Thomas is 12!!

Here is Thomas blowing out his candles. I'm not sure how the grass/straw bits got in his hair, but I am certain it had to do with various hijinks he and Sofi had been getting up to (including climbing onto the garage roof and rearranging heavy objects to create make-shifts ladders inside the garage). The cake, for those that want to know, is a triple-layer chocolate with chocolate glaze and strawberries, following a new recipe that uses coconut flour so that it is gluten-free (and therefore fit for Frederick's consumption). Frederick and I baked the cake while Thomas slumbered the morning away. (If Frederick had had HIS way, he would have eaten the cake long before Thomas rolled out of bed.) It was, everyone concurred, delicious.
Frederick always enjoys a rousing "Happy Birthday" song.

Here Thomas is opening one of his presents, a new laptop. The one he had been using (an old laptop we got through work many years ago) died some time ago and we found ourselves with a Thomas parasitically attached to one or the other of our laptops from that point on. The choice was clear: kill Thomas or get him his own laptop. Fortunately, we get good deals through work and his life was spared. Sofi looks on, seemingly as excited as Thomas.

Thomas also received generous monetary gifts from all grandparents. Now all he has to do is decide which of the many millions of games that exist he needs to acquire. Given how cautious he is spending HIS money (though never very cautious about spending OUR money) I suspect he will sit on his tidy nest egg for quite some time.