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?"