“Daddy’s Here!”
Posted on June 27th, 2009 by Ben
Okay, I realize this is not about our accident (sorry Pat, Laura has already written it once so I keep waiting for her to at least put a draft up here for me to work on rather than reinventing the wheel). However, it is about something very cute. Okay, two very cute somethings. I couldn’t resist writing about them, because they both tickled me.
Thomas can’t wait for Daddy to come home from work. When I get home from work, he usually screams “Daddy!” excitedly, and often runs to give me a hug as well. It’s very cute. A few days ago, however, he did something even cuter. As soon as I opened the door when I got home from work, Thomas yelled “Daddy’s here!” Needless to say he got a giant smile in response and some enthusiastic hugs and kisses.
Today he did another cute thing. This is not uncommon for him — he is, after all, always adorable. One of the things I have done several times with Thomas in the past is put my fingers under his bedroom door in the morning when he is wanting out. I have done this frequently for about a year now, or close to it. I’ll put my fingers under the door, he grabs them and giggles, and I pull my fingers out. Then he pushes his little fingers under the door, I grab them, he giggles again and pulls them back. Repeat. This morning the routine proceeded as usual for the first round — I got his fingers, and he giggled and pulled them back in. But when I put mine under the door again, he didn’t grab them again. Instead, he yelled “Come in!” How could I resist?
Other examples of cute, short sentences he’ll use at will: “Come on!” (usually accompanied by grabbing a finger and pulling one towards whatever it is he wants — a treat, the door, etc.) and “Come back!” Aside for these, he has also recently (last month or so) picked up on possessives and plurals: “Two’vum!” (Two of them!), “Mommy’s shoes!”, “My blankets!”, “Abby’s blanket!”, “Daddy’s motorcycle!”
Now we just need to find a way to get him to stop saying “No!” so much…
Where’s my food?
Posted on June 14th, 2009 by Ben
Abby turns 6 months old tomorrow. You know what that means: time for real food! Well, fine, maybe not “real” food at first, unless you consider rice cereal real food… I certainly don’t. But by the end of the week we will probably have her on pears and introducing new things every couple of days.
Tonight during dinner she was getting fussy about sitting all alone on the floor in her bouncer, so we broke out the high chair in preparation for tomorrow and her initiation into the world of solid food (again, not really solid, unless you consider mush and smashed pears solid… which I don’t). As happy as she was to get up with everybody else, she was highly put out with us when she discovered that we were getting her all ready for food, but not actually giving her any. See for yourself!
Line up!
Posted on June 12th, 2009 by Ben
So, this is nothing new, but nothing has been posted in a long time and I am suddenly feeling guilty.
Once upon a day, Thomas and Daddy were playing on the floor. Now, you may be aware of the fact that Thomas absolutely loves toy cars. You may be further aware of the fact that he has about a million of them. But I could be wrong, it may be many more.
Now, on this fine day, Daddy decided to line up a few cars next to each other. The line so straight, the curves so non-existent. Yes, this was a fine line. The play session continued, and Daddy thought nothing more of the line he had made.
Until the next day.
You see, Thomas has a mind like a steel trap. There is an ancient Uzbekistanian saying, “El elephánte remembrár etérna,” which translates roughly into “An elephant never forgets” — if the Uzbekistanians had known Thomas, that saying may well be different. The next day, Thomas lined up his cars again. But he did not stop there; no, he lined up all of his toys, side by side, trying to set a record for the longest line created by a two-year-old. And it continues to this day.
I was reminded most poignantly of this last night, as I browed through our photo gallery and stumbled upon several prime examples of this most cute behavior of his. And so, dear reader, I present for your enjoyment a collection of Thomas Trails. As you view these, keep in mind that the initial example was months (6 or so) ago, and there was no repeat performance. Also notice his conscious use of space and direction — in each row, every vehicle is pointed in the same direction, and his food is likewise consistently arranged.
This is why one must always be careful what one says (or does) around their child.
Milestones
Posted on February 23rd, 2009 by Laura
Abby started smiling on Thursday. We were eating dinner and I looked down at her in her bouncer. She was so cute and I told her so. She grinned at me! It was so cute! I got her to do it 2 more times that night. But, of course, once we started documenting it on film, she stopped. So, this is the first recorded “real” smile from Abby. There are 3 more on the gallery here: Abby’s Gallery Page
Lots of New News
Posted on February 15th, 2009 by Laura
It’s been a while since I updated and quite a few things have happened. First off, we blessed Abigail on February 1st. It was a beautiful day, even though it had snowed the day before. We had a lot of cleaning to do to get ready for the family to come over after the blessing and so by Sunday, we were exhuasted. Abby looked gorgeous, though. She wore the dress that I was blessed in, which was so much fun! She didn’t cry at all during the blessing, thankfully, and the blessing was absolutely beautiful. Family came over afterward and we had some muffins and fruit and such. It got pretty crowded here for a while, but it was a lot of fun. Here’s a picture of Abby in her blessing dress, taken after the blessing.
So, that was a good day. Then, we all got sick. Thomas caught it first, then I did, then Ben, and last, Abby. It’s very sad to hear her little cough. She’s pretty miserable and I’m not doing much better. So, one day while I was resting, Thomas decided to get into our spices. He made quite the mess!
Just one more fun thing to add to my “to-do list” while I’m sick. Oh well, it’s rather funny now.
And one more thing. We got the blinds in our living room put up. It’s so much better now! See!
A few updates
Posted on January 27th, 2009 by Laura
We had a lovely incident yesterday. Thomas was watching Thomas and Friends and, of course, he was a little too close to the tv. We have a little table for Thomas that he loves to play with and it was also too close to the tv. He was climbing on the table and it slipped out from under him, causing him to hit his head against the edge of the entertainment center. It took over an hour and half to calm him down with multiple rides in the car. He was rather traumatized. Here’s a picture of the results. It looks a lot worse today because it’s all scabbed and such. It was pretty hard to look at it, though.
So, that’s a sad thing. Today a good thing happened. Ben installed some blinds in our kitchen! It looks so much better now. Here’s some pics.
Thomas’ Grapes
Posted on January 14th, 2009 by Laura
So, I went to my mom’s house on Monday for dinner. We had bbq chicken, corn, baked potatoes, yams, and grapes. It was a good dinner and Thomas ate quite a bit. He especially loved the grapes. He asked for more at one point and we gave him a bunch. Well, we got into a conversation and weren’t noticing what Thomas was doing. Then my sister, Lisa, looked over at Thomas and asked, “Thomas, what did you do?” He had bitten off half of all of the grapes and left the other half on the stem. It was so funny! Here was a stem full of half-eaten grapes! My mom took a picture.
It’s hard to tell, but the bottom grapes are indeed bitten in half, too.
“What could be worse than being the bishop?”
Posted on January 13th, 2009 by Ben
Unfortunately, the people who would truly get that joke will probably never read this, but it’s funny to me!
Sunday as I was getting ready for church I got a call from the bishopric: “can you meet with me 5 minutes before church?” You know what is coming when that happens. I wasn’t able to make it before church (still had to get Thomas ready), so I met with Bro. Shumway after the block.
I got called to be as Webelos leader.
Okay, technically I got called as a co-leader with a member from the 2nd Ward. Neither of our wards has enough kids, so we’re combined. I didn’t think I would be getting a calling in the scouts anytime soon, but apparently I was wrong. I’m a bit overwhelmed and lost at this point, but I haven’t been set apart or been given any information (aside from the calling and the name of my co-leader), so I guess that’s not unexpected. And it’s nice that I have a couple brothers who’ve served in scouts (one as the Webelos leader) so they can give me some direction and help me feel a little less overwhelmed, they’ve been helpful already.
Well, I’ve never turned down a calling before, so that’s that. This will be an adventure!
Hairbrained
Posted on January 3rd, 2009 by Ben
Yes, I know it is harebrained, but that simply isn’t applicable in this instance. And what kind of English major would I be if I couldn’t create and pass off my own words? Honestly.
One of my cousin’s blog posts reminded me of cutting Thomas’ hair, and while leaving a comment on her blog, it turned out to be a little bit long so I decided to turn it into a full-fledged blog post of its own. Thomas doesn’t mind the clippers when Daddy is getting a hair cut, he’ll just run around yelling ‘hair!’ But once it is his turn, he gets violent!
So, a few weeks ago we gave Thomas a haircut (he hadn’t had one in about 5 or 6 months, so it was definitely time), right after Laura finished giving me one (thinking that since I just had it done, he would be okay with it… pipe dream, I know). The entire time, he screamed at the top of his lungs, thrashing, squirming, and I had to hold him like a vice. I’d hold one arm around his body to keep his arms from entering single combat with the clippers (or Mommy), and the other I would wrap around his forehead to hold it in place. Traumatic for the little guy? Quite possibly.
Then a few hours later, after he was bathed and cleaned up all nice, we noticed a red mark under his now-short hair, some red on his shoulder, and he had a red mark on his forehead. Then I noticed the red on his arm was shaped strangely like my fingers. I told you he thrashed! He’s not exactly a weak kid. Traumatic for Mommy? Absolutely.
Laura is determined that next time Thomas needs a haircut, we are taking him somewhere and getting someone else to do it. And hopefully he’ll be a better boy, and we can see what they do that we didn’t (if he IS a better boy) so we can repeat the performance.
Oh, and we also managed to nick his ear and neck a bit, so he was bleeding as we finished up the haircut. But both of those were done bleeding (and didn’t scab) by the time he got out of the bath tub, so you couldn’t tell anything had happened (aside from his pockmarked appearance).
Upon seeing the fruits of our labor, Laura lamented “if anyone saw Thomas now, they’d think we beat him.” On the up side, he looks fabulous with his hair cut, just like a junior adult.
Abigail: 2 weeks later
Posted on December 29th, 2008 by Ben
Abigail just had her two week check-up. Here is a quick overview of her stats.
Weight: 7 lbs 6 oz. That’s up 8 oz from her birth weight, and probably about a pound from when we left the hospital (like most babies, she lost some weight in the hospital after birth — we never got a final figure, but when they first measured her again she was down to 6 lbs 10 oz).
Length: 20 inches. There’s an inch for you since birth.
She is doing very well. The only real down-side to the appointment is that it seems Abby has colic. She tends to get fussy at night for a few hours, crying and whining a lot and not much we do seems to console her. Laura was originally thinking that Abby didn’t like Laura eating chocolate and that she was going to have to stop until Abby is done breastfeeding. But once the doctor said colic, it seemed to explain everything. So, Laura is back to eating chocolate again (though sparingly). Which is nice, because now I can eat chocolate myself without her moping about it.
And what good would an update be without a new picture! Here’s one from the day before her check-up.
