5 Months!

It's hard to believe Thomas is already so old! Here he is at 5 months:

And, a video of him in the exersaucer, squealing and shrieking (his two favorite noises to make). I love it when he wrinkles up his nose as he grins.

Another good weekend

We had another fun, relaxing weekend...Friday night at home and then Sat. and Sun. at the lake. Thomas continues to roll and maneuver himself around. We can no longer put him down and leave the room temporarily, confident that he'll be in the same spot when we return. He's also started rolling over and scooching in his crib, starting at one end and waking up at the opposite end. 

Now that he can roll, he's appreciating tummy time a bit more. 

Friday night pizza with our neighbors, Rikki and Barry. Since we wouldn't give Thomas any pizza, he decided to chew on the box! 

We smoked A LOT of meat on Saturday (ribs, pork butt, chicken, chicken legs, and salmon). We felt bad for Thomas since all he got was pureed green beans and rice cereal, so we threw him a bone (literally). 

Kelly took her last grad school final on Saturday. Yay! She celebrated with a bottle of champagne.

Tucker used a dish cloth for a bib while he ate ribs. I'm not sure what was so funny here...but later on, he and Dustin finished half a pan of brownies, which the rest of us did NOT find funny. Because, really, after you eat ribs, pulled pork, chicken, salmon, macaroni and cheese and corn on the cob, you NEED a brownie. 

The guys show off before their bike ride.

Thomas is getting closer to sitting up. In fact, if he falls forward, he can actually push himself back up. If he falls backward, he's stuck. And he loves his new blocks! 

He thinks he's ready for a big boy cup.

We need to get some more prunes. This is what happens when you're 5 months old and you're plugged up for 2 days. When you unplug, it's big. He let this one fly during dinner. Fortunately, we didn't notice until afterwards. As you can see, Dustin was shocked that something so little could create something so big!

Dancing baby

As you've probably guessed, I've finally taken the time to figure out how to load videos onto the blog. Yay for the technologically inept! Here is Thomas "dancing" in his Johnny Jump-Up a few weeks ago. I won't be posting four videos every day, but I couldn't resist putting a few up here so you could see the little guy in action!

The giggling baby

Better rolling video

Here's a better rolling video from this morning. Thomas likes to roll in the morning (at one point today actually did back to front to back). Hopefully he starts rolling at night too so Ed can see him in action!

Thomas rolls over

This is a bad video, but it's the best I have so far of Thomas rolling over. He can do it pretty well, but there's no rhyme or reason to when and where.

Bobby and Kerry's wedding

While we were at the wedding, Jenn and Thomas hung out in the hotel room. She tried to introduce him to the joys of musicals and ABBA, since Mamma Mia was on, but he fell asleep before it started. 

Watching TV with Aunt Jenn.

Posing with the bride and groom. We had a great time at Bobby and Kerry's wedding and met Bobby's high school friends, who were a lot of fun. We were the only NU people there, though that didn't stop Ed from asking people, "don't I know you?" After two "no's," he stopped asking. Bobby, who mostly goes by "Robert" now, hasn't changed--he still roasts a pig every year. Sadly, his MIT class ring has replaced his NU ring. Boo!

 Congratulations Bobby and Kerry!

On the flight home we had a row to ourselves. Thomas snoozed in the middle seat while Ed watched a movie and I read. Lucky us! 

In the swimming pool

After we left Grandpa's, we drove to Melbourne, on the Atlantic coast, for Bobby and Kerry's wedding. We took Thomas in the hotel pool and dipped his toes in the ocean. Ed also gave him his first dunking. The dunking went all right, but he didn't like the water dripping past his eyes afterwards. Still, no crying!

Post dunk.
Chilling with dad in the pool.

Floating on his back.

First time in the ocean.

Meeting Great Grandpa

We took a quick weekend trip to Florida to introduce Thomas to Great Grandpa Jerry and attend our friend Bobby's wedding. Jenn came along to see Grandpa as well and to babysit Thomas while we were at the wedding. It was a whirlwind weekend, but lots of fun. We spent Friday night at Grandpa's house in Kissimmee and then Saturday morning introduced Thomas to some Florida traditions. 

Grandpa and Thomas. He's got Grandpa's (and my) blue eyes. 

Picking a grapefruit off the tree.

Playing shuffleboard.
Saying hello to the cows. This calf is actually on the wrong side of the fence! He escaped. We didn't want to get any closer...calves are frisky!

Riding the golf cart. 

The five of us at lunch.

Feeding Time at the Zoo

We've branched out further into the world of people food in the last week. Not surprisingly considering our little chunker, new foods were met with enthusiasm.

In addition to the spoon, Thomas also thinks it's great to hold the bowl. 

He's now gobbled up carrots and peas. Next up...probably plums. Not to embarrass the little guy, but the veggies have left him a bit plugged up (2.5 days between poops, anyone?). I've read that fruits that start with "P" help to loosen things up a bit. Prunes would be the obvious choice, but that seems so cruel. No one likes prunes... 

Update: Ed was the one grocery shopping tonight on the way home from swim class. He bought prunes. Poor kid. 

Another Weekend at the Lake

We spent a relaxing weekend at Mattoon with Di and Matt, Alli her dog Bella, and a brief appearance by Kelly and Dustin. The weather was cloudy but still plenty humid! We did some skiing, some floating, and alot of lazing around and watching Thomas and HGTV. (We usually watch Sportscenter, but Ed was outvoted for most of this weekend. I was especially happy about that when the NASCAR race was on.) Thanks for coming, everyone!

Di and Matt got Thomas this little whale sweatsuit when he was born. He's now grown into it, and we love the whale on the butt! So cute, and blue is defnitely his color...goes with those big eyes.

Thomas' new thing is eyeing up people's drinks...either cups or bottles. While he was hanging with Aunt Alli, he couldn't take his eyes off her Woodchuck. Being a good aunt, she didn't let him do anything more than suck the bottle. 

When Thomas met Bella back in May, he wasn't real interested. Now, 6 weeks later, Bella makes him giggle. She sat fairly patiently while he petted her. 

And kept coming over for more, and a few toe licks!

This is what happens when we leave Thomas sitting up by himself on the futon. Not a skill he's mastered quite yet!

Floating in the lake...nice.

Fireworks

What July 4th celebration would be complete without fireworks? The great thing about being on a lake is you can float in the middle of it and watch fireworks on all sides. Of course, we also set off some of our own!

Uncle Mark's stash of fireworks

Mom found a ground display firework that looked like a beer mug. She bought it, and Niki and Corey built a "beer man" to hold it while it went off. Notice the volleyball head. 

The guys decided it would be more fun if the beer man burned and ignited the firework. Corey offered up the easy way to get the wooden man to start flaming.

Corey and Patrick show their approval while Ed continues to squirt lighter fluid as the man burns. Yes, the firework is duct taped to the man's arm, and yes, they're all standing too close to something that's about to explode! 
When the fire reaches beer man's volleyball head, it ignites the ball, which promptly falls off, rolls into the lake, and starts to float away. The firework did go off and spout some lovely fountains of fire, but as you can tell from the pictures, that was secondary to the fun of burning a wooden man with a volleyball head!

Grown up fun

Thomas is in probably 90% of the pictures taken this weekend, but we did have some non-baby fun, too. 

The seven of us.

Jenn and Patrick

Drinking beer and floating

Riding Big Mable

Riding around the lake on the tandem bikes

More lake pictures

Random cute pictures from the weekend:

Watching the action on the lake. Look at that big boy standing up!

Trying to drink from Grammy's water glass.

Cool dude in a hat.

Bathtime in the big sink.

Talking to Great Grandma Millie.

Napping with Great Grandma.

"No more rice cereal! I'm done."

Thomas likes cousin Eric's goatee. Prickly!