We host Thanksgiving for my husband’s family at our house.  This is our third year doing it since we took over after my mother in law passed away. I really enjoy cooking her recipes, and it also gives us a good excuse to do a thorough house cleaning.  Most of my husband’s family lives in the area, but his brother lives in New York.  They always fly down for this holiday.  It was the first time our sister in law and nephews got to meet Thomas.  Our nephews are twins and they’re almost 11 years old.  Somehow, we went an entire year without seeing them.  They had grown up so much in that year.  They were really sweet with Thomas.  They both wanted to hold him and kiss him, but one of them was more into holding him than the other.  They do have two baby cousins in New York, so they are pretty comfortable with babies.  

I thought it all went well.  Thomas was sleeping when everyone arrived. He stayed up for about 2 hours.  It was long enough for his auntie to give him a bottle, and for everyone to play “pass the baby.”  Then he went right to sleep around 7:00.  

While we had all 4 cousins together, we decided to go to Sears for a photo.  The pictures came out pretty cute.  They took one with their grandfather, and one with just the boys.  Thomas wasn’t too keen on the photographer and didn’t want to smile for her.  He’s had her before. (I take him all the time!) 

Today, we got together one last time for a brunch.  I put Thomas down for a nap, and he woke up just in time for a bottle before we had to leave.  He did pretty well while we ate.  Again, we got some really cute photos.  Then he started getting tired, so I put him down on the couch for a nap. I didn’t know if it would work.  He only sleeps in his crib these days. I patted him on the back, and he went right to sleep! It was SO loud, and we all couldn’t believe he slept through all the noise. 

 Here he is asleep on the couch. 

Yesterday, I came home from work to find a package addressed to Thomas.  I opened it up and unwrapped two outfits.  One is a little baseball outfit.  The other is a sailor suit.  An actual sailor suit.  I think this is the funniest thing ever.  It is so old-fashioned that I think it might be cool again.  I would have never bought this for Thomas.  If it came from a regular store, I would have returned it, to be honest.  But this gift was specially ordered, as you can tell by the personalization.  It really is cute, and when he’s big enough to wear it, I’ll take him in to get photographs taken.  

When I first unwrapped the gift, I couldn’t tell who it was from.  I finally found a card taped to the bottom of the wrapping paper.  It was a “Congratulations, It’s a Girl” card, which was kind of strange.  Obviously the store had personalized it and attached the card when they shipped it.  The card had the names of two people I have never actually met, but I do know who they are.  They live on the street where my husband grew up. He’s known them his whole life.  My father in law recently went back and visited, so that must be how they heard about Thomas.  It was very kind of them to think of Thomas.  They either have a wacky sense of humor, or they think this is a traditional gift for a baby boy.  Either way, I’m sure Thomas will hate us when we show the pictures to his girlfriend.

Before I was pregnant, I had never even heard of a Bumbo seat.  I joined a pregnancy board (pregnancy.org) and many people were talking about how great they were. I had to check it out, so I found it online. It looked like a hard plastic seat, so I was very surprised to find our Bumbo to be a soft, squishy foam-like plastic.  They are a bit expensive, so I found one on Craigslist.  It also came with the snap-on tray.  We started using it a few months ago, and Thomas really enjoyed being able to sit up and look around.  Now he sits even better (not all slumped over), and he’s strong enough to almost tip it over!  I bought it from a mom whose baby was doing that exact thing.  I figure he’ll be ready for a real high chair soon, and we can retire the Bumbo.

They run about $40, and you can buy them at many stores, such as Babies R Us or Amazon.com.

 http://www.bumbobabyseat.com/

  http://www.amazon.com/Bumbo-Baby-Sitter/dp/B001395Q6A/ref=pd_bbs_sr_5?ie=UTF8&s=baby-products&qid=1226624874&sr=8-5 

I give the Bumbo (5 smilies out of 5)   

Thomas in the Bumbo around 2 months old Thomas in the bumbo with the tray around 4 1/2 months old

When Thomas was first born, we dressed him in “footie” pajamas at night.  They were so cute!!  However, he was so skinny that when he scrunched up his legs, his feet would get stuck in the pajama legs.  He would get frustrated, and we eventually stopped using them.  He’s only worn footless pj’s for the past two or three months.  Now he is outgrowing the footless pj’s, so I decided to give the footies another try.  Thomas is a very long baby.  The nurse measured him at 27 inches last week, but I just measured him at 26 inches.  Regardless, it’s pretty long for a 4 1/2 month old baby.  I pulled out a pair of 9 month size footie pajamas last night.  Hubby said I was playing with fire.  He was sure that Thomas would wake himself up frustrated and stuck.  Well, they fit him perfectly, and he slept 12 hours last night!  I don’t think they’re the cutest pajamas, but they did the trick.

It has been a while since I’ve sat down to write on my blog. I am SO busy!!!  I have been back at work for two and a half weeks.  I love my job, but it’s been a tough transition.  My students are finally settling down, but I’m not staying late to get work done.  So I brought work home this week for the first time in years.  It was only 20 minutes’ worth on Wednesday, but this weekend I brought home a whole bag of papers to look over.  Thomas is in bed every night by 7:30, so I have plenty of time to get that done.  

This past Tuesday I had my first night shift at the ice cream shop.  It was a late night, and it was also election night.  I got home at 11, just as they announced Obama as the winner.  I stayed up past midnight watching McCain’s concession speech and Obama’s acceptance.  I didn’t make it through Obama’s, but it was great to hear him talk.  I am so excited that my son will grow up with Obama as his president.  

I work my next evening shift tomorrow night, but it won’t be as late.  It is tough working at night and getting up early for work.  I have found one student for private tutoring.  That hour pays as much (or more) as my  entire shift at the ice cream shop.  If I had a few more students, I could quit my night job.  I’ll keep spreading the word.  

 Thomas has settled into a pretty good routine with the sitter.  He takes a 2-3 hour nap in the morning, then a short nap in the afternoon.  I’ve found that he does well with a one hour nap at 4pm.  The only thing that is inconsistent is his wake-up time.  One morning this week, he was up at 4:30.  Another morning, I had to wake him after 6 because I had to get him ready for the day.  

Tonight I tried the rice cereal again.  We got through the whole serving, but he wore most of it on his bib.  He loved taking the spoon himself and putting it in his mouth.  He just didn’t “get” that he was supposed to swallow the food.  I’ll keep trying every night until he gets it.  

At his four month appointment, Thomas’ doctor gave us the go-ahead to start solid foods. She suggested that we start with rice cereal.  Thomas had been showing signs of being interested in our foods, so we were really excited to see how he liked eating “real” food.  I mixed up the cereal so it was really thin, and heated it up for him.  He opened his mouth, took a bite and HATED it!!  I tried, Daddy tried, we even tried the “airplane” spiel.  It was so cute to see the faces he made.   I guess we’ll try again in a week or two.  Maybe he just needs to get used to the taste or the texture.  Or maybe it was just eating from a spoon.  

Oh, we had big plans for Halloween this year.  We had a huge bowl of candy.  Thomas had a cute monkey costume.  We were all set to attend a costume parade in our neighborhood, visit a few friends, then come home to put him to bed.  Well, Thomas had other plans.  

He was really tired, but cried and cried when I put him down for a nap.  So I picked him up and tried again later.  He didn’t fall asleep until 6, and then he slept for an hour and a half.  He would have kept sleeping, but I didn’t want him down for the night that early.  While he slept, we went outside to hand out candy.  I noticed trick-or-treaters walking by our house, but  no one was coming to our door.  We had the lights on and a pumpkin, so I don’t know why.  We took some chairs out, and chatted with our next door neighbors.  It was mostly teenagers, which was odd as it was so early.  

I woke him up at 7:30, fed him, and took him out in his costume to see the neighbors.  Then we walked over to see our friends around 8:30.  He fell asleep at their house, and was in bed by 9:00.  That was his big Halloween!  I know next year will be more fun- he’ll be walking!!