Terrible Tom and Marvellous Martha

The big news around our place is that Tommy is a regular pain in the neck! He charges about, climbing and/or banging on EVERYTHING, and if you try to dissuade him he hurls himself on the floor (but usually craftily avoids hitting his head in the process) and sets up the most awful racket. Adrian used to comment that if we'd had Thomas first we'd have wondered what was wrong with the far-more-sedentary Martha, but now he believes that if we'd had Tom first we'd have stopped having kids. Seriously.

Thomas has a growing vocabulary of 'words.' He says "down" when he wants to leave the high chair; "grai" for crayon; "mol" for milk; "moo" for various animals, including cows; "gra'gra" for cracker and "cheese" (for cheese)...he has lots of other food words, including "spoo." From "Marmar" he has now begun to say "Martha" quite clearly. He also says "Dada" but as yet has not said "Mama," "mummy," "Mom," "mother," or even "Carrie." He must not yet have realized that I'm a separate person. Either that or he is extremely ungrateful! Tom is a great climber and has a good sense of where to put his hands and feet, as well as an intuitive sense of the space around him. This, combined with a recklessness which Martha has never demonstrated, leads him into all sorts of scrapes. But he's super affectionate and cuddly (when he's not writhing fiercely out of one's grasp) and most of the time (when he gets his way, which means most of the time) he's quite a happy, pleasant person.

Martha has been very pleasant the last few months as well. Occasional outbursts of petulance have thus far failed to manifest at the levels we'd been led to fear. Although she hates to get up in the morning, she is nowhere near so grumpy about it as some people I could mention, and usually pops up after one or two or three injunctions by us, finds herself some clothes, and dresses, only getting the tops or bottoms backwards around half the time. She is delightfully expressive when recounting incidents during her time at day care, and she and Tom make each other laugh almost as much as they make each other yell.

Both kids were sick for a while this fall, Tommy at great but mild length with a runny, scabby nose which gave him the look of an urchin, Martha with a severe cold/flu of over a week's duration which caused her to cease eating and pretty much any other activity save for sleeping. Now they're both well.

After the visit from Grandma and Grandad, we enjoyed a stay by Uncle Tim and Angela. For Thanksgiving, we went to the beach and spent time with Grammy, Walter, and Pearl. Our next trip will be the winter visit to Kent and surroundings.