Xmas Part II

Christmas helpers get distracted easily

Thomas enjoys a gift from his Godmother


Time to eat, all this play makes me hungry.

Trust me, Santa, I have been real good.

More fun as we get to it from the frosty confines of greater metropolitan u know where....

Merry Ho Ho

One big happy family 2009 Merry Christmas!

Tomorrow's headline-"Gift bag bigger than Thomas sends Santa to the Chiropractor"

Sharing the love with Shelby.

6 more months then I get to use this!
Good thing I have lots of books!

Santa's helper surprises Christopher at work(by not getting the carts out of the parking lot!)

So hopefully everyone had a great holiday and were surrounded by the blessings of family.

Thomas got many neat toys to grow into since he seems to get/and enjoy the ones for ages 3 and up! He also got to eat lots of junk food and someone, a few aunts I think, kept him on the soda train for the last week, yippee for burpy kids and messy diapers! It was good to get another Xmas under our belt, Thomas really enjoyed seeing everyone, playing with the dogs and checking out meticulously each and every gift. Thomas still hasn't gotten the whole part about ripping through the wrapping paper with wild abandon, maybe next year.

In Loving Memory of Timothy Thomas Laufenberg

On Dec. 13 2009, Thomas lost his Uncle Timmy. My beloved wife tells it best below.

It is with GREAT sadness that I share the news that my beloved little brother, Timmy (My "Budda Man") was killed in a truck accident early Sunday Morning, here in Katy, Texas. He turned 18 in July. He died instantly when the truck he was in, hit a tree and burst into flames, all three kids were killed. It came as a shock and we are still trying to deal with the event. This is still a fairly small town and all the local high school students are grieving along with us. We finally received word today that his body will be released to the Neptune Society and we can plan a service. As of tonight, we do not have a day or time for the memorial service, but we are meeting with our Pastor in the morning. The local news picked up on the story and information (and sadly) video can be located online. My older brother Tim (Yes, I have two brothers named Tim) created a page on Facebook: "RIP Tim Laufenberg" if you are interesting in reading ALL the amazing things Timmy's friends have had to say. News reporters came to the house today and interviewd my Dad. He did very well and held it together. Timmy was on several bowling teams and the teams gathered tonight at the bowling alley, in his memory. They also signed one of Tim's bowling balls to give to Mom & Dad. In lieu of flowers or cards, please make any donations to Cystic Fibrosis in honor of Timmy: http://www.cff.org/ Cystic Fibrosis Foundation USASFA, INC PO Box 1618 Gresham, Or 97030-0519 I am ever so grateful that Dave, Thomas and I moved to Katy and have had this amazing last year with Timmy and feel blessed that our entire family could gather moments after the news was shared with my Mom. There are no words to console us, but knowing family & friends are praying for us, help. Timmy will be remembered for his smile, laughter and quick wit, bowling a 299, stinking out a room, eating mustard flavored pretzels and making my son Thomas laugh. He always told me he loved me (followed with a kiss) even when he was with his friends. Thomas Liam will grow up hearing stories and seeing pictures of his Uncle Timmy, as many as I can share, daily. My heart aches as I think about each day without him - NOT at the family dinner table, NOT running around the swimming pool, NOT leaving his many pairs of shoes by the front door, NOT being home on time, and NOT BEING WITH US!!! It still feels like a dream and I wish I could pray it all away. So many questions linger for me. I took an old sweatshirt of Budda's and have in hanging in our bedroom. For now, my questions will have to wait. Timmy came to us as a surprise one day as a foster child needing a home. Without telling us, my Dad took the call, went to the hospital and brought home a very sick baby. Within minutes we all fell in love with Timothy Thomas and nurtured him to health - by his 3rd birthday he was an official Laufenberg and brought us JOY every single day. I love you my sweet Budda Man and I know that you are sitting in God's lap, smiling and breathing easy. ALL my love and admiration, xoxoxoxoxoxox TC Dave and Thomas love you too!!

Snow day!

Woo hoo!...It snowed here for the first time since December of last year. Earliest snow ever for SE Texas....Thomas had never seen snow while we were in Alaska so this was new and required caution initially. He still doesn't really know what to make of it, but knows it is cold and wet and he didn't like falling over in it. Then again it wasn't like we had toddler snow clothes on hand for the one snow event we get a year here.

We did dress him up not once, not twice, but three times and take him out as different relatives arrived and wanted to experience it with him. I had forgotten from my time with the Anchorage School District how much work that was getting a toddler geared up for wet cold snow! The first step, as you see above, is finding the right footwear.(or in this case, the closest thing to "right"). Getting the jacket on was another story but this is about snow, not dressing toddlers.

Here he is being offered his first snowball.

He was so unsure about it I couldn't get him to even try eating it even after watching me eat some (and this little guy doesn't like missing meals any more than his dad). But as you can see he was a willing participant from the standpoint of casual observer...maybe next year's snow day will be a snowman and snowball fight..and some proper gloves!

Outdoors in Fall

Okay so Thomas is getting more independent, more mobile, and he is also getting his wits about him. So why not hit the outdoors a bit more often, meet the neighborhood kids, and just enjoy the cooler weather. It is good to get around his peers you know, adults can be soooo boring to a kid I have heard.

We are taking him out in the afternoon to play in the yard with balls(his favorite) and his new trike. I admit it is a bit advanced for him but it keeps him occupied and the neighborhood kids , who do fit on it, well they love it. And you know how he is about anything with wheels...
He likes to be around the kids, is really good about sharing and right now is just observing how they interact. Gotta keep an eye on him of course, he is only 17 months and on a whim could take off down the sidewalk. Here he is checking out a lineup of toys while the girls borrow his trike again...

It is good for an afternoon activity right before dinner/bath/then bed time since the kids are out of school and parents are getting home too. One day I came home from the store and let Thomas play while I unloaded(Grandma was here) and before I knew it there were four moms, easily a dozen kids and two dads in the street in front of our house passing footballs, riding bikes and trikes and big wheels, collecting acorns (for school?), tossing toys and even playing on a portable slide. C'est la Vie! It was a good time and we enjoy our neighbors.

I know my A B C 's from going to the park!

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.