Tom-Tom

Thomas has two very sturdy little legs, and David recently discovered that if we prop him up on a toy or if we hold his hands, Thomas does a great job of holding his own weight on those legs! He hasn't really tried pulling himself up on things yet, but once he's on his legs he really seems to enjoy the view. He also hasn't managed to conquer our stairs yet, although it frustrates him that we can move easily from room to room while he's stuck down in the living room unless someone comes to pick him up. So, sooner than later, I'm sure he'll be tackling the stairs so he can chase after us.

Even though he still isn't crawling on his hands and knees yet, Thomas really gets around pretty fast. He kind of looks like he's swimming along the carpet :). We've also discovered that Thomas has a propensity for destroying order whenever he sees it! We're trying to come up with a fitting nickname ... "The Disheveler" or "Mr. Entropy" or "The Destroyer" or something like that. We'll keep you posted if anything sticks :). Any time Thomas sees a neat stack of something, whether it's toy blocks or DVD cases or books or papers, he makes a beeline for the stack and shuffles his meaty baby hands back and forth in the stack until everything is strewn about on the floor. It's funny to watch him spot a stack and go take care of it -- it's like his own personal baby mission! Sometimes the disorder bothers Jack (although this is fairly rare, since Jack is like a little tornado himself), and he will follow Thomas's wake and try to pick up the pieces again.

Thomas also seems to be developing a sense of baby humor :). He's recently been working on his baby choking routine, much to the dismay of our frayed parent nerves. Having one of the kids choke on something is one of my biggest fears. It's never happened -- at least not to the point that I have to do the Heimlich or anything -- but I hate the thought of Jack or Thomas getting a piece of food caught in their throats and not being able to breathe. So, Thomas has a couple of new acts --- one of them is to put a Cheerio or small piece of food way back on the back of his tongue, which triggers his gag reflex. He'll make terrible faces and his eyes will get big, and just as I'm about to pick him up and help him get the food out, he moves the piece of food forward and chews it just fine. This is understandable, I suppose, since he's still learning to eat finger foods and it's probably not intentional. Well, he also has another choking act! All of a sudden he'll hold his breath and his face will start turning red/purple and his eyes get big, and it looks like he's really having trouble with a piece of food. Once again, I start to get up so I can help him dislodge the food, and all of a sudden he lets out a bunch of fake coughs and gives a huge smile and a laugh -- and he didn't really have a piece of food he was chewing in the first place!! I know that babies do fake coughs because they realize that it invites attention ... but this is terrible!