Detox

I have finally graduated from mommy's rigorous 12-step detox program designed to help me "recover" from Gran and Papa's recent visit. They stayed for a week and it was bliss. While they were here, I earned the T-shirt I am wearing in the next picture. If you look closely, you can see that it reads: "Lifetime Member of the Time Out Club."

We played with the play-doh set my great-Nanny Thompson gave me for Christmas. We made hamburgers, french fries, dinosaur tracks, and all kinds of things with it!

We hunted Easter Eggs ALL DAY LONG - even though Easter was more than a month ago. I love to find eggs hidden outside or even inside the house! I love it so much that I even took my eggs to bed with me (you can see them at the foot of my bed).

I really didn't want Gran and Papa to leave, so I staged a protest in their car. If they were going to insist on leaving, they at least could let me drive them home.

Lightning Strikes

It's been way too sunny and spring-like for blogging. Mommy has been busy planting annuals in the backyard, and I've been really busy helping her. She lets me dig and rake, but my favorite thing to do is to water...the dirt. I take breaks every three minutes to make sure Hadley is having a good time. She usually just sits in her bouncer, watching mommy and me, so I make it a point to stop my digging and watering to talk to her. I make sure that her blanket is covering her legs and that she has a pacifier nearby.

I've recently discovered that I can make my cars "crash." I have some "Shake and Go" cars from the movie "Cars" that "go" whenever you shake them (hence the name). The other day, I was racing Lightning McQueen and Ramone and they accidentally crashed into each other. It was SO cool! I kept crashing them into each other for awhile, but then figured that I shouldn't limit myself. I needed to think on a grander scale. I went to the playroom and brought out a handful of my Thomas trains. I put Gordon, the "biggest and fastest engine on the Island of Sodor," directly in McQueen's path, then I shook McQueen up and let him roll. He sent Gordon flying across the floor. It was awesome!

Hanging out with my Sister

Showing Hadley the Ins and Outs of What Was Once Known as "Thatcher TV"

Good Friday Post

Hi. Yesterday, I helped mommy bake scones. Don't give me crap about baking. I don't want to hear it. Anyhow, I found mommy's colorful mixing bowls that she heretofore had hidden from me. Needless to say, I took all of them out, along with every other mixing bowl mommy has, and started "cooking" the chocolates mommy had in the candy dish. Like any good chef, I had to sample my wares, as evidenced by the telltale sign on my face.

Ever since Hadley arrived, mommy has been saying things I've never heard her say before. Here are some examples:

• 1. Please take your toe out of your sister's mouth.
• 2. Please don't hit Hadley on the head.
• 3. Please don't try to pull Hadley's foot off.
• 4. Hadley doesn't like for you to use her as a train track.
• 5. Hadley doesn't like to bounce really high in the bouncer seat (see photo at bottom of post).
  

She also has issues with me "borrowing" Hadley's pink pacifiers.

I went on an Easter Egg Hunt today. It was pretty fun, and it got even better when I found a gocart in our neighbor's back yard. I really thought I found the prize egg when I set my eyes on that four wheeled wonder - and was really ticked off when mommy and daddy wouldn't let me play with it. Seriously, they are not much fun these days. Anyhow, I did manage to find some eggs. They had stickers and prizes in them, but, surprisingly, no candy (or at least they didn't after mommy opened the egg and handed the non-sugary contents to me).

Here's another picture of Hadley. She doesn't have her own blog yet, so I figured I ought to let you see how she is progressing. Mommy says I had to be 10 weeks old before I started blogging and that Hadley will probably get her own blog then, too. Until then, I should let you know that she has started rolling over. I say it is a fluke, but she's done it quite a few times, so mommy thinks it might be legit. She's such a showoff.

Revolving Door...of Grandparents

Having a sister is the best thing in the world - because almost all of my grandparents have come to see ME! Right after Ghee (Gran) left, Nana came for a week. We had a big time playing trains, going for walks, and playing basketball on the new goal she bought me. She also taught me how to say, "Helloooooo," which mommy thinks is really funny. We had so much fun and I was terribly sad when Nana had to go home. I sobbed all the way to church...until mommy put "Sexy Back" on the radio, which made me feel a little better. Three days after Nana left, Granddaddy came to visit. We watched NASCAR together, and he taught me how to crash my cars and trains into each other. It was really cool. We also watched "The Queen" with Helen Mirren, and I was completely enthralled. She truly deserved the Academy Award for her performance; and I feel it should be mandatory viewing for the 2-year-old set, rather than all that Baby Einstein business. Granddaddy left this afternoon, and I again sobbed inconsolably when he left. Daddy, on the other hand, was probably glad to see him go. Daddy apparently wasn't too thrilled that I kept calling Granddaddy "Dada." Daddy was so exasperated and kept saying, "Thatcher I'm your daddy!" Anyhow, here are some snapshots from our latest adventures. Nana and Gran have specifically requested that their pictures not be posted because I kept them so busy they rarely could make themselves camera-ready. I think they're crazy because they're always beautiful to me.

Not Bouncing Hadley in the Bouncer

Eating an Oreo and "Driving" while Wathcing NASCAR with Granddaddy

My New Police Car, which has Mysteriously Disappeared (until I can reach the pedals)

Home Skunked Home

I can't believe I haven't written since mommy and Hadley came home from the hospital; but it has been really busy around here. Mommy and Hadley came home Monday afternoon, and we had approximately 36 hours of calm before calamity set in. Wednesday morning, mommy and I were in the playroom playing with my trains when mommy caught a whiff of something terrible. She asked Gran if she smelled it, too, so Gran opened the back door to see if it was coming from outside. Almost simultaneously, the odor permeated the entire house. It smelled like a gas leak and a chemical fire. It was awful. Gran went to wake up daddy while mommy looked up the fire department's phone number to see what, if anything, we should do. The fire department said we needed to evacuate the house immediately, so we all piled into mommy's brand new SUV and carefully pulled out of the ice-covered driveway into the cul-de-sac. Good thing, too, because the fumes in the house had been so strong that they were making us all dizzy. Oddly enough, we seemed to keep smelling them in the car.

Moments later, not one, not two, not three, but FIVE fire trucks came roaring down our street with lights and sirens blaring. It was AWESOME!!! So much excitement - and it wasn't even 7 AM yet! It was a little scary, too, though. The fireman got out of the truck and almost immediately declared that we did not have a gas leak, but we (read W) had been sprayed by a skunk! No wonder we kept smelling the gas in the car since W was in there with us.

We spent the rest of the week trying to recover from our visit from Pepe le Pieu. Mommy and Gran did at least 50 loads of laundry; while daddy gave the boys a billion baths and scoured the carpet, furniture, and everything W came in contact with. Still, the smell lingers. It lingered on daddy when he went to Pet Smart to get some skunk-be-gone and all of the dogs barked at him. It lingered on Gran when she went to the grocery store and people kept saying they smelled something bad. It lingered on daddy and me three days later when we went to a birthday party and people kept whispering about how they smelled something awful. It lingers still.

Mommy thinks that maybe God sent us the skunk so we would be able to forget how scary Hadley's arrival into the world was. She made the mistake of saying she didn't think she'd ever be able to sleep again after Hadley was born; cleaning up after Pepe changed all that. We sleep like babies - soundly until it is time for the actual baby to eat!

In the mean time, I've at long last been rapidly expanding my vocabulary. I can name all of the "Really Useful Engines," can say "stop and go," "Ghee = Gran," "please," and "thank you," to name a few. Also, I now say "cheese" anytime I see a camera within 10 feet. I can't let my two week old sister upstage me, you know.

Speaking of which, I'm loving being a big brother. I give Hadley kisses all the time. Mommy tells me that I need to be gentler with her; but I know that Hadley really wants to bounce really high in the bouncer, and I'm all too happy to oblige. I also know she doesn't mind when I try to thoroughly examine her eyes, nose, and mouth with my fingers.

The End of the World As I Know It

Well, I finally met this little sister I've heard so much about. I'll tell you more about it when she and mommy come home from the hospital (which should be on Monday), but until then, this is how it went when I met her for the first time.

I really like Hadley's toes - and the fact that she has a crib with wheels!

Giving her the Official "Mr. T" Inspection

Even though she looks nothing like me, she likes Pacis, too! Clearly, we're related.

Gran and Nana helping me with my initial assessment

I have something Hadley doesn't...

Before going back to terrorize the nurses, I just had to check out those toes one more time.

Turning Two

I will post more later, but wanted to bookmark a place for my second birthday. It rocked.

Heading to the Movies to Celebrate Turning the Big Two

Blowing out the Candle on my Carrot Cake

My Super Cool "Cars" Cake we had when some of My Grandparents Came to Visit

You Could Actually Drive the Car on the Cake!!!

Mommy Looked Really FAT at my Birthday Party