Tommy is Three!

My baby boy is three!  He chose "puppies" as his birthday party theme and had the time of his life!  To this day, 2 months later, he is still talking about his "doggy party."  We made puppy puppets, practiced our doggy skills like fetch & finding bones, and each kid adopted and named their very own puppy!  I love making birthdays special for my boys and I think Tommy felt very special on this day!

Sarah & Shaylee making puppy puppets

Asher creating his puppet

Tommy demonstrating his puppy puppet

Doggie Bag & Adopt-a-puppy party favors

Presents!

Tommy couldn't be happier!

"Happy Birthday Tommy" or "How to make a birthday special while completely ignoring your kid"

Happy Birthday Tommy!  Today your brother gave you strep throat and your mom will ignore you for a large part of the day, well more like the week....but maybe I should back up...

Three years ago was the day of the AMES science fair, which for me was a big deal.  I was in charge of it after all.  It was the culmination of months of student research summed up in pretty boards decorated with graphs and tables and student interviews with grad students and PhDs from the U.  I love science fair day, but a little over 9 months earlier I had quit my job so I wasn't anticipating giving birth on the day of the science fair.  Fortunately, as a condition of my employment, I told the principal that I had to have someone else to run the science fair program with me.  Fortunately, I had Tara to run the fair that day.

I woke up Friday, February 24th 2011 and got ready for the day.  I was scheduled to be induced that day, but I had to wait until I received a phone call to go to the hospital.  I could sleep in, relax, get things ready for the baby, and wait for a phone call or I could go to the school and ensure everything is ready for the science fair.  Of course I chose the second option.  I went into school to help with the set up (as a nine-month pregnant lady, I wasn't much help) and to double check that all the details had been taken care of.  I was able to see my student's final display boards and wish them luck before I got the phone call and rushed off to the hospital anxiously awaiting the arrival of my baby boy!

I didn't have to wait long.  After a couple hours of labor and 3 big pushes, Thomas Alexander Budd arrived.  A beautiful 8 lb. 6 oz. package of joy.

Isn't he just perfect?

I really timed his birth poorly.  I no longer run the AMES science fair program, but I run the district-level science fair for all the charter schools in the Salt Lake region which includes Tooele and Park City and guess what?  It always lands on the same week as Tommy's birthday.  In the past, I just rescheduled Tommy's birthday.  He didn't know the difference between Feb. 24th and March 3rd!  This year we had a small celebration yesterday with his grandma and I will have a bigger birthday party in a week which will give me time to plan it a little better and make it special. You can expect a proper birthday post in a couple of weeks.

Tommy in deep contemplation of another year gone by.

Tommy loves all things tiny and cute so we found him the smallest stuffed puppy in the store.  Yes, we found it down a pink aisle and yes, we removed the very feminine dog tag found on the collar.

Everyone is happy in this picture, even Ella eating the instruction manual.

 And in case you are considering turning me into DSFS, I am not completely ignoring him.  He is just watching a little extra TV which, to him, actually makes his birthday extra special!

To My Tommy Valentine

Dear Tommy,
I feel like I understand you.  I've always thought that Parker is like Daddy and Tommy is like me.  It's like there is a special Tommy/Mommy club and we are the only two members.  Others have said that you are a serious child, but I know you are just as silly as any other kid, just not everyone is special enough to see it.  You have bright eyes (that happen to be beautiful too)!  You look at the world and try your best to understand it.  You constantly take in information and process it without saying a word.  I never taught you how to count, you just counted to ten one day before you were even two.  We watched the movie Frozen as a family and a week later, you started singing one of the songs!  You're just a little sponge absorbing the world around you.

Speaking of music, I can tell you have a talent.  You have always had very good rhythm. When you were very young, you did this fancy little dance that looked like you were riding on a horse.  Adorable! I usually listen to the radio at a fairly low volume when we ride in the car, but as soon as you hear a song you like you yell, "Turn it up! Turn it up!"  You definitely have opinions about the music you like and will change the radio station if you don't like what you hear. I am very excited to see what you do with your musical skill.

There is a serious side, a silly side, and a sweet side which is my favorite of all.  Your hugs and kisses are so wonderful!  You have a special love for babies and animals.  When your sister was born, I had to fight to keep her safe from your excessive loving!  You love puppies and pretend to be one all of the time.  You especially love small things.  If you find something small, you will try to keep it forever by hiding it in your pocket.  Your bed is filled with stuffed animals.  Each one of them is important to you.

Sometimes you do naughty things as most two-year olds do, but when you say, "Sorry, Mom!" in your sweet little voice, my heart melts.  You seriously have the cutest voice ever!  You also speak very well for your age and, unlike your brother, you are tall so I often treat you as if you are older than you really are, but you usually step up to the challenge.  You proclaimed that you were, in fact, 5-years old, like your brother, and demanded that I let you go to preschool with him.  You love your best friend, Parker and want to be just like him, but I don't want you to be.  I want you to be you because I love who you are!

Love,
Your Mommy

My Beautiful Baby Boy

1 day old

3 days old

1 month old

2 months old

3 months old

Tommy is now 3 1/2 months. He is growing so fast. He now loves to make all sorts of happy noises, especially if I smile at him. He just started laughing this month. Baby laughter is the most beautiful sound. He has also discovered his hands and how to put them in his mouth. He loves to suck on two fingers at the same time, his index and middle finger. Hasn't figured out the thumb thing yet. He is sleeping through the night most of the time. Sometimes he will sleep around 9 hours at a time. He is so easy going and pleasant and now loves to smile at his Mama. He also thinks his big brother is pretty funny. He has adorable little dimples in his cheeks when he smiles. I've got to get pictures of them. His eyes are changing color. They are turning green with some brown specks. I'm sure he will have hazel eyes like mine. He also has a flat spot on the left side of his head. It was very pronounced last month, but it is rounding out. That is the side he loves to sleep on. All I have to do is rub in between his eyes and down his little nose to put the kid to sleep when it is his nap time. What a great little boy! I love love love my beautiful little Tommy.

New arrival!!

Thomas Alexander was born on February 24th at 2:49 pm. He weighed 8 lbs 6 oz and was 20 inches long. He is perfectly healthy and so am I. It is true what they say. Giving birth the second time around is much easier.

Everything goes faster the second time around. Like twice as fast. At my 36 week appointment, I was already 2 cm dilated and 70% effaced and I progressed every week. Since Parker was pretty big, late, and painful to get out, I decided to set a date to be induced 2 days before my due date which, ironically, was the same day as the science fair which I've been working on all school year.

I never went into labor like everyone predicted I would. I think my body just gets ready soon and does nothing about it until late. February 24th came and I was waiting for a phone call to tell me to come to the hospital. I was 6th on the list and the nurse said it would be around 10:00. I slept in to about 7:30 or 8:00, but couldn't sleep any longer, so I got ready. I couldn't handle just sitting around the house, so I decided to visit the school to see how the set up was going and to get a look at my students' final displays. Everyone at work thought I was crazy for coming in, but I was glad to help out a little right before I was going to abandon them for several weeks. I finally got the phone call and went to the hospital at 10:45. After I checked in, the nurse gave me pitocin (to strengthen the contractions) at 11:30. My doctor was going to break my water, but I decided I wanted the epidural before the contractions started hurting. Unfortunately, the anesthesiologist was busy, so I had to wait to 1:00 to get the epidural and the doctor broke my water around 1:30. That really got the contractions going and I quickly progressed to a 10 by 2:30ish and started pushing. I only had to push through 3 contractions and then another extra push to get him out. The pushed lasted around 15 minutes I would say (I had to push for over 3 hours to have Parker).

Everyone was surprised at how big he was. He was 3 oz heavier than Parker and a .5 in shorter. This surprised me because he was a week earlier. My doctor says I'm just programmed to have big babies. My mom had big babies too. In fact, I (the first) was 2 weeks late and weight 9 lbs. 6 oz. and was born through C section. The rest were all induced and I think that is what I'm going to be doing.

Little Tommy is so sweet. He doesn't cry much and he sleeps pretty well for only being a week old. He has huge feet and some dark hair, but not nearly as much hair as Parker. It will be interesting to see what color his hair will be in the end since Parker's hair color has changed so much.

Parker loves Tommy. He is always giving him kisses and trying to share toys. He calls him Thomas. I think he thinks he was named after Thomas the train. It has been hard for him to adjust to sharing his mommy. He now carries a blanket around and wants me to hold him while he is wrapped in it. He also wants to wear disposable diapers (I'm not using cloth on Tommy yet since he is so small and needs to be changed over 10 times a day) and Parker also doesn't want to wear pants, I guess because Tommy doesn't have pants on a lot. I think he is adjusting and that I am adjusting because at first Parker would cry if he wanted my attention, and say mama, and try to climb on top of me when I was feeding Tommy. Now Parker knows to wait until I'm done and I will give him my full attention. It has been more difficult than I thought it would be for Parker.

I feel so blessed to have these two precious boys. I love being a mom!