Thatcher has been through a lot lately. It hasn't been the easiest thing, adjusting to our newest addition-- don't get me wrong, they love each other! Thatcher loves his brother more than anything in the world, I'm serious, and it's obvious that Levi is already crazy about his big brother! Yet at the same time we've noticed Thatcher struggling- struggling to deal with a crying baby, struggling to exert that crazy, pent up energy in more positive ways, struggling to find better ways of getting our attention, struggling to deal with a Mama who just isn't as available and fun as I may have been the rest of his life! Anyways, that's not the point here; the point is even with all the craziness in life right now, Thatcher (or "Daow" as he calls himself) continues to keep us laughing!
His imagination has
really taken off lately and let me tell you, I am a HUGE fan! Oh! I love it! I had such a wild imagination when I was a kid and I am still able to come up with some pretty crazy ideas, so it is incredibly fun watching Thatcher as he develops his own imagination! For example: Thatcher one day suddenly turned to us and told us there was "somefin' in my ear". I checked his ears really quick and after finding nothing I asked him
what was in his ear? He told me a bird was in his ear. Realizing what was going on (it is, after all, a part of one of his favorite books-
One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish by Dr Seuss), I took another look, pulled a bird out of his ear and threw it out the window! He thought this was a pretty great game so he kept it up! Soon he was running after the birds we threw out the window (apparently we were actually throwing them
at the window), picking them up off the window sill and sitting them on his outstretched arm like he saw a couple of parrots do at Chick-fil-a one day! Then the birds were different colors, and now he asks us to pet and hug the birds he picks out of his ears, throws at the windows and then rescues. "Oh, so cute!"
Another example of Thatcher's imagination came up a couple weeks ago at the dinner table. If I remember correctly, Evan and I overheard Thatcher talking to himself during a conversation we were having and noticed he was talking about an airplane. When we asked him about it he said, "look! hairplane!" and pointed at the ceiling. When I told him I couldn't see it he said, "dis house is hairplane!" We played along for a bit and then he proceeded to tell us that in this hairplane house, a puppy lived in the vents and gave him new toys (we had not even touched on Santa Claus by this time). A new ball, among other new toys. We asked him if it was a nice puppy and he answered, "SO nice." I'm still waiting for the puppy to bring ME a present. A camera DOES qualify as a new toy, right? How about ice cream? Or we can keep this quick and simple puppy, just leave cash. (Our house has since been an elephant and a cave with bats.)
Thatcher has gotten back into counting everything. He counts his fingers, he counts our fingers, he counts lights, he counts cars, he counts absolutely everything! One day at lunch Thatcher was counting to 10 over and over again. Then he looks at me and says, "Mama count wifth us! One, two..." and we counted to 10. Then he got out of his chair and wanted to count the rails on the back of his chair. "Mama, count wifth us! One, two..." I thought that was cute and was just deciding that he must have picked that up from Dora or something when he said, "Now in Spanish! Uno, dos, tres..."! What a nut!
A bit ago I was tucking Thatcher in bed for his afternoon nap when I noticed his socks were missing! "Thatcher," I asked him, "what happened to your socks!? You have bare feet!" The biggest smile jumped onto his face and he chuckled and told me, "No have bear feet! Just have Thatcher feet!"
We've enjoyed laying down with Thatcher for a few minutes at bedtimes lately. It's a fun, relaxing way to spend a little one-on-one time with him and it usually guarantees a few snuggles, along with stories like the following... I was laying down with Thatcher when I started feeling sleepy myself, so I told him it was time for me to go so I could go to sleep in my own bed. He shot up and sternly told me, "No! Mama need go sleep NOW... in big boy bed!"
Other nights, he asks us to sing songs for him. Daddy started this new bedtime favorite in an effort to introduce Christmas songs to Thatcher. Evan came out after the first night of trying this and we laughed so hard as he told me that after singing a few songs he just laid there silently while Thatcher whispered, "Jingle Bells. Jingle Bells. Jingle all way. HEY! (while doing a little bursting action with his hands)" So anyways, one night out of the blue Thatcher wanted
me to sing instead. The first night we sang a couple Christmas songs and had a nice time. The next night I asked what he wanted me to sing. "Ummmmm..." A Christmas song? "No Christmas song. Halloween song!" His new favorite song in the whole world... the Halloween song. Are you familiar with Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas?" It's one of my favorite holiday movies ever, and I'm happy to say that Thatcher shares my obsession with it. It just means that I'll probably be singing the "Halloween song" (This is Halloween) 6 times a night, every night, and listening to the song on repeat in the car every time we go anywhere (even 3 hour long road trips)... for the rest of my life. And in case you wanted my personal opinion, I think The Nightmare Before Christmas would make a killer Broadway show! Just my opinion.
And like I said, I am so proud of Thatcher for being such a sweet big brother to little Levi! Every day I get a play-by-play of Levi's every movement and noise. "Mama! Mama! Levi movin his hand!" "Mama! Mama! Levi squeakin'! Squeak, squeak, squeak!" "Mama! His eyes open!" "Mama! He
SO CUTE!" We're sure having a lot of fun with our newest addition, but nothing is
ever going to change how much we love our T-Man and how much fun we have with him!
Thanks for the good times bud!
Check this kid out! What a chunk!
So let there be no question, this boy is healthy and strong.
He eats so well and it's been so fun to see him grow!
He's bigger than we remember Thatcher ever being, but hey- no complaining here! That just means there's more to love!
And I'm proud to announce that Levi has already started to make us laugh. I can only imagine this is the start of something good. So you know he's a baby, he's still trying to figure out how to get himself all under control, right? That means every once in a while he kind of has spastic movements or funny twitches, but the other night I had to wonder... Evan and I were sitting in bed just talking while I burped Levi on my lap. I asked Evan if he felt like he was spending enough time with Levi, now that he's not working from home (Oh! Newsflash! Evan has a new job! Guess we'll have to blog about that later...). Evan said he was feeling pretty good with as much as he's been seeing Levi, but that he could always use more time with his little boys when suddenly, right on cue, Levi started shaking his head over and over with a panicked look on his face as if to say "No!! No no no no no no no, please! No more time with Daddy!!" We had a good laugh.
We are really loving our little man. He has been smiling and "coo"-ing lots for us lately and oh! The love! It's so much fun! He's also starting to reach out and bat at things hanging in his reach. He loves bathtime and that is his most active time of day for sure, he loves to kick and splash! He is holding his head up like a pro and sleeping as good as ever. We are now getting 6-8 hours at night, it's wonderful! When he sleeps 6 hours I go back to sleep for another 3-4 hours which is nice for the extra sleep, and when he sleeps 8 hours I get up for the day which is nice for the extra time in the morning! Pretty dang awesome.
