What Thomas Loves

From day one, Thomas has been very clear about what he likes and doesn't like.  We have moved, thank goodness, from incessant crying and spitting up as tell-tale signs to his verbalizing his likes and dislikes using very complete and relatively complex sentences.  Lately, there have been a few things that really stand out as things he clearly loves more than just about anything else. 

Thomas loves to go to a park.  When the park is on a list of three places to go, he'll ask, "Us go free (three) places, Mama?  Us go to a park first?"  There is no "the" in Thomas' current working vocabulary.  We go to a park, get a ball, bring a iPad, etc.   He loved the park near Nana's house in Lake George this summer, the one he went to in Florida, and the one near our house in Cornwall.  Last week, the three of us braved the chilly weather and little bit of remaining ice to visit the park.

Thomas' first stop is to see the geese, ducks and swans.  Mama is happy to stand and watch them from 10 feet away and talk to them, but of course, Daddy tried to coerce Thomas into helping him catch one.  These geese are no fools; they made it to the water before Mike could get them.

Next, it was Mama's turn for coercion.  She wrangled the boys up from bird patrol in favor of a ride on a seesaw.

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Thomas loves to play with his Dad.  He also loves to play on the slide.  Double score!

Since there is only so much sliding you can do on a cold day, we ran a couple of errands with Thomas' big buddy, Daddy.  Thomas became Dad's able-bodied assistant while changing the air filter on Mama's car.  Thomas loves to help.

Thomas loves to do what his Mama does.  Sometimes this is helpful, like when we wants to clean the windows, but it is usually just entertaining. 

Taking pictures like Mama (with his mini camera)

Making stew with Mama

Sporting Mama's headband and eye shadow

 Thomas loves "Tube."  Mama loves Tube too.  Tube is YouTube.  He watches various shows and videos every day.  Thomas loves it because he can turn it on and select the videos he likes all by himself.  Mama loves it for that reason too, but mostly because it is a babysitter of sorts.  It is during the time Thomas watches Tube that I enjoy a leisurely cup of coffee or enjoy a shower sans Thomas in there with me or time to start a blog post like this one, for example.

Life is not all Tube, as you probably can guess.  Thomas loves anything that involves a ball or a ball and a stick or a stick and a puck.  We "play hockey in a graj (garage)" pretty much every day.  Thanks to our friend Jason, Thomas even now has a lefty stick.  This kid wants for nothing. 

We also play a lot of soccer.  Soccer was the first sport Thomas really picked up and was good at.  He has been able to kick the ball in a straight line pretty much since he could walk.  We now play something called Championship Soccer.  I have no idea where this came from, maybe he heard the term championship on tv with all of the basketball that has been on lately.  Sometimes we play Championship Basketball, but it's mostly "Cham Chan Ship Soccer."

Thomas still loves to be naked.  I cannot fathom why on earth he likes to be naked in 35 degree weather, but of course, I feel the need to document this as well.

Enjoying his own nakedness in our bed

 Thomas loves his Mama.  If you didn't couldn't tell this from the wonderful snuggles we have or from the way he requests Mama for book reading at bedtime, then you would most certainly know it when on my birthday he said to me, "Mama, I buy you TWO candies for your birfday!"   Doesn't get any sweeter than that.