USS Yorktown

Last Saturday we used our Be A Tourist passes to visit the USS Yorktown. I hadn't been in many, many years, and even though it was a bit chilly, we still had a good time.

Thomas and his Dad sat in the cockpit of an old Cougar. Thomas thought that was pretty neat:


And from afar:


Thomas wasn't nearly as interested in standing in front of a plane. I forced him to though because I'm pretty sure this is a plane (the Corsair) that my Granddaddy once flew as a Marine Corps pilot.

Planes sure have a changed a little since then, haven't they?

Thomas and his friends (children of some of our friends who met us there) checked out the space module thing that was there. I guess all types of flight were represented, not just those that might land on an aircraft carrier!


If there is a wheel in his sight, Thomas must touch it!


Too bad the flash didn't go off (and Trey's eyes were closed) with this nifty view on a very overcast day:


Flash went off here, but Thomas didn't feel like smiling...


Then we headed up to the flight deck. First Thomas had to get his pilot's briefing:


After a few flights of stairs, and one last narrow hallway, we were nearly there:


As soon as we hit the flight deck, Thomas rushed to the nearest "wheel"!


Another with the pretty Cooper River Bridge (AKA Ravenel bridge, but I can't seem to call it that) in the background:


Another attempt at posing in front of a plane:


By the time we were heading to the car, we had to pull out a paci to satisfy our fussy little man:


And one last look at the ship before we headed off for lunch at Thomas's favorite place, Moe's!


We did make it to see Fort Sumter today, even though it was very chilly! I hopefully will get the pictures up from that and our Tuesday trip to Magnolia Plantation very soon! Haircut is still in the works, by the way... :-)

Charles Towne Landing

Continuing with the Be a Tourist pass, I took Thomas to Charles Towne Landing last Thursday. It was overcast and most of the animals were hiding, but we had a good time anyway. Here he is checking out the turkeys:

His friend E had a stick, so I had to find him one too. He held onto it for quite a while.

The boy likes to RUN (often with his eyes closed):


I need to edit this picture to crop in tighter (and will when I go to the other computer), because I swear I can almost see what he'll look like as a big boy!


And this next picture is one of the funniest pictures I've ever taken of Thomas. He was standing there with his friend E (my friend's daughter), and he totally looks like he's trying to pick her up. "Hey, how you doin'?"


We have since also been to the Yorktown and Magnolia Plantation. If the weather cooperates tomorrow we'll check out Fort Sumter. Pictures to come...

21 months old!

A week ago Thomas turned 21 months! I seem to be getting worse and worse about getting these updates on time, but I guess it's always better late than never. He wanted absolutely nothing to do with having his picture taken this month though. I kept forgetting to do it, and then when I remembered and said I was just going to make it work, he had just awakened from his nap and wasn't in his best mood. So for the first time in 21 months, I don't have a lot of happy boy pictures. I still, however, have a very happy boy...even if you can't tell from these pictures.



Thomas is such a joy. He talks all the time and his vocabulary has really exploded. It's quite amazing. I can't list all the words he can say, but his newest ones are drive, sunshine and when he attempts to say his own name, it comes out something like "Ty-puss." I'm not sure why his name comes out so strangely as he can say "muss" without "tom" in front, but not together. We'll keep working on it. I've been trying to teach him how to answer, "How old are you?," but every time I tell him "one" he says "TWO!"

I've also continued to work at teaching him colors. I was so proud of him Friday night at dinner. He had a cup full of crayons of various colors. He was saying "blue," so I asked him to find the blue one and he did! Other colors he will repeat after me, but hasn't quite mastered which ones are which.

He is obsessed with all things with wheels, still. I thought it was a fluke the other day when he picked out a car like my mom's in a parking lot, pointed to it and said, "Nannie!" But this morning he saw one on the interstate and again pointed to it and said, "Nannie!" It's amazing how he can tell the difference in that model from the others! He also always finds Jeeps, buses (busses?), garbage trucks, dump trucks and large trucks.

He continues to be a picky eater, but his allergies seem to be lessening, so at least he is able to eat more. While with my parents last weekend I was amazed that my mom got him to eat peas (we thought we had tried everything!) by putting some apricot preserves on them. Sounds gross, but it worked. Since then I've got him to eat peas and beans on a few occasions by repeating the trick. Hopefully one day he will love vegetables like his dad! And speaking of eating, he loves to eat at Moe's. Tuesday night I took him there with a friend and her son for kid's night. The next night he sat down in his chair with that night's food (something exciting I prepared). He took one look at it, looked back up at me and said, "Moe's!?" Sometimes if you ask him where he likes to eat he will say emphatically "Moe's!"

Thomas is such a happy, loving child. He loves to run full speed down the hall, open his arms wide and jump into my arms. He loves to ask for and give hugs. He also loves to blow kisses ("Mwah!") and sometimes he just wants to hold your hand (while sitting or walking).

One thing of which I'm especially glad is how much he enjoys reading. Many times he will just sit on the floor, or at his table, or in his crib and just look at books. He can often be calmed in the car by looking through the pages of one of his favorite books. And of course he also loves to bring them to us to actually read to him. I hope he will always keep this love!

Once agan, I'm sure I am forgetting some things, but I've been working on this (in between a phone call) for a LONG time and I'm ready to call it a night. :) Hopefully I've covered the basics. Thomas is my heart and it's a joy watching him learn and grow. Here are the rest of the pictures from our not-so-fabulous photo shoot:



I don't know how tall he is, but he's pretty tall. He is taller than most of his "friends" who are a few months older than him. And he's not much smaller than some of his 2+ year old friends.


Almost a smile...




He's probably getting his first haircut this week (if I can make the appointment). So this will be one of the last pictures of this. Sigh. :-) His dad, however, will probably not be so sad to see the locks go!


Oh, one more thing, I'm 25 weeks pregnant today (Hooray!). Thomas will sometimes come up to me when I'm laying down and say, "baby!" and then he'll lift up my shirt a little and put his hands on my belly. He has felt the baby move a few times (and always nearly raises his eyebrows when he does!). It's so sweet. I'm trying to thoroughly enjoy these next 15 weeks of life just with the two of us.

Being a tourist

I'll start off with a picture from our field trip just for fun, then explain more on the other side:


The Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday and issues with our refrigerator (along with Trey being out of town for nearly two weeks) coincided and provided the perfect opportunity for me to load up Thomas (and all of our perishables) and visit my parents for a couple of nights. Thomas thoroughly enjoyed his time with his grandparents, and I enjoyed a little bit of a much needed break. In fact, since then he has frequently had "conversations" with me that go something like this: "Papa! Boat! Truck! Papa! Nannie! Lawn Mower!" Since Mom had the day off on Monday (and Dad too, but he had an appointment in the morning), we decided to make use of the Be A Tourist in Your Own Town passes that have been burning a hole in my diaper bag for weeks and go visit Cypress Gardens.

Since it was barely in the 40s that day, we decided to pass on all of the wonderful outdoor things to see there (we'll go back again and try out the glass-bottom boats and nature trails), and we stuck with the indoor things: butterfly house, Crocodile Isle, aquarium and reptile house.

At first he was afraid of all the butterflies fluttering around him, but pretty soon he was asking if he could "pat-pat" them all.









(Those upper canines are finally coming in, which means his fingers are frequently in his mouth!)

He really enjoyed playing with the doors on the way out. Oh the simple pleasures in life!


What he enjoyed most while there was this little thing in the Crocodile Isle area. He did not want to leave it!




He really wanted to pet Pedro the humongous tortoise there. It says he should live to be 150 years old! He's only about 18 now. Wow.


The aquarium was simple, but Thomas still enjoyed it:


Then we hung out briefly with the reptiles (no pictures, unfortunately) before it was time to head home for lunch. On the way out Thomas found the tractor in the top picture in a little garden area. Only a little cracker bribery worked to get him away from that!

It was a fun day (just an hour or two), and nice to enjoy some of the attractions in our area that we often forget! I've got two more posts that I need to get up soon. Hopefully I will, but we are enjoying a much needed weekend with Thomas's daddy! :-) Thomas was so excited when he realized he was here this morning it warmed my heart. He ran to the bedroom and couldn't hug him enough. I loved it and only wish I had it on video. Have a happy weekend!

Happy Birthday Granddaddy!!!

Thomas would like to wish a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY today to his Granddaddy!









We wish we could see you today and give your our birthday wishes in person, but we'll just have to do it from afar. Hope you are staying warm today and enjoying yourself on your day!

Rainy day fun

Thomas's dad is back on the road again, so maybe I'll get better at updating this blog a little more frequently. I know he'd appreciate it.

Yesterday it rained all day long so Thomas and I stayed home. I made sure we both were wearing the most comfortable clothes we have (that aren't pajamas) and we entertained ourselves by singing silly songs and playing with the usual toys. Then I decided we'd try to make some chocolate chip cookies together and Thomas really enjoyed watching the mixer and putting different things in it (as I told him to). I'm so happy he's getting to be the age where he enjoys things like this. It was a lot of fun.

Ignore the messy kitchen please...






And after all was baked and finished, Thomas got to try his first chocolate chip cookie. Honestly he wasn't all that interested in it. It's okay, since his mom is more than willing to take care of all of them. :)


And here's a cute picture from a week ago...


And here's a video from a couple days ago. Nothing overly special, just a little over a minute of Thomas being Thomas. I didn't realize until I watched it back that when Thomas handed me the See N' Say he was saying "E-I-E-I," which is how he refers to the Old McDonald song. And of course, that song is on the See N' Say. Anyway, and it was too big of a file to upload to Clipshack, so I had to use Dropshots and the quality is not quite as good. But anyway, here it is...



Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

A happy start to the new year

On New Year's Eve we met some friends of ours downtown at the family event held each year at Marion Square. We hung out there for a short while before grabbing a bite to eat.

Thomas enjoyed seeing all the lights still on display. But he didn't feel much like cooperating for a family picture (as usual!):


Here he and his Dad were hanging out with our friends' daughter (she's our friend too!):


After dinner we came back over to enjoy the lights some more and enjoy some of the food the event had to offer. Our friend and her daughter tried out the funnel cake:


Thomas and his daddy took a little stroll:


Then it was time to go:


We were home by 8:30 (we're such party people these days!), but unfortunately the fireworks in the neighborhood kept Thomas from staying happily in his crib, so we hung out together on our bed until he finally went to sleep around 10:00!

The next day we went up to Nannie & Papa's house for our traditional New Year's meal -- including greens and hoppin' John! We can use all the money and luck we can get in 2008!

The highlight of Thomas's day was probably when his Nannie let him have a handful of ice chips in this container. He was in heaven.


We attempted some family pictures, but Thomas didn't want to pose much. The phone was about all that would keep him still in this picture with his Nannie & Papa!


But he managed a (bit of a nervous) smile for this (this is what happens when we try to take pictures too close to naptime!):


And another family picture:


He can always be entertained by a phone...


Afterwards Nannie took him to the garage to see his one last Christmas present from them...a table and chairs painted just for him (by his Nannie). Now that we have it at home, he loves it very much (except he always wants me to sit there with him!).


And now I'm finally caught up with Christmas and New Year's!