Thomas is a lot more vocal than his brother. He has found his voice, and it is LOUD. His cutest vocalizing has got to be his rolled r's. "Drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!" he trills. If he's fussing in the car and I reach back to hand him a cracker, the wailing abruptly changes to trilling. He and I are the only ones in the family who can make this particular sound, so it's become our special language, much to John's bewilderment. Happy r's are mid-range; excited r's are higher and louder. My personal favorite are the contented r's: these have no note at all and are emitted sotto voce, exactly like a purr.

He is not a cuddler like his brother. I spent months and months lugging John in a sling because he wouldn't let me put him down, and when I wore him around he snuggled in close to me. Thomas arches back away from one, fussing to be put down. But he still shows affection, in his own way; it's immensely gratifying to walk in the door after running a couple errands by myself and have a little baby pop up, all smiles, and scoot quickly across the floor to haul himself up on my knees and babble and grin until he gets picked up. If he's working at a new skill -- like moving the beads along the wires of the bead maze, instead of trying to pull them off and eat them -- when he finally gets the concept he gets all excited, turns from the toy and flings himself at me, shrieking. I catch him and hug him hard, laugh, and turn him back around, and he has another whack at the toy. This back-and-forth continues for some time. It's as if he's saying "This is NEAT, Mommy! Look at me!"

John's new favorite word is "indeed." Yes, you read that right. Sometimes I wonder about him.