Thanksgiving Part 1

How to make a Thanksgiving card.

Well it is important with impetuous, curious toddlers that other needs are met before submitting their cooperation in the task of creating any type of homemade card(translation: well fed and distracted). For this event, it went down immediately after dinner, so he was fed and reasonably sedate. So we got his tray cleared and stripped the clothes, which is standard after post-dining procedure as a bath is imminent.

For this card, we required a handprint of one color for the turkey's body and four fingers of separate colors for the feathers. But how do you do that in one sitting....paint the hand and all four fingers first?...yeah right!

As you can see the toddler is focused on the task(good man, that). Unfortunately what this image does not show is that once we went to put a different color on the 1st finger-into the mouth went the hand. It is not good for a toddler to realize what he thought was chocolate is really paint! So what are parents to do....A distraction was necessary.

As you can see there is now a sucker sticking in my young son's mouth...the only Dum-Dum sucker in the house(you know, like they get at the doctors to stop the crying). So time is limited, we have to move fast.

Opting instead to do it one finger at a time, one color at a time we kept it cleaner however we fast ran out of sucker(see above). Already the little man is thinking about where this wet finger should go besides the nice little card in front of him...

With a little cooperation from an off camera dad and a lot of dickering and fuss, it can be done if you plan it right! Yeah, good job Mommy and Tommy!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS

EVERY DAY IS A GIFT

Thanksgiving week

Here we go! It wasn't a day after Halloween and the retailers were getting a jump on the Holidays with their Christmas decorations going up. The weeks leading up to the holidays are brisk and Thomas has grown equally as fast before our eyes. TC said today that Thomas became a "little man" overnight. He has grown considerably and it is hard to remember what it was like when he was an infant (see our earliest posts if you forgot too). Words of all sorts and sounds are falling from his lips daily, but "ball" and "balloon" have been the popular ones lately, with "uh-oh" being up there in a close second place.

Here's a big uh-oh...his feet don't reach the pedals yet, but he enjoys getting pushed around on this latest find..still learning how to stay on it without sliding off one side or the other. Balance is still kinda a challenge to our little one...

Speaking of balance, I don't know how this got started, but one day the kids from the entire street ended up playing in our drive with theirs and Thomas' toys...Though he did this on his own, he hasn't tried this stunt below again. It was a few second photo opp. by mom while dad is off camera(see my shadow) close by to prevent boo-boos..

Personality is really showing and we catch him dancing and clapping hands more often now when there's music playing. He is always grinning and giggly and definitely still just as mischievous. During his latest visit from GiGi he picked up this table for laying tracks and playing trains and cars, and of course as excited as Uncle Chris was that GiGi could get this, Thomas had to claim it for his own throne! We have since discouraged this since it makes it hard for Christopher to enjoy it too(sort of).

GiGi

All this blogging and emailed photos from the wife has prompted GiGi to fly in for a quick/5 day grandson fix...so what a blur it was, we stayed busy and Thomas loved having his GiGi to help Nana and Auntie spoil him...

Thomas got to show GiGi some of the things he likes to do around the house....

Messy spaghetti!

And here they are planning their next adventure.
Thanks for the visit GIGI, can't wait to see you again!

Fall

We are well into fall and our little man is keeping us busy...whose idea was it anyways to get him on a schedule?! The third weekend in October found us in College Station and me coaching Christopher's team, the Katy Wolf pack, for the Special Olympics State Games. Thomas decided it was not on his schedule to cooperate. The game schedule was not the same as his, so naps were off, sounds were different/noisy people at the games, the weather was windy and chilly...like he really needed more than one reason to be grumpy...he weathered it well as the pictures show. I think next time he can stay home with his toys and mother so he is not distracted by our games!

To keep him busy we went for a run at the park and found a slide to play on, something familiar for him to break up the monotony of adult activities.....

During one of our "wait" periods (that would be the latter part of "hurry up and wait") we found a costume shop at the mall to keep the kids busy and there is where we came across Thomas' costume for this year. He was not impressed at first....

The day we returned he slept very well, waking with the classic look of a hangover complete with bedhead!

SOoooo here he is, given a week to get acclimated to his costume, we actually were able to keep the headgear on for a whole 5 minutes!(7 according to his mother)

wagon fun

How does one get to the perfect, fabled white pumpkin of dubious Halloween lore.....well if you are a toddler it is all about the wagon, or at least getting into one...

Have a parent nearby who is not taking pictures "spot" you....

It helps sometimes to stretch before strenuous maneuvers

It is all about balance!



Okay let's go!







Finding the right one for Thomas....

Pumpkin patch

Never underestimate a child's ability to adapt to the unknown...you never know with a pumpkin patch how a toddler is going to react. Vibrant Fall colors, oddly shaped vegetables and harvest related items, scarecrows and other costumed caricatures. Usually between 1 and 2 years of age I have been cautioned that toddlers are most wary and frightened by strangers, strangeness and especially caricatures.

Thomas was curious from the start and although cautious at first when he was surrounded by large orange orbs he was not familiar with, he found solace with a wagon and managed to enjoy learning how that worked. Several workers were using larger wagons to bring out more pumpkins and this fascinated him. The key to this success was preparation-he had eaten, was in and out w/o interfering with nap time, was not in a noisy crowded(i.e. overstimulating) environment, and there was another toddler there to validate the "OK for kids" factor.

All in all a great day for photography with the subdued light and rich colors, plus mom and dad now use two digital cameras to facilitate a better angle/shot between the two of us.

Thomas is seen here in a wagon with the winner, a smallish pumpkin that, after sharing a ride in the wagon now resides on our doorstep.

Thomas walks Max

So Thomas is getting bigger and learning how to help out around the house. He helps mommy with laundry/dishes and daddy in the yard. We thought we would give the little man more responsibility and have him walk Max, his Godfather's dog. Max usually doesn't let Thomas get very close to him, but is a gentle accomplice in this video.

The young man to the right is Godfather's son Brian(yes he has grown) and TC narrates near the end.