A Dry Run

After two years of trips to Twain Harte where Tommy has barely allowed us to dip his toes in the lake, we're determined this year to get him wet. We have a couple of weeks to get him ready to "immerse" himself in Twain Harte Lake so we "warmed" him up at Lake Temescal today with Marco and Grandma. Unfortunately, it was overcast and breezy. This didn't stop Grandma and the boys. Tom, Lucy, and I stayed bundled up on shore. Tommy waded in up to his knees with an inner tube making him feel secure. He tripped at one point and fell forward briefly "swimming" as we told him. That did not go over well and was pretty much the end of Tommy in the water today. Hopefully, it wasn't too traumatizing and he'll be more daring in warmer water in a few weeks!







Tommy & Marco are now enjoying a sleepover at Grandma & Papa's house. Here's a picture Grandma has already sent.

A new resemblance?

I caught a couple of pictures of Lucy recently where I thought she was looking like one of her cousins:


A little bit of young Marco...? anyone else? What about if she has a fauxhawk?

Farmer Boy

In addition to the tomato harvest earlier this week, Tommy has been learning a lot about gardening from Grandama. She has planted a sunflower seed at her house and Tommy checks on it every visit to see how it has grown. He reminds her that plants need water and sunlight.

He picked Papa's first artichoke from the backyard but also refused to taste it.

So he was a natural assistant this week when Grandama had to go by school and water their garden while other teachers were on vacation. Grandama picked up Tommy and his wagon and put both to work.

The harvest:

Blurry, but adorable. Considering we almost exclusively buy baby carrots, Tommy was probably fascinated to see a real carrot! (Shout out to the planter boxes Tom built for SG several years ago!)


We're heading to Gilroy sometime this week... I'm sure he'll be picking the fruit trees!

Fairyland with Cousins

As reported here, the cousins gathered on Monday with an almost equal number of adults to visit Fairyland in Oakland. We told Tommy that Fairyland was just like Storybrook Village from Super Why, so he was good to go!

Here are some of Grandma's pics that she managed to snap while we chased children!



Tommy and Joey got to ride the merry-go-round. Tommy was allowed on by a ride attendant who was generous in his measurement of Tommy's height. By the time Clara and Marco ran up, it would have been too obvious and too much to ask to sneak three short kids on the ride. So I may have led Marco and Clara to believe that one had to be 3 years old to ride that ride...

Most of us rode the train but somehow ended up very strangely divided. Grandma had Joey and Tommy, Tom and I ended up with our own car, and Papa sat up front with Marco, Clara, and Lucy! Yikes!

Grandkid shots - one of many attempts to get 6 kids looking up at once! - (sorry Marco)


Follow the Yellow Brick Road - looks like Dorothy with Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion (you can decide who is who)


Making sure the next generation likes pink popcorn too!

As Seen on TV

My parents have done their share to support the As Seen on TV market (...Flow Bee...). Recently they got one of those upside down tomato gardens.

Tommy got to harvest the first fruit!

Tommy and his Tom-my-to. Would he eat it? Of course not!

(Photo Disclaimer: I may have heard Grandama say, "Hold it closer to the camera so it looks bigger!"

Oklahoma!

7 months old

State of the States

Many of you have witnessed or heard about Tommy's current fascination, but here's the whole story behind the states so that I may record this saga for his "baby book."

Papa Tom sent Tommy a 51 piece floor puzzle of the United States for his birthday in late April. The box said "Ages 6+" I thought it was a cool puzzle, but absolutely thought it would live in a closet for another couple of years. Tommy opened the present, and the box, and that evening he and Tom assembled the puzzle together. Over the next couple of days, Tommy did the puzzle multiple times and shortly stopped asking, "Where does this piece go?" and just did the whole thing all by himself. Cool. "The kid likes puzzles," we thought, and bought him a couple more.
Then he started holding up pieces and asking what they said. We'd interject things like, "We live in California," "Barbara lives in Oregon," "Jennifer was born in Georgia," etc. I would say that by the end of May, he knew the name and location of every state on his puzzle map.
Then we realized Nana had a puzzle map in her garage. And Grandama had one in her classroom which is now in her house. Grandama and Papa hung up a wall-sized map in their living room for a couple of weeks. On the SG schoolyard, Tommy jumped from state to state on the huge painted map and corrected my errors: "No Mama, that's Arkansas, THIS is Missouri." When Barbara was in town and said she was born in New Jersey, we got the line "That's above Delaware and Maryland." Papa decided "above" was not proper terminology for discussions of cartography and we began learning North, South, East, and West, the bordering oceans and nations, and the Great Lakes. Yet, he does not tire of soaking up information about the states. I guess capitals are next.

These are flashcards Tom found in his desk at school. The side Tommy is looking at has just the shape of the state... no text at all. You should see how embarrassing it is when he turns the cards on us and asks us to identify the states by shape!



Tommy is a very cool kid who never ceases to amaze us with the things he can say/do. But he's also totally a 3-year-old in every way possible... which never ceases to amaze us either.

A challenge for you in the Comments - how many songs can you name with States in the title? I think I'm going to work on a playlist. Grandama and I have already started with:
"New York, New York"
"Iowa Stubborn"
"I Want to Go Back to Michigan"
"Oklahoma!"

Jumping & Singing

Here Tommy shows that he's clearly been paying attention at church


And demonstrates proper jumping technique for his sister

The Right Bait

Sometimes it just takes the right piece of motivation to get over the hump



This was the second roll, of course, I was distracted during the first one and looked over to find her on her stomach! Now she's a rolling fool and has already learned that if you stray from the blanket you get a mouthful of dog hair. Sigh...

In other video news, here's Lucy being introduced to Papa's fish. So far so good.

Fun Frigid Fourth

We had a great 4th of July. Our block has a block party and we had an awesome time. The day started off unbelievably for our neighborhood - the sun was shining. It was a little breezy but it was beautiful.

Lucy channeled Blossom and was looking cute.
Note the shorts, short-sleeves. There was even sunscreen!


Tom made a cake using a new pan we'd got that allows the baker to put in a filling. He made his own filling with whipping cream and fresh berries from the Farmer's Market. I was concerned that with the oppressive heat we were promised, his filling wouldn't hold up.

Here the big boys on the street and some visiting kids play soccer (they're not just on the bandwagon, this is a soccer block). Tommy watched from the curb during this game but the boys played with him earlier as well. He had so much fun! There are a couple of girls on the block but the boys are a great group of buddies and play outside together all the time.

Well after a little time outside in the sun the breeze took over and became very cold wind. Needless to say, the cake filler totally held up. In fact, the blueberries and strawberries inside stayed frozen!

And the winter clothing came out. One by one the neighbors wandered back to their houses and came back in parkas. We were no exception.

We even had a nice little "bonfire" to huddle around into the night. This block is determined to have fun regardless of the weather. They were outside chatting around the fire and shivering late into the evening.

This is totally hard to see but here was Cali during fireworks. She is curled up on Tommy's bed while he is sleeping, which neither dog has ever done. The red glowing eyes look a little scary but how sweet is this?!
Cali did remarkably well. I actually had her outside with us while they set off some early fireworks. She didn't like that but then when I brought her back inside she was much more relaxed than any previous year. I think seeing what was making all that noise, and realizing that inside was better than outside, may have helped calm her down a bit.

It was a wonderful Fourth of July!

Random Fun

Lucy is doing great with solids and is gobbling up everything we offer. So we're trying some new brands and blends that weren't available 3 years ago. Apparently it's never too early to start over with a picky eater. Here I offer Tommy some "pear sauce" which is "just like applesauce" and comes in packets just like the carrot applesauce from Trader Joe's.

Good thing he didn't try to read the word "broccoli" until after he finished. He's also now eaten spinach, peas, & pears (which totally tastes like pears!). Whatever works!


Tommy has no shortage of fun toys around the house and plays with them frequently. But this is what he chose this weekend when Tom asked him what he wanted to do for fun.
Not as fun for Tom...

But Grandma is having fun!