Tommy and Lily

Here is a video I made of cute moments between Tommy and Lily.  I don't know how Lily feels, but I know that Tommy absolutely adores his little sister.  His first question every morning is, "Where is baby Lily?"  He watches her closely and keeps me updated on how many eyes she has open.  He gets so excited when she has two eyes open and proudly exclaims, "Mom, both her eyes are open!"  He loves to play with her, tickle her, talk to her, ask her questions, and give her toys.  I am so grateful that Tommy is intuitively gentle and kind to Lily.  Let's hope that continues throughout his life:)

A Child's Prayer

This video was too cute not to post immediately. You might have to turn up the volume, he is singing pretty softly.

Tommy has been an amazing big brother to Lily. He shares everything he has with her (crackers, cars, his movies) and he always wants to check on her when she is sleeping. Whenever he finds baby toys or her baby bows or shoes he gives them to her. He is constantly asking me things like, "Mom, does Baby Lily like monster trucks?" and, "Mom, does Baby Lily like Fruit Loops?" He wants her to like all the things that he likes and he wants to include her in everything he does. It warms my heart. I don't know what more I could ask for as a mom than to have my kids adore each other.

"The Fan Song", by Thomas S. Chatterton

"A, B, C, D, E, F, G,
Once there was a fan,
And then it broke and fell down,
And it got hit with a ball.
Once there was a fan."

Thanks, Tommy.  We sing this song at bedtime almost every night now.

Kids Say the Darndest Things...

Lately I've been thinking a lot about some of the things that Tommy says on a regular basis that I never would have said as a toddler. It's funny how times change so quickly and how our kids are really growing up in a world with a different vocabulary than the one we grew up in. Here are a few examples:

"I want to take a picture of your blog post."

"I want to draw on Daddy's phone."

"I don't know to do my email."

After drawing a box on a piece of paper he told me, "I need to add the box on Facebook."

And this is my favorite one, but it takes a little explanation. I was giving Tommy a bath and he was playing and being funny in the water. He splashed me, I asked him not to splash me again, and he looked right into my eyes and simply said, "Splash dot com." It was so funny, I could hardly believe he had just said it:)

Eat Your Heart Out

This post is dedicated to the cuteness that is Tommy.  He really is such a sweet boy who makes us laugh constantly and amazes us with how smart and thoughtful he is.  He takes good care of his mommy by giving me back rubs and making sure nothing is bothering me.  He loves his daddy by giving him snuggles and playing Wrastle Ball with him.  We love that boy more than anything.



Here are a few recent quotes from Tommy:

Daddy:  "How much do you love your mommy?"
Tommy:  "I like her two times."
Mommy:  "How much do you love your daddy?"
Tommy:  "I like him two times with a baby."

A few days ago Tommy had a sick tummy, but he kept eating chocolate candies.  He said, "Chocolate is making my tummy feel much better."

While driving around and looking at Christmas lights Tommy kept exclaiming, "Oh gee, that's a lot of lights!"

Here are a few cute videos of Tommy.  The first is to show off how great he is at riding his bike now (he begs me every day to ride his bike) and the second is a silly laugh that he does when he is particularly delighted with something.  Enjoy!


I don't think there is anything better than a picture of our angel sleeping. Makes me want to go to sleep just looking at how peaceful he is.

Mostly Boring Every Day Stuff...

We've been very busy having lots and lots of fun lately.  Since I last blogged we took a trip to San Diego, visited Ben's family in Denver, and enjoyed a visit from my mom at our home.  Ben and I also decided that the differences between us can be summed up by saying that he is like Voltaire, and I am like Victor Hugo.  Take that as you will.  I'll post pictures and videos from all of that soon, but I thought tonight I would just do a general "What We've Been Up To Lately" type of post.  So, here it goes.

The biggest thing this week is that we moved Tommy from his crib into a big boy bed (a.k.a. a twin mattress on the floor).  We have been putting this off for months because of the horror stories we have heard from other families about that particular transition.  But, alas, as we all settled down for a nap last Saturday afternoon Tommy climbed out of his crib for the first time and that's when we knew our lives were over.  We set up his new bed, installed a baby gate at the top of the staircase, and dismantled the crib that afternoon.  He was a little upset that his crib disappeared, but he got instantly excited about his new bed when I brought out the Thomas the Tank Engine sheets.  We practiced "sleeping" in his new bed all afternoon so that by the time bedtime rolled around he was a pro at it.  We bought a childproof doorknob and explained to Tommy that if he stayed in his bed we wouldn't put it on the door, but that if he got out we would have to put the doorknob on the door so that he stayed in his room.  We gave him three tries the first night and then had to put the doorknob on.  He screamed and cried for about 10 minutes before he went to sleep.  It was awful and reminiscent of when we sleep trained him as a baby.  But, after 10 minutes he fell asleep on his bed and stayed there all night.  It's been almost a week now and we still use the doorknob on a case-by-case basis.  There have been several nights that he has chosen to stay in his bed so we haven't had to use it.  He hasn't woken us up during the night once so far, which I am very grateful for.  I'm not nice when I don't get enough sleep:)  Overall, we are very proud of Tommy for learning to sleep in his new bed and he is absolutely thrilled to have, as he put it, "a beautiful new bed."

Speaking of funny things Tommy says, here are a few great quotes from the little guy lately:

• When I asked Tommy which song he wanted me to sing for him in his bed he replied, "I want the Jesus song where Jesus tells the children go higher and higher. They go in a rocket ship and go faster and faster. That song.” 
• “I am a prophet!” 
• While wiping Tommy's runny nose and having a hard time getting all the snot out, Tommy reassured me by saying, “Don't worry, Mommy, I will pick it.” After I was done he said, “Good job, Mommy, washing my face.” I really appreciated the positive reinforcement and the reassurance that he would take care of it if I couldn't.
• “I'm gonna send a text...to the birds outside...(while holding the phone to his ear) Hi birds!”

In other news besides Tommy news, we got a new dining table and chairs!  It has been a long time coming and we are thrilled to have finally bought a new set.  Our old Target set was great at first, but it has become increasingly dangerous and uncomfortable over the past couple of years.  I don't think those things are made to last more than a year or so.  Our new set is big and sturdy, has six padded chairs, and a leaf.  We actually have room on the table for our plates and the serving dishes, plus Ben doesn't get up and wander around every 2 minutes because the chairs are uncomfortable.  It has been great, to say the least.  Tommy put his Cars chair up on his dining chair and calls it his Monster Truck.  Every time he climbs up or gets down he says something like, "Wow, that's a big truck!"  But, he sits and he eats his food, so I don't care.

I have been busy this week canning and cooking 80 pounds of chicken.  That's right, 80 pounds of raw chicken.  I only have about 15 pounds left to can or freeze, but it feels like running a marathon.  The last little bit is always the hardest no matter how much you have already done.  Hopefully tomorrow will be the last of this chicken marathon.  I have 35 pints of canned chicken so far and almost 30 freezer meals put together.  My goal is to have about 45 freezer meals ready to go when I have the baby so that I essentially don't have to cook for a couple of months.  It's a lot of work right now, but hopefully it will pay off in January and February.  Plus, with all the canned chicken I shouldn't have to buy/handle/cook chicken again for almost a year:)

I am feeling extremely pregnant these days.  This Sunday will be 30 weeks (almost 7 months), so we're moving right along.  I'm getting to the point now where I can't do everything I want to do.  I can't bend over or sit on the floor much.  My feet ache if I stand up for too long and I'm not sleeping well.  But, on the up side, I am still running and I usually feel really good, as long as I don't overdo it.  I'm sure my running days are numbered, but I am happy to still be able to do it on these cool October mornings.  Below is a picture of Tommy using the baby monitor to listen to the baby's heartbeat.  He told me, "I'm the midwife, means I'm Karen, means I need to check your baby."  Too cute.  He's so excited to be a big brother.

Ben continues to work hard to bring home the bacon.  If anyone out there knows of anyone that needs a freelance writer, Ben's your man.  He has a couple of contracts writing for blogs and websites right now, but he is always on the lookout for more.

While my mom was here Ben and I enjoyed a little stay-cation in Scottsdale.  We went to an improv comedy show, went to dinner, and enjoyed a little hike together.  The hike was a little tougher than we expected, especially with my pregnant belly.  That's why we both look so exhausted in the picture.  It was a beautiful view of the valley at the top, though.  It was nice to get away for a night.  It was probably the last time we'll be able to do that for a couple of years:)

Tommy and Daddy

I am grateful that Tommy and Ben love to play together so much. I love my little boy, but usually by about 5:00 I am ready for a break. Ben always answers Tommy's innocent question, "You all done with dinner? You come upstairs play with me?" with a, "Yes, Tommy, let's go play." So cute. I love my boys.

Playing in their fort.

Being cool together.

Painting.  You gotta love the smocks.

Playing "Fox in Socks Box".

Wrestling and Giving Loves.

Gentle, Loving, Energetic, and Sometimes Violent

Those are some adjectives that I think fit Tommy pretty well. He is so sweet most of the time. He loves hugs and tickles. He loves to pet Wrinkles and tuck him into bed. He loves to see babies at church and at the store. I have often heard Tommy described as "big, but gentle."

On the other hand, he has a ton of energy and he often goes a little crazy between dinner and bedtime. Ben does a great job wrestling with Tommy or taking him in the backyard to run around and play. Our boy loves the park more than anything and would probably live there if he could.

I made a little video comprised of four different clips of Tommy to illustrate this dual nature. He is such a fun little boy and we love him so much.

Tommy is also very organized. He loves to line things up straight. Here is a video of him helping me organize my pantry.

Perfect Tranquility

Isn't that a scene that just melts your heart? I had to wake up Tommy early from his nap last week and this is what I walked into. He is such a little angel.
Often when I tell Tommy we are going in the car he gathers every toy he can possibly hold and brings them with us. I think this time he had Wrinkles, a bag of snacks, his fire truck, and about three other cars. Once he gets in the car he loses interest in most of it, but I think it's cute that he tries to plan ahead.
I gave Tommy a hair cut this week. The picture above is before and the picture below is after. I totally buzzed him! He looks much older with the new 'do', don't you think? I was so sad to see his curly locks go down the drain, but I know they will be back soon:)

A New Hobby

Tommy and I have discovered that we love to paint together! I was always so afraid of the mess painting makes that I completely avoided it. Coloring with crayons is sometimes a stretch for me! But, I have found that we love painting together and he is really good at keeping somewhat clean. I wouldn't have known if we hadn't tried!

We painted for Family Home Evening this week. Ben made a beautiful desert sunset. Tommy played with his paints more than he actually painted.

Tommy and I "finger painted" last week when it was too cold to go outside. We had an Arizona snow day! (It was a blustery 40 degrees or so out there:) It was mostly Tommy eating pudding and smearing some on his paper. We had a delicious time together!

A Few Things About Tommy

Tommy has been doing so many cute things lately I feel like I need to keep a record of all these fun stories before I forget them. He had his 18-month checkup with the doctor today and he again blew the doctor away with how big he his. The doctor seemed proud to state that Tommy is the size of an average 3 1/2 year-old. He weighed in at almost 33 pounds and measured almost 37 inches tall. Good job, little guy.

He learns a new word almost daily. Lately he has been saying "No" a lot. At least it wasn't his first word! He is pretty good at saying "No, don't touch". He learned how to nod his head "Yes" just yesterday. It's kind of a whole body thing right now. He's been shaking his head "No" for months so it's nice that he can finally give me some positive affirmation, too.

Tommy's favorite video is our wedding video. He loves to see Mommy and Daddy on the big screen. He also loves to watch videos of himself and to look at past blog posts. His favorite songs are currently "Itsy-Bitsy Spider," "Once There Was a Snowman," "Popcorn Popping," and "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes." He does the actions to let us know which song he wants to sing.

One of our new Sunday morning rituals is perusing the newspaper together for pictures of cars. He loves to get his hands on the "Cars" section of the newspaper, find a comfortable place to sit, and browse the cars and trucks listed. Sometimes we even cut out the pictures and paste them on another piece of paper for him to carry around.
The weather here has been amazing lately! I think it was over 80 degrees today. We spend a lot of time outside in the backyard and at the park. Yesterday I was doing some weeding and raking to get the garden ready for planting in February. Tommy thought it was fun to put dirt on the cement and then help Daddy sweep it away. Then he got bored with that and put the dirt on his head. Needless to say, he got a bath after that:)
Another one of Tommy's favorite games is with the blocks you see pictured below. Sometimes he stacks them, more often he throws them, but lately he has pretended to eat them. This all started last week when he found a picture of some gum balls in the newspaper. He put his mouth on them and drooled and I laughed so hard he did it again and again. Pretty soon he was pretending to eat all of the pictures. Then I did it with the blocks because some of them have pictures of food on them. Now he indiscriminately eats whatever picture he wants to on the blocks and makes loud smacking noises with his mouth while he "chews". Don't worry, he shares with Wrinkles.
Ben and I went on a morning date yesterday since he had the day off. We went to a little place in downtown Phoenix called Matt's Big Breakfast and it was amazing. We both agree it was the best dining experience we have had since being married. The place is a little hole-in-the-wall mom-and-pop restaurant where we had to wait 30 minutes just to get seated (at 9:00am). The wait was well worth it. The food was incredible. I hope to go again soon.

November and December 2010 (excluding Thanksgiving and Christmas)

November and December have been very busy months, but hey have been great. We've been able to get outside a lot to play in the great weather and we have stayed home to hang out a lot, too.
Here is Tommy hanging out, watching his movie. He doesn't often just sit and watch a movie, but once in awhile he gets in the mood. I let him just sit back and relax since it gives me some time to relax or get some extra work done. I love this picture because he's eating his snack off his belly like a pregnant lady.
Tommy loves his cars more and more each day. He has recently started lining them up in rows and he gets a big thrill out of it. Sometimes he lines them up bumper-to-bumper (like above) and sometimes he gets more satisfaction when they are lined up side-to-side. He does actually play with the cars sometimes, but most of the time he enjoys lining them up on the TV, on the stairs, on the piano bench, or on the window sill. He's cute. I don't know where he learned to do this or if it's just a developmental thing like stacking. Either way, it's cute and he loves it.
We were privileged to enjoy a visit from Uncle Carson early in November. He was in Phoenix with some friends for a seminar so he stopped by. I only wish he could have stayed longer! We got to spend the afternoon talking and shopping at Walmart. We bought a Reeses' cake at Walmart that was truly delicious, although it wasn't nearly as peanut-buttery as I expected it to be. We love you, Carson, and we hope you come back to see us soon!
This is Tommy feeding Carson some cake. You know they are real buddies now.
Ben, myself, Carson, and Tommy. I don't know why Tommy has his mouth wide open.

We love to play outside in our backyard. On this day Tommy got the giggles because Ben kept throwing the ball on the ground really hard. Baby giggles are so infectious!

This is one of my all-time favorite family photos. It was taken the day after Christmas and I think we all look quite smashing.

Tommy loves to sit on the potty! Hopefully this means he'll be ready to potty-train sooner than later and that it will go easily. He begs me to sit on the potty and he can stay there for 30 minutes at a time. He'll use an entire roll of toilet paper to "wipe his bum," but I don't care. The other day Tommy even potty-trained his big stuffed monkey. He wanted a diaper put on the monkey, so Daddy did that, and then Tommy took the diaper off and promptly carried Monkey to the potty. Hopefully he'll follow in Monkey's footsteps soon!

This is a cute video of Tommy playing outside with Mommy. He also does some cute animal sounds and is generally a showoff.

Last, but not least, my most awesome haul this month. I paid $9.07 for all that. Yeah, baby!

September - October in Review

September and October were such busy months! After we got home from Denver Ben left on a business trip to Portland for about five days. While he was gone I bought lots of stuff for our home and started painting Tommy's bathroom (three months later and I still haven't finished it). We also enjoyed visits from Uncle Wes and Grammy Ward. The pictures and videos tell it best:

Tommy dining with his monkey on the new table I bought him from IKEA.

Uncle Wes tickling Tommy. Wes mastered the art of tickling after practicing for years on me!

Tommy giving his doggies a ride and insisting that they both be on the lion together.

Making cookies with Grammy.

Helping Mommy stir the cookie dough.

Four of Tommy's favorite things all at once: snuggling, drinking juice, hugging Wrinkles, and reading

Tommy making sure Monkey is reading on grade-level.

Tommy helping Mommy make more cookies.

Daddy and Tommy reading in their cool fort.

Tommy loves to steal my slippers. He even gets mad sometimes when he sees me wearing them.

Swinging at a park in Estrella. Life is good swingin' with Mr. Wrinkles.

This is a video of our darling boy playing peekaboo with his apple.

Here are Tommy and Daddy having a pillow fight.

This is Tommy feeding Mommy pizza. Yum!

And last, but not least, Tommy giving Wrinkles the love that he deserves.