New Glasses?

I was putting Thomas down last night when he gave me a huge, hard, almost-5-year-old-boy hug. I asked him to be careful of my new glasses. I'd just picked them up and didn't want them broken the first night. He stopped. Leaned back. Looked at me. And said, "You got new glasses?"

If you want to see them, check out my third blog (two just wasn't enough for me!).

Turks and Caicos Slide Shows

Wow, how lucky are you? Sometimes I go a whole month without posting and now you get THREE in ONE day? :-) I finally got around to making a couple slide shows of our trip to Turks and Caicos. How is it possible that that trip was almost 2 months ago? Boy it was amazing though. My first time leaving the country was this trip, at age 37. My youngest son? 11 months. I hope he continues to be able to take trips like this the rest of his life. As long as the rest of us can go with him. Boy do we have Island Fever now. It was so beautiful and relaxing. Enjoy our pictures! If you don't know everyone in the photos, we went with my parents, Gary and Jeanette, my brother, Mike, his wife, Amy, and their boys, Mason and Palmer. And by the way, I took 95% of these pictures using the Manual settings on my Nikon D80. I was excited and proud how well they turned out.

Make a scrapbook - it's easy!

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

Height Conversation

Today on our way to meet Melinda and Dayton for lunch, Thomas was asking questions about how tall he would be at certain ages. Here's how the conversation went.

Thomas: "How tall will I be when I'm 13?"
Me: "Hmmm. Probably at least as tall as my shoulder."
Thomas: "Well, I'm already as tall as Grandma's shoulder." (Not quite but close)
Me: "Well then, maybe you'll be as tall as Grandma when you're 13."
Thomas: "When will I be as tall as Grandpa?"
Me: "Boys grow taller at all sorts of different ages. And we have no idea how tall you'll be until you stop growing. But maybe when you're 15 or 20."
Thomas: "Well, when I'm sixty one hundred years old, I'll be taller than everyone."
Me: "I'm sure you will Thomas."
Thomas: "Oh wait a minute. When I'm that old we'll all be dead."

Sound of squealing tires as I laughed so hard I almost drove off the road.

Yes and No

Yesterday, we bought a small box of Goldfish crackers. Thomas wanted some as a snack during the afternoon and ate about half of it. Later, Jonathan wanted to try some so Thomas got some out for him. He'd eaten a lot of them earlier and we were going to have dinner soon so I told Thomas he couldn't have any more. Just give his little brother one at a time. That worked for about 2 minutes and then Thomas said, "Can I have this one since Jonathan's not eating it?" I said, "No." "Can I eat this one that fell on the floor? It's too dirty for Jonathan to eat." "Well, if it's too dirty for him to eat, it's too dirty for you to eat." "Can I just have ONE?" "No, no, no, no, no!" By this point we're both laughing. I looked at Jonathan and said, "Jonathan, I don't think your brother understands what N-O means." Thomas got this little twinkle in his eye and said, "Y-E-S!"

Cowboys and Older Women

Yesterday was Cowboy Day at Thomas' preschool. He was really excited about it and got dressed the second he woke up that morning. That was a nice change of pace since I'm usually saying, "We need to leave in 6 minutes and you still have your pajamas on!" But I digress. He has outgrown his old cowboy boots (they're size 11 and he's wearing a 13) and has been needing some new ones. So I thought Cowboy Day was a good excuse to go get them. But his teacher, Mrs. Petrelli, had told the kids not to buy anything special just for Cowboy Day so he refused. I tried to explain that she meant not to buy anything JUST for Cowboy Day and that since he was going to wear his boots other days, it would be ok, but no dice. So we made do with tennis shoes and the cowboy things we had around the house. And he had a blast. Last year, they had to convince him to sit on the horse for a few seconds to get a picture for us. But this year, he not only sat on the horse for a picture, but got on another horse for a ride around the playground. He's growing up.

And speaking of that, when we got home yesterday, he tugged on my arm and said, "Mommy, I need to tell you something." So I bent down and he whispered, "Mommy. A Kindergarten girl told me that she hates all boys but she doesn't hate me." And he then gave me this little shy smile. I said, "Oh really?" and asked him what her name was and he thought for a minute and then said, "Hmm. I don't know." Well, whatever your name is Older Woman, stay away from my baby. :-)

Christmas

We spent Christmas in Lubbock this year. It was a quick trip because David's really busy at work. And it was a busy trip because we were there for 48 hours and in that time had Christmas with both sides of our family, attended the Christmas Eve service, AND threw Jonathan's first birthday party because, well, first birthdays are all about family and we wanted as many family members as possible to attend. More on that whenever Jonathan has time to write his own post.

Every year Christmas only gets more fun as Thomas gets older. This year, I think I already mentioned that he decorated our tree all by himself. That little tree was so special, he decided it needed an angel AND a star on top along with a picture frame ornament with his smiling face. He also helped my parents decorate their little tree and would have been willing to help you with yours if you'd just asked.

While we were exchanging gifts with my parents and grandparents, David unwrapped one of his gifts and said, "Yeah, an old cell phone!" He was joking of course, and knew that there was something else inside the old cell phone box, but Thomas got really excited for him. "Oh Daddy! You got a new cell phone!" David explained the joke and proceeded to open the box and show Thomas what was inside. I think maybe it was coffee beans. About 5 minutes later, it's Thomas' turn to open another present. He carefully selected one and unwrapped it. He looked at the old cell phone box and said, "I'll just put this up till I'm 8." We had to convince him to open it right away and explained again that it wasn't an old cell phone. And as for how he decided he was going to be ready for a cell phone when he's 8, I have no idea.

Christmas Eve night, I was in the bedroom doing something and Thomas ran in to ask me a question. On his way out, he turned off the light and left me in the dark room alone. I could hear him crowing about his funny joke clear across the house. I came out a few minutes later and he was still laughing about it. To tease him back, I said, "Santa, did you see that?" His face fell and he got really quiet and said, "I think...maybe...not." We decided that Santa probably knew it was just a joke.

Christmas morning at 6:30 am, it was still pitch dark when Thomas whispered, "Mommy? Do you think Santa's come yet?" I asked why and he said, "I really need to go potty." I said I'd go check and reported that he must have because the cookies were gone. He said, "Good because I held it in as long as I could!" So we tiptoed down the hall and went potty. I figured we'd be up for the day since he knew Santa had come, but he thought it was still the middle of the night and tried to lay back down to go to sleep telling me he'd see me in the morning. Luckily for him, Jonathan heard all that whispering and decided sleeping time was over.