Holidaytime

How is it December again already? It's a known fact that I struggle with the months, but I seriously think we might have skipped one. A pointless one like February. Or April maybe? Something's going on because, we're moving way too fast here.

Last Christmas, I gave you my heart... no wait.

Last Christmas, we took Tommy home and everyone showered him with love and gifts and he couldn't even move or smile.

This Christmas, we'll take Tommy home an everyone will shower him with love and gifts and now the boy can really move and smile and laugh and all kinds of good stuff. He can also open any door under 3 and a half feet, open the toilet lid, fall in or out of the bathtub, jump off the bed, tumble over invisible booby traps, and remove any and everything you own from it's proper place and deposit it roughly 8 feet away. Grandparents, get ready. Our Thomas is coming home to wreck your place.





















We didn't buy him much this year. I'm not sure he understands how the whole present thing works yet, so we're holding back. Besides all the plastic stuff that he loves, his other favorite toys around the house include a toothbrush, the empty roll from paper towels, Karen's dresser drawers, wires and a wooden spoon. If you're shopping for him and you aren't sure what to get, go to the Salvation Army, head to the housewares section and throw a rock. If he doesn't hit something made of glass, buy it. He'll love it.

He likes the tree a lot, and I agree with him. It's is really nice this year. We've got the frosted bulbs, a ton of tin ornaments, a gold star for the top. My Dad gave us some of the old bubble lights that I grew up with that I've always loved. It really looks great. Except for the fact that it's practically bare around last foot or so at the bottom, it's the best one we've ever done. He's tried to bite the tree a few times, he tries to use other toys to knock ornaments off the tree. He tried to eat a bulb tonight, so he requires a lot of extra supervision at this time of year.

He's also been sick a lot lately. Right after his birthday, he caught the stomach flu. Karen claims that she got it from him after he threw up on her. As an untrained scientist, and general doubter of the transmission of germs, I have reservations about the contagion level of puke. However, I got sick shortly after, presumably from airborne germs since I didn't touch any vomit, but as payback for being such a smart aleck, my bout of sickness came during hour two of The Dark Knight Rises at the cheap theater. When you're throwing up in a trashcan at the back of a $1.75 movie on a Thursday, you really get a chance to take stock of your life. All in all we spent about week at home stuck in bed, so I'm hoping that's all behind us.

He got sick for a few days again, earlier in the week. This time it was just a fever and general crabbiness. I'm not sure how this keeps happening, but I'm going to have to have a talk with him. He's way less fun when he's sick. For a boy that just goes goes goes, he is borderline comatose when he doesn't feel well. He won't let you put him down, he doesn't want to play with anything and he's not remotely interested in food. He just want's to be held, which is actually nice, but it's still a bummer.

At Halloween, he definitely said "bye bye bye" as we were walking out, but instead of talking, I think he was just copying us. He babbles all day long, but it's still gibberish. He calls me dada, calls Karen dada, calls an orange dada. We dont know what he's saying. The mimicking though, is pretty great.

Every day, we see him figuring more  and more things out. We read Spot books with him, and many of them are missing flaps where he got a little overzealous ripped them off trying to get to the pictures underneath. There's one that we've been reading him forever that's missing a flap over a turtle so we use our hand as a flap instead. When he sneaks into his room and reads it on his own, he does the same thing. He doesn't do it with any other book. We think he might be smart, but like the talking, I've already proven that I'm quick to assume he's a genius despite the fact that we have nothing to compare to.  He does give us his pacifier in the morning when we ask for it. He brings us our shoes, usually when we don't ask for them. He feeds us all the time now. He takes a bite and then offers us one, and then has another one for himself. We all end up eating a graham cracker or two a night this way.

While he loves sharing food, he's not much of a toy sharer. We spend most nights on the ground playing with all his 100 plus toys. He loves whatever he's playing with until the moment he notices you playing with something else. Then he tosses his current toy as if it were found garbage, and lunges for whatever you're playing with. There must be a name for this, right? This is definitely a classified personality disorder, I think. I'll double check.

Lately, we've got some concerns with the nudity. He really prefers it to the clothed choice that many of us have opted to go with in polite society. And while he's young and doesn't yet understand some of our social customs, we're starting to worry. Every night after the bath, he rolls around naked on our bed for 20 minutes before we can wrangle him into his PJs. Just the other day, he somehow got away from Karen before she could even get him dried off. He ended up naked and in the oven which is rarely a good combination. Perhaps it's a phase. Maybe it's something he'll learn to only enjoy in the privacy of his own home, but let me tell you that I'll not be attending Thanksgiving 2052 if it's at Lake Como Family Nudist Resort and RV Park in Lutz, Florida.

We're looking forward to so many things about the next few weeks, and apart from getting on a plane to spend a week on the beach, I just cant wait to see him run and scream on Christmas morning.

One last note, I just found out that if you click on an image in the blog, it should expand and you can see the original image, which is usually much nicer than the posted in the text. Enjoy!

Year One

Our little boy Thomas is one year old. For his birthday we took him to the Kjellander's and greeted trick or treaters. His mother dressed him like an owl and everyone loved it. He had to wear tights that made him look like Baryshnikov but he was pretty cute. Grandma Kathy made his costume for him, and next year we're thinking of stepping up to bald eagle, so hopefully she'll design him another masterpiece.

Tommy and Grace Kjellander are becoming fast friends. When they're not crying in terror from either Eric or me, they're practicing for after prom 2029.

It's been a pretty incredible year. Easily the best year of all 3 of our lives. We welcomed him into this world with tears and hugs and one year later, as we put him to bed, it's about the same. Karen loves Tommy so much and she's a little sad that he's growing up so fast. The nursing sessions are coming to a close and she thinks before we know it, he'll be driving. Personally, I just want him to start talking so I can have somebody who hasn't heard my stories yet. If Karen has to listen to me tell her about the time my mother sold all my Thundercats in the devastating garage sale of 1993, we're going to have a real problem on our hands.

He had his first light bulb moment the other night when we were leaving. I waved at Kristen and Grace and said goodbye, and Tommy balled up his hand a few times and said "bye, bye, bye" and it was awesome. We stayed an extra 15 minutes to get him to say it again, but it sort of morphed into "nye, nye, nye" and then "ba, ba, ba" and then just a look of confusion at all of us. So all in all, a great night.

One of the earlier posts was of his abilities. Here's an update:

Things he can do on his own volition:
He can walk
He can talk (we can't understand him, but he's talking)
Feed himself
Feed us
Squeal
Go grocery shopping
Drink from a cup or straw
Throw toys
Bite
Laugh
Help read a book
Trip and fall
Use hammers





Things he cannot do on his own:
Climb stairs
Clean up his toys
The Heimlich (he eats way too fast)
Avoid danger
Dress himself
Turn the vacuum on or off
Vote


Things he refuses to do:
Hold still for a photo
Leave my remote control alone
Kiss nicely
Lie on his back
Be put in a carseat
Wear a hat
Pick up a tab
Leave a book on a shelf
Eat any number less than 5 pancakes at breakfast
Accept that your nose is attached to your face

A few weekends ago, we took him on his first "vacation" to a little beach town in Michigan. We did this in the middle of October because nothing teaches you to swim better than vicious white caps and hypothermia causing water temperatures. Sink or swim, boy. There's a video of him seeing the ocean for the first time on our YouTube channel. I'm aware that it's technically a lake and not an ocean, but I think all moving bodies of water that are too big for me to swim across should be categorized as oceans.



That YouTube page is pretty great if you haven't checked it out, but let's get serious, if you're reading this blog, you're probably well aware of the YouTube page. These moving picture things just might have a promising future.

Thomas, forgive us for airing these without your permission. I believe them to be essential to the greater good.

He is most clearly our son, as he loves the fall like we do. Please enjoy some photos from the last few months. The majority include a pumpkin.

 A good boy. A good year. Lets go back to back.