A Tommy Update

Karina and Tommy

As Tommy gets older, he continues to show us that he's a strong and industrious boy. He has been able to stand with just a little bit of help for quite a while now, in fact seemingly preferring standing to sitting. When you try to have him sit on your lap he usually "planks" himself and as he straightens his legs he pushes himself away from you with such force he nearly jettisons off your lap! As we've gotten to know him better, it seems that what he was hoping would happen when he "planked" was that he'd find himself standing upright and now that we know this he spends a lot of time standing. He can do it with as little help as just hanging onto one finger with each hand (although he has quite a bit of trouble keeping his balance such that his hips often swing around resembling a spastic hula dance) or he can balance when holding onto the red bouncer or the foot stool with minimal hip movement (just some back and front hip thrusts.)

"Look, Mom, I found some toes!"

He has found his toes both by observing them moving when he is sitting crunched over his legs and by pulling his legs up and grabbing his toes while laying on the changing table. He also has been know to giggle heartily when Daddy kisses and pretends to eat his toes.

A couple of evenings ago when Tom had to work late, Grandma Heinrich was babysitting and she, Karina and Aunt Beth (who was still there from the daytime babysitting) got to see Tommy roll from his tummy to his back! They said he did it multiple times and seemed to get really good at it! Interestingly, he hasn't done it again...he's holding out on Mommy and Daddy!

Tommy stuck half way over while attempting the more challenging back to front rollover

Tommy is still a remarkable talker and this is compared to Karina who I've always thought is a remarkable talker in her own right, but she never did it like Tommy does. He not only uses pauses and varied inflections, he changes facial expressions using his eyebrows for emphasis. And just the other day he began using his left arm to make gestures while talking...I'm wondering if we have some Italian heritage hiding in our ancestry! Interestingly he seems to have right/left preferences for different things; using his left arm for gesturing and thumb sucking and his right arm for grabbing things. Could we have an ambidextrous switch hitter on our hands?

Tommy modeling the fashion stylings of his wardrobe coordinator, Karina...and not for the last time, I'm sure! Poor Tommy!

Another development and new experience for us as parents has been Tommy's general lack of interest in a Nuk and alternatively his dedication to learning to suck his thumb. He just recently inserted his left thumb and only his thumb...as opposed to his whole hand which he does all the time...into his mouth. He was so happy!

Yum! Thumb!

We've heard that it's harder to break the thumb-sucking habit than the Nuk habit, but given that Karina still uses her Nuk, it's hard to imagine we could have much more trouble than we're having now...so in the scheme of things it probably doesn't matter what they suck on...we probably couldn't stop either habit from forming anyway! Ah yes, nothing more humbling than being powerless parents! Who was it who said we're in control, again?

Our big, strong Tommy with his "gotta-touch" jowels

Physically, Tommy is a big boy...having rolls of fat everywhere and sporting huge jowels that observers always want to touch and squeeze. His eyes have turned from an ocean blue to a gray-green and we're guessing he's going to have Daddy's pretty hazel eyes after all. His hair continues to fall out although that seems to have slowed down, (although as a side bar I should mention that mine has not and is now falling out in handfuls!) and it continues to look lighter and lighter. The best I can tell, it looks lighter because all of the new hair growth is blond including new follicles and the roots of his longer dark hair. So he has some hair that is short and all blond and some that is long with brown ends and blond roots.