First time at the beach

A couple weeks ago, we headed down to Jax to visit and to send off our some of our good friends who are moving to San Francisco. I was determined to get Tommy to the beach since he hasn't been since he was 2 months old and wasn't quite able to enjoy it then. On Sunday, we made it out to Jax beach and Tommy LOVED it. But what made it the best is that some of our closest friends, Jim and Julie and their kids were arriving in Jax that same weekend after their year in Rhode Island. (For those of you who have followed for a while, we took a trip out to No Cal last summer to see them after their 2 year assignment in Japan. They have a daughter who is 5 days older than Tommy who is also our goddaughter). It was a great reunion and the kids all had a blast. You can see a picture below of Camden holding a hammerhead shark....yes, that was caught in the exact water where we were swimming, although we didn't go in very far. Some of my favorite pics are the ones of Tommy with Ryan. I tried to get the perfect pic of Tommy and Rea together on the beach which never happened but I did get a couple of them later in the day. Next is one pic of Tommy with the Durkin twins who are only a few months younger than him. Last but not least in the line are 2 pics of Tommy with our friends at the going away party we went to Saturday night.

This Friday, Tommy and I are off to Tucson to see my friend and Tommy's godmother, Carissa and her daughter Darcy for a week. Then we'll head to LA for a wedding, then Ryan and I are off to Alaska with my family for a week long cruise! (Tommy will be in the very capable hands of his Nana Kay and Pops back in Nashville). I'm sure I'll have lots of great pics to post in a few weeks!

Let the brainwashing begin

As football season nears, we have taken it upon ourselves to educate our child in all things UT. Now that he can talk, we are on a roll. One of his new favorite things is to talk about Smokey, the UT mascot, and to read his "Hello Smokey" book. Not only are we teaching him about UT, but about other important aspects of SEC football. The video explains itself. Enjoy!!!

A week at Gram and Grandpa's house

Last week we had Tommy's 18 month appointment. He is in wonderful health and is still growing like a champ. He is weighing in at 29 pounds, 4 ounces which is the 87th percentile. He had a growth spurt and is now 33.5 inches which puts him in the 82nd percentile. All in all, he is a BIG BOY! At least now he is tall and chubby instead of short and chubby. He is totally turbo all day long which has been an adjustment for me with being home with him every day. He is so much fun and is truly a little monkey....he loves to imitate us in speech and in action, he loves to get dirty and run around (usually chasing after his cousins) and has no fear. He is 100% rough and tumble boy, but has a very sweet side, too. His vocabulary amazes me....he has about 6 words in Spanish which I of course am very proud of, and at least 25 in English. His little personality keeps us laughing and smiling all day long (although maybe not really smiling so much at 5:45 when he normally wakes up!)

The first week of June, Ryan and I scooted of to Paris for a week to visit some of our best friends who are living there for a year (free place to stay...woo hoo!). We flew out of Atlanta, so it was perfect to drop Tommy off at my parents' house for the week. Gram was well prepared with tons of toys, activities and even a play date planned! Tommy had a blast, well I don't really know who had more fun, my parents or him! But it was a great chance for them to get lots of time together. They spent lots of time playing the park, and you can see by the high chair picture that they wore him out (which is usually the objective). Enjoy the pics and then read on under them for an update on our Tommy boy!


Mesmerized by the lawn mowing guys

Snackin' with Grandpa

Fun in May

As long as I was posting, I wanted to include these! We had an unbelievable garden of irises in our new backyard this spring so I tried to do a photo shoot with Tommy in front of them. Of course getting him to pose or stay still for that matter is a challenge, but here are a couple cute ones! Below those, you can see a couple pictures with Gram and Uncle Ryan. We had my parents in town the first weekend in May and my brother made a surprise appearance (well, a surprise to my parents anyway) on Sunday for a short visit after a reunion at Southern Illinois with his college friends. Tommy has always loved Uncle Ryan and his facial hair but he was a little more tentative this time. Of course now that Ryan has left, Tommy looks at his picture and says Ryan and smiles but when he was here, we could hardly get him to give him a hug! It was a great bonus since we rarely get to see him.

A visit from Gilbert

In late April, our friends from Chicago came down to visit. They have a son, Gilbert, who is only 6 weeks older than Tommy. We were with them on Halloween, too, but the boys have changed so much since then and it was fun to see how much they've changed. Tommy is of course, heftier than Gil, and their personalities are so different. But they had lots of fun playing together. Again, Tommy wasn't so keen on the whole sharing idea but we worked through it. I am disappointed at my lack of pictures here...we had an eventful weekend at the park and the zoo but really the only time I broke out the camera was playing in the playroom.

Tommy & Darcy

The week after Easter, Tommy's godmother Carissa and her daughter (and my goddaughter) Darcy came to visit. If you've been following our blog for a while, you'll remember her pics from a visit when Tommy was only 2 months old, and then again this summer in Northern Cal. Anyway, Carissa and Darcy came for a short visit and it was so fun to see the 2 kids together. They are exactly 7 months apart, but they are the same height and surprise.....Tommy is bigger and weighs more! They really interacted this time and had fun together, except of course when Darcy was playing with one of Tommy's toys. The age difference between them seems to lessen each time we see eachother which is so fun! We will be visiting them this summer at their new home in Tucson AZ for a week!
















































Of course no visit would be complete without bathtub pictures. The kids were pretty pumped about their soapy soiree until a fight broke out over a rubber duck and both kids had a complete meltdown which brought the fun to a screeching hault. We got a good laugh out of it, but the kids did not. We didn't have our wits about us to get a picture of the meltdowns and really, that would have been cruel, right? So you'll just have to enjoy the pre pics!

More Easter Egg Hunting!

As a practice round the day before Easter, we went over to our friends house and the kids had an Easter egg hunt. Tommy's friends Claire, Abby & Michael were there. You can see from the pictures that Tommy wasn't the biggest threat in the backyard. He started off strong, running ahead of the other kids and then ended up either putting eggs in Michael's basket or getting distracted by the balls in the yard! Then Tommy proceeded to make a mess "blowing bubbles" which really consists of him dipping the stick, getting the soap all over himself and then trying to put the soapy stick in his mouth. It was great to get together with our close friends, though, and so fun to see them all together. It was the first time our old "dinner group" has been together since we've been back in town and the kids are playing so well together. Our nights of dinner, drinks and relaxation have turned into chaotic days full of fun and smiles. Life sure has changed!!!