Learning Everyday

I can't believe Thomas is already 6 1/2 weeks old! We are seeing more changes in him everyday and he is much more alert and responsive to us when we talk to him. He gives us smiles, which totally melt my heart every time. I am such a mush! Pictures here are of the 4 cousins on my side of the family (Alexis is 9 1/2, Emily is 5, Findlay is 3, and Tommy was 6 weeks and 1 day in the group photo). The one of Tommy by himself was taken over this past weekend when he was very alert! I hope you can see how big he is getting!

We ventured out to the Rain Forest Cafe on Friday night for my niece Emily's birthday; she turned 5 years old on October 20th. Thomas pretty much slept through the entire evening except when he had his bottle. it's a very noisy and interactive place, but he didn't mind. Mommy did, as I think I was a bit overstimulated by the end of the evening and since I was tired was probably crankier than a baby! But we had fun celebrating with Miss Em, who we love very much, and who thinks "Tom" is so cute! (She is so funny calling him 'Tom'!).

Last week we had a few speed bumps, non-baby related. Tails, one of our cats, ended up at the emergency vet hospital from Sunday-Wednesday, finally diagnosed with feline lower urinary tract disease, after TEN months of trying to figure out what was wrong with him. Poor thing was completely blocked this time (he had never been before, just had some irritation) and could not "go" and this disease is often fatal within 24-48 hours. Thanks goodness we caught this early and acted immediately. The vet hospital was great and has called 2x already to follow up on him. Tails has been our "baby" for 6 years, sharing the same birthday as Emily in fact. We went to visit him on Tuesday night, when he should have come home, but because the booger managed to pull his own catheter out, they had to keep him an extra day. We have to continue to watch him b/c he could get blocked again, but he did well with the pills I had to get down his throat and both he and Tux are adjusting to the new menu they have to eat - no more dry food, which they LOVED.

The second speed bump was our automatic garage door broke. John actually fixed it today thank goodness. This "bump" is a bit cheaper than the vet bill was fortunately. Of course, the spring snapped while Tommy and I were going out one afternoon last week, and we could not get the garage door open. John had to come home from work to get it opened manually. Lucky he works so close by!

Tommy is continuing to grow and amaze us every day, and we are learning things about ourselves as well. We are still figuring out a lot and trying to understand what we are supposed to be doing, which includes understanding each other's feelings about things, and how we are each doing and handling our new roles as mommy and daddy. And of course figuring out what Tommy needs - we have not figured out the cries completely. Sometimes the snippiness comes out in both of us, usually when we are tired, so we're making an extra effort to talk through that the next day when we are both able to look at things a little more objectively. But most of the time we look at this little guy in awe that he belongs to us. I am still overthinking and overanalyzing things too much - specifically how often TJ eats and if he is getting enough when I nurse him. But I can still say, the little guy poops and pees plenty, which would not be happening if he wasn't getting enough.

We have a really cool family Halloween costume this year - some of you know it, but I'll stay mum until the end of the week when we have pictures to post here to share so you can check back. We dressed up on Sunday at John's golf club that he works at and were a HUGE hit; we were not eligible, but several people said we would have won for best family costume if we were allowed to! TJ slept the entire 45 minutes we made our appearance at the club for everyone to meet him. Friday we are taking him to Rutgers to meet my co-workers (and we are going in costume too!). I will try to post pictures as soon as we have them with the Halloween costumes!