Tommy's Latest

Tommy's "greaser" look

Tommy has had some very minor physical ailments over the past couple of weeks. He has the very common cradle cap and he continues to loose his hair. Every time I comb it or scratch/rub a bit of the cradle cap off, quite of bit of his fine brown hair falls out. It's hard to tell but if you notice in the first photo that it looks like the front left side of his head is overexposed or in a different light than the rest of the photo, but in actuality it looks different because on the left side of his head the hair is a different length and color. It looks blond...just like his sister's hair.

The resulting hair pattern is something like a mohawk, but I've decided to call it a swirl-hawk because it's not a straight line of hair right now...although it does stick straight up in the air at times!

He has had a week and a half of infrequent bowel movements...he went from having many poopy diapers each day to one every three days...twice! He was still in generally good spirits, but did seem a bit uncomfortable if any pressure was placed upon his belly. It was so funny yet pitiful to hear him grunt with every step down the stairs as his tummy was compressed. In the last two days he's gotten back to multiple dirty diapers a day, and I swear he seems lighter!

Tommy has gotten out of the no-sleeping-during-the-day pattern (thankfully) but I've needed to have him sleep in the nursery rather than downstairs in his rocker. Aside from the noise, which he might be able to sleep through, Karina adores him so greatly that she just cannot ignore him if he's approachable. She still cannot understand that she should want him to be asleep so she and I can play. We made it to the park one day only to have Karina excitedly introduce her baby brother to another little girl which woke him up to cry until we jostled him back to sleep on the ride home.

Karina loves her brother sooo much!

Worst of all, Tommy sustained a sibling induced injury when Karina thought it would be fun for her to play "I'm going to eat you up!" with him. (Apparently she plays this with Daddy...however Daddy just pretends to gobble her up.) Unfortunately she didn't pretend (or 'tend as Karina always says..."No, Mommy I'm 'tending!") with poor Tommy, who had his little fleshy forearm bitten as a result! Karina got a time out and she cried as hard as (or maybe even harder than) he did because she didn't mean to hurt him and was so surprised when he cried and we were upset with her.

Ouch!

On the positive side there are so many good things it's hard to know which elements to highlight! Tommy continues to be a sweet, sociable boy who readily smiles and "talks" to everyone. He is well known to coo and interact with me whenever I switch sides during nursing. He comes up from the breast almost asleep and disoriented, but after a few seconds he recognizes me and gives me one of his winning grins. Usually he talks to me for a few minutes at that point. He also loves to lay on his changing table making animated conversation with his friends hanging on the chandelier above. He skwaks and gasps excitedly for easily five to ten minutes at a time.

He also has been working on his hand eye coordination, often holding his right fist in front of his eyes while lying on the changing table. He'll keep it up in this "power to the people" position and slowly rotate his wrist and forearm while he watches it move. He works on it with Daddy, too, during their bonding time while I put Karina to bed and he sits with Daddy waiting for his bedtime feeding. Daddy holds his index finger in front of Tommy and Tommy eventually gets his hand (seems to always be his right hand) up to grab it.

Playtime

Karina and her Daddy have been spending a lot of time together since Tommy was born and while Daddy is still partially off work. Last week they went to buy a puzzle of the United States and here they are before and after assembly.

Karina was excited to learn that she is from "Sconsin" (Wisconsin) and that Mommy and Gammy grew up in "Noise" (Illinois). She and Daddy were doing the puzzle another time and Daddy exclaimed he had found Wisconsin as picked up what he thought was Wisconsin (and was actually Georgia) only to be corrected by Karina when she showed him the correct piece. Now, in Daddy's defense the piece with Wisconsin shows Upper and Lower Michigan and Lake Michigan as well, so it doesn't look as much like Wisconsin as Georgia does. Daddy said, "I was just corrected by a three-year-old!"

Otherwise, Karina continues to get better and better at riding the tricycle, throwing, ("She throws like a natural basketball player!" says Gammy...I guess all of that NCAA on TV rubbed off on her...catching (she throws her sippy cup or Uh-Uh in the air and catches it) and even jumping (yesterday she was jumping off of the bench/windowsill in the living room). She's a really good artist and her drawings of people are so interesting...I wish I could scan one so I could post it! She learned how to do a summersalt a few weeks ago and she watches our neighbor girl doing cartwheels and handstands with envy. She continues to be very helpful with Tommy by entertaining him, and since he is fascinated by her it makes it easy!

Karina loves her baby brother!

Another big excitement for Karina is that she was just invited to join the wedding party of her Uncle Quentin and Aunt-to-be Lisa as their flower girl! She seems very happy about this and I guess only time will tell if her performer side will take over and allow her to feel no fear of the mass of people that will be watching her as she walks down the aisle!

Goodbye Talon!

Tom, Karina and the Talon

Today Tom said goodbye to his beloved Talon...his spontaneous sports car purchase from 12 years ago. Happily, he got a lovely photo of his car and one of the reasons that it was no longer logical to keep the Talon anymore (his daughter!)

Just Standing Around Drooling

This week Tommy's been doing a good job at keeping us guessing when he's going to sleep. He continues to sleep seven or eight hours a night (which is great), but has not settled into any schedule during the day...including not even a regular number of hours. Some days he sleeps a total of 6 hours in naps but other days he's only slept an hour and catnapped in the Baby Bjorn.

Asleep in the Baby Bjorn

This has been tiring for me (because when he doesn't sleep he likes to be carried), difficult for Karina (because she spends all day waiting for Tommy to go to sleep so she and I can do something) and makes it very hard to get anything done. Luckily, as the week progressed, he continued to have some good napping days and on the insomniac days he's been able to enjoy being awake in other locations than in my arms or in the Baby Bjorn. He's always enjoyed laying on his changing table looking at the chandelier lights and his stuffed animal "friends" hanging from the chandelier (just like his big sister did when she was his age) and laying in his play yard, but now he's been able to spend 15 minutes or so at a time in the bouncer seat and in the upright swing...and Karina loves him in these because it's much easier for her to interact with him. He's still not crazy about the Bumbo which seems to be because he's not terribly comfortable bending at the waist. My current hypotheses are that his hamstrings are tight or his tummy is too full/big!

The play yard

The upright swing with Karina right there to entertain him


The bouncer seat

The Bumbo (a few weeks ago)

On other fronts, Tommy has gotten much (read exponentially so) stronger in his lower extremities and laughs and smiles with pride when he stands upright. He also started drooling this week...literally out of the blue (one minute-not drooling, the next minute-profuse drooling)...so I don't know when the teeth will be coming, but we've had to get out the bibs.

He's also really started to interact with Karina, which makes her very happy. She's been getting in trouble for weeks for climbing onto the changing table and into his play yard in order to "see" him...to use her words. She always wants him to be awake even though this means we have less likelihood of being able to do something other than watch TV while I feed him...I guess she's too young to understand that it good for her if Tommy sleeps. But starting this week he will smile and even stop crying if Karina comes into his view.

We also finally got a cute photo of Tommy smiling at his Opa, even though he's been smiling at all of his grandparents for many weeks now.

Tommy giving his winning smile to his Opa

Grampa's Beautiful Gift

Grampa Mattern surprised Karina with this beautiful hand made cradle just for her. She loves it already and puts her dolls and stuffed animals to bed under the lovely blankets (knitted by Gammy.)

Grampa has planned that Karina and he will finish the cradle when she is old enough to decorate the wood cutout animals herself...you can see the lion and bear on one side and the rhinoceros and elephant on the other side. He has her practicing on paper cutouts for now, which she enjoys just as much as the real thing.


Thanks Grampa! It's absolutely beautiful and so precious for you to do for Karina!

Independence

Last night, as I was coming upstairs for bed, I saw a light on in the kids' bathroom. I figured it must be Tom...although I had thought he was already in bed. Imagine my surprise when I found Karina just finishing off a glass of water! "Hi, Sweetheart. What are you doing up?" I asked. "I was sooo thirsty!" she said. With that I walked her back to her room and tucked her back in bed.

Such A Big Girl

Tickle time with Daddy

Karina's gotten very proficient at riding the tricycle

One morning after breakfast with Nana Bonnie

Karina with Daddy and Tommy

Tonight, after Karina put her jammies on with only verbal coaching from me (since I was nursing Tommy at the time) and after Daddy helped her brush her teeth, Karina went to her room, told Daddy to "Just go." She was seen "reading" herself a book when Daddy closed the door. She never came out of the room...not one stall tactic...she truly put herself to bed...such a big girl!

Such A Big Boy

Last night, Tommy slept from 10pm to 6:30am! What a big boy!

Just lounging around the house during one of his increasing awake times

Interestingly sleep, or rather the patterns of sleep, seem to be the biggest change for Tommy lately. He used to be an incredibly predictable sleeper...sleeping 4-6 hours between every feeding and had increased to being awake an hour or so after a feeding. But starting last weekend he has had occasional days during which he hardly slept at all except for "resting" during the feeding, a catnap in the Baby Bjorn or a 20 minute snooze in the swing. This makes for a very long day for Mommy...but does pretty much ensure he'll sleep all night long. He slept from 10pm to 5am last Friday night and from 9pm to 6am this Friday night. At first I was quite upset because I had no break the entire day from either child and my back was tired from using the Baby Bjorn all day long, but now I feel better about it because I know it probably won't be that way every day and I know I should get a good night's sleep afterward.

His first meeting with cousin Claire...already his expression says "What's this girl doing all over me? We just met!"

Otherwise, Tommy continues to be extremely sweet and absolutely adorable when he's fed and not sleepy. And even when he's tired he's a very tolerant and resiliant boy. He still hardly ever cries and can sometimes be put down to sleep when he's awake but sleepy.

He laughs, smiles and talks/coos even more this week and he's getting noticeable stronger in his legs...he can support his own weight for a second...and in his torso. He's also taken to holding his hands in front of him and moving them purposefully...waving his fingers or trying to grab something.

Tank

The numbers are in! For anyone betting on Tommy's current weight...he weighed in at a nearly unbelievable 14 pounds 5 ounces (94th percentile) which is 5 pounds and 6 ounces heavier than 8 weeks ago! He was also 2 feet tall! He's certainly living up to Daddy's nickname for him, "Tank!"

Ants

Yesterday I noticed some ants crawling around our house and pointed them out to Karina. I told her we should pick up all of the crumbs so the ants would go away. First Karina tried to get Bart to eat the ants, even though I told her Bart wouldn't be interested. Then she tried to scare the ants away with one of her toys by pretending the animal was growling at them. When that didn't work, she looked to me for a solution. I told her that it would work better to find something that ate ants and together we brainstormed that this animal would be an anteater. Later, when Daddy got home she went straight to him and with all earnest, told him he needed to go right back out and buy us an anteater. It was hilarous!

Visiting Claire

Last weekend the Southern Heinrichs went up to Mequon to visit the Northern Heinrichs to meet Claire. Karina was so excited and apparently, so was Elsa.

When we arrived and were gathering our things, I heard a strange distant shrill sound that I couldn't place. I looked to Tom and asked if he heard the sound. He answered, "It's Elsa." I turned to look at the window where I could see Elsa standing rigid yet smiling with her mouth wide open in a scream of excitement! It was the funniest sight and sound combination...I mean, just hysterically funny!

Tommy, Karina, Elsa and Claire

Both Lee and Claire seemed really well, although Claire only had her eyes open for a few minutes when we arrived, so it was a little harder to tell. But Claire was certainly content...and although she has a lot of very blond hair (unlike Elsa) she reminded me very much of Elsa at that age...who also slept through every one of my visits (of which there were only a few.)

Bob and Elsa seemed to be doing well, too, and the girls had a great time. They were both literally in hysterics playing with Tom, who was doing a slapstick comedic routine of getting knocked over by a large punching balloon. This went on for almost ten minutes and the girls never stopped laughing.

At the end of our visit we took the photo of the four Heinrich grandchildren. We had the big sisters help hold up the little siblings, and I got the great photo above after shooting a dozen shots during which the girls did a great job holding still and smiling. One of the funniest moments was when Elsa decided she didn't want to sit on the sofa any longer, but didn't see any reason she shouldn't just get up...even though she was the only thing holding up Claire. So Elsa scooted forward and slid off of the sofa, and as we all yelled for Elsa to remain where she was, we all watched Claire topple over, face first in to the sofa cushions. This is why three year-olds aren't allowed to take care of infants! Of course, Claire wasn't in any real danger and the adults were just rolling with laughter as the scene unfolded.

I'm 2 Months Old

...and aren't I so cute!