Second year Thomas

Oh Thomas. How our baby is 2 years old on Thursday, we have yet to figure out. He has so drastically changed our lives that it's nearly impossible to recall the previous version of this family.

Thomas is an avid modeler; currently Jacob is 'reading' a DVD case while lying on the floor, so you'd better  believe Thomas grabbed a DVD and is nestled on the floor right next to his brother 'reading'. Most toddlers learn via modeling but Thomas appears to soak up every detail, then reenact the task perfectly (Jacob, on the other hand, was too busy trying to make people laugh and didn't start detail mimicking until about last year at this time).

(Mosty mos is the red shirted kid down on the right front, hanging with Jacob and his friends from school)

Since last birthday, Thomas has evolved into an impressive though generally slowish eater. Around 14 months old, food seemed to actual begin appealing to him and when he is well, he can't get enough. His all time favorites are pretzels, popcorn, pasta (hello carb kid), along with all vegetables minus tubers, and fruit smoothies. He continues to need dairy-free, be picky with meats, and requires absolutely no peanuts (yet tree nuts are fine...huh).

 

Have I mentioned he has a mean sweet tooth? (And finally got his first full-head haircut about 2 weeks ago to minimize the low humidity-induced fuzzy fro.)

His vocabulary is hilarious. He has followed an interesting learning path with speech and didn't start caring about nouns until about 3 months ago. His interest has been in the inflection and number of syllables; after mastering those details in a phrase, he then moves on to articulate the individual words.  -And he finally calls Jacob something- either baydub or waydub depending on which consonant emerges!

His current Thomas-isms include:
-constantly asking "Why?" to me, Daniel, his teachers at school, anyone who makes eye-contact with him while he has a question, etc.
-demanding we wake-up when he does in the morning by declaring "No sleeping, all done mommy, Up" or just repeating loudly, "Eat! Eat, mommy!"
-With an accompanying hand gesture, instructs others to "come on" when they are desired by Thomas (or if Jacob is falling behind)

From the Christmas pageant last weekend at church: our Donkey and little star- who stole the show by wandering around and pointing at 'baby Jesus' the WHOLE time.

  -Sliding a chair across the kitchen, up to the counter, then standing in it to ask, "what you cooking, mommy/daddy?" This is usually followed by extra spoons, fingers, spatulas, cars getting shoved into whatever is being prepared/cooked as Thomas offers his (adorable) help

Thomas continues to be fascinated by trains (no, he doesn't really know about Thomas the train yet) and cars, simple tools, musical instruments, books, and very recently fell in love with puzzles.

He is our cuddler, our yeller, our inquisitive engineer, and our little brave firecracker. We love this boy yesterday, today, and all of tomorrows.

Mos Jam

More to come soon;  there should be a 2 year old update for Thomas so very soon!

Halloween

Here in Winston-Salem, we had a fun Halloween with loads of smiles, treats, and wheezing. We visited 10 houses plus a bonus house (to Jacob, this makes it sound like a much bigger deal than saying we went to 11 houses). 

 Happy astronaut and strapping firefighter. And these are the best photos from the night as I fumbled with a flash issue...

 Figuring out which treat to taste first!

  True happiness. 

As a kid, I know I felt the same way...as a parent, I wish candy didn't matter so much.

 But, to his defense, Jacob ate 1 piece of candy after touching, sorting, and counting his pumpkin basket of loot. Thomas, though carried from house to house, was adamant about walking up to a door and then copying exactly what Jacob did. If Jacob picked 2 candies, Thomas picked 2; if Jacob looked at a bug on the ground, Thomas looked (for) at the bug on the ground.  

Thomas then attempted to eat his candies on the ride home with the paper on it. It seems that Mos has a strong sweet tooth paired with little willingness to be redirected to other foods, activities, etc. Seems that we found a place where Thomas is just pretty downright normal!

Fall fun

October started with us in Raleigh for a baby shower for Steven and Chase Fuller (and obviously their baby Fuller). Aside from loving the cookies at the sweet cookies'n milk shower, Thomas and Jacob rode in 'Herbie' with Papaw! The squeals, grins, and laughter was so precious.

The kiddos then found the phone booth and Thomas got a kick out of pulling Daniel in with him. I aimed to get one of face smush pictures, but Thomas stopped mashing his face into the glass every time the camera emerged... of course.

Daniel's photo skills. 

We have 3 large trees in the front yard showering us with a rainbow of leaves- hourly. The first pile for playing-in was a few weeks. Clearly, Thomas would take a bit of convincing.

He'd rather patrol their falling on motorcycle. And notice the leaves; I had raked the day before. And yes, that's a flowering but fruitless pumpkin vine he's running over.

And then there was a fun Halloween party at school. Thomas was really struggling with his asthma, but managed a game and a treat (yay pretzels and fruit snacks for dairy and peanut free!).

And though we had to exit the party a bit early and have some Thomas calm down/nurse/breathe time in the car before actually buckling up, Astronaut Jacob was pleased with his treats, games, and candy!

Gallagher time!

We have been so fortunate to have the Gallagher family in our lives. Daniel has known Pat and Vicki for decades now (that's sorta nuts) and Daniel even lived his senior yr of high school with they and their kiddos (now young adults), Molly and Danny. They were amazing. Can you imagine having a teenage boy with a girlfriend come live with your family (young, impressionable kids included in the mix) for a year? As tame as teenage Daniel was, that is still a favor full of generous patience, respect, and love.
Obviously, the Gallagher crew is an important family to our family. Last weekend, we were so thrilled to join them at Lake Gaston.  Honestly, the weather was heavenly. The location was incredible. And the company was just right (though we hope to see more of Molly- busy senior girl that she is).

 Jacob did indeed try to drop the motor after this picture (lesson learned: never let a mario-race loving 4.5 yr old "drive"anything with a motor).

 Thomas snuggling with Ms Vicki- in between yelling "hi Danny" as Danny tagged along on a Jet ski nearby.

Big boy.

 Jacob rather surprised us with his intense interest in water play; we may be over the hump of fear about water near his ears/in his face. Yay Jacob!

 What a beautiful view.

 They totally were not in trouble. They just needed space.

No offense vegetarian friends, but clearly bacon makes the best pillow for the car (yes the pillow is bacon-shaped and declares "I'm bacon" when pressed up top.

Jacob got to ride a jet ski; they topped-out at 34 mph. Scary (and  awesome).

 

Quality is awful, but Thomas got a spin with Daddy, too. They hit 17mph and Thomas showed absolutely NO expression. But we've heard nothing but "booooaaaattt" all week long.

Totally unrelated: Angry bird graham crackers and hot chocolate for dessert make little boys very happy.

Finally Fall

As the leaves change (these East Coast leaves change faster and more vibrantly than I remember), the boys continue to crack-us up.

Currently T-mos' eczema is under control, so he got to enjoy his first bubble bath with Jacob!

And Jacob quickly taught Thomas to put the bubbles on chis chin as a beard- in order to look like Uncle Dana! 

The weather is changing a bit, but some things don't change. Such as Jacob's precious displays of type A personality. Exhibit A is his breakfast that he had to eat "in order".

 

We've had our first germ of the fall in this house and no hospital trips.Wooohooo! That puts us past the 10 month mark. And we're gonna go see an allergist for Thomas within the next. Another woohoo!

And now for a song from Thomas, Jacob, and the Laurie Berkner band. (Thomas is obsessed).

Summer-time wind down

Any given Sunday afternoon in this house. 

Last week, we visited the Asheboro zoo. The boys truly loved it (as did Daniel and I- it had been nearly a decade since we'd been!)

 

Both boys happily hatching with the dino's.

And both boys zonked out within minutes of starting the car (Jacob impressively passed-out first). 

Our garage box-boat. Everyday it looks a little different! 

These boys love their swing-set. With the cooler temps, we've been spending hours outside.

And Thomas has fallen in love with the idea of mowing the lawn. Both the toy vacuum cleaner and golf bag have become stand-in lawn mowers.

Now, time for random video tidbits:

Though kiddos have smaller attention spans than adults, it sure is impressive how long a joke stays funny to them....

Thomas in Green Pond

 This post will have Thomas pictures with captions. It just seems like the right thing to do.

"Why are you not pushing me?"

"Hey. "

"No, You you youuuu!"

Heartbreaker

CORNHOLE!

"safe!"

Oh Ma and Pa. We love you two!

(uncle love)

Triple-Mos!

"Yes, aunt Emily, I want to be on the trike for-ev-ver."

"I like this guy."

This rocks. 

Plus Dana!