I earned $2.36 from just this task alone.

Please excuse the dirtiness of this air vent. That is not what this is about. It’s about the piggy bank material stored inside of this particular (and another one that I didn’t take a picture of) air vent.

This was my reward for removing two air vents today and extracting their contents. Nine quarters, six pennies, a foreign coin, a play money coin, and a magnet. Not bad for a days work.

Now I should go contribute that $2.36 to an actual piggy bank for Thomas, but I’m not. It’s going straight into my wallet.

My happy boys!

I mentioned before that I was making homemade vanilla for Christmas presents this year. It was not difficult at all, and I really enjoyed how they turned out. It was, however, much more expensive than I anticipated. (Not terribly expensive, just more than I thought it would be.)

I say it was more expensive because typically I wouldn’t give 30 of my closest friends a gift. I wanted to make these for my family members and the children’s teachers, but since that consists of about a dozen people, the remaining dozen and a half were just because I was feeling crafty and ambitious.

In the end, I’m really glad that I made as many as I did. Who really cares about the extra cash once it’s already spent and the gift is made, right? It felt awesome giving them away, and I think (hope) everyone really liked it.

Tonight after a long bubble bath with James I was getting him dressed. He says in all of his three year old sweetness, “What is it?”

I responded, “Football.”

He surprised me and said snidely, “Aww nuts!”

Where does he come up with this stuff?

Thomas and daddy woo-wooing as the train circles.

Thomas making his own tunnel for the train to pass through.

Woo Woo! I think a visit to the mall tomorrow for two-for-Tuesday’s is in order. The boys will love it!

Today though has been a different story. I talked with some friends the other night and said I was going to make the plunge and take the tent off the crib. I also said I was going to potty train him. He is three, after all. As much as I hate that he’s growing up, I know that it’s inevitable. I just hate to let go of the baby in him. I’m already losing his blonde hair, I don’t want to lose anymore.

This morning when he woke up I put his big boy undies on him. I was pretty sure that he had already gone potty in his diaper because I left him talking in his crib for at least 20 minutes before I came to get him. He was soaked through the diaper and his pants were wet. I didn’t put him on the potty immediately and within 20 minutes he was telling me, “Oh no! I pee pee on my pirate ship!” which were his new undies. Accident number one for the day.

I took him back to his room to change him and made a power move and removed the tent AND the side of the crib. Holy moly! What a shock. Not only was I sad, he was, too! I quickly had to turn this into excitement of a big boy bed and he’s three and he’s going pee pee in the potty and all that stuff. He was ok with it then.

As the day went on we changed his clothes twice because of pee pee and tossed a really nasty pair of poo poo undies. Four accidents today and it’s only 5:00 in the afternoon.

He didn’t take a nap today and I’m hoping that he will be so tired that he won’t get out of his bed too many times. I am expecting a few though. I’m also expecting for him to wake up at the crack of dawn.

So how does this work for me? It sucks. I hate that he’s getting older. I hate that he’s growing up. I hate that before I know it he will be getting on the bus for kindergarten, and then I’ll blink and he will be going to college. It just sucks. I want him to stay my baby forever. Or at least have another one that I can do it all over again with. That’d be ok with me.

I had to rearrange the room a little bit because he got this new train from Santa. I moved his airplane to the closet, the train table in front of the bookcase, and the train in the middle of the room. We will see how well that works. The train table and the airplane are the issue. Well, no, any one of the three are the issue. Three big things and only room for two. I think the airplane is going to make its final flight to the attic and stay there until James has a kid. Then he can take it for that kid and it can be passed on as long as each kid wants it. It’s from his grandad and says both Jr. and IV on the bottom. Passing it to V would be really cool.

This momma needs a nap now. And dinner. I think dinner wins, with possibly an early bedtime shortly after.

Such a heartbreaker this one is…

And he sure does love his mommy.

Toot toot! It’s amazing how much noise two little noisemakers can make on NYE!

Thomas will do anything his big brother does. He adores him. I love it!

Jamming with his daddy

Rock on little man!

If this doesn’t melt your heart, nothing will.

My sweet little angel.

I love you, Thomas.

He told us the night before, or maybe two nights before, that it was loose. It really bothered him that it was loose. It happened when he took a bite of something and it felt very strange to him. He must have wiggled it a lot the next day (or next two days) because it didn’t stay in for very long. On a trip to the grocery store with Jim he pulled it out.

James holding his missing tooth next to the milk aisle in Publix.

He didn’t realize that there was blood in his mouth. He asked to see the picture above that Jim took immediately after it was taken. He asked what the red stuff was and Jim told him it was blood. He said, “It’s blood? Is that what this strange taste is?” It’s just a reminder to me that he’s still learning new stuff every day.

I went to get some fabric as soon as I heard that the tooth came out. I made him this pillow to put his tooth in. It has a pocket for the tooth, and once the tooth fairy removes the tooth she can put in his prize. He loved it.

The tooth next to it is now loose. It’s been that way for at least a week, maybe longer, but he doesn’t mess with it the way he did the first one. I think he realizes the tooth fairy isn’t as generous with the second tooth as with the first.