It's Zoo Season!

The Columbian Park Zoo opened up at the end of April and we finally were able to make our way over for a visit.  

 Gotta love the Wallabees!

 Tommy sure does! As long as they stay away from him.  :-)

 Grandma stepped in when he didn't want to get his picture taken by the otter statues.  The  real otters were super active that day but I didn't get any pictures.

 Time for a climb on a frog break!

 It took him awhile to get used to the free range goats in the petting zoo.  They were not shy and it kinda freaked Tommy out a bit.
Plus who would want to mess with a tiny baby goat who can climb on a stump that high?? Yikes! They also tried to eat my jacket whenever I got close to them.  Crazy goats.

 He finally warmed up to them and actually petted a couple goats by the end of our visit.  Success!

Break time to drive an old bumper car!

We always forget about our dang zoo.  We really need to take advantage of it more often! Hopefully we have some time this summer to visit more.

It's Planting Time!

Tommy has been waiting to get in the tractor with Grandpa (or Gwaaaampa, as he says) for a long time.  He finally got his chance this weekend.  

 Grandpa hard at work and Tommy looking for buttons to push.  Don't touch the GPS, please, Tomdog.

I told Tommy he had to take a nap before he could ride in the tractor.  As soon as he woke up, it started to rain.  I thought he might not get to ride in the tractor.  He was so upset but Grandpa was super nice and took Tommy for a lap in the mud.  

 Keeping an eye out on the turn!  He was very serious about riding along.

 He loved it! He got his own seat forcing preggo mom to crouch on the floor of the cab.  Thanks Tommy! :)

 He had such a great time.  I think Gwaammpa had a good time too! :-)

Oh Boy, the Big Boy Bed

We decided it was time for Tommy to have a big boy bed.  We bought the set a long time ago but we just finally put it together on our anniversary. 

(Who switches their kid to a big boy bed on their anniversary? We do!)

Andrew put the bed together and we showed it to Thomasaurus.  

 His reaction was seriously priceless.  He LOVED his new bed.  He was soooo excited.

 I wish I would have gotten it on video but he laid down in his bed and said, "Can I go swweep now?" Adorable.

We FINALLY switched to a video monitor.  I do not know how we survived so long without it!! Great picture huh? Reminds me of an ultrasound picture.  
Anyway, we wanted to have a video monitor so we can yell into the intercom, "Get back in bed!" if he tries to get out.

I went in and took a picture after he had fallen asleep.  He seems to enjoy his new bed and all the space!

Not much different than the last picture I took of him in his crib.

He is the king of weird sleeping positions, that's for sure.  

So one night down, many many more nights to go! Happy New Bed to the Big Boy Tommy T! 

Last Day of "School"

Tommy's daycare is also a school so they had a fun end of year celebration for all the kids.  

 It was really cold outside so the water balloon fight they were supposed to have turned into throwing water balloons at the brick wall instead.

They played with the parachute as a class.

They did really well with it.  I was kinda surprised.

Bouncy balls with handles! Just like in the movie Big!

 They invited parents to attend the end of year activities.  This was super confusing for Tommy as you can tell.  But he did eventually get over it the shock of me being around while he was playing with his friends.

 My favorite moment came when all the kids crawled through the tunnels and into this little house at the end.  They were all cozy inside until their teacher told them to come out.  They came tumbling end over end to get out and 90% of them were crying by the bottom picture.  I shouldn't laugh but it was pretty funny.  They all got over it as soon as you can say "Squirrel!"

 The whole class.  Amazing how big the class got by the end of the year!

 They had a picnic lunch outside too! How cool!

The summer session starts now and he'll go into the new class in August.  We'll miss his current teachers come this fall but we're on to new beginnings!  Time is moving too fast!

Adventures in Eating, Part Infinity

Olive Garden has a super nice allergy menu so when our power was out randomly during the week, we decided it was time to visit.  

Father and son pose time.

 I still can't believe he let us put the bib on him.  He hasn't let us put a bib on him since he was a baby.

All the pastas are good to go for Tommy so we chose shells and meat sauce.   It was an excellent choice. So much easier to eat than the typical long noodles.

For once we actually had a pleasant dining experience with a toddler.  Tommy loved his meal and it was just loud enough that his "inside voice" didn't bother the neighbors.  Hooray for da Garden!

23 Weeks: 'MERICA!

With Memorial Day and Independence Day coming up, I got a new maternity top.  

(Still bigger than first pregnancy.) 

 MERICA! PREGZ YEAH! You could've taken the tag off, nerd.

There are some outtakes from this photo shoot I thought you might like to see.

I thought the tank could use some accessories.

Are you kidding me?

There we go.  Those are the right accessories.  And NO we don't keep Miller High Life in the house.
It's in the garage.  Duh.

So how is little Baby T2 Santa Claus?

We visited Maternal Fetal Medicine in Indy again to check her growth.  We got a very good report.  She's growing wonderfully.  It was nerve-wracking to be back in that room again.  But when they use words like perfect and normal over and over again, you finally start to relax.  

T2 is about the size of a grapefruit at this point.  The average measurements for a baby at this week of growth is 10.5 to 11.8 inches and about 12.7 to 20.8  ounces.  

At the appointment they told us our baby is, and I quote, a 'whopper'.  I believe they said she's 20 ounces! That's HUGE! But I guess we were never given any in-depth information about Tommy so we don't really know if he was big or small at that point. 

I asked what the percentile was and the doctor told me 50-70th percentile.  Well that's not so bad.  Phew.  I should be able to handle that.  

They still had to do some checking on Twin B.  But T2 doesn't like the attention taken off of her so she kept sticking her hand where ever the ultrasound was at the time.  

We also got a special treat. Our tech took some 3-D pictures! Look at the little elbow in the top left pic.  Love it!
She told us it is rare that you can get such a good shot this early.  Normally you have to wait until about 28 weeks to get a quality picture of the face like this.  
Oh and she also told us that our baby isn't actually lumpy.  It's just the way the 3-D ultrasound waves bounce off of everything in the uterus.

 We think she looks like Tommy already.  This is Tommy at 1 day old.  What do you think??

Erin's Illinois Bridal Shower

Over the weekend, I drove up to Wheeling, IL, for Erin's Bridal Shower.  

 I thought I was going to be late because I couldn't leave this little cutie with the crazy hair! But the drive was amazingly smooth.  It went super fast and I ended up getting there early. Phew!

 Erin and her bridesmaids posed for pictures.

Then she and her Zeta sisters took a picture 'throwing the crown' which also happens to be the hand sign for the latin kings, I believe.  Awkward! :-)

 One of Erin's friends took the bottle that she and Doug drank from the night they got engaged and made it into this super cool centerpiece.

Another super sweet thing her friends did for her was put together this milestone gift.  There was a bottle of wine for each milestone they would experience (wedding night, first Christmas, first fight, first anniversary, first baby, etc).  At each milestone they are to pop open the bottle and celebrate the milestone.

Attached to each bottle was a poem about the milestone.  They read each one at the table.  It was so thoughtful.

 The favors were cupcakes in mason jars with a tag that read 'Love is Sweet.'

 The shower was held at Cooper Hawk and this was the menu.  It was super delish!! I had the chicken. It was really tasty.

We played some celebrity wedding trivia games and the "he said/she said" game.  You can see Cait modeling the Doug response stick for the he said/she said game.

 Then it was time to open presents!

My gift was the last to be opened.  She got a lot of really wonderful stuff! Lots of Crate and Barrel! Sa-weet!

Then one of her bridesmaids made this bouquet from all the bows on her gifts.  Now that's talent! Look at that thing!! Professional!

Erin is so lucky to have such thoughtful, talented and creative friends.  Everyone had so much fun celebrating Erin's upcoming nuptials.  Only four months to go!