Tommy's new phase

My hands are officially full as Tommy is now into his latest phase of exploring everything more than ever. He is trying everything from new foods to climbing the stairs and even low lying furniture. Of course for the last two months he has had the opportunity to watch how Patrick does it. He is now imitating him as you can see in the picture. Patrick always thinks its fun to slide across the end table. You can see how pleased Patrick is that Tommy has picked up this skill very fast by the smirk on his face. Now in the other picture - Patrick has entered a new phase which the other boys weren't too bad with - taking off our clothes for the fun of it. James likes to take his clothes off at nap time but at least he is in the privacy of his own bedroom. Patrick has no shame. I'm hoping these two phases will go very quickly!

I went back to the mall today because the red shirt I exchanged for the red jacket just didn't look right on me. When I wore the black sweater to church last night I knew this beautiful sweater would look great not only for the pictures but the holidays too. So I thought I would check to see if they have any comfortable looking sweat pants. I found a whole rack of them - they were on sale for $10. They had a variety of colors but the color I wanted - gray - they only had a couple left and they were too big. So I thought I would look in the Lands End section to see if they had any on sale. I never made it down to that section as I found another section that had the same $10 sweatpants. When I was looking at the size they said petites. I grabbed an XL - which looked like it would be the right length. Since I was without any kids I decided to try them on because I did not want to make another trip to the mall. They fit perfectly! After 4 kids I can wear petites!! Not really but it sounds good! And they are very very comfy!

We do not have our Christmas tree up yet but we are playing a lot of Christmas music and even pulled out the Christmas DVD's. The kids have enjoyed it greatly. It helps that it is snowing too!

James actually made it to 10 stars yesterday for potty training. Today he has fallen off the wagon - BAD 3 yucky diapers. I owe him a frosty but told him he better start pooping in the potty again so he can get the frosty. I was not going out last night in the driving rain when he reached his 10th star. He better step it up if he wants to play outside in the snow with the big kids.

I got out to the store yesterday afternoon during nap time. I decided that we would get Patrick Elmo Live for his birthday. I know he will enjoy it greatly. I feel bad because his birthday is in the same month as Christmas that I don't know which present should be for his birthday or Christmas. I think the emphasis should be on his birthday so that is why Elmo is his birthday present. I think Santa will be bringing him some pretty cool toys too! I was lucky enough to get the last one that Target had!