April 2005

Words Tommy can say for sure: mama, dada, down, all done, again, bye bye, Elmo, yeah, ding ding, no, apple (means any fruit), boo, drink, num num (yummy), book!!!, hello 

Words Tommy can sign: down, all done, more, drink, book 

04/29/05

Happy 15-month birthday to Tommy.  One and a quarter years!  If you're interested, here's the outline of a typical day in the life of Tommy.  I put in on a separate page because it's pretty long.

04/27/05

Last week, Tommy and I managed to eat a big bag of grapes, 2 grapefruits, 4 oranges, 5 apples, 5 bananas and 8 pounds of strawberries.  I've always eaten lots of fruit -- usually 1-2 pieces a day.  I haven't been eating as much lately because I always either save it for Tommy or end up "sharing" it with him if I try to eat any in front of him. Last week at the grocery store I decided I was going to buy more so that I could actually have some too.  I didn't get to eat as much as I would have BT (before Tommy), but he won't eat oranges or grapefruit so I ate those and three bowls of strawberries on three night after he went to bed.  He ate all the rest.  We started out with just one 4-pound container of strawberries, but ended up buying another one later in the week.  I don't know what we'll do if David decides he wants to start eating fruit for snacks too!  

We went to the library Monday and yesterday Tommy kept bringing me the bag I use for library books, signing more and saying something that sort of sounded library.  He wanted to go back!  I have a book ready to pick up so I can actually take him there if he asks again today.

David was swinging him around in his chair a few days ago.  Whee!  You'd think David would have learned by now that you don't ever start a game you aren't prepared to do over and over for a very long time.  David was worn out way before Tommy was ready to stop.  Meltdown!

04/25/05

We had a pretty nice weekend all in all.  We had sunny, hot weather Saturday and rainy weather Sunday so we got to do both kinds of weekend days -- running around outside and lazing around inside.

On Friday, I went to the local plant nursery and garden store intending to buy some herbs.  Tommy got so excited around all the plants, dirt and fountains that it turned into a playtime outing and I didn't buy anything.  He smelled all the flowers.  He charmed all the customers.  He found where the employees were watering plants and tried to catch the drips.  He found a crease in the concrete floor that had water AND dirt in it and managed to lie on his tummy and play in the mud for a while before I had to move him out of the path of the carts.  He rinsed his hands off in a fountain and then tried to drink the water by dunking his head.  He tried to drink water from the puddles on the floor.  He repeatedly ran up to the automatic doors to make them open and close.  He sat on the porch swings.  Eventually he was so wet and muddy I just had to take him home.  I think we even managed to do all this without annoying the clerks too much.  

Since he was already wet, I let him play with the hose in the front yard.  I'm sure this waste of water is an offense punishable by stoning in Albuquerque or something, but we've had loads of rain this spring so I'm not going to feel one bit guilty.  Besides, it's an inalienable right of childhood.  When we finally went inside I had to strip off all those wet clothes and the boy is very into being naked lately so he got to run around in the buff for a while.  

Babezilla strikes again.

04/21/05

A healthy lunch of lasagna, broccoli...and pickles.

Will somebody please change my diaper?  It's all fluffy and squishy and wet.  (Is it wrong that I think he looks a LOT like David in this picture?)

It's been a while since I posted a bath pic.  Wouldn't want to be too restrained.

...........

Mommy: No!  Don't eat the rocks!

Tommy: Nnn oh!  Nnn oh! (puts more rocks in mouth)

Mommy:  Stop it!  Don't eat rocks!  No!

Tommy:  (looks at rocks in his hand) Nnn oh! Nnn oh! (puts rocks in mouth)

Mommy:  That's it.  We're going inside.

...........

Mommy:  No more TV right now.  (turns TV off)

Tommy: Nnn oh!  Nnn oh! (walks to screen, points repeatedly) 

Mommy:  No more TV.  Let's play.

Tommy:  Nnn oh!  Nnn oh!  (walks purposefully over to cup of water on coffee table and pours it out) 

Mommy:  Tommy!  You did that on purpose! (takes cup into kitchen, wipes up water)

Tommy:  Dink! Dink! Dink! (stands at fridge, frantically signing "drink") 

Mommy:  Are you really thirsty?  You may drink some water, but you may not spill it.  No spilling. (sets new cup of water on coffee table)

Tommy:  (drinks, sets down cup, pushes it to center of table as usual, points to it) Nnn oh!  Nnn oh!

Mommy:  That's right.  No spilling.  Only drinking.

04/20/05

Happy birthday to our friend Eric!  He gets a kick out of seeing his name/picture on this website, so I thought I'd wish him many happy returns of the day.

As promised, here are Tommy's adventures with Dudley.  Dudley is a small dog who lives with Uncle Arnie and Auntie Shirley.  Tommy's pretty wary of dogs.  He's intrigued by the dogs at the park and in the neighborhood, but he doesn't want them to come too close.  One of the little neighbor dogs licked his fingers once and caused great hysterics.  Plus, we were walking through the park one day and David pushed the stroller right into leash reach of a friendly but enormous white dog who came over to investigate the baby.  Tommy freaked.  So, we were pretty curious to see what Tommy would think of Dudley. 

After a long day of traveling, Tommy just wanted to get down and play, but there was this dog in the house.  Dudley is quite calm and very sweet so it was just a matter of them getting used to each other.  At the beginning, Tommy was terrified.  Soon he began to relax a bit.  He always wanted to know where Dudley was, but would play happily until Dudley came too close.  Then he wanted Mommy.  By the next morning, Tommy was sort of accustomed to Dudley's presence.  He was in the kitchen, noted that Dudley was at the opening on one side of the kitchen and then headed for the opposite opening to go play.  Dudley circled around through the living room and met Tommy just as he was headed through the opening.  Ahhh!  Shock!  Surprise!  Help!  Mommy!

By that evening, Tommy had decided that Dudley might be fun.  We explained that the stuffed toys around the house belonged to Dudley, so Tommy gathered them up one by one and threw them at Dudley.  He wanted to give Dudley the toys, but didn't want to get too close.  The next morning, as soon as Tommy was really awake he started asking for Dudley.  His word for Dudley was a funny mix of the growling sound Dudley makes and the duh sound he uses to say dog.  After breakfast, Tommy dropped a cheerio which Dudley happily gobbled up.  Oooo!  He likes cheerios!  Tommy then fed all of his cheerios to Dudley one handful at a time.  Eventually he even petted Dudley and kept trying to give him any toys or food he could find.  Dudley never really warmed up to Tommy.  I think he was annoyed to have this small person following him around all the time.  Now that we're home, Tommy still remembers Dudley.  When David and I talk about the trip, Tommy always goes off looking for Dudley whenever we mention his name (he looks for Grandma too if he sees her picture or hears us say Grandma).

Helping Daddy water the roses

04/18/05

We're home.  It was very nice to see all the relatives in Canada.  It wasn't really a picture-taking sort of trip, so I don't have many to share.  I'll tell you all about Tommy's Adventures with Dudley (the dog) later.

Tommy was happy to find some balls in the multipurpose room of Great Grandma's nursing home.  Everyone took a turn playing with him, and here are some photos of Uncle Terry amusing the boy.

Tommy sat still for a few pages of The Owl and the Pussycat with Great Grandma.

Grandma Sylvia

Grandpa Mel (finally a good picture of them together!)

We had most of Saturday to ourselves so we took Tommy to the sculpture garden at Assiniboine Park.  Using his small-boy navigational sense, he was drawn to this unprotected pond of water.  I managed to keep him from falling in.  It was too early in the spring for flowers or fish, but Tommy didn't seem to care.  

Happy to be home, Tommy spent the evening sitting in his new chair and making funny faces.

04/11/05

Sadly, David's grandfather passed away this weekend.  We're flying to Winnipeg tomorrow or Wednesday for the funeral.  I won't be posting any pictures or news until after we return.

04/09/05

Sorry I haven't posted all week.  David's home now and I'm feeling much better.  Tommy is still a snot fountain and David seems to be getting sick now too, but at least I can keep things running if I'm well.

Tommy's first haircut... (sob)

Before

  After (He's not really sad, just serious and ready for a nap.)

The back -- no more curls L

04/04/05

This was a horrible evening because...

• Tommy and I both have colds.  I think I'm a bit sicker than he is, but we're both congested and cranky.  I know I feel absolutely miserable.
• David left for a business trip late this afternoon. 
• Tommy only napped for one hour early this morning and not at all this afternoon -- not good for a sick boy!.
• Lack of nap and being sick made him feel so bad this evening that he acted out in completely un-Tommy-like ways.
• He threw all of his dinner off his tray, crying and making the sign for more the whole time.  He wasn't done and didn't want down.  He was hungry, but nothing tasted good.  He probably has a sore throat.  I'm so glad I'm still nursing him!
• He asked for Dada every five minutes starting with dinner time when David didn't show up as usual.  At least three times when I told him Daddy wasn't coming home tonight he had complete meltdowns.  (His awareness of David being home or not is a relatively new thing.  I guess this trip is really going to upset him.)
• He hit me and pulled my hair numerous times when everything completely overwhelmed him.  (This is NOT allowed and he never does this.  I don't think it's a new toddler stage for him.  He was just way past his meltdown point.)
• David was kind enough to take the trash out the curb before he left so I wouldn't have to deal with it tomorrow morning.  Unfortunately, when I was taking a poopy diaper out to the trash I saw that he had put lots of loose styrofoam peanuts into the can.  The wind whipped the lid open and started swirling all of the peanuts across the neighborhood just as I went outside.  I grabbed a trash bag and tried to contain the ones that were still in the can but Tommy kept running after the flying peanuts into the street and the wind blew the bag I was holding two blocks away before I could even try to catch it.  I gave up and just went inside with an asthma wheeze, a runny nose and a hysterical Tommy.  Yes, there were neighbors watching.  Hopefully the wind will blow all night so I don't have to go around the neighborhood picking up peanuts with Tommy tomorrow.   

On the bright side, Tommy went to sleep immediately.  Of course, it was super early and he's really congested, so we'll see if he wakes up frequently in the night or gets up really early.  At least I can go to bed early and David will be home Wednesday.  I'm sure things will seem better tomorrow.

Two sickies on the couch.  Tommy is eating jicima.

Hugging Ernie and Elmo

04/02/05

Here's a smattering of pictures from the last week.

04/01/05

We taught Tommy two new games the last couple of days.  Now we're kind of wishing we hadn't done it. 

The first is real hide-and-seek.  He's been all about hiding among the clothes hanging in my closet lately.  He still thinks that if he can't see me then I can't see him, but he's getting better about really burrowing in behind the clothes and pulling some over his body to hide.  I thought it would be fun to do real hide-and-seek, so I covered my eyes and counted to 10 and told him to hide.  He figured it out after a few tries and ran into the closet to hide when I covered my eyes.  He'd even wait for me to come find him, plus he switched hiding places a couple of times and went into David's closet instead.  So far so good!  Then I showed him how to cover his eyes and I hid in the closet.  He found me but didn't really understand what was going on.  Now, whenever we try to play hide-and-seek he immediately covers his eyes and tries to run for the closet with his eyes covered, bouncing off furniture and walls that get in his way.  Not good!  I can't figure out how to un-teach him the eye covering part of it so the game is pretty much ruined now.

Last night we taught him ring-around-the-rosie.  He thinks it's super fun!  We also thought it was fun...the first 5 times.  Then we just got really tired of falling and standing over and over.  We'd fall, he'd tug on our shirts trying to make us stand up, we'd try to distract him, he'd cry, we'd get up, we'd do it again.  I'm sure we'll be good parents and keep playing the game, but I might wait until David gets home tonight to remind him of it.   

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