September 2006

09/29/06

Happy birthday Uncle Terry!

It's time for more Tommy Tidbits!  (and a couple of random David Dollops and Sally Smidgens)

• Tommy still loves sleeping in the queen-sized bed.  As usual, I've found something to worry about.  What if he gets so used to sleeping in a gigantic bed that he is never comfortable in a smaller bed?  Yes, it's a silly thing to worry about.
• At 6:15 this morning Tommy and I were lying in his bed.  I was trying to convince him to lie still and try to go back to sleep.  Tommy was trying but there was much sighing and thrashing about of legs.  I finally gave up and told him that if he promised to try to take a nap later today he could get up.  His response was, "Oh thank you Mommy!  I promise.  Now we put my daytime clothes on.  Don't worry.  The sun will wake up soon."  I seriously doubt he'll take a nap, but he probably will try.
• Tommy got cookie cutters at the wedding last weekend and then he received a box of dinosaur cookie cutters from my Dad on Monday.  It was inevitable that we make cut-out cookies this week.  I can't actually remember ever making any by myself before.  They turned out really well.  The only food coloring I had was red, so we ended up with pink icing for the dinosaurs, planes, tractors and hearts.
• We're having a bit of a conflict over the computer at our house.  Now that Tommy knows how to use the mouse, he wants to play computer games ALL THE TIME.  This is pretty typical for him.  Whenever he learns a new skill he's pretty obsessive about it for a while.  I like to sit at the computer during down time, like when Tommy's watching TV or playing by himself.  Now, as soon as he sees me sit down he wants to sit on my lap and "help" me.  I don't mind it for a while, but it's getting hard to get anything done.  I'm trying to place limits on him, but it's not really fair that I don't have limits for myself.  We're going to try leaving the computer off most of the day today and then taking turns with a timer when it is on.
• Our salt water fish tank has randomly spawned a couple of starfish.  They're just babies now, but should be a nice addition to the tank.
• This has been the least troublesome pregnancy ever the last few weeks.  That's why I don't write about it more often.  There's just not much to say when there's nothing to complain about!  Everything looks healthy.  I'll probably post a picture every four weeks starting on week 20 like I did with Tommy.  I'll be 18 weeks on Sunday.
• Tommy's started calling us Mom and Dad almost exclusively.  It's so grown up!   

09/28/06

This is what Tommy would say if you asked him what he wants for Christmas...

"I want three things.  An orange cat.  A Crazy Crocodile.  And cars that go round and round and round."

At least he knows what he wants!  I'm sure somebody can do something about the last two.  He's not getting the cat though, because David's allergic to cats.  The other day we were talking about getting a dog (someday!) and Tommy said, "No we can't get dog.  First we have to get an orange cat!  'Member?  It's for Christmas."  I think we're in a bit of trouble on this one.  If we ask him why we can't get a cat he will respond "Cause it makes Daddy sneeze" but I don't think he really understands.  He's also talked about wanting a marble run construction set (like this maybe), so we can try to make a deal swapping that for the cat.  I doubt it will work though.   

09/27/06

Tommy's been very interested in telling stories lately.  The other day he entertained us while we were waiting for our table at a restaurant with a story about a dog.  Of course, I can't remember it now.  Tonight, he and David sat in the rocking chair in his room for a half an hour telling stories.  I wasn't in there, but I'd catch snatches of it while I was reading my book.  Tommy's story was about a little monkey (he's been watching a lot of Curious George lately).  It sounded quite elaborate.  I do remember this little snippet.

"The monkey saw a leopard.  Ahhh! A leopard!  Run little monkey.  He ran and ran and ran and then he was safe.  He climbed a tree and the leopard couldn't reach him.  Whew!"

David says that was just a small part of the story.  See!  Tommy's not 100% engineer... maybe just 85%.

09/26/06

Here are the wedding photos.  The one of me isn't great since my eyes are half closed, but Tommy and David look good!  I should have insisted on more attempts to get a family photo while we were all dressed up.  As you can see, Tommy really enjoyed dancing with Megan.

Here are the current arrangements for the nursery and Tommy's room.  Tommy's bookcase is still in the same position and he has a toy box and his big bedside table on the far side of the bed.  The little dinosaur in the foreground is on his dresser.  I was standing in the closet to take the picture.  It really is a big room, since there seems to be plenty of space in there even with the queen-sized bed. 

In the nursery, there should be plenty of space for a crib and a dresser (changing table), although you can't really see the edges of the room in this picture.  We'll probably put the twin bed, the La-Z-Boy and one side table along the wall where the bed is currently.  Then the crib and dresser can go on the opposite wall.  The current wall color in the nursery is lots darker than Tommy's room, so we'll probably want to repaint.  I'm thinking of leaving the toffee brown on the bottom half of the walls and doing either a blue-green (like the current bedding) or a pale pink on the top half, depending on the sex of course.  What do you think?

09/25/06

I don't have much time to post today.  My dad's cousin Janelle is coming to visit today.  Since our house is always a disaster after the weekend, Tommy and I have been cleaning up this morning.  Here's a quick update of our weekend.  Quick for me anyway.

We went to a wedding on Saturday and Tommy had a great time.  He completely surprised us by being totally quiet during the church ceremony.  He kept shushing me whenever I tried to whisper things to him like, "No Tommy.  You have to stay here!"  He loved the reception, especially the dancing.  He danced by himself on the wooden dance area during the first half of the reception.  He stopped for about 5 minutes to eat a bit of chicken and then sat fidgeting until David finished eating and took him back over there.  Unfortunately he was getting really tired by the time the real dancing started.  He'd been waiting and waiting and then people started dancing (the all-important 1st dance, etc.) and he wasn't allowed to join in.  He alternated between scheming to get away from us and onto the dance floor and hiding under the cake table.  We did give him $5 to dance with the bride during the Money Dance, and he really enjoyed that.

(Many of you might not know what that is.  We didn't do it in our Baptist Church weddings in WA, and David didn't know the tradition either, but I remember it from weddings in Oklahoma.  It must be a regional tradition, but I'm not sure what regions do it.  People line up and give the Best Man and Maid of Honor money to dance with the Bride and Groom.  The money goes towards the honeymoon.) 

By the time the lights dimmed and the mirror ball went up and everybody started dancing he was too tired to really enjoy it.  He didn't want to go home because he'd been waiting all evening for the dancing to start, but he didn't want to go out there alone either.  I ended up carrying him and "dancing" with him for about 10 minutes.  He wouldn't let go of me or let anyone else take him or let me set him down, and my 4-months-pregnant stamina was not up to the task.  He was pretty sad when we left, but calmed down quickly.

The other big thing we did this weekend was to move the queen-sized guest bed into Tommy's room.  I'm still not convinced that it's the best arrangement for our 3-bedroom house, but Tommy and David are absolutely sure about it.  I just happened to mention to Tommy yesterday that someday he might get to have the big bed in his room, and he wanted to move it RIGHT THEN.  So we did.  Moving it now means that he won't associate losing his twin bed to the baby.  Now that the big bed is out of the guest room we can start painting the nursery and move the crib out of the storage shed, etc.  David's plan is for us to have the twin bed and crib in the nursery.  The twin bed will provide a comfy place for me to sleep on sick-baby nights.  The queen sized bed is now Tommy's bed, but when we have company he can either sleep on a mattress on our floor or in his sibling's room in his old bed.  I guess this arrangement makes sense, but it's a pretty big change all at once.  Of course, I'm the only one bothered by it.  Tommy slept great in the big bed last night.  He actually woke up less and slept longer than usual.

I'll post pictures of the wedding and the new room arrangements tomorrow.

09/22/06

I took Tommy to get his hair cut just a few weeks ago, and it really wasn't very nice.  It was still long and shaggy over his ears and in the back, and kind of a bowl cut on top.  I've been complaining about it enough the past few weeks that David took the initiative to do something about it yesterday.  The boys went to David's barber for the first time.  I've been taking Tommy to the kiddie haircut place because they have cartoons playing at every station to distract him.  I guess he's old enough now to sit still without the distraction.  That's good because the other place really didn't give very good haircuts.  So here's the result of his first "grown-up" haircut.  David let them cut it much shorter than I would have.  I suspect we have about a week until his double cowlick on the top of his head (the one that exactly matches David's cowlicks) starts sproinging up.  Then we'll have to decide if we want to let it grow past the stick-up stage again (might take until Christmas!) or keep it really short like David's hair.  It's hard for me to remember that many kids Tommy's age have only had a couple of haircuts in their lives and still have fine, slow-growing, baby hair.  Tommy's had a haircut every 6 weeks since just after his first birthday and his hair is thick and fast growing.  It's not surprising since David and I had similar hair as children.  For comparison, I've added a picture of me when I was around Tommy's age or maybe younger.

09/20/06

ALL the kids wanted to sit on my friend Cindy's lap today.  I think Tommy started it, of course, since he's the snuggliest boy ever.  I just couldn't resist taking a picture.  L to R: Claudia, Cindy, Tommy, Duncan.  It's no wonder people always think Claudia and Tommy are twins when both families are out together.

09/19/06

Tommy spilled all the pieces of his snake domino game puzzle the other day.

Tommy:  Mommy?  I dropped all my snake pieces.  You pick them up for me?

Me:  No sweetheart.  You dropped them, you should clean them up.

Tommy:  But Mommy!  It's too hard!

Me:  It's not too hard.  You can do it.

Tommy:  You do it.

Me:  I didn't spill them, so I'm not going to pick them up.  If you don't do it, they'll just have to be all messy.

Tommy:  Oh, Ok, I do it.  (Give a big sigh.  Places hand on his hips.  Surveys the mess.)  I have SO MUCH work ahead of me.

Playing with the puzzle this morning.  It was chilly, but he was cozy warm in his fleece.

09/18/06

The camping trip was a huge success.  I tried to get David to be the guest writer for this post, but he didn't want to.  Since I wasn't there, ( J ) I'll just tell you what he told me.

Tommy and David started packing at about 8 am on Saturday morning and were all packed by 9 am.  They didn't plan to leave until after lunch, so it was kind of a long morning.  They drove down in David's truck, which was a big treat for Tommy.  There was a loop of campsites with a group pavilion set aside for the NITWITs (Nerds In The Wilderness) group.  Tommy and David set up the tent and the cookout started soon after.  David said Tommy was so excited to be running around with the other kids and dogs, that he didn't really eat much.  David didn't get to eat much either because he was running after Tommy.

David said Tommy alternated between playing with (read: chasing) the other kids, petting the dogs, picking a direction and walking purposefully off into the woods, asking to go into the tent by himself with David, and playing in the truck.  Tommy really does like playing with groups of kids, but he's very much like his parents and gets overwhelmed and tired of social situations pretty quickly.  We'd told him he could go in the tent when he wanted to get away from people, so I guess they alternated the quiet time with crazy, running around, social time.   

David changed Tommy into warmer clothes once it got dark and they spent a bit of time around the group fire. Tommy tried a couple of marshmallows, but he didn't really like them.  Tommy kept running off into the woods, but David didn't have too much trouble following him because Tommy's shoes light up with every step and he had a multi-colored blinking light on a string around his neck.  At about 8:30 David thought Tommy might be ready for bed so he took him into the tent and changed him into his pajamas.  They read three books and then David told Tommy to lie down in his sleeping bag.  David read him one more book and told him it was time to sleep.  Tommy said "Good night Daddy", rolled over and went straight to sleep.  He didn't make a peep until 6:30 am.  I was very impressed!

The next morning they had some cheese and apples and donuts for breakfast.  Tommy played with the kids and dogs some more and then they went to see the Salinas monuments.  My clever David fed Tommy a snack before trying to drive to lunch, just in case Tommy fell asleep before they could find a McDonald's.  He did fall asleep and they drove most of the way home before David stopped for lunch and Tommy woke up.  They were home just after 1:00 and Tommy was very happy to see me.

I very much enjoyed my 24 hours to myself.  There was lots of reading...and tea drinking...and music listening...and chocolate eating.  I didn't sleep very well without my boys in the house, and I certainly didn't sleep in (bummer), but I did get a nap in before they got home.  All in all it was a good weekend for everyone.

This is the ONLY picture of Tommy's first camping trip.  But it's not David's fault.  The batteries in the camera died and the set I packed as back up hadn't held their charge. 

09/15/06

Tommy Tidbits...

• Tommy has decided that we are to call him "Tommy Fixer" from now on.  Why?  Because he likes to fix things, of course.
• Tommy's current favorite movie is Wallace and Grommit and the Curse of the Were Rabbit, or as he says "The Near-Nabbit!"  I've avoided letting him watch it for a while because I was worried it might be too scary, but he doesn't find it frightening at all.
• Tommy's been on a tea kick for about a month now.  It's been chilly enough in the mornings lately that I've started drinking tea again, and he likes to join me.  He wants to have the whole, elaborate tea service.  I've convinced him that using the teapot is not necessary for every day, but he always wants to pour milk from the creamer pitcher and use the sugar bowl.  He's very careful.  He has quite a routine by this time. 
• He's been asking for green tea (decaf) lately.  We used the last bag of regular green tea yesterday, so I broke out a different tin of flavored green tea today.  These tea bags are round instead of rectangular.  Tommy got all excited about them.  "They round just like Wallace and Grommit tea!"  I thought that was an interesting detail for him to notice.  I'll make an Anglophile out of him yet!  (Most English tea bags are round, not rectangular.)
• After breakfast this morning, Tommy came up to me and said, "I need something FRESH to eat!"  I replied, "Fresh like what?"  Tommy answered, "Fresh is Cheetos."  Nice try buddy!
• I've been trying to get Tommy in new shoes for weeks now.  It was quite a hassle.  He just refused to give up his old shoes.  His "big red shoes" fit well, but all his other shoes are officially too small.  I eventually bought him a pair of Thomas the Train shoes EXACTLY like the ones he already had, but in a bigger size.  He pitched a big fit in Wal-Mart when I was trying to buy them.  I ended up telling him I'd leave them in the trunk and not make him wear them.  A couple of days later, I switched them with his old shoes while he was sleeping.  He knows they're the new ones, but he couldn't find the old ones so he got over it pretty quickly.

09/14/06

Practice playtime in the tent. 

Tommy's super excited about the boys' campout now.  Plus, he can obviously see that there's "no room for Mommy in our tent!"  Heh, heh.  I love it when a plan comes together.  Unfortunately, he was VERY unhappy when we told him he couldn't sleep there last night.  He was all undressed and ready to go to sleep when we told him it was bath time.  He protested quite loudly. 

I probably should have waited to post these pictures, but they were sooooo cute, I just couldn't resist.  His Halloween costume came in the mail yesterday just as he and David were putting the tent together.  Tommy says "Arrrgh!"  I expect he'll be wearing this a lot in the next six weeks.  The top is almost too small, so we'll be pulling the white part down to cover his belly every few minutes on Halloween night.

09/13/06

  Tommy can use the mouse all by himself now.  Once again, David gave him the chance to figure it out when I'd just been assuming he needed me to do it for him.  When he wants to play Sesame Street games on the computer, I usually sit with him and run the mouse for him.  David wanted to mess around with the fish tank this weekend while Tommy wanted to play games.  So David plopped Tommy in the chair, handed him the mouse and let him figure it out on his own.  He can click on things.  He can drag items across the screen.  He can follow directions he hears (no reading yet of course).  He can change games when he gets bored.  We have to step in every once in a while when he gets stuck, but he's amazingly proficient.  His favorite game is one where you sort Bert's bottle caps into Venn diagram circles.  He'll put the blue things in the blue circle and the toys in the toy circle, but he hasn't quite figured out the overlapping section yet (blue toys!) .

09/12/06

David and Tommy are going camping by themselves on Saturday!  I'm so excited to have 24 hours at home by myself.  This will be Tommy's first night away from me.  We've been planning to go on this camp out for a month or so and it only just occurred to us a couple of days ago that David and Tommy could do it without me.  About 70 people from David's work (that # includes families) are getting together for a cookout in the Manzano mountains, and about 45 will be camping overnight.  It should be a really fun first camping experience for Tommy.           

09/11/06

The weather has turned nice and fallish this past week (by Albuquerque standards of course).  It's been in the low 60s in the mornings and warmed up only to the low 80s in the afternoons.  It's lightly breezy and beautiful.  We took advantage of the cooler weather and went to the Rio Grande Nature Center Saturday.  We told Tommy we were going for a walk in the forest and he said "Oh no!  The deep, dark forest?"  We convinced him that we were going to the "sunny, sunny woods" instead.  He had an even better time this year than when we went last fall.  We probably walked a mile or maybe a mile and a half and Tommy ran almost the whole time.  He enjoyed looking at all the displays in the nature center and stopped for about 45 seconds to look at the Canadian geese and turtles on the river.  He really wanted to explore off the path, but there were signs all over telling us not to, so we told him there were animal homes all around us.  He was very concerned that he might step on a "little animal house" so he mostly stayed on the path.  After noticing his first lizard, he kept on the lookout for more.  He found at least 8.  Following them was his biggest temptation to stray off the path.

His first attempt to sit up here accidentally ended in a dive face-first off the tree and into the ground.

"No, no, no!  Stay on the path!"

"You can't catch me Daddy!"

Ants in the sand - a little boy's idea of paradise.

See!  David does occasionally take my picture too.

Hot boy.  Cool water.

09/09/06

We were on our way to the mall to pass some time yesterday when I started up my usual dialogue with Tommy about what to expect...

Me:  Hey Tommy?  This is just a looking trip to the mall.  We're not going to buy anything.  No buying.  Understand?

Tommy:  Just looking.  No buying.  Just one small thing.

Me:  No.  We won't buy one small thing.  No buying at all.

Tommy:  No buying...just one bouncing Tigger.

Me:  No.  We can look at the toys at the toy store, but we won't be buying anything.  You can put a bouncing Tigger on your Christmas list if you want.

Tommy:  OK.  We go mall just for looking.  No buying. 

Me:  That's right.  We'll still have fun.

Tommy:  Maybe buy a little bit of candy?  Just a little bit.

Me:  Sigh.  Maybe, but just a little bit.

Tommy:  We go mall now?  Buy a little bit of candy.

Me:  Yes.  We'll be there in just a few minutes.

09/08/06

Tommy:  Mommy!  Look!  There something on your glasses.

Me:  Something on my glasses?  What is it?

Tommy:  It a movie.  Look, look!

Me:  A movie?  Oh, that's the reflection from the TV.

Tommy:  Oh, right.  Two movies.  One big on TV.  One small on your glasses.

*****

Tommy's working on refining the "ll" sound these days.  Words like jello, yellow, and pillow are fun all of a sudden.  He's doing the long, tongue-fluttering thing.  Yellow sounds like yell-ll-ll-ll-ow.  It's pretty funny.

*****

This morning, Tommy was snuggling with me in bed when David had to get up to shower.  Tommy suddenly noticed he was gone and asked me, "Where's Daddy?"  I said, "He's in the bathroom."  Tommy said, "Oh, he's peeing.  Me too."  He got a look of extreme concentration on his face.  Then he said, "Ooops.  Your bed is wet."  Sigh.  His diaper leaked.  This potty training thing is very annoying.  He has the ability, but no motivation. 

09/06/06

Tommy wanted to hook together all of his Little People toys this morning.  He's trying to pass the time until we go over to his friend Claudia's house to play.

I totally forgot to tell you about Tommy's latest dream.  Do you remember how he had a nightmare Thursday morning?  Well, Friday morning he woke up crying again.  I went in and he sobbed out the story to me.  He dreamed about "my three doggie friends - they pink doggie friends - they were playing with me -- and talking to me -- then I woke up! (sob sob) -- They gone now!"  David figured out that it was actually a GOOD dream, not a nightmare.  I'd been trying to figure out if they were mean dogs or something. ("No!  They my friends!  I love them!")  He was just so very disappointed to wake up and discover that it wasn't real.  He kept talking about those doggies all day Friday.  He told David about them.  He told Grandma and Grandpa about them.  At one point we suggested that they might come back in a dream the next time he slept.  He loved that idea.  He went to sleep immediately Friday night and the first thing he said when he woke up Saturday morning was "They came back!"  Hooray!  

09/04/06

Happy Labor Day!  We're having a wonderful weekend.  The weather has been unseasonably cool and fallish, so we've been out an about quite a bit.  Tommy has so much energy these days, so we can really do lots of stuff in one day without risking meltdowns due to exhaustion.  As a matter of fact, yesterday at the aquarium David had to have a serious talk with Tommy about how we were going to have to leave the aquarium early and go to a restaurant because "Mommy and Grandpa and Grandma are tired and need to sit down and rest and eat something."  Tommy grudgingly agreed to stop running so we could rest for a while.

The "Everybody's Pretending to Sleep" photo.  (Actually I their eyes are just closed.)

The whole family - minus me of course - I'm always taking the picture.

Walking around Old Town with Grandma and Grandpa.

"My new magician hat!"

09/01/06

An early morning building project.

David's parents arrive this afternoon for a visit.  Yay!

See the archives for earlier entries.