
Well by "eats" we mean "gums", and crawling is more like a combat crawl with a lot of pushing of feet and dragging around by the elbows. But it is forward locomotion. Not only is it very entertaining to watch, it also cuts down on the chorus of frustration when a toy is out of reach since he can now get it himself.
"Talking" is a bit of an exaggeration, of course, but what we are hearing is pretty neat nonetheless. A couple of days before TomTom turned seven months old, I said to Jeremy "Hey, isn't Thomas supposed to be making new sounds by now?" (he'd been stuck on Ah-Goo since about 2-3 months). Well the very next day, Thomas' language centre exploded into life. He now has a vast repertoire of sounds, including mamama, dadada, bababa, vavava, blah blah blah, gagaga, ma-ba-da-ga-va-da-ma (etc.) and the occasional mummmmmmaayyyyy, which is obviously my favourite. I had been trying to figure out why he was so cranky and what all the frustrated mmmmmm mmmmmm mmmmmm sounds he had been making for about a week in advance were all about, and now I know. Now he babbles all day long and experiments with his mouth and tongue, trying to make new sounds.

I am going to have to be more careful from now on about asking these questions, since "Isn't Beano supposed to be walking by now?" will surely be followed by him climbing out of his crib and clambering into our bed in the middle of the night. Oh, and "Isn't Thomas supposed to have teeth by now?" followed by him sprouting four in one week. (He doesn't have any yet, in case you were wondering.)

The napping has been the most wonderful turn of events. At about 6.5 months, Thomas suddenly went from having three 30-45 minute naps per day to 1.5 to 2 hour naps twice per day. Short naps are terrible. It seemed like I spent my whole day trying to get him to take a nap, only to have him wake up half an hour later and then be sleepy and unhappy until the next so-called "naptime". I had read about five sleep expert books and scoured every bulletin board on the net trying to figure out how to "extend naps", but to no avail. In the end, he seems to have just grown out of it. This has changed my life: I've started exercising again, I read books, I respond to emails, prepare nutritious lunches and dinners, do laundry, vacuum, and make little frozen cubes of pureed fruits and veg for the Beano. It is super. I am currently a happy little homemaker. I know this will pass, so I'm enjoying it while I can.
Enjoy the latest photos. We have also posted some video of TomTom doing the mamadadababa thing and eating. Hilarious. This thing he does with his mouth when talking makes him look like Beaker.