Tommy's Grover Party!! Part One

As you know, Tommy loves Grover.  So we threw him a Grover Birthday Party.  

Now everyone knows who Elmo is.  But not as many people know who Grover is.  If you google Grover Party Decorations, you will see that I can get a banner and a stuffed doll.  That's about it.  Such a bummer. But never fear! SUPER GROVER IS HERE! Actually Super Mom just decided to make her own dang decorations.  It's not hard to cut out Grover faces out of construction paper.  I even did it free hand.  I just worked on it a little each night while we watched tv.    

 So here are the big Grover heads.

 And here are the little ones.

I also had a super special shirt made for Tommy to wear to his Grover party.  Oh Etsy, how I love thee! If you're interested, this shop owner was wonderful to work with, did an awesome job and makes other characters.  You might have to check her out.  

So on the day of the party, we hung up all the Grover stuff and VIOLA! A Grover Party! It's really just that simple! :) HA! 

 We have an ugly hanging light in our kitchen that we covered with Grovers.  We also hung pictures by red and blue yarn in the windows.

 Everything was red and blue.  We had red and blue balloons. Grovers were hanging from everywhere.

There were even Grovers in the guest bathroom.  Friend and fellow blogger Ashley said, "Did you seriously tie yarn around the toilet paper rolls?"  I said, "Seriously."  I had a lot of yarn! I had to try to use it somehow! :)

We had red and blue M&Ms (which are ridiculously expensive, WHY?).  Red and blue treat bags.

 I found a red and blue 1st birthday hat that Grover wore most of the time.

 We even had Grover cupcakes! I used French Vanilla jelly beans for the eyes with a dot of black frosting, pink sixlets for the nose, and Christmas oreos for the mouth.
They were a big (ridiculously messy) hit!

 I hung his monthly milestone pictures in the window with yarn.

 Since there were several games on that day that guests wanted to watch, I also hung Sports themed pictures over the tv.

Look at our handsome little man in his Grover T-shirt.  Could he be any cuter? 

Stayed tuned for more details on the party! Part Two to follow soon.  

Tommy Turns One: One Crazy Year

Thomas Michael, you are a year old.  Holy mostaccioli.  Where did the time go?

Here's my first photo shoot of you the day we were leaving the hospital.  We were waiting to get the OK to leave since a huge snow storm was brewing.  I snapped this picture before we left while you were laying on the hospital bed.

This was you near Christmas time.  You were the most gorgeous newborn.  Just look at you! Perfect little features, super long hands and feet.  So alert and just taking it all in.

You grew very quickly.  The time went so fast.  I probably took about a thousand pictures of you before I went back to work.  That's probably not a Morganism.

You had so many sleepers. That's all you wore for the first 6 months I think. So comfy and warm!

Then the smiles started.  Oh dear, watch out folks.  We have ourselves a charmer right here.

You had the best onesies, sleepers, outfits... just the best clothes.  Where did all our awesome family and friends find these great things? I didn't think boys had cute clothes.  Turns out, they have LOTS available for boys now.

Boy, you had absolutely no hair.  My little cue ball. :)

Photo shoots became a regular occurrence.  Especially with hats. I LOVE that puppy knit hat.  I also love that it still fits on your noggin.

You have quite the little belly and it sticks with you.  People can't resist touching it like the Pillsbury Dough Boy.  Woo hoo!

This was the last of the photo shoots at our South Bend house.  We came back on the weekends but it was such a crazy time that we didn't have time for our photo shoots on the black leather couch anymore.

This was about the time that we thought you had conquered your ever present eczema.  We started the steroid.  It was clearing up nicely.  Ahhh, nice to have that over and done with.

But it didn't go away.  It didn't make you any less cute though! Nothing a little photoshop can't fix!

Then all the sudden, hair started appearing.  Just a little at a time but there was definitely hair growing in.  We couldn't decide for the longest time what color it was going to be.  It looked like a different color at any given time.

You really grew up fast once we got through the worst of the eczema.  All the sudden, it was like a total awakening.  You started rolling over.  You started sitting up.  You started rocking, then crawling, then pulling yourself up.  It was amazing how fast you developed.

Then we finally sold our South Bend house and bought a house in Lafayette.  By that time, you were WALKING.  It was amazing.  You would take a couple of steps here and there.  All the sudden you were RUNNING!

And CLIMBING! You were (and still are) FEARLESS! Hey mom, how about you let me stand on this rocking chair? That's not dangerous, is it?

Around this time, when your eczema still wasn't quite going away, we had you allergy tested.  As it turns out, you are allergic to everything and that was the cause of your skin rashes (oh and the vomiting, don't forget the vomiting).  You got to celebrate your first Thanksgiving with real turkey though! You were a solid food eating champ.  You LOVE turkey.  Your allergy-free diet isn't too taxing for you.  Meats, fruits, vegetables...  You're not complaining!

At your new daycare, they had a Christmas program.  What? Are you big enough to be in a Christmas program?? Well as it turns out, you are! You did great! You jingled those bells so hard you dropped them. You weren't afraid of the spotlight in the least! In fact, you waved to all the parents who were waving at their kids.  But because you're so dang cute and charming, they waved at you too! 

Now as your first birthday has come and gone, it's amazing to see you where you are today.  You're incredibly smart.  You love to talk and already have several words under your belt.  You are running, pointing, laughing, playing and just an all around fun kid.  You can rock in your rocking chair.  You can dance while sitting if you hear music.  You LOVE books.  You can SAY book.  You are AWESOME.  

So here's to you, my awesome little man.  Here's to a year of screaming, crying, vomiting, scratching, itching, changing daycares four times, moving out of the old and into the new house, teething, smiling, giggling, laughing, loving, hugging, talking, singing, crawling, walking,  running... most amazing year of our lives yet.  

Happy Birthday Tommy! The best is yet to come! 

Tommy's First Haircut

Let's just start with... Tommy NEEDED a haircut.  Seriously.  His hair was all over the place.  Just above his ears was the worst.  The rest of his hair wasn't bad.  But that hair above the years made him look like he was trying to impersonate Krusty the Clown. So before his big boy birthday party, we had Steph cut his hair.  

Steph is my brother's girlfriend and she owns the Hairman on campus.  If you haven't liked The Hairman on Facebook, you really need to do that ASAP.  

On to the Haircut... 

 So Steph has cut many kiddos hair 'round these parts before.  She was fully prepared.

 Tommy, however, was not.

We tried having him hold toys but that wasn't working.  So she just tried to use the Be As Quick As Possible route.

 How nice are those drool and snot spots on my sleeve?? Awesome.

 He's not a big fan of people touching his hair apparently.

 There, all done!

Look at that BIG BOY!!!

Thanks so much, Steph! He looks fantastic!

Jack Turns Two!

Jack turned two last weekend and we were invited to his Super Awesome Pool Party! The party was in Plainfield at this place called Splash Island.  It was sooo cool! It is owned by Plainfield Parks and Rec.  It's basically a HUGE rec center.  It has a huge gymnasium and a running track above it. It has an indoor AND outdoor water park.  It's quite a facility.  I would love to have something like that in my city.

So now that I also have a child with a winter birthday, I appreciated the pool party idea.  I wasn't too excited about getting in a swimsuit at this time of year but it was worth it for the kiddos.

 Tommy wasn't quite sure what to think of this pool experience.

He warmed up to it pretty quick.  What a cutie!

 Did I mention they had a lazy river? This place had EVERYTHING.

 Including a basketball hoop.  Tommy saw this from a mile away.  He was pointing and yelling "BALL BALL!" (which is his way of saying, Hey Mom and Dad, I would like to point out that there is a basketball hoop and basketball right over there and I would like you to take me there so that I may play with it. RIGHT NOW.)

 He literally had a BALL.  He loved it.  He picked up on the whole basketball goes in the hoop game immediately.

 He also picked up on the slam-dunk-one-arm-hang very quickly.

He really had a wonderful time.  He didn't get any pool time this summer since we were busy moving and being temporarily displaced.  But he made up for it at this party.

 See what I mean?

 He didn't want to let go!

 This picture cracks me up.  He got a little ahead of himself with grabbing on the rim and the ball came back and smushed him in the face.  Whoops!  Don't worry, he was too busy to be upset.

 Tommy's friend Emily (you may remember her from this party) decided she wanted to play too.

 She didn't want to let go either!

 Here's birthday boy Jack!! This guy knows how to have a good time!!

 We had a little room off to the side to eat food and cake.

 Look at all that red icing!!

 Um, why so serious???

 Look at this kid! Hilarious! He's going for that Phantom of the Opera look I think.

We had an awesome time.  Happiest of birthdays, Jack!!