Thomas has turned into quite the independent little guy. If there is something he can do himself, he almost always demands that you let him. I can rarely help him pull on his underwear, get his shirt over his head at bed time, or even push in the stool under the sink which he stands on to wash his hands (he thinks he can do it… but the board is not the right size and he inevitably pushes it in crooked, causing the board to bind in awkward ways that are painful to resolve).

Of course, there are times when he is totally the opposite, and he asks me to feed him his oatmeal rather than using his spoon himself. But that is tangential to the recent humor.

The same holds true for all things spoken. The boy has more nicknames than I can list, but refuses to accept one particular nickname. Here’s how the conversation usually goes.

Lisa: “You’re my cute little man!”
Thomas: “I not Little Man, I’m Buddy!” (Intensity grows with repetition.)

A little back story to what he said the other day. I promise to be brief. Thomas gets a fluoride vitamin each morning, and if he hasn’t been given it by the time Mommy takes her pills he starts asking for it. But Mommy takes pills, and he has a vitamin.

As we were packing everything up in Anaheim for the drive home, Thomas was being a bit of a pain. So, Lisa told him so.

Lisa: “Thomas, you are a pill.”
Thomas: “I not a pill, I’m a vitamin!”

As for the kids, Thomas is growing up fast. He’s three now, which is insane! He still isn’t potty trained, but we’re slowly working on it. He’s one of the most polite boys I know. Whenever he burps or toots, he says, “Excuse me.” And he says “Thank you” and “You’re welcome” all the time. He still loves to laugh and jump around. He’s very good at jumping on people without them knowing. And let me say, that can hurt.

And Abby is 11 months old now. She’s starting to walk with help, which is a lot of fun. She babbles all the time. She can wave “bye bye” on command and she holds out her hand in imitation when we sign “I love you” to her. She has 7 teeth with another on the way. She’s adorable and I just can’t get enough of her.

Ben got to go to England last month on business. He came back with some wonderful memories and some beautiful pictures. He also brought me a love spoon, some love spoon earrings, and a Celtic knot necklace. He brought Thomas some Welsh salt and pepper shakers (because he’s obsessed with the things right now) that he’ll get when he’s a little older. And for Abby, he brought back a small love spoon. He did a good job with the souvenirs.

I’ve been having fun with my cake decorating. I made Thomas a Thomas the Train cake for his birthday. It was a lot of fun, but didn’t turn out exactly as I planned. I was sick at the time, so wasn’t able to spend as much time on it as I wanted. I’m also making lots of fun bracelets and earrings. Right now I’m working on updating our stockings. I made really cute stockings, but they were very small. We used them the last 2 years, but it’s finally time to redo them. It’s a big project, but one that I highly enjoy.

So, that’s the update. More to come later.

The next day we just hung out, went to the beach, and watched the BYU game. Thomas loved the beach. He was shaking like a leaf because he was so cold, but he just had to get back in the water! We didn’t take Abby to the water, even though she was in her swimming suit. She was really tired and I didn’t want her to get freezing, too.

We went to church on Sunday morning and discovered the ward we chose was actually a Spanish branch. It was hilarious. We stayed, though, because we didn’t want to come back and they were translating it into head sets. We also went to the temple and walked around the grounds. Then we went to Seal Beach. It’s a beach where they built a wall to stop the gigantic waves from getting to so there would be a safe place for kids to play. Well, the seals knew a good thing when they saw it and took over. It was really neat to see all the seals on the beach.

Monday was Sea World. We had a lot of fun, but I don’t think the kids understood it very well. I was upset that all of the dolphin stuff was closed because dolphins are my favorite sea animal.

Tuesday we went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. We got there really late, so only had a chance to take the Africa tour. It was a lot of fun, but the kids were rather cranky. Especially Molly. She screamed the last 10 minutes or so. So, it felt like a wasted trip, especially since it’s forever away. Oh well, I’m still glad we went.

After we got back to the hotel, Ben and I had our date night. We went to this mom and pop Mexican restaurant called El Patio. It was really good. Then we went swimming. It was so nice to be able to just relax. Thanks for watching our kids, Ben and Amanda.

Wednesday, Amanda and Ben talked us in to going to Disneyland. It was a lot of fun and I know Thomas loved it. His favorite rides were Dumbo and the carousel. We did the adult swap thing for Indiana Jones and it was nice to be able to do a grown up ride. I think my favorite thing we did was Pirates. It was fun to have the kids with us and see the amazement on their faces. Thomas especially loved it. After he got off almost every ride, he bawled because he wanted to get back on so much.

I lost my hat on Mr. Toad’s Wild ride, so we had to stay until the park closed before they would go in and look for it. It was fine, though, because it let Thomas ride the carousel and Dumbo one more time before the park closed. I was so excited they found it. It was my BYU hat and I would’ve been sad to lose it.

Thursday we went to the Zoo. Ben and Amanda left pretty soon after we got there because their kids were so tired. We stayed until closing and got a caricature done. Ben and I had gotten one done when we went there on our honeymoon, so we thought it would be fun to do whenever we went back. The new one isn’t nearly as good as our first one, but it’s fun to have the kids in it. When we got home, Ben and Amanda went on their date. I feel bad because they had to do a lot more for their kids on their date night than we did for ours. I hate it when things take longer than you intend.

And Friday, we drove home. We stopped in St. George so we could go to Durango Mexican Grill. I love that place and it’s only in St. George now. The ones up here closed. We got home around 11 and left the car packed until Saturday.

All in all, it was a great trip, though having to sleep with the kids in our room took it’s toll on me. I got little-to-no sleep all week. Abby woke up at least 3 times a night and sometimes up to 5. It was terrible. Anyway, good trip, but I’m glad to be home.

(Sorry for the epic. I didn’t think it would be that long.)

Cute moment for the day. :)

So, we’re trying to get things done before we head down to San Diego. We put way too much off and are now suffering the consequences. We have a lot to do in a very short amount of time. But the time away will be worth it, I think. I just hope the kids are good for us.

I went to the doctor and got some new medication on Tuesday and I had a major reaction to it that night. I was throwing up and nauseous. I had the chills, shakes, and I felt like my skin was burning. Needless to say, I got only 3 hours of sleep that night. I had those symptoms for a few days. Then, my kids got sick. So, I was dealing with prescription issues and sick kids on little-to-no sleep. It was a very hard week. But I have a wonderful husband who stayed home and helped me Wednesday, which was the best thing ever. He’s been such a trooper this week.

On a good note, Lisa is moving in tomorrow. It’s going to be so nice having her here. I’ve missed her so much!

So, for a small family vacation, we went camping at Trial Lake, a family favorite. We took the kids with us for one night and my wonderful mom came and got them so we could stay a second night without them. And I am so glad she did! That first night was pretty bad. It gets really cold up there, so I decided it would be best for the kids to sleep with us. It worked pretty well with Thomas, surprisingly, but Abby was different. She woke up every half hour at least. It was really hard. By 4:15, Thomas had been woken up by her and wouldn’t go back to sleep. We stayed in the tent until 6, then got up and went down to look at the lake. It was gorgeous! There was at least 10 feet of mist hanging over it. I’ve never seen it like that before. Probably because I’ve never been awake that early before.

Before I forget, I have to tell a funny story. We had taken our pack ‘n play with us so Abby would have a clean place to play. Well, we didn’t count on Thomas. He decided it would be fun to throw dirt in it and all over Abby. So, while I was setting up our sleeping bags, etc. inside the tent, I hear a scream from Abby. I go out and see Thomas flinging dirt on her through the pack ‘n play. Anyway here’s a picture of the damage.

Notice how dirty her hair and arms are. It was actually really hard not to laugh because she was so covered in dirt.

Anyway, after the kids left, Ben and I got to go fishing. We had bought new poles and tackle and were excited to use them. The first time out on the lake was a disaster. We had major line issues. The lines kept getting tangled and there were pole malfunctions, etc. But we went out around dinner time when the fish are starting to eat and within 30 minutes, we had caught 3! I caught 2 and Ben caught 1. Ben’s was the biggest. It was so fun to actually catch something! And our new poles were great!

So, after all was said and done, it was a successful trip, even though I slept for 3 days straight after. Or, at least I wanted to.

Amazingly enough, no one was seriously injured. Both of the kids’ carseats worked flawlessly and both Ben and I were in our seat belts. Ben had a few cuts here and there and there was only 1 scratch on each of the kids. I was the one that got seriously injured. I was in quite a bit of pain from a seat belt burn on my neck. I also bruised my left breast pretty badly. My leg was also a bit bruised just below my knee and I got some cuts and glass in my feet. We’ve taken pictures of my injuries and the car. Go here to see them: Farewell Nymphadora

But here’s a preview of the car.

We were very lucky. We had a lot of protection, I know! After we rolled, my first thought was for the kids. I looked back and saw Thomas hanging from his carseat crying really hard. I reached back and managed to get him out while Ben got Abby. It was so weird to be laying on the ceiling. I had a lot of blood on my face, so I had most of the attention of the EMTs and people who stopped to help us. About 5 people stopped to help and one of them was a member of the gold cross, so he checked us over and made sure everything was ok. I’m really glad that nothing worse happened. It easily could have. Thank goodness our carseats worked perfectly and we were wearing our seat belts!

The worst thing is that we just payed off the car not 2 weeks before the accident. So, we enjoyed no car payments for not very long. We now have a Toyota Sienna van and we’re enjoying it a lot. I still miss our Avalon, though.

Thomas woke up that night from a nightmare. He said, “Car,” as he and Ben were walking to the tv. Then as they were watching George to calm Thomas down, he said, “Car broken!” He’d been saying that all night. Poor little kid. He’s been saying “Car broken!” ever since, but now there’s a new addendum. He says, “Car broken. New van!” It’s actually really cute. But we’re wondering when he’s going to forget that the car was broken and move on. It will probably be a while.

So, there you are. That’s our story. It’s a sad one.

Weirdest thing. Both my cousin and one of Ben’s coworkers passed us on the freeway. In fact, my cousin was right behind the ambulance as it pulled out with me, Thomas, and Abby inside. And I found out on Saturday that my great uncle was also driving by when it happened. Small world.

Today has been filled with excitement so far. We invited Richard and Sariah over for dinner last night. We had Hawaiian Haystacks — Laura makes a mean batch. Anyway, after dinner, we decided to watch some of the BBC Pride and Prejudice on Blu-ray (it looks and sounds SO much better than the DVD — maybe the most striking difference I have yet observed when comparing. However, Sleeping Beauty also looks much better…). We were watching the 3rd episode, and were about halfway in when Sariah said “I don’t know what that was, but I need to find a bathroom.” My first thought was “I wonder if her water just broke.”

Sure enough.

About 10 minutes later they were on their way to the hospital, the end result being the birth of Caleb Merrill Bateman this morning at 7:01. I’ll let them cover the rest of the details. While I’m not exactly sure I’d want my birthday to be the 4th of July, at least Caleb won’t have to worry about taking his birthday off of work when he’s older!

Being the 4th of July, we came up Laura’s parents’ house so we can go watch the fireworks at Sugarhouse Park tonight; apparently, this may be the last year they do the fireworks, so the end of a bi-annual tradition. Before coming up, I was talking with Thomas about haircuts, and he said he wanted “haircut today.” Of course, he didn’t really mean that — he passionately despises haircuts — but that didn’t stop me from giving him one. So, we plopped him down in his booster, strapped him in, and put him in front of Signing Time on the TV as a bit of a distraction. He fought and screamed until I started, but then he calmed down when I turned on the clippers. For about the first 60% of the haircut, he was fine. Then he started whining, moaning, squirming. Then he started vehemently struggling for freedom.

Remember the story of the first haircut? How we cut his ear? And remember how his ear got cut when we took him to Cookie Cutters too? Well, his ear got cut this time, too. Both of them, as usual.

I have a theory. Thomas is young, with very soft skin. So, there’s strike one. Also, when he screams and fights, his face gets bright red. Well, everyone’s does. So you combine the two things, and you have soft skin with a lot of extra blood in it = extra blood pressure = easier to cut, and when it does cut much easier to bleed. The cut on his right ear bled so badly that it was dripping onto his shoulder, legs, etc. I took him in to have a bath, and when he saw some blood drip onto his arms and leg he absolutely flipped out. Screams of pure terror! So, I washed him off, put him in the tub, and put in some bubbles so he wouldn’t see how the drips of blood kept discoloring the water. After a couple minutes of bath he calmed down, his ears stopped bleeding, and he is good as new. You can barely tell he was cut. As always, Thomas looks about a year older now that his hair has been cut.

So, there’s our day so far. Hopefully the rest of the day isn’t quite as exciting…

Thomas has taken to pointing out various bodily functions with great insistence. Specifically those related to the digestive system. Even more specifically those involving his bum. Or Abby’s bum. It doesn’t really matter whose bum, really. Whenever Thomas passes gas, he looks up, smiles, and says enthusiastically, “I toot!” (“Thomas toot!” is used interchangeably.) And he will continue to say it until you respond in acknowledgment. If Abby passes gas, he says “Abby toot!” And of course, if he is poopy or thinks Abby is poopy, he’ll say “Thomas (Abby) poopy!”

Funnily enough, he was saying “Abby poopy” this morning, and neither Laura nor I thought she was. Well, apparently Thomas’ nose is more sensitive than ours. I guess his plentiful toots haven’t permanently destroyed his ability to smell like it has mine!