Happy 2nd Birthday Thomas Jeffrey!

When did our little baby become a toddler? Thomas turns 2 today, and he's more fun every day!

2nd Birthday, Lightning-style!

Thomas turns 2 tomorrow, and we celebrated this past weekend with friends. Considering T's love of the movie Cars, the theme was a no-brainer.

I joined the world of cake decorating, renting a race car pan and creating a sugary, frosted Lightning McQueen. To anyone considering making and decorating a cake (it's lots of fun!): I highly recommend using very dark frosting colors for maximum impact on lips, teeth and fingers.

Cooper and Molly dig into the pizza.

Ethan loved the balloons.

We all cracked up at Thomas pushing Cooper (who's 4.5) around on his Lightning ride. It turned out T really just wanted him to get off so he could have a turn!

Thomas blowing out his #2 candle.

Just a little messiness.

Night #2: T got a black frosted piece. Yowza! His hands are still stained black...

Warm weather!

A 65-degree Sunday meant that we could try out Thomas' trike among the melting ice sheets on the sidewalks/pathways. What a "handy" handle for pushing! Too bad it gives T no incentive to pedal. We'll have to work on that...

"Goldilocks" continues his search...

...for just the right place to sleep. Every night plays out like this: happy boy gets tucked into bed. Happy boy transforms to wailing, screaming banshee at the door before we get down the stairs. Much wailing and gnashing of teeth for about an hour. Sweet innocent-looking boy finally passes out somewhere in his room. He seems to have figured out there are more comfortable spots than the floor, and two nights in a row he even fell asleep in his bed!

Tonight, he tried out the futon.

Last night, it was the glider again, though with an uncomfortable neck crick.

We'll see what tomorrow night brings! Frankly, we don't so much care where he falls asleep if we could bypass the hour of wailing before sleep finally takes over.

Musical sleeping spots

Thomas is finding all kinds of spots to fall asleep at night--just still not the bed!

Monday night:

Tuesday night:
We must have left the door between our rooms open; he climbed into our bed, pulled up the covers, and fell asleep. Snoring away...

The Lesson of the Donut

Sunday morning after church, we headed to the donut shop (like usual). Even though Thomas and I stay in the car while Ed goes in, T knows what the donut shop is. He desperately wanted his donut in the car, but we told him he had to wait until we got home since they're always messy.

So we get home, I set the donut bag on the counter, and I head upstairs to change my clothes. Ed followed me while T stayed downstairs. When I came back downstairs two minutes later, I saw this:

And I knew that I'd left the bag too close to the edge of the counter. T got impatient and retrieved his own donut (except he took mine--with the yummy frosting, big green "G" and green and yellow jimmies--instead of his own!). Walking into the family room, this is what we saw:
One VERY happy boy. Definitely proud of himself.

:)

VICTORY!!!

World Champs! Woo hoo!

Go Pack!

Poor Thomas lives in a divided house when it comes to football and has two shirts to wear for the game tonight. However, I write the blog, and I'm the Packer fan, so...

GO PACKERS!!!!

Oh yeah, and here's Thomas wearing the Steelers' shirt from Grandpa Tom and Grandma Alice, along with his poor, misguided father... ha ha ha!

Ed says the game is a win-win situation for him, since his second favorite team is the Packers. I say, 'wise man, realizing that placating his wife is a good thing!'

Nights 1 and 2

Well, so far Thomas likes the floor better than his crib!

Friday night, 10 pm

Saturday night, 9 pm

Adventures of a big boy

We have been trying some "big boy" things lately, in part motivated by friends/family's kids and in part because T seems to be ready (in some cases).

This one was not our choice. T has been able to (pretty smoothly, actually) climb out of his crib since before the holidays. It became an issue this week, when he did it 4-5 times per night, each night. Last night we put the mattress on the floor. After about 30 min. and many trips into the room by us, he fell asleep on the mattress. At 3 am, I checked on him and he was asleep at the door to his room (we had a baby gate up to keep him in). Tonight, Ed took the front of the crib off, so he's in bed but able to get out. He's now been roaming/playing in his room for 1.5 hours. We'll see where/when he falls asleep and what we try tomorrow night...but he thinks this new bed is very cool! Just apparently not for sleeping.

While Ed was gone this week, I was bored and my sweet tooth kicked in so we made cookies. Thomas liked pouring measuring cups of dry ingredients into the bowl, turning on the mixer and LOVED eating cookie dough.

Not really a big boy thing, but still cute. T loves "appowsau" (applesauce). When he can't spoon anymore out of the bowl, he lifts it up and drinks the rest. Every night. We don't mind...it's pretty much his only fruit intake, sadly.

Encourged by seeing cousin Lauren sitting on the potty, we bought a little seat and have been trying it out. So far, T likes the seat because Elmo and "fishies" (his new favorite) are on it, but doesn't get the concept. We're not pushing this...we'll stick with one big change at a time, and that would be the bed...

Colorado visit

Ed had a work trip out to Fort Collins, so we added a weekend to the beginning of it and tagged along to hang out with our friends Cliff and Jen and their son Zack. Cliff and Jen were our college roommates, and we've visited back and forth over the years, but it had been a year and a half since we'd seen them. The boys had both grown, but beyond that, not much had changed. We hung out, played with the kids, and ate some great meals, both at their house and out in Boulder. The weekend went way too quickly, but we're glad it worked out!

Saturday after a delicious breakfast of beignets and more, we did a short walk in Chatauqua Park. Zack rode on Cliff's shoulders for a while.
Thomas kept veering off the path.

Boys on the swings.

The boys did a pretty decent job sharing toys and really enjoyed each other's company (last time we were together, Zack was 15 months and T was 6 months, so things have changed!). They both love trains and trucks, so they have that in common to say the least! :)

Saturday night Jen and I let the boys play in a bubble bath. They had a great time and left the bathroom looking like a monsoon had hit it!

The mommas and the boys

They were happy to give each other hugs on command, and sometimes just for fun. So cute! Jen said that after Thomas left, Zack kept asking, "where my friend Thomas?" Hope we can get together again soon!