Bono who?

For nearly 11 months now, Thomas has thought (rightfully, no doubt) that the sun and the moon revolved around me. André likes to say that it's like living with Bono and being the Edge. (For any of you who don't know those names, think John Lennon and Ringo Starr.) The Edge is really great, but if Bono's in the room, well, we all know who'd we'd rather be with.

Poor Thomas has been sick for a few days; he has the flu and is feeling pretty puny. On Sunday he wouldn't let me out of his sight and almost wouldn't let go of me. He and André muddled through Monday while I was at work (4 hour-long naps made Monday a little easier for everyone), and then this afternoon brought a wonderful surprise: Thomas looked to André instead of me for comfort. He was upset and tired and barely glanced my direction before he held his arms out for his daddy. I'm not sure which of the three of us was the most shocked, but I know that it was one of those moments where I was 100% sure that André and I made the right choice when we decided to split our parental leave so that we could both be the stay-at-home parent for a while: Thomas knows that we both offer comfort, and he might even know that we provide slightly different kinds of comfort. And that's exactly what we want.

Somebody GOT a Haircut

Just to set the record straight, I was planning to trim those bangs before I even knew that André was blogging about haircuts...

Somebody needs a haircut

I don't think we'll make it to his first birthday before that unruly mop gets trimmed.

Charleston

Early in March the three of us were down in beautiful Charleston, South Carolina for the wedding of two dear friends with whom we share a special bond: they met for the first time at the same time and place that Mandy and I did (the wedding of two other friends down in Washington D.C.).

We traveled to Charleston separately, since I needed to be there a bit early to do some groomsmen-related things. Fortunately everything went fairly smoothly (the return journey was not so smooth, but we all survived), and Thomas bolstered his reputation as a hardy traveler.

Grandpa Dave, Grandma Donna, and Uncle Justin joined us, and very kindly took care of Thomas while we were out partying (well, it felt like partying to us, but we were still among the first to leave).

While we were in Charleston we did some walking about and took pictures of the three of us at a couple of places that have significance for Grandpa Jim's family: Fort Sumter, where one of his relatives served in the opening battle of the Civil War (look over my left shoulder, it's the little bulge on the horizon) ...

... and St. Michael's Church, where his father was Reverend years ago.

In other news, little Thomas has been a bit miserable the last couple of days. It was only yesterday afternoon, however that we confirmed the cause (we had our suspicions, but had not seen evidence until then): four new teeth breaking through! Anyhow, he's understandably a bit grumpy and drools constantly, but otherwise is in fine form.

In the category of "firsts", Thomas and I went to the vet not once, but twice this week. The first visit was fairly routine, which was to check on Peter-cat's weight and heart (he has a bit of a heart murmur, but no other troubling symptoms). The other visit was decidedly not routine, since poor Babbington got into a very serious scrap and had some nasty puncture wounds and gashes that needed more medical attention than we could hope to provide. The good news is that Babbington is doing much better, but looks pretty ridiculous since the vet had to shave the area around the wounds (pretty much his whole right shoulder). Happily, Thomas enjoyed both visits since the waiting room afforded him an excellent view of the street and there were many passing cars and trucks, which provided a constant stream of entertainment.