Apple changes everything.

To explain the title of this post: we entered the world of apple products. Our laptop and our notebook computer both died/broke within the same week in January- days before Daniel was headed to Florida for a week-long conference. We researched and after much discussion (apparently I take awhile to make decisions and I am fine with that), the iPad became our newest family member.

This is all relevant, I promise. There are 2 ways it affects the blog; first, we don't take as many pictures on the camera but rather the iPad and the pictures we do take with the camera, we can only upload to our desktop via the printer. So many steps. (Yes, I hear the laziness, too). Secondly, most of the people directly badgering us for pictures or updates also have apple products and frequently receive messages with pictures and videos.

All this is to say that we want to keep this blog going, we're just learning how to do so with where we are in life (and technical endurance for figuring out all the quirks).

With that being said....how do I get pictures from the iPad onto the blog? Hints?

Thanks for bearing with us!

How we roll....

I know. It's January 14th meaning more than a full month since the last post. We had a busy and great holiday season (including family together for Thomas' birthday, first Christmas at our home, and Texas time with the entire Pugh family). How about a quick but cute, silly, informative Christmas recap?
 I doubt Jacob gets this happy about this kind of gift during his next 15 years....

Thomas just wanted to eat, kiss, or pet all of his gifts.

We all had a lovely Christmas morning in our house shared with Ma and Pa.
Thomas received the gorgeous birth sampler hand-made by his Great Aunt Lois; as seen below, he adores it. It now hangs next to Jacob's birth sampler in the boys' bedroom and Thomas frequently requests assistance for a closer look or touch.

Jacob got some Mario paraphernalia and was quite the happy boy!

After a brief respite in Raleigh, we began the Texas portion of the holiday. Words don't even describe how much giggling, chatting, playing, dancing, and bubble-bath enjoying occurred. (Unfortunately just the kiddos got the bubble baths).
We got 5 of the 9 in for racing their Didi to the finish line (me). Clearly the ultimate goal for each kiddo was different!

We're missing Samuel (5.5yo) but here we have the boy cousins Parker (4), then Mos, Caleb (2.5), JDP, then Colby (4.5). Clearly, they had been playing hard and were worn-out!

Everyone was such a good sport during the trip. For instance, Uncle Trent was a pony. And since there were 9 kids 5 and under, these two (Thomas and Sofia) saved time by 'riding' together.

Not pictured: Between Thomas mounting Trent to the next picture, Trent carried both kiddos around the room and got loads of giggles along the way.

As Jacob received a Mario game for Christmas from his Didi, for better or for worse, all the cousins have now heard of and seen Mario in action.

While highly abbreviated, perhaps this post will suffice for now? I do aim to get more pictures and videos up soon as these boys are growing and changing fast! Thomas is now actually 'conversing' with people and Jacob is fast approaching 5 years old, also known as the age where he just knows everything but is still cute enough to not completely be ridiculous. Fun boys!

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!