June update

June has been fun, in spite of the cold weather. I finished up doing the video for Tommy's kindergarten class. Tom videotaped events during the year and I put it together. It took me 100+ hours to do. The parents and kids loved it. Though almost half the people had trouble with their videos, so just when I think I was done with it, I had to burn more DVD's. I told Tom to remind me when Joey is in kindergarten, for us not to sign up for that!

Tommy is out of school and we are back to staying up late and sleeping in, much to my delight! Of course, not Tom's, since he is a morning person and still has to get up and go to work. Summer will be over soon enough, Honey. :)

Tom had a nice Father's Day. We went to the Science Center and Tom and Joey were free! Joey was free because of his age and Tom was free because it was Father's Day. You don't get in free too many places anymore, so that was nice. We had a very nice time and it was sunny that day to make it extra special! The boys got Tom Wii Mario Kart, which Tom likes to play when Tommy isn't playing it.

We also celebrated Uncle Chris' birthday this month. They boys just love their Uncle Chris and can be as goofy around him as they want because he is just as goofy. I think it's important to have an uncle like that and we are certainly glad they have Chris.

May Events

So I know it's been a long time since I blogged! So here's what has happened since I last blogged.


At the beginning of May, my parents came over as Tommy's class was doing the May Crowning Mass for his school. He was very cute and spoke his part well and loud enough for everyone to hear. We are very proud of him for getting up and speaking in front of the entire school!

A few days after the Mass, my brother, Richard, came up here from California for a conference. I haven't seen my brother in 6 years and he hasn't been up here in 12+ years. It was so wonderful for all of us to spend time together. It was also very nice that we have a house large enough that we can have everyone over and everyone gets their own bathroom, much to my Mother's liking. The boys really like spending time with their Uncle Richard and liked attacking him as well. Richard has not changed much, which is nice to see that he is still the same smart aleck that he always has been. He has a quick wit about him and really says things how they are, which is sometimes good and sometimes bad. :)

For Mother's Day, we all went to see my Mom's Mom, GG. She is used to the quiet, so I know having us all over at once is quite a commotion. I know that even though she doesn't love all the noise, that she loved having us all over together. Here's a couple of pictures from that day.

Joey giving GG a kiss. How sweet is that?

It was a very fast paced visit with Richard and my parents here, but I certainly loved every minute of it! I only hope we can do it again sooner than 6 years and next time Richard can bring his son, Evan, for Tommy and Joey to play with. Tommy talks about Cousin Evan quite often and while they have met, Tommy was 10 months and Evan was 2-1/2. So it would be great to get the cousins together and just let them have fun and play.

Other events for May was when it was sunny, Tom broke out the Mustang and picked Tommy up from school. Before he left, Joey had to get in and check it out. Here he is check his hair in the mirror. I'm not exactly sure who he got that from. :)

Tommy continued to have baseball games and he really is turning into a great little slugger who can bat either right or left handed. He is right handed, but we think because Tom is left handed and that is they way he taught Tommy to bat, that is why he bats better left handed than right. A good think either way!

On a sad note for May, my cousin Mark passed away from brain cancer. He was only 51. While I only met him once or twice, I'm deeply saddened. Knowing how wonderful his parents are, I'm sure the apple could not have fallen far from the tree. Rest in peace Mark, rest in peace.

Round and Round Class

Joey had his last Round and Round Class today. He is so cute with his "bumblebee" ball. Joey always picks the yellow balls and if another kid trys to get it, he works his way to the yellow ball and eventually has it in his hot little hands again. He has to call everything yellow, bumblebee, after the yellow Transformer, Bumblebee.





We have been taking a class in which we dance and sing, play with the parachute, musical instruments and balls. He calls it his Round and Round class and he loves going to it. There isn't another one scheduled for a couple of weeks, but I'll sign him up for the next one, but maybe for the 2-3 year olds. He really like to just run around in this class. If I try to catch him, he runs more, so I usually just let him run around and the teacher is ok with that.

Lately Joey has been walking around and "talking" on Tom's old cell phone to different people. The past few days it's been Uncle Chris and Aunt Claire (with an emphasis on the "cl"). If he wants a straw that is pink or red in color he will as for "Mommy's straw". It seems like my baby is just growing up way to fast.


Over the weekend, Tommy had a baseball game on Saturday. Tom pitched for the first time and thankfully didn't hit any kids with the ball. Tommy got on base and is becoming quite a good catcher. Saturday night we had some friends from our old neighborhood over for dinner. It was a great time and thankfully Steve called to remind us to take the wine out of the freezer before it exploded! When I took it out of the freezer only a little spot on it was frozen, but then it all started to ice up inside and it wasn't just on the outside glass. I was afraid if we touched it in the wrong way it would explode, thankfully it didn't.


Sunday was the Mother-Son Scavenger Hunt at school. Tommy and I went and did it with another family. It was so much fun! This year it was planned that you could not solve it, but we had fun running around trying to figure out all the clues.

Don't pass out I'm starting to blog!

So I'm going to try this and see how much I can do without it taking too much time. My wonderful friend Julie H, says it's important to keep a record and I think she's right.

So what has happened over the past few weeks. We went to the Mariner's Opening Day Game on March 31st. We got Tommy out of school at noon and on the way there he took a couple of sips of water and vomited them back up. He proudly declared "I'm feeling much better now!" We thought "oh, no" and told him if he wanted to go home that we could. He said no, he wanted to go to the game and see all of his uncles, grandpa, Aunt Claire and Jen. After paying $28 for parking, which was with the $2 carpool discount we got into the stadium. Tommy was having a blast with his uncles and grandpa, eating a hot dog and red vines. It was colder than cold and even Tom's brothers were freezing and needed the blanket Aunt Claire thankfully brought along. Tommy started shivering and he had 4-5 layers on including my coat and the blanket. So in the 4th, yes 4th inning, we left the stadium. We went outside and it was SNOWING! Imagine that snowing in Seattle at a baseball game. We could only laugh. Thankfully we left the stadium when we did as Tommy got sick in the car on the way home. And my brother-in-laws were making fun of me for carrying around a plastic bag, they will learn that Mama knows best. We got Tommy home and he ended up staying home two days from school. As Tom says it was the most expensive 4 innings of baseball that he has ever paid for.

A few days after that Joey swallowed a penny. Tommy and I were rolling his coins to take to the bank. He ended up having $139.50 in his piggy bank. So Tommy was putting the rest of the change back in his piggy bank and of course Joey put a penny in his mouth. Tommy was on top of Joey's back trying to get the penny out. But unfortunately Joey swallowed the penny. I was just down the hall and when I went in Joey was chocking on the penny and having trouble breathing. It only lasted a few seconds, but it certainly felt longer than that. From then on, I started checking his diapers for the penny. After 10 days and no penny I took Joey to the doctor. They did an x-ray and there was the penny in his stomach. After the doctor consulted with Children's they said it could take up to a month to pass! Good grief, you mean I have to be on Poop Patrol up to a month! What a Mother has to do. So we kept giving him apple juice and finally after 14 days the penny came out. And for those of you who want to know, yes I saved it (after changing my mind and having to dig through the garbage again to get it, so I can scrap it, maybe) and it was a 2006 penny.

This weekend we went to see the tulips up in La Conner. What a beautiful sight! I just love tulips, they are truly my favorite flower! We had lots of fun, got muddy and Mommy got a little grouchy, only to have Daddy calm Mommy down and remind her that they are only kids.

Tommy is doing baseball 3 days a week, either practices or games. Tom is the assistant coach. Tommy has improved in his coloring so much this year and instead of "scribles" is staying in the lines perfectly. He has really made great friends this year, while still having the friends he made last year. I'm glad we decided to have him do another year of kindergarten, though it's been challenging at times.

Joey continues to crack us up. For only being 2, he is developing a sense of humor. Out of the blue he will come up and start tickling you on your belly button. And it has to be on your belly button. He is most definitely 2 and when he gets a time out, he cries and cries, but for the most part he stays on the step we have put him on. When he does get off and we tell him to go back and sit down, he does so while crying like the world is coming to an end. He has a fascination, as did Tommy, with his "Nums" (i.e. pacifiers). He can't live without them. I guess he will eventually grow out of them and not be headed off to kindergarten with them.