Tweeting

Sure, our family tweets...when we pretend we are a bird family.

Thomas at 15 months

Thomas just had his 15-month well-check and we confirmed what we have suspected: he's tall and skinny!

Here are his stats:
Height: 33.25 in, 99%
Weight: 21.6 lb, 24%
Head circumference: 47.25 cm

He continues to be a generally happy and outgoing toddler, though he's starting to show his displeasure when things don't go his way. He is certainly aware of the rules around him as he often looks at an object he's not supposed to have and shakes his finger at it saying, "No!" He loves to climb and happily shows us how he can dance on the coffee table or stand on the dining room table. Mom removes him quickly without ceremony but can't wait for this phase to end. He understands the vast majority of what we say and nods or shakes his answers back. His words are growing little by little. So far he can say: mama, dada (though he prefers to call Dave mama), milk, baby, all done, thank you, cheese, no, bye bye, hi, tickle, boo! Peekaboo is a big favorite, especially using the big drapes in mom and dad's room. He also loves to tickle and if he really likes you, he'll lift up your shirt and tickle your belly button or blow raspberries on you belly. He and Andrew play games together at home sometimes - usually based around hiding or tickling. He is a joy to be around - we love our Sunshine!

Andrew turned 4!

Andrew got to go to the doctor on his fourth birthday, so these stats are as accurate to him at this age as they could be:

Height: 40.5 in (53%)

Weight: 37 lb (59%)

All in all, an average visit!

Pumpkin patch

Andrew was avoiding letting me take his picture all day until I hit
upon the right strategy...reverse psychology. A few rounds of "Don't
get in my photo of these pumpkins and especially don't smile" worked
wonders. :)

School jogathon

Sam doing one of his 16 laps!

Pumpkins!

Thomas enjoyed the trip to a pumpkin patch, especially the pumpkin
that's bigger than him!

Sam's drawing

New shoes

Andrew is so excited about his new flashing shoes.

Drawing people

Andrew's first drawing of people that I have seen - he drew Mommy, Andrew and Sam.

Smiling picture

Sam drew this picture today and describes it as "The mountains are smiling, the sun is smiling, the trees are smiling, the tree trunk is smiling, the stump is smiling, and the lake is smiling."

So long, hair

I finally grew 10 inches to donate and got my hair cut this weekend. Thomas cried when he saw me at first...recognized the voice and face, but what happened to the rest of her! Sam and Andrew just told me I looked like a boy. They really know how to make a mom feel good...

Andrew's sharing

Here is Andrew sharing at preschool. He's jumped right in and felt comfortable from the beginning this year. He got to bring in family photos for the first sharing day and a favorite toy. He chose his truck with the doors that open and told his classmates all about it.

Better every day

Sam was certainly hesitant about kindergarten to start with, but after a few days, he told me that it was just like I (Mommy), said it would be like. I said, "How is that?". He said, "Every day is better than the last." He continues to say that and while he has moments where he wistfully wishes each week had two Saturdays, he told me today that he was getting used to having a full day of school each weekday. So far, his favorite day is probably Wednesday because they have computer class, but he is also enjoying coloring and cutting, being the teacher's helper this week, and practicing writing. Here's a picture of him in his PE uniform with his new backpack.

Thomas' 1 year stats

Thomas is now 19lb 12.2oz, in the 25% for weight. He is 30.5" tall, in the 76% for height (no wonder he can reach 2 inches in from the edge of the table now!). For those keeping track, his head circumference is 46.25cm, or 55%.

Thomas turned one!

Thomas turned one year old last week. He's walking everywhere, babbles a lot and smiles more. A week before his birthday he learned how to climb onto the couch (to the chagrin of his mother). He's ticklish, loves playing hide and seek, and loves the adoring attention he gets from his brothers. He hasn't met a box he didn't want to climb into and loves to open drawers and cupboards to deposit his toys there. Here are some pictures of him with his birthday cake and on his special day. His big brothers had great fun making his birthday cake and adding sprinkles!

"When I grow up...

...I'm going to be a farmer because I like animals. I like chickens, bears, cats, dogs, roosters, horses, cows and frogs." -Andrew, age 3.75 years old.

Prayers

Andrew has taken a real liking to composing his own prayers. He often is inspired by Dave's rhyming grace prayers (although Andrew rarely pulls off the rhyme, making them very endearing). This is a recent one we really were impressed with:
"God King, in thy Lord. We thank you to be alive and drink and eat today. And tomorrow we'll thank you too. Amen."

Waterfalls are funny

Aspiring to new heights

Well, it's one week shy of Thomas's 1st birthday and he just learned how to climb onto the couch by himself. Yay for him. Sigh for Mom who has to be evermore vigilant and will likely earn several more grey hairs before he learns how to be safe on the couch. Onwards and upwards...literally this time.

Like you, Daddy

I had the coolest feeling as a father ever yesterday.

We have a Battleship game that had a ship with two broken pegs so you could not place it in a locked position on the board, so I took Sam with me to the basement to fix it.

We found two screws the right size, cut off the heads with some wire cutters and used another tool to insert them where the pegs had previously been - fixing the aircraft carrier.

Sam looked up at me and said "it's great we have all these work tools here at home"

I replied, "yes, because we can fix anything!"

He smiled and said "Guess what I want to be when I grow up"

I looked at him and said "An engineer like me?"

He got a big grin on his face and nodded.

Sigh - hard to get anything to compare to that. :)

     -Dave

Andrew loves to swing fast and high

Kindergarten here we come!

Boxes

Thomas hasn't met a box he hasn't wanted to climb into.  His latest favorite is the Duplo box. Seems uncomfortable to me, but maybe it is therapeutic for him.

Words

Thomas can very clearly say "Buh-Bye" but is developing a host of other words that while not as discernible, are consistent enough for me to know he's saying a word and not babbling. Here are the next words he's said (in order of appearance): Daddy (or Diddy), All Done (Ah dunh), This (Dis), That (Dat). This morning as he played around in the wee hours (he gets up at 5:30am regularly these days), I could swear I heard him say "Those" and "Yes". We'll see what develops next! It's also become clear to me that he calls me Diddy along with Dave. There seems to be one word for parent rather than developing a "Mama." Ah well, all in due time...

Buh-Bye!

Thomas' first word is definitely "Bye." He is now practicing it all the time in all sorts of situations. When Daddy leaves for work, when someone leaves the room, anytime a door closes, when the live stream of the Olympics freezes for a moment,

First steps

Thomas started officially walking this month, with what I think are his first official steps in this video, walking to Daddy on August 11, the day before turning 11 months. Now, four days later, he's choosing to walk 80% of the time, though still looks wobbly like in this video. He loves especially to walk triumphantly with a spatula (or other long item) held out in front like a baton. He walks in style!

Roaming, roaming, roaming

Thomas is practicing walking nearly non stop now, and is curious about everything around him.

Big words

Andrew came up from his resting time and wanted to play going to Legoland. He found some little cards he told me were our passes and we could go to a show about Toy Story (the pictures on the cards). Somehow in the course of his play, he began referring to the cards as "Trespasses." He had learned the word in the Lord's Prayer and apparently thinks they are another kind of pass, like a Legoland pass. We'll need to work on defining those big words he likes to use...

Teeth!

Thomas is just getting in his top two teeth...yay!

First word

Thomas has definitively said his first word: Buh-bye, complete with hand wave. While there have been mutterings of Dadada and Mummummum, those aren't as clear in context. He has great fun practicing this new skill every time a door closes or someone walks away...it is so cute!

Leap before you walk?

Thomas turns 10 months old next week and is a very strong, agile baby. He hasn't started walking but can stand up from a sitting position even without holding on to anything, then crouch down, then stand up again. He cruises along furniture with ease, but chooses to crawl across open spaces. Well, I call it crawling, but he tucks one leg under him, a little sideways, and uses his other foot out to the side to propel himself. I am very surprised he hasn't chosen to walk yet, but I guess it's more than just the physical ability. I actually saw him jump today. He was holding on to the couch where Daddy was lying down and was excited to see him. He managed to crouch and jump such that he got air under both feet at the same time! Pretty amazing...

Father's Day Reflection 2012

This was presented given at the Newman's Center on June 17, 2012, on the same day as Thomas Peter Carta's baptism.
Father’s Day Reflection 2012­­­­

Happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there!  Before I being my reflection on the readings today, I wanted to start by sharing a research study from Switzerland.  They looked at a number of factors identifying what influenced people to attend church as adults.  The SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR that was identified was whether a person was raised in a household where the father of the family attended church.  So fathers who are here today - Thank you.

It occurred to me that Father’s Day should actually be added to our Church calendar.  We’ve already got Christmas celebrating the birth of Jesus, Pentecost where the Holy Spirit comes down on the disciples, and today - Father’s Day – It would finish off the celebration of the Trinity.  Father JP - do you think we should start a petition? J

Since this is also UCSD’s graduation weekend, I thought I would share a joke which talks about people as they progress from one stage of life to the next.

When I graduated high school

     I pretty much knew everything – you could even ask my parents.

When I received my bachelor’s degree

     I had a good understanding of how the world worked.

When I got my Master’s degree

     I knew that at least I knew a lot about my area of study.

When I received my Ph.D.

     I realized that when it came down to it, I pretty much didn’t know anything at all.

This joke is relevant to our readings today as well as to our celebration of Father’s Day.

Over the past 5 years, my view and experience of the world has changed dramatically – not due to any formal education changes, but rather due to the education I received by being a father.  You see, 5 years ago was when my wife Christine gave birth to my first son Sam.  In the intervening years, we have added Andrew who is now three and a half, and baby Thomas, or Sunshine as we sometimes call him, who is nine months old.

Today’s first reading and the gospel use analogies of growing seeds and plants.  They focus on becoming fruitful and productive in the work of the Lord.  The first reading from Ezekiel talks about how our Lord can take a small shoot from a tree and plant it in a situation where it not only flourishes into the strongest of plants, but it becomes a shelter and home for others to flourish. 

The first parable in the Gospel talks about a man who scatters seeds on the ground.  The lesson is that once the seed is sown, God is the one who provides the grace and blessings that allow it to sprout, take root, grow into a fruitful plant, and become ready for harvest.

The second parable is a combination of these ideas.  In my mind’s eye, I can see Jesus bend down, pick up a mustard seed from the ground and show it to his disciples.  He then teaches the lesson that from something this small, God’s power and blessings can create something that is both fruitful AND becomes a home for others to build upon.

In all three of these examples, the key idea is that it is GOD’s power that makes these things possible.

Before I became a father myself, I thought I knew how we would raise our children.  In my life, my father was my role-model, my protector, my problem solver and my best friend, but he was also was the target of complaints and the primary disciplinarian in my life.  Given my experience from the child side of the father-child equation, I thought I knew how much time I would spend with my kids, how they would behave, why they would not misbehave, and how I would avoid many of the problems my parents had with my siblings and me.

In my brain, each of our children was like a seed that we were to guide on the path to fruitfulness.  Raising kids therefore was essentially a type of gardening.  Heck – I knew how to garden!  Effectively, my thought was that Christine and I were the ones in control and my kids would grow according to my plan.  We would plant the seed in the best soil, provide water, appropriate light, perhaps some fertilizer, tie the shoots to a trellis to guide the growth, and prune where necessary. 

Our firstborn, Sam, was a fairly easy child.  Things with Sam weren’t absolutely under control according to my plan, but they weren’t so far off that I was concerned.   But as Andrew and later Thomas joined our family, the amount of chaos in our lives seemed to increase exponentially.  Now don’t get me wrong, the amount of joy in our lives has also increased with each addition. 

But, as I have experienced the growth of each of our children, it has become clear to me, that Christine and I only provided the genetics.  The specific personality of each of our children, as they grow into their unique, individual person-hood is completely God-given. 

Before becoming a parent, I was firmly on the nurture side of the Nature vs Nurture debate.  Nurture allowed me to be in control.  This worked well with my Type-A personality.  Now, I am firmly on the Nature side of the debate – their God-given nature.  So these days, when I look at my kids in bewilderment and try and wonder what planet they came from – I just try to remember – God’s planet.

And in the same vein as the joke I told, there is more out there that I don’t know about being a Father than I do know.  I….. am not the one in control.  God is.  God is the one who can bring about greatness from the smallest start.

BUT, back to the parable of the sower – I now can look at it through a completely different lens.  Imagine a sower throwing seed out on his field.  He could be throwing 20-30 seeds with each handful.  If instead of viewing each seed as an individual person who grows to be fruitful, I think we might instead view each seed as moment of interaction of our lives with the lives of others.

In this way, our sowing the fields is a more continual process – something that is completely in tune with each of us living out the gospel in our lives.  Every day we have the opportunity to sow into the hearts of those around us.  Seeds of love and friendship.  Seeds of learning and discovery.  Seeds of acceptance.  Seeds of strength and courage.  Seeds of the good news of Christ.

Thinking about it in this way, we don’t have any power or control EXCEPT to scatter our seeds in the field.  We are only the sowers.  Whether they take root and ultimately grow to be ready for the harvest or become shelter for others we give up to God’s hands.

In Corinthians (1Cor 3:6,7), the Apostle Paul writes: "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow."

This is something where I reflect fondly upon my interactions with MY father and his influence on me.  I can remember while growing up hundreds of small teaching moments, the joys and laughter we shared, time spent together, the examples he showed of Christ’s love for others, and yes, even the moments of discipline.  These seeds of interaction, like those which my dad and I share to this day, provide each of us with a model of God’s love.  These are the seeds I hope to scatter into my children’s lives – and I pray that some of them will fall on fertile ground.  Perhaps the smallest of these will grow into something which will produce great fruit and blessings in theirs and in others’ lives. And it will not be due to my scattering it there, but due strictly to God’s grace.

This is the gift I hope to also provide to my children and I pray you can provide to each other.

In my thinking, there is no greater gift.

---

---

Readings:

Reading 1 Ez 17:22-24

Thus says the Lord GOD:

I, too, will take from the crest of the cedar,

from its topmost branches tear off a tender shoot,

and plant it on a high and lofty mountain;  

on the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it.

It shall put forth branches and bear fruit,  

and become a majestic cedar.

Birds of every kind shall dwell beneath it,

every winged thing in the shade of its boughs.

And all the trees of the field shall know

that I, the LORD,

bring low the high tree,

lift high the lowly tree,

wither up the green tree,

and make the withered tree bloom.

As I, the LORD, have spoken, so will I do.

Gospel Mk 4:26-34

The Parable of the Growing Seed

26 He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground.27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

30 Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. 32 Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”

33 With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand.34 He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.

Family Resemblance

The similarities in these pictures just blew me away.

Talk about good looking!  Thomas has just a little bit of Christine's rounder head I think though....

Now that's a compliment

Sam loves games and we have greatly enjoyed introducing him to our favorites, regardless of their age recommendations. He can follow along in most of them now. He often goes to our games shelves and says "I want to play a game I've never played before!" We recently taught him to play Settlers of Catan when friends were over. Even though he had to go to bed part way through, he shouted up an hour later when the game concluded "Who won?"

Apparently we've given him a new love because when I suggested we play Settlers yesterday he told me "Mom, that is my favoritest game in all the world in all the time I've grown up." He also said runners up were Kahuna and Carcassonne. He's got good taste...

Thomas signed back!

I have been using sign language for Thomas at eating times, just to sign "More" and "All Done." Today for the first time, he signed back, putting his hands together for more! Ironically, he used it to say "Mom, I'm done with these Cheerios, I want something else to eat!" He was so proud and excited to see I was understanding him, it was truly impressive. I think I need to learn a few more signs so I can teach him - it's just great to see communication going on that doesn't involve grunts or cries. :)

Drooly cutie

Thomas continues to be a relaxed, happy, tolerant baby. He is crawling everywhere now, at 8.5 months, and pulling up to standing. There have been several cases where he has stood up from a crouch without holding onto anything. His appetite is increasing and he loves solids and anything he can pick up and eat himself. He is amazingly tolerant of his brothers who adore him and are so ready to play with him.

Proud pesto chef

Sam and Andrew helped me make a yummy basil pesto...they were very proud!

I will...

Every so often I have an exasperating morning when either none or only one of three boys is in a cooperative mood. I had one of those last Sunday and was feeling like we were barely going to make it through church and coffee hour. On the drive home I took the opportunity with my captive audience to ask them to behave a little better by listening and responding when an adult asks them to do something. Sam acknowledged my directions but Andrew remained silent. Sometimes I'm not sure if he's getting what I'm saying since he's only 3 1/2 years old and so I repeated my request for better behavior (I can't remember exactly what needed improving). My words were met with silence and I took in a deep breath, trying to calmly find another way to get through to Andrew. Then a clear voice came from the back: "Mommy, I will, with God's help." Wow. What a great response...I couldn't have come up with a better one myself. There had been a baptism at church and that phrase is repeated several times by the congregation (without the Mommy) so I'm sure that's where he got it, but it led into a great teaching moment that God is always with us, next to us, helping us to do what is right.

Silent Marauder

Thomas has pretty much perfected crawling and standing now. He occasionally decides to cruise along furniture, but he primarily spends his time as the "Silent Marauder." With very few sounds, he roams the floors looking for anything interesting that Mom or brothers left in low locations. Paper and books are the top of his interest list, as are stray Cheerios and shoes. Oh, and then there's the gold mine: an open dishwasher!!

The darnedest questions

Andrew asked me a great question this week: "Mommy, will you tell me a question about when you were a little boy?" I guess our ensuing conversation about how I was never a little boy did hit home. The next day he asked: "Mommy, will you tell me a story about when I was a little boy?" Since he's only three and a half years old, I think my comment about how that book was still being written went right over his head.

Nearly standing

Thomas is only 7 months and 1 week old and pulls up to stand whenever he can. His legs are a little wobbly but he even crouches down in a squat sometimes! His appetite has picked up enormously as evidence of his mobility!

Food...mmm?

Thomas started solid foods. So far just rice cereal and apples and I'm not sure he's convinced they are edible yet. He spits out quite a bit and occasionally swallows. Hopefully he picks it up soon so we can pack a few more ounces on him!

Crawling!

Thomas has officially started crawling at 6 months, 1 week of age. One week later and now he's sitting on his own. Occasionally he falls over, but he props himself up to sitting each time. Amazing! Suddenly I need to keep the floors clean and clear. Oh boy!

Thomas' 6 month stats

The statistics are in...Thomas is officially a skinny baby and needs to plump up. We're starting solids. So far it's a lot of sputtering and face-making, but we hope he'll catch on soon.

Weight: 15 lb 24 oz (12%)

Height: 27.5 in (85%)

Head circumference: 43 cm (30%)

Eye for detail

Andrew has long had an aversion to "strings." It could be strings on a banana or an orange wedge. Or hairs or melted cheese strings. Or threads. It's amazing the number of "strings" you can find and object to in this world. He also doesn't like skins on his apples or food mixed together. While this may be a stage he passes through, I'm amazed at his eye for detail when it comes to enforcing these rules. I'm not one to cook a special meal for each member of the family, so when we have vegetable soup, I'll pick out the potato, carrot or celery chunks for him to eat. However, if one diced onion or flake of basil is on said vegetable, Andrew is sure to point it out and request it be removed. Even the tiniest bit of apple skin remaining will be called out. I can only imagine that some day he will find a profession in which his attention to detail can shine.

Third child

I had heard that the third child sleeps where they can...now I have seen it.

Sam's 5th Birthday

Sam celebrated his 5th birthday party with his closest friends from preschool. Per Sam's choice, they enjoyed pizza and then games at Chuck E Cheese, complete with a cake with strawberries on top. He was also thrilled to pass out blueberry muffins after getting the birthday song sung to him at preschool. He made sure I asked Great Grandma Rowe how she had made her blueberry muffins so we could make ours the same way.

Babbling

Thomas has added "ba" "da" and "ha" to his "ga" sounds and continues to engage in great back-and-forth conversations given the opportunity.

Favorite time of day

The other day after naps Sam and Andrew were having snacks at the dining room table as twilight fell and Sam announced that this was his favorite time of day. I asked him why and he said because all the colors were changing and he liked the pink color. So we hurried through snacks, packed Thomas up in the baby carrier, and went out for a walk at Sam's favorite time of night. :)

Thomas on the move

Sam and Andrew just adore their baby brother and can't wait to make him smile each morning. Andrew still insists on calling him "Sunshine" and Sam is sad if he doesn't get to say good night. They are very helpful brothers, fetching Thomas his toys and making sure the car seat cover blocks the sun from his eyes. In response, Thomas turns to find them whenever he hears their voices and just adores watching them in whatever they do. He is very tolerant of in-your-face hellos and loud noises.

Thomas is very flexible and since three months old has loved to chew just about anything. A recent favorite is his own toes, which he often shoves in his mouth before you can even finish changing his diaper.

Thomas is quite a mover and shaker. He can roll front-to-back or back-to-front easily. In the course of about 5 minutes recently, I saw him move around in four different ways. He can roll, he can spin around in a circle, he can use his arms to push himself backwards and he can shotgun himself forward with his knees/legs. While there has been no official crawling, he is up on hands and knees rocking back and forth very frequently. He is also fantastic at the downward dog yoga position, often balancing on just his hands and two big toes. I have yet to snap a good picture of it, but am still trying.

Thomas is still an incredibly happy, good-natured baby and I love this picture because it seems to capture his love of people and intrigue for the world around him. He gets distracted by the flash on the camera, so it can be hard to get good photos of his expressions, but this is a typical Thomas look right as you get his attention.

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth

When Sam was 2 1/2 years old he managed to have a drawer shoot out and hit one of his front teeth with the knob, knocking it loose. I saw blood and hadn't dealt with any loose children's teeth before so I panicked and we ran to the dentist for an xray. In the end, there isn't much to be done for children's teeth and it either turns gray and dies or doesn't. In Sam's case, it didn't die, but stayed loose. Every so often he would bang it again, get upset, sometimes it would bleed, and then life would go on with one tooth being wobbly. There were stretches when he couldn't eat corn on the cob. Just after turning 4 I was sure the tooth wouldn't last much longer. The dentist said the roots were short and it danced a little jig each time we brushed teeth. I bought a school photo at preschool of Sam and Andrew thinking it would be the last one with Sam's front tooth. But it lasted the summer and September came along with a new baby brother. Once Thomas started taking a bottle well, I chose to leave him home while I went to preschool's Monday night meetings. The first such time Dave was left with all three kids, I left as he was heading out on a walk in the twilight. Thomas was asleep in the Ergo and Sam and Andrew were happily bouncing along. Next I knew, as I was eating dinner in class, I got a call from Dave that Sam had hit his tooth and I needed to come home. All I could hear was wailing in the background. I literally left mid-bite with my salad still on my fork. When it was time to come home, Sam missed the curb and took a header into the street, knocking his loose tooth backwards in his mouth. He started wailing and shouting "Somebody help me!" even as Dave carried him (and Thomas) to the house with Andrew trailing along asking "Why is Sam crying?" In the end, I had the help the tooth the rest of the way out and the other front tooth was now loosened as well. A month later the boys were playing in the living room as we waited for friends to come over for a game night. We heard Sam scream and cry something about his tooth and he came into the kitchen with a bloody mouth. I whisked him to the bathroom with ice and iced his mouth to stop the bleeding. It slowed quickly, but we hadn't yet found the tooth. I was worried about aspiration and directed Sam to search his mouth for the tooth. He claimed it wasn't there. I shouted out to Dave to find the tooth. Just then, our friends arrive and as they enter, Dave shouts "I found the tooth!" We still haven't found out how teeth "naturally" fall out...but at least we have one fewer places to floss in Sam's mouth. Perhaps in a few Christmases he will indeed get his two front teeth back. In the meantime, he asked me to look up the Tooth Fairy in Wikipedia to see if she does indeed make her castle out of teeth.

Yay, Lego fire trucks!

Thomas' 4 month stats

Thomas just had his four month check-up (okay he was closer to 4.5 months by then) and he was:
14 lb 3.2 oz (37%)
26.5 inches long (93%)
42 cm head circumference (44%)

Now I understand why his feet are outgrowing all his sleepers! He is certainly on the tall side and skinny. His weight went down a bit in percentages, but he's also quite active. He definitely does get distracted by all that goes on around him so I also suspect he's just too busy watching and too good natured to cry when he starts to get hungry.

Other updates are that he's turning over to his belly at nearly every chance. He often does in the middle of the night now too. On occasion during the day he also flips from belly to back when he leans his head too far over. He is shocked each time he does it, so I don't think he knows why he flipped.

He's still waking twice a night, but is settling into a 7:30pm or 8pm bedtime. We're doing a bit of sleep training and he is fabulous at it. Last night I put him down well fed and changed with a song and he was awake but only made a little peep after I left and then slept for 4.5 hours. He even sleeps a little later than his brothers and is up around 7:30am.

He's still quite happy and easy going and loves to smile and now giggles. He appears to also be extremely ticklish. His brothers love to say hello to "Little Buddy" and get him to smile.

Invincible Andrew

Andrew is definitely all three-year-old now and has a way to explain his way around anything. To solve any problem or to get around boundaries set he can run really fast, fly, jump really high, push hard and do what it takes to make it a non-issue. For example, I said "Andrew, you need to put on your seatbelt just like Thomas." When that didn't seem convincing, I thought it a good idea to share what might happen if we didn't use seatbelts. I said, "I'm putting Thomas' seatbelt on so if someone hits our car, he won't be knocked out of his carseat. That could happen to you too." Andrew said he'd be fine if he fell out of the car seat. I said "Well, Andrew, for example, Thomas if he wasn't strapped in might fly out of the car and get hurt." Andrew's response was "Well, I'll catch him, Mommy, so he won't get hurt." I said he wouldn't have time. He said he'd run fast and catch him. I said it wasn't really possible to run that fast. So he said he'd run really really fast and catch him and then go kick the car that hit us. That's our invincible Andrew.

Thomas at 4 months

Thomas has changed so much in the last few weeks! Most of it was spent with Grandma and Grandpa in Oakland for Christmas. Thomas added laughing to his smiles, started grabbing toys, thoroughly chewing his thumb (teething?), rolling a little, and blowing raspberries. It is such a joy to see so many changes. He's starting to want to sit up and sat in his jumper for the first time today and was soaking in the new experience. His older brothers love to come say hello to him, calling him "Little Buddy" and "Sunshine." Today they blew raspberries on his belly. The other day in the car Sam said he was so happy we had a baby. What a blessing.

Reading

As we pulled into a gas station on our way home tonight, I heard Sam talking but couldn't understand what he was saying. When I asked him, he said he was trying to read that sign. I was excited...I had started to teach him about how to sound out words, but he had never tried on his own before! Dave and I exchanged anticipatory looks. "Sam, what are you trying to read?" I ask. He says slowly "The letters are A.......T.......M."  Sigh.  I had to explain that you actually just say the letters for that word.