Beach Pics 2012

The lag in updates on our precious boy is due to a recent move. We finally drifted back in the DC direction from Ohio--three years of Bruce commuting caught up with us, and with T's baby brother on the way it seemed the right time to make our way back to the city. So here we are, happily setting up house in a new neighborhood in Maryland just outside of the city. We're less than 2 miles from DC, but in a neighborhood surrounded by trees and parks and a creek and great walking/jogging/biking paths. Doesn't get much better than that! In the midst of the move, we managed to squeeze in our annual trip to the beach with Chooch and cousins. Some highlights from June: As one of my friends said when she saw this picture, "He's a BOY!" Yep, a real boy. Not a baby any longer. Sniff sniff.

And one family photo, showing the bump:

If he's on time, Tatum's baby brother will be here in less than ONE MONTH! We're all getting very, very excited for his arrival.

Young Elton

Anyone else see it? A young Elton John?! I can just hear "Tiny Dancer" wafting through the air... :)

More Easter 2012

A few more from Easter 2012.

Tatum on Easter morning, excited because his bunny pancake has raisins for eyes.

Not terribly successful getting all the cousins in one pic, but we tried! Tatum's little cousins were simply adorable, as always.

The egg hunt at CeCe and Gramps' house was so much fun!

First egg hunt of the season

Easter season kicked off with an egg-hunt at Tatum's little once-weekly class that he attends at church with his cousin Paige.

First snack-time (notice Paige with her "prayer hands" all folded and ready, as Tatum remains oblivious).

Then the kiddos headed out into the hallway for songs while the mommies hid the eggs throughout the classroom.

Time to search!

Tatum and Paige sit down to enjoy a few treats from inside their eggs.

More Easter fun to come as we have egg hunts at CeCe and Gramps' house next weekend!

This Boy's Life - nearly 27 months

It's time for an update on this boy's life!

Tatum at 27 months is just SO MUCH FUN. He's talking up a storm, using full sentences and even cracking jokes. He spins these little scenarios in his head and tells us all about them: "There's a cow sniffing mommy. Now the cow's chasing mommy! Now there's a giant RACCOON chasing Mommy and Daddy!" To which we must scream and run away, of course.

He loves playing outside in his fort, which he asks mommy and daddy to draw cars on with chalk to the point where every conceivable inch of surface has been covered with car drawings! He challenges us too, asking for tow trucks and cement mixers and mouse cars (I think this one is thanks to Richard Scarry's "Cars and Trucks and Things that GO"--currently T's favorite book by a landslide).

He's getting so big. Using the big boy swings by himself (with very close supervision, of course) and venturing off on his own more and more often. I'll be putting together dinner in the kitchen when suddenly I'll realize that he's headed upstairs on his own and is happily up in his room playing with his cars. This growing independence couldn't come at a better time, as T prepares to become a big brother this summer! (I'm going to go ahead and assume that anyone who checks in over here already knows that big and amazing news... :) ).

Now if we could just get Tatum back on track during the nightime hours. He's recently begun crying and crying in the middle of the night, calling out "Mommy will come get you! Tatum wants to sleep in Mommy's bed!" We're guessing this stems from the night he was very sick several weeks ago (he threw up 7 or 8 time in one night, poor kiddo!) and I had him in our bed with us so that we could take care of him. Ever since, he's developed an obsession with "mommy's bed" and wants to be there every.single.night. It breaks my heart to hear him so upset and crying out for me to come get him, but after doing this several times resulted in hours of missed sleep for everyone, I realized I can't give in to it every time. We're trying to break the habit, but during a recent night of thunderstorms I let him join me in bed. Not a good night's sleep, to be sure, but worth it when you get to wake up to this kind of cuteness!

T has sporadic interest in the potty, mostly as a place to read (love it! His daddy's boy). He's peed once in the potty--to great fanfare and much rejoicing!--but that's it thus far. I'd say we're a little ways off from having major success in the potting training department, but at least he's aware and somewhat curious about it. It certainly provides for some funny photo opps!

(Speaking of "Cars and Trucks and Things that Go"--as you can see, despite it's unwieldy size T chooses to read it above all other books, even on the potty!)

More from us soon!

xxoo