Miles managed to puke all over himself yesterday. So we figured it was time to actually give him a bath.
See that clock in the backgroud? Yeah, it was nearly 10pm and Thomas was still with us. Good times!
What’s your hot water heater broken? I’m naked here, how about a little heat?!
I can’t place it, but I remember being in a nice warm bath before …
If only I weren’t so nearsighted, this right hook would have totally dropped my Dad. He has a glass chin and it’s his fault I’m in this cold water at 10pm.
I propose we rethink this bath thing …
Shrinkage!
Brothers!
Wait, I thought the next picture was supposed to be the silly one!
Sunday was Mile’s first full day at home. He spent most of it sleeping. Then he met his Grandmommy and Pop Pop and watched us all eat BBQ. He was fine with that though, as boob > BBQ any day of the week.
Just back from the little guy’s 15 month visit to the pediatrician. All is well. He’s right on track on pretty much everything. But seriously, does anyone care about anything other than the numbers?
So here they are. He weighed in at 28.2lbs (standing on the scale on his own!) and was 33.25 inches tall. I don’t quite buy the height, but close enough.
He also go two more immunizations. The nurse was LYING on his legs and still having a hard time holding him down. He is one strong little boy!
I need to get back to work, but here is a list of this morning’s words: truck, bird, bumpy, puppy, cars, wheels, and people. He has a ton more (we really should make a list), but that’ll have to do for now. Ok, back to work for me.
There are TONS of pics up on the www.snaptom.com/baby. But here’s a recent one in some (Calvin Klein!) PJ’s from his Grandma Janice.
When I was little my glasses were always dirty, always coated with fingerprint goo. I don’t know how I did it, but they only seemed to be clean immediately after a visit to Pearl Vision Center (who had a free 1 year, no questions asked guarantee against breakage – yes, they lost money on me). When I was older, I went to the other end of the curve. My glasses were always clean. I carried a cleaning clother around with me, and had glasses spray at work and at home. They were always perfect. With Thomas, I’m quickly drifting back to the other end of the curve. My glasses are always Thomased up. His grimy little hands move with Ninja speed towards them whenever they’re within reach. Maybe when he’s lost interest in my spectacles, I’ll get to go back to my clean ways.
This morning Thomas slept in and boy did I need it. He didn’t start making noise until 7:40 – over twelve and a half hours after he’d gone down. Apparently standing takes a lot out of a guy. I wouldn’t know, I sit all day.
After a little investigation it was discovered that my Mother, the proprieter of the very exclusive Hanover GrandmaCare has been saying “tickle, tickle, tickle” to Thomas – a lot. This morning, when I was changing him, and maybe nibbling some toes (I hadn’t had breakfast yet, I needed a fix), Thomas said something new. It was definitely a word, three actually, but I couldn’t understand him. He didn’t repeat himself so we moved on. Later, while he was sitting with Danielle he said these words again – “tickle, tickle, tickle” and she figured them out. I’ve said it before, but one of the most amazing things about being a parent is watching him learn. It really does rock.
30/30 – That’s the designation on the Peg Perego car seat we have had for Thomas since ne was brand new. It was supposed to last until he was 30 inches tall (he’s close) and 30 lbs (not even close). Well, he pretty much can’t fit in it any more. We got a smokin’ deal on a new Britax convertible (meaning it can face frontwards or back, not that it has a removable roof) that we put in Danielle’s car, but had been putting off getting one for my car. Unlike the old Peg Perego, the new one stays in the car. No more snapping it out and carrying in our sleeping baby. Darn.
Well, we found another deal and picked up a convertible car seat for my car this week. It’s not as fancy as the one in Danielle’s but it’ll work. Thomas helped me fit it this am, in his PJs. This should be a much happier car seat for our trips in my car. We’ll know for sure when we head out on our Friday adventures this afternoon.
Thomas enjoys his first Valentine’s Day car from Grandma Jan in Cleveland.
Finally, a couple from last night’s bath. This new “standing up” Thomas is really tough to bathe.
Thomas’ first failed escape attempt.
“Are you looking at my bum?”
Crazy face!
The second failed escape attempt.
And finally – “trust me, I wasn’t really going to jump … ”
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!
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!
by: Tom |
September 27, 2008 at 10:28 pm
| Filed under grandparents, photos
This rain has been rough on our little man. He likes going for walks, going on adventures, just getting out of the house. But today, we were sequestered again. Held captive by sopping clouds. Good thing I had my camera …
Today’s theme really was “wet” as Thomas peed all over himself, not once, not twice, but three times. Here’s the third, and final outfit of the day. It’s a hand-me-down form our friends Lauree and Haitham. Years ago it was their son Tariq’s, and now it’s Thomas’. I love, love, love hand-me-downs! Oh yeah, and it’s old school BabyGap patterned corduroy with feet. How awesome is that?!
All these early mornings and late nights took there toll on your humble author and today I crashed hard at about noon. Thomas was winding down also. After about a half an hour of his scratching and punching my face, as well as talking up a blue streak, we nodded off for a nice two hour nap. Danielle snuck this after we’d been out for a while.
I’ve been doing more and more shots with Thomas and multiple off camera flashes. He’s generally pretty patient with my setting things up, adjusting things, and finally taking the pictures. Today he wasn’t so patient, but I love the results anyway!
Thomas’ Ohio GrandParents also have a Mac so we can video chat. We definitely don’t do it enough, but today were able to. Grandma Jan, GreatGrandma Francis, Aunt Liz and Uncle Chris were so interesting to Thomas that he sat up on his own for the first time! Yes, totally out of the blue, he sat up. No hands, though I admit I was tense waiting for him to fall over. I didn’t have to wait long … In any case, sitting up on your own – yeah Thomas!
Later during the chat, I ended up with Thomas right in front of me. At the prodding of GreatGrandma Francis, we snapped a pic. Here’s what Thomas will look like once his hair grows in.
Despite being stuck inside, we had another good day with our little buddy. The four month old Thomas is way easier to deal with than the two month Thomas. Yeah Thomas!
With Thomas, you should never get your hopes up that a day will be easy, nap-rich, or quiet. Pretty much any hope like that will doom you to bad-Thomas-dom. So yesterday, as mentioned below, was a good day for us. I had high hopes that the little one had turned the corner and would be easy for my Mom today.
No dice.
Despite all my Mom’s best efforts, he refused to nap. Long walks – ok, a tiny nap. Swaying in a dark, quiet room after a meal – haha, you’re kidding right? Actually trying to put him down after he has been asleep in your arms for 15 minutes – oh, you must be kidding.
So, it was another tough day (at least the last part) for my Mom with Thomas. He ate 16oz of milk today. For those of you who don’t know, that is a TON of breast milk for a 9 or so hour period…
Anyway, when Danielle got him ready for his trip south to Grandma’s, she put him in this super cute hand-me-down outfit. I usually don’t go this big with photos for the blog, but I think this one is worth it!
Yes, that is a knit sweater union suit. Where do I get one of those? I have a feeling it’s prohibitively expensive to knit something that will fit all of me …
At the end of the day – after almost no napping – this is what Danielle brought home:
Thomas lu-u-u-vs his Lamby Lovey.
How much? A lot.
He’s actually been asleep for the last 3.5 hours in the outfit, in his car seat, with his Lamby Lovey. I guess he saved up all his napping …
It’s been a few busy days since I’ve had time to update the world on the happenings of this smiley, giggly, ticklish, chubby, energetic, loud, adorable munchkin who lives with us. As we previously mentioned, this was Thomas’s first week with Grandma Carol as Danielle’s now back to her full, part-time schedule of three days a week. So it breaks down like this. Danielle is home with him on Monday. Tuesday he goes down to Grandma’s house. Wednesday he’s home with his Mom. Thursday he’s back down with Grandma, and Fridays, he and I do the guy thing.
We thought we were rocking out a good schedule with him last week. He was sleeping a huge long stretch at night, and then on Tuesday night he stopped and went right back to his up at midnight or earlier routine. So much for letting his Mom get into a nicer schedule. This continued until last night when he slept from 7:30pm until 4:25 this morning. He certainly does keep us on our toes (while he grabs his own) …
So what else is going on? Well, his reflux is still there. It’s crazy to hold him and feel his body refluxing and hear it come up (sometimes all the way up) and then go back down. But, the drugs seem to be doing their thing and it definitely doesn’t bother him as much. He’s even become quite adept at taking his medication – 0.9mL of it twice a day. Though sometimes, he just likes to remind us who’s boss and spit it out. Little rascal!
Oh, and he’s ticklish. As a child I was so tormented by ticklers, that I vowed never to tickle torture any child. I have not just broken that vow. No, I have now shattered that vow. Soft, machine gun kisses on Thomas’ belly send him into a fit of giggles that is nothing short of intoxicating. He seems to enjoy it too. At least that’s what I tell myself.
This has been an insanely text heavy post so far, so let’s get to the brain dump of the last few days and the photos and videos.
Wednesday – Castle Island with Jacob and Maggie
As previously mentioned, Thomas and Danielle met Jacob and Maggie while out for a walk a few weeks ago. Jacob is 4 weeks Thomas’ junior. I love how that can feel like so much now, when soon it’ll mean that they’re pretty much the exact same age. At 34 I pretty much consider anyone in their thirties as “my age”. Man, I’m old.
This was Thomas’ first real play date. All our friends kids are either too old (Gabriel nearly 6 months – essentially old enough to drive and vote) or Tanner (just two months, I mean, really, that’s just like soo young), or even Jaiden who at four and a half weeks still has his age measured in days… So yeah, Jacob is pretty close.
Jacob is not quite sure what to make of this person invading his personal space.
How about some video of this meeting of the minds.
Thomas learns to share – maybe.
Careful Jacob, Thomas’ mouth is like a bear trap!
Jacob shows Thomas how this whole “tummy time” thing is done while the Lion looks on. At the tender age of 2.5 months, Jacob rocks at tummy time.
Unfortunately this isn’t a video, as I’m sure we’d have proof that Lion can talk. Apparently he just said something quite interesting to the boys.
They seem to have had a great play date. Hopefully this will have been the first of many.
Thursday – Day two with Grandma Carol
Danielle and I were a bit less organized on Thursday morning, but Thomas didn’t mind. He got up (early!), fed, and was in a happy mood, and fell asleep hard for the drive down to Hanover. I got him all the way into my parents house before, while Grandma and I looked down at his cuteness, he opened his wide eyes and looked rather confused. Where on Earth had I taken him? He did not know.
So how was their second day? Not better, or worse, just different. Thomas kept my Mom moving pretty much every minute of the day. He did manage to get some pretty good naps in, unlike Tuesday, but that’s about it. Oh, and they weren’t naps where Grandma could relax – they were naps while out for long walks around the neighborhood. During one of them, a little girl asked my Mom when she had Thomas. That cracks me up. :)
Hopefully he’ll continue to get used to this twice weekly change of scenery. He and we are very, very blessed to have my Mom so close and able (and willing!) to take care of our little one. He packs a lotta cries in that little 27 inch frame and having someone who loves him doing the care giving is just about the only thing keeping all involved sane … well, we’re not sure how much longer my Mom’s sanity will last …
Friday day - just hanging with the boys
Thomas and I are maybe getting into the groove with our Fridays. We’ve got the bottle thing figured out. We’ve got the switching from activity to activity just before boredom (and cries) figured out. We don’t quite have the take a great nap thing figured out. I thought we did, but no. Yesterday was another day of 20 – 30 minute naps. But we still had fun.
Our adventure for the day was to go over to see Uncle Michael. We picked up Michael and headed into the Fenway area to run some errands and get some lunch at El Pelon. This was Thomas’ first burritto experience. Though he didn’t actually eat a burritto, he had 3.5 ounces of milk. He seemed not to mind. He also did his best to flirt with every woman who laid eyes on him. He’s so advanced!
Being so bloody hot yesterday, we thought it best to head back to Michael’s place for some AC and hanging out.
Thomas wins Michael over with some tummy time smiles.
Gracie, Michael’s new kitty, tries to figure out how the straps work in Thomas’ carseat.
Thomas wows Michael with his strong bite!
Gracie decides that she can be cute too, and goes after Thomas’ bug toy (before I put it away).
With the toy away, Gracie moved on to my sneakers.
Ben, Gracie’s three year old older brother (by another mother), was so not interested in her shenanigans.
At that point, Thomas started to get a little fussy so we hit the road. All in all, a really good afternoon of hanging out!
Friday night – bathtime
We’re trying to get into a bath, food, sleep schedule. Last night we were going to blow off the bath as Thomas was falling asleep, but then he perked up again so we figured why not. I just want to point out it was Danielle who said we should bathe him – and she paid dearly for it.
A little background. Thomas, like all babies, has a very cute butt. Seriously, baby toosh rocks, but (at least with boys), if you try to capture a pic of said butt, you have to extra careful to not capture anything else. If you get what I mean. Anyway, I was farting around with some camera stuff before Danielle proposed the bath and figured “self, maybe we can get a cute butt shot.” In walks Danielle with our little naked man ready to put him in the drink, and we hear it. It took me a second for the noise to register. It was not a little bit. It was not the “you just put me in the tub” squirt. It was a full on, huge pee.
A mostly internet safe capture after the leak had been sprung.
Thomas found the whole thing rather amusing.
Such a cute little beast.
Good job Thomas!
Thomas takes in his handiwork.
So overall, a pretty busy week. A handful of firsts (play dates, spending the day with Grandma Carol, peeing for the camera). Thomas Joseph, man about town, never fails to keep things interesting.
So everyone appears to have survived Thomas’ first day down with Grandma Carol and my Mom appears to still be speaking to me, so there may still be hope! Thomas pulled his patented “I don’t need no stinkin’ naps” routine and stayed awake pretty much all day. Wait, that’s not true. My Mom got him to fall asleep plenty of times, he just woke himself up with his fists of fury. When will he learn?
The commutes (I took him down in the am and Danielle picked him up this afternoon) that book ended our day weren’t all that bad, and I think we both learned some things to make them better. Danielle’s was under an hour, and mine was about an hour and 20 minutes. Not bad for Boston traffic really. We’ll see how things go on Thursday.
Ok, so let’s catch up on those pics I promised.
Saturday at Uncle Michael’s gig
Thomas is not amused with Michael’s choice of snacks.
Ear plugs in – let’s rave! (or nap)
Thomas and Michael ignoring me.
Monday’s photo shoot.
I think I’ve mentioned the white board that I have at work with 9 photos of Thomas making 9 different faces. Often when folks come in and ask how I’m doing, I’ll point to a photo. Well, looks like I have to get 64 more prints made from this Monday’s impromptu shoot. The entire gallery is here: http://www.snaptom.com/gallery/5863425_xiRSA#364077965_BQcq4
Sometimes when we are trying to get something done (or clean up a mess from you know who), we’ll stash said who in the crib. On Monday, he was in a crazy mood.
Thomas is not shy and knows when it’s photo time. Here he’s just warming up.
Thomas has taken to tilting his head. Not sure if he’s hamming it up on purpose.
I love when Thomas bites his lower lip. This might be the first time I’ve actually captured it, but he does it a lot.
Ok, Thomas guesses he’ll let me take more pictures.
I don’t know if he’s actually surprised, but Thomas does this all the time and cracks me up.
Thomas is pretty sure his eyes are going to stay blue.
Sneaky Elvis?
“Maybe I should just smile and get him to leave me alone … ”
Crazy smile.
Bashful smile.
Happy I have no teeth smile.
I’m looking at you smile.
“No more smiles – please – I need to have some deep thoughts.”
“Oh, ok, I have another crazy smile in me.”
And it’s less crazy cousin …
Hopefully Thomas will throw down more of these and less crying when he’s with his Grandma in Hanover on Thursday.
