one year

one year ago

today

walking around the neighborhood

It's been a long couple of days at our house with both Thomas and M down with colds. The relentless rains haven't helped our moods either so when the clouds finally broke this afternoon and the rain stopped, I couldn't resist taking Thomas out for a little walk around our neighborhood. He really enjoys going on walks. Since he began walking early last summer, we've walked around the 'hood a lot. Yet, even as we traverse the same streets, he always finds something new to catch his interest. Today it was the set of steps outside one building (he walked up and down, up and down, up and down...) and this little entrance nook to a small corner bar. I love that he forces us to slow down and really see things on these walks. I now know this bar is a non-smoking establishment and was a local newspaper's top pick (...really?!?).

yummy! yummy!

Thomas loves pasta. He'll eat it any way that it is prepared. With veggies or without veggies. With a marinara sauce, an alfredo sauce, a meat sauce, or no sauce. With parmesan cheese sprinkled on top or not. In soups, as a meal or in a casserole. It's all good to him.

I love pasta because he can easily feed himself while I enjoy my own meal.

We eat a lot of pasta.

Boo!

Thomas enjoys his first taste of a lollipop from his Halloween loot

Dragon costume ~ he doesn't look happy in any of these photos,

but he honestly didn't mind the costume at all!

T & his pumpkins

Pictured left to right: Tigger, the skull, Thomas and Scooby Doo

Annual Squishing of the Squash

This photo is off the zoo's website because our photos didn't turn out quite as nicely. It's a little hard to hold Thomas and snap photos over the heads of a few adults at the same time. We joined Thomas' playgroup to watch this annual Halloween event this morning at the Oregon Zoo. Three elephants walked out single file, each holding the tail of the elephant in front of them. They made a big circle and then lined up side by side and lifted their front feet in unison as pictured above. After a brief minute for photos, the trainers released the elephants and the three marched up to the huge pumpkin waiting for them and proceeded to stomp and eat it. It was actually quite fun to watch! It was also nice to be at the zoo so early on a cool Fall morning because the animals were all being fed and were surprisingly active.

color

Thomas loves to color. I use the term color loosely because it isn't necessarily coloring, but a bunch of random scribbles instead. He colors in the bathtub with bath crayons and in his sketch book with real crayons. Pens, pencils, crayons... he calls them all color. It's become our new favorite word of his. Apparently Bela also loves to color because she'd never voluntarily lay this close to Thomas. Maybe they smell like treats?

in search of the great pumpkin

The weather was beautiful this afternoon for our trip out to a pumpkin patch. Thomas helped us pick out three perfect pumpkins to grace our front porch. There were all sorts of fun activities and farm animals to enjoy in addition to the yummy treats sold in the little store. Best part for us was the mid-week "crowd" (huh? what crowd??) and the fudge. Best part for Thomas was this friendly Labrador who greeted us when we arrived. She was the perfect host ~ happily accepting all the love Thomas had to give and walking with us out to the pumpkins!

17 months

Since Thomas was born on a Friday the 13th, it'll always be a very good day for us...

our growing family

Two adults, one toddler and two dogs just wasn't enough. Today we've added three guppies to our family. I had intended to get two goldfish, but when I told the saleslady that I wanted to put two of those in a 2 gallon bowl she quickly steered me to the smaller fish. I guess they would need a little more space than our little bowl (who knew?). We picked out our three new guppies, a new plant for the fish bowl and the woman directed us to some water conditioner and salt something or another that we would also need. We had the fish bowl and some pretty blue rocks at home so I figured we were all set. Nope. I forgot fish food.

musical chairs, anyone?

Today marked an entirely new car riding experience for Thomas -- we turned him around so he now faces forward. As with anything child-related, I had read several different recommendations as to when to make this change. Everyone seems to have an opinion. We had decided to put it off until he weighed closer to 30 pounds. Not sure if that's where he's at right now, but he feels pretty close and we're comfortable with spinning the seat around. He didn't mind facing backward, but seems maybe just a little happier to be facing forward.

Of course, having him face forward and now seated behind the passenger seat is totally throwing me off. For the past 16+ months I've been watching him via the rear view mirror (and another mounted on the backseat). Now I only get a partial view of him in the rear view mirror and instead need to peek over my shoulder to see him. While out driving this afternoon, I found myself constantly checking the rear view mirror and, on more than one occasion, wondering where Thomas was...

new photos!

Our home computer has been back up and running for almost a week now. Last night M was able to get the digital camera to download photos again to the computer. Not sure what happened there, but the two weren't finding each other. I thought I'd have a whole bunch of photos during this interim, but I really didn't. I'll post a few here that were taken these last few weeks...

a splishin' and a splashin'

A previous post included a photo of Thomas in the casting pond as it was being filled. He enjoyed splashing around in the water and getting his jeans totally soaked.

Greta plants herself

I tell her she's beautiful and smells pretty all the time. She must think she's a flower. I caught her one afternoon sunning herself in the planter. Silly dog.

Thomas' playroom

Toys here, toys there, toys everywhere. One of my pet peeves is coming home to a front room cluttered with toys. Books over here, plastic cars over there. A stuffed animal in the planter. A ball on top of the dining room table. It really bugs me. And now that Thomas is getting older and accumulating even more toys, the problem was growing. Our solution? A playroom. All the toys reside in there and at the end of the day when he's long asleep, I can close the door. I love the playroom!

still smiling

Over the last two weeks, all three of us have had this cold. Thomas was the only one smiling while down with it though.

chipmunk Thomas

A new exhibit in the Science Playground at OMSI invites children to see the world from our furry little friends' perspective. They can wear these little costumes, climb into a bird's nest, and enjoy all sorts of other fun activities.

Halloween shopping

Kind of cute as an Elvis impersonator, eh? We didn't go with this costume idea.

riding in the front seat

When I need to move the Mercedes into the street, I often take Thomas with me and plop him down on the front seat. He loves it.

Hollywood comes to the 'hood

Thomas and I rode our bikes over to watch filming of Sean Penn's new movie "Into the Wild". They have been in production on the Oregon coast since June, but have now moved inland and landed right in our 'hood. We weren't able to get too close as they were in the middle of filming, but I did snap a few photos of what we were able to see. Right behind the blue newspaper stand above are actors William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden. The guy to the left in a gray t-shirt and jeans is director Sean Penn. Also starring in this film are actors Vince Vaughn and Catherine Keener, but we didn't see either today.

.

After they finished shooting one scene, I figured we had seen enough and Thomas and I started walking our bike down the block away from the shoot. Marcia Gay Harden was coming up behind us and stopped when she reached us to gush over Thomas. She and her assistant oohed and aahed over him, commenting on how adorable he is. Marcia asked if he was almost two, made a few comments about the monkeys on his bicycle helmet and said our setup with the bicycle and bicycle trailer looked like a lot of fun. Her face was familiar but I could not remember her name or think of anything intelligent to say. I resorted to the normal small talk I'd do with any stranger. Of course, once we got home I had to look her up online to find out her name. Marcia Gay Harden! Duh.

.

local celebrity?

This photo of Thomas appeared in the local newspaper today. By 8am this morning, we had already received a phone call and an e-mail from people who had seen the photo. Last Friday Thomas and I joined his playgroup at the nearby park as the casting pond began to be filled for the first time in 5 years. Quite the excitement for our little neighborhood!

new words and signs

Thomas' communication skills are growing by leaps and bounds. He's been adding new words and sounds to his vocabulary, picking up new signs for other words and can point to more body parts almost on a daily basis. I know he understands way more than he is able to communicate to us, but it still awes me when totally out of the blue I'll ask him something like where is your hair? and he'll immediately point to the part in question. His vocabulary consists of around 30 words and he can sign another 16 or so words. He will point to major body parts when asked where they are. Of course, if you spent time with Thomas, you'd think he only knows one word - car.

[Note: Our home computer is experiencing technical difficulties. Posts will be few and photos nil until the problems get resolved. I'm still snapping many, many photos -- I just have no way to download them off the camera. Grrrr... Once the problem is fixed, I'm sure I'll post a whole slew of photos in a single post! Brace yourselves.]

summer continues!

mama's little helper

Thomas loves dill pickles

.

Every few weeks I think to myself this is the best time -- how could it possibly get any better, he become any cuter, or Thomas be any more fun than he is right now? and then a few weeks will go by and again I'll think the same thing at that exact moment. He's developing into such a fun little boy.

Thomas has also become a great little helper. Moving furniture, raking leaves, folding laundry, running the vacuum, bathing the dogs... whatever it is that I'm doing, he wants to be there helping me. I tell him that these same activities can be his responsibility when he's older if he wants. [wink.]

Fall is upon us

As the days get shorter, Thomas and I have been out savoring these last days of summer and welcoming fall. Yesterday was cool enough to warrant pulling out some longer pants, warmer shirts and his Disney winter coat. I had received this coat as part of a gift set prior to Thomas' birth but this was the first time he had actually worn it. I wanted to take some photos to send to the gift-giver so Thomas and I walked up and down our street seeking out photo ops.


watching the neighbor's remodel project ~ another neighbor's extremely tolerant cat (neither were harmed in the taking of this photo!)

16 months

I was busy in the kitchen yesterday afternoon but keeping an ear out for Thomas as he ran around the house playing. After what must have been 15 minutes of quiet, I went looking and found him in the spare room reading a book quietly by himself. Sometimes he's so serious!

.

a Grandma like no other

Thomas is fortunate to have the kind of Grandma that every kid dreams of. She is amazing with him and he loves to be with her. This last weekend she gave us a much-needed break, coming over to stay with him and the girls so we could get away for an evening. He's a lucky little guy to have her (as are we!).

.

*Grandpa missed Grandma and also came over to bring dinner and camp out. Sounds like we missed some good times here at home!

he sleeps like a horse -- literally!

It's been a long week at our house and none of us have really had adequate or restful sleep. It seems possible that the new upper molars are really causing Thomas much grief. For the last two days he has refused to lay down and sleep in his crib - both at night and during the afternoon. Last night we listened as our fantastic little sleeper cried it out for 45 minutes before finally settling down to sleep. Only, when I checked on him before going to bed myself, I found him asleep standing up. Again this afternoon he fought the nap and after a 15 minute period of quiet, I checked on him to find him asleep standing up. I thought only horses were known to do this!

At any rate, my fingers are crossed that things are turning around. He hasn't had much of an appetite this week, but today he ate like a horse. He could not get enough. And when I put him down for the night, he cried for about a minute but then fell fast asleep. Let's hope he stays asleep and this becomes the new trend...

Harvest Festival

We spent the morning at the Pumpkin Patch on Sauvie Island for the annual Harvest Festival with M's brother and his family. Thomas and his cousin enjoyed visiting the barn full of farm animals, playing on farm equipment, running through the u-pick flower field, getting lost in the corn maize and taking a ride on the cow train. Good times!

T gets a better view of the corn maize on his dad's shoulders!

(fi) sshhh at the Japanese Garden

It's been really fun for us to watch Thomas' language skills develop. He uses sign language for some words and verbalizes others. Sometimes the sign is accompanied by the word or what he says for the word. Just this week he started to sign/say words like banana, telephone and Neha (his friend from down the street). But one of my favorites is still fish. He leaves off the F and the I so it's just ssshhh. I love hearing it so much that I'm convinced we need to get him a pet fish.

This morning we visited the Japanese Garden with his cousin and aunt. As beautiful as the Garden and structures are, the Koi pond area was probably the most fun for both kids. There were so many swimming around and each one is so unique. Thomas recognized them and said ssshhh. Again I'm convinced he needs one. Not a Koi, but a fat little orange goldfish with bulging eyes...