update on the ABC song

last month i finally managed to get an uninterrupted, updated clip of Thomas singing the ABC song, indisputably his favorite song right now. it is so hard to get video of him b/c he usually stops whatever funny thing he is doing, and/or runs over to see the playback screen.




we love the way he says "W" and skips over the parts that are too fast for him to say. the same "bubba" he uses for "w" is also the way he says banana and thomas.

goofing around with daddy

daddy's getting goofier and goofier with his little son. they can't get enough of each other. oh and thomas actually says 2 and 3 words together now! some examples:

• hi daa-deee
• bye bye nigh nigh (mandarin for grandma)
• mo nuu-duu (more noodles)
• ma-mee up peas (mommy pick me up please)
• ma-mee beeg bi (mommy give me a big bite)
• boo caa (blue car)

Language is really amazing (and powerful as our friend said) and it is wonderful to watch it unfold. of course it is also constantly entertaining.

yikes...

can you believe next week is Thanksgiving? wow... and thomas will be 2 years old in under 2 months...

the last time Thomas and I went shopping together, i put him in the puppy backpack and had him wear his sherpa boots with PJ leggings. sorry guys, i know, not very manly, but I got tons of smiles as well as oohs and aahs from ladies. thomas strutted around very proudly and also played peek a boo with almost every woman that would stop to babytalk to him. very flirty... soo cute! he carried his little jamba juice cup around for almost 30 minutes.



---------------------------------------------------------

on another topic, preschool costs are ridiculous! it is like paying rent on a small apartment, or a really really nice new car, or a top line leather sofa sectional. even the cheaper ones are $500-700/month and that is only for 3 days a week. my mom said that back in the 70's it was $100-200/month. well, i guess that was THIRTY years ago. the only consolation is that it is only for 2 years. after that kindergarten - yay for tax dollars at work. luckily the public schools in dublin are good. they are renovating and upgrading a bunch of stuff at Dublin High School so hopefully by the time Thomas is ready for 9th grade, it will be good as well.

-----------------------------------------------------------
a few random pics from October's LA trip. thomas really doesn't look like a baby any more. but i still call him baby. my other names for him are "little monkey", bubba, froggy and "why you little!" for when he is being mischievous.



this is me with our dear pastor's wife from UCLA, Esther Chung. one of the most wonderful and decent women I have ever had the privilege of knowing. I met her my freshman year at UCLA and unarguably she has been one of the biggest and most positive influences in my life. God was so good to put her in my path at a time when I was completely lost and really begging for direction. May God continue to bless her and Pastor Soon in their ministry at UCLA!

happy halloween :)

thomas' costume is a little ghetto - i had to chop the feet off so that he could wear it outside. added more yarn to the mane but i didn't have brown, so i used dark blue. didn't have time to add yarn to the legs, but i would have liked to have a bunch of yarn hanging down on his little sneakers. i am so glad he didn't mind wearing the hood. usually, he just yanks off sweatshirt hoods, but he somehow understood that this "sweatshirt" was different. ha ha...


thomas had so much fun he had trouble falling asleep that night. the first few houses, william said that thomas just closed his eyes really tight, standing there waiting for the door to open. william would tell him that it was ok to open his eyes and ask him what a lion does. thomas is very good at roaring. :) after the 3rd and 4th house, thomas was much more comfortable and just went right for the candy dish. william said that a couple older ladies that answered doors, just stood there, smiling, watching thomas walk away.

luckily thomas doesn't know what candy is, otherwise we probably would have had some indigestion going on. by next year he will probably want to eat it all the moment he gets home. this year, he had loads of fun transferring the candy from one bowl to another, and back again. simple fun.... and now when he sees a pumpkin in a book, he goes "pee... bum din" (aka pumpkin).

big trip to Los Angeles

in the middle of the worse raging fires (both wild and arson related) that southern california has ever experienced, we drove down to LA last weekend. we had been planning the trip for a couple months and didn't want to cancel. thomas was just recovering from croup, i was getting over a cold and william was on the verge of getting the same cold.... but we went anyways. sadly, it kept us from meeting the newest member of the Kim family (our friend's joanna & johhny), but we'll make sure to catch you guys next year!! don't want to be responsible for getting any new babies sick. scary thing was that the fire was only 5 miles away from their home at one point. thankfully, it moved in a different direction or they might have had to evacuate as well.

anyways, it was a little smoky on friday, but the winds shifted a little and by saturday evening the air was not bad at all.


thankfully, thomas did really well on with the drive. we only stopped twice on the way down, and once on the way up. really amazing for a little guy to sit strapped down for that long. we were really glad that we didn't end up having to stop every hour like we expected.


we walked around campus on Friday. it was the first time i had been back since 1998! so much has changed on the perimeter, i really didn't recognize much. luckily, the center of campus, the main quad and bruin walk haven't changed too much. the top pic is a shot of thomas peering at a large group of middle school kids that are getting a tour of campus.

we stayed in this little motel right in westwood, easy walking distance from campus and our old church. our room had a little fridge in it that became thomas' FAVORITE play thing ever. open close open close, take something out, put it back in, take milk out, take one sip, put it back in, repeat. several times. just because he could. at home the fridge door is too heavy for him to open.

snack time on the hotel bed :) ha ha...


on sat evening and sunday at church, we got to spend time with many old and long time friends. it was so nice to see everyone and to see all the kids! at the dinner on sat they had childcare, so i was able to actually talk & relax without having to worry about thomas. the hard thing was that there was not enough time to talk to everyone. i tried to make sure i had good conversations with at least a few people. just not enough time! but it was so nice to see everyone and to catch up with Pastor Soon and Esther. I still can't believe that their oldest, Faith, is 15!! amazing that that much time has gone by. our college church is blessed with some truly talented worship leaders, who made the worship/song time a really wonderful blessing for william and I. they are such amazing singers, i felt like i could have just sat and listened to them sing for hours. they do have a CD, but the CD really doesn't do them justice.


it is always nice to know that there are friendships that don't change and no matter how long it has been since the last meeting, you slip into them again like a pair of comfy shoes. thank God for comfy shoes :)

counting crayons

also in october, i gave in and decided to let him start using crayons and markers. i was a little averse to giving him items that could potentially cause permanent damage. funny thing is, he doesn't really want to draw. but he will sit there for 20 minutes and count them all.

1st visit to the pumpkin patch

to back track a little, on 10/13, thomas went to his first pumpkin patch. there were some goats and a small piglet there. he was very excited to get to touch them. incidentally, this first pic is almost exactly like a picture of me with my dad at around that age. and the goat's butt is even facing the same way. i'll have to post that pic when i find it.



we had a lot of fun examining all the pumpkins. they had varietal gourds as well. for some reason, thomas was intent on getting this one over his head.



this was a small patch in pleasanton. pumpkins are not cheap! we ended up taking 2 smallish ones (like the one behind william) and 1 mini one home. the bigger ones are $20-40!

so many changes

he doesn't have a safety blanket or "lovey" item yet, but one thing he has always liked to do is put his hand up our shirt sleeves while drinking milk. once in awhile, he will sit in our laps (infant nursing style) and drink, but he mostly likes to sit on his own when he drinks. however, it we're not sitting next to him, he will follow one of us around, motioning to his arm, until he can drag us over to his chosen sitting spot for the evening. this is to ensure a shirt sleeve to fiddle with. sometimes he sticks his whole hand in and reaches around for some unknown sweet spot, sometimes he likes to just feel the edge of the cloth b/w his thumb and fingers, and other times, he just sticks his hand in and lets it sit there. it is actually one of our favorite things to watch him do because he is growing up so fast, and when he does this, it feels like he is still a baby.

as you with kids know, toddlers change really fast. it seems as though new traits and behaviors pop up almost every day. it is hard to remember every single one, but the most significant one that has surfaced in the last month is that he clearly understands and has remorse when he upsets us now. before, he would just look at us with this puzzled look on his face, or sometimes bark back at me what i just said, "Thomas look what you did!!" in Thomas speak "Aaaaa AAAA AAAAAA!!!" and look with curious anticipation to see what i would do next. very irritating but very funny in the back of your head too. now when i act upset with him, he clearly shows a change in demeanor as well as a "prolonged period of droopy, puppy-eyed expression", followed by no movement. ie. this afternoon, i got irritated with him b/c he would not let me finish clipping his nails. so i smacked his rear as he squirmed away for the 10th time, and said "fine. ok FINE." he lay very still and watched me walk away. when i passed the den a minute later, he was still laying there; just his eyes followed me as i walked by. i came back a full 5 minutes later, and he was sitting very still in his froggy/buddha position, hands in his lap, eyes terribly downcast, wounded look on his face. the pic below is the closest i have captured to it - but this afternoon, the corners of his mouth were much more pouty, and his chin was more downward, allowing him to capitalize on the puppy-dog droopy eye look. i'm not sure if it was my imagination or not, but his eyes looked a little red too, like he was almost about to cry.


so i cupped his little face in my hands, and said that i shouldn't have gotten mad at such a small thing, but that sometimes, mommy needs him to sit still, even when he doesn't want to. when i reach down further to hug him, he reach up and got into my arms. we just hugged for a few moments, and all was forgiven.
oh and as eric and timothy's dad, Andy, says, snuggling in bed with them at this age is the best thing ever. thomas actually wants to snuggle now and doesn't try to wiggle away. he fits so nicely under my chin, right up against my chest. he lays on his side, but every moment or two, he looks up into my eyes, touches some part of my face, then turns to his side again. sometimes we both giggle from the eye contact. i love how his head smells, even when he is a little sweaty :)

baby showers and new booties

yesterday we went to Cheyene and Alex's baby shower. they are due around thanksgiving and Cheyene looks beautifully, glowingly expectant! they had lots of yummy food and thomas had lots of fun playing in the ice chest with his friend sara. look at them gettin busy in there! i think she just nudged him out with her head :)


william got this CUTE pic as they walked with sara's dad down the hallway. (sorry vijay - i had to cut you out of the picture when i cropped it and saw how cute it was with just the 2 of them! ha ha :)



--------------winter clothes--------------------
i got to make a trip up to H&M clothing store in walnut creek on Friday. picked up some clothes for me as well as some of the coolest booties for thomas :). just in time for cold weather!

that is dad's doing by the way: sweatshirt, onesie, booties, no pants. william comes up with some funny combinations of winter layering for thomas. below - hey look at my cool new slippers! and yes, he still drinks his milk out of a bottle. i'll probably let that go until the end of the year and then start figuring out a way to wean him off the bottle.



--------------bad mommy!!--------------------

early last week, it was dinner time and i hadn't put anything together for thomas yet. he was hungry and opened the cabinet and starting pointed to the cereal boxes. he got a little whiny and cried a little. but i told him to please wait and that dinner was coming soon. he walked away and starting looking at his toys.
i was zoning out as i cooked and realized suddenly that thomas was awfully quiet. i turned around and didn't see him anywhere in the room. i walked up to the island and peered over. thomas was on the ground behind the island. it was sooooo SOOO sad - he was sitting in this little froggy position, feet together, munching on some stale cereal he had found. i felt like such a bad mommy for starving him! heartbreaking! i had left the camera in the kitchen and managed to catch the pure pathetic-ness of his posture and situation... look at the dejected bent in his neck. like he realizes that he's getting to the last one.


it was so sad for me to see this little creature sitting so quietly and intently eating the few little o's he had found. actually, sad doesn't quite describe what i was feeling. but it was this funny aching feeling in my heart. i went over, hugged him, and told him i was sorry for making him wait. as he reached up and hugged me back, it almost felt like he was saying "it's ok mommy." silly, i know...

first rain

today was thomas' first real experience in the rain. we got fully suited up, raincoat and boots, and we went to the library... in the pouring rain. he loved it as you can see :)

post secret

postsecret.blogspot.com

this guy handed out blank postcards, as an book/blog/art concept. he had instructions which asked to mail him secrets (anything that you haven't told anyone yet) and keep it anonymous. he just published a 3rd book of the best of. he also publishes the best weekly in his blog. it is completely tantalizing and got me totally hooked. some of them are just funny, others are so touching, i almost get teary.


here is a quip from a book signing he is doing in oakland on the 17th:
Frank Warren, author of "Postsecret", "My Secret", and "The Secret Lives of Men and Women", comes to Diesel. Postsecret.com started out as Frank Warren's temporary community art project. "Confessors" send their secrets to his home on postcards they decorate themselves. Mr. Warren reads every one and picks 10 to 20 to post on his blog every Sunday. "A Lifetime of Secrets" is his third book collecting and celebrating these mini pieces of art.

man where does the time go

i can't believe it has been over 1/2 a month since i posted. bad me. so much stuff has been going on too. thomas is growing up so fast it is crazy. they really do grow up right in front of you. it is no wonder that our parents know us so well. they get to see it all as it happens, development from the very get go. i think sept was our most picture poor month since thomas was born. we took only 50 pics.... not even 2 whole rolls of 36 exp! pretty puny in digital terms. and don't even talk to me about finding time to stay up to date with email. i have given up and now take email breaks on monday and saturday. can't keep up with it, so i just let it go! :)

here's a cute pic of thomas smiling with william's mom. thomas is really understanding the concept of picture taking now. he pretends that he is taking pictures of us (we gave him an old first gen digital camera) and loves when we play along and pose for him.



-------------getting sick----------------

toddlers are pretty gross when they are sick. sometimes it feels like you just keeping wiping and wiping and somehow, from somewhere deep within their teeny nasal cavities, long snot strings keep emerging. sometimes, i look in there, and it is just filled with gooey snot, even though i just wiped it! and when toddlers get sick, it usually isn't just for 2-3 days. usually, it takes a week to 2 weeks for all symptoms to clear. we have been lucky so far though - he has gotten 2 colds this season and they only gave him really snotty noses. no sore throat or hacking cough. the last time he got sick was back in Feb and it was pretty bad. so we are going to keep praying that he just gets these minor colds and not really bad ones with fevers and the whole 9 yards.

oh wait, i know i mentioned he likes climbing a couple months back. still does, and he likes anything that can get him higher. he loves carrying the little step stool around to see what it can get him access too. caught him on the coffee table - crazy boy. he definitely understands height is advantageous.

---------------eating--------------------

he has been pretty picky overall about eating, but he gets enough food in him to poop consistently 1-2 every day. i figure that is enough. his favorite snack is a smoothie - 1/4 cup milk, a 1/2 banana, 4 oz yobaby yogurt, and a couple pieces of frozen fruit. blend all together and instant healthy meal! very slurpable.


--------------personality----------------
on Monday, thomas threw a plate down on the table with a loud klunk. william admonished thomas very sternly, only to have thomas (who was standing on a chair next to him) smack both hands on the dinning table, stare right into william's eyes and grunt with an exclamation point "huh HUH!" we both agreed later that he had a little smirk on his mouth too. COMPLETE defiance! but when william turned to me to back up a time-out, i couldn't hold my composure and starting laughing, deep in my belly. i just couldn't believe what i was watching our son do to my husband. it was hilarious!

our family foot portrait. next time, we'll try to get scsi in there with us :)

--------fun on the computer-------------
thomas' auntie jenny from LA visited this weekend and she brought with her an Apple that had a fun little camera on it. thomas caught on instantly that he didn't look right had had loads of fun snapping pictures of himself. her macintosh has a built-in camera with all these kooky effects. here's what happens when you have a 1.5 year old and a free hand on the computer...

"no"

he says "no" now - quite clearly. just started last thursday. especially when you are coming at him with food and he doesn't want to eat it. he says "nuo nuooo" and runs under the dining room table. he also now says:
"ooohhh nuuuu" (aka oh no)
"nuduu" (aka noodle) and
"teebee" (TV)
"bee beee" (beep beep for car horn)
"peeeas" (please)


look at that round tummy on him. he likes to get on your belly and bounce as hard as he can. the more exaggerated your reaction, the better he likes it, and the harder he bounces. it hurts sometimes if you don't tense your stomach fast enough.

thomas loves all his new activities

is that not the cheesiest cheese you have ever seen? i mean, i am sure all of you with kids have the goofiest shots of your kids when they actually learn to smile for the camera. but it is funny isn't it? plus he is still chubby, so this pic shows him in all his rolly polly glory. little anime dimples and all. i think this is what william would look like if he gained 50 pounds.

on tuesday we went to mother goose toddler story time at dublin library. there were probably 30 toddlers there with moms/caretakers. it was CRAZY! thomas loved it. he loved watching the other kids, and following along with all the dancing and scarf waving. i need to get a pic next time. it only goes for about 2 months unfortunately.... and i don't want to pay a place like little gym. need to find another way to get playtime with other tots.

of course, when you say "smile thomas, say cheese!!!" you get this occasionally:


and after every shot, he has to get down and come over to see the pic i had just taken. so i started saying, "thomas thomas, wait wait! one more pic ok?? one more!"


------------------------------------
he has this little imitation ipod with 15 songs from Sponge Bob. we use it for poop changes to keep him still on the changing table. he knows the songs so well we can ask him to "Find the Sponge Bob Squarepants song!" and he just gets busy. little thumbs working that little dial, until he finds the right icon, hits play. sometimes, he scrolls through the icons, hitting play for each one, just to hear the beginning. then on the song you ask for, he lets the whole song play... or at least most of the song. wish i knew what was going on in that little brain of his.

back again with a Thomas update

they say like father like son. so true! william's morning bed hair...

thomas' morning bed hair... with more examples to come.
Hi everyone! sorry about the lack of activity on our blog but it has been really busy and time to blog has been usurped by busy work elsewhere. not to mention the need to sleep. warning... this is a long post. mostly just details i don't want to forget along with memorable pics.
you know what i need?? a video cam eyeball! then i could record the funny things he does w/o him knowing it. everytime i get the camcorder out, he stops doing what he is doing and just wants to see playback. little shyster!

william gets a goodbye kiss each morning... more like 2 or 3. i get kisses too. thomas loves to give us kisses. we call them marshmellow kisses b/c his little lips are SOO soft and completely wonderful to kiss. we've discovered that's why witches always eat babies in the fairy tales... they are so squishably delicious. :)

Thomas is now almost 20 months old! we can't believe how big he is. all the clichés are true... they grow up right b4 your eyes and b4 u know it, they are off to college. btw, this is a truly CUTE age. i keep thinking he can't get any cuter but this has to be it! b/c i can't stand it. i actually get sad thinking about him growing up and out of this stage.

here is a nifty trick: i showed him once that he can use a stick to get toys back out from under the computer armoire. he now knows exactly what to do. but he does get frustrated when it takes more than a couple tries to get it out. wonder where that trait came from...

i have him in bunches of activities now that it is september. there is a reason people with kids go by the school year. everything starts and ends with it! so every Tuesday we have a local church-sponsored, mothers/preschoolers event called MOPS. sara's mom (Regina) CONVINCED me to go and i LOVE it! and i love her for pestering me about it. for 2 hours i get to relax, eat yummy homemade goodies (frm other ladies in the group) and listen to the wisdom they have to share about raising kids and keeping home where the heart is. 2 of the Tuesdays each month are called "$2 Tuesdays". for only TWO dollars (that's only $1/hour), you drop your kid off, and bring anything you want to work on AWAY from kids. i am going to bring my laptop and catch up on emails! thursdays are Barnes & Noble days. we go to story time, catch up with some of the friends i've made there wth toddlers around thomas' age and let him run around until he is tired enough to nap. then grandparents come around 5pm (william's parents). they have been very devoted to coming every thursday, bringing us food and a little break from watching thomas.

fridays, we have mother goose story time at the dublin library. it starts tomorrow from 1:30-2pm. i think thomas will love it. it is geared specifically for his age and involves lots of songs, matching motions, dancing and waving scarves around.

thomas wanted to wear william's t-shirt one day. so william obliged by wrapping him up like a little sumo wrestler. he had lots of fun walking around flapping his arms.
and can you believe how much thomas looks like william when william was a little boy??! the only difference is personality. william was more of a quiet boy that would sit doing his little activities. probably more cautious and shy as well. thomas is one crazy busy little boy.

i'm just going to list some funny things he has been doing lately. it is hard to remember off the top of my head all the changes he has been going through lately. every week something new crops up!

thomas' lower teeth are crooked exactly the same way william's teeth are. and look! if you click on the full-size of this pic, even their tongues are the same shape. ha ha... they waste no time being completely silly together.

here's another winner. look at that concentration as he tries to copy what daddy is doing... tada!!!
he's eating like a typical toddler. has a good appetite but is picky. the food has to taste good to him. if i ask him to try it once, he usually does. but if he doesn't like it, he will NOT open that little mouth again... unless he sees that it is something different being offered. he is very good about examining what is on the spoon or fork as it is coming towards him. it is very cute, but very frustrating when you just want to eat so you can get out the door. makes u want to laugh and just squash him flat!

he drinks milk 3 times a day, about 3 cups. usually 6 oz in the morning when he wakes up. 1-2 cups before his mid-day nap and another cup in the evening b4 brushing his teeth. btw, we use a braun vibrating toothbrush on the low setting. it is a lifesaver and makes toothbrushing much easier. in the mornings, i will usually brush with a regular toothbrush so he can try to copy me. want him to at least learn how.
one thing i have noticed is he likes to chug milk b4 his nap. sometimes he will even drink over one pint! that's right, 10 oz, followed by 8 oz. down the hatch. i don't think i can even drink that much milk in one sitting.

he loves to play ball, rolling, throwing, kicking, any which way. we have this big exercise ball upstairs and a couple weeks ago, i got this great shot of him sitting, just as I rolled it towards him. all you see is 2 feet and hair. too bad his arms aren't long enough to show his finger tips around the sides :)

just yesterday, i was laying with him at nap time. since he sleeps on the twin, one of us has to lay next to him until he falls asleep. (yes this is ALL william's fault. he has undone a lot of my very good training in the sleep and eating areas.)
anyways, he was not wanting to take his nap. he kept pointing to his toys. so i told him he could get one toy and bring it back to the bed. this little guy, actually starts walking, but reeeeal slow. he NEVER walks slow. but there he was, one slow step at a time, not even going in a straight line!?!! can you believe this little creature?? so i told him to hurry up. he took 3 fast steps and then looked back at me, and proceeded to take slow little steps. sheesh!!! i can't believe at this age, they comprehend on that level, that they can delay bed time by slowing their actions down. amazing! completely frustrating wonderfully amazing!

another good moment was at barnes & noble last week. there were a lot of kids (mostly older than him) at the train table and no free trains. so thomas was hovering near me just observing. then one boy (who turned out to be 3) happened to put both his trains down. well, thomas quickly zipped in, swiftly grabbed the smaller of the two, and zipped back over to me. he stared at the other boy (who was now crying) and "hid"the train behind his back. LOL!
the other boy's mom told him to stop crying and to share with the baby. "he's just a baby, you can share, you still have one." but he was not happy. so i leaned down and said to thomas, "you know that little boy is crying b/c you took his train. can you please go and give it back?"
to my surprise and joy, thomas took the train out from behind his back, looked at the boy, and walked over to him and held it out. the boy grabbed it. his mom said "look! the baby is sharing with you! how nice of him to share. can you share back and give one to him?" the boy did not want to share. so thomas decided to read a book with me. the mom gave her boy 4 chances to share as he choo-choo-ed around the train table. each time, he did not want to give either train up. the last time, she finally said last chance, and when he didn't give one up, she grabbed them both out of his hands, and half carried/dragged him crying and kicking out of the store. thomas cried just a little when he saw that but i told him it was ok, b/c it was his mommy. then he went over and picked up both trains. i was so proud of him that he gave that train back to that boy :)


one final moment. today, he was not wanting to nap (yet again) but this time he stayed on the bed. he re-discovered his puppy stuffed animal. he kept hugging and kissing and putting his feet on puppy, then squealing or giggling. lifting up his ears, pulling the nose side to side. i was tired so i closed my eyes but every time i peeked on him, he was hugging puppy, talking to him, giggling, rolling around, trying to find different ways to love puppy. (again, need that videocam eyeball replacement!!) a couple times, he just flopped down, with puppy on top of him, and all four arms and legs wrapped around puppy.
i must have drifted off to sleep for a bit, because when i opened my eyes next, all was still in thomas-land...