Photoshopaholic Version 2.0

I was playing around in Photoshop and made this.

He looks cute in those Neo shades, huh?

Spring has Sprung!

 We were pretty excited to see everything bloom during our first spring in our new home.  We have some landscaping to do but it really looks fantastic. 

Very excited for all the pretty trees and flowers that are showing up! HAPPY SPRING!

FITS!

Tommy is truly a toddler.  He taken up fit-throwing as his new hobby.

 First things first, we raised his hoop.  So now he's figuring out how to actually shoot baskets!

 Then he shoots the wrong size ball and it gets stuck in the net. 

 He knows how to hit the ball out of the net but if he doesn't get it the first couple times... well...

It's time for a fit.  I wish I would have gotten it on video.  He walked up to the wall, put his hands up, rolled his head back and WAILED.  He was not happy.  It must be so frustrating to be a toddler... when your parents sit on the couch and laugh at you throwing a fit.  It didn't last long luckily.  Plus he was having a bad day.  Poor baby. 
(The next one? I'm totally getting it on video.) 

Saturday in the Park

We took Tommy to the Columbian Park on Saturday.  He was in awe.

 You didn't tell me there were going to be ducks here!?!

 We walked all over the park.  We took a stroll through the mini amphitheater.

 We walked and pointed... and walked and pointed some more.

 Yeah, we let him explore that.  Don't judge.  He was learning!

 What a cutie pie.  He was checking out playground equipment.  But there were too many big kids.  We were in the wrong place.  They have a section of playground equipment for his age kids so we headed over there. 

 Under the bridge!

 We're not sure if he had been on the swing before or not.  He wasn't entirely thrilled by it.  :-)

We certainly dressed him to match all the primary colors in the playground.

After awhile, I turned Hipstamatic photo app on shuffle and started snapping pics. 

 This is one of my favorites.  I wish it would have been in color though. So many great colors! Just chilling on the park bench.

 Oh wait, no, he's on the move!

 Run Tommy RUN! 

 His only speed is RUN.

 Awww.  Look at him.  Probably spotting a duck... or a dog... or a car.  He likes to point out each and everyone one of those things.

 He looks ornery there, doesn't he?

 He does this with our banister at home.

 Dada and Tommy in the bright, bright sun. 

Can you feed me this banana, please? 

 How about you, dada?

 Fine, I'll feed myself.

Heehee.  Cute.  Like father, like son!

I cannot wait for the Columbian Park Zoo to open!!! Tommy is going to love it!  He may call every animal a dog but he's going to LOVE IT! 

Big Boy

Tommy is growing up so fast.  He's already...

DRIVING?

He's also helping out with chores these days.

 Don't worry about it, Dada.  I got it. 

 It goes over here! 

Um, do you have enough peas??

He also decided to keep his tray on his plate while he ate for 10 whole minutes.  He had his first taste of grilled chicken straight from the grill (how can you not grill out when the weather was so nice?).  He was so funny though.  He would take a bite and put the rest of the chicken to his right.  He created quite a pile of half-eaten chicken.

Look at our little mini griller.  Tommy's grilling out with dada. 

Such a big boy!

Tommy's Second St Patrick's Day

Do you remember Tommy's first St Patrick's Day?

 He even had St. Patrick's Day socks!

My how things have changed! Actually have they really? He's still cute as a button and I'm still retouching the eczema out of his photos! Actually his eczema is a lot better.  We can control it at least when he has a flare up.  That's been nice.
He also has way less poop explosions than a year ago on St. Paddy's Day.

So that was last year.  This is this year...

 Tommy needed shades for the ride over to the parade.  Probably because his Kermit shirt and sweatshirt were too bright. :)

 The Neals and their four kilts won the costume contest at the parade! Awww!! Shirts with Neal crests on them? WINNING! Literally.  They won a $100! Awesome!

 "Tommy look! They dyed the Wabash green for St. Patrick's Day! Oh wait, nope, that's just the good ol' Wabash."

 After the costume contest, the gator took off and led the parade to Nine Irish.

 We watched the parade for awhile before joining in the march.

 The bagpipes were pretty loud and we didn't want to freak Tommy out so we stayed behind.

 Poor Tommy doesn't look very happy in this picture.

 But he really did enjoy the parade.  There was lots of clapping in which he happily took part.

 Then he got to ride on dada's shoulders as we walked across the bridge.

 Tommy really didn't want to be carried because there was such a sea of green shirts!  Let me run around, dang it!

 We let him walk for a little while but he kept turning around and running the opposite direction.  Apparently we need to go over how a parade works.

 At one point, he gave up and just sat down in a parking lot.  He wasn't going ANYWHERE.  Yay Toddler Years!

 He finally agreed to come back home with us so he could take a nap.

We took Tommy home and he got to hang out with Gram and Pop for the day while we attended the Nine Irish Party.  We have been craving the Nine Irish Brothers St Paddy's Day celebration since we last attended which was a couple years ago.  As soon as we moved back to the area, one of our first thoughts was "YAY! We get to go to Nine Irish for St. Paddy's Day!!"

 The day started with a creepster.  We took several pictures and videos.  Yeeee-IKES.

 We never did figure out what he was doing.  But he was pretty drunk so I'm sure he didn't really know either.

 The Grand Marshall! We are pretty sure he stood on the bar and said, "Yes I want the ceiling to be EXACTLY this high."

 Water??? What are you, 31 years old or something?

 Here's Andrew with Travis and Lower's Dads.

 Here are Lower and Andrew looking St. Patrick-ish.

 SHOTS! SHOTS! SHOTS-SHOTS-SHOTS! SHOTS! SHOTS! Wait, how does that song go again?

 There were several bands throughout the day.  This band had a rockin' flutist. It made me miss my old flute.

 After we had our fill of the Irish tunes, we decided to head over to the Cactus (our new fave hangout thanks to Steph).  On the way, Andrew decided to jam out to some metal tunes on his iPhone.

Then we went out on the dance floor and DANCED!

and DANCED!

AND DANCED!!

There were a few too many dancing pictures so I condensed them for you a little.  Plus they were all terrible, taken with my iPhone.  The camera on that thing still needs a little work.

What an awesome time we had.  Worth the 3 year wait!

Before we go, let's take a quick historical review of St Paddy's Day at Nine Irish.

 This is St. Paddy's Day 2008.  What a crew! We look so young!

This is St Patrick's Day 2009.  Still so young! We found out a couple months later that Katie had found out she was pregnant that morning.  No wonder she was able to drive us home! :) 

  I, on the other hand, was NOT able to drive us home.  Happy St. Patrick's Day everybody!!