Tommy Boy

Thomas has a fascination lately with the contents of his nose. This is probably because of his constant runny nose for the last week. He requests a kleenex by saying "Nose!" (it comes out sounding like No) and if left to his own resources, wipes it all over his cheeks and face. Lately he's started "picking" his nose in a very cute--not gross--way where he really just touches the edge of his nose and then looks at his finger and says with a wrinkled brow: "Boogie!" Today when I picked him up, he started inspecting my nose, saying, "Mommy, boogie?" I assured him that it was clean.

There is one picture on the fridge of Thomas. The rest of the fridge is papered with quotes, lists for 72-hour kits, past spelling tests from William and Ryrie, their schedule from school, etc, but there is one little picture of Thomas, and he just loves it. He goes over to it and takes the magnets (they are little smiley faces) on and off and says "Tommy, Tommy." It's good to see that he can recognize an adorable kid when he sees one!

Today when I took him and Owen for a walk, Tommy really didn't want to be in the stroller, and kept saying "Walk!" (He's two years old, but yes, he is still pretty much at the one-word stage). I finally let him out on our street coming home, knowing full well it would take fifteen minutes to walk past the four houses and get to ours. It did. The snow is slushy/icy/puddly right now, so it is very interesting to play in. And of course it's very dirty and gritty from being on the ground for an entire month (almost)! Tommy has the greatest silly, out-of-control belly laugh that he mostly uses with Owen. Owen made him laugh like this by "skating" in his boots on the icy part of the sidewalk. When you hear Tommy laugh like that you can't keep a straight face. After we got past the icy part, I figured Tommy was home-free, so I started walking a little ahead of him and pushing the empty stroller. I was surprised to hear a loud smack behind me, and turned around to see him flat on his face. His clumsiness on the sidewalk was probably due to his hand-me-down, too-big-still boots. Poor kid. No blood though, and after a kiss and a cuddle, he wanted "OWEN!"

The other night James and I were out and the babysitter called, saying Tommy wouldn't settle down in his bed, and was there anything he liked to do or play with that would cheer him up? All I could think of, which I didn't say, was "cooking in the kitchen!" Seriously, is that a sad commentary on my two-year old's life?

Thomas loves Good Night Moon right now--his favorite thing to do is find the mouse and he giggles when I squeak for the mouse. He also loves to cuddle with his blanket and monkey--just like his brothers. When he wants me to come see something, or come with him, he comes up to me, takes my hand with one of his, and with his other, beckons me, saying "Ome, ome..." You really can't resist him when he does this.

Owen is in swimming lessons right now, and while he swims with his group, Thomas and I swim in the little pool. Yesterday Tommy horded about three of the little toy boats at the pool and turned them into a train on the pool deck. He is crazy about trains of any kind, and is quite thrilled when he can see one moving. I guess his name is fitting, after all, eh?

I love putting Tommy to bed. He gives great kisses, complete with sound effects, and he says "I love you" in a very Tommy-esque way. We all adore him.