New

Yeah, I know. Two posts in one day. Pretty impressive. But mommy has a lot to make up for given her 3 month hiatus. So, as I told you in my post a couple of weeks back, we were moving to a new house. There've been a lot of new things in my life lately, so I thought I'd share. You heard about my new ears that I got earlier this week. Here is a picture of my new house.

Nice, isn't it? Here's the back, showing the lovely screened in porch we all like to sit on in the evenings. You can also see our new greenhouse that daddy is so excited about. Now he can grow all his veggies in there.

But here's the really impressive part. Here is my new backyard. It takes a series of pictures because it's that large:

That's Amos who's running there. He is not new, but mommy says if he doesn't stop running off after squirrels while she is standing in the yard in her bathrobe and her hair in a towel at 7 in the morning, forcing her to go back inside, get dressed, pack me in the car, in order to go hunt him down in the neighborhood, then we WILL get a new dog. She's told him that at least 10 times though, so I'm not really buying that she's serious about it. Anyway, the yard continues:

Pretty cool huh? Yeah, I'm not missing my old house at all. Here's the new pond that came with the house:

NOTE: please do not call or email mommy on the dangers of a pond and toddlers. She says that she and daddy are well aware of this and that is why I am not allowed to go outside without them, I have been trained to ask for their hand whenever I walk out there, I am enrolled in swimming lessons, and we will be getting a fence.

Any hoo, now you've heard about my new ears, house, yard and pond. What else is new? Oh yeah, there's this:

That's my new baby brother or sister. Pretty neat, huh? Mommy says they've had 4 ultrasounds, heard the heartbeat 3 times, had a couple of blood tests, and finally feel comfortable telling people. The new baby should arrive around November 20th, the day after Aunt Nancy's birthday. Mommy says that they also have to start telling people because she's sick of drinking fake beer, and having people (Aunt Nancy, Abuela) not so subtely look at her belly in
an attempt to determine if she is pregnant or just fat. So there's your answer. pregnant. not fat.

So, it's been a busy month at the Tessier household, with moving, and babies, and ears and such. Things are about to get really wild!

The Amazing, Incredible, Spectacular Thomas!

So, Tuesday I had my adenoids taken out and tubes put in my ears. It was getting a bit ridiculous with all my ear infections, and quite frankly, I had had enough with the shots from the Doctor. It had gotten to the point where I started screaming in the parking lot of the doctor's office, and I had no trouble at all telling my doctor I didn't care for him. I didn't want to hurt the guy's feelings, but really, he's got to figure it comes with the territory.

Anyway, wouldn't you know it, the day before surgery I started getting sick, and mommy was so worried they were going to postpone. But, since I didn't have any fever they went forward with it. I didn't really understand what was happening, I just got this vibe that we were in an un-fun place. I told mommy and daddy REPEATEDLY it was time to go home, but they kept insisting we were there to fix my ears and I would feel so much better afterwards. I generally try to take mommy and daddy at their word, but I just wasn't buying what they were selling. Then they put me in this silly green dress, and attempted to distract me with sock puppets. I remained suspicious.

And you know what? It turns out I had every right to be suspicious. Several official people kept coming into and leaving the room, and then some woman with a funny shower cap came in and told mommy and daddy to give me hugs and kisses because she was going to do a scoop and run. I started getting anxious, and I was totally getting the nerves coming off of mommy and daddy. I started to cry, and then shower cap lady, grabbed me and took off. I screamed "I WANT MY MOMMY, HELP ME. I WANT MY MOMMY, HELP ME. HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPPP." All the way down the hall. Mommy claims she started crying then, but I'm sure she was laughing maniacally in that room with daddy. Rubbing their hands together, pleased that I had been carted off for some sort of torture.

I don't remember much after that. They gave me this balloon to blow up, and then then the next thing I know, I was waking up with mommy and daddy, there was blood dripping out of my nose, and I was NOT pleased. Boy were those two going to pay. I screamed for 30 minutes, off and on, but mostly on. I then informed them that I wanted to go home. Now. We couldn't get out of that building fast enough!

Mommy and Daddy took me home, where I demanded a cheeseboogah (cheeseburger) and fries, and to his credit, Daddy took off at lightening speed to fetch it. As he should have. I then stayed on the couch all afternoon watching The Incredible Spiderman on Mommy's iPad, until I conked out for 3 hours.

But you know what? When I woke up, I felt better. In fact, I told mommy "my ears feel bettah." It was kind of amazing. It's almost like I have super powers. Yesterday, a mere 24 hours after the surgery, I was back to my happy self. Goofing off, laughing, and running all over the place.

Yep, I'm pretty certain I have super powers. The average ordinary kid would never recover that fast. Maybe a radioactive spider bit me!

Tune in next time, for more adventures of the Amazing Thomas!

Hello, is there anyone out there?

Where am I? I'm scared. I don't know this place. . . .

Mommy says this is my "blog," but surely I'd remember something like that. I mean surely that's something mommy updates regularly, right? In case you haven't caught on, I'm being sarcastic here. Mommy has failed for 3 months now to update this place. For all you people know, I've finished college and gotten married by now. Don't worry, it's nothing that drastic. But there have been a few changes.
Mostly, I am just a kid, doing kid things, like lounging around and relaxin'.

But since we last spoke, I've turned 2, which is a pretty big deal, if I do say so myself. I'm less baby now and more big boy. And I'll tell you that too. In fact, I'll tell you just about everything that comes into my head, and I'll happily repeat everything that comes out of anyone's mouth who happens to be within ear shot of me. That's made for some embarrassing moments for Mommy and Daddy.

For my 2nd birthday I got loads of gifts, but I think the one that wins out is the LSU Tiger football outfit that Aunt Catherine and Uncle Luke gave me. I've spent the last 3 months posing for my LSU team pictures.

It came with a helmet, which I wore to school every day for a month

My teachers over there are great though. They happily drop into the three point stance with me and help me tackle other unsuspecting individuals.

Aside from all that fun stuff, I've also been sick a bunch. I had an ear infection that wouldn't quit in January and February. This resulted in my being stabbed with a shot 4 times in 4 days. I no longer care for my doctor, and I told him so. Then I told Mommy. Then I told Daddy. And I remind Mommy anytime we drive anywhere in the vicinity of said doctor's office.

We went to see an ENT this month, I didn't care for him either, and made this point known early. I find it's best if people know where they stand with me. Regardless of my objections to his character and his profession, he insisted on examining me and plying me with sweets. He says I can hear just fine, which Mommy was not the least bit surprised to know (see above where I repeat her often), and that my ear drums are not damaged, so I can hold off on tubes.

Maybe he's not so bad.

Anyway, Mommy says if I get sick any time soon, she might have to be committed. I don't know what she's complaining about, I'm the one getting the shots here.

The last of the big news is that we're moving!

Mommy and Daddy listed our house in January and sold it in less than a month! This presented a problem because we had no where to go. I wasn't worried about me, because I have two sets of grandparents who are happily clamoring to take me in, but it would have been rough on Mommy and Daddy if they had to sleep in their car. Luckily for them, they found us a great place with a huge yard for Amos and me to run in. We move in at the end of the month, and as you can see, I'm ready to go!

So that should get you caught up on my whereabouts for the past few months. It's pretty much unacceptable that mommy hasn't updated you, but I think we can give her a little slack given my illnesses, and the moving and such. She's expected to get back on the ball after the move though.

Hope everyone is doing well, and I'll talk to you soon.

Thomas.

Claus: The Rematch

Happy Holidays everyone! I hope that you are all busy little elves this time of year, shopping, and baking, and just generally enjoying your family and friends. I've been pretty busy myself. In fact, this past weekend, Mommy and I went to a gingerbread decorating party! Let me tell you about this fun idea! Mommy's friend Ms. Christen, who has a little boy Cecil who is a few months older than me, decided to get all the kids together and let us decorate gingerbread houses. I was on board as soon as I heard there would be frosting and candy. Let me tell you, this party was where it was at!



Everyone was there. Cecil, Patrick, Malcolm (who goes to my school!), Charlotte, Ryan, Amelia (not the cousin, just the friend), her sister Sarah. Of course my best girl Mae was there.



Her brother Crawford was there also.

Ms. Christen is sort of the Martha Stewart of Mommy's friends. The set up was way cool. There was this big table exactly the right size for us. The table cloth was striped like a candy cane. Each of us got our own apron and chef's hat:

It should not surprise you that I didn't care to keep the hat on my head.

Also, we each got our very own gingerbread house, frosting, and BIG bag of candy to decorate. Here is my house before we got to work:

Pretty cool huh? If you've met Ms. Christen, you would not be surprised in the least to know that she made all of the houses herself. Mommy is still impressed by this. She once tried to make gingerbread houses as a little girl. It did not look anything close to this.

Anyway, we all got to work decorating. Here are some pictures of finished products. This is Amelia's house:

I know, right?! I love her use of lifesavers here.

Here's Ryan's place. Check out the tree line and fancy frosting design. This kid is GOOD.

Here's mine.

Where's the candy you ask? Funny story. You see, I don't like it when frosting touches candy. Who'd a thunk it, huh? Yeah, it was news to mommy too. See everytime she would attempt to stick candy on the frosting, I'd fall apart. Please note the few red and orange candy pieces lying on the side of the house there. Yep. That's as close as they got to the actual house. Also, all I wanted was to eat the frosting. So, after a while, and quite a few tears, mommy and I got into a groove where she would simply squeeze frosting onto the house, and I would remove it with my finger and eat it.

It didn't make for a very pretty house, but it made for an extremely happy Thomas. And as we all know, a happy Thomas is a happy everybody.

Some of you might argue that I was far too young for this exercise, but as proof otherwise, I present to you the finished product of Sarah, a sweet little thing who is but 12 days older than I am:

Yeah. Perhaps what they say is true. Boys do mature later than girls.

Anyway, after I had had my fill of frosting, I was about ready to settle down for a long winter's nap. When out on Ms. Christen's lawn, there arose such a clatter, I turned to my left to see what was the matter. And there he was.

Claus. Again. And 20 days early, might I add. Honestly, I thought he and I had an understanding. He would come on Christmas Eve. He would leave me gifts. But we would have no contact. He would not approach me. I would not approach him. We would have a mutual respect for the other, but there would be no togetherness. We had discussed this in my open letter to him last year (See Christmas blog post last year). But yet he persists. And then they let him in.

I tried very hard to keep my cool. After all, Mae was there, and I do have an image to uphold. But as he made his way around the table, I began to get suspicious and I felt my personal space was in danger. I kept a close eye on him.

In my defense, I'm not entirely sure this guy was the real deal. He was certainly jolly and nice and all the things Santa's supposed to be. But, he smelled like cigarettes. I know Santa smokes a pipe, but I'm fairly certain he's not a Marlboro man. Second, he listed his reindeer, and mentioned one was named Nixon. I'm, admittedly, no expert on Santa, but I don't recall there ever being a reindeer named Nixon. Perhaps he has a Presidential Fleet that Nixon commands? Third, he attempted to sing multiple Christmas Carols with us, but suspiciously didn't know the words. None of these are of course dead give aways, but they just set off some red flags.

After he took his place on the couch, Mommy asked if I would care to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what I wanted. I very clearly said no. I know I didn't stutter. I know there was no waffling. I VERY clearly said no. In fact, I shook my head vehemently when saying it. It can't be said that I got my languages confused either, because "no" in spanish is the same as "no" in english. So I'm going to say that the fault here lies entirely with mommy. As I said, I told her no. But do you know what she did? She pushed my chair in front of Santa, and well, this is what happened.

Yeah. Not pretty. But guess what, she got what she deserved. The nerve of her! Can you believe she just threw me to the wolves like that?? Me neither! She's lucky I forgave her. Admittedly, I was the only person at this party to react this way, but I'm just going to say it's because I'm much more observant than the average person, and could tell this Santa wasn't the real deal. I'm just saying. . .

And I'll tell you, the only thing that got me over this, was that Mommy, Daddy and Uncle Scott took me to the Chimes for dinner that night. I got some food, but I barely remember it. What I do remember is that daddy ordered some buffalo wings that came with some ranch dressing. That ranch dressing was GOOOOOOOOOOD.

If Santa would care to apologize for his clear breach of contract, I might be willing to settle for a bottle of that stuff.

In any case, in spite of this dreadful scene with The Claus, I'm having a pretty Merry Christmas season. I hope you all are too, and I hope that Santa doesn't visit you until you are safely asleep in your bed on December 24th, and that he leaves you lots of goodies.

Merry Christmas to all my fans who make writing this blog so much fun!

Thomas.

Halloween!!

Well, I'm sold.
For weeks mommy's been building this holiday up with all her cookies and decorations and bat hats and what not. Last year I was sick for Halloween, so I had nothing to look forward to as far as I was concerned. And yet, everyone persisted. Kept saying that it was a great holiday and loads of fun. Here I am with the pumpkin that Grandpa carved for me at Grandma's house. Mommy and Grandma and Grandpa were going nuts over it, and made me sit and take a picture with it. So I humored them.

Then they wanted me to make my scary face, so I did. . .

But I still wasn't convinced. I mean, it was a big orange ball with a light in it. What's the big deal? Then I got sick. Again. All last week I was fighting first a viral infection, then a double ear infection. By Friday Mommy thought I was feeling better and got me dressed for my costume party at school. But I was not feeling well, and things did not look good for trick or treating.

I ended up having to skip the party that day, and Saturday didn't look much better. But mommy kept giving me the antibiotics, and making me sleep and drink my milk, and insisting that this year, I would trick or treat.

Halloween Morning dawned bright, and I was a new man! Mommy got me dressed in my costume (as Sheriff Woody from Toy Story), and I started making my rounds.

First Mommy took me to Abuela and Gramps' house. It was early, but since Abuela had made my costume, (made the vest, made the shirt, AND painted the checks on the shirt when we couldn't find the right fabric) and I would be trick or treating in my neighborhood, Mommy wanted to be sure that Abuela got to see me in it. I loaded up on some candy over there, then went to Maman and Pawpaw's house down the street (more candy), then to Mama and Papa's (more candy) then Aunt Chimene came over (no candy, but we'll forgive her because she brought a fun straw with pumpkins on it and a book), then to Grandma's house. I was loving it and hamming it up for everyone.

By the time I made it back home, I was zonked, so I went down for a long nap. So long, in fact, that I almost missed trick or treat. Mommy had to wake me up at 6 so we could get going. I was not pleased. At first. Then I was given the most glorious thing ever. A mini snickers bar.

The one and only piece of candy I was allowed all night long, and my oh my how delicious it was. I perked right up, and forgot all about being mad at mommy for waking me up. Sadie (a chicken)joined me in my wagon and we proceeded to tour the neighborhood.

The neighborhood was hoppin' last night! I've never seen so many people. And apparently our neighbors were thrilled to see so many people too because do you know what they did? They gave us candy! LOTS OF IT! Just for coming by to see them. It was crazy. I should go visit more often, because apparently they were just so thrilled to get visitors they were throwing candy at us. woooo, it was really awesome. And everyone loved our costumes. As soon as we pulled up everyone got that I was Woody. Not just a cowboy. They were calling me by NAME!

One of the people on our street did something called the Haunted Gingerbread House.

Which I'll admit was a bit confusing at first. But given that it combines Halloween with my other favorite holiday, Christmas, I figured you couldn't go wrong. And I was RIGHT! This witch came out to give us candy and she gave me a Milky Way. Oh devine chocolate! I could smell it through the wrapper.

Mommy wouldn't open it for me, but that was ok, I just held onto it the entire night until we got home and it had melted and reshaped itself into a tootsie roll shape.

From the haunted Gingerbread House, we headed down the street and visited with some other witches. You'll note I'm still holding my Milky Way in this picture.

Mommy says I may not look anything like her, but I am definitely her child given my love of chocolate. Anyway, we continued house to house and just had a great time together. Sadie was in charge of inventory, meaning she periodically checked to make sure that I didn't have more inventory than she did. She also was really helpful in explaining to people that really she would appreciate the suckers more than I would. Which was absolutely right. As long as no one touched my chocolate, we were good.

We ended the night at the Witches of Wisteria, right across the street from home. They loaded us down with more chocolate and then we ate pizza and visited for a while.

It was a great night. But the weird thing is, when I got up this morning, I couldn't find my loot anywhere. I know I had a full bag of the stuff last night, but mommy says I must have dreamed it. Then this morning she went into the pantry and when she came out, she had something stuffed in her mouth, and she left little brown fingerprints all over the counter. Mommy says I'm confused, but I don't know. . . .

Anyway, I hope you all had a great Halloween. Next stop: Turkey Day!!!!

Martha Who?

Well, it's October, which means Halloween. And once again, I have to question whether mommy enjoys this month more for herself, or for me. She certainly has been all crafty and clever like a certain celebrity with her own show on the Hallmark Channel. To begin with, I awoke to the smell of these lovely things on Saturday morning:



That would be Banana Nut Muffins in the shape of pumpkins. Besides looking adorable, they were delicious as well. But the fun did not end with breakfast. We were headed over to Grandma's that morning, and mommy surprised me with some new head wear:

That's right, Ladies and Gentleman. Mommy made me a bat hat. And it's been quite popular. I liked it so much that I wore it for the better part of the day on Saturday, despite the fact that the temperature got pretty high during the day. Then I wore it again on Sunday to the park where I delighted other little kids while running in circles making the wings flap. I love my bat hat.

Then, yesterday afternoon while I was napping, Mommy made these cookies:

She's obsessed, I'm telling you. And we haven't even hit the mid point in the month. Can you imagine what else is in store for me??? Who am I to complain though? Due to her insanity I've had muffins, cookies, and a super cool hat. Bring it on Mommy Stewart. Bring it on!