March Madness

The NCAA Basketball tournament has begun.  Thomas is a huge basketball and sports fan.  With the absence of the Army Black Knights at tourney time, he has decided that he really likes the red team.  Not sure who the red team is, but that's ok.  Even though the Black Knights didn't fare well in the post season, but that didn't stop Thomas from cheering loudly for Army.

Thomas and Dad clap

Thomas himself is quite a basketball player.  He weighs in at approximately 30 pounds and 35 inches tall.  Shoots with both, but favors the right.  We practice shooting baskets daily in the garage. 

Score!

The Dunk

Swoosh

After, of course, the madness ensues and we play hockey, baseball, bike riding and "driving" Mom's car.

Shoots the puck as a lefty

We do have time to settle down and enjoy the scenery though.  Our winter has followed a predictable and rather enjoyable pattern.  Snow a lot, then it gets warmer and the snow melts.  Repeat.
Thomas enjoys watching the plow guy from his perch inside.

"See Dan a plow guy, Mama?"

Part of our nightly scenery is Dad reading the news on the couch after dinner.  One night, Mike wasn't home for dinner, so Thomas took it upon himself to show his Mama that he could adequately fill the void.

Check out those size 7 feet!

Basketball tourney aside, part of the madness this March is the anticipation of the addition of a new member to the McCollum family.  This summer, Thomas will welcome a baby brother to our family.  With respect to his interest in lawn equipment and machinery, he is sporting a new shirt.

July 27th, specifically

Can you make out the cute little nose? *hint: the head is on the right side

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.

T

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.

Degrees of Happiness

Thomas has many ways of expressing his happiness.  Over the last week, during our trip to Florida, he has been given many opportunities to tell us how excited he is.

After his initial shyness has worn off, Thomas' first level of happiness is a charming smile.  It tells me ya done good, thank you, and this is fabulous all in one fell swoop.

A happy traveler on the way to the airport

A happy splasher and his friend Lisa testing the pool out

When Thomas whispers, "Oh boy!"we know that something good is coming.  When we puled up to a park near Nana and Papa VanDusen's house, Thomas quietly expressed his excitement with an "Oh boy!  Going to a park?"   He's a big fan of slides, fings (swings), and see saws.

Nana pushes Thomas

Thomas reciprocating

"Weeeeeeeeeee!"

Mama had her own "oh boy" moment while we were in Florida.  Thomas slept in Pack-n-Plays while we were there.  Our first few days were fairly uneventful with regard to naps and bedtime.  Thomas transitioned very well.  Then we went to see the VanDusen grandparents.  A mere three hours into our stay, Thomas was due for a nap.  We went through the same routine and heard Thomas in his room talking to himself.  We smiled....until we figured out that he climbed out of the Pack-n-Play!  If I could push my incredulity aside, maybe I would have said, "Oh boy."  We have been so fortunate that Thomas still likes his crib back at home.  Most of our friends who are two have had to transition to a bed because of the climbing out.   I was completely caught off guard.  It's a good thing Nana scooped him right up and put him back in his "new crib."  The aftermath of an escape artist:

Wipes all plucked out of the bag and placed on the bed and floor

Strangely enough, our return to the McCollums' house also meant a return to normalcy and no more escaping.  "Oh boy."

The next level of excitement often includes, "Oh my gooodness!"  Numerous occasions warrant this exclamation.  A field trip to see the bronze cows at Nana and Papa McCollum's was one such example.

"Hee haw"

Ride 'em doggy!

Thomas and the dog racing the cowboy

 When Thomas gets very excited about something, he says, "I be 'cited" in a way that you can't help but smile and tell him you're excited too.  There were many opportunities for him to get excited about food.  Most notably, the excitement was around the many sweets the Nanas provided.

Ice cream after a foray with Indian food at The Villages

Making apple pie with Nana (and eating almost as fast as she could peel and slice)

Thomas was extremely excited about the mini ice cream sandwiches at Nana and Papa's house.  Despite my calling them ice cream sandwiches, Thomas called them "ice cream ham san-sanch."  He really likes ham sandwiches (san-sanch) and every sandwich thereafter has been a variation of the favorite ham sandwich.  We found this especially hysterical.

"Chocolate beard like Papa?"

Some other things he got 'cited about were:

Being able to hang out outside and not be "freezing cold."  This sometimes involved no shoes and oftentimes involved no clothing.

Showing off his mostly companion, Frankie Dog.

Giving Frankie Dog a Valentine's card

Taking him on countless walks in a stroller

Hanging out with his mama and dad.

"Come sit here, Mama.  Put your feet in a water, Mama"

"Play golf with your (his) dad."

Walking with Mama (and Frankie Dog) to go see Papa play tennis

Their own version of Pickleball

There was a lot of sharing during the course of our eight days in Florida.  Sharing Thomas time between two doting sets of grandparents, sharing treats, sweets and dinners, sharing Thomas Duty when there were mini meltdowns over no more golf cart, coming inside or no more gum drops, and sharing wonderful memories.  Hopefully one day many years from now, we will look back at this post and smile, say, "oh my goodness" and recall just how 'citing this time with him was.