12.31.11 - Ringing in the new year

Sorry, Tommy. That's not "pink milk" in Gramma Karen's cup and, no, you can't have any!

12.30.11 - Pop's shoes

Nate likes to wear Pop's shoes and Tommy likes to eat them!

12.29.11 - Cute kid

No doubt about it, Tommy's one cute kid!

12.28.11 - Bedtime stories

Maddie shares a bedtime story with Tommy.

12.27.11 - Kitchen play

Tommy and Maddie play kitchen while mom makes dinner.

12.26.11 - Monkey business

Maddie, Tommy and Natey pose for a photo in their new monkey jams. Shortly after this photo was taken, we loaded up and went Christmas-light looking one last time of the year.

12.25.11 - Merry Christmas!

Tommy gets a hand from Angie while opening presents after lunch at Grandma and Grandpa Shepherd's house.

12.24.11 - Time for presents!

We told the kids it was time for gifts tonight at Nan and Pop's house and Tommy nearly beat them all to the tree!

12.23.11 - Christmastime is here!

Tommy donned a tiny Santa hat while opening gifts at Grandpa Greg's house. It's our first of four days of Christmas get-togethers.

12.22.11 - Uncle Brian

Tommy shared a good laugh with Uncle Brian after dinner tonight. We always have a good time when we hang out with our friends in Manhattan!

12.21.11 - Where are you?

Went to check on Tommy before bed tonight (read: forgot to take a photo today!) and couldn't find him at first. Pretty sure he's under that baseball blankie somewhere!

12.20.11 - Flashlight

Tommy got ahold of Maddie's new flashlight tonight. He was quite fascinated by it. (Maddie is, too!)

12.19.11 - One stand-up guy

The milestones just keep on coming! Slow to crawl, Tommy's now doing that AND pulling himself up and standing in his crib. No matter how many kids we have, it never gets old seeing one of them reach a new milestone.

12.18.11 - Won't you just leave me along while I eat?

Just like yesterday, Tommy had company while eating. This time it was Nate, who likes to climb on the high chair while Tommy is eating.

12.17.11 - Who are you and what do you want?

We traveled to SE Kansas today to have Christmas with Grandma Betty and Angie's dad's side of the family. I've been a part of it for nearly six years and I still don't know who everyone is ... or which kid belongs to which adult!

12.16.11 - Santa

We went to see Santa tonight. All the kids left with a stuffed animal. Tommy got a little penguin.

12.15.11 - Bath buddies

Tommy is now out of the duck bathtub and enjoying bath time with Nate.

12.14.11 - Not napping

I came home early from work today, expecting to find Grandma Shepherd watching TV while Tommy was napping. Instead, I was greeted by this smiley face. Yesterday, he took a two-and-a-half hour nap. Today? About 30 minutes. And as I write this post, he's upstairs with mom, not going to sleep for bedtime.

12.13.11 - Together, again, for Taco Tuesday

Turns out our neighbors, Chad and Danea, might be adopting our Taco Tuesday ritual after we had them down for dinner last week. They invited us to their place tonight and Tommy chowed down! He sure does like Taco Tuesday. Actually, he pretty much likes whatever we feed him.

"Ugh. I can actually hear you getting fatter."

12.12.11 - Blue sheets

Well, not exactly blue but at least they're for a boy!

12.11.11 - Pink sheets

Tommy threw up a little bit in his bed tonight so we had to quickly find some replacements. Sorry, kid. You'll just have to use one of Maddie's crib sheets and the backup snuggly, Snuggly Bear.

12.10.11 - Christmas light looking on Candy Cane Lane

We made about our sixth outing to see Christmas lights tonight. We always take a drive down Candy Cane Lane. If you're Christmas light looking in Wichita, you gotta check it out! Click here to see a map.

12.09.11 - Spaghetti dinner

You'll never guess who was camped at the base of Tommy's high chair as he enjoyed his first spaghetti dinner tonight. :)

12.08.11 - Zap!

Tommy likes to explore the Christmas tree. Don't worry, grandparents, we pulled the light away from him right after this photo was snapped.

12.07.11 - It's snowing!

In our basement! Decorations that Angie bought several years ago to host Bunco night make an annual appearance each winter.

12.06.11 - Taco Tuesday togetherness

We invited our neighbors down for Taco Tuesday today. Afterward, the kids all played in the basement while the grownups sat around the fireplace. Next week, we're having Taco Tuesday at their house. This photo reminds me of a few months ago when Ainsley tried to hold Tommy. He's still an armful, even for us!

12.05.11 - I don't want my vegetables, Mom!

Tommy liked blueberry pancakes the other day but won't have anything to do with smashed peas.

12.04.11 - First Christmas

Tommy is determined not to let a little tissue paper stand in the way of him and his very first Christmas present - a set of bath toys from Uncle Brian, Aunt Emily, Cayden and Carter! We have an annual holiday get-together with our good friends from Manhattan in early December. We hosted this year after going to Manhattan the past two years.

12.03.11 - Books galore

I'm not terribly proud of this image and I'm sure Tommy won't like it later in life, either. But, we made another haul at the library today and as soon as we got home everyone sat down to start reading.

12.02.11 - Red eye

Tommy's working hard on crawling, which means a few face plants into the area rug. The resulting carpet burn is not all that flattering.

12.01.11 - Learning to play kitchen

After a rough day of not getting along so well, Angie was quite relieved when Tommy, Maddie and Nate sat down to play kitchen together, giving her a good 30 minutes to prepare dinner.

11.30.11 - Blueberry pancakes

Tommy tried his first table food tonight. He liked it pretty well. A lot of it ended up in his lap, though.

11.29.11 - Excited for Christmas

It's almost December and the cold weather will be here by the weekend. That means it's almost time for Christmas and Tommy couldn't be more excited!

11.28.11 - Sleeves

Some people wear their emotions on their sleeve. Others wear food.

11.27.11 - Doesn't smell like mud

In nearly three years of raising babies, we've seen a lot of poop. But never as much at 4:30 in the morning as we did at 4:30 this morning! After we got him cleaned up, we put him in with Nate while we cleaned up his crib. I think the conversation went something like this:

Tommy: Man, did I got douched with mud!
Brother: Hey, chucko, that doesn't smell like mud!
Tommy (singing): I'm a maniac, maniac on the floor! And I'm dancin' like I've never danced before!

See the clip by clicking here. Skip ahead to the 1:33 mark.

11.26.11 - I love to see you smile

Fortunately, he smiles a lot!

11.25.11 - Favorite holiday song

Tommy's shirt today reminds me of my favorite holiday song. Click here to listen.

11.24.11 - Thanksgiving

Today we're thankful for Tommy and Maddie and Nate and all the other family in our lives. We're especially thankful to be able to spend some time with Grandma Betty today. She's lives pretty far away and so we don't get to see her all that often.

11.23.11 - On the lookout

Maddie keeps an eye out for oncoming traffic as we pull over to the side of the road for Harley to sniff whatever it was she was sniffing. It was such a nice day today we had to get out for a walk. Look for more photos of today's walk on Maddie's blog soon.

11.22.11 - Up, up and ...

Tommy's been up on all fours the past week or so. He's not crawling yet but he's starting to scoot his knees just a bit. He's progressed so much in the past month that I bet he's crawling all over the place by Christmas.

11.21.11 - Three busy bodies

Our poor Parents As Teachers parent educator must sit in her car and repeat, "I can do this, I can do this," before coming into our house for our monthly visit! Tonight was extra challenging as Angie had a prior commitment and couldn't be there. It was just me, Coco, the kids and Harley. Oy!

11.20.11 - Cheerios!

Tommy was excited to have Cheerios for the first time today!

11.19.11 - Chores

Tommy is finally able to sit up well enough by himself to play toys and keep himself entertained long enough for Mom or I to get some chores done. Of course, that stack of towels doesn't even put a dent in the mountain of dirty laundry that's in our room!

11.18.11 - Here's lookin' at U, kid

No doubt we've used that headline more than any other in three years of blogging.

11.17.11 - Pizza delivery

We decided to have a Papa Murphy's pizza for dinner tonight. Maddie and Nate both whined a little to go with me to pick it up, so I took Tommy instead! He's getting to the age where I think he notices what other people around him are doing and I think he enjoyed getting to go. At least, I enjoyed taking him! Jason, the employee who brought us our pizza, even carried it out to the car for us. Sometimes it's the little things in life, ya know?

11.16.11 - My brother, my friend

Hey, brother. Nice shirt!

11.15.11 - Feed me!

When you're outnumbered 3-2, sometimes you don't get things done as quickly as you'd like. Or, as with the case with dinner tonight, you can't keep the food shoveled in Tommy's mouth as fast as he would like. So, he just decided to try it himself.

11.14.11 - Spoons

Wooden spoons make the best teething rings!

11.13.11 - Snacks with Daddy

Everyone was glad that Mom and Dad came home from Florida!

11.12.11 - Learning my colors

Tommy found a book on colors. Glad he didn't find the dust bunnies under the sofa!