth with his hands and his feet. he would use his hands to cup the little bowl and his feet to hold william's wrist in position. that is more coordinated than i ever thought he was! he also ate more than we expected. the first serving in the morning was about a teaspoon of rice cereal. he finished that up and was asking for more. but i was a little worried about the expansive properties of rice. i didn't want to overfeed and have him spit it back up. we tried again that evening after a half feeding (one side). i mixed up 1 tablespoon of cereal with about 2 tablespoons of formula (the box said 3-4 tablespoons of milk or formula but that seemed too watery. any advice?). amazingly, he finished the whole thing and was asking for more after that. of course he ended up with some on his bib and mouth... but a lot less than we both expected. he was really downing the stuff! i guess he was ready for the rice and we were slow to read his signals to us...

as you can see he has also had his second haircut. it was hard though - for some reason i love his little baby hair bangs. but i caught him rubbing at his brow that day. i think the longer pieces were actually starting to bother him so i decided that i should cut them back. it is harder to cut straight across that i expected especially when you have a moving wriggly target.

catching up and co-sleeping

hey look- thomas loves his new soccer ball... shout out to his auntie jenny :) if you put it on his legs, he brings his legs up so he can reach the ball with his hands. so cute. oh hmmm, he looks kind of girly in this picture...maybe it's the hair parted to the side...

this is the longest i have gone without posting since thomas was born, over 10 days. even now he is starting to fuss. sheesh... am i spoiling him? do i hold him too much? why does it seem like he is so demanding of my attention these days... well i guess that is normal. maybe i should have been typing while i was eating lunch. but then typing with one hand is really slow. or you end up taking an hour to eat because you are just taking bites between typing.

we got one of those foam ABC mats for the floor in the kitchen. they have a bunch at the Ross store in Dublin for only $12. as you can see thomas and scsi helped William put it to gether. Thomas is much more aware of Scsi now. He will follow scsi around with his eyes and even try to talk to scsi. William's mom was laughing last Thursday because at one point, Thomas was looking right at scsi and making these cute little noises and she said "oh look, he's talking to cat!" now i may be imagining things but it even sounded like thomas was making meowing sounding coos. :)

Last Saturday, we got together with several of our old college friends. we don't see them very often because they live all over the bay area (peninsula, south bay, one in fresno). out of 6 couples, 3 of us have kids now. i am sure in another few years almost all of them will have kids. renee and allan in fresno have 2 kids and the older one, Kaitlyn is very very precocious. we discovered that she loves being the center of attention and can keep talking all by herself in needed. it was so sooo funny watching her talk to william and vijay outside on the patio, they were both buzzed and could barely keep up with her. heh heh...

ok i said i would not co-sleep. right from the beginning, i remember thinking, i am not going to get stuck with a kid that always wants to sleep in our bed because he is used to it. then we had that heat wave in June and william doesn't want to run the a/c all the time. definitely makes sense at night because i don't want a cold draft running down on all of us as se sleep. so rather than sleeping in his crib, thomas slept with daddy downstairs in the guest room where it is nice and cool. we found he slept longer when he slept in the big bed with daddy... until almost 7am every morning. then he would bring thomas up to the master bedroom and put him in bed with me. at first i resisted. plus i couldn't find a comfortable way to feed him with both of us lying down. it just felt like i had to keep my legs and neck tensed to keep us both together while he was feeding. very uncomfortable to try to maintain that tension for the 10 or so minutes he needs to fill up. however, i noticed that for some reason, when he eats in bed, he goes right back to sleep - practically passes out! that is not fair. when i feed him in the den, sitting up with the pillow, sometimes he goes back to sleep, but 60-70% of the time, he stays awake for about an hour. when we co-slept, 3 days in a row, thomas just filled himself up and passed out. and even when he wakes up around 8am for another feeding, he still goes back to sleep. amazing!
so that is why people co-sleep. after 3 or 4 mornings of experimenting with different positions, i finally found a way to make it work so that we are both reasonably comfortable. not only that, i discovered that thomas sleeps longer into the morning when we co-sleep. if he falls asleep at 9:30pm, he wakes up the following morning at 9am. sometimes even 9:30. how do they know?? how do they know that they are sleeping between mommy and daddy? can it be smell?? but it is not like their noses are any more sensitive than ours. maybe the warmth of our nearby bodies?? who knows... all i know is that i have succumbed and now sleep in with thomas almost every morning until 9, sometimes 10am. we are lazy little piggies together!

on days when william has class, i make him sleep downstairs so he can get a full night's sleep. it also helps put him in a better mood so that he is not cranky from lack of sleep. on those nights, i put a pillow on william's side so that he can't roll all the way off the bed. luckily he is not strong enough to roll over or under the pillow. instead, he rolls and ends up hugging the pillow, and sometimes sucking on the pillowcase. can he breath ok? don't they warn us not to allow babies to sleep with loose clothing and blankets for safety reasons? i can't remember. well, i managed to get a pic of him hugging william's pillow without him waking up. funny little baby...


~~~ Thomas is official! ~~~

Finally got his authorized birth certificate yesterday. has any one been to Martinez? the contra costa county registrar's office is up there, in this tiny placein the middle of nowhere. i had no idea martinez was such a small city. i mean there are all these refineries, and you pass those, and then you are suddenly in this town with four main roads and it just feels like you're in yontsville. it was like a mini getaway with Grace (her son is 15 months and she hadn't gotten the BC yet. so i got to hitch a ride with her. both boys fell asleep on the way there and it was after lunch on the way back so they both fell asleep again. perfect:). martinez has lots of historic buildings with warnings posted at the entrance saying that the building is unreinforced masonery and could be unsafe in an earthquake. ha ha...

5 1/2 months with Mr Frog

look how rosy his cheeks are :) isn't it funny how they love touching their toes? i can't wait until he realizes he can stuff them in his mouth!

--------------first time things---------------

he did two things for the first time today. he rolled over all by himself, finally! and he did it three times, as if to say, "it's not a fluke. i really can finally roll over." for a while, we feared his big ole head was impeding his progress in this area. the second thing was he discovered his balls. or i should say ball, because the left one unfortunately has not come down yet (something they call an undescended testicle). anyways, william and i were changing his diaper together this afternoon when out of the blue, he just reached down and grabbed with enthusiasm, while vigorously sucking on his lower lip. this of course sent both of us into beals of laughter. he did it again during his bath. *sigh* diaper changes are never going to be easy again... :)

cupcakes and father's day

this was a great weekend! we got saturday all to ourselves - it was so nice not to have to rush anywhere, do anything or have anything planned. we finally got a dresser and some shelves for thomas' room. it is starting to look like a real room and we have to admit, it is foolishly and completely satisfying to walk in there. somehow it is so very satisfying to see this little room we have put together for thomas. now, we both get why parents spend time/money making their baby rooms so cute - it is nice! :)

as you can see we also got a chance to take more photos of thomas (some on sat and some on sunday morning). finally got him smiling! it was william's suggestion to take the photos first thing in the morning. babies are definitely fresher in the morning (as one of our other new mom/friend, Liz says). the only thing that sucks about taking your own pics is that it is really hard to get perfectly clear shots - babies move around so much. can see why have a $1000+ camera that can take rapid action shots in succession would be a real benefit.

here he is sitting on his own! look at that funny little look in his face. in the next shot he got a little help from dad - so happy getting a little sitting assistance.

on sunday, mom helped thomas write a card for dad and even colored in a cartoon picture for him (from his precious moments coloring book). we had french toast for breakfast (with cream cheese and nutella in the middle). yummy!!!

we went to dinner with two other new dads: vijay ®ina and john & liz. unfortunately ethan was on a father's day break because his mommy did not get anything for mother's day. perhaps next year, ethan will help dad "remember" to help him with a card for mom! :p

i went to IKEA for the furniture on Tuesday last week. while we were there, we passed a trendy little bakery on Bay Street called Teacake Bake Shop. there were selling these ridiculously adorable cupcakes for $3 each. sheesh! ever since eyeing those cupcakes in the window, i have been craving cupcakes. so i made a batch of cupcakes using a recipe out of America's test kitchen. it was for white birthday cake but it worked out great for cupcakes. here is my version below - they tasted yummy too. after dinner, regina/vijay/sara and liz/john/ethan came over and helped us eat them. we all had at least 2 each (i think i ate four over the course of the day....) and they took some home too. next time, i'll have to make a bigger batch!


-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Happy Father's Day to my wonderful dear husband and even more wonderful dad! i would not be surviving this very well without you. it is funny but when you see your husband loving your child, it makes them even more wonderful. still can't believe we were so stubborn for 8+ years...

more on the art of breastfeeding

look - he is getting better and better at sitting! so cute :)

it has been 5 months now and i finally feel like it is natural when i am feeding thomas. crazy! i am not sure exactly when it happened.. somewhere around 4 months i think. it was actually uncomfortable for me for the first 6-7 weeks (esp when he would first latch on). after that, it was just awkward. not to mention leaking and feeling like they were going to explode if i didn't feed thomas or pump every 3-4 hours. somewhere around 3 to 4 months, i learned how to feed thomas without the pillow and without my sofa at home with all of my cushions set up perfectly so. i have always wanted to, ever since i witnessed queen naomi as she effortlessly fed Dylan while walking around. :)
breastfeeding really is an art.... or a skill that you have to learn and then perfect - just like driving. i always thought it would be more natural, but it really isn't. on top of that babies have to learn too. most of them pick it up pretty fast, but they have to perfect it as well. the first month or two, they are just sucking at anything and then choking when the milk starts coming too fast. by the time they are 3 months old they get really good and can actually suck the milk out more efficiently than the pump. every single book and website i have looked at says that and the older thomas gets the more inclined i am to believe it. another thing that happened is that around 3-4 months, my body adjusted to Thomas and stopped overproducing milk. they say many women produce too much milk for baby the first 12 weeks or so. as your body adapts, it starts to ease off and produce exactly how much they need based on how often they feed. it is really really amazing. i actually was a little distressed when that happened to me because i thought i was not producing enough. even thomas was a little fussy because the milk would not flood out the way it did the first few months. so that made me feel like i really wasn't producing enough. they say this is common and that many women mistakenly stop breastfeeding or start adding formula when this happens, thinking that they should wean their baby off. so my doctor's advice was to go by diapers. as long as thomas was wetting at least 6-8 diapers a day, he is getting enough to eat. easy enough. when i was overproducing, he would finish each feeding in 5 minutes tops. he was a fast sucker. ha ha... once i leveled off, he would try the same speed guzzling method but wasn't getting as much. it really worried me. luckily, Thomas adjusted too and now takes 5-10 minutes to drink. he also takes both sides in one meal. he used to only need one at a time. the best thing about all this is that i no longer leak at random times because my boobs don't get ridiculously full of milk anymore... to the point where they are painfully full. yay...

however, now that he is his little very aware self, he is SUPER distractible. i can't even read anymore when he is drinking because he hears the crinkle of book or magazine pages and his little head swings off towards the source of interest. then he reaches out to try to grab the pages and help me read. this is especially hilarious and irritating when he does this right as the milk starts coming out. then i have like 5 of these leeeittle geysers of milk spraying on the pillow, on his head, his face, the sofa and me. if he hears anyone else talking besides me (i.e. DAD) he swings off to check it out. if he hears something outside, like a car horn or siren, he pulls off to check it out. he is so funny, so irritating and so funny. sometimes when i feel him start to pull off, i try to lock his head in place with my hands. but that darn little neck is getting really strong and even if i am squishing his adorable little ears, cheeks and nose, he STILL makes every effort to turn towards the interesting sound. man!!! little shyster!

the downside is i went from a C (esp those first 2 months, they were like coconuts!) to a B back to an A. ah well, it was short-lived, but at least i got to be a bustier girl for a few months. :p

another funny thing is he has a little better control of his limbs now so he utilizes them while he is drinking. sometimes his hand (on the arm under his body) reaches up to tickle my armpit. his toes are usually kicking at either my side or my armpit. it is especially tickly when his toes hit my armpit. his free arm is usually wildly roaming about, exploring my chin/mouth or my shirt. he also likes to slam his hand into my chest. repeatedly. ha ha.... not so funny when his nails are too long.
in the last month, he has gotten especially good at what i like to call digging for gold. he crams his hand right down into my bra, and starts grabbing at whatever he can find down there. sometimes the bra strap, other times my boob, many times the little, round nursing pads i have in there to prevent leaks. the funny thing is he will grab it, pull it right out and swing it around (all this while drinking). even funnier is that it has a sticky strip on the back. so sometimes when he tries to let go so that he can go digging around for something else to grab, it sticks to his hand. so there is thomas drinking away, little pad stuck to his hand as it is waving around... :)

--------falling asleep in the car-----------

thomas looks so sad when he is falling asleep. those little eyes looking at you, just makes me want to scoop him up and hug him! william chronicled it as we were driving home one day. he gives you this really sad little face and then the eyes start to roll back. of course he is still drooling the entire time. the only time he stops drooling is when he is asleep. thank goodness or the entire bed would be drooly by morning!

the last three weeks

the weeks since we went to Audrey & Alan's wedding have been busy. we have had weekly visits from william's parents, my dad came for lunch and we finally visited my mom for her birthday (which was june 4th). there was a memorial day bbq with john, liz & ethan, and a northern california reception dinner for Audrey & Alan. every weekend has been busy! how can this be... we were busy before baby, and now that baby is a little older, we are busy yet again. *sigh*
here is a nice picture of Thomas hamming it up for William's mom. both all smiles! william actually looks a lot like his mom. his sisters as well. his dad looks like action star chow yun fat from the side. too bad william doesn't look like chow yun fat :p heh heh... just kidding :)

on a side note, the nocal wedding reception for Audrey & Alan was very nice affair - Thomas's second formal event! :) We got to see a lot of the families from Tri-Valley Bible Church that we have not seen since we left to start Faithwalk in 2002. It was esp nice to see Linda & Walter and the parents of many of the kids we first met when they were just starting high school. time really flies because many of these "kids" are now working adults.

here's a shout-out to Jeanette and Sherry - thanks so much for calling and thinking about us! we're looking forward to seeing you in July!


-------------- SPOILING BABY ------------------
hey colors! all these formatting options - i was completely blind to the format bar right there! for some reason i thought you had to do things in html to get formatting. anyways, for some reason it has been really hard to get any time on the computer in the last 2 weeks. just checking email has been a struggle, much less finding time to post. am i spoiling him?? maybe i hold him too much.... who knows! i think i have to be better about putting him down in his crib or swing so he learns to entertain himself. i am still getting thank you cards done one by one, here and there. so painful. i can't believe i have been so neglectful of getting those done.

random pictures... brain farts...

william likes to post these random collections of pics up just so that he can admire them when he is at work. how silly!

anyways, it is so funny how different thomas looks depending on the expression on his face. sometimes he looks like me, most of the times like william. but occasionally he looks like my dad or william's dad. william's mom always thinks he looks like my dad and frets that thomas looks like a "korean baby". (by the way, i have no idea why the fact that he looks korean is something to fret about... he is half korean). on the flip side, my mom claims that thomas looks just like william's dad. you just can't win! it is just the two grandmothers, seeing the other side of the family "oh he looks like the other side of the family" because both grandmothers like to worry and fret "glass is half empty" type of mentality. nothing i can do about that... *shrug* :)

Thomas is now 5 months old. he weighs about 17 lbs and is a little over 26" long. we have discovered it is true that babies have different cries for when they are hungry, or tired or just want your attention. i used to think that was a load of bologna, but after about 3-4 months with thomas, william and i realized that he did have different meanings for his sounds. we also think that thomas is a pretty mellow baby. he loves music (many babies do) but he seems particularly fascinated when william sits and plays the guitar. even when thomas is getting hungry, he will stop fussing to listen and watch william play. so as you can see in the pic, we are trying to introduce a little piano too. although by the look on thomas face, i have a ways to go before he starts to enjoy it. ha ha... i REALLY want him to play classical music first. he can play whatever he wants later, but i believe if he doesn't have a firm grasp of theory and technical skill first, he'll always lack later, regardless of what type of music he plays.

here is a perfect girly picture of thomas. i was getting tired of people asking if he is a boy or a girl. so last Monday, i finally cut Thomas' hair. his first haircut on June 5th! he no longer has those girly little extensions behind his ears on both sides. i didn't save any of his hair, but i wish i took a picture. i cut it while he was sleeping on my lap. it is kind of scary having scissors so close to his head.

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.