February 27, 2015

11 Month Fish!

With everyone being constantly sick (another double ear infection and pink eye since my last post), I'm behind on posting about my favorite little buddy. And, goodness, how much he's changed in the past 2 months!

We have a BUSY monkey on our hands. Our son literally NEVER STOPS. I thought Eleanor was a busy body, and looking back, she's nothing compared to her brother. We basically spend the day trying to keep Fisher from harming himself or others. Most of it is our fault because we still have yet to baby proof our home. Fisher's current favorite shenanigans:

: Racing up the stairs when we're not watching him for all of 2 seconds, then scaling/hanging from the banister.

: Opening the cabinet with all of our household cleaners and attempting to poison himself

: Climbing up on anything and everything he can. I turned my back for a split second last week and he had overturned a bouncy pony to use as a step to climb ONTO Eleanor's play kitchen. The next day he used a box of wipes to hoist himself onto the coffee table.

: Playing in the shower (without any water) and especially loves pinning his chubby little fingers in the door and wailing at the top of his lungs.

: Hanging on curtains

: Pulling every book off his shelf - the heavier ones always seem to land right on his toes.

: Eating everything he's not supposed to - sister's Lite Brite pegs, paper, rocks, an old orange peel found on the floor.

: Hacking his way into the laundry room and high tailing it straight to the bleach.

: Dunking his hands and/or diving into toilet water.

: When he sees us discovering that he's doing something naughty, he looks us in the eyes and shakes his head "no." Or the newest is him shaking his index finger at us telling us "no, no." Like admitting the wrongfulness will piss us off any less?

So, the fact that we've kept this kid alive during the first year is somewhat of a miracle. Is it bad that I want to cage him sometimes? It's exhausting/hilarious/not surprising all at the same time.

Fisher is quite the eater and now refuses to let us spoon feed him. He only wants to eat finger foods and will eat just about anything. I find that I have to pre cut up his meal before he sits in his high chair because otherwise I can't feed him fast enough. He shovels food in like it's his last meal. We ran out of formula and decided to start Fish on whole milk early. It didn't phase him one bit - took his first helping of cow's milk like a champ.

Other activities that brother loves right now:

: Being chased

: Any sort of singing and music class. Just like his big sister, he's the only kid in his class that doesn't sit with his parent in the circle but insists on sitting in the middle, right in from of the teacher.

: This kid is obsessed with being outdoors. If I open the front door to grab a package and immediately close it, Fisher erupts. He is as happy as can be if he's outside, so we're trying to get to the trail for walks or logging in park time as much as possible. 

: Dogs. He squeals whenever we see a dog, so our walks on the trail are his favorite.

: Balls. Any sort of ball - he doesn't discriminate. He's pretty coordinated with throwing and rolling balls too.

: Play at My Gym. He somehow finds the prettiest little girls in the gym and starts open mouth kissing them. Quite the lady killer.

: Talking... chatty little guy. He'll say Mama, Dada, Baba, Nana, Ha! But "ball" is his current favorite. When he sees any sport on TV, he comes running and should ballllllll over and over.


Because we're constantly chasing our little maniac around, I don't have as many Fisher pics as I would like. Here are a few though:

Fun at the Children's Mueseum


My Gym play pretty much guarantees us a great nap.

Play in the shower as we attempt to get ready in the mornings.

Peekaboo!

I may or may not creep into their rooms at night and take pics of them. It's the only time he's not maniacally moving.

Every morning, same routine. Head straight to the nightstand and try to dump over Mom's glass of water., then chew on any cord in sight. This one is the monitor charger. Note that his diaper is barely on him because he won't sit still for diaper changes. So, we're usually chasing him doing it in motion.

Busted! Rummaging through my purse.

Score! Wallet.

Hiding in sister's tent and then popping out to "surprise" us.


Pro at tippy toes to get to whatever he's not supposed to. We may have to put bars on our windows soon.

Attempting to climb the curtains

Among all of the mischief, I sometimes get this innocent, sweet smile.

Nana taught Fish how to "pat it and roll it" Patty Cake style...


Buddy giving me the finger - "no, no"





February 8, 2015

Christmas in February!

Tap tap tap... is this thing on??? Yes, 2 months of radio silence for the Thomases. I promise, I have good excuses? I honestly can't go into any detail as the past couple of months have been pretty insane and filled with the following:

: Christmas
: Traveled to Santa Rosa post Christmas
: Stomach bug for Eleanor
: Nasty cold/cough for the kiddos
: Ear infection for Eleanor
: Justin and I enjoyed a weekend getaway in NYC
: Roz visits from KC
: Reichles visit from London
: Johnsons visit from Chicago
: Lunds visit from Chicago
: Nasty cold/cough plague our house again
: Double ear infection for Eleanor (again)

Are you still with me? Hopefully the pics below will tell the story of our lives because my memories is a bit shaky these days. We look forward to a somewhat more calm couple of weeks, and then we hit the ground running with more visitors, kids' birthdays, SXSW, etc.

I missed Fisher's 10 month pic - ah, the poor second child. I'll get around to posting a more in depth rundown of Fisher and Eleanor's current stats/tricks/etc soon. For now, I hope this will do...


My expectations were super low for this event. Luckily, I was able to make an appointment with Santa vs waiting in the God awful line. Right up my alley for the Type A scheduler I am! I prepped Eleanor by telling her that this was Fisher's first time meeting Santa and that she'd have to be a good big sister and keep him happy. So, the minute they were plopped on his lap, Eleanor didn't even look at Santa. She leans over to Fisher and says, "It's OK buddy, Santa's nice. Hi brother!"

Fish is skeptical but didn't shed a tear. Eleanor left and exclaimed, "Oh wait, Santa forgot to give me my bike!"

Christmas cookie decorating for friends and teachers. It only took about 9 hours and my sanity. Needless to say, I bought a roll of Pillsbury dough for our family after my exhaustion making cookies for others.

Nana to the rescue as usual... we wouldn't have survived the cookie bonanza without her and Kiki.

Finished product. Personalized melamine plates from my friend's Etsy shop with homemade cookies.

Trail of Lights date with our favorite lady.

Uncle Roz visits from KC

These two crazy cats had the most amazing (almost) 3 years together in Austin. Audrey was our neighbor at Villa Court, and The Beadle Family is our dear friends. They moved to Longview in December to be closer to family. This was our farewell dinner at Home Slice. We miss you!!

My good friend, Lara, and her adorable son, Harry, came to visit from London. While we only had about 24 hours with them, we had a blast. Lara wins super mom for flying solo internationally with a newborn and flying back with a newborn AND her 4 year old solo. I have no words for her heroism!
Christmas Eve three course fondue dinner! What a special Christmas to have Mom and Katie in Austin and to be able to wake up in our own home. Truly amazing.

So proud of her new balance bike.

Wearing pajamas well into the afternoon.

As if the tutu wasn't enough, she insisted on adding a Rudolph nose.

Thomas boys snoozing on the plane en route to Santa Rosa.

The princess infatuation began at this moment. Cousin Elizabeth was nice enough to hand down all of her princess dresses, and Eleanor has been smitten ever since.

This was the only day appropriate (warm enough) for swinging in underwear.



Not warm, but at least we had the beach and sun.

Uncle Nick and his nieces

Snuggling with Uncle Tom

This chick couldn't get enough of the beach.

Cousin Love.

Bama showing E the lay of the land.





Not many pics of these handsome fellas because they were constantly on the move.

We were lucky enough to see the Hales down in Santa Rosa. We had a couple of kid outings and an adult only outing while Bama babysat. Jack and Eleanor are smitten with each other.

Piper and Fisher playing hard to get with one another.

After the warm up lunch, Fish starts getting handsy.



Precious.


Fisher was sick, but as long as he got his bathtime in, he was a happy camper.




Jane was nice enough to arrange for a professional photographer to take some photos of us since the entire family was at the beach. The photographer was remarkable or really good at Photoshop because my kids were a nightmare and snotty nearly the entire shoot.







These never get old. 

New infatuation with The Little Mermaid played itself out nicely at the beach.

We didn't make this but used it as a photo op.

Headed out to the park.

First stop during our weekend away in NYC. It was FREEZING, but we had an amazing time. 

We pulled our winter gear out of the attic for the occasion.



New York pizza can't be beat.

Full and tired parents out on the town.

Blue skies but blistery cold.




This little lady loves to rock climb now. And her agility is pretty impressive.

One of our favorite things to do - hang at Zilker Park.

Starting to use a sippy cup!

Ryan and Erica Johnson visit for the KU/UT game. We had so much fun, and loved seeing their son, Hudson, and our kiddos hang. Hudson is only a couple of weeks older than Fish.
Buds.

Thomas kids + Hudson sudsing up.

Fisher loved sharing his walker with Hudson.

The Lunds visit! Parents night out started at a brewery in Driftwood - Jester King. Then Stanley's Farmhouse Pizza followed. Delicious food and amazing company.

Justin showing Erik and Molly how TX BBQ is done at La BBQ

Erik schooling Fisher on craft beer.

Eleanor gives her first Rice Krispie treat a thumbs up... thanks, Meghan Hack!

More Zilker time. The more balls the better for Fish.


Sneaky monkey!

Zilker again...


Rocket ship arts and crafts with Daddy. Pretty impressive.