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.