Its Saturday night, the day after Christmas and things have calmed enough to try and update this darned thing that calls to me and make fun of me when I can't get to it, much like...well, just about everything that has needed to get done over the past 6 months. I'm bailing just enough to keep the boat afloat, but that's really not a great approach, because I'm afraid that eventually I may get tired and not bail as fast as I need to. Such is the life of a parent. Which always makes me wonder how a single parent pulls this off, how a parent with twins possibly pulls this off, how anyone voluntarily goes through this. But I digress.
As usual, Thomas is still the cutest, most well adjusted, happiest baby ever. Despite anything life throws at him, he just rolls with the punches. 
You'll have to forgive the pictures that I choose. There are many, many cute ones to choose from, but I really like the funny ones better.
Christmas was just one big love fest, as we spent it in Shreveport with Rebecca's family and relative after relative swooped in to gain Thomas' favor. Its really nice for us, because we can just sit back and monitor hand washings, but otherwise stay hands free for the most part. Which is a very good thing, because at almost 15 pounds, he's really getting heavy. Everything was really wonderful, Thomas got more toys than he will probably be able to play with before next Christmas, Mom and I got to relax a little and Aunt Leigh got her nephew fix before she headed back to South Carolina.
My only complaint was that somehow, of all of the potential places we could have been, Shreveport, Cincinnati, Washington DC or Dallas, we managed to pick the one place that didn't get a White Christmas. There was a chance, and I spent most of Christmas Eve watching weather maps and reading forecasts in the hope that the snow would reach us, but to no avail. I love snow, get very child-like about it (which I probably do about alot of stuff come to think about it), and get my hopes up any time I'm somewhere where the temperature dips and the clouds are still around. For some reason, I always manage to be in the wrong place when it occurs. I was in Belton last year when it snowed in Dallas and missed it again. Oh well. I'm not going to pout about it (anymore).
I took some videos of Thomas' first Christmas, you can find them here.
Let's see, what can I catch you up on? Development-wise, Thomas is moving along. He's desperately trying to figure out a way to be mobile on his own, because we're not keeping up with him. Thomas is big on moving, especially if we try to just sit and try to take a break. That's when he starts jumping. Up and down, his legs are much stronger than his balance is ready for, so it becomes quite a workout for all parties involved. Thomas talks up a storm, although nothing truly profound or coherent yet. He's also able to show you that he's one, by extending his index finger. He also extends his thumb, so one could argue that he's brandishing a gun. 
But in these kinder, gentler times, we'll just say he's very excited about his upcoming birthday, which is in 7 days for those who may have forgotten.
But in these kinder, gentler times, we'll just say he's very excited about his upcoming birthday, which is in 7 days for those who may have forgotten. Not to be disjointed, but I'm kind of going stream of thought here and I would be remiss not to step back and realize that it has been almost a year since Thomas demanded I start writing about him (he's quite pushy). This day last year, Rebecca was on bed rest in her parents house, although technically, she spent most of it on the couch in the living room. I'm not good on historically perspective, but I think its probably an understatement to say it doesn't feel like a year. There are aspects that seem like years ago, but at the same time, weeks disappear like days. Once again, thank you to all of you who helped us through this journey. There have been times when each of us were unsure whether we had the strength to go forward and there are many of you who have nudged us along. So thanks again and now back to Thomas and how awesome he is.
As I mentioned before, Thomas is so good natured. Rarely does he cry, and if he does, its probably for a good reason. The only occasions that he does are if he gets stuck in the car seat too long (which would be about a minute and a half for me), if he gets scared, which is tough to scare him (I keep trying, although the whole wolfman costume I keep using may end up scarring him), or if he has a nightmare, which is about the saddest thing I've ever seen. Simply holding him and calming him down is all it takes though. So, basically, if it wasn't for the whole prematurity thing and all that came along with it, we'd have the child that every other parent would envy and hate.
You may have noticed that Thomas has glasses in some pictures, but for the most part, he doesn't wear them. Simple explanation, they're reading glasses. Took us a few weeks to realize that he can't read and that he was mostly just looking at the pictures. Actually, Thomas is wearing contacts now. I know...isn't that just the nuttiest thing you've ever heard? We did alot of research on this. Some doctors are more in favor it than others. Basically the pro is, unlike glasses, with the contacts, you can quickly adjust the strength of the lenses to accurately reflect what a baby Thomas' age should be seeing, which is really about 5 feet away. The glasses just fully correct his vision based on Thomas' near sightedness. The theory is that the eyes can strengthen a little better with the contacts and stave off the near sightedness longer. Of course there is a challenge that arises and is probably obvious to everyone, what color lenses do you get to accentuate his boyish good looks?
There's also a secondary issue, how to get a baby to lay still and allow his eye lids to be pried open and a large finger apply a foreign object onto his eyeball. Surprisingly, its fairly difficult. It takes 2 people, alot of patience, some delicate leverage and...well its just really hard. He also doesn't know that he's not supposed to rub his eyes once they are in.
There's much more to write, but I'm saving it for other posts. So if you're still out there, check back.
