Falling asleep...

This week Tobias is suffering from a cold. His nose is kind of stuffed up and he is sneezing a lot. This results in him having trouble going to sleep. Also he doesn't sleep as long as he normally does, that is, during the day. Fortunately, his night sleep is quite regular. Anyway, because he hardly sleeps during the day he gets really really tired. He does not like to sleep during the day anyway, so he fights it. Today he was fighting it too. I put him in his play pen and he tried to stay awake and keep playing or at least doing something.... That something ended up in screaming so I picked him up and sat him down on the couch. Well, that did him in and I think he took the term "falling asleep" a bit too literal, because, well...., he doesn't seem to be sitting in this picture now does he? In this case I can honestly say that he "fell asleep"! Now, how cute is that?! (By the way: notice the shoes. His mommy got him those this week... nice huh?)

Actions with purpose

Tobias loves to just sit and play. He can do that for long periods at a time. Of course now that he can crawl faster and faster he wants to do that too, but I love to watch him "investigate" his toys. Today I introduced a new toy for him, this lovely train. When you push the yellow thing, depicting a dog, it rides and plays a song and it whistles. Of course Tobias did not know that when I first gave it to him. After I showed it to him a couple of times he figured it out for himself and had to laugh and laugh, especially because not only does the train rides and plays a song and whistles, but also because in the exhaust pipe in the front there is an orange thing, depicting a cat, that goes up and down.... He loves that! I guess what I am trying to say is that Tobias is getting more and more purpose to his actions. He crawls towards something and then picks it up to play with it, he throws stuff on the floor counting on us to pick it up (that's so funny, right...?), and in this case he realizes (or at least seems to realize) that if he pushed the yellow thing something happens with the train (or maybe in his terms; the big blue thing.....)

Hurricane Rita: House intact

We received a phone call from Dickinson earlier this evening. Since power was back on in Dickinson they were allowed to return. At first glance everything seems OK with Lisa's parents' house. No windows have blown out and the roof is still in place and intact. Like I said, power is on and the telephone is working as well (how else would they have called us...). The only thing they don't have yet is hot water. My take on that is that the gas must have been turned off for safety reasons...

This news is a great relief to me, to Lisa, but most of all to Lisa's parents! We only had a brief conversation. They just wanted to let us know everything seems OK, but they had to go back to Lisa's sister's to get their stuff. They want to do that as soon as possible and preferably before traffic starts getting bad... So, I guess they'll be sleeping in their own bed tonight and waking up in their own house tomorrow. Once again, a great relief to all of us!

Hurricane Rita: Everybody safe

Last night we spoke to Lisa's parents and sister and they are and have been safe throughout the hurricane. We spoke to them when they had the worst behind them. They had power and there was no apparent damage to the house or cars. There was stuff flying around, like tree branches and stuff, but that was about it. They are not allowed to return to Dickinson yet, but it is clear that the Dickinson area was hit much harder than where they are right now. So, now we're waiting for the green light for them to return to Dickinson.

Standing up!

As I have told quite a few times before, the milestones seems to be passing by in a very fast pace. Today we reached another big one.... standing up! As you can see he has to hold on to the play pen. Also I had to put him up like this, but once in place he can stand like this for minutes at a time! I have my hands around him, just to catch him in case he falls but I really don't have to hold him or adjust him at all while he is standing... he is doing it all by himself. Once he gets down he just sort of "throws" himself onto his butt and he seems to be fine with that. Personally I was really surprised and impressed by his stamina... This picture was taken when he stood by himself for the first time. He stood there for over three minutes, just holding on to the play pen with two hands (sometimes just one hand) and laughing and giggling most of the time he was standing there.... Once again, a moment of great parental pride for me.....

Interactive play

As Tobias is rolling, crawling and sitting around he is improving his skills in all those fields, including stability when he is sitting. This enables him to undertake various activities when he is sitting, like playing with his multiple headed ball thingy.... (or whatever you want to call that thing laying in front of him in this picture). Initially he just wanted to pick it up and stick it in his mouth, but recently he seems to be more interested in daddy rolling it towards him, because whenever I do so he rolls, hits or pushes it straight back to me. So, with this developments it has become possible to have some interactive play with Tobias and that is tons of fun for the both of us!

Crawling around

Tobias is really crawling now! He is getting faster and is increasing his reach every day. Not only that, but he is loving it too! He will go after a toy, after electrical wires, after a magazine laying around, after the cats, after mommy or daddy, or just aimlessly crawling around..... This is lovely to see and it is obviously amusing to him as well because most of the times he is laughing as he goes. It seems that he sometimes understands that we want him to come to us when we call him, although any distraction when he is on his way may stop him and change his direction instantly. His crawling endeavors will also take him to funny places at times, like here where he ended up right under mommy's chair :-).