New kind of art

Another new birthday present - an "Aquadoodle" - being put to use! This is a pretty neat idea... a "pen" filled with water that colors on certain surfaces. Thomas really liked it, especially the extra Seseme Street coloring book that came with it. Notice, we have a lefty on our hands. With most everything that Thomas does, he seems to be using his left hand. We think he is getting this from Brian's mom side of the family (lots of lefties there)!

Pool, Horsies, & Artwork

With the temperatures hitting the upper-90s this week, pool time has got to be in the morning time due to the extreme heat. So, this morning we ran errands and then headed over to Grannie & Poppie's pool to cool off. Where as last summer Thomas was content with playing on the stairs of the pool, this summer so far (as a big 2 year old), he would much rather be jumping in water to you, blowing bubbles, having you throw him up in the air and catching him, kicking his legs and moving about the pool. As you can probably imagine, we have an active fish on our hands now. Definately a water baby - no doubt! But he is also at a stage where he wants to do some things independently and he doesn't realize yet that it may get him into trouble. Our eyes are wide-open to him when we are near the water!

Captain of his own boat

Pulling into the "dock"

Wiped out after lots of playing

Here is Picasso at work with one of his new birthday presents - an art easel. One side is used with chalk and this side is used with markers, crayons or paint.

Hitting the dollar store for some little goodies - some little boy just had to ride the horsies (which was a total rip off for 75 cents that barely moved and lasted all of 1 minute). I guess he didn't care... he was riding the horsies!

Gym time!

How quickly a routine can fall into place - well, at least part of a routine. After getting up shortly after Brian left for work (5:30am), I showered and had my yummy 1 cup of coffee while I emailed and blogged. I knew that we had to go to Pensacola today for errands and thought we would get the day started early. Thomas was up at 7:15am, had breakfast and we were off an hour later. Friends have been telling me about Gymboree, but we had yet to try it. So... because we were in the area, I purposely made sure we got to the 9:00am class for Thomas' age. He loved it (and the teacher, Ms. Amy) and he just wore his self out during the 45 minute class with climbing, dancing, running & singing. I figured since we are not doing swim lessons this summer, it would be just as beneficial for me to get a membership (that costs the same as swim lessons) and let him attend unlimited classes/playtime all while in an air conditioned gym. Surely this will be part of our weekly routine (maybe 2x per week) in the morning.

Video Clip - He wanted to jump so high that I think he made Ms. Amy a little nervous as she was laughing. Thomas just wanted to go, go, go the entire time!

Summer Routine?

Everyone thrives on a routine; some need a more strict routine & others need basic structure. Most of you know that I fall somewhere in between, but a little more towards the first one. Last summer, right after Thomas turned 1 years old & while Brian was deployed, I knew that I needed a good summer routine to keep both of us sane and happy while we were home together for 2 months. It ended up working out really well - running (in the jogging stroller) with Zig in the morning before it got to hot, either pool or beach & erronds each day were the usual routine. It made time fly with Brian gone and I got into good shape!

This summer is going to be different. First & foremost - I'm 32 weeks pregnant! No running here. On top of that, it is way hot outside & being pregnant doesn't help. So... today is the first day of summer break for me, so I find it fitting to blog first thing this morning, as Thomas is still sleeping, and try and figure out this summer's routine??? Hmmmm??? I have some ideas, but I'll get back to you later. Enjoy the week.

Dinner table is always funny

Video Clip - Thomas has really been into counting numbers in the last month. He loves reading his numbers books & counting on his fingers. Now, he doesn't always get the numbers in order, but he is so adorable to listen to. Here he is with Daddy today practicing after dinner...

Video Clip - Shortly after the "counting" episode, Thomas & Daddy moved onto animal noises. Look at the concentration on Thomas' face with each animal... it just cracks us up!

Big Boy Bedroom

Knowing that we need to get the baby's room in order soon (less than 2 months to go), we were anxious to get Thomas out of the toddler/crib and into a twin size bed. It arrived this weekend and we added his new truck bedding. He LOVED it! As usual, I wish I had the video camera handy, but I can tell you it was pure delight on his face! We were afraid that he would never go to sleep because of all the trucks on his sheets/pillow - but we have a very good sleeper on our hands and he passed out from all the excitement that day with no problem; he even slept until 7:45 this morning... yippie!

Celebrating!

Celebrating Thomas' 2nd birthday with friends & family on Saturday... Because a certain little boy LOVES fire trucks - the theme of the party was perfectly chosen!

Playing with new & old toys
One of the new presents was a Spiderman fishing rod - watch out everyone, he was swinging it everywhere. Thank goodness there is already a fish attached permanently. What we do know is he's ready to go out on the boat!

Video Clip - Singing "Happy Birthday" to Thomas

Happy 2nd Birthday!

We can not believe it has been two years since we were blessed with Thomas. Where has the time gone? 27 hours of labor, 3 hours of pushing and 1 C-section later... he is the most important thing that has happened to Brian and me. I just can't believe that he is running, jumping, talking, counting, laughing, singing, and making our lives so much more than what it was before he came along! Happy Birthday big boy!

Last Day of School

Thomas' Take...
"Sum, Sum, Summertime" is here! Today was my last day of school (as most of you know, I stay home with Mommy over the summertime because she is a teacher). As usual, Mommy sent in cupcakes with me so we could all celebrate my birthday (tomorrow) and we had a lot of fun! In addition, it is Flag Day this weekend so we all dressed up in our Red, White & Blue and had a school picnic. When we got to school this morning and saw my teacher, Ms. Deborah, I realized that we had the exact same shirt on... isn't that funny? All day long she said, "Mr. T (that is her nickname for me) - do you have my shirt on?" and I would just crack up laughing. I'm really going to miss her this summer, especially since I'm not coming back to school until early October. That is when Mommy will be going back to work and Baby Abby and I will go back to school together.

Me & Ms. D

Thank you gifts for Thomas' teachers... just something little to know how much they are appreciated!
Haircut day... after leaving school today we headed over to the barbershop and Ms. Peanut gave me a "well-past-due" birthday cut. Big news though - I sat in the big boy chair all by myself the entire time and let her cut my hair with the electric cutters. It must be because I'm almost 2 and that is what big boys like me do...

I just stumbled across a few pictures from last week when I was gone & Daddy was in charge. Can you tell it was "bachelor pad" central?

Is he innocent looking or what?

I heard there weren't too many tubby baths that week; instead, Thomas started to enjoy showers. Don't worry - Brian was in there with him, but stepped out at the end to get a "kodak moment."

On an evening walk with Ziggy - maybe they were thinking about Mommy?

Puzzle

Video Clip - Thomas has plenty of puzzles that he enjoys playing with (the "Melissa & Doug" brand is especially nice because they are hand-made). Anyway, while I was at the Denver Airport on the way home I went into a specialty store and found a new "M&D" puzzle that he didn't have yet. The puzzle has all different modes of transportation (ie: fire trucks, airplanes, etc) and it makes the noise of the vehicle. Oh, how I wish I had the camera running when he first discovered this... just precious! Anyway - you can see how excited he is as he puts back each piece of the puzzle, naming each one and reacting to sound! I guess I did good with this present...

Boys!

This is what happens when you mix ice cream with hair... wildness!
This is what happens when you work in the 90+ degree heat laying cement pads for 2 different neighbors... a pooped puppy!

Home Sweet Home!

The boys picked me up last night and they were a sight for soar eyes. I was coming down the security ramp from the gate and could see Thomas sitting on the ground waiting. Brian must have seen me because he leaned down and whispered something to Thomas. I saw him get up off the ground and start looking my way... then I started to cry! Yes, I know... pathetic! But I was waving and Thomas' facial expression turned from "where is she?" to "Oh, Mama" with an enormous smile. He ran to me and hugged me. He pulled away to look at me and then would squeeze me tight again. Oh what a feeling! I guess this is what Brian felt like (x 1000) after being deployed for 7 months! Of course, I also got some kisses and loves from Bri also. The best part? Apparently my boys missed me! Oh Home Sweet Home.

Amen! Done!

7 reading “work” days
2 travel days
380 read and graded essays
19 cafeteria meals
8 days with no TV
3 new girlfriends
1 hailstorm
= a long week away from my boys but a great experience altogether

Homemade Water Park

Grannie and Poppie earned their "heaven" wings today as they looked after Thomas and kept him busy. With me still out of town and Brian offshore fishing, Thomas enjoyed the day over at their house. As you can see, some of the afternoon involved a homemade water park (Mary called it a ghetto waterpark, but I think it looks like fun), yummy snacks by the pool and of course, a ride around the yard on the tractor (I hope that Poppie really was cutting the lawn and not just giving him a ride for kicks). I'm pretty sure that they will both sleep well tonight of exhaustion. Thank you both for helping us out!

No Way!

Ominious and dark sky

White stuff (big pieces of hail) falling to the ground

OK... doesn't it look like snow? It hailed so hard and fast that the streets and sidewalks looked like there was 1-2 inches of snow everywhere
This is what remains - 6 hours later.

At lunch time today, I noticed as I was finishing up that the skies were becoming ominious and dark. As I was starting to leave, the rain began and then the thunder rolled in. So, I delayed my departure to walk across campus and hung out for a few moments. Rain just got harder... so I waited. After about 10 minutes, the rain lightened up and I figured this was my opportunity to get going! Just moments into my walk, I could hear the roar of rain (and something else) pounding on the roof tops of the campus buildings and it was moving quickly my way. Now... I can no longer run (because I'm 7.5 months pregnant), but by god, I was hauling butt as fast as I could to get to the nearest building to take cover. I'm sure anyone watching from the safety of their building or car was cracking up at me. About 50 yards from the Campus Health Clinic, it starts... the hard rain AND the hail. Nickel and dime sized hail was falling! Auuughhhh! So, I finally get to the doors of the clinic and they are closed (apparently no one must need health care on Sundays)! Auughhhh! So, I take cover under the 3 feet deep awning - that didn't help a whole lot. Meanwhile, the temperature has dropped from a comfortable 65 degrees to 47 degrees (thanks to campus bank sign I could tell) and I'm in flip-flops, capris and a light sweater. I try my best to hunker down there but the hail gets worse. I did take pictures with my cell phone, but can't share them with you until I get back to Florida. I'm totally serious when I tell you that the streets and sidewalks were covered with hail and it looked like it had just snowed 1-2 inches. OK... so my feet are frozen, I'm soaked and I still need to get to the next building because I'm already late. When there was a break in the rain/hail (light stuff now), I started to run. Well, we all know I didn't run - that really is impossible for me at this point - it was more like "prego speed walk"! About 5 minutes later I arrived at my building looking like I had just gone swimming in the lake. Not fun. I was freezing. I went straight to the women's bathroom and became friends with the hand dryer for about 10 minutes. I just keep thinking, "No Way"... its June... I can't believe this freak weather.

On a related note, my good friend Laura drove up from Colorado Springs to see me. However, she got caught in the same storm while she was on the interstate and a tornado touched down. Apparently it caused a huge traffic jam and she was stuck for quite a while. After lots of debate, we decided it was best for her to turn around and head home. We are still hopeful we will get to meet up Tuesday morning at the Denver airport and have some breakfast and coffee together. Hmmm... craziness on a Sunday here in Colorado!

New look & New name???

Mommy Blog - With the new arrival of Baby Abbigail soon, I have been wondering whether I will change the "look & name" of the blog? It has always been about Thomas, but now there will be two of them which means that it can't be all "frogs and trucks" anymore. Starting to experiment a little. For those of you unaware of Brian's nickname at the 823 RHS (the clean version), it is "Heckler" (should seem obvious enough with our last name). Brian took that and reconfigured it to fit his fishing needs (and lures) and named the boat "HeckLure." So, what I'm thinking is HeckLures' Adventures should be appropriate for our Air Force family who is always on the go and into something. What do you think?

FL & CO reports

Mommy Blog - Don't worry everyone, my trip is coming to a close and there will be far fewer "Mommy blogs" next week. Meanwhile, deal with me as I make it through my week away from home.

FL report - Daddy & Thomas are doing well together. Glad to hear that Thomas isn't treating Daddy to any special behaviors... still getting up in the 6 o'clock hour on a Saturday morning (dare I chuckle). They are having a good time together - lots of boy stuff. I believe today involved truck, pool and boat stuff through the afternoon. Brian did say that I need to make a haircut appointment with Ms. Peanut for next week because his hair is out of control... "bed head" must be crazy in the AM. I'm on it Daddy... consider it taken care of! I sure hope they are both missing me and not having too much fun!

CO report - Beautiful, beautiful weather is all I have to say. 50 degrees and sunny in the morning as I head out to breakfast and then off to the AP grading. Just right for a light jacket and a warm cup of coffee! By lunch it has been gorgeous - 70 degrees and even sunnier. Matter of fact, I decided to skip lunch today (don't worry, they give lots of snacks all day) and take a 45 minute nap under a tree. It was great and just the kind of thing I needed mid-day. I wish I had my camera because there is still snow... yes, SNOW... on the Rocky Mts in the distance and I would love for you to see just how gorgeous it is.

Anyway - looking forward to tomorrow afternoon because my good friend Laura is driving up from Colorado Springs to visit and have dinner with me. We were stationed together in Lajes, Azores and haven't seen each other in almost 3 years. We have a lot of catching up to do and I'm quite sure I'll have a story to share after we visit. OK... so my trip is on the downslide. Rumor has it we are finishing up early on Monday afternoon and then I'm jumping on a morning flight out of Denver on Tuesday. With any luck, my two boys will be waiting for me at the airport with open arms and lots of kisses!!!

Getting in the CO Grove

Mommy Blog - Before anyone of you complains about all of these "mommy blogs" and no pictures of Thomas, just remember that I am in CO and he is in FL with Daddy. All I have is a laptop (and Brian has the camera) and I haven't received any pictures from Brian yet via email of my little munchkin. Patience people!

I've started to adjust to our high elevation here and I don't feel nearly as winded as I did on the 1st day. The last two days have been going fairly well with the AP Collegeboard Reading - today I read about 60 essays (all the same stuff) and I really feel like I'm in the grove of things. For those of you who are unaware of what the 'heck' I'm doing, I'm one of 800+ teachers/professors who are grading the essay portion of the national AP World History exam that students take in May. It is a week long job, 8am - 5pm everyday! But if you noticed from an earlier blog post, it is totally worth it.

On a Thomas-related-note, when I called tonight to say goodnight to the munchkin man, Brian put the phone on speaker and let him hear my voice. It was so precious and adorable (and brought tears to my eyes) when he said, "Hi Ma-Ma", "Hi Ma-Ma". He also tried to say to tell me about his trucks and puzzles that he was playing with, but I didn't quite understand what he said (Brian translated for me). At the end of the conversation, he said, "Bye, Bye Ma-Ma." *Sigh* I wish I was home right now with my two boys. I told Brian I just don't know how he does it when he goes TDY or deploys for as long as he does???? I know he misses us, but I might have to go AWOL if I was in his position so that I could come home and see my little munchkin each night.

Altitude

Mommy Blog - Let me first say that I miss both of my boys. It really is different when I'm the one leaving them behind (compared to Brian leaving us on a TDY/deployment). I'm the one all alone in a new place with new faces. I know that I will be anxious to get on the plane next Tuesday to come home and see them & get some loves.

OK... this altitude is kicking my butt! Ft. Collins is at a higher elevation than Denver (the Mile High City) so as you can probably imagine - my big 'ol pregnant butt is slowly trecking around campus/town. I almost feel pathetic that people are passing me by like I'm standing still. I realize that I am quite pregnant and it is acceptable, but those of you who know me well, know that I'm pretty athletic and fairly competitive. Well this crap is not sitting well with me. Trust me when I tell you that I'm drinking plenty of water and have gotten plenty of rest, but just feel out of sorts so far this week. Not to mention also that today's weather was rainy and 55 degrees - a far cry from the beautiful climate of Navarre, FL.

Now don't get me wrong - already this has been an incredible learning experience. The AP Collegeboard Grading is an enormous professional development (PD) opportunity that I feel blessed to have been accepted to. What other teachers' PD will fly you out to a beautiful place, pay for all of your meals (by the way both of these there are no out of pocket expenses), and then give you a great training for the week and hand you a nice size paycheck at the end of the week to say thanks for coming? Heck ya!

It begins on June 1st

Mommy Blog - June 1st is infamous for two things here along the Gulf Coast. First, fishing for Red Snapper begins and as predicted, Brian, Tom and another friend were launched and headed off shore by 5:30am. As you can see here, our freezer is now stocked with an assortment of Snapper and other yummies for some good cooking.

Second, Hurricane season begins! For those of you who don't know, hurricane season runs from June 1 - Nov 30 of each year. The height of the season really isn't until August - October, but you really just never know. Now, this one is not a good thing although you just learn to live with it. I'm happy to report that in recent years it has been quiet on the Gulf Coast where we live, but you can never be too prepared. Matter of fact, you have to have supplies and a plan. We have both.

Tom (aka: Poppie) and the catch-of-the-day

Boys Week

Mommy Blog - I'm getting ready to catch a flight to Denver, Colorado in a few hours for the week. I'll actually be heading up to Ft. Collins (north of Denver) @ Colorado State University to attend the AP Collegeboard grading of the AP World History Exam this year! I know, I know - this sounds like a total "history nerd fest" to most of you, but to me, this sounds like a week of fabulous learning and beautiful site seeing. I can hear Brian laughing at me right now as I utter those words - poor guy really did marry a dork (ha-ha). Anyway - while I'm gone, it will be a total Boys Week for Brian and Thomas (and Ziggy). I'm really going to miss them, but I know that it will be good for both of them. I'll keep you posted this week on how things are going...