Walk like a man

Well, no pictures for the moment - and yes, we've been ridiculously bad about keeping this blog up since I went back to work (we're exhausted) - but the news of the evening is that Thomas walked.

He's been cruising around the house for weeks with one or both hands on the walls, the chairs, the cats, whatever, and he's been happily toddling around using just one of our fingers to balance, so we knew this was coming. And he's an excellent stander who can balance with a toy in each hand. More than that, like all good first-time parents we've been encouraging him to walk by playing "pass the baby" after dinner - we sit on the floor and he "walks" between us by falling forward & catching our hands.

But tonight, he stood up in front of André, took a good long look at me (on the phone, of course) and walked 5 or 6 steps before he caught my hand. Then, tickled with himself, he did it again. Our reaction must have completely delighted him because he took a few more steps over the course of the evening, but he quickly realized that crawling is much more efficient & reverted to his old ways.

Now, we'll see how long it takes before we can catch this development on film!

A quintet of quilts

There's something about babies that moves people to quilt since Thomas has received a number of beautiful, handmade quilts. After the kitchen was renovated, we converted what was the dining room (where we actually dined no more than half a dozen times) into a play room. Grandma Patti suggested hanging the quilts on curtain rods in this room, something that we finally got around to doing. The results, as you will see are quite stunning (given the way that Thomas stares at them, he clearly agrees). Many thanks to our quilt artists!

Quilted by Laura from Vancouver, British Columbia

Quilted by Nancy from Ottawa, Ontario

Quilted by Beth from Portland, Oregon

Quilted by Grandma Shirley from Tucson, Arizona

Also quilted by Grandma Shirley from Tuscon, Arizona
(Note: this is a six sided quilt and we haven't figured out how to hang it yet. I think that some we might be able to do it with some dowels cut by a miter saw)

Welcome to Canada, Mr. President

Today Barack Obama visited Ottawa, his first official visit to another country as President. Historically, U.S. Presidents have often made their first visit to Canada since it has the benefit of being 1) close, 2) friendly, and 3) safe. Although it was expected that he would stick with this practice, I was still pretty thrilled to learn that he was coming.

I decided that Thomas and I needed to see him, so we bundled up and headed out. As you can see, we made sure that his stroller provided an appropriate welcome (Thomas is, after all, a proud American, even if he doesn't know it). Note that although he is slumped to one side, he did not sleep through the event (one of my fears).


At best we expected to get a brief glimpse of the POTUS since no public events had been scheduled. We saw his motorcade arrive and might have seen him exit and wave, but to be honest I can't say that I managed to pick him out of the crowd. As a historical note, Obama attracted a smaller crowd than George Bush did (approximately 3,000, compared to 10,000). That being said, the 10,000 that showed up for President Bush's visit were protesters. The 3,000 that were there for Obama could easily have been compared to teenage girls at a Beatles concert. Incidentally, Obama did make an unexpected stop at a local market to buy a "Beaver Tail" (a flat oval of fried dough with sugar and cinnamon on it), which the local press can't stop talking about (and I must admit that I too am kind of tickled that he chose to deviate a bit from the formal itinerary).

At the Museum

Today Thomas and I ventured out with Dave and Miles (who is a bit younger than Thomas) to check out the Museum of Nature (a short walk from our house). Venturing out was a bit less onerous than normal, given that the temperature was well above freezing - a rarity in February! I tried not to get excited, however, since it's a certainty that it will become colder before it truly warms up.

Happily, Thomas was pretty impressed by all of the bones and beasts (he seemed especially excited about a the polar bears). Although we didn't make it all of the way through, it was a big enough hit that I'm sure we'll be back soon.

On his own two feet

Today Thomas surprised us by reaching another milestone - and this one had nothing to do with sleep. (Thank goodness!) Our friends Dave & Christine were visiting with their son Miles (who is 4 months younger than Thomas) when L'il T decided to show Miles how things are done. He pulled himself up, looked around, let go and stood. The first time he was up for about 5 seconds. Then, giddy with delight, he did it again for much longer (maybe 10 or 15 seconds) - long enough to get Daddy and Dave's attention and have everyone ooh and ah. He especially likes it when we clap for him.

True to form, Thomas has decided that he must practice his new trick at every opportunity. He stood for a few seconds before his bath and tried it again in the tub (not very successful - hmmm). With any luck we'll have pictures in a few days.

Knock on wood

Well, knock on wood, but I think we've not only turned the corner, but are almost at the finish line. Last night Thomas went down at 7:45 p.m., fussed for a few minutes, and then stayed down until 3:10 a.m. I went to him, did a diaper check, offered a quick pat of reassurance and then left. A few minutes later he settled and then stayed down until 6:50 a.m. All told, he got about ten and a half hours of sleep with only minimal help from us. Hooray for Thomas!

The corner has been turned

It happened sometime mid-morning yesterday: Thomas began to sleep like a normal, healthy baby. After his first "naplette" of 20 minutes early in the day I wasn't optimistic. However, later in the morning, he napped for an hour, something that he has very rarely done before. Then, around noon, he napped for two hours. I couldn't believe it, and checked on him every 15 minutes to make sure that he was still breathing. Grandpa Yves, who was visiting, very kindly did not point out that I was being ridiculous, but he may have been thinking it.

Nighttime brought some welcome improvements too. He went down at 7:45 p.m., and after fussing for half an hour stayed down for over three hours. He finished the night with a solid four and a half hours of sleep, waking up at 6:30 a.m. Now, some of you might have done the math and spotted the two and a half hour gap in the middle. During this time he fussed a bit, I checked on him, and he didn't sleep much (or maybe even at all). Nevertheless, this is a dramatic improvement over where we were in the preceding days, and I daresay that in some cosmic sense, it's also an improvement over where he was before we began this process.

Anyhow, he's now two hours into his first nap of the day and I don't know what to do with myself since this is a new - but welcome - thing. We'll see how things go in the coming days, since it's too much to hope that progress will be completely linear. As well, exhaustion is doubtlessly playing a role. That being said, you can put me in the corner of the optimists for now.

Okay, enough about sleep. Thomas is actually up to some other interesting things besides learning to snooze in his crib (any one of which could merit its own blog post):

• He now has two teeth (which are still hard to see, but easy to feel).
  
• He's eating practically everything we eat (we mash it, cut it into small bits, or grind it up in our food mill).
• He's "sharing" objects by passing them back and forth with us.
• He has become an absolute whiz at peek-a-boo.
• He is obsessed with eating the cats' food (we have not allowed this).
• He will not stay still when we try to change him unless we distract him. The best way to do this is to play the harmonica that Grandma Shirley gave him for Christmas.
  
• His fine motor skills are coming along nicely, and he is learning to use his thumb and index finger to grab things (like bits of rice crackers or - if they're not fast enough - the cats).
  
• Beside being an expert crawler, he is now doing some tentative cruising.

Okay, he's waking up and I'm signing off. Thanks again for all of your support with this difficult process!