Merry Christmas!

We thought last Christmas was fun with Thomas and it was, but Christmas with a VERY enthusiastic three year old was even better!

Last night I was putting him to bed and he kept talking about making snow angels and throwing snowballs and making snowmen outside today. I only realized that he actually expected snow when he got out of bed and said, "Let me check if it's snowing yet before I go to sleep." All of the Christmas shows we've watched have included snow so he thought it snowed everywhere on Christmas Day. Thankfully he wasn't too disappointed that we only had rain.

This morning, he woke up a little early and called me over the baby monitor. I said good morning to him and the next words out of his mouth were, "Is it Christmas morning!?!?" I said that it was and he yelled "Woo hoo!" and ran to wake Grandma and Grandpa up. They spent the night with us last night so they could be here for the Santa gifts. I loved hearing him tell them to hurry up so he could go downstairs and see his camera. That's the one thing he asked Santa for and he had no doubt it was downstairs waiting on him, which it was.

He was so cute opening his gifts. My parents gave him some boxing gloves and he squealed with delight and yelled, "This is just what I wanted!" and ran over to give them both big hugs. He was almost as excited about every other gift he opened. At one point, he picked up a present and asked who got it for him. I told him Daddy and I did. He ran to both of us, hugged us, and said, "Oh thank you for my red present!' He hadn't even opened it yet. :-) Of course, with the honesty of a three year old, when he opened one he didn't want, you knew about it. David and I bought him a Leapster handheld video game. He looked at it and said, "This is a big kid toy. I didn't want this." He whispered it, but the message came across loud and clear. He also did that with Crocodile Dentist which he got from my parents. He said he just wanted to play that at James' house and didn't want it here. I told him that wasn't nice and that he needed to say thank you. He sighed really big and in a sad little whisper said, "Thank you Grandma. Thank you Grandpa." Thankfully, he changed his mind about both presents very quickly.

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Baby Preparations

I told you it would probably be a while before I posted again didn't I? :-) Things have been very busy around here getting ready for Jonathan's arrival next week. And since that's such a big event in this house, all the stories today revolve around that.

Last week, Thomas came up to me at breakfast and patted my tummy and said, "Mommy, your tummy SURE is getting big!" After I stopped laughing, couldn't be offended because he's right, I asked him why he thought it was getting so big. He said, "Because Jonathan is just growing and growing!"

For the last few weeks, Thomas has alternated between being the baby and being the daddy. I've posted pics of both versions of our boy. When he's the baby, he needs a pacifier and crawls everywhere and wants his big boy bed converted into a crib with pillows along the edge. When he's the daddy, and he's a great one, he carries his babies everywhere, feeds them, buckles them into the car seat, and in general takes good care of them all.

We were at his friend Natalie's birthday party last weekend and I overheard Thomas telling Natalie's grandma that when Jonathan was born Daddy was going to stay home "a whole week to help me take care of him till Mommy comes home." I reminded him that Jonathan will be in the hospital with me until we both could come home and he said, "Well, I'll still need the help!"

And last but not least, this morning, he spent 20 minutes practicing silly faces for his brother. He'd do one and ask if I thought his brother would like that one. I'd say, "Definitely!" and then he'd try another one.

Life around here is about to change but we all can't wait. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Daddy Thomas 

Baby Thomas 

Another Month?

Well, it's been almost a month again since my last post. I'd like to promise that I'll do better but don't think that's realistic for the next few months. We're busy and I'm tired so you'll probably just have to be satisified with occasional updates. A lot of funny things have happened and I have plenty to share...that is if I can remember them because my memory is awful these days thanks to the baby. If I need to remember anything important, I have to tell Thomas and he reminds me.

Thought I'd start you off with a quick Thomas story. He has another runny nose since it's that time of year. On Saturday morning, he was sitting on the couch and I saw him wipe his nose on his pajama sleeve. I reminded him that we use a tissue not our clothing to wipe our noses. He looked at me and said, "Mommy, just drink your water...and look over there."

We finally have baby news to share, our little one was very stubborn and didn't want to let us know what we all wanted to know. We're having another boy and Thomas is SO excited. When the sonogram technician said "boy" Thomas went "Woo hoo!" and pumped his fist in the air. He was REALLY hoping for a brother and his excitement has been fun to witness. And our little one has a name as well. We've decided on Jonathan David. I know it's not as cool as Superman or Buzz Lightyear, but since we all agree on it, it'll have to suffice.

We also have a new car. Mommy finally got her minivan, a 2007 Honda Odyssey, and I sure do love it. Thomas is really proud of it too. He's shown it to all his friends and it's cute to see what he thinks the neat features are. He always shows them the "nets" which are the built in window shades in the second row and his toy holder, which is a console between the two captains chairs in the second row. He also points out the screen he uses to watch movies and tells them all about the navigation system: how you can see where you are and the map moves as you move and also how you can ask the car what time it is and it'll tell you, a feature we have used a LOT over the last few weeks. The minivan has lots of other neat features, but those are the ones that matter most to our three year old.

I'm going to go ahead and publish this one just so you'll have something to read. Maybe later I'll get around to writing a few of the stories from this last month. Or maybe not. :-)

That's My Boy!

Yesterday, Thomas and David went to the grocery store. After they got home, Thomas was telling me all about the experience: what vegetables he saw, what neighbors they ran into, and most importantly, what kind of cookie he got to eat as kids always get a free cookie at Kro Kro (Kroger). He told me he got a chocolate chocolate cookie (chocolate chocolate chip) and that it was really good but messy so he wiped his mouth on Daddy's shirt. David said, "Thomas you weren't supposed to tell Mommy that part!" Thomas laughed and said, "But Daddy, I tell Mommy everything!"

Lost, Found, and Sleepy Ankles

Last night, my mom called to ask Thomas where her 3 pound hand weights were. Thomas loves playing with them at Grandma and Grandpa's so she knew he was the last one to use them. He said, "They're on the fireplace." which is where they should have been but weren't. I asked him to think where else he might have put them. He thought for a minute or two and then said, "They're by Grandma's bed." She went in to look and sure enough, there they were under her side of the bed. Nothing like having to ask a three year old where your stuff is...

Last night at bedtime, Thomas trotted out a new excuse for not going to sleep. He called down and said that he was trying to go to sleep but there was a problem. "My ankles are sleepy but the rest of my body says that it wants to wake up!" We told him to just lay there and rest and that we were sure that soon his ankle would convince the rest of his body to go to sleep. One minute later he was out.

Has It Been Two Weeks Already?

Wow! How time flies. Thomas and I have been enjoying having David home with us lately and I haven't gotten around to updating the blog. Hope you haven't missed us too much.

Wanted to share a few things that have tickled us lately. In the past, I've written about our struggles getting him in bed at night. That has basically ceased. The most trouble we have these days is his common excuse when we tell him goodnight and we'll see him in the morning. He'll say, "But I'm not the fastest sleeper!" I'm not sure why he thinks that'll work because we always reassure him that he doesn't have to be the fastest, but he still keeps trotting that excuse out.

David and I have had our girl baby name picked out long before we ever got pregnant. It's the boy name that we're struggling with so we decided to ask Thomas his opinion. We asked him if he liked William or Jonathan better for a boy name. He thought for a second and then said, "I like John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt!" So, you can bet if we decide on Jonathan, Thomas already has his nickname chosen.

Thomas is in a phase now that I'm really enjoying. I don't know how long it'll last but I'm going to bask in it for as long as I can. He thinks his mommy is the prettiest girl he's ever seen and isn't afraid to tell you so. We went to eat at Babe's the other night and at that restaurant when the Hokey Pokey plays on the jukebox, all the waitresses dance in the middle of the restaurant. So when at least 20 college age girls got out there and did the Hokey Pokey, Thomas really liked it but when telling the story later he'd say, "Yeah, but they were not as cute as Mommy!"

We all went to an end of busy time party with David's coworkers and their families on Saturday. Thomas made several new friends and had a great time. At one point, he needed to go potty and invited his new friend Josh, aged 2 1/2, to come with him. So Josh's dad and I stood outside the bathroom listening to Thomas give Josh a pottying lesson. We heard Josh say, "Look tee tee!" Then a few seconds later, Thomas said, "Ok, now it's your turn." Don't think Josh tried that time but Thomas did show him how you have to wash your hands and flush afterwards. He was very pleased with himself for being the big boy and teaching someone else how to do it. He's going to be a great big brother.

Superman

Superman

Thomas decided quite a while ago that he was going to be Superman for Halloween and we ordered his costume early so he could enjoy it longer. His costume arrived this week while he was sick with his cold. And if anything could make a boy feel better, it's dressing up like a superhero. As a matter of fact, I tried to give him some cold medicine while he was wearing his costume and he informed me that Superman didn't need medicine because he didn't get sick.

The first time he put his costume on, he looked in the mirror and said, "Oh Mommy, I'm not Thomas anymore, I'm Superman!!" Kids are so much fun.

Weekly Update

Hey everyone,

It's been a busy week for us and Thomas has entertained us as usual. He's had a cold for the last week and goes through tissues like crazy. Thomas does really well covering his mouth every time he coughs so David and I decided not to make a big deal of the fact that he uses a different tissue for every single wipe of his nose. He went through 3 boxes of tissues the week of his cold but at least he wasn't wiping it with his hand or on his shirt.

Last weekend, David was still crazy busy at work so Thomas and I rode with my parents to Lubbock. Thomas decided that we should fly and not drive because flying was much faster. I reminded him we only fly to Lubbock when it's just the two of us and we drive when we go with anyone else. All the way to Lubbock, he kept saying it was taking too long and that he told us we should have flown. And he was right too because with the rain, holiday traffic, and construction our drive out there took 6 1/2 hours and our return trip took 7 1/2 hours when it should have only taken 5.

Lately, Thomas decided his pillowcase was too rough and wouldn't put it on his pillow. He said the pillow was softer without it. In order to encourage him to use a pillowcase, which can easily be washed, I gave him one of my satin pillowcases that my grandmother made for me. He LOVES it and called to tell my grandma how much he was enjoying it. She offered to make him one of his very own and asked him what color he wanted. He said, red, then green, yellow, pink, purple, blue, white, clear, and then cracked himself up before naming any other colors. When we got to Lubbock, we went to visit my grandparents. She gave him a gift sack with the pillowcases inside she'd made for him. He looked at his red and blue pillowcases and said, "Oh wow....where's the rest of them?"

All along, Thomas has been planning on naming the baby Buzz Lightyear no matter what sex it is. But lately he decided that if it was a girl, he'd name her Woody. And on the way home from Lubbock, he told me that he also thought Gma would be a great name for a girl. Gma is what he calls my grandmother.

Humorous Tidbits

Riding in the car with kids is a great time for interesting conversations to crop up. Thomas always suprises me with the things he comes up with to talk about.

• One day, he asked me, completely out of the blue, if it was going to hurt me when I went to the doctor to get the baby out. I told him that it would hurt a little bit but that it would be worth it to have the new baby. Not a humorous story but still sweet.
  
• Then one day last week, he was eating animal crackers while we were on our way to the museum. He found two rhinoceroses and asked me, "Mommy, how do rhinoceroses kiss?" I asked him how he thought they kissed and he decided they must use their noses.
• He also knows that I'm ready for a new car and knows exactly what kind I want. For a while, he would say that Mommy's new car was going to be a "moving van" but now he knows I want a minivan. He decided that after our minivan, we should get a race car and then a pick-up truck. He also told Grandma that she could get a race car right now because she didn't have a baby in her tummy so she could drive really fast.

David's parents and sister came to visit this weekend. Thomas was wearing one of his current favorite shirts, muscle shirts "so everyone can see how strong I am." He has three of them and the one he was wearing had the number 15 on the back. Wanda was talking to him and asked who was 15. He looked at me and asked, "Mommy, am I still three?"

Today at school, the kids got to make bracelets with their initials on them. Thomas told his teacher that he wasn't going to wear a bracelet but would make it for Mommy and that's exactly what he did.

Naptime Shenanigans

Silly sleeping

As you know, Thomas naps only about one day a week and he rests in his room for a while every other day. Yesterday, about 5 minutes after I left his room, he called me over the baby monitor asking how many more minutes were left of rest time. I told him it had just started and not to worry about it. Ten minutes later, he called me again, this time with a teary voice. He said, "Mommy, it hurts when I pull my hair! Can you come check and see if it's ok?" I told him that he would be fine if he would just stop pulling his hair. Ten minutes after that, he got quiet and took his weekly nap. This is how I found him when naptime was over.

Check Out His New Bike

New Bike

Thomas LOVES his new bike. He can pedal really fast and stop all by himself. If you look closely you'll see one of Thomas' little quirks. He wears a hat under his helmet because he says otherwise it sticks to his hair. Looks a little silly but we'd rather do that than have a fight over wearing a helmet altogether.

A Week of Firsts

Thomas had a good week this week. He got his first big boy bicycle. He's so tall that he was having a hard time pedaling his tricycle. David had been saying Thomas needed a bike for quite a while now so earlier this week, we drove to Toys R Us and tried several models out. The 12 inch Superman bike he tried first was so small, he couldn't even pedal it. I got down a 16 inch bike thinking it would be too big for him still, but he just took off. He drove all around the bike area at Toys R Us at least 15 times before we were able to go pay for the bike. He loves his new bike and asks to ride it every day. He doesn't even care that it's 105 degrees outside. Mommy tries to take him out first thing in the morning and Daddy takes him out late in the evening. It's still hot both those times but only 90ish and not 100+.

He also had his first day at preschool yesterday and he LOVED it. He was in Mother's Day Out last year and had a great time, but we decided to try a different place this year. I was a little nervous about it because he'd been happy last year but had heard so many good things about this new school that I wanted to at least try it. I walked him in yesterday and by the time I put his backpack in his locker he was gone playing. I had to track him down to give him a hug and tell him good-bye. When I picked him up, he got in the car and said, "Mommy, I had FUN at my new school!" He opened his backpack and pulled out a drawing he'd made that had a note attached from the teacher saying he'd had a great day and loved the trains and puppets. He looked at the note and said, "I"ll tell you what it says. 'I had a really really fun day at school. I had a terrific time at school.' He said a few more things but I was too tickled by the terrific time statement that I missed the rest, never heard him say that before. Then he said, "You can read the rest Mommy."

After school, we went to eat lunch at McDonald's with his friend James, who loves the new school too. And right in the middle of McDonald's, Thomas had another first. The first time he embarrassed his mommy by pulling down his shorts to show his friend his cool new Superman underwear. Life is never boring around here!

Not Gettin' In Trouble

And now for some more stories that have tickled our funny bones lately.

As you know, Thomas isn't napping much these days, but he still goes to his room for a rest time every afternoon. One day, he called down to me over the baby monitor, "Mommy! I have something dangerous for you!" I went upstairs to see what he was talking about and saw that he'd been playing with a picture frame that had a photo of him, Mason, and Palmer in it. He'd taken the frame apart and the glass had fallen out of the frame. It hadn't broken, but he knew it wasn't safe and wanted me to get the dangerous thing off the floor.

David had tried a new restaurant at lunch one day and was telling us about it that night. Thomas listened to David's explanations of all the yummy food they had and then said, "Daddy, maybe I can come with you to eat there sometime. Do you think they have grilled cheese for me?"

Lately, Thomas has been understandably fascinated with baby things (he now sleeps covered with one or more baby blankets each night) and toys he liked to play with when he was a baby. Whenever he notices a baby toy in an old photo of himself, he immediately wants to get that toy and play with it. Last night, he had us get the exersaucer out of the attic and got in and played around in it for quite a while. It was a funny site because he's so big now he was having to play on his knees. And his descriptions of his activities always start the same way, "When I was a cute little baby, I just LOVED to play with this."

Gettin' In Trouble

Lest you think Thomas is perfectly well behaved all the time, I wanted to share some stories from the last week or so of Thomas' other side.

Last week, we went to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History with his friend Corbin. Thomas was having a tough time sharing that day and we had to discuss his behavior several times. He didn't want to share the toys at the water table, he didn't share the puppets at the puppet theater, and he didn't share the train cars or the stuffed animals or any other toy available. On the way home, I asked him if he'd had fun at the museum. He said, "Yeah! My favorite part was the bubble thing!" Then he got a little twinkle in his eye and said, "No, my favorite part was me not sharing!"

One morning last week, Thomas noticed a disposable camera on the mantel. David had taken it with him on a business trip and there were still about a dozen pictures left on the camera. Thomas asked me if he could see it. I told him that was Daddy's camera and that he'd have to wait and ask Daddy that night. Well, that afternoon, I was upstairs and Thomas came up and excitedly showed me the camera and said, "Look Mommy, I can take pictures and this is how you do it!" He'd already taken all 12 pictures left on the roll. He had to be punished but the hard part for me was figuring out the most effective form. It wasn't a big deal that he took the pictures. The problem was he'd already been told no. So I finally decided the best thing would be for him to call Daddy at work and tell him what he did. And I tell you, that was the hardest thing Thomas had ever done in his life. I think it took about 5 minutes to even get the words out. He was SO upset about having to confess to Daddy but hopefully he learned a lesson.

David was putting Thomas down the other night and as they usually do, they were being silly and playing rough together. Things got a little too rough and Thomas accidentally gave David a nosebleed. He was so upset about that that I had to go upstairs to calm Thomas down after making Daddy's nose "all blooded." After a long hug and reassurances from Mommy, he sobbed, "Mommy, I think I am in trouble! I need to go downstairs and sit on the bottom step!" which is where time-out is in our house.

The Wiggles

We took Thomas to see The Wiggles on stage last night and boy was it fun. He wanted to buy a souvenir before we went to our seats and selected a feathersword just like Captain Feathersword has. Once we got to our seats, he waited patiently until the show started only because he had popcorn. I wish you could have seen his face when they came on stage. He lit up. He started waving and yelling "Hi Anthony! Hi Jeff!!" Then he turned to me and said, "I want to go down there and say hi to Jeff." Jeff is his favorite Wiggle and he was disappointed that I told him Jeff was busy singing. When Captain Feathersword came on stage for the first time, he stood up and yelled, "Hi Captain Feathersword! Look I have a sword just like you!" Of course, with all the music and other kids yelling, no one heard what he was saying. I could hardly hear him. It was a fun night dancing and singing along with The Wiggles in person. And when Jeff fell asleep on stage, he didn't get mad that all the other kids yelled "Wake up Jeff!" with him. That's something we were afraid he'd get mad about but he just laughed. And our other child loved The Wiggles too. I think the baby must have been dancing in there because I felt him/her move more during the concert than I'd ever felt before.

On an unrelated note, this baby has something else in common with his or her big brother. He or she didn't want to be too revealing in our sonogram today so we are in the dark as to what we are having. Maybe at the next one in October. We know we'll eventually find out one way or the other, but we enjoy knowing beforehand.

Silly and Sweet

David taught Thomas some 80s sayings the other day which really cracked him up. I hadn't told my parents about it and when he trotted out a few of them while he was at their house, they died laughing. Thomas was goofing around with my dad and licked his ear (thanks Daddy for that game). He then said, "Oooh, gag me with a spoon!" And while they were still laughing, did it again and said, "Gross me out the door!"

Every time Thomas goes outside, he brings me a special gift when he comes back inside. And being a three year old boy, it's usually something that he thinks is cool like some leaves or a stick. Today, he and David went for a walk in the "dark forest" which is actually just some trees surrounding a creek at the end of our block. While there, he selected a special stick to bring back to me. When they got home, he ran to find me and said, "Mommy, I got you a present!" When I told him how much I liked it, he said, "Mommy, I love you and that's why I got that stick for you." Talk about melting a mommy's heart.

Six Flags, Germs, and Grandma

Thomas and I went to Six Flags this week for only the second time all summer. I've been too tired to do anything up till now, but I'm glad we went because we had a blast. Thomas rode all the rides he wanted, played a few games, and had his picture taken with every character at the park. We rode the old cars together, I'd type the name of the ride but know I'd misspell it. In previous years, he loved the ride, but wouldn't even touch the steering wheel. This year though, he drove the whole time while I pushed the pedal. It was so cute to see him "driving" that I pulled out the camera for some pictures. He smiled a few times and then said, "Mommy, no more pictures, I have to drive!" Later, he was waiting in line to ride Boot Scootin' which is his new favorite ride. I couldn't ride with him being pregnant so was waiting and watching from another area. The ride filled up and the attendant stopped Thomas from going through the gate. His face crumpled and he started crying. I rushed over to ask what was wrong and he sobbed, "Mommy, she won't let me on the ride!" It's hard to understand waiting your turn when you're three, but he quickly realized that now that he was the first person in line, he could get on the color boot he wanted, his favorite color: red.

Thomas and David were goofing around the other day and just to get a reaction, David licked Thomas' ear. Thomas stopped playing and said, "Don't lick me Daddy! You have germs in your mouth!"

Yesterday, my mom came over to stay with Thomas while I went to the doctor. Thomas knew she was coming but was "napping" in his room. Mom said she didn't hear anything for a little while and then could hear him saying, "Grandma! Grandma! I am up here in my room!" So she went up to get him, as a grandmother should and he didn't take a nap that day. He had actually napped for the previous five days, but when he naps, he stays awake till at least 10. It was nice putting him down early last night. I want it all. I want to rest in the afternoon and an early bedtime. Is that too much to ask? :-)

Before she left yesterday, Grandma asked him if he wanted to come spend the night at their house tonight. It took them a while to recover from the bad experience several months ago when they, or I should say my mom, was up with him until midnight. But I digress, his answer was no because he wanted to go swimming at his friend James' house today. I told him that he could still go swimming this morning and have plenty of time to get to Grandma's. He still wasn't all that excited about it last night but woke up this morning and said, "I think I feel like spending the night at Grandma's." So we called Grandma to tell her and he told her, "Grandma I feel like spending the night at your house tonight." She didn't catch it all and said, "You're going to spend the night at my house tonight? Great!" He said, "Yeah, because I feel like it." And boy did he. You should have seen the stuff he packed to take over there because as he told me, "Mommy I am going to spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa's and play for a long long time and then you can come pick me up." He packed for himself and took every clean pair of underwear he had, which was at least 10-15 pair. He packed three outfits and would have packed more but Mommy stopped him. He took Bear from Bear in the Big Blue House and he's a big bear. I think he's at least 2.5 feet tall and 2.5 feet wide. He took a big bag of blocks, his blankie, teddy bear, pillow, and I'm sure there was more that I can't remember right now. They filled up the back seat of her car, but I bet they'll have a great time.

An Announcement from Thomas

Hi everyone! My mommy usually writes these blog entries but today I asked to do it because I wanted to share this news myself. If you are regular readers of my blog, you know that I've been asking for something for quite a while now. I'm excited to announce that my mommy and daddy have finally answered my pleas and I'm going to have a baby brother or sister!! My baby will be coming in early January and I can't wait.

When my parents told me about the baby, the first question I asked was what the baby's name was. Mommy and Daddy said we get to decide for ourselves what to name it. I'm pulling for Buzz Lightyear whether it's a boy or a girl. The second question I asked was if the baby was coming tomorrow but Mommy said it takes a long time to grow a baby. Now I understand that it won't be here till after Christmas. Then Mommy and Daddy talked about it a little more and said I'd get to be the big brother. I didn't understand what that was and started crying saying I didn't want to be that. But now I understand what it is and I can't wait. I keep telling my mommy that I want her to have two babies, one for me and one for her, but she said we'll just have to share the one baby that is in her tummy.

Music and Food

Yesterday, Thomas and I went to eat at my friend Masako's restaurant. We were eating our food when a song came on that Thomas really liked. He asked me how you were supposed to dance to that song. Knowing him and his rule following, I knew that I couldn't tell him there was a particular way to dance to any song or else he'd think that was the way it ALWAYS had to be. So I explained that dancing is just moving your body to the music any way you want. He said, "Moving my bottom to the music?" with a grin on his face and then stood up and turned around and starting wiggling his bottom to the beat.

Last night, on the way home from swimming at Gail and David's, who Thomas keeps accidentally calling Dail and Gavid, Thomas rode home with David and I got to drive by myself. Since I was alone, I took the opportunity to listen to some music I like rather than Sesame Street and The Wiggles we usually listen to so I popped in Joan Jett. I was still listening to "I Love Rock And Roll" when I pulled into the garage and turned it up so my boys could hear it too. We had a nice moment all three dancing to it in the garage. Maybe I'll see if he'll listen to my music more often. I know he likes Michael Buble, but anything else I try to put on, he usually yells at me to turn it off.

Earlier in the week, we went to eat lunch with Lisa, James and Amy at Shady Oak Barbecue. Thomas didn't want to go eat there and wanted to go eat at the mall with them instead. I explained that it was Lisa's favorite restaurant and so we were going to go there with her. As we were eating, he and James were sharing Thomas' toy Zurg and Buzz Lightyear that he'd brought with him. The only problem was that both boys wanted Buzz all the time and not Zurg so there was some conflict over that. After we got home, Thomas told me, "Next time we go to Lisa's favorite restaurant, I'm going to take these two Bear in the Big Blue House's and leave Buzz and Zurg at home so we won't have any fights."

Big Boy 2 

Little Swimmer Part 2

Big Boy

Thomas has become a much better swimmer over the last few weeks. He mastered all the objectives of his swim class and can move up to the next level. We're not going to take any more lessons this summer though because we want him to enjoy being able to swim without worrying about learning the breaststroke. Every time we swim, he does better and better. On Monday night, we went over to swim in Gail and David's pool, Gail is Dad's cousin. Thomas swam well there and wore his float belt about half the time. By the end of the night though, he realized that he could push himself down to the bottom of the pool and that became his new game. On Tuesday, we went to Natalie's house for a cookout with her family. We swam for at least 2 hours. Thomas swam and swam and after about an hour, I made him put his float belt on so he could rest a little bit. He jumped in from the top step and came up yelling that he couldn't touch the bottom and to take this thing off. So I did. And then, just to scare his mommy, he decided he wanted to jump off the diving board by himself with no float belt. And he did it. Repeatedly. Daddy was close by just in case, but he never needed David's help.

Mr. Geography

Thomas is really interested in geography these days. He knows the four cities where his closest friends live and who lives in each one. He also knows about our immediate family members and can tell you who lives where and who they live with. As you drive down the road, he'll tell you, "Mommy, you know each street has a name." and then go on to explain where we are and what places are on that particular road. He will also tell you that Lubbock is 5 hours away and that to get to Albany you have to fly because it's too far away to drive.

Today we went to Chick Fil A after music class and he was carrying his giraffe. He ran up to the counter and told the woman working there, "This is my giraffe. Giraffes live in Africa!" We got several admiring glances for that one.

I'm not sure what he can do with his geography skills later in life. Cartographer or truck driver? Maybe he can do something with his new dinosaur interest instead.

More Stalling

Last night, Thomas stayed with his friend Natalie while David and I went out with some of his work friends. He had a great time and had planned to swim but when I came back to pick him up at 8, he was just getting his suit on. I decided to let him swim for a while even though it was late. He had a blast playing in the water, with his float belt on, for about 30 minutes and then I told him it was time to get out. He looked at me for a minute and then instead of swimming to the step, he swam out into the middle of the pool and started floating on his back singing "Row Row Row Your Boat." Little turkey. I ended up having to ask one of the other kids in the pool to push him back to the steps so I could get him out. Still made me chuckle inside at his tactics.

Little Swimmer

Thomas is taking swim lessons again and this time he's in the more advanced class and is really improving. Before I tell you about his swimming abilities, I have to tell you another story first.

On Monday, the first day this session of swim lessons, I knew he was going to cry. He cries every time he has a new teacher and after that he's fine. But this time was a doozy of a fit. He screamed through 30 minutes of the 35 minute lesson. I kept apologizing to his teacher and told her he'd definitely be a different kid the next day and he was. On Tuesday, he wanted to take his swim goggles. I agreed as long as he wouldn't cry. He said, "Mommy, we talked about it and if I don't cry, I get to wear my goggles but if I do cry you take them away." Tuesday went great. Wednesday, he was wearing his goggles before class even started but when his teacher told them they were going to be in the "deep" end (4 feet) all lesson, he walked over to me with his lip quivering and handed me his goggles. He knew he couldn't cry and keep them which broke my heart a little bit, as it does each time I see that trembling lip. After I reminded him how much fun it was to jump into the deep end, he started grinning, asked for his goggles back and ran to join his class.

As I said earlier, his skills have really improved. Yesterday at swim lessons, his teacher had them jump off the side by themselves, come up for air, and swim to her about 10 feet away. Then she turned them around and they swam back to the wall. And he did it!

Today we went swimming at D'Ann's and I was telling her that story when all of a sudden, he jumped off the step of the pool, swam about 5 feet and turned around and swam back to the step. At first, I was slightly panicked because I wasn't in the pool yet but after watching him do it so well, I asked him to do it again so I could take a picture. :-) He did and then asked for his float belt so he could just play and jump off the diving board.

Think I Forgot About You?

I know it's been over a month since my last post. No excuses, I'll just say I'm sorry. Of course, it's been so long I've forgotten many of the cute things he did but I'll try to share a few.

Yesterday he and Natalie were playing at Chick Fil A and he came running out of the play area bristling with indignation. He ran up to me and said, "Mommy! Do you see those guys? Those guys right up there? They were playing really rough and they said I was a BABY!" I asked if he told them he was a big boy. He said, "That's not nice, not nice at all!!" No one has called him a baby before and apparently when you're three, that's the biggest insult imaginable.

As his vocabulary has increased, he's been using a lot more big words in conversation. Most of the time he uses them in the right context. However, a week or two ago, he was coming down the stairs and as he jumped from step to step, he'd pause, grin, and say, "Whoa, that was miserable!" Then, he'd jump the next step, grin, and say, "Whoa, that was miserable!"

The other day, Thomas did something, hit me I think, and I told him to go sit in time-out. He hates time-out and immediately apologized and started crying. As he kept sitting there, the crying got louder and he started saying, "But Mommy, I don't like time-out, I want a spanking instead! That's my choice!!"

One night last week, he came running out of the bedroom with his underwear on his head. He was cracking himself up by being so silly. David said, "Now wait a minute, is that your bottom or your head?" He said, "My bottom! This is my head!" and then bent over and stuck his bottom in the air.

There are a multitude of other stories I could tell. Like about his insistence on calling my Aunt Patty, "Uncle" Patty. Or how he had a blast tackling Uncle Mike when he was in town and talked about it for 2 straight days how fun that was. Or about how I warned him at my cousin Josh's wedding reception about how the older kids might play ball rougher than he was used to and he told me, "Mommy, I am rough, I can play rough!" and did. Or about how he had such a great time at zoo school with his friend James. But you might have just missed out on all those things. I'll try not to wait another month before posting again. :-)

Germany, Shoes, and Candy

Boy does time fly. I can't believe it's well over a week since my last post. David was out of town so I'll blame part of it on him since I was so busy as a "single" mom. :-) We picked him up at the airport on Saturday and Thomas wanted him to sit by him in the car. All the way home, Thomas kept saying, "Daddy, I missed you in Germany." Sweet, but cute because he pronounces it Gurmany with a hard "G" like girl not with a "J" sound.

The other day, an ant crawled into Thomas' sandal and bit his toe. He kept wearing sandals after that but with a little more caution. One day though, I brought out his tennis shoes instead. He looked at them and said, "Oh Mommy, these are the best shoes in the whole wide world! Ants can't bite my toes in tennis shoes!"

After dinner tonight, Thomas said, "Mommy I need some M&Ms!" I said, "Not tonight because you just shared some cake with Daddy." He said, "But Mommy, that was dessert and I need candy!" Nice try.

I know it's late notice but if you missed his television premiere in March on the Food Network show Unwrapped, it's going to air again tomorrow night at 6:30 Central time.

Why?

I'll preface this post by saying that I know this wasn't the best parenting I've ever done but I'm human and it was funny.

Thomas is in the phase every kid goes through. The Why Phase. He asks that question at least a hundred times a day. Most of the time, I'm very patient explaining why things are they way they are but every now and then.... Yesterday was one of those days. In the space of about 5 minutes, he asked me "why?" at least 15 times and I got frustrated. After I asked him to go throw something in the trash and he asked "why?" for the 16th time in 5 minutes, I said, "Thomas, sometimes I need you to do something just because I ask you to and don't ask me why!" He was quiet for a few seconds thinking about what I said and then said...."Why not?"

This morning we were headed to meet Natalie and D'Ann and I was explaining to Thomas that my back was hurting today and he needed to leave his shoes on because I couldn't carry him. He then told me that his back wasn't hurting. I said, "Well, then you can carry me." He repeated, "I can carry you." thought for a second or two and then died laughing. "Mommy, I'm too little to carry you! You made a joke!!"

Pretty Sportacus

More Sportacus

We were talking to Dale and Wanda (Grandpa and Granny) on the phone last night and Thomas decided to dress up like Sportacus so they could "see" him. After we hung up, Thomas said, "Mommy, do you want to come with me to see if I'm pretty?" I said, "Of course!" so we went into our bathroom to look in the mirror. He stood there for a few seconds and then said, "Yep, I'm pretty alright." :-)

Snipets

Several things have happened over the last week that have been funny.

On Friday morning, Thomas' friend James came over for a few minutes. At one point, Thomas, Lisa, and I went outside and when we tried to get back into the house, the door was locked. It took a few minutes for him to figure out how to unlock the door, but now we know that when James comes over, take the key out of the door. :-) Later that morning we went out to eat pizza with Natalie and D'Ann after art class. Thomas leaned on the table and spilled fruit punch all over Natalie. He'd also fallen down earlier and scraped his knee so we had an interesting morning.

He has started telling a joke that he thinks is so funny. He'll say, "Knock, knock. Now you say, 'Who's there?'" So we'll say, "Who's there?" And he'll say one of his friends' names, "James!" and crack up and after he's through laughing say, "That was a joke!"

Yesterday, we were eating lunch at McDonald's and Thomas climbed up onto the back of the booth. I asked him to get down because it wasn't nice to the booth and it wasn't safe. He said, "But Mommy, I'm king of the castle!"

This morning at breakfast, Thomas said, with a mouth full of food mind you, "Ms. Christine says not to talk with your mouth full."

Babies

Thomas has decided he's ready for a baby brother or sister and he talks about it all the time. Yesterday we were driving in the car and Thomas said, "Mommy, what is Olivia's baby sister's name?" I told him it was Emilia. He said, "When we get a baby what will it's name be?" I asked him what he thought we should name it. He said, "Maybe Marty or Melman (Madagascar characters) or Dory (Finding Nemo) or Timon or Pumbaa." I told him those were all very nice names but that I was pretty sure if and when we did have a baby that we wouldn't name it Pumbaa.

Then he said, "Mommy how do you get a baby?" I told him babies were a gift from God and that it took a long time to grow one in a Mommy's tummy. I reminded him that his teacher is pregnant and that her tummy is getting really big because a baby is growing inside. He looked down at his stomach and said, "Mommy, my tummy is really big maybe I'M growing a baby!" He was only a little sad when I told him only mommies can grow babies.

On a different note, we were in the grocery store yesterday and I was singing along with the music playing. I sang, "We gonna rock down to Electric Avenue. And then we'll take it higher." Thomas looked at me quizically and said, "Mommy, we do we have to take it higher?" Good question. :-)

Bedtime Battles

David and I know we've been spoiled. Even as a baby, when it was time for bed, we'd just put him in his crib and he'd go to sleep. So we've had three years of easy bedtimes and it makes the last two weeks seem that much worse. Thomas has decided to fight going to bed and does it quite well. It takes at least an hour to get him to sleep. It would probably go faster if we'd give in and lay with him until he went to sleep but we don't want to get into that habit. He wants "one more hug" and "please stay here just a couple more minutes." He'll grab fistfulls of my hair and say "I making you stay here." Of course, 10 "one more hugs" later he's still crying and wanting us to stay with him. He's even started coming out of his room and crying at the top of the stairs for us (another thing we've been spoiled by, for the last 6 months of him sleeping in a big boy bed, he's stayed in there and called us when he was ready to get up). We know, or I should say hope, it's just a phase but that doesn't make it any easier to deal with.

David worked late tonight and got home in the middle of Thomas screaming. He listened for a while and when he could tell I was losing patience, he asked Thomas if he could come up and lay with him. For 20 minutes Thomas had been at the top of the stairs screaming about wanting me to come lay with him and I was standing firm having given him his 4th "one last hug" but as soon as Daddy offered to come up, he said, "no" and went to bed by himself with no more crying. David and I laughed quietly saying he should have intervened earlier.

If our readers out there have any suggestions on how to get our boy to sleep without an hour of screaming and crying, we're open to suggestions. Just send us an email or post a comment to the site. When you've been spoiled as long as we have, you take it harder when he acts like a normal three year old.

Sportacus Thomas

Thomas got this Sportacus dress-up outfit as a potty prize for staying dry in big boy underwear. He wore it everywhere I'd let him all week long. It also plays a lot of Sportacus' sayings and also some songs that he sings. Thomas will push the button about 15 times until he gets to his favorite song and then will sing and dance with Sportacus. Lazytown is one of his and Daddy's absolute favorite shows.

FYI, you can view all the pictures posted on our blog in a bigger size if you just click on them.

Do You Think?

Yesterday we went to Chuck E. Cheese with Lisa and James. When we pulled into the parking lot, Thomas said, "Oooooh, Chuck E. Cheese! I smell piiiizzzaaaa!" I laughed and as we pulled into a space he said with an anticipatory grin on his face, "Mommy, do you think you need to tickle me?" Whenever he's silly, he knows he should be tickled.

Last night, Thomas was playing with his bat and got carried away and threw it and it hit us. David and I yelled at him a little about it because we'd just told him to be careful with it in the house. He fell apart because we raised our voices and through his sobs said, "Mommy, do you think I need to go sit in time out?" I asked what he thought and he thought yelling was enough punishment.

As far as the rest of the week, we did a lot of fun stuff. We went to Clark Gardens on Saturday with Mom and Dad. It was 35 acres of Texas gardens and really pretty. Thomas loved all the water fountains and lakes with fish in them not to mention the 30 minutes we spent in the train section. That night we went bowling with friends and all I'll say is David and I were embarrassed that Thomas was beating both of us until the 6th frame. To his credit, I will say that he bowled an 89 that game but it was still embarrassing to be losing to a three year old. Sunday we went to church with my parents. Thomas asked if Grandma's friends would be there. I said that they would. He said, "Mommy, I don't know their names but I like her friends." He spent 30 minutes in "big church" and then asked to go to his "nursery church" where he had a great time but was mad that they didn't give him a snack.

On a final note, since I'm sure you are expecting a potty training update, he wore big boy underwear to school both days this week and stayed dry. He hasn't had an accident all week and loves wearing his new Toy Story underwear (they were out of Chicken Little). And I find it highly suspicious that he could go without pottying from 7:30-noon while we were at Chuck E. Cheese and yet had to go three times during his one hour un-nap yesterday afternoon. Hmmm.

Potty Power

Sorry if you're tired of reading about potty training but that's our life these days. And since it is, I thought I'd title this post after our favorite potty training video, Potty Power. It's got catchy little songs that you find yourself singing at all hours, "No more diapers for me..."

Potty training is going very well. He is so cute being proud of himself and also praising others. At school, he usually gets to go potty at the same time as his friend, Preston. From what his teachers tell me, Thomas gets as excited about Preston going as he does for himself. He'll yell, "Good job going potty, Preston!" into the next stall which always makes his teachers smile. He also praises David and I too. Even as old as we are, it's still nice to have someone acknowledge what great tee-teers we are. :-)

He's been wearing underwear for over a week now. He hasn't worn them to school yet but will probably do that next week. The other day, we were getting dressed and I asked him to go pick out some underwear. He asked me to get them instead. He never likes what kind I pick out and I told him that. He promised he'd wear anything if I'd just get it for him. So I brought in some Thomas the Tank Engine underwear. He immediately said, "Oh Mommy, I don't want to wear those." At my look, he said, "I mean, I love Thomas but I don't like him." His absolute favorite underwear are his Monsters Inc. underwear but we only have three pair. Probably need to go shopping for more. I know I saw Chicken Little underwear somewhere. Maybe those would also be a good alternative in his book.

He's been napping again for the last month or two which is nice. However, twice this week, he went potty on his own during nap time and got so excited about that he didn't sleep. I could hear little footsteps running upstairs and wondered what he was doing until I heard the toilet flush. Then Thomas yelled, "Mommy, I felt the tee tee and poo poo needed to come out and I ran in there and it came!" So I ran upstairs and gave him a hug, told him I was proud of him, and put him back in bed. Then for the next 45 minutes, every minute or so, he'd yell, "Mommy, I felt the tee tee and poo poo needed to come out and I ran in there and it came!" I'd praise him again and holler good night. It would be quiet for a minute or two and then, "Mommy, I felt..." So we just gave up on the nap. He was so excited about being a big boy and doing it all on his own.

Come On, Daddy!

David likes to be silly with Thomas. He'll call him the wrong name just to get Thomas to say he is not Francisco, he's Thomas Henry! Thomas usually likes it when his Daddy is silly and joins in most of the time but every now and then...

Over the weekend, we were driving in the car and Thomas wanted David to sing the "Banana Song" which is a silly song David made up about a green banana he bought at Kroger named Thomas (and Thomas has his own version about a coffee he bought named Daddy). David said, "Oh I don't know how to sing that song." And in this sing-songy exasperated voice Thomas said, "Come on, Daddy!"

The next day, we decided to get ice cream after dinner. Before we left, I asked who was ready to go get ice cream and everyone excitedly said they were. On the way there, David told Thomas he didn't like ice cream and was going to eat pickles instead. In that same exasperated voice Thomas said, "Daddeee, Mommy said 'Who's ready for ice cream?' and you said you wanted some!"

On an unrelated note, Thomas has taken to consulting the clock whenever he wants to do something and without fail, the clock says we have time to do it. Last night, he wanted to play with his new bubble sword outside, but we told him it was almost time for dinner so not right now. He looked at the clock and said, "The clock says I can play bubbles for TWO minutes." Who are we to argue with the clock? :-)

Car Show

On Saturday, we went to the Dallas Auto Show with my mom. Thomas loved "driving" all the cars. He probably sat in more cars than the rest of us combined. What tickled us was that of all the cars he got to play in, his favorite was something we never expected. He didn't pick the $100,000 Porsche, no, his favorite was a Jeep. And you want to know why it was his favorite? Because it had an old fashioned crank to roll the window up and down. The kind of crank the rest of us said good riddance to years ago, Thomas was fascinated by. It's a lot of fun viewing the world through his eyes.

Traveling and Pottying

We went to Lubbock this weekend and Thomas did great going on the potty. He stayed dry the whole trip which I didn't expect. He told us every time he needed to go potty and was able to wait until we could find an exit with either a potty or a good field, being a boy tee-teeing outside is a LOT of fun. Yesterday, he wore big boy underwear all day and stayed dry in them too, so things seem to be going well so far.

We spent some time with my grandparents while we were in town and Thomas was very gentle with my grandma since she'd just had knee surgery. One thing that tickled us was after he went to go potty at their house, he threw a huge fit because I flushed the toilet and he wanted his "GMeMa" to see his tee tee first. His Granny, David's mom, very graciously looked at it every time this weekend but I didn't think my grandma was up for the walk into the bathroom. That was my mistake since she said she would have been glad to do it.

Last night, David and Thomas were about to play a game and David asked Thomas if he needed to go potty before they got started. Thomas said, "No, Daddy. Do YOU need to go potty?"

Jumping

Jumping with Daddy

Thomas and David like to jump on our bed together at night. In this pic, they're playing a game Mommy doesn't like to watch. It's called "Try To Touch the Ceiling" but I still had to take a pic since they were having so much fun.

Little Swimmer

Going to swim class

Here's one of Thomas all dressed up and ready for swim class. He's wearing Chicken Little all the way: swimsuit, shirt, backpack and beach towel. He's got about 5 swimsuits now so we'll have to spend lots of time at our friends' pools this summer practicing his new skills and utilizing all those suits.

Choices and Cottontails

Yesterday we were out running errands together and needed to get something from Walgreen's. As we were pulling in the parking lot, Thomas said, "Mommy you have two choices. You can go in by yourself or I can go in with you." I asked which one I should choose and he said "I go in with you." So even though it took longer and he could have waited in the car with David, he went in with me and was a very good helper.

Over the weekend we went to see Peter Cottontail on stage at Casa Manana. Thomas had a blast. David and I really enjoyed it too. It was cute and witty and since it's in a smaller theater the action was must closer. At one point, the two "bad" guys are chasing Peter Cottontail trying to catch him and they actually ran down our row saying "excuse me, pardon me" the whole way. That really tickled Thomas to have the action right where he was. Afterwards, the cast signed autographs and Thomas wanted them to write his name. When I explained they were writing their own names, he then started asking them to "draw" on his book. If you live in the area, I highly recommend you taking the time to go see it even if you have to borrow a kid to go with you. :-)

We've been intensely working on potty training for a few weeks now and it's finally going well. Thomas has done great as long as we are home and he's half naked. It's been remembering to go while we are out that he's had difficulty with but today he actually went on two different potties while we were running errands. He also complimented me yesterday on my "awesome tee tee" and told me I was a big girl when he went in with me to the restroom. It tickled me but I know it was high praise in his book.

Mr. Mommy and Music

Thomas and I were reading his new Caillou book that he got for his birthday. It's a story about how Caillou wants to be just like his daddy. On one page, Caillou says he wants to be a daddy when he grows up. I asked Thomas if he wanted to be a daddy when he grew up. He said, "No, I want to be a Mommy." I didn't tell him that barring major medical advances in the next 20 years, he's out of luck on that one. :-)

I haven't listened to country music in years but the other day a song popped into my head and without thinking I sang a little of it while we were driving. Thomas loved it and repeatedly asked me to sing "The Baby Song." Don't know who sang it but the chorus goes, "Oh me, oh my sweet baby said good-bye..." On the opposite end of the spectrum, one of Thomas' latest jokes is while he's eating a meal that he thinks is pretty good, he'll say, "This is nasty and yucky!" and giggle like crazy. So David taught him Janet Jackson's "Nasty" and it is pretty funny to hear Thomas singing, "Nasty, nasty boy, don't mean a thing."

Throwing Fits and Good Manners

We were at my parents' house last weekend visiting with all of my Dad's brothers and sisters who came up for the weekend. We had a wonderful time seeing everyone and Thomas was enjoying entertaining them. At one point, he wanted to play a game that was in the closet in one of the bedrooms. Since someone was in that room with the door closed, we told him he'd have to wait. He wasn't very happy about that and threw a mini-fit. He came running over to me crying and I said, "It's hard when you don't get your way isn't it?" He said, "Yeah! It's no fun at all!!"

I know I wrote about his manners, or lack thereof, a while back. Thought it was time to give an update. They have improved greatly and we're back to being the parents who feel like maybe we're doing something right when he is polite without being prompted. He almost always says "please" and "thank you" and now throws in "excuse me" and "you're welcome" and loves to hold the door open for people when we're out. We're proud of him for being such a polite young man. Tonight, he and David were sharing some candy and he offered some to me. I said, "No thank you." and he looked at me and said, "Thank you for using your manners, Mommy."

Swimming and More

Thomas is taking his first swimming lessons by himself, one of the priviledges of turning three. He is SO cute to watch because he does everything his teacher asks with as much enthusiasm as a three year old can muster...which by the way is a LOT. If he's asked to lay on his back and kick his feet, he kicks as hard as he can with his legs going perpendicular to the water and back down. If he's asked to put his face in the water, which some of the older ones even have a hard time with, he dunks his whole head and comes up grinning. He's SO excited about learning to swim.

The other night we went to see Bethany, Natalie's big sister, in a musical at her school. It was really good and the kids did a great job. Thomas watched the first hour really well. The last 30 minutes though, he was ready for it to be over. After a song ended, he'd say "That was really good. Time to go!" or "I liked that one. Let's go now!"

Being a mom of a boy, I wondered if he'd want to play the kinds of games with me that little girls play with their mommies. Games like Beauty Shop. I found out this week that he does. He just does it a little differently. For example, his idea of making my hair look pretty is to comb it all in front of my face. And when he decided I needed a haircut, he used his pliers. :-)

TV STAR!!!

Well, if you missed it, Thomas is now a TV star! :-) The episode of Unwrapped aired tonight and it was so fun watching him. We hoped he'd be on at least once and to our surprise and enjoyment he was on 4 or 5 times! It was so FUN!!! And it was amazing how much he'd changed since that was filmed last July. He still looks like a baby on the show but to me he looks like a big boy now. 7 or 8 months is a long time at this age, and a long time to wait for a TV show to air!

It was funny because I saw Thomas in the teaser for the upcoming segment and I picked up the phone to call my mom and see if she was watching but instead of a dial tone, I heard my friend Jennifer yelling, "I just saw him!" While I was talking to Jennifer during the commercial, my mom clicked in to tell me the same thing. After the show, I've talked to or heard from 6 different friends and family members and the show only aired an hour ago. I'm glad we have friends and family who get as excited about these things as we do.

If you missed it, the show airs again tonight at midnight Central time and Friday night at 6:30 Central.

And if you're worried, I feel pretty certain that although he's a big star now, he'll probably still acknowledge his friends and family. I will too, but I was only on for about 1 second, thank goodness. :-)

Birthday Party Weekend

Our boy is now a three year old! We had a great weekend filled with lots of birthday parties. I've mentioned Thomas' friends James and Preston before and how they're all the same age (well Preston is two days older than James and Thomas). Preston's party was on Friday, Thomas' on Saturday, and James' on Sunday. All three were a blast!

Preston's party had the Three Musketeers theme and was really neat. Leave it to Cristina to make her own party favors and Musketeer outfits for the boys to wear along with a huge spread of amazing food for adults and kids alike. She's so creative, a trait I admire but do not have.

That's why we had Thomas' at My Gym. :-) We had 16 kids celebrating his birthday with us including his friends, some of their siblings, and his cousins Mason and Palmer who we were so glad to have visiting from New York and able to come to his birthday party. Thomas had a blast except when we asked him to be the center of attention, like to blow out the candles. Then he just cried, so his friends helped him do it. If we just left him alone to play with his friends, he had a ball. It was a lot of fun!

James' party was at Clubhouse for Kids which was a really neat place. There was a big treehouse with a slide, a rockclimbing wall, a grocery store, a dress-up room, a kitchen, a block room, a game room, and much more. Thomas ran from room to room and tried it all, even the do-it-yourself face painting after watching James expertly decorate his own face.

After three days of partying, plus a week of fun playing with Mason and Palmer, Thomas is exhausted, but we wouldn't trade one single moment for anything!

Birthday Boy

Here's a pic of the birthday boy with some of his gifts. He had a pretty good haul!

Aaaarrrgghhh!

Aaaarrrgghhh!

Mike and Amy gave Thomas a dress-up basket with lots of great costumes. Here's the first one he wanted to try on. He called himself Thomas Pirate and immediately wanted to dance the Pirate Dance with our Wiggles DVD while wearing his costume.

Messes and More

One day over the weekend, Thomas was painting with watercolors at the kitchen table. He spilled some paint on the table and said, "Whoa Mommy! Look at this mess!" I asked him what he thought we should do about it. He thought for a minute and said, "Hmmm, maybe leave it alone." Even at his age, he knows it's not nearly as much fun cleaning up the messes as it is making them.

On Saturday morning we went to see Sesame Street Live with Natalie and her family. They both loved it and spent lots of time dancing along with Elmo and friends. Afterwards, we all went to eat lunch together. While we were eating, Thomas was trying to get Natalie's Dad's attention. He kept calling, "Daniel. Daniel! Daniel!!" Finally he said in an exasperated voice, "He's NOT hearing me!!!" At that point we all cracked up and he finally got Daniel's attention.

Since I can't remember if I've blogged about this before, I'm going to do it again. For quite some time now, if you want Thomas to say something, you ask him and he'll say no I can't say that, while he's actually saying whatever it was you wanted him to say in the first place. Over the weekend, David was talking to Thomas about Spanish words which we know he knows. They were talking about water and David told him that in Spanish, water is agua. David asked him if he could say "agua." Thomas said, "No, Daddy! I cannot say agua!" We tried not to laugh where he could see us but it always tickles us when things like that happen.

Cool Dude

Cool Dude

Thought I'd try posting a picture of our boy since you've read so much about him.

Clothes, Swiping, and TV Stardom

Although Thomas doesn't take many naps these days, he still goes to his room every afternoon for an hour or so to rest. During this time, he might fall asleep (once a week or so) or else he reads books and plays with toys quietly. I think it's good to rest, for both of us. Lately though, I never know how I'll find him when rest time is over. He's been looking through his dresser and finding various things he wants to wear instead of what he already has on. We've actually had some winter weather lately, highs only in the 40s instead of the 80s we had the week before. Well, he was wearing sweat pants when he went down for his nap and when he got up he was wearing shorts. And he would pick the coldest days to put shorts on. His little legs felt cool but he was so proud of himself for finding and putting on his "short sleeve pants" that I hated to make him switch back to sweats.

Last night at dinner, Thomas was drinking milk but decided he needed a drink of my bottled water too. I gave it to him and he put it to his lips and drank and drank and drank. Teasingly I asked him if he was going to drink my whole bottle. He looked at me with the most serious face and said, "You can get another one Mommy." To which I replied, "Swiper no swiping!" He giggled since he's a Dora fan and that's an inside joke in our house.

And now to what you've been waiting for all these months. Our son is about to be a TV star! Well, we hope he'll be on anyway. He filmed an episode of the Food Network show Unwrapped in July and they are finally going to air it. Click on the link for more info about airtimes. The first one is March 6th at 9pm Eastern, 8pm Central. The episode is titled "Spreadable Edibles" and the segment Thomas and his friend Preston are hopefully in is about the Children's Art Cafe. He took an art class through them last summer and painted with edible paint. It was messy and fun. I know the photographer filmed him at least four times so hopefully he'll make it on air. He was wearing a blue striped shirt and blue shorts.

Tummy Talkin'

This afternoon after school, Thomas and I went to the park to play since it's such a beautiful day. And if you're wondering why he went to school since he just went to the doctor yesterday, all I can say is that she said to use my judgement and I decided he wasn't sick enough to miss his Valentine's Day party. Actually he's a pretty fast healer because he's basically acting fine today. Anyway, as I was saying, we had a great time at the park. Afterwards he was really thirsty and wanted a snack but I didn't have the diaper bag with me, therefore, no food or drinks readily available. He told me, "Mommy my tummy's growling." And then in a low grovely voice as if it were the tummy talking said, "My tummy growling, I need a snack!" Now it tickles me beyond belief hearing him use that voice and then to find out that his tummy refers to itself as a tummy cracked me up so I asked what his tummy wanted to eat. He said it needed okra and chicken from Chicken Express. I told him that wasn't a snack that was a meal so no dice. Then his tummy said, "My tummy needs grilled cheese and tator tots from Sonic!" Again tummy, that's a meal. So the tummy and I compromised and let him get some okra from Chicken Express. Not the healthiest snack in the world, but sometimes you just gotta let a hungry tummy have its way.

Doctor Again

I took Thomas to the doctor today. Seems like we keep having one type of illness after another these days: pink eye, stomach flu, and now ear infection and bronchitis.

He did great again and did everything the doctor and nurse asked him to do. We talked about it on the way to the doctor and he knew everything the doctor was going to do to him: listen to his chest and back and look in his ears, mouth and maybe nose. As we were waiting on the doctor (which took a while because every other kid in the city was sick too) I asked him if he could breathe deep breaths thinking that might help the doctor listen to his lungs better. He said, "No, I not going to do that. I'm going to open my mouth like this and turn my head this way and this way so she can look in my ears and then I going to turn this way and this way so she can listen to my chest and back." I figured since he was willing to do all those things on his own that maybe I was pushing my luck asking him to take deep breaths too.

Sick, Mad, and "F" Words

Thomas has been sick this week and he very nicely shared it with me and then my mom, David's out of town so we hope he was spared. I would tell you that he threw up all over me during the Super Bowl but I did promise to warn you first about things like that so I won't. :-)

That only lasted a day or so and now he's got a cold and a pretty bad cough. After hearing him cough all night long, I decided he needed to take a different medicine so I brought out the Triaminic Yellow which is supposed to help that sort of thing. The only problem is that the yellow stuff tastes AWFUL. The other varieties taste pretty good and you'd think when you market medicine to children, you'd be able to make them ALL taste good but apparently not. The second he saw what kind I had for him, he started crying, "Oh Mommy not the yellow! I like purple!" I tried putting sugar in to help it taste better, which I don't know if you're supposed to do but I was desperate. With all other medicines, we give him the syringe and he'll take it himself. With the yellow, I ended up having to straddle him on the floor and force it into his mouth. He was sobbing and I was already regretting my decision and it didn't get any easier when through his sobs he started saying, "Mommy.....yellow....is.....nasty!!" Poor baby. Needless to say, we went back to flavors he likes the next time. It just wasn't worth it.

He's been identifying his emotions for quite a while now. Like the time about 6 months ago when he told me he wasn't grouchy he was grumpy. For the last few weeks though, he tells us every time he gets mad, which usually happens several times a day, especially when we ask him to do something he doesn't want to do. "Mommy, I just mad." "Mommy, I mad with that." "Mommy I am mad!" And most of the time, it's accompanied by him putting his fists on his hips which sometimes makes it very hard to keep a straight face.

Now for the third topic of the day, did you think he was saying the "F" word? Shame on you. After much practice, Thomas can now say his "Fs." He's so excited about it, he wants to know every single word that starts with "F" so he can practice saying it. Sometimes, he gets so excited, all the words we can think of aren't enough so he'll start saying things like, "fffffcookie that starts with an 'f''!" or "fffffffdragonfly!" He's had lots of practice using other sounds instead of the "F" so it'll take him a little time to get used to saying things the right way, but we're making progress.

Friends and Animals

On Thursday at school, one of the boys in the class pushed Thomas' friend Olivia. He was quite upset about it and has told the story repeatedly ever since. The story goes like this: "He pushed Olivia and she just cried! And I pointed my finger like this and I said, 'That's not nice to friends!' and then I gave Olivia a hug." We have a sweet boy to take care of his friends like that.

On Friday, we went to the Ft. Worth Stock Show with D'Ann and Natalie. It was raining and muddy but we had a great time. Actually, it's kind of funny but I felt like a tourist in Texas. I've lived here for 33 years but am a city girl. Going to the stock show was like visiting the Texas people from other states imagine. Everyone drove a pickup truck and wore boots, jeans, and cowboy hats. I felt out of place driving my SUV and wearing tennis shoes. :-) I'd also forgotten how chivalrous cowboys are. I've been lots of places with my stroller and never had anyone help me with it. But as we were trying to get on the trolley to go from the parking lot to the buildings (which would have been a LONG walk in the mud and rain), two cowboys jumped off and helped D'Ann and I lift our strollers up onto the trolley.

Huh?

We decided to let Thomas pick out his decorations for his birthday party, so I took him to Party City today to look around and see what he liked. Out of all the choices, I should have known which one he'd go with. He liked Buzz, and Elmo, and Thomas the Tank Engine, and The Wiggles, and well basically every other one he saw until he turned the corner and saw Chicken Little. After that, he wouldn't even consider another theme. So unless he changes his mind soon, he'll be having a Chicken Little party. Guess there could be worse things...like Spongebob. No offense if you like that one but I can't stand it. :-)

In the car on the way home he asked me, "Mommy, is it 'mar whi?'" I had no earthly idea what that could be. As his mommy, I know he can't say his "s" "f" or "v" sounds yet so I was working through the possible translations in my mind but having no luck. I asked him if he could ask me his question another way so maybe I could understand it. He just said the same thing again, louder and with slightly more emphasis, "Mar whith!" Still had NO idea what he was trying to ask. Finally he said, "For my party!" Ooohhhh, March 5th! No, not for another month. Eeek, my baby's going to be three in one more month!

Photography

Thomas's new hobby is taking pictures with my digital camera. I can't believe I'm letting him carry around my new camera. It is a year old by now but to me it's still new. Parenthood obviously makes you lose brain cells. But it's so cute to see him walking around the house deciding what to photograph next. Could be his shoes, or the wall, or a toy, or his favorite subject: Old Zackie Boy. He'll walk up to him and say, "Smile Old Zackie Boy!" That tickles me every time because he's got high hopes expecting his deaf old dog to smile at him. :-)

Speaking of photos, last night Mom and Dad kept Thomas so I could go to my photography class, got to try keep my skills ahead of my two year old as long as possible. Last night was the first class and David is out of town on business so they graciously offered to keep him for me. We all went out to eat dinner first. Thomas decided he wanted ice in his sippy cup and after I got it for him, he put the lid on and took a big drink. The only problem was that he hadn't screwed the lid on, just sat it on top and therefore he got drenched in ice water. I started cleaning his shirt off with as many napkins as I could grab. After a minute of that, and being very patient, he started saying, "Mommy my legs are really really cold." A pause and then, "Mommy, my legs are really REALLY cold!" So he ate his dinner with a slightly damp shirt on, and no pants. And somehow, I know that was not the last time that's going to happen.

And for one more story totally unrelated to photography, Saturday night, David put Thomas to bed. He got downstairs and heard Thomas crying, "Daddy! DADDY!!" By the time he got back upstairs, Thomas was sobbing. And what was it that upset him so much? David had forgotten to take Thomas's sippy cup downstairs with him. David hadn't followed the routine and since Thomas was really tired, it was a BIG deal. The next day, Thomas was telling that story again and I wish you could have seen his face when he scrunched it up and pretended like he was crying saying "Daddy come get my milk!"

Translation

90% of the time our family members can understand what Thomas is saying. For the other 10% of the time, I serve as his translator.

The other night David was putting Thomas to bed, and as occasionally happens, he needed me to translate something Thomas said that he couldn't quite understand . Thomas ran to the top of the stairs and yelled down what he was trying to tell his Daddy and then I yelled the answer up to David. What tickled us this time was that the translation was, "What did Daddy say?"

Tonight, my parents came over for dinner. Afterwards, Thomas was doing a jigsaw puzzle (he LOVES jigsaw puzzles and if I may brag for a moment, oh who am I kidding...it's my blog I can brag all I want!...he can do a 24 piece puzzle all by himself) with my mom and said something, can't remember exactly what it was, but whatever it was my mom didn't catch it and looked to me to tell her what he'd said. So I repeated it. Then Thomas said, "I JUST said that!"

Friendship and Sharing

I wanted to share a few snipets of things that have happened lately between Thomas and his friends. I guess this is the age where sharing becomes REALLY hard because they're all having a difficult time with it.

Thomas' friend James came over to play the other day and both boys ended up fighting over the phone that came with Thomas' kitchen. They probably each own a dozen phones but that was the prize phone of the day. I pulled Thomas aside and talked to him about sharing with his friend. I then gave him the ultimatum that I'm sure many parents have. "Either you share this toy with James or I'll put it up." He looked at me straight in the eye and said, "Put it up." So I did.

Today we went to music class with Thomas' friends, Natalie and Preston. I guess the message about sharing was coming across this morning because they would share with each other but not any other kids. So I guess the message came across too well. Share with your friends and ONLY your friends. :-)

Thomas and Preston were being silly after class and Thomas fell on Preston's head. Preston was understandably upset and then Thomas got upset so it took him a few minutes to calm down enough to apologize. When Thomas was telling the story later, he said, "I fell on Preston and he just cried and I said "Sorry" and hugged him and that was really really sweet."

At lunch, Thomas and Natalie weren't very interested in eating their own food so they decided to share. Thomas ate Natalie's turkey and Natalie ate Thomas' turkey. Guess it's the whole grass is greener thing.

Oh, one more thing, dear readers. If the title of my post is something like oh I don't know Poop or Boogers, that should give you a pretty good idea what I'll be talking about that day. So if you're not used to dealing with those things on a daily basis, maybe you should skip reading those stories. Don't say I didn't warn you!

From Poop To Pinkeye

Don't start expecting to read a new story every single day. I know I've spoiled you this week. That is if reading my stories about poop and a sick kid could be considered a treat. :-)

Wednesday morning, Thomas' right eye was matted shut and stayed swollen half the day. I told myself he slept wrong on it and that it would be better the next day. But this morning when BOTH eyes were matted shut, I knew it was something more. He woke up crying, "Oh Mommy! My eyes do that AGAIN!!" I told him I thought he had pinkeye and that I was going to call the doctor. He didn't want to go but I reminded him that the doctor could give him some medicine that would help his eyes get better. So we made an appointment (and isn't it just like kids to get sick on Mother's Day Out days?). Thomas did great letting the doctor look in his eyes and check him out without crying (which was a first by the way). After examining him, the doctor said, "Well buddy, I think you've got pinkeye." Thomas got this big smile on his face, looked from me to the doctor and said, "That's just what my Mommy said!" The doctor laughed and told him that mommies usually know.

POOP

How's that for a self-explanatory title? Before I get to the nitty gritty of the story, I want to give you a little backstory first. We have been working on potty training...again. Things weren't going very well and I found myself getting mad at him when he would sit on the potty for 20 minutes without success, get up, and then pee on the floor within 2 minutes (which I know is probably not the best way to potty train..tee tee on the potty or Mommy will yell!) so we went back to diapers for a few days so Mommy could take a mental health break. Thomas also has basically stopped napping, but I still put him in his room for a while each afternoon to rest and if he falls asleep great (which happens 2-3 days a week). Ok, now you're up to date so onto the poop!

This afternoon I went to get him after his rest time was over. When I opened his door, I immediately smelled poop. My initial thought was no wonder he didn't nap, he had a poopy diaper. But that wasn't the case. At some point, and for some unknown reason, he'd taken his diaper off and at sometime after that pooped on the floor. It was a firm poop so that alone was relatively easy to clean up. It was the rest of the scene that greeted me that took an hour to deal with. Yep, you guessed it, he'd either stepped in it or played with it and there was poop EVERYWHERE. On the wall, ground into the carpet, all over his sheets (and of course we had his white sheets on and not the red ones which made it all the harder to clean), all over his pillow, and last but not least, all over him. As I took in the scene I couldn't decide which to deal with first, him or the carpet. He won, but just barely. I cleaned him enough so that he wouldn't make a bigger mess and then got right to the carpet. I gave him a wipe and had him clean the wall, which he did very nicely. And to top it all off, I was so flustered I didn't even think to take a picture. Now that it's over and all back to normal, I'm mad at myself the most for missing that shot because I certainly hope I never have the opportunity to do so again.

Rule Stickler

Ah ha! Just when you got used to reading a new post once a week, I throw you a curveball just to keep you on your toes! :-)

Thomas has just started playing real games. Well, I should say playing one real game. It's called Lucky Ducks. The game says for three to six year olds but I figure since he'll be three in two months we're ok. The first time we played it, he had a hard time taking turns, but now he's got it down pat. So much so that he has to tell you the rules each and every time, even from round to round. It goes something like this. "I push this button and turn it on and you have to pick up the duck and look for your color and put it on your nest and then it's my turn. You understand?" I say that I do and he says Okay! and then we can play. Until one of us gets all three ducks of our color and then we put them back on the pond and he explains the rules again just in case I forgot.

FINALLY!

Our internet was down for a week but we're FINALLY back up! (Boo to Comcast for taking so long to come to our house and boo to the neighbor puppy who chewed through the cable.) I already knew how much I used the internet (a LOT) but I was reminded even more last week. When I wanted to check the news or weather, I had to resort to looking at the paper...gasp! The horror!! Ok, enough of the poor me story, and on to what you're really here to read...Thomas stuff!

You know the game you play with little kids where you pretend like you stole their nose and your thumb is their nose trapped between your fingers? Well, I did that to Thomas the other day and when I asked him if he wanted his nose back and he said, "Yes please." I felt terrible. I mean what if I really had stolen his nose? He shouldn't have to ask so politely for it back.

The other day, I asked Thomas if he wanted to go to his friend James' house to play. He said, "That would be really really perfect!"

One night last week, I asked Thomas to feed Zack a half a cup of food before we sat down to dinner. I was busy getting everything ready to eat and wasn't paying much attention until Thomas walked up to me about 5 minutes later with Zack's bowl brimming with food and said, "This gonna be ok?" We had to dump out about 9/10 of the bowl first but that's ok.

We were in a parking lot together somewhere and he held his hand up for me to hold until we got in the store. I told him how much I appreciated him remembering that Mommy needs to hold his hand in the street. He said, "Yeah but we don't hold hands in the snow!" I asked why and he told me that when it snows you make snowballs and throw them at the street sign and they go boom. He remembers being allowed to go in the street doing that very thing when we were visiting my brother and his family in New York over Thanksgiving (they live at the end of a cul-de-sac so it was pretty safe). I decided not to correct him on that since it only snows here about once a year and only sticks for a few hours.

We were driving somewhere over the weekend and Thomas was busy in the back seat playing with his monkey puppet. David and I were talking but heard Thomas say, "I love you Daddy!" David said, "You love me Thomas? I'm glad!" And Thomas said, "No, the monkey do!" and cracked up.

Thomas spent the night at my parents' house on Saturday night so David and I could go out with friends. This was his first time to sleep away from us and he did great. The only uneasy moment came when Mom was putting him to bed and after reading books she told him goodnight. He started tearing up and saying, "Grandma, the hong! The hong!" Mom thought maybe he was asking to go home and asked him to tell her again what he wanted. He composed himself enough to start singing, "If you like to talk to tomatoes..." Mom said, "Oh Thomas, Grandma forgot to sing a song! I'm sorry!!" So they sang the Veggietales theme song and he went right to sleep. You've GOT to follow his night night routine no matter where he is! :-)

More Stories

Not a very creative title, I know, but Thomas and I have colds (many thanks to David for sharing his germs with us) so I'm not feeling creative today.

Speaking of our colds, a few days before we got sick, I'd bought him a box of Mickey Mouse Kleenex on a whim at the grocery store. Well, now he won't blow his nose unless he sees the tissue come out of the Mickey Mouse box. That's not exactly the best thing since I like to use lotion tissues when we have colds so our noses won't get so sore but oh well.

I remembered another story from our trip that I wanted to share. The morning we flew to Tucson, we ate breakfast at the food court in our terminal. At the next table was a family with a small baby, probably less than 2 months old. The baby started crying, as babies are wont to do, and after a few minutes without success the mom got up and walked away with the baby to soothe her. Thomas yelled out, "That baby's going to time out!" and everyone at the nearby tables laughed along with us.

Zack must be reading this blog too because after I posted the one about what a sweet dog Fifi is, Zack decided to let Thomas fix his hair. He sat still on the floor for about 10 minutes and let Thomas put about 8 hair clips in his hair. He didn't growl one time! What a sweet doggie!

Bad Mommy and Ice Cream

I have two stories to share this morning. One from a week or so ago that I haven't had time to post and one from last night.

Just before Christmas, Thomas and I were running errands one day buying a few last minute gifts. On a side note, after he told my Dad about his birthday present, you would think I would have learned my lesson and NOT gone shopping with him but no. He told both my mom and David what we'd bought them the second he saw them. But I digress. As we were leaving Sam's that day, I opened the back door of the car, sat him in his car seat, and proceeded to put the rest of the things I got in the car beside him. Then I got in the front seat, buckled up, turned on the car and started driving away. I knew Thomas was saying something but at that moment I wasn't listening since he talks all the time and I was trying to navigate the parking lot. But he kept getting louder and louder until I finally heard him say, "BUCKLE ME UP MOMMY!!!" Boy did I feel bad. Especially since I am so conscientious about his car seat. I've read the statistics about how 80 or 90% (depending on which statistics you read) of car seats are installed incorrectly and always was a little obsessive making sure I was in that 10% who did it right. It's installed in my car so tightly that when you try to wiggle it, the whole car moves. Of course, having a properly installed car seat does no good if the child isn't actually buckled into it!

Last night we went to Sheridan's to get some frozen custard. Thomas said he wanted to get chocolate with M&Ms. After talking about it, David and I decided that he would just share with one of us since he usually doesn't eat that much of the chocolate and it's melted by the time we get home. So I asked him if he wanted to share my strawberry and banana sundae with me. At first he got all excited and said, "I going to share strawberries and bananas with Mommy!" Then he paused and said, "Wait a minute! I going to have M&Ms with chocolate!"