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.