Thomas: 11 months

I have to say, I think my luck has finally run out with getting good pictures of him on this blue blanket. I'm really surprised it held out as long as it did, considering he's been mobile for some time! I will just need one more now.

He's got a couple more teeth just starting to pop through on either side of those top front ones. I love his toothy little grin.

He took his first step on April 1. He can stand on his own for a few seconds at a time, and takes one to three steps toward one of us whenever he happens to be in the mood. Crawling and cruising are still his favorite ways to get around, but I have a feeling not for much longer.

He's getting to be a talker too. He says "mama," "dada," "go," and "woo-woo" (for a dog barking). In fact, anytime we say, "Where's Willsy?" he starts going, "Woo-woo." It is sooooooo cute. One day we took them for a walk, and as we passed our neighbor's house, his dogs were barking at Willow, and she was barking back. Thomas barked in his little baby voice all the way down the street. On the same walk, after Delaney told Willow to go, Thomas said, "Go-go-go" for a while. I can't take it. He's gotten a lot more interested in talking, I can tell, even when he's not saying a word. He's watching us talk to him, and I can almost see the wheels turning. He's thinking of things to say even when he's not saying them.

Look at the difference three months made for his hair. Below, in January, he had just one curl.

Now he's got a whole mess of them! And I'm in love.

What else to report...? He's just been a busy guy, going around looking for messes to make every waking minute. He loves baths, walks in the stroller, being read to, climbing the stairs, getting into the dog's food and water bowls, and treating us like human jungle gyms. He wakes up from almost all his naps cranky, and his naps are still not at predictable times. He still nurses mostly, but is starting to eat a little bit of solids for me here and there.

The hair!

We are just so smitten with this boy.

Thomas: 10 months

I've been letting the time get away from me, and before I know it it will be time for his 11-month update! I've got to hang in there with these until he turns a year. 

Thomas is one busy boy these days. He's still crawling at top speed, but cruising more, I've noticed, and spending more time on his feet in general. He's getting into everything, and making big messes. There's nothing he likes more than getting into potted plants, so I've put them all up, but he manages to grab them while being held sometimes because he has little go-go gadget arms and a lot of determination. He's kind of destructive too, as you can see from this picture of our bedroom carpet. This bare patch is where he's been working on unraveling it. The rest of the carpet still has a lot of life left, so this is going to be the way it is for awhile. He's really lucky he's cute.

He's phased out his morning nap for the most part, which is a shame because he could still really use it. He's kind of a mess for the next couple hours. He gets cranky and rubs his eyes a lot, and finally I lay him down at 10 a.m.-- too late to for a morning nap, way too early for an afternoon one. No two days seem to be the same, so I'm hoping I can get him settled back into a good routine soon.

He's at the stage where he goes back and forth between being whiny and clingy, and crawling around looking for trouble. Any time he thinks no one is looking, he takes off for the stairs that go up to the FROG. I've got everyone remembering to keep it closed for the most part. He loves being read to, he loves having someone sit on the floor and play with him (especially if it's one of his siblings -- he's crazy about them), and loves walks and baths. He hates having his diaper and/or clothes changed, and it's like wrestling and alligator. 

He will try a bite of solid food here and there, but only sometimes ingest it. He loved my white chicken chili broth. Too bad it's getting too warm for me to want to make that anymore. But not too bad that it's getting warm -- I love spring!

He reminds me of a Muppet sometimes, the way he smiles so big. We all love him so much.

Thomas: 9 months

It is so crazy how quickly babies change. Once upon a time we had a tiny, helpless newborn -- a sleeping, crying or pooping bundle. Nine months later we have this adorable little monster who looks around to see if anyone's watching before trying to pull up a vent cover, and is attempting to stand on his own. He's so lucky he's cute because he is always looking for trouble, and I have had to adjust to a certain level of disarray in our household again, as we move things up or out of the way, shut doors, and toss things on the floor that might interest him but won't hurt him. I broke down and got him a walker, thinking it might keep him entertained and out of mischief for a few minutes at a time. It is a monster of a contraption that I can't wait to be rid of, but it does keep him happy for just a few minutes a day. Then he chases me around in it and rams my ankles with the bumpers. Here I thought he might some wheels to zoom around on our hardwood floors, but no, anytime he's moving he's after one of us.

He still has no interest in solid foods, but he's been lengthening the time he can go between nursing sessions, up to three or four hours now. So my tether is a little longer for getting out and leaving him at home. I don't do that a whole lot, but on Saturday I had a hair appointment and went straight to Mass afterward. I was very antsy to get home by the end, but relieved to hear he'd been fine while I was gone.

We wrapped up his ISR lessons last week, and Thomas now has the skill of self-rescue in the water. It gives us peace of mind to have this layer of safety, having a pool in the backyard. 

One thing I've noted this month is that he's getting more animated in expressing himself. He babbles with a lot more consonant sounds than before, he waves, he pumps his arms up and down, and he shakes his head "no." But I don't think he means "no," he just thinks it's fun and likes to see us do it back to him. He also likes to make all kinds of mouth noises at me, lip-smacking, tongue clicking, raspberries, whatever he can come up with. He makes me laugh.

He has a quirk that none of the other babies had, and that is he likes to grab handfuls of our flesh and knead it. It is every bit as unpleasant as it sounds. His free hand roams while nursing, and his little fingers (and nails) dig in wherever they can. He is fond of grabbing areas that are not so fleshy, such as my sternum and collarbone area. It's like an extra challenge for him to get a handful of skin there. He was able to find a skin tag I didn't know I had, and stretch it out. Someone on Instagram says it's a need he has for sensory regulation, or something like that; and she recommends trying to get him to grab a lovey instead, or a shirt, or some kind of fidget. I have had no success getting him to grab my shirt, only limited success with the lovey, and now I'm wondering what kind of fidget would work for a baby who wants to knead?🤔

He takes two naps a day still, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Still no updates on nighttime sleep; it's still varying degrees of cruddy. He wears size 3 diapers and sizes 9 and 12 months in clothes mostly. I got on the scale with him the other day, and he weighed 20 pounds. I can see his top two front teeth just behind the gums.

Old news

The girls and I were walking around downtown one day a couple years ago, I believe we'd done a little shopping, and were going to be headed back to the car. I don't know if anything could have shocked me more than the sight of a local news reporter approaching me to ask if I would comment on something. I believe it was something to do with curfews for bars and restaurants. Although I am for the most part a homebody who does not frequent these places, I most certainly had an opinion. I kind of timidly said, "OK..." But then I thought to myself, My hair's not done. I'm not wearing makeup. I don't like the camera. I'm going to mess up. This is going to be the most embarrassing moment of my life. Abort! Abort! With apologies, I told the reporter I had changed my mind. It was not a big deal, I'm sure she easily found someone else willing to speak their mind. Annie said to me, "I can't believe you even thought about talking to her!" 

Walking back to our car, I was so disappointed in myself for chickening out -- in front of my daughters, no less. It would be one thing if the reporter had asked me my opinion about something I knew nothing of and cared even less. But this was definitely not the case. I had all kinds of things bouncing around my head, but because I was uncomfortable, I didn't want to say anything.  

Right then and there I made a resolution that if I were to be approached by someone from the media asking me for my opinion about something, and I had an opinion worth sharing, then my answer would be yes. But I was pretty sure this would not be happening again -- seriously, I don't leave my house all that much🤣-- and I was happy to put it out of my mind.

But this being a small town, another opportunity did find me, and it was a lot sooner than I would have thought. I took part in a demonstration outside the Board of Education meeting in August of 2021, regarding mask mandates. It was a hot day, and the late afternoon sun was so intense. It was the last place I wanted to be, but I felt compelled to get involved. My daughters go to these schools. I would say I did this for them, but they really didn't care either way about masks. I did it for them anyway, and for the kids who suffered on account of this mandate, but most importantly, I did it to take a stand against tyranny.

The pro- and anti-maskers stared one another down outside the double doors. One of the anti-mask moms, who carried a homemade sign that read "Let them breath [sic],"  was losing her mind at the mostly elderly crowd of pro-maskers, telling them that just because they're afraid to die doesn't mean they need to punish our kids; instead they should "get right with God." She was really fired up and had a lot to say, but for whatever reason the reporter bypassed her and came up to little old me. I froze for a second, and then remembered, I have an opinion worth sharing, so the answer is yes.

I was so nervous, but it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. For one thing, we weren't live, and I wasn't on the spot to come up with something. I was given time to think about what I would say while she and her crew shot B-roll and did whatever else. I knew I'd better make it short and sweet, because only a few seconds of it would be on the news (even less as it turned out, lol). I told myself, This isn't about you and whether you think you're camera-ready. This is about a viewpoint you have that is representative of a lot of others. It's going to be just a few seconds and will be seen by hardly anyone, so get over yourself.

While I struggled to think of how I wanted to boil down my thoughts on this matter, a woman strode past us toward the double doors, making this declaration as she went: "It's time to stop sacrificing the welfare of children in order to protect adults." I called, "Can I steal that?" She said, "Certainly." I spent the next 45 minutes or so chatting with the parents around me and mentally rehearsing this: "It's time to stop sacrificing the welfare of children in order to protect adults, most of whom are vaccinated anyway." I think a better way to say it would have been, "Wear a mask if it makes you feel safe, but don't force my kids to wear one." But I think the people who attended the meeting had me covered there; they said all that and more.

When the moment came I only stumbled a little. I felt profoundly relieved, and happy that I had redeemed myself and was setting a better example for my kids. When the story and video came out, I shared it with my family right away, but for some reason held back from sharing it here. Maybe I was still a little embarrassed by the whole thing. I don't know why it's been on my mind lately, but I think it deserves a place on the old blog.

Christmas in Massachusetts

We had a wonderful Christmas with Tim's side of the family in Massachusetts. I flew with Thomas, while Tim and the other kids drove. It was a very easy day for me; I had no trouble making the dash from the B to E concourse in Charlotte, and liked having no wait for boarding the next flight. Thomas was a good little passenger, and the sweet flight attendant on the New Bern to Charlotte flight gave him wings before we got off. Tim and the kids on the other hand... it was a bit of a longer day for them with traffic. I am very spoiled by comparison. One day we will have to suck it up and do the drive all together in the Subaru. Just not ready for it yet. (Not ready by this summer either--already booked a flight for the end of June!)

While we were in line to board the flight to Boston, Tim called to say his mom was on her way to the hospital for a possible stroke. That was scary! She ended up having to spend a few days there for testing and observation, but fortunately it turned out not to have been a stroke. She was released on Christmas Eve if I remember correctly. What a relief to know Grandma would not be spending Christmas in the hospital. That would have been sad.

I don't know if anyone will ever forget any time soon what a COLD Christmas it was. Cold everywhere except for California, I think. I had to try hard not to worry too much about how my open pool was faring in the extreme weather, and focus on enjoying the festivities. We, for sure Thomas and I, didn't venture outside for a few days unless we had to. On Christmas Eve we had to -- we wouldn't have wanted to miss out on that. We went to Mass and then Aunt Jayne's, and got to see a lot of relatives we hadn't seen in a long time.

I'm going to get a little honest and vulnerable here, and tell you about the hiccup that happened as we were getting ready for Mass. I think I feel a need as a mom of five, to prove to myself and others that I can keep it together and manage details for my kids the way I (mostly) always did. I also just really want us to represent large families well, so that maybe a young person sees us and thinks, ok, having a bunch of kids doesn't have to mean your life turns to chaos. But I don't have it all together, and if I ever appear to, you can be assured I've dropped a ball somewhere. So what happened this time was, when I went to lay the outfits out, it turned out I had not packed anything besides sweatpants for Joey. No jeans, no pants, no nothing. Sweatpants. 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve. I could have sworn I'd packed all that, or at least laid it on the bed to be packed. After all the weeks of list-making and organizing for a Christmas away, somehow both khaki pants and even jeans for Joey had slipped through the cracks. I couldn't believe it. My head just about exploded. Tim offered to run to a store for me, but I had to admit that to send him into a store at this point of the day on Christmas Eve was not going to be worth it. So he went to Mass and Aunt Jayne's in sweatpants, and fortunately they were solid black, not anything bright or striped or shiny or whatever. He had a nice sweater at least. Parenthood can be so humbling.

Here's a nicely cropped photo of everyone's top half, so we don't have to worry about what is on the bottom. You can see Timmy's orange shirt that's kind of like the security blanket of collared shirts for him. He is so sad that he's going to outgrow it one day soon, and that Gap has never made another boy's polo shirt in that burnt orange shade since. He has another shirt just like it but with gray and navy blue stripes, but it's like that shirt is dead to him. The orange shirt has holes. Will it make it another year? For months I was like, not the orange shirt again, but it does go nicely under his sweaters. 

Santa found us at Grandma and Grandpa's house. I will never forget Joey's reaction when he opened those Nikes. My parents might remember me with my first Cabbage Patch Kid. That was Joey with those shoes--elated. Over the moon. Going around the room to show them to everybody. Trying them on and posing for pictures. It almost brought a tear to my eye. When he said, "I must have been really good to get these!" it really did bring a tear to my eye. Tim and I kept looking at each other like, 'Aww..' Nikes run a little large, I guess, so they were too big, but we didn't dare discuss an exchange. His feet will have to grow.

Delaney got tickets to see the Bruins play in Raleigh next weekend!

The Brady men made Christmas dinner while everyone else played games or hung out. It's amazing they managed to get anything done with all the arguing😆, but everything was delicious and we were all very appreciative.

Juliana and Alexa are all grown up. Alexa took a trip by herself with just the dog, to Canada recently, and we heard she got a grilling at the border. The agent, a woman, was very concerned about a young woman traveling to Canada alone. "Do your parents know you're here, honey?" "Where are you headed?" "Did you meet someone on the Internet?" 

After dinner we took some more pictures, the kids opened a LOT of presents because Grandma is way too generous, and played another game. It was a great night. There are no pictures from the game that most of us played, but it was something like "Kids vs. Parents," and it was pretty funny. At one point the adults were given the first line of a song, and we had to come up with the title. The lyrics immediately rang a bell in some distant, cobwebbed corner deep in the recesses of my brain. But I was going to go crazy trying to remember. Then Karen sang one line, and I sang the next, and each part of the song got me to remember the next. But we had to go through the entire first verse, bridge and even into the chorus, as everyone else watched our duet in fascination, until Karen blurted out the song title and artist. It was "Wonderwall" by Oasis. (Back in the day my friends and I substituted "Wonderbra" as we drove around in my '87 Volkswagen Jetta 😆). 

First Christmas all together in 10 years

All the grandkids, aged 20 years to 7 months

We went to Karen's the next day for a party with the extended Brady family. Karen tried once again to win the affections of Thomas. Maybe next time.

The day before we left the temperature finally made it over 30, and compared to the last few days, it felt balmy. We got out and did a little shopping. Joey went with his daddy and grandpa to use his Cabela's gift card and get some more fishing stuff for his nice new tackle box. Later, Tim, myself, Carolyn, the girls, and Thomas went to the Blackstone Shoppes to look at clothes. I was happy just to enjoy the fresh air -- cabin fever had been setting in. It was a fun last day.

It might have taken me almost till February, but the Christmas post is done. Going through the pictures and reliving the memories has made me very, very grateful.

Thomas: 8 months

I couldn't get him to lie still for this picture for longer than a second or two, so this is the best I've got. It's amazing I've managed to do as well as I have for the last few months since he started rolling.

8 months old! It's been a great month for Thomas. He took another airplane trip, this time for us to spend his first Christmas with Tim's side of the family in Massachusetts; and he got his two first little bottom teeth, as if his smile weren't cute enough.

He still won't eat any solid foods I offer him; he just kind of worries them around his mouth a little before letting them fall out. So silly.

He's wrapping up his second week (of six) of ISR lessons, which teach him to self-rescue in the water. He's a stubborn little man and he wants nothing to do with it, but he's coming along in spite of himself. For several days the instructor was not able to get him to settle into a back float, so she decided to move to the next phase of training anyway, which was submerging his head for a couple seconds. He kicked his way to a back float and then for the first time, kind of rested there, as it must have felt like a relief after having his head underwater! The instructor explained that some babies need to see the "bigger picture."

He has two naps a day -- we dropped the third nap at some point I'm not sure when -- but he still acts like he could use it a lot. He's typically going downhill pretty quickly from about dinnertime to bedtime (around 8).

Sometimes I can snap him out of a bad mood by reading him a book. He has a lot of books. He gets one every time we go to the pediatrician, and we are also signed up for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. I love those surprise books in the mail every month, and they are very good quality, both in terms of their content and their construction. I have ones I read to Joey over and over again, and they're still in good condition. 

I have NO idea what was going on here!

What else...? He's babbling a mile a minute, getting into things he shouldn't, and judging from the way he looks at me and smiles, he knows he shouldn't. He loves baths and hates being changed, especially when it's his clothes. He still protests being buckled into his car seat, but fortunately doesn't cry for entire car rides usually. He signs milk now, but never to me (i.e., the one person who can help him there) -- to Tim and Joey so far. We all just love this little man and can't get enough of him.