Some stuff Thomas does

He loves to sit up. He holds my finger while I hold his forearms and he smiles and pants (I'm afraid this might be his permanent substitute for giggling) and oohs and ahhhs until he has no more strength and then he throws his head back and lays flat on his back to rest.

He also loves to stand. The same way. And he loves to stand up from a sitting position. I'll hold his hands and help him stand from sitting and he smiles all big, then sits down and starts to stand again. Who would've thought the process of standing could be so entertaining?

He bathes. Oh how he bathes. He can be screaming and crying and fighting mad, but put that kid in the tub and he suddenly remembers just how great life is. Although I think baths are disgusting (You just sit there? Stewing in your own filth? watch the first 30 seconds of this and you'll laugh. Probably.) there are certainly days that I think a long hot bath would remind me just how great life is. He used to scream from the second you pulled him out of the water until he was fully clothed, wrapped in a blanket, rocking and eating. He's much better at getting out now and only slightly whimpers if you take too long and he gets cold. He even lets you do the lotion without losing it.

He holds his bottle. You have to balance it just right if you want him to hold it by himself, but when I feed him his almost always grabs the bottle and jams it into his face. And he holds it TIGHT the entire time he's eating. Sometimes this is a problem since you can't get a bottle into a mouth that is blocked by 10 tiny fingers and 2 not-so-tiny fists. Fortunately I'm still stronger than him (barely) and can force his hands out of the way long enough to get the bottle in (usually).

He reaches. If you put the kid in the bouncy with toys (thanks for letting us borrow your bouncy Eva!) he will reach up for them. He particularly likes the monkey....or maybe I particularly like the monkey.... He grabs the tail of the lion (which makes it sing and growl and meow) and I think his hand gets stuck in the loop because he never does it just once. It's always singgrowlmeowsinggrowlmeo then nothing for a long time.

He likes people. Clearly he gets this from his father and not his anti-social mother. But if he's crying, and I walk into the room and start to talk to him, he starts to laugh/pant. Then I leave and he cries again.

He sleeps. I think in the past week I've had more really great nights than not. Which is encouraging. He'll sleep for 5-6 hours in the first stretch of the night and then he's up at least every 3 hours after that. He's started going back to sleep much faster, which makes my nights much sleepier. No more 3 hour feeding sessions. No more pacing the hallway and dancing around the living room at 2am. No more rocking until I'm seasick and half asleep myself. It's a beautiful thing.

He cuddles. He still likes to be held. A lot. Which works out pretty well most of the time because I truly like holding him. And so does Josh. But sometimes I just need 2 seconds to myself!!! OK?!?!?!?! Fortunately Josh comes home every. single. night. so that's usually possible.

Also he's working really hard on growing hair on top. We're past the peach fuzz stage, and now we're on to real hair, although it's thin and short....we're working on it. The mullet still reigns supreme. I just don't have the guts to cut it off - I don't want to chop off his head and he's not entirely still when he's awake yet. Tips?