Fishing in the Living Room

Thomas has gone fishing several times now with his Daddy. He always looks forward to when Daddy comes home and takes him fishing. He's already got 3 fishing rods. This is how he plays in the living room sometimes.

Amen

Growing up, I remember somewhere in our house was a plaque that had a prayer on it. This prayer is the one that I have said every night when I go to sleep, and I taught it to Thomas. It took one night for him to learn it, cause his brain is truly a little sponge. Here he is saying it in his own little 2 year old way. These are the words:

Heavenly Father up above, hear me when I pray. Bless my home and those I love. Guide me everyday. Amen

Thomas's First Fishing Tournament

Thomas had his first official fishing tournament with Daddy this Saturday. We woke him up bright and early at 6 in the morning. I got him all bundled up and fed him some oatmeal. Then the boys headed out. Thomas gets so excited about fishing. Thomas doesn't really fish yet, but he has a little boy's fishing rod, and Mike ties on a frog without any hooks, and Thomas likes to drag it through the lily pads while Mike idles through the water. He plays with his rod in the water the whole time and loves the heck out of it. The weigh in was at 1:30, and when I got there, I spotted Mike's boat. I went over there, and at first I didn't see Thomas... that was because he was passed out on his belly (half way standing) in the seat. Mike said he had been sleeping like that for an hour. I jumped in the boat, and Mike drove it around to the ramp, and Thomas never woke up as he was putting the boat back on the trailer. When Mike picked him up to hand him to me, he woke up and looked all around. He said something about "Daddy's truck."

They didn't place in the tournament, but Thomas got the dinosaur award for fishing his first tournament. He loved his new dinosaur and immediately started making it swim in circles in the weigh in tanks. Funny little boy.





Check out the rest of the pictures on our family website.

Big Orange Pumpkin Farm

Thomas and I went to the Big Orange Pumpkin Farm today. It's located a little north of McKinney, Tx. I didn't expect there to be quite so many people, and since it has been raining so much lately, the parking lot was a big black mud pit. The guy guiding the parking told me where to go, and I got stuck as soon as I hit the gas. He was an older fellow and he came over and pushed my car a bit... I went slowly forward, then in reverse, then slowly forward, and once he put some hay down in front of my tires, I finally got unstuck. Thomas thought this whole process was hilarious. He was giggling every time my tires would spin. Such a boy, he is. Once I accepted the fact that this was not going to be a peaceful visit to the farm, we headed in. When you arrive, they give you a cup full of food to give to the goats, but Thomas's little goat wasn't very interested. They've got the cutest pumpkin patch with little small pumkins all in rows... some still attached to their vines. There is a windmill surrounded with sunflowers, and they will even take you on a hayride if you are willing to pack in there with all the other school kids. There was a really long wait for the hay ride, and all I could think about was the swine flu, so we passed on that. Thomas enjoyed playing with the gravel and sticks, and he liked the rooster up in the tree on our way out. ;-) It ended up being a nice outing, but next time I go, I'll call ahead to find out if it will be a "school day" and I won't go after it has been raining.

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Counting is Fun

Thomas loves to count these days, and if I must say, I think he's pretty good at it! We like to play out in the atrium since the weather has been nice, and the other day he was counting his legos. He's really good at counting accurately from 1 to 20, but for some reason he always skips 16. ;-) I am really loving this older age, since I can actually get some feedback from him and feel like I'm teaching him something real. I can't wait to help him with his homework one day! Maybe he'll be a nerd like his Mom and love school too! ;-)

Thomas Loves Aunt KK

When KK comes over after work, Thomas gets so excited. She's always laughing and of course, giving him candy ("tandy"). Thomas is her stress relief after work, and she is mine. Here they are playing in the guest bedroom.

Boom Boom Pow

Last night, Thomas and I were watching So You Think You Can Dance, and I love to watch him watch the show. He is repeating everything now, so he'll start mimicking what they're saying, so I was cracking up as he was saying things like, "That's Buck". While he's watching the contestants dance, he can't resist practicing his moves. I see a little star in the making... Ha!

Thomas Can Swing

Yesterday evening, Mike lowered the swing on the playset, and taught Thomas how to swing on it. He picked it up immediately, and I couldn't believe it when I went outside... Mike was washing the car and I looked over and there was Thomas swinging like he had been doing it for months. It really cracked me up, cause I had no idea Mike had taught him. They had only been out there for like 15 minutes. Funny little boy. Here he is swinging today having a little conversation with me.

Shake Your Bootie

One day, I noticed Thomas shaking his little hips back and forth being silly, so of course now I always encourage it. Ha! Here he is shaking his little bootie.

"Punkins!"

KK and I took Thomas to the Dallas Arboretum today to see the "punkins", as he calls them. I dressed him up in his new John Deere boots that Grandma bought him, and his John Deere t-shirt, and I thought he looked so cute! He was so excited when we got there, because I have been telling him for several days how Aunt KK and I were taking him to see the pumpkins. Pumpkins were everywhere. They have the sidewalks all lined with pumpkins, and since Thomas has been learning to count, he kept pointing to and counting all the pumpkins. He counts everything these days. He's able to do 1,2,3 and then for some reason, he usually goes to 7,8,9,10,11 then 17,18. I'm so amazed that he can do that. Little 2 year old brains really are like sponges.

KK and I both brought our cameras, so between the two of us, we were able to get some pretty cute shots. Thomas has never been easy to photograph, because he's so busy, but finally I can make some funny faces to him that actually crack him up. I love that he's getting older... this age is so much more fun than the infant/baby age. ;-)

Thomas does the funniest little thing where, out of the blue, he'll shake his little bootie back and forth to make me laugh, and KK captured him at just the right moment!


"Oooonnne, Twoooooo, Tweeeee..."
























Thomas and his Aunt KK

Fishing with Daddy

Mike came home from work about 3:30 today, so he and Thomas could go fishing. They went to Ray Hubbard. Of course as soon as they left, I started thinking about all the things I could squeeze in while they were gone. I ran to the post office, went to Kroger, swung by Target, and then to Walmart. I needed different things from everywhere. It's so amazing how much you can get done without a toddler with you. I was even able to come home and clean up our living room mess and take a shower before the fisherman arrived. ;-) Anyway, Mike sent these iPhone pics to me while they were out. These pictures just crack me up for some reason. Mike said Thomas was so good on the boat. He sits in the other seat and just looks all around while the boat is moving, and Mike said he played with his fishing pole in the water the whole time while Mike was fishing. I packed them peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and crackers and stuff, so they had their supper on the boat. It was a quick, but nice time alone for me. I look forward to more free evenings soon! Maybe next time they go, I'll actually sit down and do nothing.





Thomas looks like a little thug here with his too big shorts. I was on the phone with Mike right before he took this, and I heard Thomas saying, "No. No!". I asked Mike what he was fussing about, and he said, "He doesn't want to leave." I guess we have a little fisherman in training. Thomas doesn't know that he has the best teacher there is!


When you ask Thomas how Daddy "goes" when he goes fishing, he throws his arm out like he's casting and makes a little cast sound. So funny. I took this before they left.

Curls to be Tamed

Every morning, I have to wet Thomas's wild hair and attempt to create something half way decent looking. It never lasts long, but at least he starts off looking kempt.







We went to Frisco today and Thomas and I listened to his John Deere (James Coffey) music CD. Here he is doing his dancing thing in the back seat. ;-)

Yale Park

About 11:00 this morning, Thomas and I were out riding around eating our lunch and we saw a park sign, so of course I turned to go checked it out. We were in Richardson off of Campbell Rd. and the name of the park was Yale Park. It was actually really nice and the school kids next to it were out playing flag football, so we could hear them playing. It was kind of breezy and not quite hot yet, so we decided to get out and play! Thomas had a good time as always.



Here he is running to the park... so happy!!!


Thomas loves to use anything he can as a "highway".










Thomas is so funny. I won't be paying attention and then I'll look over at him, and he's looking at me like this. He lifts his shirt up so I'll tickle him, or give him a noogie as I call it. ;-) Funny little boy. I call this "open for business". ha!


A little girl named, Macy, was at the park with her Dad. She and Thomas seemed to like each other. She played with his tractor, and he enjoyed throwing her little ball.


It was about time for Thomas to nap, so we headed back home. He ate the rest of his apples from McDonalds.


Then... he fell asleep.


I'm sitting in his room on his rocking chair right now. He's got the cutest little snore going on. I just might have to lie down with him. I love nap time!!!!

Prairie Creek Park in Richardson

Thomas and I went to Prairie Creek Park in Richardson, and it was really scenic. They have some nice winding dirt trails in the woods next to a beautiful neighborhood. There is even a cool waterfall. Of course Thomas and I ended up playing in the creek. One of these days I'll be prepared and have him in his actual bathing suit.



Poor Thomas. He was having a good 'ole time in the creek and then he wanted his little truck, so I tossed it over to him and hit him on the head. He wasn't sure why I had done that. ;-) Sweet baby.

More Chocolate?

Thomas was really sleepy and sweet in his rocking chair during this night. Earlier, I had given him some little Hershey squares, and it seems that is all he could think about.

The Children's Museum at Fair Park

Today, Thomas and I killed some time at the Children's Museum at Fair Park. We had never been there, but I was impressed. The parking was free, and the entry was cheap so that was nice. Thomas mostly enjoyed the "Little Urban Farm" area where he could pretend to harvest crops. Harvesting to him means, grabbing plastic oranges and corn from baskets and throwing them into the ground area. This area was really cute. They even had a big fake cow that you could milk. There was an area where kids were riding around on John Deere tricycles. Thomas hasn't taken to riding on things quite yet, but he's going to have a whole new world to explore when he finally does.

We had passed a dinosaur dig room on our way back to the Children's Museum, so we had to go back and visit that area. We spent probably 45 minutes there. First Thomas wanted me to play with him in the sand, but once he got busy enough, I was able to hop out of the big sand pit and take some pictures.

On our way home, I took a video of a Thomas, "I'm really sleepy and don't know how to handle it" tantrum. ;-)

Birth Control in the Form of a Short Video


Asleep at Last. Momma Goes to her Happy Place

Aunt Niomi, Uncle Arthur, and Grandma Mary Visit

Mike's Aunt Niomi, Uncle Arthur, and Grandma Mary were in town, so Thomas and I headed to Weatherford to visit with them. When we got there, Mike's Dad (PoPo) combed and fixed Thomas's big head of hair, and he looked so cute. Mike's Dad was a barber back in his day (along with being a fireman), so he gives the best haircuts to the grandkids! Thomas won't let anybody cut his hair very easily right now though, so we just have Popo style his wild head of curls instead.

Bryson and Jessica hadn't started school yet, so they were also there. Mike was at work, but he gave us money to all eat at Rosa's for lunch. Thomas was a bit hyper/tired, but we still had a good time anyway. Ms. Lozano, who is a good friend and neighbor of Aunt Niomi, was also there, and I enjoyed visiting with her too. It was a quick, but very nice visit!









I was dying of thirst after we left Grandma's so we stopped by McDonalds. I felt like I should buy something (instead of just getting water), so we had a yummy ice cream cone. Thomas really enjoyed it.


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John Deere Up Close and Personal

I took Thomas to the Ag-Power Inc. store in McKinney so he could see the John Deere tractors up close and personal. First, we went inside the store and he was thrilled about all the John Deere toys! Of course we left with a new one.


Thomas and I walked all around the gravel lot at the store, and I couldn't believe how big some of those tractors were. He wouldn't let me sit him on any of the tractors, but he had lots of fun running around looking at them.


Click here to see pictures from today.

Two Dogs Slept at Your House

David Weber sings a little song to Thomas...

Lowes Vs. Home Depot

I went to see John and Lucia's new little bundle of love, Amelia, but Amelia's older sister, Elizabeth stole the show. Lucia and her parents have been teaching Elizabeth yes and no, and they had been at Lowes recently when she did this....


Amelia Giovanna McCalmont
First Amelia Family Photo (Lucia, John, and Amelia McCalmont). She weighed in at 8.3lbs and 19.5 inches!








Here is Amelia and her proud Grandma Fraboni

Napping at Aunt KK's

KayLynn had a yard sale on Saturday, so we brought some donuts over and hung out. The weather was perfect, cause it was hot, but breezy. She has a lot of shade in her yard too, so that helps. Thomas and I took the stroller down to the little town square and had so much fun shopping. I was good and did not buy the bedazzled sparkly purse that I so fell in love with. I settled for a $1 tube of Avon lotion instead.

Playing in the Old Crib
We gave KK our old crib, and Thomas had fun playing in it. KK would want me to excuse her little mess... This is her really pretty extra bedroom, but we had a mess in there cause of the yard sale. ;-)


Tired Little Snoring Monkey
I was wondering if Thomas would take a nap over at KK's, and I lucked out. The only requirements he had were that his shoes "Go Non!!!", so by all means, I left the shoes on. He slept like a log. I slept for 2 hours with him and he slept another hour and 10 minutes. He was pooped.


Rise and Shine

We Should Always Be Greeted This Way!

Mike's Mom is a life savor for me, because she keeps Thomas 2 days (and nights) for me! She has clothes/toys/bedding and everything, so all I take is Thomas. Mike is out of town a bunch with his fishing, so he's not really able to give me many breaks, but his wonderful Mother makes up for it! She just loves Thomas so much, and he loves his Grandma and Popo too! I get butterflies every time I go pick him up! This is a little video of him running out to greet me when I got there that morning. Love my baby boy. Thanks, Grandma and PoPo for giving me sanity... even if the sanity is only temporary!



Thomas Gets Some John Deere Shirts from Grandma
Mike's Mom is so sweet. She is always getting new toys and clothes for her grandkids. She had gone to Cracker Barrel and couldn't pass up some of the cutest John Deere t-shirts. Thomas was excited to put on his new shirt.


Jumping on the Bed at Grandma's


Isn't It Funny How We Have to Learn to Jump
The boy's got skills...


Pop Goes Curious George

Walkin' the Doggies

I'm keeping little Maggie while Mike and David fish in Mexico, so I thought I'd take a video of her, so David could see that I'm taking good care of his little red head.

Sleepy Swings and Cholesterol Reducing Gravel

I Love When This Happens
Sometimes when it's close to Thomas's nap time, I cheat a bit and put him on the nice comfy swing. There's something about the shady 100 degree heat that mellows him out and closes those little eyes.



Tractors and Gravel
Thomas plays with his John Deere trucks and tractors for hours, and he always requests that I put on his John Deere DVDs. This all equals free time for Mom! I set him up at this table so I could work on my laptop next to him. As he was watching a tractor dump gravel into a dump truck on his video, he looked at me and said, "Need gravel." Of course I couldn't tell him no, so I went to the pantry and grabbed a bag of flaxseed. It worked like a charm and was easy (and fun) to vacuum up. ;-) My only tip for using flaxseed as gravel is to mix it with a bit of baby powder to keep it from sticking to clammy little toddler hands.

Lukenbach was My Favorite!

(Fredericksburg) Saturday morning, we woke up and it was nice and overcast. We drove the little car with the bikes on top a few miles down the road. We parked in a library parking lot near Main St. Thomas was so happy to put his helmet on and get on the bike. We noticed that there were signs saying no bikes were allowed on the sidewalks, so we stayed on the street. We saw all the cute little shops and then turned off the main drag into a neighborhood. There were some cool bed and breakfasts and fixed up old houses. Thomas hadn't slept very well the night before, so he looked really relaxed over on Mike's bike. We ended up back on the shopping street and I saw the "Spunky Monkey" toy store, so I had to go check it out. I ran in really quickly to check out the Curious George section and I got Thomas a lift the flap book and a Curious George jack in the box. On our way back to the car, we passed the nice town square area that had a big sandy park. Thomas said, "Get Down", so we stopped and let him play. Then we headed back to the RV, and Thomas and I had a nap. I never miss a good nap. ;-)

The best part of the day was when we headed to Lukenbach! I have always wanted to go there, and it's not far from Fredericksburg. I knew there wasn't much to it, but I still wanted to go check it out. We turned onto the one road and it was just beautiful! There were tons of big oak trees and the little Post Office that you see in all the pictures sits over to the left. On the other side of the street is the dance hall and a sort of concession area. We got there about 6:00 and a band was going to play at 8. Not too many people were there. There were several motorcycles parked near the dance hall and it looked like mostly tourist types checking out the Post Office. There are some picnic tables next to the Post Office and several roosters running around. Thomas even tried unsuccessfully to catch one. Mike was getting a little annoyed by all my picture taking, but I don't think he realized how amazed I was at how beautiful it was there! It really looks like a movie set. Even the people hanging out there looked like carefully chosen extras in an old Western. A security guy took a really cool picture of all of us sitting on the bench at the Post Office. I could tell he had taken that picture many times before because of how carefully he framed it. ;-) Thomas played with his truck in the rocks on the side of the road, and we just sort of hung out there for about an hour. The band was warming up, the locusts were chirping (do locusts chirp?), the roosters were cockadoodling, and the sun was setting. I was ready to pitch a tent and stay the night. I hope to go there again sometime. I'd love to see someone like Pat Green play there. Something else to look forward to...

Fredericksburg Bound

This is such a good time of year for me, because Mike doesn't have much fishing. This weekend, we decided to come to Fredericksburg for the heck of it. I guess also, because Thomas just loves to travel in the "RVV". Mike came home early from work and we headed out about 2:00. Thomas fell right to sleep, so of course I couldn't miss a good nap! We slept for 3 hours. Niiiiice. We didn't expect the trip to take quite as long as it did though. With traffic and the rain, we didn't arrive until about 8:30. Our RV park is really nice and we were able to get a full hookup. This makes me very happy. I get to run the water all I want and not worry about filling up the tanks!

As soon as we got here, we all got out and checked out the park. We didn't get very far though, cause Thomas and his John Deere ("Gon Dee") truck parked themselves in the nearest gravel lot. The sun was going down and one of our neighbors was playing Willie. All I needed was a margarita. Whiskey is happy to be with us since he missed the last RV trip. He enjoyed his stay with Maggie and David though!

It got dark, so we headed back to the "RVV". I gave Thomas a bath, and he bathed his truck and trailer. He even went to bed tonight without his shoes on! (He has had a major hang up for the last several weeks about having his shoes on at all times. "Go non!" We have chosen our battle and have decided to put him to bed with his old dirty shoes on each night. Tonight, just socks!!! Clean socks.