Holey Jeans

We ate dinner at Cheddar's the other night. As we were leaving, Thomas started climbing on the rocks out front. He was doing really well, until he said, "Hey look how good I can do this!" and then promptly fell down. He tore a big hole in his jeans, the first time that's ever happened. I thought he must have really hurt himself because how can you tear a hole that big in your pants and not bleed? So I tried looking through the hole and couldn't find any blood so I ripped it little more to get a better view since it was dark outside. And he didn't injure himself. Just ruined his jeans. After he got over crying and realized he was ok, he got very excited. "Mommy, I can't believe I tore a hole in my jeans! James had a hole in his pants the other day at school and now I do!!!" And then later, telling David about it, "Daddy, can you believe I got my first hole and then Mommy made it bigger!!"

Funerals

Our friend, Chris', dad passed away on Monday. I talked to Thomas about it told him that Mommy and Daddy would be going to the funeral. We talked about how funerals are celebration of someone's life and that people who loved them attend. I went to the viewing last night and my dad kept the boys so Mom could go with me since David was still working. They spent the night last night so David and I could go out for a Valentine's Day meal when he got home. I tell you that so you'll know why Mom was at our house this morning before school. So, she gets a phone call this morning, from Dad I think, and she was telling him that I was going to the funeral today. Thomas heard her saying that and came running into the bathroom where I was brushing my hair. He said, "Another funeral? Who else is dying?" I explained that they were both for Evie's grandpa. That tickled me but not as much as Evie asking if her grandpa was going to be buried or laminated.

Happy Loser

Jonathan and I went to Thomas' Valentine's Party today at school. The last activity of the party was a version of the game Hot Potato using a heart pillow, we'll just call it Heart Potato. The kids had never played it before and were so cute. Once they got the hang of passing it quickly from person to person, the music was cut off and the child holding the pillow got a heart sticker and was out of the game. Well, wouldn't you know it, my sensitive child was the first one out. It melted my heart, and cracked Lisa up, when Thomas came running up to me excitedly saying, "Mommy, can you believe I'm the first person to win?!?" And the rest of the kids were excited too. As each person ended up with the pillow, received their heart sticker, and got out of the circle, they clapped madly and cheered for the "winner" before the music started again.

Dandelion Fun

Took this one of Thomas last night as I was trying to get the dandelion pic on my Pics By Kim blog. Cute huh?

First Trip to Dentist

Thomas went to the dentist for the first time on Monday. This sign greeted him as we entered the office (it's a cell phone picture but that's all I had with me). He went to a pediatric dentist that came highly recommended. After our experience, we agree. To help him get ready, I downloaded a book from their web site about what to expect during your visit. After we read it for the first time, he said, "Oh, so they're just going to clean my teeth and not pull one out?" On Monday, he wanted to take his book with him to the dentist so he could check off each page as it happened: play in the play area, wait for them to call your name, get tooth pictures taken, etc. As they called his name to go back, he stopped, got his pen out and checked off that page before going with her. He went back by himself and came out 45 minutes later proud of how well he did. They said they'd never had another child bring their book with them and thought that was really cute. He asked them to show me his "tooth pictures" and everything looked great. He's got a good bite and no sign of cavities. He couldn't wait to go to school afterwards to tell everyone about it.

Map Confusion

Thomas is going to a birthday party tomorrow for a friend from school. On the way home today, he asked me where Aiden lived. I told him he lived in the north part of our city and we lived in the south part. He said, "Huh?" So I drew a map in the air and said, "Aiden lives up here and we live down here." He then said, "Oh, you mean he lives up in the sky and we live down on the ground?"

DVR Guru

Ever since we got a DVR 9 months ago, our TV viewing habits have dramatically changed. And as much as David and I have enjoyed it, we were a little surprised how much Thomas has enjoyed it. He loves recording his favorite shows so he can watch them whenever he wants instead of waiting for them to come on. He loves fast-forwarding through the commercials, and sometimes scary parts, so he can keep watching his show uninterrupted. He likes that so much that he's disappointed when he's watching live TV and he can't fast-forward. And then today at lunch, we were in the kitchen eating but he could still hear the television in the other room. He said, "Mommy, I'm going to go pause my show so I don't have to keep worrying about what I'm missing."

Spelling

Tonight at bedtime, Thomas and I were reading Dr. Seuss' One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Thomas was spelling the words for me. He went: "O-N-E-F-I-S-H." Sensing a teachable moment, I decided to take this opportunity to explain the pause we use between words and that he needed to take a small pause after spelling one word before going onto the next so the listener will know it's two different words. So he tried again, "O-N-E" (a long pause) "I paused Mommy. F-I-S-H."

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.

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.