Halloween 2012

Halloween was last week, and we had such a blast!  I decided to be an elephant this year because Grandma McNamara had bought a great elephant costume a while back.  Mommies weren't planning to dress Tommy up at all, but they found out that the family had a small cow costume that Lucy wore when she was a baby, so he was in on the action too!  My first opportunity to dress up was a week before Halloween at dance.

On actual Halloween day, we met up with my cousins to do some trick-or-treating in New Richmond at the various businesses on main street.  After that, we did our usual where we headed to various family members' houses to trick or treat.  We finished the night off at Grandma and Grandpa McNamaras for pizza!  Mommy Susie and I left at around 8:00 and I was asleep before we got out of their driveway.  I'm pretty sure that's a sign of a good night.  :)

Me and my friends at dance.  (insert clever "elephant in the room" jokes here)

Tommy, the sleepy cow.

The cousins minus Tommy.

Having fun at Pat and Teri's house!



Pumpkin Carving!

It's that time of year again  (at least, it was a couple of weeks ago, but we're behind on blogging)... it's pumpkin decorating and carving season!  I had several opportunities to decorate and carve pumpkins this year!  The first was at Grandma Krumm's a few weekends ago where us kids painted pumpkins.  After that, mommies had bought a few small pumpkins in addition to our big ones, so we painted those too.  I had such a good time doing that.  Mommies just love to see me in my creative/crafty mode.  I get so focused!  The final step was the weekend before Halloween when Mommy Susie and I cleaned out a couple of bigger pumpkins, then Mommy Tina carved them for me.  Each year, we try to do one "traditional" pumpkin and one "Maggie's choice" pumpkin.  This year, I asked for Dora, so that's what Mommy Tina did for me!  They both turned out great!  I can't wait to do it again next year!

Working on my masterpiece.

Cleaning out my pumpkin.

More cleaning.  Mommy Susie had a bowl set out for the guts, and a separate bowl for the seeds.  After we were done, she cooked the seeds as a snack.  Unfortunately, no one was interested in eating her snack, but it was a fun idea.  :)



Sibling Love

One of Mommies' favorite things about having two kids now is watching us interact with each other and show affection toward each other.  Mommies weren't sure how I would react to Tommy being here (this is Maggie), but so far that have been pleasantly surprised at how sweet I am to him and how interested I am in holding him and taking care of him.  Mommies hope that's how it will always be.  (but I think they know better than that...)  :)

Hanging out with my buddy Tommy.

I love holding my brother!

Such a silly girl!

Mommies have to watch me pretty closely when I'm holding Tommy.  When I want to be done, I usually just put my hands up in the air and say "I'm all done!"  Mommies are trying to teach me to continue holding onto him until one of them can get him from me.  :)



Newborn Pictures & My 2 Week Stats!

I realize this is a little out of order, but hey, we're doing our best here!  Mommy realized after having us kids write several blog updates that we failed to report back on my stats from my two week well-check, and we also never posted pictures from my newborn photo shoot with Kim Gould.  (both of these events took place around the same time) 

So, here are my stats:

Weight 7lb 5 oz. 13.54%  (I'm a Peanut!!)

Length 34.31%
Head 34.54%

Other interesting facts about me, I don't poop much.  My first "no pooping" stretch was 13 days, my second one was 9 days.  Since then, I've regulated myself a bit, but I'm still not very consistent.  Luckily, that doesn't seem to impact my temperment much!

Shortly after I was born, we headed over to Amery to do a photo shoot with Kim Gould.  Kim is the photographer that does all of my sister's pictures, and mommies are always blown away by how great they turn out!  She did NOT disappoint on mine!  Check them out!

Little Boy, BIG Bed!

Mommies always get a kick out of how small us babies look on their big bed, so they just had to capture a couple of shots of me sprawled out on their bed.  As soon as Mommy looked at the picture, she remembered they had done the exact same thing with my sister Maggie, so she had to go back and find that picture for comparison! 

Can you find me?

This was a picture Mommies took of Maggie back in January of 2010 on their bed!  Looks pretty similar!  :)



Tommy Time!

Hi!  This is Tommy again!  I thought you might interested in an update from me to hear what I've been up to!  So, where to begin?  Well, I've been sleeping a lot.  And I eat a lot.  And sometimes I poop.  :)  THE END

Just kidding!  I do much more than that!  Mommies are just amazed each day by how sweet and cuddly I am.  For the most part, I'm a really content little guy, other than the occasionally fussiness that Mommies are pretty sure is due to gas 99% of the time.  They haven't weighed me in a while, but based on how heavy I feel when they hold me, they're pretty sure I'm growing like a week.  And my cheeks are definitely filling out too!  At about 5 weeks I graduated out of newborn clothes and into my 0-3 clothes, and I'm just finishing off my newborn diapers, so I should be out of those soon too.  Mommies thought time went fast when Maggie was a baby, but they feel like it's going even faster with me!!  As a result, they're trying to make sure they enjoy every second of this cuddly baby phase before I become a squirmy bigger baby and eventually a wild toddler/little kid like my sister!  :)

Taking a snooze on Mommy Susie.  I always sleep with my mouth open!  :)

This is my "fat and happy" smile that I usually let out right after I eat as I'm falling back asleep.

Stretching out!!

Such a sweet Little Brother!  (PS - this was my first time ever wearing pants - Mommies always put me in one piecers!  Mommy thought it made me look so old!)

More snoozing.  Check out those cheeks!

I'm starting to do really well on my tummy time mat, and as long as I've been freshly burped, I can  hang out there for a pretty long time!

Mommy Tina and I have been going out for a run almost every single day.  Here I am in my carseat inside of the stroller.  Bundled up for the cold!

Here's a shot of me in the carseat before a jog.

Mommies just love my sweet little face!  They think I'm looking like Mommy Tina more and more every day!



So Much Kindness and Generosity!

Mommies have been blown away by all of the kindness and generosity we've experienced since Tommy was born.  We have been so blessed by having so many friends and family who want to come meet him, and they've been incredibly generous with gifts for not only Tommy, but also for me!  (this is Maggie writing this one, in case you couldn't tell!)  :)  Many work friends and other friends that mommies have had for a long time have made a point to come see us and meet the newest member of our family!  Here are some pictures of a few of our visitors and some of the kind gifts they've given to me and my brother!

Mommy Tina's friend Jason from work meeting Tommy for the first time.



I was at school when Mommy met Jason, but he sent her home with some amazing big sister gifts for me!  This is a picture of me opening some Hello Kitty stickers!

Checking out my new Dora microphone from Jason.

Later that week, Mommies' friend Kim came over to visit and she brought me some special princess gifts!

It's hard to tell in the picture, but this container had all of the different Disney princesses in it.

The princesses wouldn't be complete without a mode of transportation, so she brought me a carriage that turns into a pumpkin!

I spent the rest of the night and the next morning toting the carriage and princesses all over the house!  :)

Lance's mom Jeannie made bibs for me when I was younger, and now she's made some adorable ones for Tommy!  She also got him the cutest monkey outfit!  We can't wait to try out the bibs!  (Mommies both LOVE the John Deere one ... so cute!) 



Fun With the Nelsons

We've been lucky enough to get together with the Nelsons several times over the past few weeks to hang out and for me (Maggie) to play with Aftin and Bailee.  We always have such a fun time together!  A few weeks ago we went to their house to hang out and eat dinner, and Mommies are pretty sure they only saw me once or twice the whole time we were there because the three of us girls were off playing the whole time!  (which left lots of cuddle time for Lance and Melissa to spend with Tommy)  Mommy and Melissa also took us girls to the Giggle Factory in Hudson one cold Saturday morning so we could play and burn off some of our 2 1/2 year old energy.  (and it worked - I was ready to pass out by 11AM!)  We also made a trip to the pool in New Richmond to test out the new turtle slide and go down the big slide.  (which we did MANY times)  Unfortunately, Mommies didn't get any pictures of us swimming because you're not allowed to bring cameras to the pool.  You'll have to take my word for it - it was F-U-N fun!  Can't wait for more fun times with Team McNelson!

Tommy, Lance and 3 Princesses!

Taking a break to read a book about princesses in my princess dress.  (yes, I'm going through a major princess phase right now!)

Being silly at the Giggle Factory.

Goofing around with Aftin!



Fall Program at Trinity

On October 13th (Mommy Susie's b-day), my school was having their annual fall craft fair, and this year, they added performances by each class to jazz it up a little!  (Mommy's convinced it was just a tricky way to lure more people to the fair ... and it worked!)  My class sang the Acorn Song, and Mommies were impressed by how well I did!  The only thing that's NOT impressive is the video Mommy Susie captured of it.  She didn't have the best view.  You can still see pretty well though!  This performance got Mommies really excited for the holiday program that's happening in December.  I was really into that already last year, so Mommies can only imagine how excited I'll be this year! 

I loved being up  on the stage!  (or "cage" as I kept calling it)

Stopping to pose with the scarecrow!

The performance!  Most of my classmates weren't there since it was on a Saturday, but a few made it!

My First Bath!

Hi! This is Tommy.  Mommy Susie taught me a new word today - it's called "hiatus" as in "we took an extremely long hiatus from blogging!"  But we're back now with lots and lots of updates.  One thing Mommy knows for sure is that she's never going to give anyone a hard time about not keeping their blog up to date ever again!!!

So, several weeks ago, Mommies gave me my first bath.  They were curious to see (or better yet "hear") how this bath would go because my sister Maggie was quite vocal when she had her first bath, and I did not disappoint.  I made all kinds of noises.  Mommies weren't sure if I was screaming because I didn't like the water or if I was screaming because they were making me bathe in a pink tub.  Either way, I was mad, so it was a quick bath, then they wrapped me up to calm me down.  (but before they were able to get me out, I did manage to pee on them ... you're welcome)  Much like my sister, Mommies are hoping I'll learn to love the tubby, but it seems like that won't be happening for a long time!

Washing my hair.  I realize I look calm in this one, but Mommy must have just captured a quick shot between screams.

I quieted down pretty quickly once they wrapped me up in a warm towel.  At least Mommies were kind enough to get me my own blue towels.