Can 2008 top 2007?

For Emily and me, I would say "no". How can you beat the year you got pregnant and had your first child? Maybe if we won the lottery or something. But in order to win the lottery, you have to play, which we don't. Even winning the lottery would be 2nd place to Thomas being born.

How about this scenario...we win the lottery from a ticket that someone bought us, the Red's win the world series, the Bengals beat Pittsburgh twice, and get into the playoffs as the #1 seed in the AFC, and UC and Michigan play each other for the National Championship in football. I think that may get as close to Thomas being born as I can get.

Ok back to reality. Our New Years was very low key. We went to MaryAnn and Brian's house for a Fondue dinner. They try and do this every New Years Eve and we always have such a great time at the party. This year was a little different for all of us. Emily and I had Tom, so drinking 2007 away was really not much of an option. MaryAnn is around 20 weeks pregnant, so it wasn't much of an option for her either. We had a cheese fondue and a regular fondue, then my favorite of all time, the chocolate fondue came out after dinner. We gorged on the food, watched, sadly, as Dick Clark tried to say "confetti" several times, and then finally watched some moron jump a motorcycle over a football field. As I said, it was very low key, but Emily and I had a great time. Best of all, we were asleep by 1 am and woke up with no hangover. That may be the first time I can say either of those things since maybe 1992?

As far as resolutions go, I don't really have any. Try to cut back on some calories, try and be a good dad and husband, enjoy good beer when I get it, keep rooting for the Reds and Bengals, even if it is getting harder to do. That is about it. I hope everyone has a great 2008!

The New Mrs. Moore

John and Tricia's wedding was Friday December 28th. It was a beautiful ceremony and a really fun reception. We are so excited that Tricia is now Mrs. Moore.

Tom's First Christmas (In Picture)

Tom had a pretty hectic first Christmas. As always, we were all over the place this year (Kentucky, Mt. Adams, Legendary Run) so by 11 last night it was sleepy time. Here are some pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Tom patiently waiting for Mom and Dad to pick out some clothes for the evening.
Christmas Eve at GG and Hi-Pop's house (GG & Hi-Pop are my parents)

Tom encounters the "baby whisperer" aka Great Uncle Larry.

This was his Christmas outfit, given to him that day by GG.

Tom gets to meet Great Aunt Martha at the Moore's house for Christmas lunch.

Finally, it may look like he is crying, but Aunt Coley was actually getting BIG smiles out of Tom on Christmas night.

We had such a great Christmas this year. It was really fun seeing all the family and introducing Tom to everyone. I hope everyone out there had just as nice of a day as we did.

When I See You Smile

He is warming up, getting ready to give us the good stuff!

And here it is! You should see the things Emily and I do to get this reaction. I would smile too if I was watching us.

My Wisdom Leaves as Tom Grows

Everything went well with the wisdom teeth on Thursday. I was in and out of the dentist's office in under an hour. Thursday was basically a blur. I slept all day, ate a little and then slept all night. It was like college all over again, minus the beer and Playstation. (And I guess the studying?) Friday was bit more painful, but nothing over the top. When we got to the weekend, I was feeling pretty good. Then we encountered a little talked about event that happens to all newborns, the growth spurt.
Obviously all babies grow, but I had never heard anyone talk about these spurts that happen at certain weeks. Well, this is week 6 for Thomas, and judging by his fussiness, unbelievable appetite, and lack of sleep... he is in the middle of a growth spurt. After a couple nights of trying to figure out what the deal is with our suddenly not sleepy/always hungry baby, Emily and I read a little bit about the week 6 growth spurt in the "What to Expect in the First Year" book. Basically, he is going to be hungry a lot more than usual for a few days. Hey, thanks for the update! Also, after thinking we may have got the bedtime ritual down, Tom decided to remind us that we aren't really in control of that yet. Will we ever be?
Overall, though, he is doing a lot better in terms of temperament and sleeping then he was even 2 weeks ago. He loves the mornings, smiling almost the entire time between 8 am and 11 am. Those smiles are like gold! Emily and I will do everything we can to keep them coming becuase they are just so amazing. Who knew?

Bye Bye All My Wisdom

I am getting my wisdom teeth (3 of them) pulled out tomorrow. I'm not too excited about this, but hopefully it will be over quick, and my cheeks don't swell up too bad. I needed to drop a few pounds anyway, so the soup diet may be a good thing for a few days.

I may post some pictures if the aftermath is really interesting. Otherwise, I'll be back with more Thomas stuff next week.

Has it been a month already?

I can't believe Thomas is (over) a month old now! That was a fast 4 weeks. We are all starting to get used to each other now. The sleeping schedules are still a bit of a mystery to Tom, but I think he is doing much better (or we are now used to 4 hours of sleep). He usually has a few good nights, followed by a really bad night and then back to good. Just to let you know, a good night would be a 10:00 PM feeding, followed by 3 - 4 hours of sleep, then another feeding and another 3 - 4 hours of sleep. The bad nights are 10:00 PM feeding, 30 minutes of sleep, 1 hr (off and on) of crying, another feeding, more crying, etc until 4 am. He usually falls asleep at 4 regardless of how the last 5 - 6 hours went. The first 2 - 3 weeks we had more bad nights than good. This last week he has really turned that around. Emily is doing a fantastic job getting up at 2 or 3 or 4 am and feeding him for 45 minutes. This is the same Emily that used to be non-functional if she didn't have 9 hours of sleep. She has taken to motherhood beautifully. I am very proud of her.

Tom had his month checkup yesterday. He has gained 2 pounds since his last checkup, putting him at 11 pounds 8 ounces. He has also grown an inch, up to 22 inches long now. He was able to follow noise from one side of the table to the other. He can hold his head up and he is starting to smile and react to things we do. So cool!

He is also a partier. My parents hosted an wedding shower/cocktail party for John and Tricia last weekend and Thomas was an active participant. He stayed up for the whole thing and was not fussy at all. Here are some pictures from that party: