Thomas Joseph + Miles Isaak = World Domination

So yeah, this little dude is presently 10 days late. The midwives were planning on inducing on Saturday night – after Danielle’s Mom would have left to return to Cleveland. That also would have put us in the hospital on Monday, when I’m supposed to start my new gig. So, a few calls later and they told us to “come on down!”

So we called Uncle Michael, got Thomas bathed, and Danielle, her Mom Janice, and I hit the road.

And the entrance to Storrow Drive was closed. So we sat through 15 minutes of traffic to get to Memorial Drive and it was also closed. Win!

So well over an hour after we left our house on this 20 minute drive, we got here and got checked in.

Now it’s looking like she won’t need any inducement … Good times!

They’re not lying, they’re just independently wealthy with a staff to take care of the house, do their shopping, their laundry, and prepare (and clean up after!) their meals. So you can’t fault them for being totally clueless. Heck, I wish we were independently wealthy, and had a staff, but we don’t and have to spend much of our evenings working. Do thing the things you can’t do during the day because you’re either at work (that place that likes me to show up and accomplish things on a regular basis) or you’re taking care of the squirmiest, loudest, most energetic baby on earth – Thomas Joseph.

So yeah, this Dad is tired. Really, really tired. Like hear Thomas awake at 6:30am, knowing full well that I need to get up and at least change his diaper (and hopefully read with him, play with him, give him vitamins and drugs). I need to be able to function. Lately, it’s not been so good. With the exception of Sunday night, he’s been up at least three times for the last 2.5 weeks.

Hi, I’d like to introduce to Thomas’ Mom – Mrs. Zombie, but you can call her Danielle for short and me, I’m Mr. Zombie…

But I am making headway catching up on the constant backlog of photos. And yes, I realize that if I didn’t take so many photos, I wouldn’t have so many to cull, process, and post.

Let’s get in our Photo Way Back Machine and take a look as some of what I’ve been playing catch up with.

December 5th

This was an exciting day.  We went to our friend Abby’s birthday party.  Thomas got to hang with Abby & Dennis’ boy Tanner.  It was hard to make out exactly what they were saying, but I think it went something like this:

Thomas: Yo, Tanner, check out how high I can get my body in the air.
Tanner: Dude, I don’t care.  Can’t you see I’m working this teething toy?

Thomas: Oh, so you are.  Can I get a bit of that?  These top teeth are killing me.
Tanner: Dude, I have an older sister.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that sharing is a sign of weakness.  And plus, sharing a teething toy … I don’t know where your mouth has been!
Thomas: Oh come on, my mouth is totally clean, I’ve barely sucked my toes today.  Speaking of which, I should so get on that, after a bit of that teething toy.  It looks so good …

Thomas: Well if you’re not going to share the toy, can I have chunk of your arm?

Tanner: Duuuuude, you don’t eat a guy’s arm just cause you can’t crawl over to your Mom’s diaper bag and get your own teething toy.  That’s just wrong!  If I wasn’t so mellow, I’d kick that little butt of yours!

After the teething arm debockle, Keira came to hang with the boys. Thomas said that his horizontal stripes do wonders for his figure.

Ok, that’s enough Photo Way Back Machine for one night.

Thomas celebrated Christmas by not sleeping at all last night. We’re not sure if he thought he could stay up and catch sight of Santa or what, but he was up off and on from midnight until 8 when we finally gave up. Ugh.

And when I took him out of the pack n’ play I was greeted with a soaked baby. He’d managed to get his diaper off, completely off (that’s a new one). Let’s just say the sleep sack, quilt, and pj’s he had (partially) on, weren’t very absorbent. So now Thomas has had a full Christmas whipe down and is playing in the bouncy car while all his bedding washes – hopefully before his nap time. Hurray for washing machines and driers!

But I have to mention the real Christmas miracle of our trip – the fact that we actually made our flight out on Tuesday morning.  Monday night Uncle Michael stayed over at our house so he could take us to the airport for our 6am flight.  Not surprisingly, we got a late start and didn’t get out of the house until after 5am – decidedly too late.  Oh and there were a LOT of folks at the airport on Tuesday am.  So after waiting in the security line until nearly six we’d only made it half way to the metal detectors and our friendly TSA agents.

Finally, after hearing the final boarding call for all ticketed passengers, and then being called by name, Danielle convinced the lead security guy to let us cut the remaining half of the line.  Of course, that only got us near the metal detectors.  We still had to get my laptop out, get our shoes off, get our coats off, get Thomas out of his car seat, get the car seat and stroller folded up as small as possible and then get all that junk into individual bins.  Oh, and then have some lady with metal on her person skip in front of Danielle before we could get her through.

Once everything finally made it through, it still has to be re-assembled.  Danielle told me to just go.  So, in just my socks, carrying Thomas, I took off in a run to the gate – the wrong gate.  D’oh!  So running to the Airline lady who dutifully scanned my “invalid” ticket, we figured I was at A6, not A8.  Yeah, I was not firing on all cylinders.

So, back I ran to the other side of the concourse where A8 was to be found, in my socks, carrying my baby, thinking to myself “self, this is one clean and polished tile floor … “.  When I arrived at the gate the lady greeted us with a smile and “where are your shoes”.  I attempted to answer through my hyperventilating as Danielle caught up to us.

Soon we were walking on to the totally full flight, being greeted by the “I hate you because you have a baby” stares.  But we made it.  It was truly a Christmas miracle!

Ok, I’m just going to roll through a few days so we can get back to recent times.

December 3rd, 2008

Ahh, the standing Wednesday playdate.  I can’t speak for Jacob and Maggie, but Danielle and Thomas sure seem to look forward to it.

Check out the beautiful purple sweater our little one is wearing.  It was handmade by Thomas’ Grandma-In-Law Holly Field.  It is even more beautiful in person.

Not one to be intimidated by the size of a meal, Jacob attempts to eat the drum.

Thomas is very impressed by the Maggie’s bubble.  Jacob seems to be considdering another go at eating the drum …

December 4th, 2008

Thomas’ Great Grandma Francis was on the ball with Christmas cards this year.  Thomas’ (his first Christmas card) arrived a full 3 weeks (!) before Christmas.

Thomas investigates the card with his mouth.

After saving the card just short of it’s return to pulp, I went for the big camera, for a few more snaps.

Thomas loves, loves, loves making rasberries.

Sometimes he even surprises himself with how good (and wet) his rasberries are.

Never a shortage of just a little too crazy smiles with Thomas around.

The quantity and quality of Thomas’ facial wounds area a good cue as to when it’s time to cut his razor nails again.

I love raised eyebrow Thomas … now that he has eyebrows.

Ahh, the mirror again.  We could drive a subway train through his room when he has his mirror and he probably wouldn’t notice.

It’s funny how often folks will say to me “he looks just like you.”  They are so very wrong.  He looks just like his Momma.

And last but not least his feets.  I love these things, but they are huge.  I recently bought what I thought would be a huge pair of shoes for him.  Nope, too small.  He’ll be borrowing my shoes by next summer …

Every year we do Thanksgiving down at my Grandparents house on Long Island.  We were especially looking forward to this year as it would be the first year with great grandkids – four generations spanning 90 years.  So very cool.  The only thing we weren’t looking forward to was the drive down there as it’s 4 hours on a great day and much, much more on a bad day.  Well, the drive down happened and wasnt’ great, but we all survived.  The important thing was that we made it.

How about some pics.  Unlike all the totally Thomas stuff, family vacation stuff lives in the personal section of snaptom.com.  Thanksgiving lives here: http://www.snaptom.com/gallery/6819003_cnZd8

Kirk, my cousin-in-law, preps Thanksgiving dinner for the first Great Grandchild,  Molly.  Check out the little table that attaches to the Bubmo – we didn’t even know such a thing existed!

Molly’s eyes (like all the Barrell ladies’) are ridiculous.  Thomas is intrigued by her frilly outfit.

Thomas does not understand what is so funny.

Yeah for borrowed Bumbo’s for dinner time.  Thomas is not sure what to make of the sweet potatoes Danielle brought for Thanksgiving.

Thomas’ Great Grandmommy moves in for a sweet potato kiss from her little Sweet Potato.

As usual, Thomas was unsure of the sweet potatoes at first, but grew to love them.

One of the staples of our Thanksgiving feast is the family picture when we grab everyone and get them to all get in front of some of my lights and my camera.  It’s usually a bit of cat herding, but this year wasn’t too bad.  Unfortunately both Thomas and Molly were already in bed.  We considdered grabbing them, but quickly realized that was just a dumb idea.   Let sleeping babies sleep…

On Friday everyone took off pretty early.  We decided to stick around a bit and drive home during Thomas’ bedtime.  This gave us a chance to take a few pics of the boy with GreatGrandpoppy and GreatGrandmommy.

While I was setting up, Thomas did his classic “I think you’d look better without glasses” routine.  Grandpoppy was a little surprised.

Thomas found his GreatGrandparents far more interesting than his dad with the camera …

Yaaahhhh for everyone looking at me!

It’s not often that we have pics here that aren’t of Thomas or at least some other munchkin, but the following is a well deserved exception.  My Grandparents Zosh and Joe put on an amazing Thanksgiving again.  The amount of work they do makes your thirty-five year old author tired just thinking about it.  Many people in my family do a lot to make this day happen (special thanks Aunt Linda for the most amazing deserts ever!), but at the core are these two who were born when Woodrow Wilson was in office and phones were still new!

Thanks (Great)GrandMommy  Zosh and (Great)GrandPoppy Joe for everything you’ve done that led up to our Thomas Joe!  We love you!

Blog, I’ve missed you.

Well, we finally caught up with photos this past week.  All can be seen on our photo and video site: http://www.snaptom.com/baby.  Hurray for us!  And, I’m not on vacation for a couple of weeks, so hopefully I’ll continue to stay on top of them and this here blog.  Don’t bet your paychecks folks!

So, it’s Friday again and Thomas the wild man is up and playing in his crib.  We’ve already done a good morning photoshoot, changed his diaper (blech!), administrered reflux meds and taken some vitamins.  Oh, and most importantly he’s had some breakfast while I worked on the last three of our Christmas cards.  It’s been a productive morning and it’s barely 8am.

If the weatherpeeps are to be believed, today will be Thomas’ first real snow fall.  While I’m really not looking forward to snowblowing, I am looking forward to pics of Thomas in a snowsuit that was last donned by his Uncle Michael, butt deep in the white stuff.  Today has the potential to be fun.

Before that, how about a few pics to continue to catch up?

When we last left our little man, he’d just turned six months old – almost a full month ago!  D’oh!

It’s been a busy month.  He’s not walking, not crawling, not *really* talking (but not for lack of trying), but is doing a lot turing on the floor, posturing as if he’s going to crawl, and two loan toothy occupants of his otherwise vacant mouth.

November 23rd

Ah yes, a Wednesday.  As is their schedule, Danielle and Thomas had a play date, or rather a walk date with Maggie and Jacob.  Amazingly (or not, as I am at work when they normally play), this was also the first time I actually met Maggie and Jacob.   It’s hard to believe it, but Jacob is even more cute in person – and is a bruiser.  I also understand that he’s doing quite a soldier’s crawl these days, a full month before Thomas who just sort of scoothes.

Anyway, here’s Thomas all wrapped up with no place to go while we wait for everyone to arrive.

Oh, and I’ve started doing something I should have done when I first started this, you can now click the pics to see the larger versions.  Better late then never …

The ladies and boys ready to walk the mean streets of Dorchester.

And finally, I give you bundled up Jacob.  Seriously, could he be cuter?

Ok, time for me to go wash the bottles and such.  Once Thomas goes down I’ll continue this brain dump of a catch up.

Thomas is fast.  Not at crawling mind you, since he just sort of snowplows his face around, but his movements are fast.  Yesterday he was sitting on my lap, with my laptop, my WORK laptop, in front of us.  I’m usually careful to keep it just out of reach, but last night, I got got lazy, and he took advantage of my mental lapse.

Like a Ninja on speed his hand (I’m not even sure which one, it all happened so fast), shot forward and plucked, yes plucked!, three keys right off the laptop.  The $2,500 MacBook Pro.  D’oh!

The H, J, and K popped up in the air and a few other bits and pieces made a run for it.  Thomas sat back; a look of satisfaction on his chubby cheeked face.  His work was done.

Hoping that nothing was truly broken, I called for Danielle with a bit too much urgency in my voice:  ”take him, take him” (as if he were already planning his second wave of Ninja finger attacks) and handed him off.  Well, five minutes later, with a little help from the Leatherman our friends Dennis and Abby gave me after I performed their wedding, I had the pieces parts all back together.  No harm no foul Thomas.

Lesson learned.  I’ll be more careful next time.

Wednesdays are the days that Danielle and Thomas usually spend with Maggie and Jacob.  Last week they spent the day over at Maggie and Jacob’s house.  Jacob has a crazy Jumparoo with way more activities.  Thomas was impressed.

After some very tiring playing, sometimes you just need to lie down.

I keep thinking I’ll write a big, long, photo-tastic catch-up post, but I just never have the time.  So unfortunately this won’t be that post.  This will just a be a quicky before I hit the sack.

So what is our little man up to?  Well, he’s sleeping away his last night in Cleveland until Christmas vacation.  It has been a crazy busy, crazy fast 3 days, and Thomas is just about used to sleeping in the borrowed Pack’n'Play here at his Grandma Jan and Grandpa George’s house – perfect timing for us to head home…

Maybe tomorrow I’ll have time to actually catch up on things once we’re home, but for now, how about a few quick pics from the last couple of weeks that I just hadn’t had time to upload yet.

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 – Thomas’ one-hundred and fifty second day.  Thomas getting ready to go to GrandmaCare.

Thomas is constantly working on his “I’m so surprised” face.  Truth is, he’s never surprised when the camera is in front of him.

Often times when Thomas is lying on his back, he lifts his head up and does a pretty intense ab workout.  Here he is mid-set.

Thomas’ changing table pad is 30 inches long.  Thomas is 29 inches long.  One must be mindful of the lamp when Thomas is being changed.

One of my favorite onsies.  A monkey on our little monkey (or mono/monito, as we call him).

This pair of cords fit well on the waist, but not so well on his legs.

Sometimes he’s feet need a little help escaping the confines of Thomas’ pants.  A roll or two will usually do.  That rhymed.

Some socks and Thomas’ favorite camo shoes, and we are ready to go … or to reach for that enticingly shiny door knob.  Mmm, fake brass!

Thomas waking up after the short drive down to GrandmaCare.  Note how his hat is crooked.  His hats are always crooked.  We’d straighten them out if they weren’t so cutes!

Once he was freed from the almost-too-small car seat, it was time for some tummy time.  Note that angelic look on his face as he looks up at Grandma Carol.

Thomas catching flies.  I’m just kidding, there are no flies in my Mom’s house.  They can’t live in such a low temperature.  ;)

No tummy time would be complete without a face plant.  I give you, Thomas’ face plant.  Thank your Grandma for keeping the house so amazingly clean Thomas! 

Ok, that’ll have to be enough for now.  We have a flight to catch in the am, so I have to be well rested for all the “I hate you, you filthy parent” looks we’ll get at the terminal and once we board our flight tomorrow.

The first trip with our little man has now come and gone.  It was fantastic for the most part.  Barnard Vermont is certainly among the most beautiful places on Earth (at least that we’ve ever visited – and for Thomas, that’s a short list).  The leaves are turning, the air crisp, the grass soft under our little man’s crazily kicking feet.  We had three 2.5 wonderful days with Uncle Jonathan, and his Mom Holly.  Our homie Rick (Jonathan’s older bro) rolled into town on Saturday.  Food, family, chores, walks in the woods, photos, more photos, and a few more photos.  Excellent weekend.

The ride back, during daylight hours was decidedly not awesome.  Thomas pretty much ran out of steam for the whole car thing and made sure we all knew it.  The world returned to normal once we got home.  Thomas got some serious Jumparoo time while Danielle and I had take-out.  He passed out early and slept long and hard.  Though he did awake at 3am today ready for some action and 2 hours of awake time – ugh.

Add to that the fact that his second tooth is busting through and he had his best day ever at Grandma care, and things are looking rosy for our little man!  Pictures are coming, once I find the time to get through the several hundred I took this weekend.

Thomas survived his first long car trip.  So far, anything over about an hour has ended in tears (espsecially when there was traffic).  Last night, we tried a differnt approach.  Uncle Jonathan came over (from South Carolina by way of Atlanta) and made dinner for us while we packed and prepared Thomas.  The dinner was truly awesome, but man, it was hard for me to get motivated for a three hour drive after cleaning the kitchen and packing the car.  Some fresh brewed coffee, a boy in pajamas in his car seat, and car packed the gills later, and we were on the road.

Thomas awoke twice, but managed to get back to sleep quickly.  It was a wonderfully painless drive (though I was exhausted when we arrived at nearly 1am.  Jonathan’s Mom Holly was awake to great us and meet Thomas.

Anyway, it’s absolutely amazing up here.  It’s so nice to escape from the busses, noise, and smell of the city.  We love Vermont like no other place.  No photos yet (but I’ve taken many), as we’ll have to wait until we’re home and I’m back on Harvard’s fast internet to get them all online.