Thomas Treen Table

A couple of weeks ago I stopped by a sidewalk sale at a local toy store and found this great train table. It was a store model, so it was pretty inexpensive. I figured I'd get it and if he wasn't interested I'd sell it. It turns out that he absolutely loves it and wants to play with it whenever he is at home. The first things he says when he wakes up in the morning is "Thomas Treen Table?" and that is also what he says as soon as we walk in the door in the afternoon. Since his room is so close to the playroom now, we can hardly avoid going in there. We've gotten into a routine where Jeff plays with him in the morning while I make us breakfast and get our stuff together. He gets upset when we tell him it's time to leave (he never did this before his beloved train table), so we've gotten the portable DVD player out again so that we can make a smooth transition from "thomas treen table" to "thomas treen t.v."

Belly Gallery - 29 Weeks

We are a couple of weeks into the third trimester now. Only about 2 and a 1/2 more months. Well, wait, why did I say "only"? I can't believe I have that much longer because I feel today like I felt when I was in the last 2-4 weeks with Lucas. All of a sudden I am very pregnant. I'm starting to think that what they say about girl pregnancies being more difficult than boy pregnancies is true. However, I do have a 2 year old turkey now to keep up with, am only sleeping 6 hours a night and find it hard to exercise regularly. What do I expect?

I had a checkup last week and all was good. The midwife said the baby is measuring the right size and my blood pressure was the same as usual. I've gone from 118lbs to 142lbs, which means I'm on track to gain 35lbs. I gained 33lbs with Lucas, but started out a few lbs lighter with this pregnancy (thanks to nursing), so all in all it's about the same weight gain. Although they did tell me that I had gained 6lbs since my last visit, so my projection may be way off.

This baby moves WAY more than Lucas ever did. My sister said she heard girls do move more than boys. Who knows, but it's neat. She moves the most at night when we are sitting on the couch before bed and she always wakes up if I wake up for Lucas in the middle of the night. I swear that she kicks him and wakes him up sometimes... when Lucas and I are snuggling in bed his legs are usually resting against my belly. He'll be almost asleep and then she'll make a sudden movement and he stirs.

We're working on her nursery now. I've decided that I don't like any of the furniture that we had for Lucas's room for a girl's room, so I'm trying to sell it and replace it without spending much money. It's a fun little challenge since I'm not stressed about getting the nursery perfect before she's born, like I was with Lucas. We are going to have her crib in our room for the first few months, so her nursery won't look finished for a while anyway.

These work outfits are getting harder to put together...

"I did it!"

What Lucas says when he accomplishes this task of alligning the chairs up just right...

Look at that form!

The turkey likes to play catch with us, but it is usually with a baseball size ball... and I must say that he has quite the arm... like his mama : ) This weekend he wanted to play catch with the bigger yellow ball. Jeff and I were rolling on the floor laughing because when we told him to put his arms out he would quickly raise his hands up high above his heard. He was very serious about it. Somehow, despite the rare form, he was able to catch the ball just about every time.

Supper Club

We started a supper club with five other couples a few months ago. So far we've only been able to get everyone together for one supper, so it's more of an email and talk-about-supper-club than an actually get together and eat club. But maybe that will change because last night was a lot of fun. We don't have a babysitter for Lucas, so we invited all the kids as well as the adults. Jeff, Lucas and me started preparing at 8am on Saturday morning and sat out the last glass as the doorbell rang at 5:30 (we did take a 2 hour break to go swimming before nap). So it was a lot of work, but we were proud that we pulled it off and were still able to enjoy ourselves. Here is how the day went...

After breakfast, at 8am, Jeff and Lucas made the cookies and the cornbread. A little later Lucas helped me make the brownies. We cleaned a little, went to the pool, put Lucas down for a nap at 1pm, and then Jeff and got serious about getting all of the food cooked. When Lucas woke up around 3pm we did some water work in the kitchen (dishes), vacuum work, Jeff and Lucas cleaned the toilets, and then some mop work. Lucas really did play a big role in preparing for the party.

Here he is spraying the wood cleaner on the floor so that I could mop it up...

After all of the dirty work was finished, Lucas put on his Goa Elephant t-shirt (one of his favs) and waited for his friends to arrive. He and Charles wasted no time in starting their part of the supper club...

And then he kept Lucas and Mr. John company while Lucas had some supper...

The dads enjoyed a little baby break and a few cold ones...

And three of the boys (Lucas, Lucas and Charles) entertained us with some tunes.

We've decided that Lucas and his friend, Lucas, are the most alike out of all of Lucas's other friends. As soon as Lucas arrived they started monkeying around on the couch and diving into the beanbag chair. We got them to stop for a picture, but not long enough to get a good one (of my Lucas).

Lucas's playroom was a hit. This was the first time that we'd had more than one friend over since we finished it, so it was good to see that they were able to enjoy it. Here are the turkeys doing some marker work...

And here are all of the mamas and babies hanging out (the dads did switch with us, I just don't have pics to prove it).

See what I mean...

We wanted to get a picture of all five boys so we told John it was his job to corral them long enough to get a shot...

But this is the best we could get...(Pierson, Charles, Lucas, Lucas, and Christopher)

Busy Social Week

All of a sudden we have a social life again. On Monday I went to dinner with Kim and Ele. We had been talking about this for weeks, but all being moms of little boys, it's hard to find the time. I forgot my camera, but Ele took a picture of Kim and me.

On Tuesday Lucas and I went on a date with his friend Lincoln (from school) and his mom - "Lincoln's Mama." We somehow convinced them both to sit in a high chair. They had so much fun acting silly with each other. We'll definitely do it again.

Tonight we were invited to a surprise party, but couldn't find a sitter, so I'm going by myself for an hour or so. Tomorrow morning Lucas and I are going to the pool and tomorrow night we are hosting our July Supper Club. I'm tired just thinking about it all! No more time for blogging, have to start making lists...

Fort Lucas

I posted a few weeks ago that we had an idea for Lucas's big boy room. My idea was pretty lame compared to the final result, but I'm happy it ended up that way because Lucas's new room is AWESOME! My idea was a nature theme with some simple grass and wildflowers along the bottom of the wall. The walls were painted blue already, so that would serve as the sky backdrop. I randomly went to lunch with a friend one day and brought this up. She just happened to have the name of two artists in her cell phone! I called them, got ideas and quotes, and then we made our decision. We went with the lady who had the idea for Fort Lucas. It turned out so much better than I ever imagined. Check it out...

View from the door of Lucas's room

View from the reading corner

View from the kid's bed

View of the cubby hole and the canvas flap I made for the opening
(we plan to paint something in the cubby hole next year)

I'm proud of this because I can't sew : )

Mr. Frog helped paint the fort

Jeff and I were SO excited to show Lucas his new room, but we were waiting for his fan to arrive. It came this afternoon, so we installed that and then moved his rug and mattress up from his old room. As soon as Jeff and Lucas got home from school we took Lucas up to show him. When we opened the door his face lit up and he said, "wowwww..." and then hopped down to check it out. He's asleep in there now and we're placing bets on how many times he'll wake up tonight... although I must say that he went down very easy (as usual for the past few weeks) and didn't seem phased by the change of rooms... we'll see.

Look at that smile!

The fan and fan remote was a big hit

And he also enjoyed the new placement of the rug

Curls

Lucas's hair is curling in the back now, especially when he's sweaty. It makes him look more like Jeff than ever before...

He also has his daddy's blue eyes (mine are blue too, just not as blue as Jeff's).

Sunday Morning Park Outing

Now that we are in such a wonderful routine during the week, I need a routine on the weekends too. It doesn't matter if we just stay home, but I need to know the night before that that is the plan. On Friday night we planned to stay in on Saturday morning since Lucas had a pool party to go to in the afternoon. We made pancakes, played with trains and puzzles, and then made a quick trip to the hardware store. After nap we went to Katrin's birthday party and had a fun time hanging out with some of the kids and parents from Lucas's class. (I forgot my camera and will have to steal some pics from Katrin's blog soon).

On Saturday night we planned to go to the park on Sunday morning. Luckily Kim and Wendy had the same idea, so we got to spend the morning with them.

Do you think going to the park is easy? No way. You need lots of snacks, water, hand towel, diapers and wipes.

water, goldfish, granola bar, nut mix, popcorn, watermelon and wet towel

But once you get there it is worth it. Everyone has a great time and you can break for a snack at anytime...

And then we can look for bugs and spiders! In this picture Lucas and Charles were looking for a spider with a little girl they met at the park today.

"Where did it go?"

After looking for bugs it's always fun to play in the branches of this old tree...

And luckily the boys found some time to play with the diggers today so that the mommies could take a little break on the bench nearby : )

What we've heard today...

"Dada. Dada. Pst. Golf over. Thomas Treen please. Thomas Treen please. Thomas treen please."

Jeff finally got to relax and watch a little of the Brittish Open tonight after Lucas went to sleep.

This Morning

Dada: "Lucas, don't push the chairs over like that. Please be gentle." - as Lucas was pushing his plastic chairs that go to his table over very loudly (he likes the loud noise when they hit the hardwood floors).

Lucas: "Go away." - as he grabbed Jeff finger and led him to the couch and told him to "sit."

Lucas: "Go away." - as he grabbed my finger and led me to the couch and told me to "sit."

Lucas: Smiling as he ran back into the kitchen to resume his game without mama and dada there to bother him.

Turkey Talk

Here are some things that our little turkey is saying now (most of it cracks us up)...

"I did it!" - when he accomplishes a task.

"Lucas's fault." or "Mama's fault." or "Dada's fault." - when one of us spills or drops something.


"Dada. Jeff. Psst!" - when Jeff doesn't immediately respond to his name.

"No, no, no. Leave." - when he wants us to let him do something on his own.

"Shhh. Stop." - to me the other day when I was singing to him.

"Green car is?" - when he is looking for something, like his green Ramone car.

"1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10!" - when he counts to 10.


"Here it is!" - when he finds something that he's looking for.


"I got it!" - when he catches a ball or finds something he's looking for.

"Ereen?" - when we told him that Johnny was coming to visit this weekend.

"Scratch. TT did it." - when we asked him what the little mark was on his hand.

"Covers." - what he asked for the other day when we were cuddling. Before that day he had always just said "cold."

"Ohhhh, another boo boo. Bump head. Right here." - what he said this weekend when he bumped his head for the 2nd time in about 10 min and was showing me where to kiss it.

"Last time!" - one of his negotiating tactics. One time he was asking Jeff to do something again and Jeff said, "Okay, but this is the last time." A few days later he wanted to use the juicer but wasn't getting much agreement from Jeff or me so he said, "Last time!"

"This broken this. This better this." - what he says when he's trying to tell us to use one thing over the other. For example, today his stool was too short to reach what he wanted, so he went and got the chair from his kid table and said this. Translation - the small stool doesn't work, so I'm going to use this one because it's better.

"Off. Leave here." - when he woke up from his nap this afternoon I had my hair pulled back in a head band. I usually wear bangs, so I guess this looked different to him. He looked at me with his just-waking-up face, pulled the head band off and said, "Off. Leave here." as he sat it on his night stand. Little stinker! I just bought that darn thing and now I don't want to wear it : )

And our all time favorite,

"Ohhhh man." - the hilarious thing about this is that he uses it appropriately every time. He just started saying it on Friday. He said it this weekend when the cd skipped, when I told him we couldn't go outside, when Marlin got eaten by the whale on Nemo, and several other times. It has got to be the cutest thing I've ever heard!

More Florida Pics

Jenn (my sister) posted some of her pics from our vacation last week. They are so darn cute.

Check them out: http://thetinglefamily.blogspot.com/

Among them you will see that the turkey LOVED the water slide. I forgot to mention that because I didn't have any pictures to remind me. He went down 6-7 times in a row - first with Jeff and then with my dad. He would have done it all day. I went down with him once and he giggled the entire way down. So fun.

What would you do for 2 M&Ms?

Lucas will go potty!

We haven't spend too much time on potty training. He randomly went pee-pee in April, right after starting school. I had the potty sitting in the hallway to give away and he sat down on it and went. I thought that he had seen someone at school do it and that he'd start to show interest, but he hasn't really since then. He'll sit on the toilet for a few minutes while we sing a song, but no results.

I've seen two friends in the past week that have used candy as incentive to go potty, so I thought we'd try it since the kid is a fan of sugar. Last night after dinner I told him that if he would sit on the potty that I'd give him two M&Ms. He was all for it. So he settled in and we sang a couple of songs. I then asked him to try and go potty. His face got red as he tried, then his face lit up into a huge smile and he said, "I did it!"

It was the tiniest little poop ever, but it counted. I told him to go tell Dada and he ran through the house screaming, "I did it! I did it!" He even called me-maw and pe-paw to tell them about it.

I bet the novelty will wear off quickly, but it was fun to see him so excited.

Florida for the 4th

We took Lucas Bryant to Florida last Wednesday through Sunday. It was a little rocky the first day or so due to routine changes, but we ended up having such a great time. Lucas absolutely loved seeing his family - Grandma and Grandpa (me-maw and pe-paw), Mom, Jenn, Neil, Ty and the dogs - and Jeff and I even got to enjoy a few nights out by ourselves. There are a lot of pictures, so I'll describe the trip with the pictures...

Our drive down... not so great. We thought we'd do Lucas a favor and leave on Tuesday night around 6pm so that he could sleep for most of the trip. It backfired because instead of falling to sleep at 9pm as I had planned, he fell asleep at 10pm and then woke up every half hour frustrated that he was still pinned down in his seat when he was so sleepy. Oh well, now we know that night driving doesn't work! Anyway, this lack of sleep for all three of us carried over into Wednesday and even Thursday morning. Lucas finally got back on schedule after his nap on Thursday.

Here we are on Wednesday morning - our first day at the pool. Lucas had a fun time, but not a super great time like I had expected. I thought it was because he was tired, but I found out later that day that it was because the pool wasn't as much fun as the beach. We had been telling him that we were going to the beach all week and he wanted to play on the beach! I really think he could have stayed there all day. You'll see what I mean from pictures below...

Lucas was thrilled when his cuz, Ty, was there on Friday morning. He was well rested and ready to play! The two of them are amazing together. They have completely opposite personalities, but get along so well. We joked that Ty is Mr. Go-With-The-Flow and Lucas is Mr. Swim-Against-The-Current : )

Here are the two cuties having a sno cone. It was Lucas's first, but Ty had lots of experience since they had them at his birthday party. Here is Lucas watching to see how Ty was going to eat this weird piece of red ice...

And here is Ty showing Lucas!

After they finished their sno cones we headed to the beach. Lucas had already been with his grandma and grandpa the previous two nights (while Jeff and I went on dates), but he hadn't yet had the chance to really get wet and dirty in the sand. He loved every part of the experience - the sand, the crashing waves, the cold (very cold) water, the digging tools - everything! He grinned from ear to ear the entire time. Oh wait, there was one time where he invented a game of filling up a bucket with water and pouring it in a hole that we had dug in the sand. If the bucket wasn't completely filled he would get so frustrated. That is when Jeff and I said that he is the opposite of go-with-the-flow. We were all having fun on the beach and he was mad that the little game he invented wasn't going as planned : )

Here are the boys with Uncle Neil, who by the way Lucas thinks is a big toy. He followed Neil around all weekend asking him to hold him, swim with him, and watch movies with him.

But he still saved some quality time for Dada : )