miketraciandtommy2

2008-11-29T10:44:00.000-08:00

Here are more Halloween pictures plus pictures of Tommy's birthday party. He and a neighbor had a birthday party together. The kids decorated train cupcakes and played with a pinata.

2008-11-29T10:38:00.000-08:00

Tommy enjoyed visiting a pumpkin patch this year. He also now understands that halloween means pumpkins and candy. Dressing up in a costume was not his favorite part of the holiday. Once he saw Leslie in her butterfly costume, Tommy refused to wear his monkey costume because he wanted to be a butterfly too. He wore his superman pjs instead.

2008-11-29T10:27:00.000-08:00

And even more pictures...

2008-11-29T10:23:00.001-08:00

And more pictures...

2008-11-29T10:17:00.001-08:00

Here are some pictures of the kids. Tommy loves his new baby sister. I can't believe how well they are getting along...

2008-11-29T10:12:00.001-08:00

So, it has been forever since we updated. I am posting some pictures to explain why it has been so long. Her name is Leslie Caroline MacFerrin, and she was born on March 17, 2008, St. Patrick's Day. I am just going to post a lot of pictures for right now, and I will add stories later.

2007-12-12T12:34:00.000-08:00

Tommy has turned 2. The first picture shows that Tommy likes to do everything we do, including brushing his own teeth before bedtime. The second picture was from a very frustrating day. I had been letting Tommy play with colormagic finger paints because they only make color on the special paper. Tommy shows that in addition to being finger paints, they are a very special hair gel as well. I have included one picture from Tommy's birthday party and a picture of Tommy eating snow on a very cold day. This is his favorite thing about snow, that it is edible. Unfortunately, he does not understand that fresh snow is the snow to eat. I have caught him trying to eat the snow off the car tires. Fortunately, I caught him before it entered his mouth. I will post more pictures soon.

2007-11-01T10:31:00.000-07:00

Halloween!

Tommy was a dragon this year for Halloween. It took him some time to grasp the whole concept. He did not like the head piece to his costume, and he would not allow us to put it on him. He also did not like it when people put candy in his bag. Obviously, he got over this pretty quick, but the highlight of his evening was going to the park after dark.

2007-11-01T10:28:00.001-07:00

Tommy's going to have a baby sister...

2007-11-01T10:22:00.000-07:00

Tommy's First Camping Trip

Mike took Tommy camping back in September, and he had a great time (except for the whole sleeping thing). Tommy loved playing and exploring outside. He is truly fearless as you can see from the pictures. I am amazed he has not required an emergency room visit for stitches or a broken bone.

2007-08-21T17:53:00.000-07:00

I know it has been forever since I updated the blog. Here are some pictures, I will update it again sometime this week with more pictures. Tommy is getting so big. He is starting to use two-word sentences. Mainly, he tells things hello and good-bye. These are pictures from our first trip to Houston this summer. The last picture is of the riverwalk in San Antonio. Mike and I took a side trip for a night. This was about two hours before the skies opened up and the city flooded. We had a wonderful time on the trip. I will update the blog with more pictures soon.

2007-05-01T11:08:00.000-07:00

Guess which picture Tommy took.

2007-05-01T10:53:00.000-07:00

Tommy is our little climber. He knows no fear when it comes to playground equipment. I am getting gray hairs just writing about his playtime. Tommy loves to do everything the big kids do, and this includes climbing to the tallest slide and sliding down it backwards. You would never know that he is only 17 months old. The top two pictures are from Easter. The first one is of Tommy eating a peep and not knowing what to make of it (his mother is still trying to decide what made peeps a good idea). The next picture is of me reading to Tommy. He loves story time, and when he is being fussy, it is often the only thing that will make him happy. The next few pictures were taken at the butterfly pavillion. There were not many butterflies when we went, so Tommy's favorite parts were the puddle of water and this climbing honey comb. You can tell in one of the pictures that he is soaking wet because he sat in the puddle and splashed for about 20 minutes. Glad that I paid $8 so he could enjoy that. I can't get all of the most recent pictures in this post, so I am going to post again with playground pictures.

2007-03-25T11:09:00.000-07:00

2007-02-21T17:19:00.000-08:00

15 months! Tommy is 15 months old and he is getting big. He now says cheese, down, no, cracker, dog, cat, that, book, Momma, and Dadda. Tommy understands so much too. He will come and bring a book to me and sit in my lap when asked if he wants to read a story. He is also starting to climb. He climbs on his toys and attempts to climb the stairs, over his crib and off of our bed. This will be trouble. He is such a sweet snuggly kid, but he does not respond well to limit setting efforts on the part of his mother and father. Here are some new pictures of our little guy (and one of pretty snow from January).

2006-12-21T10:00:00.000-08:00

BLIZZARD!!!!

So we have had a blizzard come through over the past day. At this point, depending on where you measure we have between 2 feet and 33 inches of snow. Oh, and it is still snowing. Here are some pics...

2006-12-20T17:19:00.000-08:00

So, it has been a long time and a lot has happened. Tommy is now running, and he is now one. He has a picture eating a red velvet cake. I had to choose a cake picture carefully because some of the pictures looked downright gorey. Tommy is also saying "no". Lovely. I had hoped to either skip that or at least wait until he was two. No such luck. Not only will he say no, but he will also shake his head no as he says it. He is also now saying "cat". Tommy loves cats. His aunt and uncle have a cat, and last time he visited it, he laughed every time it looked at him. The other thing that has happened...he lost his baby look. I now have a little boy. He is growing up.

2006-10-29T17:19:00.000-08:00

Tommy's First Halloween! Not a moment too soon, either. Traci's been excited about this... it's the one (and probably only) time she gets to decide what to dress him in for the holiday. Family Housing here had a Halloween mini-parade Saturday morning, and we joined the rest of the children & parents on a walk around the complex, showing off our collective cuteness.In other news, Tommy picked up the fine art of walking at an astounding pace, and has taken to it with great enthusiasm. In one week he went from walking 1-2 steps to walking across the room unaided, and given the choice of travel, he will quickly go bipedal any time he can. Just today he acquired himself a couple serious boo-boos as a result. Such a busy boy! Anyhoo, enjoy the pictures, and we'll post more later! -- Mike

2006-10-07T17:43:00.000-07:00

Steps...Tommy took his first steps on Wednesday, September 26th in the evening. It was perfect because I happened to be watching, and Tommy took the steps towards Mike. It has been a little over a week now, and Tommy can take about three steps at a time before he loses his balance and tumbles. Tommy is getting better and better at feeding himself, but there is still quite a mess under his high chair when he is finished. When we still had our dog, this was never a problem. We have determined that Tommy will either be a drummer or a mountain climber when he grows up because these are his two main interests. He has not found a piece of furniture too tall to climb and he enjoys banging on everything. He is so much fun, and he is keeping us very busy. I am attaching more pictures for your viewing pleasure.

2006-09-26T17:14:00.000-07:00

Fall in Colorado.... We are doing a lot of that around here these days. Tommy is getting close to walking and he is starting to stand for longer and longer periods of time. He seems to be able to stand independently much longer if he is holding something in his hands. I guess he thinks that holding onto something (even a pacifier) will keep him from falling. He is also a little chatterbox. I have no idea where he got that. : ) Tommy talks and talks and talks, and I swear that he thinks I should understand him. He gives me this look like I should have an appropriate answer, but I don't exactly know how to answer to ga ga ga na na. Oh, and we play games now. Tommy plays peek-a-boo, patty cake and he sticks his tongue out at us. He is getting so big. Anyway, I am attaching pictures. I will update again next week.

2006-08-28T13:41:00.000-07:00

Cruising right along...Tommy is growing so fast. He is now an expert at cruising and he is beginning to stand independently. We have had to invest in more playyard pieces to keep him out of trouble. Okay, well they don't keep him out of trouble, but they do keep him from getting to non-babyproofed areas of the apartment. I am attaching more pics. I hope you enjoy!

2006-08-11T22:15:00.000-07:00

Hello... it's Mike here! I know Traci normally updates the Blog, but I thought I'd give it a try here. Tommy is growing up fast! He's got a 3-word vocabulary... we have confirmed (and repeated) hearing him say "Mama," "Dada," and "Hi"... using them all correctly! As Tommy discovers the world, Traci & I have begun to discover the fine art of baby-proofing. We bought a 4-pack of little foam "edge-covers" for furniture & the like... I originally thought it was a little pricey at $12.99. But hell's bells, we just might to invest in an entire case before it's all over.

He's a mobile child now, more than we could have imagined. Often fussy & complaining when penned-in or being held, he'll crack a cheek-to-cheek smile if you lay him in an open room, uninhibited to explore the wide open spaces and find a computer cord or printer cable that we've yet to figure out how to conceal.

Grandma MacFerrin is in town for a couple weeks... enjoying watching him play & grow up. It's kinda nice having her around... we're still getting settled into the apartment, and as I get busy preparing for grad school (just a couple weeks now!), it's handy to have someone to "hand-off" our busy little man to while we work on other things.

2006-07-31T19:26:00.000-07:00

2006-07-31T18:52:00.000-07:00

We're back.....

Tommy and I arrived back home today. He and I had been visiting family in Texas while Mike has been backpacking in Alaska. Since we left for our trip on the 14th Tommy has crawled, clapped, blown kisses, pulled himself to a standing position and bonked his chin/head multiple times. That is right, we now have a mobile child and he is fast. Lots of fun for Mom and Dad. I am including pictures taken from our trip.

We arrived in Houston on the 14th. We spent time with both of my parents and Tommy got a chance to meet his aunt, Danielle. Danielle, for those of you who do not know, is my 3 year-0ld sister. I think in the end she liked Tommy because he went home. At 3, she is not used to sharing attention, but she was very sweet to him. While we were in Texas we visited my grandparents (both in Houston and in Fort Worth). We also took a trip to Galveston so that Tommy could visit his girlfriend, Madeline. We took the kids to the aquarium, and Tommy loved the fish. He gave a squeal I had never heard before when he saw the belly of a sting ray. Needless to say, I think we are getting some fish at home. Tommy also went to his first Astros game, but I would rather not talk about that (they lost).

It was a great visit, but I do not wish to relive our flight home. I do not plan to travel alone with Tommy again any time soon. I hope you enjoy these pics!

2006-07-10T16:54:00.001-07:00

We've Made It!

No pics this week, but wanted to update the blog and let people know that we made it to Colorado. We are in the process of unpacking boxes, decorating and baby-proofing in our new 3rd floor apartment. Tommy is not quite crawling yet, but he is lurching forward. He is discovering his voice, and loves to let out high (and I do mean high) pitch screams of glee. Tommy has also started waving using his whole arm. It is quite the site. Anyway, I need to get back to unpacking. I will update with pics soon.

2006-06-22T09:57:00.000-07:00

Learning to crawl....Well, Tommy is definitely working on crawling. Last Wednesday he surprised me by getting up on his hands and knees and rocking. He had done this before, but now he is doing it without pushing against the coffee table. Most Moms would be very excited about this but seeing as our place is filled with boxes and we are moving to Colorado next Friday, we are begging Tommy to wait just 2 more weeks. I can just see it now...moving truck has arrived...boxes are being loaded...Tommy escapes from the apartment. Actually we are pretty excited about Tommy's quest to finally move forward (he can go from side-to-side and backwards) it is just crummy timing.

I am attaching another picture of Tommy eating, but I swear this one is totally different. We had been given a mesh feeder and so we decided to try it out...with watermelon. It worked in the sense that Tommy did not choke and it caught the seeds, but I will let you look at the picture and guess how much watermelon made it in his mouth and how much stained his shirt. There would be a second eating picture, but the camera was not with us when I gave Tommy his first pickle. We were at a restaurant and I gave him a quarter slice of a dill pickle. Well, Tommy put the thing in his mouth and started to suck on it. He immediately took it out of his mouth, made the worst face I have ever seen, looked accusingly at the pickle, and put the pickle back in his mouth. He repeated this process about five times. I wish we had the camera with us, but c'est la vie. It did save everyone from yet another eating picture.
Our next post will be from Colorado, so it may be a couple weeks.

2006-06-13T16:27:00.000-07:00

It's Mike's Birthday!

Today is Mike's birthday, and I had hoped to do something special (make a nice dinner or take him out to eat) but I have had to change plans. Apparently I have my first case of mastitis which is a breast infection that you can get when you breastfeed. Basically, you feel like you have the flu, have a fever, and it hurts like the dickens to nurse. I am now taking an antibiotic and should be feeling better soon. So, we went out for a quick dinner (I was supposed to be on bedrest).

I mention that because it pertains to our adventures in sleep. Tommy had been sleeping with us, but lately it has not been the greatest arrangement. Since he is older and moves around he does wonderful little things like pulling our hair (and Mike's armpit hair), pinching, and patting our faces. These things sound really sweet, but not so at 2am. So, we have been trying various types of methods to get him to sleep in his crib. I have read 6 books on sleep with all different opinions on how to do it. They range from just deal with it to let them cry (without checking on them) until they fall asleep. We finally settled on the Ferber method, and it was working (the 10-12 wakings in his crib shortened from 30 minutes to 1-10), but now I have this infection and part of the treatment is to nurse him frequently. So, we have had to take a step backwards and postpone the prospect of sleep for another week or two.

I am including pictures of Tommy eating because those are always fun and also a picture of him in his new bathing suit/swim diaper.

2006-06-04T22:00:00.000-07:00

Had some trouble with the pics, but here they are!

2006-06-04T21:42:00.000-07:00

A big week...
We had a big week this week. On Wednesday, Tommy enjoyed his first trip to the apartment complex swimming pool. He had gone swimming once before, but it was in an indoor pool. I think he looks pretty cool in his sunglasses. From the pictures you can also see the the adventures in eating continued. Actually, we found two foods that Tommy loves. He loves pears and sweet peas. He also loves his sippy cup, but we cannot give it to him until he has finished eating or he will stop eating and just play with the cup. We have given water to Tommy in the cup every night, but I do not think he has managed to actually drink any yet. Instead, he blows bubbles into the cup, or my personal favorite, he gets water in his mouth and then blows rasberries. Tommy is also now attempting to feed himself. He actually does pretty well with about a 70% success rate at getting the spoon into his mouth. Other times the food ends up in his hair, in his ears, on his chest....I could go on listing body parts but I think you get the picture.

This week we also had visitors. Grandmommy and Grandaddy came to visit. Tommy really enjoyed seeing them. On Thursday, we went shopping. On Friday, we went to the rose gardens in Washington Park in Portland. Tommy was surprisingly content which made the outing very nice. Then on Saturday we went to Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge.

Our adventures in feeding continue. Next time we will visit the wonderful world of sleep (or lack thereof).

2006-05-29T17:44:00.000-07:00

Six Months, Oh My My!
Well, we have all survived the first six months. Tommy had his dr appointment on Monday and my sweet little baby is not so little anymore. He is 29in long and weighing 18lbs 5 1/2 oz. He is rolling everywhere and trying to eat everything he can get his little hands on. Tommy is just about sitting alone (he can for about 1-2 minutes then falls to the side). He is now eating cereal and we are trying various fruits and veggies. He is not so sure about those fruits and veggies. His typical response is to make a face and squeeze that mouth shut. Tommy is definately taking some convincing. Guess he will be a discriminating eater.

About the blog...I am going to try to update this about every other week. We will see if I can keep this up : ) Hope you enjoy the pics!