Locomotion

Thomas is a man on the move these days. First, while Mommy was away, Daddy let Thomas attempt the step from the kitchen to the playroom (formerly known as the dining room). Luckily, Thomas was only mildly interested:

Rather than admit defeat, André then discovered that if he propped Thomas up against something, he could stand on his own! Do you think it might be time for us to buy baby gates?


Of course, the standing thing shouldn't have been too big a surprise, given his inclination to walk while holding our fingers (here he 's after the cat, whose tail you can see at the beginning of this video):

Obviously, we like to think that Thomas is a very advanced baby, but I think the truth is that his parents might be just a tad overzealous. Or, as we like to say, we are *very* attentive to his needs, desires and abilities. Hee hee hee.

Nothing beats beets!

Thomas loves solid foods in general, but his favorite so far is beets. We strip him down to his diaper & let him go. Here are the results:

Crawling

It's official: as of today Thomas has figured out how to move his legs AND his hands in order to move. Yesterday we joked that he was achieving an average pace of 4 inches per minute. Today, well, he's an awful lot faster - it ain't pretty, but it gets him where he wants to go.

Here's a video, though I admit it's not much. He doesn't really perform for the camera.

PS Thomas also went to see Santa today - was interested for the first 30 seconds (while the photographer got settled) then screamed for the next minute or so and promptly settled into gurgles and smiles the minute he was out of Santa's lap. Ah, the memories...

Baby proofing

Thomas is on the verge of crawling. He has mastered getting up on his hands and knees, and will rock back and forth in an attempt to advance. He has learned that the legs are an important part of this process, and will sometimes push forward with them. He has not, however, figured out that the arms play any role. When combined with the leg action, this has led to some carpet burn on his forehead.

Anyhow, Mandy and I have begun to baby proof the house. A key step was the installation of a cat door in our basement door since the cats' litter is down there. We have normally left the door slightly ajar, but given Thomas' increased mobility and the deadly stairs that lay beyond the door, we knew something had to be done.

Step one was ensuring that our cats would fit though the door. We assumed that Pete (the white cat) would be fine, but Babbington (the stripey cat) has been gaining weight and we were not sure that he would be able to jam himself through. To test the door I first installed it on a cardboard box and then put cat treats inside. Babbington thought that this was a pretty good deal, and wormed his way into the box with no difficulty. However, things looked less appealing when Pete showed up and attacked him as he tried to leave the box. Eventually Thomas took an interest too, but did not - thankfully - try to get through the door (nor will he fit).

Novelty Preference

The books say that babies exhibit a "preference for novelty", i.e., they are drawn to things that are new in some way. For Thomas, this is not just a character trait, it is his prime motivator. One gift that keeps on giving is the mirror, since the "baby in the mirror" is always doing something interesting. In the video below you'll see Thomas confronting and attempting to eat the baby in the mirror.

Thomas has also discovered the joys of the door stopper. More specifically, the beautiful noise that it makes.

The philosophers have said that it is impossible to observe someone or something without affecting that which is observed. Thomas could not agree more.

First Thanksgiving, the American version

For Thomas's first American Thanksgiving, we decided to take him on his first long car trip. He was a gem (well, mostly) sleeping much of the time while stopping in to see Grandma Leslie and Grandpa Yves in Kingston, then to see Curtis, Karen & Max in Toronto before making his way (asleep) to Buffalo.

Thanksgiving was lots of fun. Though Thomas won't remember it, André and I will know that Grandma Patti's traditional Thanksgiving question "what are you thankful for this year?" led to a very moving set of answers after a pretty tough year for lots of people.

Here's Thomas meeting some of his Harbison relatives...

"Hiya Grandma"

"Hey, Aunt Sara, can I interrupt?"

Nick knows what's what.

CJ prefers parallel play.

Aunt Kim & cousin Cassidy came for a surprise visit. Cassidy who is very nearly 4 years old, was a lot of fun to play with and she was very good with Thomas.

She even fed him a bottle...

and learned that feeding a baby is not always as easy as it looks!









And here are some very fun pictures of Thomas getting ready for the holidays.

At last!

It has been four months in total since we began construction on the kitchen and at long it is done. Not only is it nice to be through the renovations, but it looks really great too (below is a picture of the three new windows that they built into the wall - our pride and joy). Not much new on the Thomas front: he's as cute as ever and is still eager to put anything within reach into his mouth.

I fought the avocado, and won!

Some pictures speak for themselves. With that in mind I'll only note that the reason why Thomas is so messy is not because daddy feeds Thomas with a spatula. No, it's because Thomas likes to "help". I can't get a spoon anywhere near that baby's mouth without him simultaneously snatching at it (he has an impressively strong grip!) and lunging towards it. Today's food was avocado. About half ended up in his mouth, the other half landing on the ground, getting in his nose, in his ears, etc. We went straight from the kitchen to the bath - a favourite time of day for him - to clean things up.

Because the kitchen is almost finished

André, Thomas and I were worried that our renovations might actually come to an end some day, so we asked the City of Ottawa to help us out by replacing our water intake line which is a) 100 years old and b) made of lead. The city has a great program where they split the cost of this with the homeowner so we put in a request several months ago. After a few visits to confirm that our pipe was, indeed, lead, an inspector told us that a crew would come out at the end of October. He suggested removing about half of the hydrangeas in front of our porch and told us the City would give us about 2 days notice.

Halloween came and went - we dutifully removed 3 hydrangeas and some of the lattice at the bottom of the porch. No workmen. We waited. I called & was assured they were coming "soon". And then they came with no notice whatsoever; within minutes of their arrival removing 3 hydrangeas seemed, well, insufficient.

That's the view from our porch across the street. It was pretty impressive.

The next two pictures are what was formerly our front lawn. (In the picture on the left you can just see the floor of the porch.) On Thursday, these guys pleasantly and efficiently turned our yard into a 10-foot hole. Thomas and I watched the backhoe working for hours. (Thomas was fascinated - we stared out the window for a long, long time, watching the backhoe pick the dirt up, pull up, swing around and dump it out. Too bad I couldn't get a picture of him looking out the window.)


















Here's what our house looked like as they worked. You can only imagine that the neighbours were thrilled - especially given that the workmen started at 7am and more or less blocked the street off for two days.

Ok, the next one is admittedly not the world's best picture, but you can see the guy in the hole, which gives you a sense of how deep it was.Miraculously (to me anyway), by the end of the day Thursday they had completely re-filled that hole & tamped most of the earth back in. Of course, they had also cut off our sewer (with virtually no warning, I might add, though they thought 30 minutes was plenty of notice). Poor André had to go to work with no shower before the plumber came Friday morning - which was just as well since the plumber turned the water off at 8:30 & didn't re-attach the water or the sewer until around 1:00. Yikes.

On Friday, the guys showed up and dug an even DEEPER hole in our street so they could give us a new sewer, too. (Turns out our sewer was also 100 years old and made of clay tile. Hmmm.) Look at the poor sucker who had to go searching for the sewer main. Personally, I liked how all the other guys stood around and watched him...

And, below, you can see our brand-spanking new sewer pipe (running across the bottom of the chasm) - as well as the water main (which runs horizontally across where the sewer goes into the earth). The water main itself is cast iron and dates from 1898. Wow.

Finally, without further ado, the backhoe filled the hole up and tamped the earth down. Then some other machines were brought out and badda-boom badda-bing, we had asphalt and the street was patched. Now all we're left with is a war zone for a yard, but hey, we've got a nifty copper water pipe & a brand new sewer - hooray!

I ate what?!

Thomas continues to be an enthusiastic eater of all the solid food he can get his hands on (quite literally). He has now tried and liked both oat cereal and rice cereal. In addition, much to the horror of contractor/renovator Paul, he has been devouring parsnips.

Yes, little T's first vegetable was parsnip. Why? Well, because that's what I had in the refrigerator. I think carrots will be next. Maybe squash. Certainly something messier than parsnips, which were a good choice largely because they are white.

If it were up to Thomas, he would be eating 5 course dinners that included everything we eat and more. The kid lunges at our plates like he knows what he's missing. He likes spoons so much that he holds on to one pretty much whenever he can - on the playmat, in the tub. Sometimes we even have to give him a spoon of his own to hold on to while we try to feed him with another one - see below...

Overheard

I've been writing down a few of the things I've heard André say to Thomas since he was born. Now, 5+ months in, I think it's time to go public. Who would've guessed that a guy who studied to be an economist (and then a bureaucrat) would be so creative with words?

André tells Thomas stories - like the made-up one based on his mobile: "So a cow, a horse & a goat were taking a walk and the cow said, 'Let's walk to the moon' but the goat said, 'I don't think we can do that.'"

When André changes Thomas's diaper he sings or chants made up rhymes like
"Poop on the bum of my lovely son
gotta change him fast
so he doesn't get a rash
on his little tiny ass."

Another favorite diaper change song is
"There once was a baby,
and his name was Thomas,
and they dabbed his scrotum with a cold wet cloth..."

And then there was the evening when André declared, "I should be careful because you are reaching that point where you are going to start absorbing things. So... let's conjugate some verbs: I poop, you poop, he poops..."

And then, just two days ago, as he was feeding a nearly-naked Thomas, I heard André say "OH GROSS! This is like feeding Jabba the Hut!"

Now, just to be fair, I have my own favorite diaper-change ditties. For example:

"Hey Dude, you pooped again
now we have to
go change your diaper.
Remember to clean your gentleman parts
then we can start to make them drier."

The Beatles would die.

And here's one to the tune of Matchmaker, Matchmaker:

Wet diaper, wet diaper
Why are you wet?
You were just dry
Mommy's upset...

I vary it up from there.

And, in honor of Dad (my dad, Thomas's grandpa), I occasionally sing to the tune of "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain"

Oh it's time to change your diaper 'cause it's wet
Yes it's time to change your diaper 'cause it's wet
Oh it's time to change your diaper
Yes it's time to change your diaper
Oh it's time to change your diaper
'cause it's wet

Silliness abounds in our household!

Screecher

Thomas is 5 months old today and he can make some new noises. He's started babbling syllables (yippee!) and, a few days ago he discovered a new, exciting way to get our attention:

Halloween!

We had a great Halloween up here. The snow had melted entirely (no, I’m not kidding. We had about 10 cm of snow on the ground Wednesday morning. Sigh.) and the day was beautiful. But our Halloween actually started on Thursday when 17 babies & 17 moms showed up at our house for an afternoon Halloween party.

Here are some pictures of Thomas getting ready for the party:























And here’s what happens when 17 babies under 10 months old come to a party:



















One look at the pictures and you will not be surprised to hear that the most popular “treat” brought by a mother was 8 Guinness. We pretty much all limited ourselves to a half a can or less (they were big cans), but I think most of us partook…

For Halloween itself, Thomas once again donned his bat costume (or had it donned for him) and headed to his Daddy’s work. Everyone there oohed and aahed over him and he accepted it all with good grace, even letting other people hold him while he smiled and laughed.


For those of you who have remarked upon the bat costume, yes, we have clearly gotten over the bat/rabies incident in the summer. Now if we dress him as a contractor next year, you’ll know we’ve recovered from the renovations, too.

Of Weight and Such

Today is a very special day: Thomas has more than doubled his birth weight. On June 1st, his birthday, he weighed in at 7 pounds 5.5. ounces (pretty much average). Today, when Mandy took him to the Well Baby Clinic nearby, he massed an impressive 14 pounds, 14 ounces (again, pretty much average). This is also an important milestone since he now weighs more than the cats, with whom he has recently developed a fascination (to their dismay, since he grabs hard and goes for things that stick out, like tails, ears, and whiskers).
Disclaimer: whether he has actually doubled his birth weight could be debated, since he had not yet had his daily poop, which these days has tended to be pretty impressive. Because we want keep this blog family-friendly we have opted to omit pictorial evidence, but you can take my word for it: when this baby poops it makes me wonder how he gains weight at all.

Only funny the first time

We know that this falls into the category of "only funny the first time", but it was still pretty funny when Thomas discovered the box of Kleenex...



and a little more

Solids!

These days pediatricians recommend waiting six months before starting a baby on solids. Thomas, however, has been attentively watching us eat for a while now and lately he even started lunging at our food (he got his whole hand in some turkey and dumplings just today), so we decided it was time. The soupy oat cereal mix we mixed up Tuesday evening wasn't exactly "solid", but that didn't stop Thomas from enjoying his first meal of something besides breastmilk.













"Mmm...where have you been hiding this stuff?"

And just look what we're in for now that we've begun...













(You've just got to love the stunned look in the picture on the right - "Dude, this stuff is awesome!")

We can't quite call the first feeding a complete success: Thomas is going to have to fight the spoon for a few more weeks before I'll be convinced that he is truly a master.

Victory, for now...