Thomas Joseph + Miles Isaak = World Domination

So Danielle took Mile and Big T to the doc yesterday. Miles has be refluxing just like Thomas used to. The poor boy has been crying his eyes out and been more or less inconsolable at times. With Thomas, we were dead set against medication our kid. That lasted until he was 4 months old. It sucked. We’re not making the same mistake this time!

So the doc prescribed Zantac for our little dude. He gets 0.7mL twice a day. He absolutely HATES the taste.

Parenting tip: have a boob at the ready when medicating your newborn!

So the doc weighed our little dude. He came in at 11lbs 11oz. Or, put another way… Huge! He then took a massive poo and the re-weighed him. 11lbs 9 oz!

Yesterday Thomas hit 20 months.  Dang, I’m behind again.

So what’s happening with our little man?  Well, last week (the 14th) actually, he had his “18″ month checkup at the docs.  Why did his 18 month checkup happen at 19.5 months?  Bloody impossible to get an appointment with our Doc – who we love.  She is the only reason we haven’t walked…

So about that visit.  A few interesting things happened.  The first was that Thomas got his latest digits, facts, and figures.  He’s 35.5 inches tall.  Ok, now he’s definitely 36 inches tall, but back then, nine days ago, he was 35.5.  That’s significant because he is growing like a weed!  Nothing on a counter is safe.  Ugh.  His height is now 98th percentile.  More interesting to me, is that he’s the height of an average 28 month old  – someone 40% older then he.  He’s such a little beast!

They also weighed our little chubs, and he’s now 31.2lbs – or heavier than 93% of kids his age.  The weird thing is, he’s not chubby.  He’s built like a brick, um, poo house.  And he’s strong, sometimes crazy strong.  “How strong?” you ask?  Well, he had to get two immunizations during this visit.  He is not a fan of immunizations.  So Danielle held down his chest and the nurse, who I’ll note, was not an especially tiny person, LAYED across his thighs so she could give him the two shots.  Yeah, he picked her up with his legs!  He screamed, the nurse gasped, Danielle had tears in her eyes, and I giggled.  I love him more every day.

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.

Yesterday was 5-27.   Thankfully that date was stuck in my head because at 8:22 am I realized that Thomas’ 12 month appointment – our first in three months, was slated to start in 8 minutes.  All still in our PJ’s, we were not quite ready to walk out the door.  We called the office to let them know we were coming late and they said “reschedule, we can’t take you late”.  Yeah, that didn’t sit well.  I try not to be the guy who asks for the phone, but yesterday I had to be.  Danielle was so frustrated with their response, that she didnt’ seem to mind (and no, I won’t make a habbit of this).  Anyway, I mentioned that they keep us waiting an average of 30 minutes EVERY visit and that I was suprised they couldn’t throw us a bone the ONE time we were late.  Amazingly her stance changed and she said “come on in, we’ll fit him in”.  Win for the clueless parents who forgot about his appointment.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t go to this visit as I had a networking event to hit.   But the report from Danielle seemed all good.  Here are the vitals.  Our little basketball player is 32.5″ tall.  Yes, I said tall.  I can say that now that he stands up, walks and runs.  (Thomas’ Grandmommy has always given me a hard time when I said tall before “he’s not tall, he’s long.)   He’s in the 99% in height.  His weight came in at 24lbs 10oz ~ right at the lean mean 75%.  His feet are off the charts …  Everything else checked out well. He’s a happy healthy little guy. 

Ok, he’s actually not that healthy.  He’s picked up his first cold and is a sniffly, crying mess.  Last night, I don’t think he slept for more than two hours in any stretch.   We set up the Aerobed so Danielle could corral him into an area and keep him sleeping a bit upright.  It’s so sad to see his sick face.    Still cute though, really cute.  He spiked a good little fever last night, topping out at 103.3 at about 3:45t this morning.  He doesn’t love the temperature taking …

So now he’s snoozing with his Mom, I’ve been working the last hour or so and we’re just hoping he get’s over this cold fast.  Sick, sad Thomas is way less fun than healthy, happy Thomas.

So Thomas turned 9 months old on Sunday. It’s crazy to think that before we know he’ll be a year old. So what’s new other than that his your humble scribe is just swamped with work and work related things and as such has really late this here blog slide. And that really bums me out. So here’s a quick update.

Today Thomas had his 9 month check-up. I try hard to not make this blog, his blog about me, but man o man today left me with a sour taste in my mouth. Why? Well, I didn’t some serious schedule juggling (of co-workers and my boss) so I could be there for Thomas’ 8:50am appointment and still make it to work for a quite important 10:30 meeting. Well, as seems to be habit, the doc’s office was so behind, that by the time 9:15 rolled around, they hadn’t yet seen Thomas and I had to pack up and leave. This is the first appointment that I’ve missed since Danielle’s first baby-doc appointment at 12 weeks into the pregnancy and I really, really bummed me out. And not just for my own selfish reasons, but they had to poke and prod Thomas, and dealing with him when he’s wigging out as they hurt him has always been my thing as Danielle, really, really isn’t into it. But today she had to be. Argh.

Ok, I feel better already. So how about the deets. Thomas is 30.25 inches tall and weighs in at a cool 21.5lbs. He’s gained only 9 ounces in the last 7.5 weeks and is now at the 66th percentile in weight (though he’s still rocking 99 in height – the boy is growing out of EVERYTHING). All else checked out fine, though we don’t yet know the results of his lead test (scary as we live in a house built in 1890), but overall things seemed good. The doc was a little surprised that Thomas’ weight gain has slowed so much, but he is one crazy, crazy active little boy. In other words, we sure hope we’re giving him enough. It’s hard to know though, and that’s kinda scary as a new(ish) parent.

So what else is the insane man up to? Well, do you recall that baby gate we have in his doorway? He’s now fond of crawling over, pulling himself up to his feet, placing his hands on the top, and then doing a pull-up. Yes, he’s lifting his feet (and whole 2.5 foot tall body) off the ground. More than a little scary.

He’s also very, very interested in the cats now. Where he never even seemed to notice them before, he now is all about getting nose to nose with them, touching them (not lightly – ever) and looking at them. They do not feel the same towards him. Though that’s probably for the best.

We can’t find out little camera that we use for videos. If we don’t find it by this weekend, I’m buying a new one. I feel like we’re missing so much great Thomas movie material!

Thomas flips me off – often. You see, his middle fingers seem to be the dominant ones. When he wants to see what something feels like, or move something small, or pick up a Cheerio – he always uses his middle finger, never his index finger. It’s kinda funny, though I’m sure the folks who we seen when we’re out and about must think I’m the worst parent ever for teaching my son to flip everyone off all the time.

I only know two lines of the “Thomas and Friends” theme song – but Thomas still goes crazy every time I sing them to him. Which I gotta admit is pretty often.

Monday night I had to go down to a meeting in NYC. It was my first night not at home (or in a hostpital) with my boy. It was weird, and sad and I missed him like crazy, but it was the best freakin’ night sleep that I’ve had in 9 months and three days!

One of these days I’ll have to catch up on more pics. I’ve been taking them, it’s the processing and uploading part that I’ve been dropping the ball on. D’oh!

Well, it was supposed to be the 7 month visit to get the last of his vaccinations (HepB, Polio, rubella), but getting a Pediatrician appoint is about as hard as getting a job as a walk-on with the Patriots, so it went down a couple weeks late. Anyway, as always we asked that they weigh and measure him. They were kind enough to pull out the scale.

Our little man is leaning out. His weight is now 20lbs 15oz and his length is 29 inches. He barely fits in his infant car seat (yeah, good until their first b-day my butt!), and is wearing 12 month and 12-18 month clothing. Anyway, he’s down to about the 75% in weight, and a bit over 90 in height. But he’s 100 in cutes!

I thought he’d be heavier, but he’s just so darn squirmy he just feels heavier now as it takes so much effort to control him.

Ok, more later, but I should get back to eating lunch as this is lunch time. I have a few more videos in the works …

Wow, what a difference 6 months can make in your life – or ours.  Thomas turned six months old (there I go with the month birthdays again) this past Saturday.  But it wasn’t really official until we went in yesterday for his six month check up.

Mr. Chub’s weight gain has slowed, but he’s still in over 95th percentile in height (or length as my Mom would correct me, since he can’t stand on his own.  But he can!  Though only for a few seconds.  Crash!).  On the weight side of things, he swings in at an even 90th percentile with 20.4lbs.  All looks good.

The only thing that’s not good is that he’s not yet rolling over.  He’s sitting well, almost crawling (he triangles backwards and can snowplow forward a bit, but no crawling).  The nurse practitioner asked if we wanted to see an early intervention person.  As he’s doing everything else well, we said no, though that was not a question I expected to hear going in, as he seems to be so off the charts in everything (size, teeth, talking, grabbing, swinging, throwing, reating), but what do I know.  Oh, and his grip is ridiculous and he packs a mean punch and kick, but they don’t have charts to measure beating up your Dad.

Speaking of Dad, Thomas is rocking the “Da-da” and “Ma-ma”.  He doesn’t seem to associate them with anyone or thing in particular, but does say them, a lot.  As well as “ba-ba”, but that one doesn’t make his parents heart as warm (now if we were sheep herders …).

Ok, I should stop playing on the computer and shower so I can motivate this family southward to Thanksgiving.  Thomas’ first Thanksgiving – I wonder if the bird will weigh more than our little chubs … In any case – what are we thankful for this year? We’re thankful for our (not so) little blessing Thomas Joseph!

Sorry no photos, I have taken a ton of them, but just not had time to deal with them as work has been insane. Here are a few videos though:

11.10.2008 – Thomas doing two of his favorite things: talking and looking at his adorable mug in the mirror.

Later that night. What do Thomas’ cries sound like? A sad, hyperventilating boy.

11.11.2008 – Thomas tells us what’s on his mind, and kicks, and sucks his thumb, and celebrates non-feet pajamas that he hasn’t yet grown out of.

11.13.2008 – Peas or horse, peas or horse? Just a warning – this one’s really long.

Ok, time to wake the family so we can get in the car and head on down to the GreatGrandparents for Thanksgiving.

On Friday, Danielle and I took Thomas to the pediatritions for his 5 month immunizations.  For most babies this would be an off month as we’d have given him double the different doses last month.  But, since we’re staggering, we went in for just two.  I should remember what they were, but I don’t.  Yeah – bad father #1!

So, as is always the case, we asked that they weigh him while we were there.  We measured him ourselves while we were waiting.  He’s now 29 inches long.  One more inch and he’ll have grown out of his really nice 
(re: spendy) car seat that’s good to 30 lbs and 30 inches, but honestly, I can’t imagine lifting a 30lb baby in that thing.  He’s heavy enough.  So how heavy you might ask?  He’s came in at a lean 18lbs 14.5oz.  Go Thomas!  The thing is, he’s not that chubby at all, save for maybe his thighs, they’re kinda in charge. 

With his second tooth he’s been a bit harder to handle of late, but we’re working though it.  It would be nice if we could count on his sleep lasting through the night, but we can’t.  He’s presently giving us three to one up at least once versus sleep through the night odds.  Sure, those odds are pretty good, but not when you’re an overtired adult who should be sleeping about 4 more hours a day …

So I’ve finally finished going through and posting the pics from the last week.   I’ll get into those later, but for now, here are some from Wednesday morning.

Why is Thomas smiling – his Mom had just entered the room.  Check out those adorable lined cargo pants.  Lined pants are key as it’s cold here in Boston already, and he’s not one to snuggle under a blanket when there’s kicking, jumping, or squirming to be done.

It’s been a while since we’d done an up-close and personal pics of the maniac.  He was raring to go.

Yup, those eyes are blue, no doubt anymore.

Yup, still crazy.

Not sure what was surprising about me and the camera in his face …

Let’s take a closer look.

Thomas’ hair is coming in very well as mine falls out.

This end of his changing table is litterally beaten down from all his kicking during every visit (except those that he passes out during) for a diaper.  Thankfully he’s going through less these days.  He was working us into the poor house faster than Wall Street.

Ok, now that Thomas has just passed out in the swing, we have to get him out and into his car seat for Church.  This might not have been the best order of operations …

Ok, so this is going to be a super quick, super jam packed update on Thomas Joseph, man about town.  I’ll break it in to a few posts to make all this Thomas Joseph goodness a little bit more manageable.

Friday

Friday was cold in our house.  We still had the AC units in the windows, and any heat we hoped to keep in, seemed to be leaking out.  What a great time for warm PJs and a super cute hat!

While I ate breakfast, Thomas got to stare at the best looking guy in the room (ie: not me) in the mirror over his swing.  He smiles at himself a lot while looking at the mirror.  I guess he likes what he sees.  :)

It’s hard to eat your breakfast with such a cute boy there. 

And a little bit of tummy time before it was time to put on the day’s clothes.  I have no idea what he was looking at that had him so confused.

“Look, I’m raising my eye brows!”

When tired, a nice break of pushing your face into the blanket can be just the pick-me-up a boy needs!

Tummy time sure does build up quite an apatite!

Once in his fresh duds for the day, Thomas took a ride in the cowboy jumparoo.  We really do have a ton of baby junk!

Later that afternoon, Thomas had his 4 month checkup at the pediatrician.  We solicited guesses on his weight, but everyone was wrong (all on the high side).  He came it at 17lbs 12oz and a lean 27.25 inches long (tall!) both way up in the 90th percentiles.  He is not a small child – just ask our aching backs.  Anyway, we also had some other questions for Dr. Gigi.  Thomas has a pretty major case of flat head.  All this hanging around on his back (we need to give him more tummy time … ), has flattened the back of his squash pretty well.  The doc took a bunch of measurements, but wasn’t too concerned as she said it’ll pop back into shape as he starts to hold himself up more and sit on his belly more (by choice).  Still she said she’d keep an eye on it.  She even measured our heads to see if we had 1. huge melons, or 2. oddly shaped domes.  Thanks to my bush for a head of hair, all my head’s issues are generally well hidden.  Poor balding man Thomas does not have that luxury.

Oh, and he got his next batch of three immunizations.  He really doesn’t seem to mind the actual needle sticks (though Danielle can NOT handle them), but he really, really hates having his legs held down.  He’s also not to fond of the fact that every appointment stretches out to 1.5 hours as we’re kept waiting so long … Yeah, that’s way, way outside his attention span comfort zone.

Before we knew it, it was bedtime.  And that meant time for another befooted set of pajamas.  This image size really doesn’t do this outfit justice.  The larger images, as always, can be seen here: http://www.snaptom.com/gallery/6030067_uT5kF#P-1-20 Yeah for feet!

Life with Thomas has been improving a lot lately.  Less tears and tantrums, more smiles, giggles, learning and love.  This Friday was among our better yet (of course his Mom was home for half of it and that’s always a good thing).  Oh, and yes I realize how blessed I am to be able to spend Friday’s home with Thomas.  This is a rare luxury these days for a Dad such as your humble author, to be able to spend so much time with his little one and I’m trying not to take it for granted.

As Thomas’ chubs increase in width and rolls, it’s just about time to get some stats on him.  On Friday afternoon, he’ll have his 4 month (oh my!) checkup.  There they will measure and weigh him.  You may recall that he was 15lbs 12oz last time they checked.  Guess Thomas’ weight at Friday’s weigh-in and you might just win a limited edition drooled on photo of the little man.

The rules:

• Whoever gets closest without going over wins.  If multiple people get it right we’ll pick who like most.  Just kidding, we’ll flip a coin or something.
• If you want a specific shot of Mr. Chubs, you can choose, otherwise we might.  And the pic might include his cute curvy butt.
• You can only take part by posting a comment.  No emails, calls, txts, telegrams, or semaphore.