Thanksgiving and more

Hey everyone! Did you miss us? We have been incredibly busy the last few weeks. After The Week of Sickness, Thanksgiving, packing for and taking our trip to Turks and Caicos (more on that in the next post), and squeezing in Christmas shopping, we've been swamped, but it's all been fun.

First I thought I'd update you on everyone's health since my last post was concerning that. We had 11 straight days of someone being sick in our house and thought we were finally past it. After 2 days of everyone feeling ok, we headed to Austin for our long-planned visit with Chris, Jennifer, and Evie. Got there Friday night and stayed up late catching up and having fun. Then Saturday morning, David woke up with the same stomach flu the rest of us had earlier in the week. So all he saw of Austin was the inside of Chris and Jennifer's house, 90% of the time in their guest room. He's looking forward to a return visit to see more and hopefully have a better time. After that passed, we've all been healthy and stayed healthy through Thanksgiving and our beach vacation. Woo hoo! Three of us have colds now but we can deal with that.

One funny story from our visit with Jenn and family, Thomas and Evie got along great all weekend but did have one little fight...over a chair at Gymboree no less. I was listening to them each share their side and they were going on and on about how the other had hurt their feelings when he/she took the chair. Then Evie ramped it up a notch by saying that when Thomas did that it hurt her heart. Well played. Not to be outdone Thomas then said, "Well, when Evie did that it hurt my brain!" They've got a beautiful house and we are so happy to have them 3 hours away instead of 1500 miles away.

The other day, Thomas was eating Apple Jacks. He had some in milk and some dry on the table beside the bowl. He said, "Mommy, watch how I can crush this." So I watched as he valiantly tried to squish the Apple Jack with his thumb. There was a pause andthen, "Watch how I can break this." ;-)

We might just have a little preacher on our hands. On Thanksgiving Day, Thomas said the prayer and it went something like this: "God. We love you. And we want to say thank you. Thank you for my toys. And thank you for my friends and my family. But most of all, God, thank you for my mommy and my daddy. And, God, thank you for my little baby brother. Thank you again for my toys, God, and thank you for my little baby brother." David and I both got teary-eyed even as we were silently laughing so as not to disturb his beautiful prayer.

The Week of Sickness, part 4

Day 10. Jonathan threw up twice tonight. All over me.

Is this ever going to end?

The Week of Sickness, part 3

Well, we're now in day 9 of our week of sickness. Here's what's been going on. Friday night, Thomas threw up in his bed about 10:45. I took care of that. Changing the sheets, changing him, and getting him settled back down. I was up about 2 hours that night coughing, unable to sleep. At 5:30 Saturday morning, Thomas called over the monitor that his tummy was hurting again. David took care of that as I'd just fallen asleep after my coughing spell. I slept late and David gave Jonathan a bottle (one benefit of him not nursing anymore). Although Thomas still wasn't eating much (as of this morning, he still eats less than Jonathan) he was feeling better and played as usual. That evening after being trapped in the house for days, we all thought we were on the mend so went out for a low key dinner. Jonathan and David still had colds and I still had my cough, but we thought the worst was finally past. Sunday morning, I felt fine when I got up, except for being tired from coughing half the night. About mid-morning, I started feeling queasy. Great news, I caught Thomas' stomach bug. So I spent all day Sunday in bed and David took care of the boys. This morning, I feel much better, although weak, and am still tired from coughing half the night. Everyone now has a cough. And guess what. Jonathan woke up from his morning nap with a fever. We're sick of being sick!

The Week of Sickness, part 2

It's Friday afternoon and I thought you might like an update on our week of sickness. You already know about the events of the week and various illnesses up to that point. Here's what's happened in the last 24 hours. As the day wore on, Thomas started running a high fever, between 100 and 102 all day. He didn't want to take medicine and I hated to make him after what happened that morning although we finally got some into him last night before bed. Then around lunchtime, I started running a fever and not to be outdone, mine was higher than his, 103.8. This morning I woke up with white patches on my throat and fearing strep went to the doctor. It's not Strep A which is the only one they test with the rapid strep test. The official diagnisis is pharyngitis which I think is just a fancy way of saying sore throat. But I've got medicine to take and hopefully, please, please, please, Jonathan won't get it.

Pray that I feel better soon. Pray that Thomas feels better, which he was this morning until his fever started spiking again this afternoon, and that he'll start eating again. We know our boy is ill when he won't even eat his favorite foods. Didn't touch his Happy Meal yesterday and barely touched the donut David got for him this morning. Pray that Jonathan and David will somehow avoid catching whatever is going around this house. And thank goodness David's been able to be home with us these last two days!

The Week of Sickness

Well, we made it almost a year with two basically healthy children. They'd shared a cold or two but nothing worse. Until this week.

Sunday morning, Thomas woke up and said his blinkers were broken. I knew what that meant. Pink eye. So I got to take him to Care Now to get eye drops. We tried to keep Jonathan away from Thomas and his toys. Then Jonathan stopped nursing.

Monday morning, I took Jonathan to the doctor to see if there was a physical reason why he suddenly refused to nurse. There wasn't.

Tuesday morning, Jonathan woke up with pink eye. I called the doctor to see if I could use the same drops for him that I did for Thomas. Nope. So we got to take another trip to the pharmacy for a different prescription.

Wednesday, everyone seemed to be on the mend, but we did get to go to the doctor for Thomas' flu shot which had been on the calendar for a month already.

Thursday, today. I thought the worst was past, but I was wrong. (If you have a weak stomach, skip this paragraph). Thomas woke up early today and was really whiny. I just figured it was because he got up so early. That or because he's four. Then during breakfast, he started saying he was sorry. He'd had diarrhea and it got all over his pajamas. Gross, but that's ok, he couldn't help it. So we got him all cleaned up and in clothes. Then he kept complaining that he was cold. So I took his temp and sure enough, he's running a low grade fever. Then I tell him he has to take some Tylenol so he'll feel better. He's refusing and crying that he doesn't want to take medicine. I'm yelling that he IS going to take the medicine so that we can bring the fever down. Then I put him in my lap and make him take a sip of the medicine. Can you guess what happenend next? He threw up all over me and him. We were on the kitchen floor which was the best place in the house for it to happen, but it's still gross. So he's crying and apologizing for throwing up. I'm apologizing for making him take the medicine. And Jonathan is crying because he's tired of being in the high chair.

And I think I forgot to mention that David has had a cold all week and this morning I woke up with it but as a mom, I don't get to be sick. Talk about a stressful week.

Halloween Fun

Hey everyone. I know Halloween was two days ago, but I thought you might still enjoy a pic or two of our Batman and Robin. Both boys LOVED Halloween. Thomas' bucket was completely full of candy by the end of the night. Thomas was really into trick-or-treating this year but wouldn't say the words "Trick Or Treat." He'd ring the doorbell and say, "Happy Halloween!" It got him candy every time. I'm not sure why he doesn't like to say it but he never has. Jonathan loved it too. He kicked his feet and waved his arms like crazy while squealing the entire time we were trick-or-treating.

On a personal note, I tried some of Thomas' Milk Duds and they actually tasted good, guess there's not too much chocolate on them. Then I tried some Whoppers and realized that chocolate still tastes bad. I try some every few months hoping to get my taste for chocolate back, but it has tasted bitter to me ever since summer 2001. I'm still holding out hope that one day, I'll be able to enjoy it again. It's hard to let go of something you absolutely loved for 30 years. Poor me.

Inky Face, Box Fun, and More

The other day, Thomas was drawing with a pen. He's not the type of child to do what he did, so when he came out of the bathroom with an expectant grin on this face, the first thing out of my mouth was, "Is that PEN?" He started sobbing and ran into the dining room and flung himself on the floor. I went in to talk to him about it and he hugged me and said, "But I thought you'd like it!" Luckily I know from my days as a teacher than you can easily remove ink with rubbing alcohol. Off your face, arms, and legs. He decorated his entire body. Now for the Dorito lips, we had to use something else altogether. ;-)
We went to the box store the other day to buy a box to mail something. While we were there, Thomas asked the man if he could find him a box to play in like Spongebob and Patrick did. The nice man spent 10 minutes showing Thomas all the boxes that might meet his needs. This is what we ended up with. I think it's the most fun he's ever had for $2.99.

He is such a character. His thing lately is to get one of David's big nails from his toolbox, put as many acorns as he can on it, and then push it into the ground. The purpose? So he can play a trick on the squirrels. Never mind that there are hundreds of other acorns in our front yard.

My friend, Lisa, sent me a book the other day through James. James gave it to Thomas at school to give to me, but Thomas was under the impression that James gave it to him. I tried to tell him it was my book but that I'd share it with him. He was insistent that I was wrong and it was his until he noticed the note on the cover of the book. He said, "Wait a minute. This says K-I-M. That's not my name that's yours!"

David's favorite color is black and last week, that was the color of the week at school. Thomas was so excited about it that we had to call David on the way home from school to tell him. David must have been in a meeting because his voicemail picked up. This is the message David heard: "He says he's not available to take my calls! So I'm going to push the red button right now! I don't wanna please leave a message!"

We went to the bank last week and the teller forgot to send a lollipop through for Thomas. I called her back and asked if I could please have a lollipop for my little boy. She was very nice and sent two through immediately. As we were driving away, Thomas said, "Mommy, thank you for the lollipop, but next time could you call me your big boy?"

So Much To Share

Hey everyone, It's been over a month since my last Thomas post so I have a lot to share. First off, I wanted to share my favorite picture of Thomas and my nephews from this summer. Mason is on the left and Palmer is on the right. We sure wish they lived closer, but are grateful for the time we had together in June. At Thomas' preschool they choose a Proud American each day who says the Pledge of Allegiance nicely and follows all the rules and directions. Since Thomas is such a rule follower, we didn't think it would take long for him to get it and it didn't. He was the first boy selected as the Proud American and boy was it a big deal around here. He's wearing his flag pin that you "get to keep forever and ever!" And then just for fun, I thought I'd include a picture of him on some pumpkins since it is October.

And now, onto other things. We were driving to visit my friend Angie a couple weeks ago and to get to her house, I had to make a u-turn. Thomas wasn't really paying attention but noticed the u-turn because he looked up and said, "Mommy, what did you do wrong?"

He's been taking swimming lessons at a new place this fall and it has taken him a while to warm up to his new teacher. He's been into "X-ing" things out lately, because that's what they do at school when learning a new letter: circle the things that start with "N" and x out the things that don't. So during swimming lessons, he caught my eye and held up his right index finger, then his left and made an X, telling me in code that he didn't like his teacher. But he's doing really well now and even likes Mr. Patrick.

It's really interesting how he perceives, and sometimes misunderstands, song lyrics. He was singing along to The Jungle Book and sang, "Luck bottom, bare necessities, the simple bare necessities" and no matter how many times I tried to explain that it's "Look for the" he insists he's singing it the right way and that I'm wrong. He also does it when listening to our Queen Greatest Hits CD in the car singing my personal favorite "Another One Fights The Dust." Sure, they're really singing about housecleaning.

We're in the process of redecorating the boys' bathroom with a really cute dinosaur theme. You've never seen a boy as excited about shower curtains, kleenex box covers, and trash cans as Thomas.

Jonathan was babbling in the car the other day, and I said, "Hey Jonathan, what're you saying?" Thomas said, "Mommy, he doesn't speak people yet!" Thomas claims he can speak both people and baby so he interpreted for his brother.

David was in The Netherlands for a week late last month and the night he got home, he drove us out to eat. He clearly shouldn't have been driving jetlagged because as he went to pull into the parking space, he crashed into the curb and put a nice 3 inch hole in my bumper. Whenever we've shown anyone the bumper and told them the story, Thomas says, "Yep, Daddy, it was all YOUR fault!"

This past weekend, Tech and A&M played each other in football. We went to Tech and our friends D'Ann and Daniel went to A&M so we had some good-natured teasing going on. David was trying to get Thomas to tell D'Ann that the Aggies stink, but instead Thomas did a 180 and became the Aggies biggest fan. All during the game, he cheered those Aggies on and is insistent that they couldn't have lost, even though they did big time. I guess we'll just have to start working on Natalie to root for the Red Raiders.

And one final story for you today. The four of us were driving home last night and Thomas said to me, "Mommy, don't you think Daddy's a poopy head?" I said, "Now Thomas you know I don't like poopy jokes." He said, "But Mommy, I'm not joking, I'm serious!" David and I cracked up.

First Day of School and More

Thomas doesn't like to pose for pictures very much these days which is why I haven't posted any of him recently. But last Friday, the first day of school, he willingly posed with his new Spongebob backpack and his "Who's Your Daddy" Star Wars shirt.

Thomas is very excited to be in the four year old class at preschool. If he had his way, he'd be in Kindergarten already. And if I had my way, he'd never go to Kindergarten. Guess that's the way with kids. I remember my grandpa telling me we were growing up too fast and I thought it wasn't fast enough. Now that I'm a parent, I understand.

The one thing he's been worried about though is his swinging abilities. He LOVES to swing, but prefers someone else to push him really high. Late last year, one of his teachers told him that in the four year old class you needed to swing yourself. I know she was teasing but he's been stressed out about it for months. Every few days, he said he needed to go to the park and practice his swinging so he'd be ready. Well, school started and he still likes to be pushed. On the way home last Friday after school, he said, "Mommy, I still need to practice swinging because I'm already in the four year old class!"

David teases Thomas about 98% of the time. Sometimes Thomas tells him, "Daddy no more jokes tonight" which only encourages David to make more jokes. The other day, Thomas said, "Tater sacks" again and I asked him why he said that phrase. When he replied that he liked to, I said, "That's not the right answer!" like David does. He looked at me and said, "Mommy. Don't act like Daddy."

He is VERY into superheroes right now. It's the classic scenario of by the end of the day, Mommy is sick and tired of hearing all about superheroes, and Daddy can't wait to come home to hear more. We were driving to school the other day, talking about superheroes as usual, and Thomas said, "Mommy, why don't superheroes ever go to the potty? Don't they have accidents?"

Funny Speech

Most of the stories this time are about Thomas' incorrect interpretation of words or misuse of terminology. Hope you enjoy them as we have.

Thomas was sick last week with a weird virus that caused fever but no other symptoms for 4 days straight. He was pretty grumpy when the fever went up and didn't like me taking his temperature. Once, while we were eating, he felt hot to me and I wanted to see what his temp was. I got the thermometer and he said, "Mommy, I don't want to do this in this moment."

He was telling my mom and me a story yesterday about swimming in the lake with David a few weeks ago. He said, "Me and Daddy swimmed towarder into the lake." I asked if he meant farther into the lake or toward the dock. He said yes. So I guess that's a new word that makes sense in that situation.

He was listening to a CD in the car the other day and said, "Mommy can you please fast forward backwards?" I said, "Do you mean rewind?" "Oh. Yeah."

He has started using his own version of an expletive: tater sacks. As in, "Mommy can I watch a movie in the car on the way to the grocery store?" "No, Thomas, we only watch movies if we drive at least 30 minutes." "Tater sacks!"

And last but not least, we were driving to meet friends for lunch today, well, four of my friends and none of his as their children all started preschool today and Thomas doesn't start till Friday, a fact that made him quite angry. But I digress. He said, "Mommy, where's the people museum?" I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "You know, the people museum where they bury your bones." I told him that was called a cemetery and that we'd try to drive by one someday soon. He said, "Yeah, when you die you have to be buried and then later an archaeologist will come along and find your bones."

Busy Summer!

Hi everyone! No, I did not stop writing this blog. Just took an unintended break over summer vacation. I don't know where the last 3 months have gone. They flew by but we had a great time. I have a notebook full of stories to share and will type as many as I can before Jonathan wakes up.

Thomas wanted Jonathan to sit by him on the couch one day. I told him he was happy playing on the floor for now. Thomas said, "No, he needs to be beside me on the comfortable furniture!"

And now for an embarrassing story. When Mike, Amy, Mason, and Palmer were visiting in June, Palmer and Thomas took their shirts off while we were eating dinner. Thomas looked down at his chest, touched his nipples, and said, to a table full of the entire family, "Mommy, mine are up here and yours are way down here."

We were eating at David's Barbecue one night, and Thomas wanted to eat some banana pudding. My mom offered one of her cookies from her pudding and Thomas said, "But my tummy wants to eat all of them. Listen!" A quiet moment or two and then in a tiny high pitched voice said, "I want to eat them all!"

The boys and I spent 10 days in Lubbock last month. We went to the Science Spectrum a couple times and Thomas loved all the neat science experiments and activities. For the next two days though, he was a total grouch. I finally decided to talk to him about it, expecting to hear that he was missing his daddy. I asked why he was being so grumpy and told him I missed my sweet boy. He was quiet for a minute and then said, "But Mommy, scientists are supposed to be mad!" I tried hard to keep a straight face while explaining that that means crazy not angry.

While we were at my in-laws house, Thomas thought he had to be outside every single minute building with hammer and nails or picking things from the garden or having adventures. One afternoon, it was hot, and Wanda wanted to rest inside for a little while. Thomas would play a few minutes and then think of some reason why he needed to go outside. When he was told not yet, he played a little longer before coming up with another excuse to go outside. After about 20 minutes, he said, "Granny, I'm cold! I need to go outside in the hot!" She said, "Honey if you're cold, Granny can turn down the air conditioner." He said, "No. I need to go out in the hot." That one finally worked.

Also in Lubbock, we spent quite a bit of time at my grandparents house and my grandma decided to take Thomas to the dollar store to help her pick out some toys that little boys like. He loved doing that and quickly filled her basket full. He got back to their house and picked out some toys to take outside where my uncle, Jerry, was taking a smoke break. After a little while, Thomas came in and I asked where Uncle Jerry was. He said, "Oh, he's just cigarettin'."

And this isn't a funny story, but a word to those of you who might be lax in backing up photos like I was. It doesn't matter that from September through early July that you were busy being pregnant and then with a newborn. Your hard drive doesn't care that you'll lose every picture you've ever taken of your baby. It crashes when and where it wants to and those pictures are lost unless you're willing to spend 2-3 times what the computer cost to retrieve your data. Definitely a hard way to learn a lesson.

5 stories

Tonight at dinner, David asked Thomas what we did today. Thomas said, "We went to Chuck E. Cheese, then did other things, and then nothing." David and I cracked up and he looked at me and said, "If you still wrote on the blog, this would be a good story to add." So here you go honey. :-)

A few weeks ago, we all went to an open house at Thomas' school. I was helping him get dressed and he decided to let me spike his hair so he could be cute. I tucked his shirt in and he immediately tried to untuck it. I asked him to leave it tucked. He looked at me and said, "But Mommy, I don't want to look TOO handsome." Good effort but the shirt stayed tucked and boy was he handsome.

Thomas picked out some Superman sunglasses the other day at Target but I didn't let him open them till we got home. As we were bringing the bags in, I dropped one of them on my foot and of course it was the bag with new cookie sheets in it. I was hopping around and Thomas asked me what happened. I told him I'd dropped a bag on my toe and his immediate question was, "Did you break my sunglasses?" I had to laugh and then told him thanks for being worried about my toe. He said, in all seriousness, "No, Mommy, I was worried about my sunglasses."

Thomas told us the other day that he was going to marry Natalie when they grew up. We said that was fine with us. A couple days later, we were driving in the car and out of the blue, Thomas said, "I'm not going to get married." We asked why not. He said that he was going to stay home with us to which we wanted to know what changed his mind. He said, "Well at Six Flags I asked Natalie and she said she didn't want to get married and was going to stay with her mommy and daddy so I'm going to do it too!" Poor guy, a rejection at 4. Hopefully, he'll wait another 20 years before proposing again.

As you can probably tell, Thomas tends to think about things for a while and then out of the blue pop something on you. He told me the other day that he didn't want to be in the 4 year old class at his school next year. I asked why. He said, with great indignation, that in the four year old class you have to swing yourself on the swing and he didn't want to have to swing himself. But he's very excited about going to Kindergarten in a year, a fact which makes his mommy sad. My baby's growing up!

I said 5 stories but you're getting a bonus story to go with the picture. Thomas was already dressed for the day when he saw his brother wearing overalls. He immediately said he had to wear overalls too and changed his clothes to match Jonathan and then asked me to take their picture. Sure are cute boys huh?

6 weeks later

Time sure does fly with two little boys in the house. This picture was taken the day Thomas decided he was going to be a daddy like his friend James. James wears ties to school sometimes so Thomas wanted to as well. He was so excited and proud to be a daddy and couldn't wait to get to school to show James. He said that James wouldn't recognize him because he was a daddy but that James would know his voice. He wore the tie the entire school day (5 hours) and he and James called each other Daddy the whole time.

We got home one day and David jokingly told Thomas that the fat guy said it was time to get out of the car. Thomas said, "Daddy, you're not fat! You're just big and hairy!" We still laugh about that one.

Last weekend, Thomas helped my mom work in her flower bed. He dug a big hole with his shovel , jammed it in the ground, and then noticed a worm crawling toward the shovel. He told my mom there was a worm and my mom told him the worm was probably just trying to figure out what that was. Thomas leaned down really close and said, "Worm! It's a SHOVEL!"

Thomas still loves counting. It's a great way to pass the time while driving. We'll count every other number all the way to 100. Thomas does really well and usually remembers what comes next, i.e. 20, 30, 40, etc. Sometimes he leaves out 13 and 15 but who needs them anyway? The other day, he was counting and got to 99 and stopped. I asked if he remembered what came next and he said, "Tenty!" Close.

Well, those are a few highlights from the last month or so. Maybe you'll hear from me again soon. If not, see you in June! :-)

Girl and Boy Stuff

Today, David and Thomas had a Boy Day. They made a list last night of 1o boy things they wanted to do together and spent the entire day working through the list. The list included things like washing the car, going to Chuck E. Cheese, spraying each other with water, and working in the yard. They were so cute because after they'd finished one item, they'd say "That was number 6!" (or whatever number they were on) and then move onto the next. Tonight we were driving to Ci Ci's Pizza, another Boy Thing but one they let Mommy and Jonathan join them on, and Thomas said, "Mommy, tomorrow is Girl Day and you can pick 20 things you want to do." Of course David acted offended that he only got to do 10 things while I get to do 20 which Thomas thought was hilarious. Thomas told me I should dream tonight about all the things I wanted to do with him on my girl day but his suggestions were great: go to the diamond store and shopping at Kohl's. Now that's a nice way for a boy to treat his mommy. :-)

4 Going on 10 and Then Some

I don't know how many of these "proud to be four" stories I'll tell but as long as they keep happening, I'm going to keep sharing. Thomas really likes counting things and people and sorting them into groups (ex. Are there more boys or girls?). He'll say, "How many people are at the table?" and then proceed to count them all. What makes us laugh is that he'll always find a way to make himself be the fourth person counted even if he has to jump back and forth across the circle to do it. Half the time he gets confused about where he left off to jump over and make himself number four and there end up being 10 people counted at a table with 6 people and he'll have to count them all again.

The other day he told us, "Hey Mommy and Daddy listen to this. I'm not 1, and not 2, and not three, I'm four!" We said that's absolutely right. He then said, "And next I'll be 5 and then 6 and then 7 and then 8 and then 9 and then 10!" a pause and then "Hey Mommy! I'm almost 10!!!"

We went to Lubbock last weekend and while we were at my grandparents' house, Thomas accidentally broke a glass ice cream dish. He started crying and I tried to explain that it was ok and that it was just an accident. He was inconsolable and said, "But Mommy it was all my fault!" More comforting and then, "Mommy don't tell Gma!" I told him that she knew what had happened and that she wasn't upset with him. More hysterics and "She knows?!?! Oh it's all my fault!" Poor guy.

The other day, Thomas was playing with Jonathan while I was hanging laundry. Jonathan started fussing and Thomas yelled, "Mommy! Jonathan needs his Mommy!" I said he'd have to wait a minute and that I'd be right there. When I got back into the room, I heard Thomas singing to Jonathan, "Your mommy will be right back. Your mommy will be right back."

At night we usually let Thomas pick which one of us he'd like to put him down. He usually picks David because Daddy plays silly with him while Mommy is all business. The other night though he wasn't too pleased with his choice when David did something to irritate him and he looked at his daddy and said, "I wish I wouldn't have picked you."

It's GREAT Being Four!

I didn't realize it but apparently there are many things you can do when you're four that you couldn't do when you were three. You can jump higher, run faster, and do many new 4 year old tricks. He is SO proud about being four. He tells everyone, strangers mostly since everyone else knows already, "Did you know I'm four now?" We were waiting in line at Sam's yesterday and there was a little girl in a cart in front of us. Thomas looked at her and held up four fingers. She smiled and then held up six fingers. He nodded his head like "Oh. Cool."

RIP Old Zackie Boy

After almost 16 years, Old Zackie Boy has gone to doggie heaven. He was a great friend and our first baby. We miss him already.

Happy Actual 4th Birthday Thomas!

Thomas is four years old today. We can't believe he's already that old. Time sure does fly when you're having fun.

He had his party on Saturday at a bounce house place. He had a great time playing with 13 of his closest friends and got lots of neat presents. He shared his birthday party with his birthday buddy James and with both of their friends running around it was crazy but fun. He wanted a Star Wars party because one of his friends had it for his party. He's never watched the movie and has no idea Darth Vader is the bad guy or else he probably wouldn't like him. But we had a Darth Vader cake and he got a Darth Vader costume and light saber which he keeps calling a life saver.

Saturday morning he woke up and said, "Today is March 5th, my birthday party!" So we tried to explain that Saturday was his birthday party but his birthday wasn't until Monday. He woke up yesterday and asked if it was his "actual birthday." I said that it wasn't yet. So today he was very excited to find out it was his ACTUAL birthday. He went around telling everyone that yesterday he was three but today he is four. He can't wait to go to school tomorrow to tell his friends that he's four like them.

This afternoon, Thomas got in trouble for something and started pouting. He was very quiet for several minutes and then said, "Mommy, I'm having a happy birthday but not a really happy, happy birthday." Guess he thought birthday boys shouldn't get in trouble on their big day.

Bouncing Babies and More

The other day, Jonathan was in his bouncy seat and Thomas was talking to him and playing with him. He said, "Mommy, babies like it when we do this." and started bouncing Jonathan really hard in the seat, so hard his head was bouncing around. I told him that was too fast for a little baby and that he needed to only bounce his brother very gently. He said, "Oh, like this?" and did little small bounces. I said that was very good. He then said, "Babies like when we bounce them like this" (and bounced gently) "but babies don't like it like this" (and bounced really hard again). I said, "Thomas!" He said, "OK Mommy. Babies like it like this [gentle bounce] but NOT like this [rough bounce]." He did the whole cycle three times before he was convinced that I knew how gently he should bounce his brother. Jonathan sure is going to have to be tough with such a loving big brother like Thomas. :-)

Thomas has started referring to us as "Mom" and "Dad" when telling stories about us and it makes me a little sad. He'll say, "My Dad always jokes on me." or "My Mom doesn't like to hear that word." He still calls us Mommy and Daddy but it seems like those days are numbered. Boy do they grow up quickly.

We have a little teacher on our hands. He likes to quiz us all the time. "What words start with the letter P?" "What animal has the longest neck?" "Who at this table has a goatee?" And he's always quick with his praise for how smart we are. It's fun for him to turn the tables on us and we're happy to play along.

Bad Words, Fogginess, and Art

There are several words that we don't say in our house including butt, stupid, and hate. Thomas views it as his job to let us know when anyone says a bad word, probably because it allows him to say it while telling us that a certain character on TV said butt. The other morning, Thomas was stalling and we were going to be late to school because of it. I was frustrated with him and told him to hurry up because I hated being late. He got very quiet and hurried to get ready. Once we were in the car, he said, "Mommy are you still grumpy?" I said that I wasn't. He then said, "Mommy, you said 'hate.'"

It's been really cold here lately. Well, cold for Texas, and as a result, our windows were fogging up in the van as we were driving the other day. Thomas yelled out that his windows were getting foggy. I said that was ok and turned on the defroster. Thomas watched for a minute and then said, "Oh wow Mommy! This IS a really special van!!"

Thomas has started taking an art class with his friend Natalie. It's the kind of class where the mommies don't stay and that was a little difficult for Thomas in the beginning but he's adjusting. When I picked him up the second day, his teacher, Ms. Hannah, told me that they were working on drawing Van Gogh's Sunflowers by following along as she drew it. Thomas was working really hard on it and when she walked by to check on him, he looked up at her and said, "I'm really good at this!" Last week, he waited too late to go potty and had a little accident during class. He got very upset about the whole thing and Ms. Hannah called me to come pick him up early. She was very sweet in how she dealt with the whole situation and I think he developed a little crush on her. On the way home he said, "Mommy, I think Ms. Hannah may be cuter than you." I said, "What!?!" He started laughing and said, "No, I was just kidding Mommy but she is cuter than Daddy!"

Germ Patrol, Making Plans, and More

I mentioned Thomas' cold in the previous post. David caught it, Jonathan got a newborn version of it, and just when I thought I was out of the woods, I came down with it this weekend. He tried hard not to share it but those germs were persistent. Anyway, I was holding Jonathan yesterday and without thinking bent down and kissed his cheek. Thomas ran up to me and said, "Mommy! Remember you've got my cold so you have to kiss him only on top of his head!" Nothing like being properly chastised by your three year old.

Last Thursday, when I picked Thomas up from school, he was mad at me that James didn't come home with us. I told him we had something else to do that day and that we'd get together with James in a few days. He said, "Well, James asked me if he could come over and I said 'sure' so that's the plan!"

Once he got over being mad, he asked me how Jonathan did while he was at school. I told him Jonathan did fine but that he missed his big brother. Thomas told him, "I missed you too. I thought about you all day!" Later, he wanted to hold Jonathan and as soon as I put the baby in his arms, he said, "There now. Your big brother's got you." Talk about melting a Mommy's heart.

Whenever Thomas watches a DVD these days, he always wants to watch the "commercials" which are really the movie previews but commercials fits too. Sometimes he'll want to watch the commercials over and over instead of the actual movie. He'd watched the Cars movie at my parents house a few weeks ago and was happy to get his own copy of the movie for Christmas. The next time he saw my parents he excitedly told them that his Cars movie had the exact same commercials their movie did.

Thomas Is a Big Brother!

Jonathan David was born on December 28th at 8:55 am. He weighed 8 pounds 10 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long. He was within 2 ounces and 1/4 inch of his brother. Mommy says thank goodness he came almost 2 weeks early! :-)

Thomas is such a proud big brother and is so sweet with the baby. When Thomas was watching them clean Jonathan through the nursery window, he looked at my mom and asked, "When do we get to touch him?" A few moments later, he was talking to David's parents on the phone and told them they needed to come see Jonathan right then. When he finally got to hold his brother, he was so gentle with him and of course, he washed his hands first. He makes sure than anyone who wants to hold his baby washes their hands. And when he washes his hands in preparation for holding Jonathan, he holds his hands up in the air like a surgeon going into surgery to make sure he doesn't accidentally touch anything on the way to the baby.

On our second day in the hospital, Jonathan was quite fussy after his circumcision. In the beginning, Thomas would quietly talk to him and say, "It's ok. Mommy is right here." But as he kept crying off and on for several hours, Thomas finally looked up and said, in a matter of fact voice, "Jonathan stop crying, you're giving me a headick."

Thomas also doesn't mind telling you that Jonathan likes him better than you. And I think he might be right because Jonathan will always turn his head to look at Thomas when he's talking, something he doesn't do for everyone. I think he probably knows Thomas' voice better than anyone's because Thomas talks ALL the time. :-)

Thomas is also so sweet singing to Jonathan. If Jonathan starts crying, Thomas will run over and start singing "Rock A Bye Baby" to him. Depending on the reason Jonathan is crying, it usually works and he'll stop crying and watch Thomas sing. If it doesn't work, Thomas will stop singing and say, "Nope, he must be hungry Mommy."

This week, Thomas has a cold and he's trying very hard not to pass it to his brother. He never coughs or sneezes near the baby and is washing his hands very often. This morning, he was holding Jonathan and put his face right up to him. I asked him not to breathe in Jonathan's face because he could get germs on him. So he turned his head and took several breaths and then held his breath while holding his face close to his brother. Not quite what I intended but it worked.