The "Johnny Jump-Up"

Tommy's First Time in the Jumper. So much fun!

He stood there for a few seconds then moved his legs which made the jumper bounce. A huge smile crossed his face as he looked at Mommy and Daddy, and then he was off...jumping, jumping jumping! He loves it just like Karina did!

"But don't forget that I love my work station, too!"

(I always describe being placed in the exersaucer as "going to work")

Tommy's Latest Accomplishments

Our sweet drooling and soggy Tommy

In the day to day action for Tommy, we've been going to the swimming pool every morning for Karina's swimming lesson. Tommy usually falls asleep shortly after we arrive, naps for an hour or more and then has a bottle while Karina has class and then stays to play with other kids in the toddler pool.

Tommy chillin' at the pool...sporting one of his rompers that Tom always thinks looks like a 1940's (?) style bathing suit!

Also, if you look closely you can see he has a nice scab in between his eyebrows where he gouged himself (again!)with his fingernail...I swear his nails are more dangerous when trimmed!
He has these scratches so often one would think we have a psychotic cat that we regularly let loose on him!

Just this week Tommy has really made strides towards sitting up on his own. This is a little surprising because in general Tommy prefers to stand or lay over sitting and I often joke that he's not going to sit or crawl, but he's just going to start walking in a couple of months!

Tommy expressing his general distaste for sitting, especially while he lacks the stomach muscles to keep his torso from gradually falling down to touch the floor...as depicted in this photo.

Here he is proving me wrong as he is sitting without any support.

And here he is a few seconds later falling to the floor!
Don't worry, I caught him...
...and still got the photo! What a mom!

In regards to general body functions, Tommy continues to have a drippy right eye...it seems the blocked tear duct hasn't cleared yet, and although he has been drooling for a couple of months already it's getting to the point of ridiculousness. He can't keep a shirt dry for more than half an hour without a bib on. I swear if one could get dehydrated from drooling, he's going to do it!

Our super sweet Tommy asleep on the Boppy
after nursing with Mommy

He also has moved into a new stage of pooping. While he used to have the very typical multiple small bowel movements each day, sometime over the past month we began noticing that days...and I truly mean days (almost 72 hours one time)...had passed without one poopy diaper! He would be so tight in the tummy and even a bit irritable, and we would be dreading the inevitable "blow out" just hoping it would happen when a clothing change would be quickly possible. The likelihood of messiness is however compounded by the fact that baby poop seems to defy the laws of gravity and actually runs upward! Does anyone know how this is possible! Luckily the pattern seems to have smoothed out over time and he's now on more of a once a day schedule.

Tommy practicing his leg lifting/lowering technique
by grabbing both toes and then trying
to hold on to them while kicking violently!

On the gross motor skills front, Tommy can roll over more readily now, but still prefers to be on his back or standing up. He is however really moving around on his back in his crib so much that we had to take the "pillow" head rest out of the bed. When I've peeked in to see what he's doing, he seems to move around by repeatedly lifting his legs up and banging them down, sometimes straight out but other times a bit to the side so that he gradually bounces and jostles himself around the crib. He is able to travel so far using this method that his head is never cradled in his head rest when we come in to get him after his naps and often he's lying perpendicular to his original position! This was surprising to us because Karina stayed quite immobile until she was 9-12 months old...she must have liked laying still on her back more than Tommy does! But as result we've had to get out the sleep sacks, so Tommy can have a safe blanket on cool nights.

Tommy reaching for his mobile animals with hands and feet

Tommy's also been working really hard at grabbing things, but again with the focus on the "over-his-head-and-using-his-legs-too" kind of grabbing...as illustrated in the photo. This is not to say that he's not interested in reaching for things in front of him, because when he sits or lays in bed with me and Karina on nights that Tom isn't home for her bedtime, he loves to have a book to hold and chew on...much to Karina's dismay!

Just Me

Tommy and Karina with her swollen eye...or as she put it, "My eye is broken!"

Karina spent the day away from home yesterday and sustained an injury to her face when it made contact with the corner of a book. Being cautious and inquisitive parents we thought we should ask a few questions about how this accident happened. I asked her, "What happened? How did the book hit your face?" She seemed unable to answer this question, so Daddy asked her bluntly, "Karina, did anyone hit you?" She looked up at him and then back down at her puzzle and nonchalantly said, " No. Just me." We laughed and moved on...

Karina's first (and hopefully, only) shiner! Boo Hoo!

Better Late Than Never

Tommy's Birth Announcement

Well, I won't win any awards for getting this announcement out quickly, but thanks to Lee it is really cute and has a nice photo of both Karina and Tommy. Since I missed putting out a Holiday Card with Karina I wanted to have her beautiful face on this one as well as Tommy's. It is not easy to get a nice photo of two little ones without a professional photographer...which in retrospect is perhaps what I should have done...but anyway...here it is...

Tommy's arrived! I'll bet you're all surprised!

Summertime for Karina

A happy day at the swimming pool

With summer in full swing Karina has been very active and as a result been honing her gross motor skills. She finished her two week swimming class with a whimper...almost literally. She had been doing great but had bit of a set back after she slipped in the water at Wind Lake. Although it didn't seem to phase her that day...she got a little water in her face and was scared that she would fall into the water, but after a few tears she went right back to playing with Jenna and Luke...she was quite fearful at swimming on Monday. She kept coming out of the pool to "see" me...saying she was cold. She refused to go to swimming with Aunt Beth on Tuesday, but went with me on Wednesday...coming out of the pool only a couple of times. By Friday she was starting to look like she wasn't scared anymore, but that was the last class for two weeks. Since then we went to the pool one afternoon and she seemed to have a lot of fun playing with the other kids in the toddler pool, so hopefully she'll have more fun when classes start up again in two weeks.

Having a blast at the pool

At Gymboree, Karina has been going to School Skills, basically a pre-preschool class, where she is dropped off for two hours with a couple of teachers and a handful of other kids. She loves this class so much and she really feels comfortable with the kids, teachers and environment. One day, I came to pick her up and she yelled, "Look Mommy, I can hang!" And there she was hanging from the overhead bars, having apparently learned it from the other kids! She was so proud of herself!

Backbend

Dancing

Climbing
...and also displaying her sippy cup (which she still prefers over the "big girl" cups)

I recently figured out that we can access certain movies from our Netflix account for instant viewing on the TV, and the only one that we had in our queue appropriate for a toddler (somewhat) was WALL-E. Well, long story short, Karina absolutely loved it and the funniest trigger is now associated with it. It just so happened that the first day she watched WALL-E was the first day Karina liked macaroni and cheese (she's tried it a dozen times before but never enjoyed it.) That day, I made it from scratch, but since then she's gotten Annie's "bunny" mac 'n cheese...shaped like bunnies...and liked those, too. Now, however whenever I suggest she might like macaroni and cheese to eat, Karina always yells, "Bunny noodles and WALL-E!" Just like there must always be a Nuk in her mouth while holding Uh-Uh (the bunny blanket), she seems to feel that she cannot eat bunny noodles without WALL-E!

Karina and "her Tommy"

Karina continues to "love" her Tommy, (she always asks strangers if they "...want to see my Tommy?") although the manner in which she expresses this love is sometimes of questionably loving quality. Observe the following progression below:

Karina playing the xylophone

Karina playing Tommy's feet

Karina playing Tommy's head!
(Tommy this is proof for you when you get older and Karina tries to deny she ever took advantage of your compromised state as an infant!)

Karina enjoying a homemade popsicle...thanks to Gammy and Grampa's gift of popsicle holders

Karina and Tommy
(Karina's face was painted to look like a cat, but the paint had begun to wear off)

Four Month Well Baby Check Up

The handsome four month old Tommy!

Tommy just got back from his appointment and here are his latest stats:

Weight 16 pounds 6 ounces (75%) (up 2 pounds 1 ounce from 2 months)
Height 26.5 inches (95%) (up 2.5 inches from 2 months!)

To compare with Karina at four months...she weighed 15 pounds 14 ounces and measured 25.5 inches and she started out the same height and 12 ounces heavier than Tommy!

"Can you believe how big and tall I am?"

And I forgot to mention that in order to keep up with his developmental milestones...Tommy overheard the doctor ask if he was rolling over yet...and then promptly did so a few minutes later on the examining table...three times! Of course he didn't do it at home for Daddy, but hopefully soon!

Family Photo

Not the best photo of each of us but perhaps one of the only photos of all of us!

Visitors From Near and Far

Today we had a visit from our Milwaukee friends Bonnie and Rao and our Seattle friends Mike and Chris. They all went out to breakfast with Tom and Karina and then came back to our house to meet Tommy.

Nana Bonnie and Tommy

Rao checking out the Clinical Psychiatry book Tom co-authored

Mike and Chris

It was great to see everyone but especially nice to see Mike and Chris because we don't get to see them very often since they live way out in Seattle. We all had a lot of fun...

...playing ball...

...learning new dance moves...

...and performing magic tricks.
(Mike pulled Karina's ball out of her ear...an oldie but goodie like my own Dad used to do when I was little)

We sure hope they all come to visit again soon!

The Fourth of July

Karina in the Wauwatosa Parade with Aunt Beth

Tommy getting to know some of his relatives...Great Aunt Mary...

...and Uncle Quentin

Elsa and Karina spending some quality time at the Doodle Pad with Baby Claire looking on in the background

Playing bean bag toss

Our beautiful Karina

Exersaucer

Tommy's first time in the Exersaucer! So many fun things to do!

Tommy's New Friend

What do you see if you squint at this photo?


How about when you look at this one?


A testament to the incredible infant brain: While Tommy sits facing Daddy or Mommy in their lap after having a bottle, he'll be laughing and smiling. Gradually you begin to realize that he's not looking at you, but is actually looking at something over your shoulder. The first time it happened to me, I turned around to look at where he was gazing, but could only see the standing lamp. As I looked more closely, or perhaps actually less closely (because I only glanced for a second with half closed eyes) I could see that he was smiling at what he thought was a person standing behind the chair...

Tommy's New Friend...Mr. Lampie!