Friday Evening with the Goldmans

On Friday, the Goldman family came to visit us.  It used to be a lot harder to go see them (3+ hours) but now they're only 40 minutes away.  This is just mind-boggling to us.  Friday nights used to be off the table for social activities because the traveling took too long to have any time to do anything else.  But now we can do things during the week! WHAT? People come over to our house DURING THE WEEK... Friday nights... SUNDAYS?  How awesome that we're not relegated to Saturdays only for seeing friends.  Yay!

So back to Friday night.  (It's Friiiiday, Friiiiday, Get-ting down on Friiiday.) Grant, Ashley and Max came over.  We ordered pizza.  We put the kids to bed then we partied.  (Party and party and... YEAH! Party and party and... YEAH. Fun fun fun fun. I cannot believe that video has almost 5 million views.)

The little boys ate dinner together while the big boys went to get the pizza.  I was so ticked when I saw this picture on my computer.  It's the only one where they are both looking at the camera and it's bit out of focus.  Bummer.

Max is a talky dude.  He had so much to say.  Such a cutie.

 

The boys played in their PJs.  Check out Max's cute slippers.  Max enjoyed watching football.   

Tommy apparently did not.  He just learned how to shut off the TV.  That kid still loves pressing buttons.

 But Max was cool with it.

 Max showed Tommy how to do his animal puzzle.

Respect, BRAH! (We watched the latest South Park that night.)

 I love this pic.  Max is wrapped as a baby burrito!

 Breakfast time!

Max is munching on applesauce and bananas while Tommy had some teddy grahams.  Kids diets are awesome.  :)

 Then Max showed us his dance moves to "I Like to Move It, Move It" from Madagascar.

I LOVE this picture.  Max is showing off his marching skills!

Just two guyz and they're having a good time.

 I showed Max how to take pictures and he took a lot (gotta love digital cameras).  I thought I'd show some of his best work.

 Check this one out! He's getting better!

 Then it was back to dancing to "I Like to Move It, Move It".

 He had spin moves and everything!

Then it was time to get dressed and head home.  Aww, party time is over.  :(

We had a great time, Goldmans! Cannot wait to do it again! We have Showtime for 6 months by the way.  So we can record a bunch of episodes about the hardest working men in Vegas for future parties.  Respect BRAH!

He likes to move it, move it.

We took Tommy to the mall recently and he changed a chair into a walking device. Please try to ignore the fact that he is barefoot.  We went to buy him shoes directly after this.  :-)



He does the same thing at home.  He uses laundry baskets and several of his toys and pushes them across the floor.  We finally broke down and got him a push cart type of toy.  He is LOVIN' IT.  (I apologize for the annoying mom voice.)



GOOOOO!!!

New Daycare

So how did Tommy's first week go at his new daycare?
He can't really tell us how it's going because the only words he says are dada and GO! But let's look at some baby indicators.

1.)  Eating
Old Daycare: Tommy was eating maybe half or less of a small container of baby food.  Plus he often didn't finish his bottles that I sent.  Oh yeah, and did I mentioned the EGGS????
New Daycare: He eats a whole medium sized container of baby food, crackers, teddy grahams plus both his bottles.... and no stinking eggs.

2.) Sleeping
Old Daycare: He would take an hour long nap a couple times during the day. The week we were moving into our house, the afternoon lady decided not to put him down for an afternoon nap because (she hates us?) she thought he would probably nap once we got home and we would be able to get more stuff done.  Thanks so much, lady.   That really worked.  *eyeroll*
New Daycare: He sleeps for 2.5 hours usually at lunch time.  They have a separate room for the cribs.  It's dark and quiet.  He goes down really easy. It takes him about 5 minutes to fall asleep on his own.  Good boy!

3.) Diaper Changes
Old Daycare: He was changed maybe 4 times a day.  He always came home in different clothes because there was poop on his clothes somehow.
New Daycare: He is changed 6 times a day and always comes home in the same clothes.

4.) Sleeping at Home
Old Daycare:  He would wake often at night.
New Daycare: He sleeps through the night.

So yeah, I would have to say that things are going very well at the new daycare.

 Tommy loves "gym time" in the morning.

 He doesn't cry when we drop him off or pick him up.  He does whine a little bit to let us know that he will miss us.  (He's a good boy!) But he usually crawls to the nearest toy and puts it in his mouth.

 He's in a class with other one+ year olds.  He is by far the youngest.  But he doesn't seem to mind.

 He has to wear shoes because they have slippery floors.  Check out that shoe wearing kid! He's looking over his report card for the day.

Apparently he doesn't think he ate enough.  Yum Paper!

He is having a little trouble with the transition and all the changes of late (new house, new daycare, new schedule).  He's pretty grumpy at night when he comes home.  I can't put him down or he cries.  But as soon as I nurse him, he's completely back to normal.  He's as happy and fun as can be.  He just needs his mama.  :)  He won't say it though.  He's still stuck on saying dada all the time.  One of these days... :)

But after the first week, we are totally pleased with the new day care.  Hooray for Kiddie Kollege! (Do you think that's been trademarked by the K-loving Kardashians???)

Monkey Boy!

Gram brought Tommy a new hat this weekend.  Check out his new sock monkey hat! 

 So cute it's ridiculous!

 Not for long though.  Not a big fan of wearing things on his head.

And it's off.  Cute while it lasted! Or maybe he's saying- I don't need a hat.  I'm already cute.  Duh.  :-)

Homecoming!

We went to homecoming at Purdue this weekend.  Purdue WON which is fantastic but we wouldn't know any better. We were too busy catching up with friends that we hadn't seen in a long time.  

 We were able to catch up with the Deichmans. We haven't seen them in a very long time.  We were both kid-free that day so we spent the day talking about.... our kids. :-)

 Lower was in town from Bloomington. He's a Hoo-hoo-hoo-HOOSIER now.

 The Staffords brought their kids.  This is adorable Nora.  She is beyond cute. You may remember her from Diane's belly here.

Here's Jack.  You will also remember him from these posts.

Wyatt was in attendance too whom you know from these posts.  Jack and Wyatt had a jolly good time.

Lower, get away from those kids!

My bro Adam came and visited our tailgate.  The bro-in-laws ate Indoor Smores together.  :)

Here's Jack in an adult sized tailgate chair...

And Wyatt in the just-his-size bear chair.  I did not know they made these.  They are awesome!

Awww! Look at little Nora thinking about crawling and wearing a fabulous hat.  So cute!

Hey everyone! Jack wants to make a speech!

His audience was ready to listen! More friends we haven't seen in awhile, Bowman and his girlfriend Erin sitting on either side of Andrew.

AJ and his girlfriend Ashley flew all the way from Colorado.

As is appropriate at these things, someone got out the whiskey.  I don't think Andrew likes the taste. :-)

People were walking around selling stuff all day.  There was a boy selling Fannie Mae candies.  There was a guy selling bracelets for the American Cancer Society... and then there was a guy selling obscene stickers as you can see here.

We got to meet Chloe! Chloe was born the same day that Tommy was! Not kidding.  Within hours of each other.  Aww! Chloe and her parents, Casey and Jill, and Chloe's grandparents were tailgating not very far from us.  Check out the Go-Pod.  That thing is AWESOME for tailgates! So cool!

At Chloe's tailgate, they were celebrating Casey's 30th birthday with a candy cake.

Also with this insanely awesome looking sandwich! Like Joey from Friends, one of my favorite foods is also sandwiches.  :)

On the candy cake, there were liquor candies on the top! Very cool.


So... beer, whiskey, liquor candies... all led to the following pictures at our house at about 10 pm...

GARLIC BREAD... GOOD!

IS IT???

So during our kid-free day, what did Tommy do? He was at home with Gram and Aunt Erin.  

Aww, look at those happy Boilers! 

Boiler up and Hammer down! Happy Homecoming!

On to Daycare Number 4...

So we got Tommy's daycare picture just in time for us to switch daycares.  Check it out.

 He was a litte afraid of the giant light the photographer used so instead of smiling, he gave some fish lips.  Too funny.

Check out the super cute class pic.  I have no idea how they got all the kids to look at the camera at once and not scream bloody murder.  I'm sure photoshop was involved.  Sorry to make the teachers look so dang scary.  Yellow faces provided to protect the innocent.  :)

Anyway, tomorrow morning Tommy starts the 4th daycare in his first year of life.  (Just a note: I do not suggest doing this.)  The Thornburgs apparently like to do things in multiples.  Three houses in five years, four daycares in one year...

Why four daycares, you ask? Well the first daycare was the only one that we trusted that was taking babies.  It was a decent daycare but really expensive and really out of the way in downtown South Bend.  It was also a little "corporate".  Tommy went there for the first month when I went back to work until a spot opened up in a daycare by our house.  This daycare was also okay (no daycare is going to be perfect).  But I didn't like how they put babies to sleep on their tummies.  I thought everyone knew the "back to sleep" thing.  Apparently not.  So then when we moved into our temporary quarters in Renssy and I started him at a daycare in the town where I worked.  Neither Andrew nor I liked this daycare but we really didn't have any other choice.  The very first day they gave him one bottle at 10 am and then never fed him again all day.  Tommy was actually just fine when I picked him up (he's quite resilient) but are you kidding me???? No one thought to feed him again? I brought THREE BOTTLES!! There were many other problems that we had with this daycare.  I don't have time to list them all (here's a short list: didn't lock the front door, shoddy outlet covers, not wanting to deal with a breastfed baby, stopped making him nap in the afternoon, they moved the baby room 3 different times while he was there, a different afternoon person every couple weeks, the list keeps going on and on).  But on his last day, Andrew picks him up.  On his little report card, there were a couple sentences written at the bottom.  Andrew didn't look too closely at the time because he figured that they wrote something like it was nice having him here.  Well when he finally read the note...

They fed him EGGS on his last day!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? If you read any piece of baby literature, it says no eggs until the baby is over a year.  Plus with his eczema and his vomiting issues, WHY would they think that is a good idea??  So thank heaven for the new daycare.  I had been scrambling since we bought our house trying to get into a daycare that I liked in our area.  I found one that had a waiting list.  Then I found another one that took babies at around 12 months.  Tommy and I toured the place and we loved it.  It was clean, safe, bright, happy, the teachers are great with the kids, they have a curriculum (first words, standing/walking), they are organized. Tommy liked it because they played ball with him. :-) It is just night and day from the old place.  We are so excited for him to start tomorrow.  I still have the normal parental anxieties (plus I think he's starting to get more teeth, yikes) but I think this place is going to be great.  Oh and yes, they could take him at 10 months because he's already very mobile.  HOORAY!!

So wish Tommy luck tomorrow as he starts at his new school.  Hope you love it, Thomasaurus!