SANTA!!

WE took Brooklynn and Tommy to see Santa. Santa told Brooklynn she couldn't have a pony.

Update

WEll Tommy can now climb the stairs, and attempts it whenever he sees an opening. Unfortanately because of the way our stairs are, we have not found a wide enough gate the cover the opening so we are having to use our laundry baskets, full of clothes (they are clean at least).

He can also reach the tops of our night stands now and this morning proceeded to pull everything off mine. He laughed every time he pulled something new the the ground. He was just having a grand ole time.

Cousin Brooklynn loves to come up to him and go "Boo". Both and he and she thinks it is halarious. Last Sautrday he started doing it too, but doesn't wait for anyone else to laugh he just does it himself.

Uh oh! better go he is trying to stuff something down the floor vent.

All Gone

Well Nana and Papa have left the building. They left here on Wednesday morning and poor Tommy kept looking for them all day. Tommy really loved having his Nana and Papa here for a few days. He sends his kisses. Smooch!!!

Grand Illumination

Every year here in Chattanooga they light up the downtown with Christmas lights on the day after Thanksgiving. This was Tommy first Grand Illumination. We were blessed with mild weather so the little boy didn't get too cold.





Here is Tommy all bundled up.








Daddy and Tommy are both enjoying the fireworks.

In the end Tommy just couldn't handle any more excitement.

Bath Time

Tommy loves his bath time and now that he has these new glowing duckies he loves it even more. His aunt Jenny and anut Sue got them for him.


Tommy's new hairdo. He is so stylin!!

Brooklynn's new talent

We are so proud!!!

He's Quick

Tommy is getting quicker. Brooklynn had a cookie that Tommy really wanted. In the end he did end up getting part if it.

Halloween

Tommy was a Mummy for Halloween this year. Michael made his costume from scratch. Isn't he adorable? He won Second prize in a costume contest. Some 9 year old medusa robbed him of first place. Second place prize was better than the first anyways. Awww....the happy family. Thankfully Tommy was not scared of the costumes at our party. In fact he and Brooklynn thought most of them quite funny. Hopefully I will get some good pics of Brooklynn for the page too.

To Grandmothers house we go....

3 weekends ago Tommy headed up to Indianapolis, in the cold north, for Grandma Stradley's Birthday. As you can see from the picture the trip started out good. However, by the 8th hour Tommy was starting to plan a mutiny, I could just tell from his face.





Here is the birthday girl. Did I mention that she had no idea that we were coming?










Cousin Ryan has been waiting so long for Tommy to be old enough to play with him. However, he was quite dismayed to learn that playing to little Tommy involves putting anything and everything in his mouth and slobbering all over it.






Tommy was very happy to see his Aunt Sara. He is asking her when Matthew is going to get here so he won't have to be the youngest anymore. (FYI- Sara and Chris left for South Korea on Saturday to bring Matthew back)

Apparently Tommy had too much formula at the party. Yes, those are his pants on his head.

He is on the move

Well tommy has officially become a crawler. It is not the normal all four on the floor crawl. One knee is on the floor and the other leg has his foot on the floor and he moves one knee then the foot, it is kinda hard to explain and even funnier to see but he gets to where he is going and fast too. if it is just short distance he needs to traverse he sorta bounces on his bottom. He has gotten quite adept at pulling himself up on things and walking around holding onto stuff. I am sure that by Christmas he will be walking all by himself.

Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde

What Goes In, Must Come Out...

Michael here, to provide in excruciating detail the last couple of days for poor little Tommy's life .

Since Tommy was born, we've had to deal with spit up on a pretty regular basis, but it never was more than a fairly regular inconvenience. But yesterday was a whole new chapter in gastronomical phenomenon that we hope in vain to never experience again.

Around lunch time, Tommy was eating his usual food--a vegetable, followed by some sort of fruit--in this case, it was sweet potatoes and corn, followed by peaches. The sweet pototes and corn went down without a hitch, as did the peaches--for a while, anyway.

I usually come home for lunch around 12:00 pm, and Tommy was well into his peaches when I went into the kitchen to make my own tasty lunch. As I slap the final piece of bread on my ham and cheese, Danielle calls for me to bring a paper towel--Tommy is spitting up. No sooner do I reach for the towels, when I hear Danielle cry out, "Oh! Oh! Oh! Hurry up!" Apparently, the spit up was only the preamble to a larger volcanic event that can only be described as oozing orange-y slime, proceeding in a steady stream from Tommy's mouth, down to his chest, legs and splashing to the floor below. As Danielle carries poor Tommy up to the bathroom to remove the former contents of his stomach, I attempt to wipe up the aftermath. Have you ever tried to wipe up egg whites? This seemed to best approximate the consistency of the mess, and no matter how many paper towels I used, it seems I only succeeded in smearing it around. Eventually I got the mess cleaned up, but my main concern was little Tommy.

This was our first experience with a bona fide case of vomit from our little boy, so naturally, we were concerned. He seemed rather sluggish the rest of the day, and didn't have much of an appetite. No fever was present, so our fears were allayed a little.

However, the following morning showed that not all was as well as we'd hope it would be, as it seems that his bottom end was bound and determined to outdo his top. I'm not certain what the fluid capacity is of a normal diaper, but his morning diaper was so full of diarrhea, that if we had waited one moment more I'm sure that it would have burst at the seams in a mudslide of barely digested vegetable matter. So explosive was this event that it filled every crevice of the diaper, very nearly spilling out over the top and sides, requiring no less than seven baby wipes to clean up. This is a very different experience from what is usually found in his diaper lately, which seems to have the consistency of warm Playdough, with the smell of pure concentrated evil.

So there you have it--our first experience with a sick baby working both ends, but thankfully not at the same time!

Michael

Happy Day

bed Time

First Tooth!!!

Just some pics

Another day

Well the tooth hasn't completely emerged yet but I can still feel it. Since it has started it's emergence Tommy has been quite cranky. However he has slept through the night the last two nights. So I guess you have to take the good with the bad.

Almost there

Well in the next couple of days I should have some Teeth pictures for you. I felt something breaking through on Tommy's bottom gums this morning!!

Introductions

I would like you to meet my Chromosome donors....This one on the left is called Dad and this one on the right is called Mom.

Locomotion

Tommy so wants to be on the go. He does not have much patience anymore for his bouncy seat or excersaucer. However, he just can't seem to get the crawling thing down. He normally just ends up face planting. I have a feeling he might just skip crawling altogether and go straight to walking. He much prefers to pull himself up to a standing position and walk holding onto things. He hasn't quite learned though that when you stop you still have to hold on or you will fall. Thankfully that diaper provides lot of padding.

Michigan

As most of you know Brooklynn and I went to Michigan this August for 2 weeks. We had lots of fun with Nana and Pappa. One night after we had dinner we all decided to go to Dairy Queen for a little treat. Brooklynn had her first Ice Cream cone, and as you can see she liked it very much. By the time she was done her neck and her chest were practically stuck together. The picture of her in the bath is after we got home, I think she had her limit of ice cream.

Brooke

Can you see mysnot?

Poor little Tommy has a summer cold. Along with his grandma Gardner, Aunt Brooke and cousin Brooklynn. We are not sure who was patient zero.

Hello there!!!!

Put your right foot in....

Dear God...

Are you sure these are MY parents?

Sleep

Well if I have talked to you lately I am sure you have heard me lament about Tommy's sleep habits or should I the lack of. For the past couple of weeks he has been waking up about every two hours and screaming for about 20-30 minutes while we try to comfort him. Well last night, after polling all the grandparents, we gave a full does of Tylenol and let him cry out his first waking (at 11:00pm) and lo and behold he did not wake up again till 4:00am. YEAH!! Hopefully tonight will be even better. The concensus was that it might be his teeth was waking him up and he did not know how to go back to sleep by himself. So keep your fingers crossed.

Surprise!!!!

Everything must go in my mouth!

New Cousin

Meet Matthew Jin-Won.
This is picture of Tommy's newest cousin. His Uncle Chris and Aunt Sara are planning to go get him from Korea in the next few months. He was born on June 3rd, just a little under 7lbs. I think he might give Tommy a run for his money on the cuteness factor.

Congrats! Chris and Sara.

special visit

Tommy had a special visit with his Nana and Papa this week. They Brought Brooke and Brooklynn back from Michigan and stay with us for a couple of days. Tommy thought his Papa was very funny and he finally taught his Nana how to feed him his bottle.

Eye Appt.

Well Tommy had his first Eye Doctor appointment today. Thankfully he is not taking after his parents yet, he has perfecr vision (well for a 6 month old anyway). The doctor said he could unblock his tear ducts now or we could wait till he is 12 months old. I opted to have it done now but now I am starting to rethink my decision. They have to put him to sleep for the procedure and the more I think about them putting Tommy to sleep the more apprehensive I get. The chance of something happening is very slim but still :-( The Procedure isn;t until Sept 22nd so I have some time to think about it at least.

He takes after his mom

I think I have an accountant on my hands. He loves to play with my calculator and yesterday he kept make a "1" with his hand like he was counting. He just couldn't quite get that second finger up for "2" but we are working on it. I will have to see if I can get a picture of it.

Brooklynn's trip to Michigan

Brooklynn and I are in Michigan this August for two weeks to visit with her Nana and Papa, those are the cute names she calls her Grandma and Grandpa Boda. We are on our second week now and having lots of fun.This past Thursday she went to a water park with all her cousins, including her new cousin baby Erica. They were so cute together and Erica would get so excited with Brooklynn running around in the water. We had a big Family dinner at Dad and Ellen's house so all the new cousins could meet. This picture shows that night, her and Erica had so much fun with the Bubbles. Brooklynn new favorite thing are bubbles, she walks around the house saying bubbles, bubbles. We are both having such a great time,and I'm so glad that she is getting to spend alot of time with her Nana and Papa.

Firsts

Well this week Tommy had a couple of "firsts". He sat in a restuarant high chair for the first time. He just thought it was the coolest. Now he can reach lots of stuff on the table and also reach out and grab the wait staff and whoever else happens by. He also rode in the front of the shopping cart. I had to make sure not to get too close the shelves though since the sticky fingers want to grab everything. He is still sorta small for the grocery cart to I had to make sure I did not make any sudden stops or turns.

He also slept through the night again last night!! He started whining at around 2am buthe just wanted his pacifyer and then fell right back to sleep till around 7am. He is such a good boy. Now if I can just get him potty trained :-)

It was a fluke...

needless to say he did not sleep through the night last night. Far from it actually. I think that maybe the carrots we started him on are not agreeing with his digestive system. So I have not given him any today, only cereal and we will see if he does better tonight.

Another Milestone

Tommy slept through the night!! After his 6 month Dr. Appt. on Monday we had decided we were going to transition Tommy to sleep through the night and skip his night feeding. Of course Monday night did not go well cause he had gotten shots at his visit and tends to be cranky for a couple of days afterwards. So Last night I had planned to only give him 5 oz of his normal 6 oz bottle during his night feeding, but lo and behold he never woke up for it. He went down at 9:30pm and did not wake up again till 6:45am!!!! So we will see tonight if that was just a fluke.


In other news....at his appt. on Monday he weighed in 16lbs and was 27 inches long!! His height is in the 75th percentile and weight in the 50th. So itlooks like he is going to tall and slim. We also got a referral to an eye doctor for him to finally get his blocked tear duct taken care of.

My boys

TEETHING!!!

Oh the joys of teething! Tommy has not been a real happy camper the last couple of days. Unfortunately, as of yet, he does not like the teething toys. I bought a new one that I can put in the fridge to get cold and he will chew on it if I hold it but he won't do it himself. I wish the teeth would just break through already. He hasn't slept for more than 30 minutes at a time all day.

Just an Update

You would think these two were brother and sister rather than just cousins. Yesterday Brooklynn was over at our house and it was ok for her to touch Tommy but if Tommy wanted to touch her it was "no no no Tommy". I swear if she knew the phrase she would have been saying "Mommy he's touching me!!!"

Today Tommy made a new sound, it was new kind of laugh/squeal and when we heard it, it was so funny that Mike and I laughed. Which of course made him keep doing it. He also starting making raspberries with his mouth. It is cute, however, this combined with the magnitude of his slobber makes for quite a mess.

Best Friends Forever

Then there was squash....

Well we tried Squash last night for dinner. It starts out ok.....

But then the faces started. However, he continued to open his mouth.

And as you can see it ended with a smile.

If you notice his bib....he lied! It was a very restless night with lots of waking up. :-) Oh well par for the course I guess.