What makes a Dad....

God took the strength of a mountain,

The majesty of a tree,

The warmth of a summer sun,

The calm of a quiet sea,

The generous soul of nature,

The comforting arm of night,

The wisdom of the ages,

The power of the eagle's flight,

The joy of a morning in spring,

The faith of a mustard seed,

The patience of eternity,

The depth of a family need,

Then God combined these qualities,

When there was nothing more to add,

He knew His masterpiece was complete,

And so, He called it ... Dad

Jim is out on a fire in Arizona on this Father's Day.  I appreciate beyond words what he does for our family.  Thomas has been blessed with the BEST DAD in the world.  I'm so blessed to be the proud Wife of the BEST DAD.  Thank you, Jim for all you do and for all you are to our family!!!

The little things he says...

This morning Thomas came into my room, walked over to my side of the bed and stood there.  I opened my eyes and he said "It's a beautiful day today.  Time to wake up!"  Now if that isn't the kind of alarm clock to wake up to, I don't know what is. We got up and started our day, and he says to me, "I like the nice warm sunshine.  It makes me grow big."

Before Jim left for another fire, he gave Thomas a pretend I-Phone.  It looks exactly like Jim's, very realistic looking.  I noticed last night after Thomas went to bed, it was plugged into Jim's phone charger, where Jim leaves his phone.  It made me smile when I saw how smart he is and how much he wants to be like his Daddy.

Last night before TV but after dinner, I told Thomas, "you go pick up your cars or it's time for bed."  I'm thinking my reverse psycholgy will work and he'll go pick them up.  That's usually what happens.  He instead turns to me and said "I think I'm tired, so let's put my jammies on so I can go to bed."  I'm thinking "are you serious, the sun is still up."  He got his jammies and laid down for a PM diaper.  Put them on, and he climbed into bed.  About 15 minutes later, he was sound asleep.  It was only 7:45 and he usually goes to bed between 8:30-9:00.  I guess he was tired......LOL

When we got home this morning after running some errands, we pulled up in the driveway, and he went "aww Home sweet Home.....I love my home."  Our neighbors house is the same color and has some of the same features.  Thomas says "oh no, something is wrong here."  When I asked him what was wrong, he answered "our house has 2 roofs, they only have 1."  Our house is a little bigger than the neighbors, so we do in fact have 2 roofs (in a sense).

I'm constantly reminding myself that his is only 3.5, because at times he seems so much smarter and his vocabulary is huge.  He uses words in the correct context most of the time.

I'm such a blessed Mommy!!!

The traveling FF toy

When Thomas was little, he picked out a little FF toy to give his Daddy.  Jim takes it with him to every fire he goes on.  He also takes a picture of the FF on every fire.  Thomas loves seeing the pictures when Jim sends them to us (via his cell phone).  I love this and have kept all the pictures.  I plan on making a little scrapbook with all the pictures for Thomas when he's older.  What a fun tradition that will mean so much later when he's older.  I'm blessed to have such a great little boy in my life.  But I'm extremely blessed to have a husband who loves us so much and does these little things that make us know he's thinking of us when he's gone!!

Daddy's crew taking a little break after fighting a fire all day.  (near Cuyamaca St. Park)

The FF toy went to the Sequoia N.F. with Daddy, too.

Thomas is growing up too fast!!



Loves to climb and play

Thomas has really changed the last few months.  His vocabulary has grown like crazy and he speaks pretty clear.  He is a story teller and has recently began to say things about his "book".  He says "in my book of Thomas"....  I'm thinking he gets it from one of his favorite shows: SuperWhy.  It's a show about solving stories by jumping in books.  It is kind of cute how he tells his stories.  He also has quite the imagination.  He was telling us in depth about this bus that ran over a man and made him flat.  The firetrucks and police had to come give him air.  I'm not sure where he gets that one, but as he's telling his story, he'll stop and take deep breaths and continue by saying "And then..." 


Swim lessons with Miss Bree

He loves to watch these educational movies about phonics and numbers.  The other day he was eating cantalope with Grandma and he said "C....cuh....cantalope".  He's our little smartie pants.
We've started this discipline technique of color cards.  The good card is color GREEN, the not good card is YELLOW and the bad behavior card is BROWN.  When he gets the good card, he gets to put a sticker on a sticker chart.  If he gets 6 stickers, we go get an ice cream at the ice cream store.  It seems to be a little good motivation to do good.  I guess he says things that I must say often.  When he puts a sticker on the chart, he says "I'm sooo happy!!" 


Loves to go for little walks

He grew about a 1/2 inch from last month.  He's so excited to see how much he's grown since "he was a baby".  We mark the doorway (with a pencil) each month.  Not only is he growing taller, he's starting to eat like crazy.  Always "still hungry".  I'm so proud of him and his choices of food to eat.  He loves his fruits, veggies and eggs.  He loves eating pistachios with me, too. 

Mama feels so blessed

Random Bits

I set a goal for myself to walk a 100 miles in 40 days.  I knew that Thomas loves to go for walks (or rides while I walk), so I was excited to set out. 

Unfortunately, rather than being a motivational coach, he decided to kick back, relax and enjoy the ride.  I can't believe how he looks like a "little man" in this picture. 

                                              

                 Only a cute little boy can get away with wearing

his Daddy's sunglasses. 

 

Playing a little Candyland with Grandma, Papa & Daddy.  His other fun game to play is Chutes-n-Ladders.  He's got a little competitive side.

Thomas loves "His Dogs" especially Liberty.  She is very sweet and returns the love to him.  He likes to play with her in his backyard. We are so blessed to live in an area where the weather is nice year round.  We love to have some good BBQ dinners.  Thomas is his Daddy's little helper!!   

Daddy of the year nomination

Yesterday, while out running our errands, Daddy stayed home to make a surprise for Thomas.  When we got home, we found a message on the phone from a "pirate" that said he left a treasure map outside.

There was a cool treasure map left in his fort outside.

The first clue sent him to Daddy's closet.  He found a really shiny buckle in Daddy's work boots.

The second clue sent him into the bathroom.  Under his step stool he actually found a treasue box with some gold coins in it.

Next they had to crawl through the hall into Thomas's bedroom.

They had to crawl through a dark tunnel.

They made it!!  Some of his toys were in the fort waiting for him.

After all that treasure hunting, they were tired.   

All this fun on an afternoon should qualify this Daddy for:

DADDY OF THE YEAR!! 

Wild Animal Park with Grandma & Papa

Last week we went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park, with Grandma & Papa.  It was a beautiful spring day.....not to hot, not to cool. 

Thomas loves his Papa. 

The butterfly exhibit was at the WAP.  Look closely at these cute butterflies we found there.....LOL!!

Every year, the WAP has a butterfly exhibit.  They have a closed in area that is full of beautiful butterlies, small and large. The neatest thing is, a lot of times they land on your back, your hat or your head.  Thomas was so excited when this big butterfly landed on his head.  Before we left the area, we saw a box full of butterfly chrysallis displays.  Thomas thought that was so neat, too.

We rode the tram, saw the elephants, the giraffes, and saw the lions & tigers.  We petted the goats in the petting zoo, too.  After a long day of a lot of walking and a lot of people (spring break), we loaded up to come home.  That night as Thomas crawled into bed he said, "We had a NICE day at the Animal Park with Grandma & Papa.  I liked the giraffes!!"