Summer Fun!

Sorry for the delay in posting! I was reminded this morning that it's been a while...oops! We've been having a great summer so far. Lots of playing outside at parks, pools, etc. Thomas is getting over a cold so the past week or so has been a little less exciting.

Other than our normal days of playing, Thomas and I were able to enjoy a weekend away in Montreat, NC at the Christian Life Conference. My mom came with us and was such a great big help in watching Thomas for me. I had some responsibilities for the conference and I was actually able to make it to all but one of the plenary sessions. That was a great treat! We had fun walking all over the place, playing at the park, eating ice cream, and Thomas even met a cute little girl his age and they played together in the lobby of the inn where we were staying. Thomas left the mountains, unfortunately, with a big bruised egg in between his eyes and the beginnings of two black eyes. He tripped in our room and ran smack into the metal bed frame...right in between his eyes. Poor guy, it was pitiful. He is all healed now (except for a little bit of a residual bruise) and back at it!

Thomas is such a busy guy! He is walking all over the place and tries to run but gets ahead of himself and tumbles over usually. He still has a fascination with all things cooking! Any pots, pans, wooden spoons, etc. he loves to play with. Last night he was playing with Daddy and they were cooking. He was following directions like, "put the top on and let it simmer" and "take off the top and stir." He is also obsessed with balls - footballs, baseballs, basketballs and even anything in his line of sight that is shaped like a ball. He noticed a small stack of cannon balls in a picture we have on our living room wall. He even noticed a small decorative ball on top of our lamps in the living room. Nothing gets past him... :)

Talking hasn't really been too exciting lately. He knows "ball" and a few other words but doesn't seem too interested at this point, which is fine because he definitely understands and follows simple commands. He's also a very generous little guy. He likes to give you something when you walk into the room. Usually when I get him out of his crib, he hands me his blankie and his pacifier. He's getting a little challenging for me these days, but over all he is still a joy and such a sweet boy. Amazing the love that you can have for such a small person! :)

Father's Day 2009

Big thanks to LW and TW for making today awesome! It's great to hang with the family and watch Thomas learn something new every minute (literally). Below are a couple of recent pics and a must see video from last week:

TW and Dad hanging in front of the fridge just before dinner

Wonder how Thomas made it into the toybox?

Three steps to the newest dance craze here in Raleigh, the TW Slide:

1) Bend knees slightly, and bounce just a little bit (not too much though, because it looks painful)

2) Do the King Kong - pound chest w/ open hands and make noise

3) Grand finale, spin in circles and fall to the ground! It's the coolest!

It's Been a Big Week

The video above is a cute one of Thomas digging through the toybox...or maybe he was trying to get IN the toybox...I'm not sure. We've had lots of fun things going on since our last post, but this past week has been a big one!

A couple of weekends ago, we went on our annual Memorial Day trip to Ocean Isle Beach with our friends. We had a great time and spent some good quality time catching up with everyone. You would never know we all lived in the same place! :) Shawn and I are surely blessed to have a group of friends like this. We've grown by one for the past 3 years...all boys! Wow! Kids sure do make the trip different but still a lot of fun to experience the beach through a child's eyes. Thomas had fun playing the sand and was frightened by the water at first, but eventually warmed up to it. He enjoyed playing in the tidal pools at low-tide.

So, this past week, the big news is that Thomas is really starting to communicate a LOT! He has started signing all of a sudden. I've done some signs with him from the beginning but just thought he wasn't going to pick it up. Well he did and it's pretty cute to see. He can sign "more" and "eat". We are working on others but he's pretty proud of himself when he gets to use these words.

He also has a few words all of a sudden. His first word (we think) was "light". His other words are "ball", "uh-oh", "bottle" (which sounds a lot like "bible"), "this", "that", ...that's all I can remember right now. I think his favorite right now is "uh-oh". He puts a lot of emphasis on the "uh" part and then follows up with a sweet, quiet "ohhhhhhh". Adorable!

So, that's the excitement around here these days. He's a very proficient walker now. Walks all over the place.... doesn't like to sit in one place and play for very long any more. (not that he ever did that much anyway)

Shawn and I are doing well. Shawn is enjoying his job and playing in the company softball league. Thomas and I got to go to a game last night. It was fun...I did more chasing Thomas than watching the game though. :) I'm enjoying my time at home with Thomas. We keep busy and are enjoying the chance to get to the pool a little this Summer. I started playing volleyball again recently. Earlier this week, I played for the first time in 2 years!!! I'm in pain right now...it hurts to sneeze, sit, get up, etc. But, I didn't die or need an ambulance like I thought I might, so overall, it was great!

PS - Please pray for my uncle, Kevin. He just had surgery for cancer in his jaw and he is recovering in a CA hospital. Pray for the family, relief from pain, quick recovery and healing!

One Year Old & Mother's Day

There's our little (ok, not so little) one year old. Thomas celebrated his first birthday Wednesday, May 6. The celebration started the Saturday before at his birthday party. We had a great time at Lake Wheeler cooking out, eating cake and enjoying friends and family. Thomas had a great time getting passed around from grandma to grandma with others in between. He wasn't terribly interested in his cake. He needed some help to get into it and once he figured it out he only ate a few small bites and then wanted down. Oh well...

On his birthday we celebrated with a trip to the doctor (I now know that this is not a great way to spend his birthday). He did really well, but shots are not a very nice present for anyone, let alone a one year old. Thomas is now 24 lbs, 1 oz (70%) and 32.5 in (>97%). His head is still off the charts too. Nothing else too interesting came from this appointment. No news is good news, I guess. He is happy and healthy!

A couple of exciting changes:

-Thomas now sits facing forward in his carseat (for all the non-parents out there...this is VERY exciting!)

-He has been drinking whole milk for about a week now and seems to like it.

-Tonight is the first night that he's gone down without a bottle of formula and I haven't heard a peep so......NO MORE FORMULA!!

-He is officially a walker now. He has been waddling around for a while, but just yesterday decided to make walking his primary mode of transportation. Now he walks everywhere!

-He is quite vocal these days. Nothing that we can understand yet, but he's getting there. He tries very hard to mimic our words, especially "balloon".

Speaking of balloons - he LOVES them. We went to the grocery store the other day and before we were fully in the cart and in the door, he saw the balloons at the checkouts and started pointing and saying "buh buh buh".

This past weekend was a busy one but a great one! On Saturday, Thomas' friend Ryan had his first birthday party. We played and enjoyed cupcakes, yummy strawberries and great friends! My mom's birthday was Friday so we went to her house for supper on Saturday night to celebrate. We had a great dinner and watched a really short but strong storm roll by.

On Mother's Day, Shawn got up with Thomas so that I could "sleep in" (which, these days, means that I lay in bed awake but lazy for a bit longer than usual). Sunday afternoon after church, we went straight to Mom's for a mother's day lunch with family - Mom, Gaga, Chip, Cissie, Devin, Whitney, Paul and Carrie. What a great time we had! We cooked out burgers, had lunch, played outside, relaxed, sang (thanks Carrie). It was such a wonderful Mother's Day, getting to see family that we don't get to see often enough. Also, it was very cool to have 4 generations together!

Overall, May has turned out to be a great month already! I cannot believe that our little boy is one. It still is just so hard to believe that I'm a mom. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband and such a sweet little boy. Here's to many years to come and lots of memories to make!

First Steps

Well, Thomas finally took his first real, honest-t0-goodness steps this week! He doesn't do it often but every once in a while when necessary, he walks a very short distance. His preferred method of transportation is still crawling.

Finally got video of Thomas doing TOUCHDOWN!!

We're wondering if Thomas is headed for a career in cooking?! Every time I'm doing anything in the kitchen, with the dishwasher or the stove/oven, he whines and whines to be picked up so he can see what is going on. Sometimes I'll even put him in his highchair, in the kitchen, while I'm cooking dinner so he can watch. He is captivated! His grandparents have purchased him a play kitchen for Easter, so hopefully, he'll be excited to have his own cooking operation going on. (I hope!)

We've had some great play dates in the past week or so. On Monday we went to Duke Gardens. The weather has been so great recently (other than the rain), so we were itching to get outside. Thomas pushes everything he can get his hands on these days, including his stroller.

He is still eating pretty well. He eats whatever we eat. No more baby food, just the good stuff. :) He particularly loves pears and recently he's been devouring cereal bars and bananas, anything that he is able to take a bite of on his own. Overall, he's just a lot of fun. He's getting more and more strong-willed. (He gets that from his dad) ha ha :) No really, he's a sweet kid and seems to be learning new things every day. We cannot believe that in one short month, he will be ONE!! Can't believe our little guy has been with us for almost a whole year. My how things change in that first year and what a joy he has been!

Getting Ready for Football Season

That's right, we're getting ready for football season. Thomas can officially call a touchdown now! He does it mostly at the dinner table but we say "touchdown!" and he holds both hands up high above his head. It is terribly cute, I must admit. So, we're proud of our little football fan and hope that he'll be able to put that skill to good use, come September.

When we put the cabinet latches on the kitchen cabinets, Thomas had to improvise so he went straight for the pots & pans drawer under the oven. He opens that drawer and takes out every pot and pan and lid we own! They proceed to get tossed around the kitchen, banging and clanging against each other. Because we thought it'd be cute, we gave him a wooden spoon to make even more noise with. It is so cute.......for a little while. He loves it and it keeps him occupied, so we're going to stick with it, for now.

He has taken a couple of little stutter steps in between cruising, but no big steps on his own yet. We think it will be any day now, but who knows!!

Sun Glorious Sun!

Happy Spring everybody! I don't know if it's really spring yet, but I'm pretending it is anyway. The weather we've had here recently has been great! We've spent a good amount of time outside in the sunny 80-degree weather. Thomas just recently hit the 10-month mark. Before you know it, he'll be ONE!!

We were able to go to lunch with Aunt Whitney, Uncle Paul and Meme (my mom). We went to a great little place in downtown Raleigh called The Rockford. If you go there, order the ABC. ABC stands for apple, bacon and cheddar. It's weird, but it's good, I promise!!

This past weekend mommy & daddy got to go on a date! Woo hoo! While Thomas was at home playing with Papa & Oopsy, we went to dinner and met up with some friends for dessert. It was nice to get out, just the two of us. On Sunday we went to a park with our friends, Brian & Jennifer and their 4 month old, Benjamin. I didn't get any pictures (bummer!) but Thomas had fun crawling in the grass, sliding down the slide and swinging with mommy. It was a nice relaxing day!

Thomas is busy as ever. Shawn installed the cabinet latches this weekend so that I don't have to play keep away while I'm cooking dinner. Thomas can crawl around and pull up without me having to worry about what he'll get into. Unfortunately, I think we're nearing the end of the exersaucer, which was the last way that I could keep him stationary while I did what I needed to do. The only time he stays in one place, pretty much, is when he's in his room with his books. He'll play with his books for a long time (relatively), and loves shutting his bedroom door.

I hope you're all getting outside and enjoying this beautiful weather!