Birthday party #2

Yesterday we held a family birthday party for Thomas. This was his "real" birthday party! Trey had reserves duty for the Air Force all day, so Thomas's grandparents (Nana & Grandpa) graciously came down and whisked Thomas away for the morning so I could finish some last minute preparations. That was a tremendous help and I know Thomas had a ball with them. Definitely looks like it from this picture they sent me:

(and yes, he has the same outfit on as the previous day. I had washed it, but his wardrobe right now is a bit bare!)

It's amazing how productive I can be when I don't have a little munchkin pulling on my leg! Anytime they want to come back and do the same, they are always welcome.

In the afternoon the rest of the family gathered to celebrate with Thomas on the occasion of his second birthday! Thomas thoroughly enjoyed seeing them all!

He shared a moment with Papa...


Thomas is the IV. Here he is on the couch hanging out with III and Jr. :) Also known as Daddy & Grandpa.

After an easy dinner, it was time for cake #2. This time I left it to the professionals.


His daddy showed him what to do...


And finally Thomas figured it out!




After he (or his Dad) blew them out the first time, he immediately asked for them to be "ON!" again. It was too cute and we obliged once.

Afterwards he opened some gifts. A few pictures from that...

He was happy to learn his Nannie & Papa have ensured yet another year of SC Aquarium membership. I'm not sure what we'd do without that!


He was very excited about the new shoes his Nana & Grandpa gave to him, including his new Crocs.

All day today he was "shoes on" and "shoes off" as he alternated between his two new pairs.

And as he always loves anything with wheels, he was greatly excited about all of his new beach toys from his Aunt B, Uncle A and cousin Eliza!


Speaking of Eliza, he was definitely glad she came to his party. And I'm sure he was sad to see her go...


And he had to make sure to give his other Aunt B a big hug before she left!


We certainly enjoyed the time with family and we thank all of you for coming to share in Thomas's special day. Even though Thomas wasn't feeling his best, I know he enjoyed each and every moment and he can't wait to see you again!

Birthday party #1

Thomas has had a busy weekend of birthday fun. We decided to go with a much smaller celebration this year since Thomas is still not of the age where he's really aware of what a birthday is, along with the fact that I am very pregnant and not really able to do too much. Thomas promises me he understands and forgives my laziness. ;-)

I knew he'd be perfectly content with just celebrating the day with his family, but I decided rather late in the game to also take him to Chuck E. Cheese along with a couple of friends to allow him some playtime. So on Friday we spent some time there and Thomas had a ball. A few times, he did ask to go see "the mouse."



He was very happy to see his friend Bob the Builder (the boy loves tractors!):


But he continues to "ride" in his own way. Part of the time he would ride this ride, he'd try to sit in the mouse's lap. Other times in this ride and others, he'd jump out before he stayed very long at all. Whatever makes him smile, I guess!


And of course he most wanted in the rides when he saw one of his friends in them. Here he's waiting on his friend E to finish driving:


Then it was time for one of his favorite foods, pizza. Afterwards we sang Happy Birthday and let him try to blow out candles on his cake (no ridiculing my cake decorating "skills," please). His friend J tried to show him how it's done!


We had a good time and it was great cake practice for his family party on Saturday.

Full term!!!

Today has been a very important day. I figure I'll do the big birthday post next so that it will stay on "top," but I must also note the other significance of today. According to my calendar, I have officially reached the point of being full term in this pregnancy -- 37 weeks (according to my doctor's dates, this happened on Friday)!!! As people who are familiar with my previous experiences with pregnancy, I've been a bit prone to unbelievable drama and issues, so this is such a milestone to make it to this point with nothing overtly out of the ordinary to note (knock on wood!). To mark the occasion, I put together the crib today and the new nursery chair over the weekend. The room is slowly coming together (Caroline, if you read this, you'll be happy to know!). :-)

Hopefully the baby will stay put for the next couple of weeks at least. And as the baby's daddy is about to hit the road again, I sure would appreciate it if this baby could cooperate and only want to be born on a weekend. Please tell me that's not wishful thinking.

Thank you to all of you who have supported me and prayed for me to make it to this point. Please continue to hope and pray that this pregnancy comes to a happy and healthy end at the appropriate time and place!

Saturdays with Daddy

The past two Saturdays Trey has taken Thomas and spent the day with him. Last weekend it allowed me and my mom to accomplish some much needed painting around the house. This past weekend the reason wasn't a happy one (I had to attend a funeral), but Trey and Thomas made the best of it and had a ball. And both weekends Trey met up with one of his guy friends and their children to do something fun and/or have lunch.

This past weekend he met Thomas's great friend Lily and her dad (a Citadel classmate of Trey's) at the beach. Trey didn't bring along a camera, so I lifted this picture from Lily's mom's blog:
I certainly get my fair share of alone time with Thomas, so I think it's great that he's been able to spend this time alone with his Daddy too. I know they both enjoy it tremendously. And it gives me a little break, which is, as much as I love my son, much needed as well. Since Trey has been traveling frequently again lately, it has been especially welcome.

Next time I'll make sure he takes along a camera!

Boats on land and a rising lake

While visiting with baby Eliza on Sunday, Thomas also had some time to play and do the things that "big" kids do. He managed to talk Papa into cleaning up one of the kayaks and then he had him pull him around the yard a little bit.

It didn't take long before Papa realized it would be a lot easier to pull Thomas in the water. So they put it right on the shoreline of the lake and Papa pulled him around for a short while in the water. I was hanging out with Eliza at the time, so no pictures. :)

But I do have a rare picture of our dog, Sully, in the water:

Before Thomas went down for his nap, he pitched a mighty fit because I wouldn't let him take a certain car to bed with him for his nap. He loves this car that belonged to his Uncle Andrew when he was a little boy. I let him play with it and he takes great care of it, but it does have small parts that can break off, so not the best toy for taking to bed with him. So he cried, and cried, and cried until Nannie finally went up and consoled him enough so he'd go to sleep.

But as soon as he woke up, he wanted the car. And then he would not let it go (until he decided that driving the truck would be much more fun). He carried it with him everywhere:

After the drive in the truck, he sweet-talked Nannie into pulling him around the yard in the wagon. Of course he had to visit his favorite "hill."

You may recall from my post back around Thanksgiving that the water at the lake was down considerably. I believe it got somewhere between 6-8 feet lower than it should have been. I didn't think it was possible for it to come up too much before years passed. But, it has risen significantly (at least four feet). They might actually have a decent "beach" this summer after all! Mom took Thomas to show him the new shoreline and of course Thomas HAD to touch it. Since Sully was getting in, he really wanted to join her, but we convinced him it was much to cold for him. Sully does wear a coat, after all.

We still need to work with him a little bit on not running down the dock. Apparently he didn't hear our numerous requests not to run...

But once he got to the end, he was very impressed to see there is actually water under the dock now!

So he and Nannie had a quick sit down to throw some shells back in the water and watch the ducks.

Just to see how much the lake has come up, check out the Thanksgiving post I mentioned, and then see this:

Well, Sir Thomas has been on a nap strike today. This is the third time he's done such in the past two weeks. Please, everyone tell me that my child is NOT about to drop his nap right before the baby comes. I don't believe I could handle that. I love my child dearly, but I do need a break from him sometimes too.

I even took him the aquarium today and met a friend for lunch, hoping all the running around would wear him out enough to warrant a nap. At least he's been relatively content in his crib for the past two hours or so while I've done some much-need yardwork. Guess it's time to rescue him.

Thomas meets his cousin, Eliza

I'm trying a new way of posting pictures...so bear with me as I learn something new!

After we took Thomas's daddy to the airport on Sunday, we headed up to Nannie & Papa's house for a little visit. An extra treat was the presence of my brother, his wife and their new baby girl. This was the first time Thomas has met his cousin Eliza and it went really well. I was quite nervous how he'd be around a baby, but he was very sweet and kind...and entirely interested. He didn't mind when I held her for a few minutes and that was nice. Here's the first time he got a close look at her:


While we were eating lunch, he had to keep checking on Eliza.

I think Eliza was about ready to tell her paparazzi-like aunt to leave. :)

Eliza is really trying to figure out this woman they call "Nannie." :) "Is she a natural blonde?" she wonders.

As a newborn, she still sleeps quite a lot. So I was most pleased with the rare opportunity (for me) to see her with her eyes open. I hear she has 1,000 expressions already. I believe it.

Thomas was most intrigued by Eliza. I'm not sure if he will think so fondly of his own brother or sister once he realizes he/she will be coming to live at his house, but I was definitely encouraged by the way he acted toward her.

He would give her gentle kisses...


And pat her softly (I was most nervous every time he went to do this!).


He really enjoyed meeting his cousin, and I enjoyed seeing her (and her parents) again.

Trey is currently on the other coast and he actually went to visit our other niece (and my other brother and his wife) last night. I can't wait to hear all about it!

A good time with Nana & Grandpa

Last week we had a wonderful visit with Thomas's grandparents, his Nana & Grandpa. Thomas's fear of saying the letter G has finally subsided enough so that he just skips it all together. So now his Grandpa is "Ampa" or "Umpa," depending on his mood, I guess. :) As always, Thomas was showered with love and attention and he loved every moment of it. He has talked quite a bit about his Nana and Ampa this week, and has made sure to point out all cars like theirs (or the brand of theirs) on the road everytime he sees one. Here are a few pictures from our visit:







He enjoyed a visit from his friend John (the son of one of Trey's best friends from childhood), who happened to be staying with his grandparents:


He even obliged and gave him a hug goodbye:


He also spent some time with his cousins Mary D. & Elizabeth. Here he posed with Mary D after being awed by her and her sister's ability to fly down the driveway on his "cars":


With all of Trey's traveling this year, we've had a hard time finding the time to get up there for a visit (and his traveling is why it's taken me so long to share these pics. After three straight weeks of having him home, it's been an adjustment this week for him to be gone again!). But I'm glad we were finally able to go. Plus, it gave me an opportunity to take a short drive to visit my newest niece last Friday. She's still a doll and her parents are doing a great job in their new roles.

Just because my father-in-law sent it to me, I thought I'd share this picture he took of Trey and me. Not that we are particularly looking our best, but it seems we are rarely on the other side of the camera these days (which is probably a good thing). I can't believe I have less than six weeks to go in this pregnancy. YIKES! Anyway, here we are: