Thomas at IKEA

We took a quick trip to Ikea today. Thomas decided he liked on of their chairs.

Minus

Ok... File this in the "Just when you thought your child could not get any cuter" department. For the longest time Thomas would say everyone else's name but his own. However, recently he has started to say "mine" when referring to things he thought were his... i.e. his plate, his truck, etc. Sorcha and I have been asking to say his name lately but he just didn't want to say it. Then... one day, continuing our quest for him to say Thomas... when asked he whispered "Minus". I'm assuming it's a combination of "mine" and "Thomas". He now always refers to himself as minus. "Minus walk", "Minus up", "Minus down"... It is the cutest thing in the world. Sorcha captured a short video with him saying it. See below...

Thomas at the Park

One thing Thomas loves is playing outside. Our goal for a while has been to find the best parks all over Austin and the surrounding areas. Well, we found a great one today. There is a new park in Round Rock over by Brushy Creek that has a great little toddler playscape. It's quite shaded and and has a lot of empty fields around it for lots of running around. Here are some pictures of our time at the park.

Making Cookies

Thomas absolutely loves to help around the house. The toys we have for him have pretty much become obsolete. He'd much rather help Sorcha cook, clean, whatever it is she's doing at the time. It's pretty funny. You say the words "help mama?" and he just lights up. So, Gigi came over the other day and they decided to make cookies. Of course, Thomas wanted to be right there in the thick of it. Sorcha was able to take some cute pictures of him helping. Here you go...

Potty Time

I know I haven't posted in a while, and I'll try to get some updates up soon. The biggest new thing around here is that we've officially started learning to use the potty. We're using the Montessori method which is essentially putting them in underwear and staying home for 3-6 weeks until they get it. Montessori believed that kids have a "sensitive" period, or a window of opportunity for learning the potty (and many other things) between 12 and 18 months. She said that if you miss it, it can be a long time before they're interested again.
Thomas is certainly interested. He was also showing all the signs of readiness, so even though he seems really young (just turned 16 months), we're doing it. I'm not going to push him, but if he's ready, he'll do it.

We're on day 6 right now and I am just astounded at his progress. The first day we went through 14 pairs of training pants. He would usually catch himself and not let a huge puddle out, but he also couldn't seem to relax on the potty and let it all out there either, so there was a TON of back and forth. After several days he started letting more and more go in the potty. So, here's the progression of how many pants we've gone through each day, starting on the first day:
14
9
6
5
3
and so far today he's gone through ZERO. We're still in our original pair from this morning. I also didn't clean up a single drop of pee off the floor yesterday! It's truly unbelievable. He naps in training pants and so far has only woken up wet (and then only slightly) once. We still use diapers at night b/c he still nurses, but once he stops nursing at night, we plan to try to wear underpants then too.

Don't get me wrong...we still have a ways to go, but he is getting there and making progress every day. We need to get to the point where he will just pee right when we sit on the potty instead of sitting there for 20 minutes. Sometimes he will go right away, but not every time. We also haven't had any poop in the potty yet. Thank goodness he only goes once a day!

So, overall, I'm SOOO glad we're doing this. I'm starting to go stir crazy at the house, but hopefully our seclusion will end soon.

p.s. the picture's not great b/c he jumps up every time he sees the camera b/c he wants to see the picture we just took.

Learning to Jump

Thomas has been trying to jump lately. At first he would just get up on his toes, but now he's jumping and falling on his bottom. Too cute!

Why Waste a Tantrum?

Ok... This is just too funny not to post... I'm just waiting for the day when Thomas does something like this. It will take every ounce of self control not to laugh.

Testing Writely

Just signed up for the Writely beta. It's the online word processor that Google just bought. They have a feature that allows you to post directly to your blog and I wanted to check it out. So far it looks pretty good. It performs well and has all the standard word processing features most people use.

Playing in the Gutter

Another quick post of some more cute pictures. Sorcha took these of Thomas playing in the gutter after it rained one day. Unfortunately, there was a smudge on the lense so they didn't come out perfect, but they're good pictures regardless. Click for the pictures.

Fun with Molasses

A quick post of some cute pictures of Thomas enjoying some molasses. I think Sorcha was cooking and gave him a tablespoon of molasses. Needless to say, he enjoyed it very much. Click for the pictures.

Little person

So, sometime in the past month or so Thomas has really become a person to me. I mean, we've always felt like we've known him and his personality, but he's really just turned into a little man lately. It's probably just because it seems like he's interacting with me instead of just living in his own little world. Here are some of the new things he's started doing:

Saying night-night while laying his head down.
Helping around the house - with unloading the dishwasher, wiping spills, loading the dryer, watering the plants etc.
Climbing, climbing, climbing! He's been safely getting down from our bed on his own for at least several months now, but he's just now interested in getting up. It's really cute.
Understanding and responding to TONS of what we say, like: go get your shoe, go get your other shoe, take this to mama, daddy, gigi, etc, hold my hand, go to the bedroom, bring me that, eat it, don't eat it, stop, gentle, time for bed, go to the bedroom, lay down, sit down, stand up, where's your ball?, close that, open that, take a bath, and the kicker, pee pee goes in the potty! (Plus probably 100 more I can't think of right now).
Plus it seems like his vocabulary is exploding!

Our biggest development lately is his immense interest in the potty. He will pull at his diaper when he needs to go or right after he goes. He's been doing the sign for potty for a while, but lately he also wants to sit on the potty. The other day he did the sign and grabbed his diaper and walked into the bathroom. Then we heard him poop. WHAT?? And he did actually pee in the potty yesterday. I've read about "readiness" signs and he has all of them except for being dry for 3 hours. So, we're just going to explore the potty for now and see where it leads. I'm just taking his cue.

He's showing that he wants certain things lately and it's really fun. The other day he requested his hat when I said "let's go for a walk." And usually when he's getting drowsy at night I'll ask him "is it time for bed?" and he'll shake his head no (with his eyes half closed). But tonight he was nursing, looking drowsy and I asked him if it was time for bed and he signed "more" (which I think still means "I want"). At first I thought he didn't understand what I meant (yeah right!) but I took him in the bedroom and he calmly laid there while I changed him and then wouldn't you know it - nursed to sleep in 3 minutes flat!

I've been meaning to post all his words and signs for months but haven't gotten around to it until now. Here's the list:

Clearly intelligible: mama, papa (for his grampa nick), tractor, vacuum, hot, cat, uh-oh, this, water, hat, up, bug, night-night, ice.

Less so: truck, helicoptor, daddy, bubbles, ball, book, bite, apricots, pasta, puppy, bird.

Signs: fan, more, nurse, help, dog, outside, no, eat, water, book, light, phone, down, all finished, airplane, potty

Black and White twins. Unbelievable!

Saw this on digg this morning. Wild! A million to one chance.

read more digg story

Tumbling Thomas

Hello everyone... Just a quick post of a very cute video of Thomas. He's started wanting to tumble by himself. We've done it with him a bunch, but he's never started the process himself until now. It's really cute... See for yourself.

The Love of Yogurt

Everyone loves yogurt right? Well, Thomas does. He not only loves to eat it, he loves to play with it. Sorcha gave him a container of yogurt and a spoon the other day and he proceeded to dump out the yogurt on his high chair and play... and play... and play. He had a great time. I was able to get a quick video and some pictures. Here's the link to the pictures and I've posted the video below.

The Backyard Pool

Nana and Grandpa got us a blow up pool for the backyard for Thomas' birthday. We just blew it up the other day so Thomas could play in it. He loved it. He loves taking the hose and playing in the water. Sorcha took these photos. Enjoy!

Thomas Loves the Vacuum

While Sorcha was enjoying some time away from home with the Superfriends at Z'Tejas, Thomas and I spent some quality time at home. First, we just played. He loves his new vacuum and that was the first thing he went for. Of course, I had to take pictures and a quick movie. After that, he was a bit tired so I put him down for a nap. That's kind of a misnomer since I can't actually put him down for a nap. I put him in the sling and rock him to sleep, then sit and read a book while he sleeps. At times I would love to be able to put him in his bed and have him fall asleep, I'm still working on that, but It's pretty cool to have him sleep with me for his naps. He woke up a little early from his nap so he was still a bit tired, so I put on one of his programs and we laid on the couch together and watching TV. It was pretty cute, he just laid on my chest and watched his program. Every so often, looking up at me and signing "nurse?". Thankfully, mama came home pretty soon after that. Here are the pictures I took and I've included a quick video of him and his vacuum.

Thomas the Chef

Thomas helped Sorcha bake some cookies this morning. Then after a long morning baking he wanted to take a rest in a chair. That's his new thing, sitting in a big person chair. He loves it. Click for the pictures.

Thomas the Sailor Man

Just a quick post of a VERY cute picture of Thomas. We were cleaning out our closet today and found Thomas' Grandpa's old sailor hat from when he was in the Navy. We thought it would be cute to see if Thomas would wear it. That he did. He walked around the house for the longest time wearing the hat. I had to get a picture. I'm sorry but he is SO cute!

Thomas Turns One

I planned and schemed and cooked and cleaned (reading too much Dr. Seuss?) for a month and it's all come to a close. I've hardly had time to think this past week what with the final party preparations and visiting with my dad (who came down from Seattle for the party!) . The party was so much fun. It was a beautiful morning for a park party. The *only* sad part was that the superfriends came down with a stomach bug the day before so they weren't able to make it. We were so bummed that they all had to miss the party, but we were also sad for them being sick.

Thomas had his first taste of pure sugar in the form of a yummy chocolate cupcake (which his daddy spent all night preparing for him). Initially he asked for more, but after a few bites he lost interest and just wanted tons of water. He never even grabbed it, he just wanted me to give him bites. I am in no way complaining!! There's plenty of time to get addicted to sugar. His great-grandparents got him one of those old fashioned poppers and it was a huge hit. He had a great time walking it all over the place. Of course, probably his favorite thing to do at any park is to chase the birds and/or squirrels, and his party was no exception. After all that partying though, he was exhausted and crashed before we were even out of the parking lot.

When we went to bed I was looking at him sleeping and thinking back to that same night exactly one year ago. I almost started crying just thinking about what we would go through for the next several months (not sure the correct tense to use when talking about the future of a memory - or how to even say that!). It was all so overwhelming. We had no idea what to expect or what to do. The first 3 or 4 months with Thomas were very hard for us. Even aside from the huge breastfeeding struggles, was just the adjustment factor. It has taken us a long time to find balance with a baby and with being a family - being parents! - instead of just two adults. That's not to say that we're there, but we're a heck of a lot closer.

Having a baby is not what I thought it was going to be. First and foremost it's 100 times harder. It's lonelier, it's more boring. But it's also more amazing, moving, and grounding. He astounds me every day with what he can do and with what he wants to do. He is helping me learn patience and how to stay in the moment and what's really important in life. Everyone has heard moms say how you never know how much love you can feel until you have a child and it's true. Sometimes I just feel like I love him so much I can't stand it! What do I do with all this feeling? It almost reminds me of labor, but in an emotional way. Often it's difficult to be so utterly needed, but then he looks up at me with those big blue eyes, completely content to just nurse and I take a deep breath and remember he won't be small forever. There's a wonderful saying from a book I read recently that I've really tried to take to heart - "nothing has meaning but the meaning you give it." So, when I'm trying to finish the dishes and he keeps coming up to me, demanding to be held, I could get frustrated. Or - I could choose to hold my sweet little man and enjoy the fact that he wants to be held. The dishes sure don't care.

I'm including a link to my birth story in case anyone hasn't read it and wants to. I've been thinking about that day a lot this past week. At 4:00 pm on May 13, 2005 Thomas wasn't here. At 4:01 he was (ok, so he was here for 9 months prior to that day, but we didn't meet him until then). I remember thinking: Where did he come from? Who is he? Where are his parents?? This little person suddenly appeared and was utterly dependent on us (mostly me). I'm so happy that I can look back on that day happily. Everything went exactly as nature designed it to go. I'm glad we were at home. There was no time to think or question whether or not I could do it or if someone would "have to" help me. My body just did it. It was the most powerful thing I'm likely to experience in my life. Until next time of course.

Something I think only other parents can understand is that this past year has been the longest and shortest of my life. I hope Brad and I are able to savor these first years and roll with the challenges. Although sometimes it seems hard to believe now, I'm sure someday we'll look back longingly on this time.

Here's a link to the pictures on Smugmug and I've posted a slideshow of pictures taken during the first year. Enjoy...

The Evolution of Dance

Ok... This has nothing to do with myself, my wife or our son. But it simply too funny not to post... Enjoy!

Unstoppable Cleaning Machine

So, everyone knows it's in poor taste to get your wife a vacuum as a gift, but what about your one year old son? He is OBSESSED with the vacuum. Today when he woke up from his nap I went in his room to get him and he reached up for me and said "bac" (vacuum) and signed "more". It's his third "word"!! *sigh* He cannot be deterred. It all started with the broom, but he soon realized that there was something even cooler...I mean it makes noise for crying out loud - what more could a little boy want? He actually wants to play with the vacuum more than he ever wanted to go outside. When he learned the "outside" sign I thought that was bad, but this goes to a whole new level. He gets frantic. His "more" deteriorates from all fingers together to a rushed clapping of the hands. He looks at me imploringly and if I acknowledge that I understand him by saying "vacuum" he visibly relaxes and gives a big grin while continuing to sign and point. Who needs toys?!?

When he wakes up in a little while I'm going to go buy him his own vacuum so that maybe he'll be content to play with it on his own instead of demanding that I vacuum the house all day. I mean, I like a clean house, but geez!

Bouncing Ball Fun

Just a quick post of a cute video of Thomas and Sorcha playing with his new ball. He loves it when she bounces it with him. Very cute!

Hypno-Birthing Reunion Picnic

Today was the annual Hypno-Birthing Reunion Picnic. We were unable to attend last year because it was about 2 weeks after Thomas was born. We were very excited to go this year. Thomas had a great time. Click here for the pictures.

More Park Fun

While Sorcha went to the grocery store, Thomas and I walked down to our neighborhood park. He LOVES being outside. That's all he wants to do, well besides play with the handheld vacuum. I was able to take some photos while he was playing. I think I got some decent shots. Hope you like them. As always, click here for the pictures.

Happy Easter!

Can you believe Easter has come and gone? Time certainly does fly. We took Thomas over to Gigi and Papa's for a lovely Easter meal and some fun Easter egg hunting. Sorcha's grandparents, Brittany, Angee and Zachary were there as well. It wasn't so much Easter egg hunting for Thomas but just picking eggs up off the front lawn. He had a great time as you can see in the movie below. He immediately saw the first egg, picked it up and put it right in his basket. An born Easter egg hunter. Do they have Easter egg hunting contests? I got some great pictures of him on the lawn with his plastic eggs. All he wanted to do was pull them apart and give them back to someone to put back together so he could pull them apart again and again. Angee then broke out the bubbles and he loved those. Take a look here for the pictures.

Good morning to you

The past week or so I've been singing "Good Morning to You" to Thomas when he wakes up. He always smiles. But then about 3 days ago he figured out how to sign for more. I know I posted a long time ago that he posted for more and he DID for several days but then he stopped and has just now started again. Plus this time he actually applies it to things other than eating. I think it would be more accurate to say that it means "I want" right now. Anyway, when I sing that song he signs more so I'll sing it a few more times. It's really sweet.
Yesterday he also stood at the door signing more - wanting to go outside. And the other night I was tickling him and I would stop and he would sign more. Its hilarious! I'm really glad we are doing sign language b/c it really makes you realize how much they understand and how early.

Mmm...Dog food

I was doing the dishes when I saw Thomas make a run for the dog dish. But instead of picking it up like I normally do, I figured, "what the heck?"
I did end up taking the dog food away since he kept putting it in his mouth, but he had a great time with the water. I've got a little video I'll try to add later, but for now it's just pictures.

Pantry fun

Only one week of walking and Thomas already found something fun to dump out in the pantry. I *did* look at the items on the shelf to see if it was alright for him to play in there, but I guess I missed the open bag of birdseed. Oops.
He's also wasting no time in learning how to climb. Last night he leaned over the toy box and grabbed the opposite side and proceeded to pull himself up on top of it. Great...a climber.
The coolest thing though is watching his progression to standing up by himself. At first every time he'd plop down he'd just cry until someone came and helped him up. Then about a day later he figured out that he could crawl to things to pull himself up instead of waiting around for us. Now he's working on getting his feet under him and pushing himself up with his hands. He did it once yesterday, but several other times it just resulted in a face plant.  

Another Cute Video

I'm using this video as an excuse to try out a program I read about in PC Magazine. It's called Qumana. I had never heard of it before I read about it. It's basically an offline blogging tool with many more features than just the web based posting of Blogger. Take a look here at Qumana.com.

Now... on to the cute video. I only have my digital camera to take videos, so unfortunately the quality is never that great. It will do for now though, until I get a real camcorder. I've also been trying out different video editing software. I've tried Pinnacle Studio Plus 10, CyberLink Power Director 5, Windows Movie Maker and Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0. CyberLink was actually the easiest to use of them all, but it lacked some more pro features that I thought I would use in the future. Pinnacle just didn't do it for me at all. It was a strain on my computer resources. I have a P4 2.0 with 1GB of RAM which by in large is pretty good for most tasks. I think I've settled on Adobe. After some getting used to it seems to have the best of both worlds. It can do a whole lot and seems pretty simple to use. Ok.. back to the cute video.

This was just some video I took of Thomas while Sorcha, Thomas and I were playing in his room. The video was taken on the 18th, so he wasn't walking much at all. He was just cruising. It wasn't until a week or so ago he decided to walk on his own. He is just the cutest thing around. Hope you like.



Oh yeah, and I'm trying out YouTube. It seems pretty cool. It's like Flikr for videos. You upload your videos, name them, describe them and tag them. You then can view everyone else's videos with the same tags. I've uploaded some other videos that I haven't put on the blog. Take a look.

And he's off...

I've been saying for months that this is what I wanted...I guess we'll see if I *really* wanted it. As of Friday, we officially have a walker. We've known for a while that he could do it and we've even gotten him on video walking but *he's* never thought of himself as a walker until Friday. Everything seemed normal Friday morning with him frantically grabbing my fingers before setting off, but then after his nap it had all changed. It's almost like he made new connections in his sleep or something. When he woke up he just slid off the bed (video of that later), turned around, and walked away! I wasn't quite sure what to make of it at first. So I kept picking him up and putting him down again to see if that little hand would wave in the air searching for mine, but he wanted none of it. You could see on his face the comprehension that he was doing it on his own.



Of course, he's also finally worked out this crawling business as well. He's a much more efficient walker though. Now all he has to master is standing up from a sitting position (without something to pull up on) and he won't need me anymore!! Ok, maybe he'll kind of need me...

A Little Boy

Gigi came over the other day to watch Thomas while Sorcha and I got some things done around the house. A very cool thing let me tell you. All he wanted to do was walk around the house with her with his hat on and his soft toolbox. He was moving so much I couldn't really get a good picture. This was the best I could get. He is growing up so fast.

Light!!

I'm not exactly sure when Thomas started saying his two words, but it was probably at least 2-3 weeks ago. I know I posted a while back that he said a few things, but he hasn't repeated any of them. He started saying uh-oh whenever he dropped something and before I knew it he was saying it all day. At first it was more like "uh-uh-uh-ooooooh." But, with the hours and hours of practice he puts in each day, it's much more precise now. He'll say it and then drop something on purpose. It's pretty funny. Then, out of nowhere he started saying "Ite!!" while pointing to a light. So, we started showing him the sign for light and now he does that too! It's so strange to hear him say something that you can actually understand and to know that he understands what you mean. I can ask him where the light is and he looks up and smiles.
Oh! And you can also ask him where his belly is and he'll show you - about half the time. Weird! I can't believe I have an almost-one year old....

Person of the Year

I almost forgot to post this. Back in December, Time magazine was doing a promotion that allowed anyone to upload any picture they wanted to "nominate" them for the Person of the Year. When you uploaded the picture it put a frame around it and made it look like it was the cover of the actual magazine. Cute. But... for some, they actually chose some and displayed that cover in Times Square. Thomas' picture got chosen to be in Times Square! How cool is that? Of course, when we did the calculation of how many pictures were shown every day... it was only up for about 2 minutes. Still... Very cool. They had a webcam taking pictures of Times Square and if your picture was chosen they sent you an email with the webcam view of the picture being shown. Again... Very cool! So... to make a long story short... T.M. is famous.

Some Play Time

Well... Home again with the little man. One of his favorite things to do now is stand next to a bookcase we have in his room and play a toy piano on one of the shelves. He also likes to pull everything on the shelves off... and on to the floor. This bookcase is where we keep most of the toys he likes to play with, so he's hanging out here a lot. He also loves to take the containers of blocks on the bottom shelf and dump them out. He'll put some blocks back in and dump them out again. He loves it. I took some photos of him doing all these things. The photos aren't great, but I also took some movies which are very cute. Follow the link and enjoy.

Walking

Thomas is getting much better at walking by himself. He still likes to cruise and is much more comfortable holding on to things. But every now and then he'll go off on his own. I took a movie of him walking with his walker a couple of months ago. I can't remember if I presented it on the blog or not. I just took a quick movie of him walking to mama, but he actually changes course and heads for a closer chair. It's pretty cute. Take a look at both movies here. Enjoy.

SuperFriends

There is simply no excuse for how long it's taken me to post about our amazing playgroup. We call ourselves SuperFriends (yes, we are SuperDorks). We started meeting in August, but a few months ago the group was getting too big so we decided to break off into "toddler" and "infant" groups. Thomas and his friend Eva were technically below the age cut-off, but since we've been in since the beginning, we stuck with our older friends. One of the mamas had the great idea of trying to get all the babies (minus one not there that day) in a picture together. We plopped them all down and started singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" to try to keep them from running away. They were so curious what we were doing that they stayed still long enough for a great picture! This group has been so amazing. It's been quite an experience to have a group of close friends going through new motherhood together. Yay SuperFriends!

Thomas and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week

We've finally received our visit from "child's first illness". I guess I should be happy that it took almost 10 months to arrive, but who is ever happy about being sick?
Poor little man was so sick of being attacked with a tissue and/or medicine that he eventually became wary of a hand coming in his direction. The picture is how he fell asleep after lunging to get away from me to avoid a swipe of the nose. He just fell onto the pillow and cried (and 30 seconds later, fell asleep). This is extremely unusual for him in that if he's crying, he's always also reaching for me. I don't think he's ever cried and been happy to be away from me at the same time before.
I'd say this was easily one of the hardest weeks of my life. And he really wasn't even all that sick. Hats off the mamas in our playgroup who went through Rotavirus. Luckily if/when he gets that sick, I can (and WILL) call in reinforcements - GiGi.
I don't know what he had (and neither did the doctor), but I'm guessing it was just a virus of some kind. He had a really bad runny nose, a fever for several days and then a cough. The hard part was sleeping. The first two days he just wanted to be held non-stop. He would just lay his head on your shoulder and whimper. Talk about heart-wrenching! But those days were actually easier than the rest of the week because once he felt well enough to play (a little), he wanted to get down all day, but then everything that happened was HORRIBLE. He was standing and fell on his bottom - EARTH SHATTERING. He bonks himself in the head with a book - THE HORROR! He wanted to play but just couldn't cope with anything. By Thursday (started previous Friday night) I was on the verge of a breakdown. Of course, like many unpleasant things, my memory of last week is already starting to grow fuzzy. Honestly, sometimes I'm not sure how we'd get through this parenting adventure if that weren't the case.

Forgotten Videos

We've been trying to catch up on the blog lately and realized that there were several great videos that never made it up.
Brad made a little folder of them all, here.
The first one is just really cute giggling. The second one is the first time he pulled up to standing on his own. Then we have him walking while holding onto fingers. And probably my most favorite video we've ever taken of him is the next one. You can't really tell what's happening, but I'm behind Thomas (in his highchair) throwing treats to Charlie and Charlie is jumping up in the air to get them. Every time Charlie jumps, Thomas is startled and then cracks up laughing.
The last one is around the time that he started giving kisses. This is my favorite thing he's ever learned how to do. Now he'll kiss puppets and Charlie and if a face comes close to his he'll kiss it, but at the beginning he wasn't so liberal with his kisses.

Loves Fruit

T.M. has loved fruit ever since we started giving him solid food. It's mostly been the dried kind or in the little mesh eat thingy he uses. Every now and then he'll try to eat a whole piece of fruit. I was able to get a little video of him eating Sorcha's nectarine. Very cute. Follow the link to see the video.

First Haircut

It had to happen some time. We finally cut T.M.'s hair. We were going to let it grow and grow, but it just go way to shaggy. He started looking like either a politician or an anchorman, either one being unacceptable. So... Gigi was kind enough to come over to do the honors. Very cool, so we didn't have some stranger with a sharp object all up in his face. I'm sure he would not have liked that. He did however not mind Gigi at all. It all went pretty smoothly. Follow the link for more pictures.

A Nink in the Sink

I can't remember why he was in the sink. But I thought I would post a quick picture.

The Floor Sessions

Well... Home alone with T.M. again. Sorcha went to get a haircut with her mother, so I got to spend some alone time with the little man. As usual, I like to try to get some photos. Sorcha says he won't do this with her, but I can put him in front of a bunch of household items and he'll play for about an hour without getting bored. All the while the camera is going. Follow the link for more pictures, and be sure to check out the cute videos at the end.

A New Home

When Thomas was born, we started taking hundreds of pictures. I would send photos via email to everyone that was interested. Well, that started getting old very quickly and given the amount of photos we were taking it just didn't make any sense. So I started my own Thomas Moore Cavanaugh website. I created the site and maintained it but that quickly got to be a pain as well. So then I decided to host all of our family photos on Smugmug, which is very cool if you haven't checked it out. They do charge, but it's very minimal. The great thing about Smugmug is that you the people can have access to the original digital files, very nice... But then it seemed like I was just sending links to a bunch of photos with no real context and I didn't want to do that. That's when I created the Thomas Moore Cavanaugh blog using Google's free Blogger service. Ah... everything was right in the world. Both Sorcha and I could post to the blog about things that Thomas was doing but still link to Smugmug for the delivery of photos and short videos related to each post. Great. Well maybe not. Sorcha and I are planning to have more children. Will each child have their own blog? Doubtful... Big pain... So, the more I thought about it, the more I realized, we needed a family blog. Not just one focused on Thomas (although, I'm sure all the posts will be about him for a long time) but one focused on our new family and eventually larger family. So, without further ado, may I present the new blog... The Cavanaugh Family. Enjoy.

More Alone Time with Daddy

I can't remember where Sorcha went but I got to spend some time with Thomas all by myself on January 8th. I know, it's the 31st and I haven't posted these pictures. He pretty much sat by himself and played while I took a bunch of pictures of him. A lot of them are out of focus and I was messing with the settings so the color is funky in a lot of them but some of them came out. I just uploaded all of them for the heck of it. Be sure to watch the movies on the last page of the gallery, they are very cute. As usual... Click this link for more pictures.

Mr. Bitter Face

As most of you know we've been slowly giving Thomas new foods. Some he likes... Some he doesn't... But sometimes he's not sure. We gave him some Tomato in his little mesh eating thing (not sure what it's called) and it started out looking ok. But then the bitter face... What's even funnier is that he kept eating even after the bitter face. Follow the link to view the video to see what I mean.

No Socks Please

Thomas has been grabbing at his socks for some time now. But he has never tried to take them off... Until now... If he gets a hold of his socks, they are coming off. No questions asked. It's actually quite cute... As usual, follow the link for the video.

Christmas with the Cavanaugh's

Well... I know it's a little late, but I guess I should post pictures from our Christmas festivities. As you'll see we spent some time at our house opening presents as well as at Gigi and Papa's on Christmas day. As usual, Papa cooks a fantastic meal for all to enjoy. This year my folks were able to come up and enjoy. We also went to Gigi's work Christmas party and Thomas got to sit on Santa's lap. He was not thrilled. As usual... Follow the link to see the pictures...

First time for everything...

Well, after running out of ideas to keep TM occupied tonight, I decided I'd try a long walk. Apparently he liked that idea. He's never fallen asleep in the stroller before. And as you can see from the picture, I even managed to push him into the house. Too cute.  

New Skills

I'm not sure why, but new things seem to come in groups. About a week ago TM started signing "more" which has got to be the cutest thing I've ever seen. I'll post a video of it later. Right now it really means "I want" b/c he uses it when he wants me to pick him up and when he wants a toy, but he'll get it soon. He also started talking around the same day. He said "dada" and "quackquack" (or really wahwah) and "mama" but hasn't really repeated them. He also started putting things IN baskets instead of just dumping them out. And anything flat now gets repeatedly flipped over (video of that later as well). And I think the last and final new thing is pulling things toward him to get something else. So, say a toy is on a blanket too far away, he'll pull the blanket to get it, or pull a wagon string to get the blocks in the wagon. Cute!! 

Testing Picasa: Blog This!

I use Google's Picasa to manage my photos. It has a nice feature that allows me to select a picture and just hit the "Blog This" button to post it to my blog. I've never actually done this, so this is my test post.