Tommy Tinker

We have a silly songs cd with a song on it that makes the boys laugh:
"Little Tommy Tinker, sat upon a clinker, and he began to cry, 'O Ma, o Ma!' Poor little innocent guy." The boys sometimes call Tommy Little Tommy Tinkerbell as a result.

When we were in Utah Thomas started complaining about his "wrinkle" (pronounced by him 'winkoh'). He pointed to his left side, right above the hip when he did this. I finally took him in after he had been complaining about it for two weeks and it seemed to be getting worse. When we went to the doctors, he told him, "D-d-d-doctor, mine ankoh hurts!" That caused a bit of confusion! As it turns out, the doctor didn't think it was anything serious and he was right--Tommy stopped complaining about it the very next day, of course.

Tommy has a very different vocabulary from the older boys' when they were his age. Words like "Darn" and "fweaked out" were unknown to the twins at age 3. Also he has a definite sense of ninja turtles which the twins didn't find out about until they were probably 5. Yesterday his pants were too long so they hung over his feet, and he was sliding around the house on them saying, "Raffi is riding on his skateboard!" and tipping his body accordingly from side to side. He also demonstrated his knowledge of Star Wars while helping me in the kitchen. He was playing with a cup full of almonds and making them fly around (they ultimately made a big mess on my counter, but it was so much fun to listen to him that I let him do it unperturbed) saying "This is a podwace. Don't go that way! That's a janerous (dangerous) way! Awuvva peepoh went to da podwace...yeeoooommmm" And "Nemo"--he likes to talk whale, like Dori. At the table at lunch the other day he sang a song for me in whale. He asked me, "Do you know what that is? It's a whale song."

We were driving past our fairly unimpressive prairie scenery on Friday and Tommy suddenly cried out with a silly expression on his face, "The sea can't wive on the gwass!!" He had caught sight of a fairly large puddle/small lake in the fields and was filled with amazement at seeing it there.
Tommy likes to say, "That's not a word!" With really hilarious inflections in his voice and a goofy expression on his face. It's hard to describe.
We purchased some hockey pads for the boys a while back and Tommy loves to get them on. I will be in the kitchen and suddenly he will appear at my side with hockey pads as long as his entire legs on and a mask on. Usually he says, "This is a bad hockey player" and then punches me. Sometimes he is nice. Very rarely. The other day we all were playing basketball on the boys' little hoop outside and Tommy left to go inside. He was fully dressed when he came out and said he was going to stop the balls from hitting the neighbors house. Of course, once he was in the gear, he really had to pee, so that was a cute picture--him peeing over the huge pads into the pine tree!

Tommy was helping me make bread in the kitchen the other day and he was curious about what kind of bread it was. I told him it was wheat bread. He looked at me, amazed, and then said, "Weap bwead? Yike what a dolphin do?" When I wasn't getting it and asked him to explain, he demonstrated by leaping his hand along the counter, saying "weap, weap, weap!" I also like how he says remember "bee-member" and because "peacuz."

Ever since the twins have been reading their scriptures at night, Tommy has wanted his own "skwippers" too. AT first he confiscated my Henry IV (I was going to try to read it) from the library and "read" those. When we were in Utah James got him his own copy--its the old blue cover Book of Mormon with the angel Moroni on it. He loves to bring his skwippers to church and primary, but he hardly ever cracks them open. Today I showed him the pictures inside and he seemed surprised. Its a start, I guess!

Tommy still likes to be wrapped up and cuddled like a baby. He often says, "mommy, you have two babies!" and then tries to get into George's car seat or swing or lay under his floor toy. He also likes to be a "cawapiwar" (caterpillar) and get into a cocoon. Then he puts his elbows on his head (a yoga move he learned at stay and play) and waves them and says he is a butterfly. That reminds me that he often will do some yoga with me if I get out the mat. One day I inadvertently left the mat out and James and i were in the kitchen when we heard him say, "Mom, yook, I'm doin' excersizin'!" He had both hands on the mat, one leg planted firmly, and the other very nicely behind him. :-) He also likes to watch James work out and sometimes I'll catch him doing squats on his own and he'll say, "I'm jis doin' my scwunches."

Every day with Thomas is interesting and exciting. You never know what he'll say or do, but you know it will be cute! He is really beginning to grasp things and have more of an understanding. He definitely has his moments of defiance, but on the whole he is a sweet kid who really loves to be cuddled and played with and who definitely likes to put on a show. He has a 19 year old girlfriend who he blushes around. Last night we sat behind her at an event here in town and he was so shy and wiggly every time she turned around that he covered his face so she wouldn't see him. When the lights went out, he figured she couldn't see him so he could come out. It will be fun to see how those sort of things sort themselves out as he continues to grow and mature. We love our Tommy!