I have had a few days off work so I went on Ancestry.com to check and see if there was any more family information I could find. I found something interesting in Grandma Clarice's family tree.
I think my six times great grandfather John Skinner (b. 1733) owned a Skinner Inn in Pennsylvania. I guess in George Washington's diary it lists that he stayed at Skinner Inn. I guess the building still stands. The rock portion is the original Skinner Inn. I found this information on another public family tree that is listed on Ancestry.com so hopefully it is correct. It is pretty cool if it is.
We went over to Vashon for Christmas again this year. On Christmas Eve we went to my parent's house. Lena and I made great Santa cookies to leave by the tree for Santa .
Then we went to the Christmas Eve party at the Roberts. It was great to see everyone there. We spent the night at my parents house. And on Christmas morning Tom woke up around his usual 6:00 AM. He didn't understand yet that he had presents waiting so Eric had to convince him to leave the toys in his room and go out and see the tree. Santa got Tom a basketball hoop for Christmas which was waiting for him under the tree. He has been taking his match box cars and shooting them into his toy box. So we figured a basket ball hoop might be a good thing for him. We thought he would run to go see the basketball hoop but he saw the Mickey Mouse at the top of his stocking. He is really into mice right now for some reason.
Tom had a great day stuffing him self full of food. For breakfast he had two pancakes, two sausages and a whole banana. And he loved getting to play with his cousin Lena. All week he had been asking to see her. It was great to see Grandma and Grandpa and the rest of the clan, and it was great that Wes was able to be there all day too even though he was on duty. Tom got to see the lights go on his work truck and thought that was really cool. The only emergency call of the day actually came to our house. Tom broke at in hives after dinner right as we were getting ready to leave. Wes and Tony checked him out, and had the paramedic who also was having a quiet day come take a look too. I gave him some Bennedryl and he started to get better. We are still trying to figure out exactly what happened. But it was nice that the EMT response time was so fast getting to him. Probably 30 seconds. We had a great Christmas and everyone was exhausted at the end of the day.
There is nothing like a snow day to brighten your week. We have had a horrible week. Last weekend Tom get Hand Foot and Mouth Virus. He broke out in blisters all over. It is especially bad on his hands which is hard to keep him from scratching. It is also contagious so we have been on quarantine. I even had to miss my company end of year party because he couldn't go to day care and couldn't leave the house. It has been a very fussy week. Tom has been very bored and frustrated. So when we woke up to snow this morning it was a very exciting change of pace. Tom has seen snow a couple times. But has was not old enough to walk around in it. He had a lot of fun walking around. He really didn't want to touch it though. I made him a tiny little snow man and he didn't want to get anywhere near it. We didn't stay outside for very long because he is still sick, but it was great while it lasted.
We decorated the best we could this year without putting too much out that Tom could break. The weekend of Thanksgiving Eric came back to the house with a tree in his truck. We were debating about what to do with the tree since we couldn't add all the ornaments since Tom would break them. But we still wanted something since Tom loves lights and sparkly things. So I asked Eric where he got this tree especially so late in the day. He said that he found it on the side of the road. It had fallen off of someone's car. Just like Eric to be thrifty. Also the top broke off the top of the tree when it fell and there were a bunch of broken branches. So I did the best I could to give the tree a haircut to try and shape it to look like it had a top too it but it still looked weird. So I ended up tying a branch to the top of the tree and then filling in the top with every kind of ornament stuff I could find. It ended up looking sort of OK.
I hung up our fragile ornaments in the window, and put all the unbreakable stuff on the tree. He mostly did a good job of listening to "No Touch" and he did not break anything. The toughest part for him was trying to keep him from destroying the train. The first time he saw the train go around the track he went crazy because he thought it was the coolest thing. We had to really hold him back the first few times we played with the train so he wouldn't run up and destroy it. But after a while he mostly listened that he should just watch and not touch it. He asks multiple times a day to go see his train. He loves his train. It was more work than I wanted to do to decorate the house, even though we did a lot less than other years, but I am glad we did it because Tom just loved it.
Eric and I are very excited to announce that there will be another Bingham joining the family.
The due date is June 8. We are only at 12 weeks so we do not know if it is a boy or a girl yet but we will probably find out. We have not tried explaining it to Tom yet. Not sure if he will really quite understand. I am sure he will love being a big brother.
The Sunday before Thanksgiving the Hjorten clan got together. It wasn't a traditional Thanksgiving. But it was great. Michael & Melissa brought wonderful food that was already cooked in crock pots. And lots of people were able to show up and it was great to see everyone. Tom had a great time running around the house playing with his cousins. Reminds me of the days when me and all of my cousins were young and would run around having a great time at Grandma & Grandpa's house. Thanks Michael & Melissa for having the idea to get together.
On Thanksgiving we went to Jim & Lynn Selig's house for Thanksgiving. Kitt, April & Lania were there too. Tom had a great time playing with Lania. It is always great to see the Selig's.
We went out on Black Friday (not super early). We didn't have anything in particular we were looking for. We did want to go to Santa at the Wenatchee mall. We went last year and did not have to wait in any line so we wanted to go again. So we walked around the mall a little and we were the first ones in line when Santa go there. Tom didn't do too well. He looked at Santa from 10 feet away and was excited. And then when we walked up to Santa he clung to me and would not let go. So I just sat on Santa's lap with him. Hopefully next year he sit on Santa's lap all by himself.
Tom said I love you for the first time. It doesn't get sweeter than that. He had been kind of attempting for a while, but he finally can say the words. I know that he has a good idea what it means because when I say I love you to him he will ask for a hug. It is so precious.
Tom has been getting pretty independent lately. He still wants attention, but now that he is getting better at doing things he likes to do it all by himself. Of course he will say "Help" if he wants help. It is so fun to see him learn all these new skills.
Lena wanted a Star Wars themed birthday party this year since she was Princess Leia for Halloween. And she also wanted it to be a costume party. So we dressed Tom in his dinosaur costume again and he went and played with all the kids. There was a death star pinata which all the kids loved. They each got a turn, even Tom. He wasn't quite sure how to swing yet, but he had a big smile on his face. No candy came out till Taylor took her turn. Then Lena came back in to finish off the death star. The kids also played around with inflatable light sabers and had Princess Leia cupcakes. Tom was exhausted by the end of the party.
Eric was asked by a friend to go mushroom hunting. He came back with a bunch of amazing Chanterelle mushrooms. I mad a steak and mushroom risotto. It was so great.
My mom got Tom a couple of Halloween costumes from Granny's Attic this year. So he wore a dinosaur costume when we went over to the island for my softball tournament. He wore the skeleton to day care. And he wore the race car drive outfit Halloween night. Eric took Tom to a couple of the neighbors houses of people we knew so that they could see him, but it was only a couple of houses. I stayed home and handed out candy.
Now that Tom is getting used to his day care he is really looking forward to it. After the first week he started to fuss a bit when I would leave him there. But after a couple weeks he started asking to see the kids when he woke up. And when I dropped him off the kids would call his name when he showed up. Now he just heads into the room and doesn't look back.
They do lots of art projects and activities. He brings home drawings and stuff and he is getting a lot better holding crayons. I am glad he is getting social interaction with other kids. They also do special fun days. Here he is with pajama day. And next fall he gets to move to the early preschool class.
Good thing we only bought a couple pumpkins from the pumpkin patch this year. That day after we got home we saw our neighbor Brian. He asked us if we wanted any pumpkins. Brian really likes pumpkin seeds, but doesn't really like carving pumpkins. So he asked me if I wanted to pumpkin shells after he took out the seeds. I told him I would take them all. Then I looked in the back of his truck and there were at least 50 pumpkins. He was a little skeptical that I would carve them all. But since he already took the top off and scooped most of the innards out it wasn't too tough to carve them. I took about 15 pumpkins over for Lena to carve. She made faces on a couple and lost interest. Tom liked banging on them and even tried sticking it in his mouth and then also lost interest. So the kids played and Susan and I finished up the rest of the pumpkins. The rest of the pumpkins I had at home I just made quick faces, but the driveway looked cool with all the pumpkins. Of course I was so tired by the end of Halloween that I forgot to take a picture of all of them.
The Halloween softball tournament was on the island this year thanks to Chelle. It was a lot of fun getting to play the Vashon teams. Our team went as mimes again. Thanks everyone for a great time.
Yesterday we went to our pumpkin patch. Tom got to do a hay ride. He pushed the wheelbarrow for the pumpkins, and he rode a tractor. He had a great time. And today we picked our pumpkins out of our garden. The best one we had scratched "Little Tom" in a couple months back. It is a little faint, but readable. Tom loves his pumpkins and asks to go look at them every day.
Tom & Lena had fun time having a kids day at the Mariners Game. They went around and did all the kids things and had a great time dancing around and doing all the kids stuff. The walk back to the car was a little bit wet and windy. But some hot chocolate and coffee and the ride home helped.
Tom had his 18 Month appointment. He didn't like the shots much. But he sure had fun in the waiting room. He made friends with a 3 or 4 year old girl and kept trying to give her kisses. When her name got called he tried to follow her into the back.
The doctor said that Tom is doing really good. She asked how many words he could say. I told her I wasn't sure, but I knew it was a lot. She said he was doing really good that most kids his age know 2-50 words. So we were curious how many words Tom knew. And here are Tom's first 100 words. We stopped counting at that. I think that is pretty close anyway. He doesn't say them all correctly, but when he says them I know what he is talking about.
He has changed so much over the last few months. He is trying to say so many new words now. Cho cho, plane, wow, cool, done, help, food, bear, bird and many more. He is even trying to say multi-syllable words now like butterfly, watermelon, elephant and pumpkin. They don't come out quite right, but you can understand what he is trying to say. He is also starting to understand bigger concepts than just objects now too. He is constantly asking for "more". And he understands that it applies to more than just food. He asks for more swinging or more reading or more of whatever we are doing. He also knows the difference between the wall, ceiling, floor, door and window. And my parents are really excited that he just started to say "Pa Pa" and "Na Na". He can even say "Tom Tom"
He also is starting to sort of read along with his books. Well, not exactly read. He memorizes the books and repeats some of the words or makes noises for the animals. On some of his favorite books he tells me the next line before I turn the page. He loves his books so much he asks for them all the time. He also has been asking for his other big boy books that are on the high shelf in his room. He has been pointing to the shelf and saying "Go Dog Go", which is one of his favorite books. So we have been checking out a few of the big boy books. Although sometimes he looses interest before the end.
He is really a dancing machine. He dances all the time when he hears music. He keeps coming up with new moves like running in circles, waving his arms around and other crazy stuff.
He also really likes pushing things right now. He has both inside and outside toys that he pushes around all the time. He also loves to push the shopping cart for me. It is really cute until we get to the checkout line. I have to hold onto the cart really tight and he looks like a lineman, bent over trying to push that cart.
He has also figured out how to scoot on his cho cho.
Tom has started to climb things now. He can get on the couch by himself. But unfortunately he has also been trying to climb the stove while I am cooking and grab the pots. He is so impatient while I am cooking dinner that the minute he sees or smells food he starts screaming and me. I have been trying to explain that it has to cook and I show him the pan, even though cooking one-handed is not easy. He now says the word cook to me like I need to cook faster. What a demanding little boy :)
Tom is pretty fast on the stairs to, which scares me a little since we have pretty steep stairs. I keep trying to tell him he can't do the big stairs by himself but he only listens part of the time. He does our three little stairs all the time now. But he is trying to get adventurous and do it the way mom and dad do it. So he has taken a few tumbles. I guess he has to figure it out eventually. It just makes me really nervous.
He has been playing outside a lot and doing what most boys do. Getting dirt, playing with rocks and sticks and his toys. He has also really likes playing with Bella and tries to throw her the ball. He even says "Bella" now.
He knows exactly where all the treats are in the yard and takes me to them so he can have a snack. Unfortunately now that the rains have come a lot of the stuff is rotten. And Tom doesn't wait for me to pick things for him. So it has been a little bit of a battle to keep him from eating rotten stuff. But the apples are going really good right now so his favorite thing to do right now is take me to the apples. Our asian pears are his favorite.
We have been doing a little bit of potty training. He doesn't tell me when he has to go to the bathroom, but does sometimes after he goes. I have sat him on the potty quite a few times and a couple of time he has gone. He likes the potty a lot and thinks it is fun to go in there, but he is not really getting it yet. They also are sending him to the potty at daycare. But he hasn't gone in the potty there yet either.
This summer has been so busy. Tom has gotten to see so many people and do so many things. But he has really worn me out. He doesn't really listen to no very well yet, still puts stuff in his mouth, and he does a lot of experimenting. So I have to keep him where I can see him. He is so fast now that I have literally gotten blisters on my feet from trying to chase him down for hours. I guess that is what I get for trying to wear nice shoes. We are looking forward to the fall and having quiet time alone with our family.
Eric has to work in Wenatchee on Friday night and again on Monday. So instead of him coming home, he stayed out our property in Entiat and we went to go visit him. We didn't know until we got there that it was Hugh's birthday. Thanks to the Wheeler's for letting us crash the party. It was a ton of fun. It was a a gymnastics gym that the kids go to. Tom had so much fun that i am going to have to see if they have any place like this in our area. He loved the slide and all the balls and the things to walk and climb on. Most of all he loved the really long trampoline. It was so cute to see his face light up while running on it.
