My Castle

One day I awoke from my nap and Mom & Dad were like, "Thomas, there is a surprise for you in the living room!" So I got all excited and ran out there to see what it was. I ran right past what appeared to be a big taped up box with holes in it to find where my surprise was. Well guess what? The box was my surprise. I wasn't too excited until I realized that this was a playhouse custom made for me by my Daddy. It was made out of two BIG boxes, one on top of the other, with a front and a back door, and two windows. I soon embraced this as my castle and decided to play, eat snacks, and watch TV all in the comfort of my new home. Every once in awhile I got a little too rambunctious and tried to jump up on top of the house or climb out through the windows instead of the door. Well, over time the tape got messed up and then the final straw was when Daddy got stuck in my house because he is too big! The next day (which also happened to be garbage & recycling day) my castle was gone. I will always remember the fun times I spent there.

Creative Concentration

My artistic abilities are at an all time high recently as I am learning to color and paint. I am now able to roughly stay in the area I am trying to color, although I usually still let the colors spill out of the lines. The trick is to obtain ultimate concentration by sticking my tongue out just so. I find that by moving my tongue around outside my mouth I am able to maximize my coloring accuracy and creativity.

My picture was colored so well my Mama even hung it on her wall of her office!

My BIG Boy Room

Check out my remodeled room. I got all new furniture including a real big boy bed with trucks on my sheets and blankets. My Mama even painted a "racetrack" on my wall. I feel pretty mature sleeping in my new & improved room.

By the way, I am totally over the diaper thing (except for at nap and bedtime). I am officially peeing and pooping like a big boy also. Congratulations to me!

Snow Day!!

We had our first snow of the year a few days ago and it has been SO COLD outside the snow decided to stick around for awhile. My daddy is so fun, he has taken me to play in the snow everyday! Daddy and me went out and shoveled the snow into a big pile and jumped into it! The next day we went sledding!

And sledding again the day after that!


Daddy looks scared! I however was super brave and even went down the hill head first without a sled purposely a few times.





And for a finale, my SNOW JUMP! Pardon my "cheesing" for the camera, I am used to getting my picture taken.

My First Movie Theatre Movie

I went to see The Princess and the Frog last night on the BIG T.V.! Mom told me before the movie started that I needed to be very quiet and not talk during the movie. Well, there were some other kids there so I decided to pass the message on to them during the previews. I said "Be Quiet!" "Shhh," and my favorite that I used a few times "NO TALKING!" I got pretty interested in the movie once the lights went out and watched about an hour's worth of it before getting bored and lunging out of my seat onto the lady's head sitting in front of me. Mom apologized to her as if I had done something wrong, but she didn't seem to forgive me. The way I look at it, she should have apologized to me for sitting in front of me when there were plenty of other open seats! Luckily sometime around this point Mom got me a snack. I sat and munched as I watched which tide me over for another 20 minutes or so until I got a sweet tooth. I thought, hmmm... maybe if I misbehave my Mom will reward me by buying me some candy. And guess what? It worked. Thanks for the gummy worms Mama! You should have seen my face when presented with the gummy worms, surprised and thrilled all at once - priceless! Well, I devoured those worms without difficulty over a period of about 10 minutes. The movie was getting close to finished and I was bored with it. Mom and Grandma made me stay to watch the last few minutes though as they traded me between laps and my own seat. Although the film was not bad, but I wish they had taken me to something a little more manly and memorable for my very first movie theatre movie.

I Am Going to Be a Big Brother!

That's right, you can call me big brother Thomas! And even better, its a boy! Here he is . . .

And guess what? I think he's going to look like me, lucky guy. Take a look at me when I was his age:

Cute little booger!

Come Back Santa!

Christmas is hard work, but I am really good at it! First we started by going all the way to Joliet, Illinois to visit my Great Grandma and Grandpa, aunts, uncles and cousins there. It is really cold up there, I can't imagine how Santa feels at the North Pole! He must have some nice mittens.Here I am holding a snowball without ANY mittens. Ouch. Who's idea was that? Oh, mine. . . you're right. Good idea Thomas! Daddy taught me how to throw snowballs at Mama. It is pretty fun. I always ask permission first though. The key is to use a really sweet voice and say it so cute that she has to agree! "Mama, can I please throw a snowball at you? That's a good idea! Can I Mama?"

I also had fun wrestling with my cousin,

opening gifts,

waiting for more gifts,

and doing my share to help with the over-abundance of cookies.


Next we had Christmas Eve first at my Grandma Imboden's house where I hung my stockingAnd next at my Papa and Grandma Long's house where I received my most eagerly-awaited gift.My remote control monster truck!! I've been talking about this since I spotted one in the Radioshack window months ago.

I also got a dump truck that is supposed to come when I call him. But he listens about as well as I do.


We went home and Mom and Dad hurried me off to bed, but not before I left some cookies for Santa. We didn't have time to bake any fresh ones, so we left Thin Mints instead.

I must have been anxiously sleepwalking because when I woke up I was lying on the floor, blanket and all with my head resting on the hardwood floors.

Daddy reminded me that Santa had come so we rushed out to the living room to have a look.

I got a nice big tractor with lights and sounds and a wagon to hook onto the back with a working dump bucket. It came with farm animals riding in the back. This was the other item on my Christmas list ever since I met Santa at the mall. He suggested that I might like a tractor with a wagon for my animals and I agreed.

There was also a BIG racetrack with remote control cars. It looked pretty neat but the cars were kind of slow. Not pictured (and not as exciting) were some books and a new bedding set with trucks on it.


Next we went back to Grandma's house to see what Santa had brought for me there. We also got to open gifts from my Aunts and Uncles.

Santa brought me a big colorful tent with a tunnel extending out from it.
Here is Daddy trying it out. Silly Daddy!

My crafty Aunt Claire made me a superhero cape complete with the letter "T" on the back. If you flip it over and put it around your waist it also doubles as a "princess" skirt. Daddy said I shouldn't use it like that anymore though.

Uncle Steve got me a tractor with a loader.


After finishing at Grandma's house we left for St. Louis to go see more aunts, uncles, cousins and Papa Boden.I got lots of neat presents at my Aunt Marcia's house.

I played with my cousin Baby Ryan and showed him how to use his new toys. I am a pretty experienced ring stacker.
Papa got me a new Nerf gun. With Daddy's help I am a sharp shooter.

I got a new tool set and super cool helicopter.

But let's not forget the best present of all...

ME!!!

That night in the car we saw what my Mama called an airplane. Boy is she silly! I corrected her by telling her that it was actually Santa in the sky. "Oh?" she said. "Where is he going?" I asked. "Back to the North Pole." She told me. "No he's not! He's going to my house to bring more presents!" I exclaimed. Wishful thinking I guess because there were no extra presents when I got home. But at least I got to see Santa's sleigh before Christmas was over.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!!

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

My Mama has been teaching me all of the best Christmas songs like Jingle Bell Rock, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and especially her favorite, Rockin' around the Christmas Tree. Someone recently mentioned Jingle Bells and I busted out my best rendition of Jingle Bell Rock! Our Christmas spirit doesn't end at listening to Christmas music in the car - we have also been getting the house ready for Christmas by decorating the Christmas tree and watching Daddy put up lights on our house.
Here I am helping to hang decorations on the tree. Someone had to help Mama - Daddy is not much help when it comes to Christmas trees!


Additionally we went out into the cold wintery air one night to watch the Lights Fantastic Parade. Uncle Steve and Grandma even came with us. It was REALLY cold, but I didn't complain, I just waited patiently for Santa Claus' float to arrive.


There were all sorts of lights and stuff, brightly lit race cars, giant radios, the Grinch, and lots of loud music bands. I waved to Santa and he waved right back at me! Can you believe it? Right at me!
After Santa passed and the parade was over, I all of the sudden realized that my hands were FREEZING!! And, to put it mildly, I was pretty peeved! We rushed back to the car and warmed up and then went home to have cookies and a cozy fire.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

Christmas is Coming

Well, nothing too exciting has been going on here lately with the exception of Christmas' impending arrival. I have been wearing my Santa hat around town everywhere I go. I have been working extra hard to be a good boy and stay on Santa's nice list. One time I was being a bad boy and Mama called Santa Claus on the phone. He told me that I need to be good and do what Mama & Daddy say or I won't get many presents. He sounded an awful lot like my Papa, but I didn't want to risk it, so I shaped up my behavior really quick.

Also I have been eating lots of sweet holiday treats like brownies

and getting to play outside in the cold winter air.
Stay tuned for Christmas tree decorating and Lights Fantastic Parade!