Puppy Love

Molly could usually care less about Tommy. There is one thing that brings them together though, food! Tommy loves to give it out and Molly can't get enough of it!

Goofy Boy!

Tommy loves to try and make us laugh. This happened the other day when I was cleaning up after lunch. He shouted, "Mommy, look at Tommy!" We've always said he has great comedic timing!

Dog Party!

Ever since Tommy was a newborn, his favorite book has been the Dr. Seuss classic Go Dog Go. We've read it hundreds of times over the last two years. Everyone in the family, especially Mac, gets very excited about the big dog party in the end

Football!

This was one of Tommy's first attempts at playing football. I think we have a little to work on!

Rough-housing outside

Today was 70 degrees and sunny after the worst winter that I can remember. Thanks to the new early daylight savings time, it was the perfect evening to spend in the front yard. There is no real rhyme or reason to this game, but we had a good time...

Sonny and Cher

Tommy and Chris doing their best to impersonate Sonny and Cher...not sure if they are quite ready for the Karaoke Bars yet!

Senior Gym Day!

When we moved to Stevensville, Tommy and I joined the local MOM's Club. This club has been wonderful for us. It has provided us with many activities to keep us busy during the week. We not only meet with other members for playgroups and lunch, but try to be active members in our community. Tommy and I, and a few other children, particpated in a local nursing home's gym time. The children danced to music, rolled the ball back and forth to the residents, and ended with giving everyone hugs. I was nervous as to how Tommy would react to all of this as he can be pretty shy sometimes. He did wonderful. As soon as he saw there were balls involved he warmed right up to all the residents. He gave each and every one of the residents a hug goodbye. It was such a great experience, and something I hope to continue doing with Tommy.

Thomas Chair

What is it about males and their chairs? Chris purchased the ugliest brown chair right out of college and I'm sad to say that it is still with us because it is "his chair." Tommy, at two, has "his chair" now. In the morning, he gets up and watches Tigger and Pooh, while sitting in his chair holding onto blankie and blue bear. This chair is not meant to recline, but Tommy makes it into a reclinable chair! I only imagine twenty-some years from now the blankie and blue bear will be replaced with chicken wings and beer!

This Little Piggy

Tommy is very much into nursery rhymes right now. As seen in past videos he enjoys Ring Around the Rosie and The Itsy Spider. He also loves This Little Piggy, which he recently started reciting to us now. He performs this in true Cullen fashion though. You'll understand what I mean about half way through the video...enjoy!

Tommy's First Concert - Playhouse Disney Live

Sunday was the big day. We took Tommy to Playhouse Disney Live to see in person all of his friends that he watches on TV. All week he was talking about going to see Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Handy Manny. He was also expecting The Wiggles and Thomas the Tank Engine but they weren't part of this show.

When we got there Tommy got a souvenir (at a typical Disney price), a battery operated glow stick that all the kids waved during the show.



He started dancing even before the show began, and after every act he would clap and scream "Yay".


He was excited when Mickey came out early on and continued to demand his return throughout the whole show. Here is a video of some of Tommy's moves...

Meatballs!

Tommy loves cooking, and he's become quite a skilled chef for a 2 year old. We've mastered baked goods (see below), so now we're working on entrees. This weekend was meatballs....




Tommy's not afraid to get his hands dirty, though he did tell me a few times that this mixture of ground beef, eggs and breadcrumbs was in fact "ucky" He even went so far as to shake his ucky hands all over the cabinets and the counter. Also, instead of the traditional ball shape Tommy prefers to throw the mixture onto a tray and leave it however it lands.




Tommy was really proud of himself and the meatballs were delicious.

Counting To Ten

We started a chore chart for Tommy this week since he is such a good helper around the house. Everytime he completes a task he gets to put a sticker on his chart. Tonight, he helped pick up his toys, so he ran to his chart and said "up, up!" After he puts up a sticker, he loves to count them all. He is doing really well making it to ten!

Storytime with Mac

Tommy has always enjoyed being read to, now it was his turn to read to Mac. He did try to read to our other dog, Molly, but she ran away. For those who can't quite understand, the first story is The Itsy Bitsy Spider, one of his all time favorites.

Ring Around the Rosie Part Two

Tommy's cousins could also play this game for hours!

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.