Elin’s Drama Faces

Bath Time Fun

My friend Lindsay gave me the idea about filling water balloons with  colored water and then freezing them.  This made big “ice balls” that Thomas thought were pretty cool and cold!If you want to do this put a few drops of food coloring in a balloon, then fill with water and put in the freezer.  I shake the balloons a few times as they are freezing to distribute the color (otherwise it sinks mostly to the bottom).  Take them out the next night, pop the balloon and throw them into the tub!

Boys Only

This is Thomas’ first fort in the basement.  It is very official and he and his daddy have several rules with the fort.

1-No Girls Allowed-except Stella and sometimes Mommy

2- When you want to meet in the fort you have to “do the call” which is a long blow on the kazoo.

3- All things “official” must be conducted in the fort.  You will have to ask him what that means!

 

I think that Thomas and his Daddy will be spending a lot of time in their special place!

Ta Da Kitchen Reveal

Well the main part of the kitchen is done, minus the flooring and lighting, but that is for a different time!

Whew, what a relief to have the kitchen done.   The small space is now so much more functional and I swear I will never ever ever ever take for granted a dishwasher or a double under mounted sink again.  I am in love with both cooking and washing dishes once again.  It is also amazing how much more free time there is during nap time and while cooking.  It is slick!

The backsplash was tackled by our family and it was not nearly as painful as we thought.  Thomas was a great helper when we were getting it all set up.  That boy really loves his tools, helping out and his make shift tool belt!   During his nap we tried to get as much tiling done together before he woke up and then Mike and Thomas played downstairs while I finished the last bit of tiling.

Over the week we grouted, sealed the tile, put a second coat of paint on the walls (and removed the wonderful blue accent tape) and hung up our shelves. 

We also tried our hands at stepping into the role of plumber for a day.  At first Mike tried and then I took a swing at it.  After realizing we needed some different pieces and hitting the plumbing store again I got to work.  30 minutes later we had our sinks up and running and were able to use the dishwasher again.  I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised we were able to do it and didn’t need to fork out more money for a plumber.

With that the kitchen is finished.  It is finally up and running and the pain and piece meal kitchen for just over a month was well worth it!

Halloween

Welcome to Halloween on 23rd Street and land where we have no family and limited friends…It was a bit of a bummer in that aspect, but we made the best of it and enjoyed our time together.

Mike came home from work early to help get the Ganoosh ready for his 2nd Halloween.  Although he didn’t have too much of an idea as to what Halloween was he was pretty excited to wear his fishing outfit like Daddy!   Stella was equally thrilled to repeat her costume as a lion!

After we got dressed and took a few pictures we were off to find other trick or treater’s and see how Thomas would react to “trick or treating.”  It was pretty apparent that at 5:45 we were the only ones out, so it quickly turned into a park, puddle and leave kicking adventure.

Then it was back to knock on our neighbors door to score some fun beads and then head home for dinner and pumpkin painting.  While I was in the kitchen Mike yelled “it’s official, Thomas just became a man.”  My reply was simply “why?”  Mike then said “well he just at an entire Reece's Peanut Butter cup himself.”  My reply was “are you kidding?”  Mike then said “well I helped him” and I hear Thomas instantly say “more.” BUSTED!!! 

Pumpkin painting started off tame.  I realize how I must look to Thomas 99"% of the day as I instruct him with Mike’s photography skills. 

Mike decided to test Thomas and started a paint fight…it was so funny to watch and they both had a riot!   Then it was straight to the shower to clean up before books and bedtime.

 

*fast forward the next few days and each time Mike comes home from work Thomas asks his Daddy to get him some candy hmm…

19 Months

In the blink of an eye it feels like we have approached the 19 month mark!  What a bundle of love and energy we have on our hands!

Thomas is changing so quickly everyday has something new in store for us.  Thomas is still a fire ball of energy and must move constantly.  He is running, climbing, jumping and hanging off things.  To help our little mover out we enrolled him in gymnastics.  Walking up and down stairs by himself is his new preferred method.

Thomas is a social butterfly.  He thinks he is a comedian and we do too.  He loves to entertain anyone who will look at him.   When I asked his daddy to describe him he said he is “charismatic and inquisitive.”   With all the “guys” we have had in and out of the house with the kitchen and basement Thomas has been Mr. fix it and helps them out and then shakes their hand when they are finished.  

He also has a distinct idea about how he either wants or does not want things and will let you know one way or the other.  This is where his dramatic side comes  in.  If he doesn’t like what happens or he has a different idea about something he will often stand against a wall and pout, go sit down and take a break, or will run to one of the pets and tell them all about it.

 

Thomas is such a big helper lately.  He loves to help do everything, laundry, cleaning, cooking, building or anything that we normally do in the house.   He is a master at running the vacuum and sweeping.  It is so nice being able to tell him to go get something or go put something away or in the garbage.   I hope that he keeps his helping ways up!

You will notice in many of our pictures that Thomas lacks clothes.  He prefers to be naked or running around in a diaper.   After he gets dressed he is good to go but most days he will run away when he sees clothes coming.   At night he wears only a top shirt as he won’t keep covers on and he still will wet through diapers without a 2 a.m. change.   Onto sleep, Thomas is still a sleep where ever guy and needs to get his daily nap in usually 2-3 hours.   He goes to bed between 8-9 depending on how much fun he and his Daddy are having once he is home from work.  The boy sleeps in most mornings until 8-8:30 and sometimes even 9!   He just was able to drop his 2:30 feeding and will wake if his diaper is too wet but then will go back to sleep until 5 or 5:30 a.m. before he wakes up to eat.   He has also started to be a somewhat of a blanket boy and prefers his blue blanket to cover him and sometimes steals his Mommy’s blanket too!

Right after 18 months Thomas started to take a new love to eating food.  He started “pounding” food 3 times a day and having snacks in between.  It was a welcome change and although he is starting to nurse less Mike and I have attributed it more to him changing and wanting to eat and possibly growing.  He still is nursing morning, before nap and bedtime.  He then typically wakes up 1 time around 5 to nurse again.   Some new favorites this month with foods include a new interest in raisins, pineapple, oranges (he runs faster than ever when he sees an orange), candy , oatmeal, peanut butter and jelly, and ketchup (dunk). 

He also has started to help cook our nightly meals and snacks the whole time we are cooking.  He likes to stir and then “let it sit.”  

Thomas loves all toys but again if I had to pick favorites it would be his bat and ball, any truck/car, his tools (or daddy’s), animals and the pets.   He also has really enjoyed snippets of watching you tube videos of Lion King on Broadway or anything else cartoon/animal. 

Last but not least is his communication.  Thomas has started to add words left and right.  They are still a little tricky to understand but they are there and he is getting his point across.  He now has the following words: hello, more (mo), help (hep), open, light (li t), up, no, daddy, mama, grandpa (ga pa), grandma (ga ma) stella (sey-ya), Tucker (Tuck), Itzy (Itz), my, my do it, outside (ou), downstairs (dow), please (p), car, big truck (b uck), ball, drink (din), cheese (che), milk (mik), bubbles (bu bo), go, lion (li), ok and a handful animal sounds for a dog, cat, sheep, cow, dolphin, lion/tiger, seal, monkey.  I think we got most if not all of the words he knows, hard to make a list (speech friends remember that).  He will attempt most words and knows that to get what he wants he has to “use a word first.”  I can’t take the speech therapist in me out!!!

His understanding of language catches us off guard.  He is pointing to pictures and things he sees and also following multiple step directions.  What a fun way to watch everything I learned about for so many years develop, it gives a whole new meaning to my training and education. 

If you have made it this far in my rambling, thank you, if not no worries.  I know some of this gets boring to read but I want to keep it as I know that Thomas a few months ago is already foggy!   

HELP = Ambulance

Today there were 2 fire trucks and an ambulance up our street.  Thomas was very interested in the happenings and I was explaining to him that someone needed “help” and the ambulance would take them to get the help they needed at the hospital.

15 minutes later I am downstairs doing laundry and I hear Thomas crying and Mike fixing his hurt toe by kissing it better.  This has been good enough to heal pretty much anything thus far and Thomas will run to us with his owie presented.   The crying stopped, the play continued, until I came upstairs and then the owie drama resurfaced.  After more kisses play resumed and life was back to normal.

About a half hour later Thomas and I were Skyping with Grandma and Grandpa McConachie and I made the mistake of bringing up the lights and the ambulance.   Almost immediately, the drama ensued with Thomas repeating over and over “help, help, help” pointing to his previously hurt toe, and then out the window. 

I wish we had this on video as this drama continued for about 10 minutes.  Thomas was looking at me like I was the worst Mommy ever for not calling the ambulance to help him and Mike and I desperately trying to communicate to our little boy that his owie was ok without an ambulance. 

A whole new world of literal thinking is upon us!  The old self in me loves how he was communicating to us and putting his thoughts and ideas together.  The mommy in me is in for a whole new treat in learning how to teach the “simple” things.  

Image taken from littleblackblog.net