Split personality

Fairy Princess...












or impish pixie full of shenanigans?

Lily likes to take pictures of herself

And they're usually very arty.

Birthday crafts

Check out the super cute hat and sweater set I crocheted for Tom for his birthday! Too bad he was in a phase of hating to wear hats when I made this...

Kalahari Resort

Matt signed up for a conference in January at a place called the Kalahari Resort in Ohio. It was a great winter getaway for me and the kids, too. There were several pools, all with different age groups in mind, from babies to adults. We spent our time in the baby pool, and Lily had a lot of fun, even if Tom was not too sure most of the time.

Tom turned 1 on February 6th

We tried to make him wear a party hat at my mom's house, but that just made him mad.


He was much happier when we just let him eat some cake in peace, hatless.


Lily was in charge of decorating his cake, and she really likes sprinkles. I think Lily and Tom will make a good team because she mostly loves to eat the frosting, and Tom really likes the cake.

oops, I skipped Christmas pictures!

So I know it's almost the end of summer, and I'm just getting Christmas pictures up here, but I guess that shows how disorganized I've felt recently! Anyway, here's my happy little man on his first Christmas.

At Mugga's house, we tried to get a picture of all 3 grandkids. Right away, Lily decided that she didn't want to have her picture taken because her Christmas dress was GREEN, not pink or purple! Katelyn (my sister's baby) was none to thrilled about the photo op, either, but she was only a month and a half old. Tom was the only smiley baby in the bunch, as usual.

Back at home, looking like a jolly little elf!

Pune, India

I spent some time working in India in early March, and I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures. One of the days I was there was the Holi festival, which is celebrated by coating everybody with colored chalk and squirting colored water. The picture above shows a group of people covered in Holi colors. Before they'd let me take that picture, however, they insisted on marking me, too. Chirag is the other guy in the picture below, he's one of my co-workers on my current project.

Easter 2007

Here's some pictures and a video from our easter weekend. We spent Sunday in Durand with Mugga, Bill, Kari, Bruce and Katlyn.

Happy Easter, Grandma Witten!

A Plague in our House

Poor little Tom Tom (Lily's favorite nickname these days for her little brother) was sick for pretty much all of last week with a high fever, puking and explosive diapers. He was so sad-looking and just wanted to sleep all week long, wouldn't eat or even drink much, not even cheese or milk. And this boy LOVES a dairy product. Sunday, he was finally back to his normal, cheery self and is eating voraciously once again. I'm so thankful that Lily didn't get whatever crazy virus Tom had. It's shocking, considering she touches him all the time, especially when he's sick and she's playing little mama. It was so sweet to see her petting Tom's head and crooning, "poor little man, you don't feel good, huh?" It was hard to tell her she couldn't touch him when all she wanted to do was kiss and love and comfort her little buddy. Now they're back to playing together and giggling like madmen in the tent in Lily's bedroom!

Girly Girl

For all of you who taunted that Lily was going to be a cheerleader, it's looking like you might be on the right track. She loves to put on nail polish and makeup, and probably already has at least 15 handbags. For about a year now, she's refused to wear clothing if it's not pink or purple, and if it's striped, all the better. Even her socks and underwear must be pink or purple! In the photo of Lily and Tom, I'd given them both fancy hairstyles one night after their bath.

T-Mobile

In mid-January, Tom finally started crawling. We were beginning to think that he'd be content to chill out and watch things happen all around him forever! Now he's super fast and within seconds it seems he can speed from the safety of his bedroom to the kitchen to try and play in the dog dishes or pull snacks out of the pantry. He's also pulling himself up and hanging onto furniture to stand for minutes at a time now. It probably won't be long before he starts walking and we undergo another shift in the dynamic between him and Lily!

TEETH!!

Tom has 7 teeth now (the 7th one just came through in the past week) and I think there are a few more coming soon. He has the sweetest little grin!

Tom's words, first and those that followed

Around Thanksgiving, Tom said what I consider to be his first word: "uh-oh" uttered as he dropped something off his highchair tray. Since then, his vocabulary has expanded a little bit, but "uh-oh" is still his favorite and most used word. What is Tom talking about these days?

"Mama": since I'm his favorite person, it's not surprising that he calls for me by name all the time.

"ball": one of Tom's favorite games is throwing a ball (or anything ball-like) back and forth with Matt. It's funny that they do such a traditionally male thing together!

"dat": his version of asking "what's that?", always accompanied by a finger pointing at anything from a picture on the wall to a ball of yarn.

"up": while reaching both hands up to the adult he wants to pick him up.

"hat": even though Tom hates to wear actual hats, he enjoys putting non-hat items (packages of paper plates, my smelly bandanna from work, a cup, etc.) on his head and saying "hat" with a big smile on his face.

"woof": if you talk to Tom about doggies, he will smile and say "woof, woof."

"hi": with his sunny smile, it's the best greeting to receive when I go into his room in the mornings to get him, or when I pick him up at daycare at the end of the day.

"la-la": he sticks his tongue way out to say his version of Lily's name.

"Ellie": we had dinner at Rick and Bobbi's house tonight, and Tom said his cousin's name while we were eating and looking at pictures of the family on the wall.

Time to catch up!

Between the holiday rush and our old computer dying, the blog has taken a backseat. We've been through many milestones since our last post, so I'm going to attempt to summarize what we've been through over the past few months within the next few posts. And I promise to update more regularly now, so get off my back, Shay!!

Tom Month by Month

This photo album shows a picture of Tom every month since birth.

Tom at 0, 1, 2, 3, 4... (months)