Here is the saga of the Thomas Shoes:

We live in GA – land of red clay.  No wait. 

We live in GA- land of red clay that gets all over my child’s clothing and shoes and ruins everything.

Brooks was ruining his shoes out on the playground with sand that is liberally mixed with the cursed red dirt.  So… I decide to pick up some cheapy tennis shoes for  him to wear on the playground and at his nursery school so we don’t ruin the very nice, very expensive striderite tennis shoes.

I’m in the store- alone (Brooks was at MMO) -standing in the shoe aisle having this inner dialogue:

“Oh they have Thomas shoes- Brooks would love those!”

“But oh wait, he’ll love them so much he won’t want to wear anything else. Remember what Kendel said about Ezra and his Thomas shoes.”

“They are so cute and they LIGHT  UP- Brooks will really love them.  I can just see his bright smile and his little face lit with happiness.  I’ll be Mommy of the Year.”

“But you already have to hide the other Thomas shoes so he won’t ruin them outside.  It will be a battle every day.”

And so on…

I literally stood there for like 5 minutes deliberating about whether to buy the Thomas shoes that light up or the plain old regular tennis shoes with no fun characters on them.

Guess which ones I bought?

I’ll give you a hint- I can see little red lights flashing across the room right now as I type.

Oh yes- I bought the Thomas shoes.

Brooks does love them- in fact he is down right obsessive. First thing he asked for this morning right out of bed:

Thomas Shoes! 

He wanted to sleep in them the first night we had them.

“Mommy of the Year” is going to need some medication to deal with the shoe tantrums.

Heard from the backseat while driving by a Chick Fila:

“Lunch!” “ok, Lunch!” (we’ve trained him well…)

Heard any time Brooks wants something:

“watch thomas- ok, yes, allriiigggghhht!”

Brooks uses all his affirmative words when expressing his desire for something-

“yes- Okay!, alright!” Increasing volume means more urgent requests

“milk- ok, milk, ok mommy”  “MILK, OKAY!!!”  = give me milk NOW!

Heard in anticipation of a party:

“Happy!! Cake! OK Cake! “ALLRIGHT! “Happy Cake!”

Brooks loves cake:).

Heard when reminded to ask nicely for something:

Brooks: “bubbles more Bubbles!

Parent: “ask nicely”

Brooks: “ask, ask, nice”

Parent:  (laughing at the boy’s very literal “asking nicely)  “say -more bubbles please.”

 Brooks:  “please, bubbles OKAY!”

Favorite words and phrases:

“OKAY!”- loudly and drawn out to emphasize excitement

“Oh no!”  learned from watching way to much Thomas and repeated often while playing with his train table.

“I see momma”  “I see daddy”  “I see choo choo” “I see_(fill in the blank)__”   We love seeing the world through the eyes of our little explorer.

Some new videos of Brooks.

Choose from :

Running Around with a Sheet on his Head

OR

Talking After Dinner

We celebrated his birthday last weekend with a few kids from his Sunday School class and their families.  He had a “Thomas the Tank Engine” themed party.  He and all his little friends had big fun riding on riding toys, playing outside on the playground and eating lots of sugar!

Here are some of the highlights:

This spring I attended two- and stocked up my son’s closet with spring and summer clothes, stocked up his toy box with new blocks, trucks and cars, and a Thomas the Tank Engine riding toy.  BUT the best deal I found was this gem:

It’s a Bounce Around that retails for around $325.  I paid $55.  OH YEAH! Can you say toddler birthday party?

Papa is happily demonstrating the size and various uses- lounging, bouncing, etc.

He is as energetic as ever- so busy running, jumping, climbing and in general scaring me on a daily basis with his daring.  We were playing outside on the playground and I looked up to see him not climbing the stairs (with safety rails) to go down the slide, but climbing up this arched monkey bar type apparatus (sans safety rails) that was much higher and scarier than the stairs.  He grinned and then raised his little arm in the air which is our sign for help.  I quickly recovered from my shock and fear and ran over to help him climb up. 

Climbing is a favorite activity as is jumping- jumping in his crib, jumping on our bed, jumping on the couch.  Brooks really likes to take the cushion off the big ottoman in our living room and jump  from the couch to the ottoman then onto the cushion.  This is guaranteed fun for at least an hour.

Honestly his physical development has far out paced his verbal, which is normal- so I’m told.  He runs everywhere- and currently prefers galloping to walking.  Riding toys are VERY fun and he loves to race around the gym at our church on a little ride on race car. Climbing stairs is also a favorite and offers him a chance to use his counting skills which so far consists of him saying “twooo” over and over while I really count.

Talking-  Brooks knows how to say lots of words- but getting him to say them is another matter entirely.  He will NOT under any circumstances perform all of his words.  While he loves to watch our friend Ezra recite all the words and animals sounds he can say, Brooks will not do the same.  The only time I can get him to “parrot” is when he is engrossed in something else like blocks or trains.  He uses words sparingly, only when needed- like to point at the dozens of busses all over campus- saying “busss”  ”bussss”  over and over and over.  Choo Chooo, wooo wooo, Track and train are among the few words he says often besides mommy and daddy.

 He does use his sign language very consistently.

please- hands to the tummy

 thank you- hand to the mouth (think blowing kisses)

 more- fingers of both hands touching together

 hurt- an index finger pointed into the palm of his other hand

 help- raising one or both arms up in the air (very cute)

 are used most often. 

Some of the funnier things he says are for items of clothing-  shirt comes out without the “r” sound and when he says pants it sounds just like he is saying “witch”  but with a ‘B” sound.  Needless to say getting him dressed can be a bit obscene:).

Brooks’ love for trains and Thomas continues.  In fact, while playing at my office recently he was not satisfied to play with our “Little People” nativity set.  Brooks proceeded to rifle through every storage bin in my office un til he found the train set I had put away while the nativity set was out.  Thomas the Tank Engine is a regular visitor at the manger in our world.

Here are some fairly recent pictures, some Larry took at a nearby park with a cool bridge and stream, the others are of him “helping” decorate the tree,

For recent videos visit my Youtube page.

CHERRY ICE BOX COOKIES!!!

Here it is -as close as I’ve ever gotten to the elusive cookies that has taunted me from Corsicana Texas.

2 3/4 cups BREAD flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups butter

1 3/4 cups white  granulated sugar

1/4 cup light corn syrup

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup candied cherries, chopped (you know the kind you buy to make fruit cake)

1/2 cup maraschino cherries, drained and chopped

1/2 cup of granulated sugar for rolling cookies before baking

Melt the butter in a sauce pan on low heat.  While the butter in melting, mix the flour, salt and baking powder together and set aside.  Pour the melted butter into your mixing bowl and add the sugar and corn syrup.  Cream together on medium speed.  Add the eggs one at a time and then the vanilla.

Turn the mixer down to low and add the flour mixture about 1/2 a cup at a time.  Only add more when what you just added is combined.  Then add the cherries.  If the cookies are not pink enough for you add a DROP or two of red food coloring. 

Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and put in the fridge to chill.  it should chill at least two hours but the longer the better.  I let mine chill overnight.

When the dough is chilled, cover  your cookie sheet with parchment (VERY IMPORTANT).

Use a cookie scoop or two tablespoons to scoop out little balls of dough.  Roll the dough balls in the granulated sugar and coat completely.  Place the dough balls on the parchment lined cookie sheet and place in the freezer.  (you can skip this step, but the result is flatter cookies.) Preheat the oven to 375. When the dough balls are frozen bake for 10-11 minutes.  Watch them closely because you want to take them out when they are done, but not yet starting to brown.

Allow to cool completely and enjoy!

Freezing the dough makes for a better cookies and the parchment keeps them from spreading to flat.  I know all these steps seem like a lot of work, and they are, but the result is worth it- promise!

These cookies are great and come from a bakery in Corsicana Texas called the Collin Street Bakery, better known for fruit cakes but they also make all sorts of other yuumy goodies.  The Cherry Ice Box cookies are my favorite.  They are very chewey with a bit of tang (like a good sugar cookie) and lots of great buttery goodness.  Larry doesn’t love cherry flavored anything- but he does like these cookies.

We’d stop by the bakery on the way to and from various places and treat ourselves to a dozen.  Just before we moved they actually built another location in Waco, but alas it didn’t open until after we moved.

I’ve made a couple of attempts to replicate this cookie with marginal results.  My cookies either come out flat and cakey or flat and crispy.  I’ve yet to duplicate the wonderful cheweyness of these cherry delights.

I discovered a recipe today for chewey chocolate chip cookies, so I’m adapting it for cherry icebox cookies.  I’m doing one batch with chocolate chips just because it sounded really good.  The second batch will be just cherry.  I’ll post the recipe when I get it right and maybe some pics:).

I did have the good sense to only put on the plastic, shatter proof, non- toxic ,etc. etc. ornaments on the bottom of the tree.  There is no real danger unless my active boy decides to start pulling out the mini light bulbs and eating them.

Other than the tree, the apartment is decorated and we are done shopping (sort of) and ready for Christmas!

In the unexpected free time here is a list of some favorite things:

1. a stocked freezer.  In that stocked freezer is tonight’s dinner- BBQ pork loin. 

2. recipe starters from Kroger- also in the stocked freezer.  I don’t know why I didn’t know this before BUT I just discovered that they sell, onions, peppers, and all sorts of basic veggie variations all chopped and ready to go in the freezer section.  I stocked up when Kroger had them on sale recently.  Frozen chopped onions may not be quite as good as fresh, but they went into the slow cooker this afternoon in about 5 seconds- much quicker than cutting up an onion.

3. slow cooker liners- got these on sale too.  It’s no secret that I love my crockpot and these just make using it EVEN BETTER.  Washing a crock pot is a pain and these make clean-up as simple as stomping on the trash can pedal thingy and dropping in the mess.

4. my slow cooker.  When you combine easy to use ingredients with easy clean up and a crockpot, well, it is almost like having a personal chef.

Of course, now that I’ve started writing- I hear the baby boy chirping….Oh well, my house is filled with the wonderful aroma of BBQ pork.  Larry will be so happy.