Videos

Here are a couple recent videos of Thomas. They're kind of long, sorry...

I feel like Thomas is a "maestro" here, conducting the art of egg dyeing.

I've mentioned before T's love affair with his monkey boots. It's fun to watch him put them on and take them off, something that happens many times a day.

Since early March, T has been able to identify all the letters of the alphabet. Watch him in action here.

Happy Easter!

Pictures from our indoor Easter

Our family of 3.5. No picture in church clothes this year; we'd already changed into warmer/comfy clothes before our guests arrived.

Thomas with his "cheeps," as he calls them

"Look Dad! A chocolate bunny!"

Our Easter table: Rusty, Corey and Melanie. Thomas actually was a late arrival at Easter brunch. He decided about 11 a.m. that he wanted to take a nap. We weren't going to argue with that, but we ended up starting the meal without him.

A sampling of our eggs

Ed was the winner of this year's egg smashing contest.

Easter weekend

When I saw how late Easter was this year, I figured we'd have a warm (if not hot), sunny weekend. It's Sunday night, and we're on day 5? 6? of rain, and had a wild helping of thunderstorms and tornados Friday night. Despite the weather, we still had a good time; it was just indoor fun! (And on the plus side, I haven't gotten sick of watering my plants yet...)

We met the Easter Bunny at the grocery store. Thomas spent the entire shopping trip saying "Easter Bunny" and pointing, but then when we went in close for a picture, he got shy and clingy. This picture was our compromise: T was "safe" in the cart, but E.B. was still in the picture.

Niki came to visit Corey this weekend and they came over to hang out with us Saturday afternoon.

Saturday night we dyed Easter eggs. Thomas tried the little wire wands but decided his hands were more effective. His goal: to submerge as many eggs as possible at once.

The great thing about having a little kid dyeing eggs is that it completely eliminates the pressure to create "pretty" eggs. We let T handle all 12 and came up with a nice variety of bright eggs.

The drawback of the hands method...very dirty hands!

Hats and Boots

Despite the headline, this post has nothing to do with cold weather! When I was a little girl, my sister and I (and cousins, friends) spent alot of time playing dress up. We had some great clothes, hats and shoes to use, both at my house and at my grandma's house.

When Thomas was born, I figured with him being a boy that there would not be alot of dress up going on. Apparently, I figured wrong. There's definitely dress up--just a slightly different kind.

This photo--and many more like it--of Thomas wearing my "girly" derby hat from Alli's shower prompted the arrival of a box filled with some better "boy" hats.

Like this one.

And this one.

And these two. (Visitors to our house often find themselves wearing hats, courtesy of Thomas.) And sometimes, even with all these choices, he still puts my girly hat on top of the construction hat, just for fun.

And then there are the boots. We originally pulled them out for the wet Easter egg hunt, but Thomas is obsessed with them, probably in part because they're the only shoes he can put on and take off himself. He loves wearing them around the house (pretty much every day), yelling "boots!" And yes, frequently without wearing pants. Or wearing them with shorts, another good look. He had them on while sitting on the potty the other day as well.

Boots and hat together...really, no caption needed.

Random pics

The other night we had pizza on the grill. Delicious!

Ed has become quite adept at the pizza crust throwing.

We got fancy and pulled out the wood grill for a more authentic smoked flavor than the gas grill. We made our favorite from our New Jersey days, borrowed from Arturo's in Maplewood: the greco, complete with pesto, pine nuts, feta, and tomato slices (on Ed's half). Yum!

I met Carrie for lunch the other day at Blues City Deli (yum!). Here we are, two pregnant ladies: I'm 21 weeks and she's 39 weeks in the picture. We're looking forward to hearing about the arrival or her baby soon!

Thomas has quite a collection of Matchbox cars now. He likes to line them up very, neat and orderly. If he didn't look so much like us, I'd think he might be adopted...neither of us is "neat and orderly."

Chilly Easter Egg Hunt

Our weather has been a bit up and down lately--80 degrees one day, 50 the next. Saturday we went to an Easter egg hunt in Tower Grove Park. It was maybe 45 degrees and wet. So we pulled out the rain boots and unpacked the hats and mittens and headed over.

Thomas "got" it much better this year. The eggs were just scattered about, not hidden, but he would pick them up, one at a time.

However, he did want to see what was in each egg before he'd go find another. He especially liked the eggs with chocolate inside! I think we'll have to hide some eggs around the house/yard for Easter morning.

Half Marathon

Last weekend was the marathon and half-marathon in St. Louis. Ed, Tucker and a few others ran the half marathon. After training the last few months in 30, 40 and 50 degree weather, race day dawned hot--it was 80 degrees by 9 am, I think! Talk about hot, sweaty runners. Then of course on Monday it was 50 degrees again.

I put an arrow on Ed, about 3 blocks from the finish line. This is where we stood and watched.

Matt, Tucker, Ed, and Tucker's friends Mindy and Mike, after the race.

20 week belly shot

I swear the camera adds 10 lbs...I don't think I'm quite as round all over as I look in this picture. Definitely round in the belly though!

Hello, spring!

We've had some gorgeous days in St. Louis, prompting blooming flowers, trips to the garden center, and playtime in the park.

I love the lilac blooms--they smell so wonderful!

The flowering tree outside the window of my studio

Saturday fun in the playground

Carefully walking the balance beam

I always get carried away with planting in April, with the best of intentions to faithfully water (and maybe weed) all summer long. Then June comes and it gets hot and buggy and my best intentions go out the window. I really intend to be better this summer to enjoy all the great stuff I planted!

Herb pots

Next to the front steps, which doesn't look like much now but hopefully will thrive.

After watching me water everything, Thomas wanted to help.

Hello, baby #2!

Here's a few images from our 20-week ultrasound...baby #2, we'll see you again in 20 weeks!

Spring is here!

We had a gorgeous spring (finally!) weekend--sunny both days, in the 60s on Saturday and the 80s on Sunday. We spent as much time outside as we could, soaking it up.

Thomas kicking the soccer ball around the park. He chants "soccer ball" over and over while he kicks and runs.

Another sign of spring...Ed and I went to the Cardinals game on Saturday while Tucker babysat. We got to sit in a box, which was nice--especially since the baseball game (which became a blowout) overlapped with the Butler-VCU game, and the box had a tv.

Week in Milwaukee

While Ed went on a business trip to California, Thomas and I stayed in Milwaukee for the week. Even though it was snowy and cold in Wisconsin, we still had lots of fun!

Visiting Grandma Millie

Enjoying a dreamsicle at Grandma Millie's for lunch

Chilling with Grammy

Playdoh is fun! Grammy helped Thomas use cookie cutters to make duckies and gingerbread men, and then he used toothpicks to give them eyes and beebos.

Thomas chased poor Oz all week, trying to grab him by the tail. Oz was very patient with our smitten toddler.

Playing "baketsauce." If you missed the video, scroll down. It's worth it!

Flying angel balance with Boppa.

One morning it got very quiet. Quiet is NEVER good. Thomas was enjoying the fact that cupboards at Grammy's house don't have latches, and he'd emptied out the baking cupboard, including placing the hand mixer on top the counter. We caught him as he was about to start emptying handfuls of sugar onto the floor. Yikes!

Bros and Dads weekend

Details of the guys' weekend's events are sketchy, but suffice it to say that it was full of basketball, fun on the frozen lake, and of course, beer! Here are a few pics.

Girls' weekend (plus Thomas) in Madison

The guys headed up to the lake for "Bros and Dads" weekend while Mom, Jenn, Thomas and I hung out in Madison.Friday night we went to this great taco place in Madison--a la carte tacos in great flavors--sweet potato hash, cobb salad, pork bbq with fried avocado...yum! (So all 5 of these you see in the picture were mine...oink oink!)

Saturday we went to the Children's Museum in Madison, which was really cool. Thomas tried it all out. Here he is in the water room.

Making music

Building with Aunt Jenn using blocks made out of old street signs

Me sitting in some kind of pod thing

T decided that the pedestal sink in Jenn's powder room was a great swing.

Wearing a Packer helmet and using a cell phone. Jenn and Mom would download elmo videos for him to watch. At one point early Sunday morning, he got his hands on a phone unnoticed and called Dad. He came running into the kitchen (where we were making breakfast), yelling "Boppa!" and we eventually realized that Dad was on the phone. Yikes!

Trying out chopsticks