The last week

I've been enjoying the last week of my maternity leave and have been slacking on my blog. Thomas has wanted to play with us more and is having fun practicing his new skills. First, he has been sitting up a lot. He has his new Bumbo chair and can sit up at the table in it. He also likes to sit up on my lap and make faces at me. We have also noted that he likes to stand up a lot more now. He can almost stand up on his own - just holding on to our fingers. We are torn between thinking this is the cutest thing ever and wanting to slow him down. It is way too early for him to even think about standing up!

He has also been struggling with sleeping this year (he he - since Thursday). He had been sleeping for a long stretch at night and now he is awake again every couple of hours. He is also chewing on his hands and our fingers and his teething rings constantly, so he may be cutting some teeth. It is also way too early for teeth! Maybe he is so big that his body just thinks he is older. He is officially in only 6 month size clothing - and filling it out nicely. I can't wait to see how much he weighs at his next appointment.

Okay, okay, pictures:

First, can you believe this little face? Hannah took this picture and she got such a good shot of Thomas with his Great Grandma. He is learning to use all of those facial muscles!

Thomas with is Great Grandma and Grandpa. We need to take a 4 generations picture with them. My grandparents don't live that far away, but we only see them a couple of times a year. Recently, we have been talking about getting together more often. We decided that there is no reason to wait for holidays to see each other. We have a big group here in the Seattle/Tacoma area - 3 of my dad's 4 sisters live here and 4 of my cousins, in addition to my sisters and me. We plan to meet again in March for my grandparents birthdays.

Thomas at the hockey arena! Josh plays hockey and we go to watch his games most of the time. Sometimes we skip the 8:45 games. It is a great time for Thomas to hang out with his Aunt Jen since his Uncle Jeremy also plays hockey. I make Thomas wear his bear suit in the arena so that he doesn't get too cold.

Finally, a picture from Thomas' dedication. Chad, the pastor, remarked on how big Thomas is. Afterward, the rest of the family told us that the baby before him was 8 months old and about the same size as Thomas. Yes, he is going to be tall. Crazy.

We loved that a lot of our family was able to come. In addition to my parents, Hannah was able to attend as well as Robb and Reba and the boys. Josh's parents were also able to attend along with Thomas' Uncle Jimmy. It was a big group! Afterward, we all went to Red Robin for lunch.


That's about it. I'm going back to work tomorrow. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone. I'm really blessed to have a job that I like and a husband who is able to work at home. I know that Thomas will be in good hands and I don't have to worry. I'm going to miss them both like crazy every day, but I'm trying not to think about that part too much.

Blog posts going forward will probably slow down to once a week. I'm going to make an effort to update every Sunday. Hope everyone is having a great year so far.