Tommy is 3.5 Years Old!

This post is a bit late. He turned 3 and a half on June 10th.  But things have been busy.  Same ol', same ol' excuse.

What's new with Tommy?

 He enjoys working out with me! In matching shirts too!

 He loves his sister VERY much.  The only problem is he forgets she is a baby.  He thinks he can roughhouse with her like he does his friends.  He has to be reminded often.  He rips toys out of her hands and he doesn't like when she plays with his toys.  But then there will be a moment that totally floors me.  For instance, this morning, she was crying and carrying on.  Tommy quietly left the room without telling anyone, ran into her room, got her giraffe, and brought it to her.  It was so sweet.

He's becoming pickier than he can afford to be with his restricted diet.  But he's also 3 so that's bound to happen.  I felt awful just yesterday when I got out a cupcake and he was super upset that he couldn't have one.  So I loaded him into the car and we went to Meijer to get stuff to make Tommy cupcakes.  Orange cake mix and a can of 7up later, he had orange dreamsicle cupcakes and he was a happy camper!

SEE? Look at that happy kid! He got his cupcakes.

 Some other treats... We went out for ice cream! Of course, we brought ice cream from home for Tommy but hey, we went to Culvers and ate ice cream together.  That was kinda nice.  Tommy ate chocolate chip cookie dough coconut ice cream from a brand called So Delicious.  They also have almond milk products but we have to go to walmart to get those according to their website.  Not sure if that's going to happen. :)

 You know what else he can have? Strawberry pie.  What? Yep, pie crusts from Pilsbury are made with lard maybe? I don't know but they don't have milk or eggs.  As long as it's strawberry only, he can eat it! Sweet!

Tommy peed in the yard.  I took a picture.  Then I put it by a picture of Andrew peeing in his yard and VOILA.  Blackmail GOLD!

 Side note: Great tub toys? Glowsticks! Super fun.  Really need to do that again.

What else is new with Tommy? He's three.  So of course, he's super independent, often contrary, stubborn, and particular.  But he's also super smart, incredibly sweet, hilarious, and an all around good kid.  His new favorite phrase is "butt naked".  He is potty trained during the day except for the occasional accident.  He is working on the poop thing though.  He'll get there. 

One of these days, we're going to throw an actual party for his half birthday so he can celebrate his birthday outside.  

But for this year, we'll settle on celebrating his 3.5 year old birthday without a party.  Happy 3 and one-half years old to the Mr. Tommy T! 

Time for a Singalong

A quick public service announcement first.  I always forget...

Sorry folks.  And now for the song... Hopefully this will help me remember.
Always Turn Your Phone!!

Anyhoo, now that we got that out of the way.  Here's a video of the kids singing together.

Family band practice is starting early!

Thornburg Family Chicago Vacation Day 4

(Catch up: Day 1...Day 2...Day 3)

The last day finally arrived and it was time to check out.

Tommy immediately put on his hat the next morning.  Too funny.  He had a little playtime with sis before it was time to go swimming one last time.

Can you tell you ran out of swim diapers for Charlotte? We probably should have just put her in her swimsuit, but just in case, we used a regular diaper.  You never know!

 She didn't care that she had a 5 pound bag of water between her legs.

 After we swam, we packed up and headed down the elevator.  We definitely came home with more stuff but it felt like a LOT more stuff.

 We thought we'd do a little more shopping before we left.  This was by far my favorite purchase.  Tiny pink adidas kicks for Charlee.

 Charlotte was quite the little shopper.  She attracted a lot of attention for her cuteness.

 The doorman at the hotel even asked if he could take her picture.  Creepy.  But when she's holding this pose for him for a straight minute just staring at him, I just couldn't say no.

 On the way home, both kids passed out.  It was amazing.  Tommy never sleeps in the car anymore.  But he finally caved! It was wonderfully peaceful and quiet.

Until we got close to Rensselaer.  So we decided to stop and see Grandma and Grandpa on our way home.  They needed a break from the car so it was a perfect stopping place.

Plus Tommy got to ride on Grandpa's 4 wheeler.  Too bad he didn't make it any farther than this before he decided he was done.

 Tommy was nice enough to let Charlotte drive the firetruck.

 She loved it.  Just a Saturday evening drive.

The Thornburg Family Chicago vacation was a success! We had so much fun and made so many memories.  I hope we can take them back soon!

Thornburg Family Chicago Vacation Day 3

(To play catch up, here's Day 1 and here's Day 2.) 

So on to Day 3.  We decided to do some shopping.  Charlotte decided to take an early nap.  So Tommy and Dada walked around while she was sleeping and waited for her to wake up so we could head out for the day. 

Andrew grabbed this fun shot of Tommy T in front of a super tall building.

Finally! Morning nap is over! We got the kids loaded up and we were ready to head out! Notice Charlotte has a pacifier that's attached to something? Yeah.  We lost two, count 'em, TWO pacifiers the day before within a couple blocks.  Ugh.  Another lesson learned. 
Make sure you notice the nice white hat Charlotte is wearing.  That comes into play later.

Our first stop was the Disney store.  They were having a big sale on Planes merchandise so we bought Tommy a diecast jet.  He was so excited he wanted to get it out right away.  We "pulled over" on the sidewalk and tried to get the plane out.  Oh my goodness, that thing was literally screwed into the package.  Not having a screwdriver, we had to really work to tear that thing out of the package.  Holy moly.  We finally conquered it and we were back on our way. 

 Next stop was the Water Tower Place.  We just HAD to check out Legoland! (Which is right beside the American Girl Store, not gonna lie... I took a look.) Anyway, we spent some time building things in Legoland.  Fun!

 Charlotte even enjoyed it! They had the best sets there.  They had every possible kind you could want. 

So many things to build, so little time!

Our next stop was lunch!  We went to Harry Caray's 7th Inning Stretch Restaurant.  Charlotte was not pleased with the Holy Cow. 

But Tommy was SUPER pleased with his burger and fries! We were pleased that the kids at another table were screaming and not ours. 

Charlotte was happy that she got some of Tommy's burger and fries.  The food was delicious!  Another great restaurant that dealt with Tommy's allergies wonderfully.  This was actually our best dining experience. 
Hey where did Charlotte's hat go? No one knows.  We lost it somewhere around this point. Waahhh! I loved that hat.  Good thing I got it at Old Navy for $6. 

 

 So we picked up another hat for Char Char at the Gap on clearance. It has pears on it and it was also $6.  Plus it was super cute. Guess who else got a hat?? Tommy T! Root root root for the Cubbies! (The hat also has Mickey on it.  Why? No clue.  But Tommy loved it and Dada was even more excited that he would wear it.) 

We walked to Millennium Park where I nursed in public again not far enough away from a homeless man.  Sweet. Then we went to the Bean! Ok, Cloud Gate.  Whatever it's called.  It should be called the Selfie Hotspot.  I saw more selfies being taken than a regular day on my Facebook timeline. 

Speaking of selfies... #FamilyBeanSelfie 

Tommy loved the bean.  He thought it was pretty darn cool.

Another family bean selfie.  Both kids were removing our shades.  This picture says a thousand words.  I love it. 

Then we walked over to another "biggest fountain he's ever seen".  He loved the Crown Fountain too. 

We headed from there to the Willis Tower Skydeck.  We made it up to the top in record time by skipping the movie and some other things. 

Pretty sure Charlotte didn't know what was going on but she was enjoying herself. 

Brother sister lookout love.

The views were amazing.  We pointed out spots for the kiddos. 

Charlotte says YAY!

Then we scampered into the skydeck for a quick picture.  It was hot and people were cranky.  So we ran in there quickly, took a few pics and got out of there and quickly as possible.  The kids were fading fast as you can tell.  Tommy had no fear about the skydeck.  Mom and Dad were still freaked.

Dada's turn! Tommy still gives zero cares.
I have to mention, this is probably the second most popular selfie hot spot.  Maybe number one, actually.  LOTS of selfies being taken.  So funny to watch people do it. 

We took a cab back to our hotel because we were tired, the kids were DONE, and it would allow for maximum swimming time!

Shark Cheese!! Tommy was READY TO SWIM AGAIN! Yay!

That night we hung out with Cait and Scott for dinner.  We went to Rock Bottom Brewery but the kids had had enough and we got our food to go. 

We came back to our room and put the kids to bed and continued to hang out.  The kids enjoyed being able to play with Cait and Scott.  We enjoyed having drinks with adults after a long kid-filled vacation. :)

Day 3 went surprisingly well and the kids really handled it all in stride! One Day Left!

Thornburg Family Chicago Vacation Day 2

(If you want to start at the beginning, go here: Day 1.) 

So after a somewhat rough night getting our kiddos used to sleeping in a hotel, we got up and started the day quite early on Thursday.  Andrew got up and said, "I'm going to breakfast with the kids."  I said, Alright?? He did not realize that it was 5:50 am Chicago time.  They hadn't even opened the continental breakfast yet!  Whoa, time change. 

 After breakfast, we headed out.  We decided to go to Navy Pier and take a ferry to the Shedd Aquarium.  While we waited on our ferry, we rode the famous Ferris Wheel.  Now I'm not afraid of heights, I'm just deathly afraid of falling.  This ferris wheel definitely freaked me out a little.  It is SO HUGE. 

 The kids loved it.  They have no fear.  #ferriswheelselfie

The day was beautiful! It made for excellent pictures.

 Everything was extra bright and very cool looking.

 The skyline looked especially brilliant that day.

 

After we got off the ferris wheel, we watched the swings for a bit.  

For some reason, this was a big hit with Charlotte.  She couldn't get enough of these swings!! She LOVED them.

 Just look at her face!! She was mesmerized!

 Tommy and I went on the Merry Go Round.  #merrygoroundselfie

As we left Navy Pier, we checked out this cool fountain.  Tommy said this is the biggest fountain I've ever seen!! Ha!  

 It was finally time for the ferry.  Tommy enjoyed the boat ride.

 #familyboatselfie 

 More skyline pics! SUCH a beautiful day!!

We met up with Aunt Cait and headed to the Shedd Aquarium.  Andrew and Tommy walked around like this for awhile before I realized that we really need to buy him pants that fit. 

 We got a CityPass and it gave us entry to the Jellyfish exhibit.  Wow. Those are just the coolest creatures. 

 Charlotte was sleeping so I had to keep her moving or else she would wake up.  It was a quick trip through the jellyfish for me.  But I still thought it was super cool.

 Tommy loved seeing the baby belugas so much that he couldn't stop to smile for a picture.  

 Charlotte woke up in time to check out the coral reef exhibit. 

Charlotte also loved playing with Tommy's toy named Chompy. :) 

 After the aquarium, we took a walk around it and got a family picture.  Photo credit to Aunt Cait.

 I had to take a picture of the skyline as they were walking.  Seriously, we couldn't have asked for better weather.

This is a statue outside Shedd.  Apparently Mr. Shedd had THAT kind of relationship with fish.  Hmm...

We walked to the Field Museum from there to see the dino bones.  I fed Charlotte out front and this was my view.  PUBLIC NURSING, OMG.  But that's why I have lots of blankets and scarves where ever I go.  It was tricky but it worked.

 After a busy day, we came back and went swimming again.  This picture cracks me up.

 This picture also cracks me up.  Charlotte uses her middle finger like her first finger and it's hilarious.  Everything she touches, she uses her middle finger.  It's so strange.  I love it.

 I sent this picture to my mom and said, "We go all out to take our kids on a family vacation and all they want to do is swim in the pool."  I believe I was preaching to the choir. :-)
Also, with the wind blowing and temps being 65-70, we didn't think about sunburns but they happened.  Boo. :( Lesson learned. 

 That night, we thought it would be a good idea to take the kids to the Hard Rock Cafe.  That's a kid-friendly place that would cater to food allergies, we thought.  But we failed to remember that it's the Hard ROCK Cafe and they play music insanely loud.  Our kids did not like this.  

Charlotte handled it ok.  As long as I kept feeding her baby food, she was good.

 However, Tommy wasn't too happy with the atmosphere.  This was the only picture I got of him. :) They did handle his food allergies wonderfully though.

Sidenote: Andrew and I each got a 12 oz 312 beer (local Chicago beer).  Guess how much those beers were?
Those beers, I kid you not, were $12.50 each.  OUCH.  I had half a beer left and Andrew goes, "You better drink that! That's 6 dollars worth of beer!"  Ugh.  Not a good choice for dinner.  Lesson learned here too.

 After dinner, we walked around watched the boats on the river.  The kids really liked that. 

Day 2 was mostly a success! On to Day 3!