Birthday Surprise

Tommy is 4 months old today. My how time flies. We've had a rough couple of days lately. He's been pretty fussy and keeps waking up twice a night when he had been sleeping all the way through to 5:30 or 6:00. So were running low on steam here. He's been big into drooling and keeps his hand in his mouth all the time, so I'm surmising that he could be teething (although there is no telltale tooth showing). We have our regular doctor appointment next week so I'll find out then.

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Now for the surprise part...Tommy was taking his regular bath tonight. And we were having a great time. Lots of talking and splashing. Just a grand old fun house. Well Tommy kept "tooting" off and on in the water which was kind of funny. Then he "tooted" some more...and some more...and then he "pooted". Right there in his little blue bathtub! Fortunately the timing was good as we were at the end of the bath so I pulled him out laid him face down for a quick wipe-a-roo, and all returned to normal. Gross!

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Tommy So Proud of Himself After His Little Mess

Tommy Checking out Those Yummy Hands

Fun at Grammy & Grampa's

So even with all the snow we all had a fun weekend. The puppies truly enjoyed the snow. Even Dunkin wanted to play chase. I just didn't want to go trail-blazing through all the drifts in my hiking shoes.

Hoss, Gracie, & Dunkin in the Snow

Tommy worked on his grabbing skills. He opens and closes his fingers, but he hasn't mastered the art of turning his wrist yet to get the fingers in the right spot. But just like Dunkin he likes having two toys at once.

Tommy & His Toys

Tom and I had a great time at Elias and Kristen's wedding. Even with the weather being what it was they had an amazing turnout with around 250 people. Pretty cool. Unfortunately, the worm did not make an appearance this time. The night just wasn't quite long enough.

Tom & Jenny at the Wedding

Grammy and Grampa had a great time with Tommy all weekend. Plenty of bottles and diapers to keep everyone busy. And some splashing time in the tub to keep it interesting. A lot of my old stuff is finding it's way out of the basement after these long thirty years.

Grammy, Grampa, & Tommy

And as always the puppies were in the car long before anyone else. They can't stand it if you go anywhere without them. They have some serious abandonment issues.

Gracie & Dunkin Ready to Hit the Road

Blizzard '08

Here it is...nearly spring...and where did we find ourselves this weekend. In the middle of a BLIZZARD! Here we are dreaming of the arrival of warmer days, Tom is wearing shorts, I've got a light jacket with me because it is really great weather in P-Town. Forties, clear, and sunny. Can't ask for anything better this time of year. And then we get to Ohio. Snow blowing across the road at 40mph. Cars, trucks, semis, and police in the ditch. Traffic backed up in Columbus taking 4 times as long to get where we're going. And all this is the day before the blizzard.

But after traveling 500 miles, hearing countless crying spurts, and filling the tank 50 times, we were not going to miss Elias and Kristen's wedding. So on Saturday morning, we got up and left Iberia around 11am. It took more than 45 minutes to get to Mt. Gilead, something we can normally do in less than 15. On the way we learned what "whiteout" means, saw one semi-truck in the ditch, and learned to drive down the middle of the telephone poles since we couldn't see the edge of the road.

Semi #1 Stuck

Then the fun really started after Mt. Gilead. The highway was really clear so we figured we'd keep heading the same direction. And then we found another semi-truck in the ditch. This one had two huge tow trucks there to pull it out and they had the whole road blocked. So we figured it couldn't take that long. Wrong-o. 30 minutes later we could finally pass. And then five minutes later we ran into the same tow truck again. But this time he was in the ditch.So we made it to the freeway gas station about 2 hours after we got started. We filled up, I told the guy we'd been following that he should clean off his rear bumper because he had so much snow, nobody could see his tail-lights and filled up on some snacks.

Waiting on the Tow Truck and Semi #2

Somewhere in Morrow County

Then we jumped on the interstate where we got to follow four snow plows that were working the road in tandem. Which made for some slow going but some decent roadway. Thsi whole time we're listening to the radio and they are announcing all the closings in Columbus. So we knew we had to go to the mall because we forgot some of our dress up clothes back in P-town. Then we come to find out that Polaris is closed...no problem we'll just go to Tuttle. Yep, that was closed too. I guess we can wear t-shirts to the wedding.

4 Snowplows in Tandem

After 3.5 hours of driving, we made it to our hotel for an early check-in. Then on the way what do we see but an F-350 working on pulling another semi-truck out of the snow. Does the insanity ever end? Oh, and by the way, Target was open so we could get clothes there. Whew!

Is that a 350?!?!

This Old Man

One of our favorite passtimes is to sing silly songs...so if you can stand my voice go ahead and watch.

Tommy & Jenny singing This Old Man

Checking Out Our Boat

This Saturday was a fun-filled day of playing blocks, doing our taxes, and seeing our boat. What a combo! Tommy's best time is in the morning and early evening. He is so happy and ready to play. We played with our blocks and sang silly songs and worked on our counting this morning while we waited for Dunkin, Gracie, and Daddy to get up.

Tommy Counting his Blocks

Then up to the office to do our taxes. (Hopefully there's a refund this year.) Tommy played in his jumper for a long time giving us plenty of time to get everything entered. A bottle of milk and a short nap later we were pretty much done. In the afternoon we headed north to visit Troy and Amy. They hadn't met Tommy yet. Plus Tom needed to get the prop off the boat because it had gotten bent...AGAIN...last summer. So we met at their house and found a new surprise waiting for us. A brand new puppy, Vette. She's 12 weeks old, 2 pounds soaking wet, and terrorizing both their cats, Marge and Stubby. We'll get a picture of her and Tommy together soon.

Tommy, Tom, and Their Boat

Tommy Gnawing on his Monkey

Amy and a Snoring Tommy

Tommy in his Jumper Seat

Hanging Out with Daddy

It's been another fun week. Tommy and I have felt much better now that we're over our colds. Our sleeping is a little messed up and he's been waking up around 3am instead of 5am or 6am. We're hoping to get that back.

There have been a couple of huge developments. When Tommy was about 6 weeks old he rolled over a few times. Well it turns out that all that was a fluke. But now in the past two days, Tom and I have both watched him roll over both from his belly to his back AND from his back to his belly. Time to get the house crawler proofed.

Then yesterday, his binky fell out onto his shirt and he reached down with his hand to pick it up himself and put it back in. Yippee! Other than these big accomplishments, we've been hanging at home and around P-Town.

Tommy Laughing and Tom Napping

Silly Faces

Tommy Learning Circuit Design

Fun with Gramma & Grampa S

This week Gramma & Grampa S came to visit. They flew in late on Friday night and we spent the whole weekend together. On Saturday we went to the home show and Tommy got to travel in style in his stroller. We were checking out garage doors and window blinds for our next projects. The hit of the show had to be the mole hunter. He got Tom to buy six traps and we can't wait for the ground to thaw enough to try them out. Tom and the puppiess will get those moles yet! Then we ate at one of our favorite restaurants, Granite City. We played a lot of euchre to finish out the night. Then off to bath and bottle time.

Tommy hanging in his stroller at the Home Show

Tommy with Gramma & Grampa

The next morning we headed down for some breakfast at Panera. And then off to Lowes to pick up paint brushes and rollers. After changing into our work clothes we got 6 doors painted on both sides for the theater room, watched two episodes of Austin Powers, and at least 4 more games of euchre done. (It's unfortunate to say, but I think the guys were the overall winners for the weekend...but we'll get them next time.) After that it was off for some dinner at Applebee's and then Gramma & Grampa put Tommy to bed while Tom and I dozed off in the living room. Man is it hard to stay up past 9pm anymore!

Gracie waiting for her ball

Dunkin claiming his favorite spot on the couch

Tommy with Gramma & Grampa @ Applebee's

The dog-days of February

Things have been cold around here! Something like 15 below zero with the windchill. So we've been staying inside where it's warm and where we can get over this nasty bug we had. All those days I spent gloating about how well Tommy sleeps were for naught. As soon as this first cold came around he's been up a lot more...3 times last night. Not a fun time. So hopefully as soon as the cough gets done we'll get back to normal.

When we went to see the doctor last week (02/13), Tommy weighed in at 13 pounds and 8 ounces so he's continuing to pack on the weight. Lately he's been enamoured with his hands. He keeps making a fist with his right fingers and staring at it like it's the best things since sliced bread. No need to have all those toys when all you need is your own hand.

Tommy checking out his fist

One fun new past-time is hanging out in his spinny seat. His feet don't touch the floor yet so he is stuck wherever we put him, but he has a good time reading his book, spinning the spinners, and looking at the sun rattle. It's usually good for 5 minutes of pure happiness.

Gracie, her ball, and Tommy

Tommy getting a spot bath from Dunkin

Tommy in his spinny seat

Happy Valentine's Day

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! I know it has been a long time since we had a new entry. Between the first week of work and a whole week of being sick I just couldn't find time to write. But we have been busy. Right here you can see Tommy in his Valentine's Day outfit. He got lots of Happy Valentine's Day wishes from Ohio.

Tommy dressed for Valentine's Day

The newest toy we have is this jumper that you see here. Tommy has gotten pretty insistent to spend at least half of his waking hours either sitting or standing or jumping so it was time to give him a new way to see the world. The jumper hangs from the doorframe and you adjust the height of it. He seems to really enjoy it. And Dunkin seems to like it too.

Tommy & Dunkin with the new jumper toy

Before we were down for the count being sick this week, we managed another celebrity sighting. And this time we actually met this one. Kerri Walsh visited last weekend as part of the AVP's Hot Winter Nights Tour. She's one of the best female volleyball players ever! And she has to be one of the nicest too...she signed autographs all night long! You can see her here with Tom and Tommy.

Tom, Tommy, & Kerri Walsh

Tommy enjoying his jumper

Back to Work

Well after three whole months the day, February 1, finally dawned for me to head back to work. Honestly I'd been looking forward to getting back in the saddle again and I think Tommy was looking forward to flirting with all his new teachers and Dunkin and Gracie were looking forward to the chance for some uninterupted ZZZZs. So we were both happy that the day had come. But Mother Nature wasn't going to make it easy on us. Thursday night she dumped 8 inches of snow on central Illinois! And for those of you who aren't familiar with the area, that usually means we won't be able to get out of our house for three days. Fortunately the snow plows learned from their mistakes and it wasn't too bad out there. So after shoveling the driveway at 5am we were ready to hit the road. Tommy was the hit of the daycare and everybody had to keep dropping in to see him all day I was told.

Jenny & Tommy on the First Day of Work and School

Dunkin & Gracie Before Their Much Anticipated Nap

Even though this onesie is about 6 months too big still, Tom couldn't wait to try it on him. There aren't many options for this little guy...Ohio State...Mechanical Engineering...Caterpillar. Sure hope he likes cars, trucks, and big noisy machines.

Tommy in His First Cat Outfit

And the weekend wouldn't be complete without the Superbowl. Tommy was more interested in trying to say his first words with Wang and showing off the belly he has got going than the final score. What a final drive though.

Tommy & Dave Practicing Words

Tommy & His Belly