Afternoon Play

Tommy's typical afternoon consists of telling me all the people he is going to see in his "wiggle car." For those of you that do not know cocky equals birds.

Coloring

He may not have Daddy's artistic ability quite yet, but they do have the same hairdo in the morning!

Ring Around the Rosie

Tommy's new favorite game is ring around the rosie, he could do this for hours!

Baking With Tommy

Tommy has really taken to cooking. Since his birthday, he is always "cooking a cake" as he says in his play kitchen. Today we have our library Valentine's Day Party. So I thought it would be fun to frost and decorate cookies for the other kids. Tommy had so much fun doing this. He was so meticulous about the sprinkles, making sure each cookie had enough. About half way through he did realize that the sprinkles were food, and instead of putting them on the cookies, they were ending up in his mouth!

Erupting Dinosaur Volcano Cake – Part 1

When we decided on a dinosaur birthday theme for Tommy’s second birthday, we thought the perfect cake would be a volcano, complete with pyrotechnics, perhaps chronicling the extinction of the dinosaurs. After a lot of internet research (apparently thousands of people have already had this idea) we put together a cake plan. I took a day off from work to complete this masterpiece. Like many before, it seemed only appropriate to document and publish the creation of the volcano cake.

Step 1.
Baking eight 2 x 9” cake rounds and a rectangular 11 x 13” for a base. Cooking with dad is a little different than cooking with mom



Step 2.
We cut each round a bit small in diameter than the one before. And shoved a paper towel roll through the center for stability (civil engineering)


Step 3.
Frosted and adding green coconut "grass"



Step 4.
We debated on lava. Some kind of pudding…strawberry syrup…we finally decided on white chocolate died red and orange with candy dye (different than food coloring and works with chocolate.


Step 5.
Pouring the lava. This part was fun

Erupting Dinosaur Volcano Cake - Part 2

Step 7.

Adding the dinosaurs. This part was also fun

Step 8.

Things didn’t work out to well for this poor Triceratops. I guess they call this Darwinism.

Step 9.

The finished product. We were pretty proud of the way this turned out. Now we wait for the unveiling. All that’s left is to find some dry ice for the special effects. It’s not as easy to find as you may think. Plus you can’t keep it for more than a day unless you have a freezer that gets to 109 below zero.

Here is a video of Tommy and his volcano cake at his birthday party. The kids were quite impressed. The look of pure, unbridled, two year old joy in Tommy’s face at the 32 second mark of this video make the hours of running down dry ice and candy dye, and the three hours of labor, all worth it. Tommy had a great day.

Tommy is Two!

We made it to two and I don't know whether to laugh or cry sometimes! We have officially entered the stages of a terrible two year old. He loves to say NO! and MINE! He loves to throw temper tantrums anywhere. He now has timeout chairs in every room in the house. Yes, the joys of a two year old, like I said I don't know whether to laugh or cry half the time!

Tommy did enjoy his 2nd birthday and we are looking forward to his dinosaur party in a few days. Here are some pictures from the big day!

Caught Red Handed!

Like me, Tommy has a sweet tooth! He loves chocolate more than anything. Many mornings, when he wakes up, I ask him what he wants for breakfast, the response I always get is "Mac and cheese and HOT COCOA!!" He literally screams hot cocoa while running through the house, he's nuts. So the other day, I was in the bathroom drying my hair and Tommy kept coming in and out of the bedroom with a little smirk on his face. At first I thought nothing of it. Then I noticed that he was chewing on something, I thought oh great, what did he get into now! So, without him knowing I secretly followed him out of the bedroom to see what he is doing. We had a bag of M&M's on the kitchen table. Tommy was on his tiptoes grabbing for the bag and stuffing them in his mouth! I was able to actually catch this with the camera. Caught red handed!

Tommy's Associations

Over the past few months Tommy has been associating certain things with certain people. When he first started doing this it was only with Mommy and Daddy. For instance, Mommy is a vacuum cleaner and a can of diet soda. Daddy is a toilet and a beer can.

Because of the holidays, Tommy has now made associations with many other family members. For instance, I was at the grocery store after Christmas and in front of us in line was a woman with short dark hair, glasses and a long dark coat. Well, Tommy started calling her "Nonna!" He assumed that she looked like my mother in law, therefore, felt the need to shout her name about ten thousand times! Luckily, the woman was very nice about it.

While we were in Connecticut for Christmas, Tommy, Chris, and I would always go and wake up Uncle Buck. We would do this by using a James Brown doll that sang, I Feel Good! So, now every time Tommy sees a picture of James Brown, or hears the song he yells for "MUCK!!" Many times when we are out to lunch or running errands, Tommy will see a tall, dark haired man, of course this is Uncle Muck too.

My mother might have some of the best associations. One day, after nap Tommy woke up and when he entered the family room started shouting for MO!!! Mo is my mother's grandma name. I didn't know what he was talking about until I saw Ellen Degeneres on the TV. He assumed since they have the same hair color, than it's the same person! Other people that Tommy calls Mo include Paula Deen, Faith Hill, Mrs. Claus, and my personal favorite, Guy Fieri. I love the way his little mind works.

Bad Hair Day!

Mothers of bald babies have always been jealous that Tommy has so much hair. I wonder if they would be jealous of this hairstyle? This is how I found Tommy after nap the other day, this kid seriously has so much hair!

Summer Dreaming

With about a foot of snow on the ground and blizzard like conditions setting in for a week, sometimes there is nothing better than a piece of watermelon to remind us summer is hopefully just around the corner.

Dance Party!

For Christmas, Uncle Buck made us a workout CD. After the holidays, we decided to preview this CD. We started going through all the songs, noticing that Tommy was taking a liking to this CD. When Technologic by Daft Punk came on, Tommy went crazy! He positioned himself next to the stereo and started his signature bouncy dance. This has now become a nightly ritual in our household, all thanks to Uncle Buck!

Tommy's Tea Party

For Christmas, Tommy received my old kitchen set. He has been busy making and putting away food for weeks. Since he has enjoyed playing with this kitchen set so much, we thought it would be nice to get him a little table with chairs. We now must eat each meal at this table. Lunch today was a special treat! As I was getting his sandwich ready, Tommy waited patiently at his table. He kept coming into the kitchen though, to check on how lunch was progressing. Well, he must have gotten bored waiting for me, and decided to invite a few friends to lunch. When I came back into the room, Tommy had set his stuffed Santa at one chair and placed one of his dinosaurs, Bob, at the table too. Santa was drinking milk and Bob was drinking tea right from the teapot. Twenty some years ago I never imagined seeing my son having a tea party with Santa and a killer Velociraptor with my kitchen set. It warmed my heart to see such a sight.

Tommy's Christmas Project

Chris and I find it very important that in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, that we take the time to help others in need. Early in the Christmas Season, we decided we wanted Tommy to partake in a Christmas project, so the brainstorming began! We wanted him to be able to understand as much as possible that he would be helping others and we needed to find a way for him to be very much involved in this project. Recently, I had seen a news story that St. Jude Children's Research Hospital might have to turn away patients for the very first time. Their mission is to never turn anyone away. I mentioned this to Chris and we thought what could be better than Tommy earning money for St. Jude's Hospital. Now, we knew he would not be able to raise hundreds of dollars, but every little bit helps. So, we decorated an old shoe box, and cut a hole in it for Tommy's donation box. We explained to him that when he did good deeds and chores around the house, he would be able to put a coin in his box. Tommy delighted in this very much! Tommy was very busy helping us out in the weeks leading up to Christmas. He tried to help with everything! Some of the tasks he helped out with included: helping me empty the dishwasher, helping me with the laundry, putting his clothes in the hamper, picking up toys, helping me sweep the floor, and also helping me make the beds. He would also be able to put coins in for being nice to others, and being nice to his dogs of course! Everytime he was able to put a coin in, he was so excited and would shake his box to hear all the change jingle! Tommy raised just over $17 for the hospital. We promised Tommy we would match whatever amount he raised and now, we are asking friends and family to join in this cause. If you would like to help out, you can send a check to Tommy Cullen to our home address or send it directly to St. Jude's by visiting www.stjude.org. If you decide to go directly through the hospital, please do let us know so we can keep track of how much money is being donated. We thank all of you for your time and consideration and wish everyone a blessed New Year.

Chris, Kara, and Tommy Cullen