Two things

Okay, two things I had to share...maybe three. First thing, we love Minnesota and miss it a ton. Right now we live in Nebraska which is feels like forever away, and we hope that we can get closer to home someday. Now, when you think Minnesota, besides cold, you probably think, hockey, right? So Nebraska is the opposite of that, not much hockey going on here. There is definitely a hockey drought here. So Tommy has lived a lot of his life without this staple of Greg's and my culture. Although we did take him as an infant to a Wisconsin hockey game, but I don't think they were very good that year :( and other than attending a hockey game, probably before he could see color, he has not experienced this. Okay, getting to my point...whenever a channel flashes by with a game or hockey highlights on, the kid sits up and says, "Hockey." Now I'm sure he's heard the word, possible referred to occasionally along with an image, but I think the northern MN is so ingrained, he just knows what hockey is. I worked for weeks just to get the kid to say, "love you," or something like that, and he's only heard the word "hockey" in passing and he can smell the hockey before we get to the channel. It's definitely a sign that we belong in MN.

You know when you are in the car and you pull up to your house after being gone all day, or on a long trip and you say, "We're home!" Our kid is so used to being a nomad, every time the car stops he calls out, "HOME!" Poor kid, he's been in so much transition and moved so much, he thinks home is the grocery store, gas station, where I nanny, and the stoplight at 156th and Q street. Or maybe the constant use of "home" is another sign that we should move home where the kid can see "hockey" anytime he pleases!



Alright, last thing, #3 I think ;) Yesterday I was talking to Tommy and he does this:

Excuse me? Really, Tommy? Sticking your fingers in your freaking ears, how old are you, like 2? Okay not 2, but getting close enough apparently to sass me. What, did your daddy teach you that really cute trick? Is he trying to tell me that I talk to much? So most people don't see Greg right off the bat when they look at Tommy, but his name is written all over this little move. Would make a lovely Christmas card, don't you think?

Chatty Cathy

blowing kisses in his new Irish sweater ;)

So I know I said the next post would be video, but that might take me a bit.

Lately I've been trying to tally the number of words Tommy has. My friend Kristy mentioned that she was doing this and was amazed at the jumps in vocabulary that she wasn't even aware of. For curiousity sake, I tried to do that this weekend. The kid says far more than I ever imagined.

I'll only share the ones I think are the funniest or I enjoy the most. One of the latest things is the phrase, "here you go." Although it sounds like "hee-ya go," we've been working on being helpful and that's his go-to helpful phrase. We also recently discovered the "moon," "pockets," and "punkins." I love the way he looks for the moon no matter what time of day it is, looks for everything in his pockets, and during Halloween spoke to his pumpkins as though they were his friends. "Hey, punks!" Sometimes he would pat them gently or give them a kiss. Another fan favorite is the word, "guy." It works for everything. I am surprised at the frequency that one word applies appropriately to communicate with us.

The last words I'll share I think are interesting because I never know when he's going to pull them out. Usually when we're driving somewhere he starts asking about "Tom" and "Abra." We haven't seen Tom and Audra in several months, yet he regularly brings them up. They must be the friends in Madison he misses the most ;)

In the end, we stopped counting around 120 or so. The final tidbit I'll share is a conversation from yesterday. We were waiting for Greg to get home and I asked Tommy, "Is daddy your best bud?" He turns to me, dead serious, nods is head and replies, "Oh, yeah." Hilarious.

Sharing a little love

Since we live so far away from EVERYBODY, I thought maybe I would attempt this blog thing to share some of the love we have for everyone so far away! So here's a photo of Mr. T...he's nineteen months in this photo, I think we took it sometime in September. So as Tommy would say, "lub-loo." Translate, "love you." My next goal is to post a video of him...the question is, which talent do we showcase? Dancing, harmonica playing, the list goes on. We'll see!