Thomas turns 8!

Thomas (with our neighbor Isaac) looking at his Jack and the Beanstalk cake.

It might seem incredible, but Thomas is now 8.

Action shot! Thomas blowing out his candles on another Veronica creation!

For those of you who haven’t seen him in a while, he’s gotten pretty big.  He’s now 4’4 1/2″ (pretty much the same height I was on my 8th birthday).

This was also the last day of school, so there was lots of excitement.  Thanks to everyone who called or sent him a card or otherwise wished him a happy birthday.  Tomorrow he and Veronica are going to the Museum of Science (to make up for him missing the field trip there while we were in Wisconsin) and on Sunday all three of us are headed to Storyland in New Hampshire.

 

Thomas turns 7!

Thomas blows out the candles on his baseball cake

Yes, Thomas is now seven (insert you feeling old here).  As you probably know by now, this means that it’s June 20, and of course, that Veronica has made another impressive cake.

Her comment: “It isn’t his best cake ever.”  Yeah, well, the baseball looks pretty good to me and to Thomas, and as you might know, she has given herself a high hurdle to leap.  When Thomas turned 3, there was the Blue’s Clues cake.  When he turned 4, there was the Very Hungry Caterpillar cake (no picture, unfortunately, because Veronica had broken the camera).  When he turned 5, it was the ice cream cone cake.  Last year, he had the rainbow cake.  Now, it is the baseball cake.

 

Thomas turns 6!

There’s the video of us singing Happy Birthday.  There’s a couple of pictures after the jump.

 

Thomas turns 5!

So, after a year of claiming that he was already 5, Thomas actually is 5. This first video is him blowing out his candles. If you have problems with it, you can try viewing it here. I’ve had problems with Youtube videos lately, so sorry if it is kind of jumpy for you.

Here is the picture that was promised.

A sight never before seen in nature - a Tigger, a cheeky monkey and a Woobee riding an elephant!

If you go to the rest of the post, there are also some pictures as well as an explanation of the other video I shot.

 

Update time again

Sorry I’ve been falling behind on the family updates lately. Par for the course, Thomas is back in school and both he and I have gotten sick. We spent much of last winter under the weather as well, so I’m hoping we don’t have a repeat performance, but it’s not looking good so far. Thomas has already had croup and he’s had an intermittent cough and running nose for two weeks. I’ve been sick for the last two weeks as well, even missing two days of work last week. I thought I was finally over it, but I just can’t seem to shake it completely. My doctor thinks it’s viral, but she did give me a prescription for an antibiotic if I don’t get better soon. Sometimes the medicine can give you just enough boost to get over the illness, even if it is viral and not bacterial.

In other news, I turned in the first draft of the first chapter of my thesis today! That the intro and one chapter down-a second chapter and a conclusion to go. It’s going to need a lot of revision, but it still feels nice to have 26 pages total turned in (over half of the 50 page minimum!). My second chapter is due the first Monday of November and it’s going to take a bit more research to write. Plus I’m supposed to be writing a book review for the American Archivist journal, but I’ve got 400 pages more to read first. I can’t imagine why I’m tired and my immune system is worn down! I’ll be so glad in January when I’m done and can just pick up some silly pointless novel to read instead of historiography.

For those of you who want to get cards in the mail, don’t forget Erik’s birthday is next Friday. :-)

 

Reevaluating the Modern Library: More 100 Best Novels + Grandmartha’s Birthday

So, before I dive into the next batch of the 100 Greatest English Language Novels of the 20th Century according to me, I want to let anyone who reads this know that 10 July (tomorrow, as I write this) is my mother’s birthday. Since the mid-90′s, when my oldest nephew, Kevin, was born, she has been mostly known as Grandmartha (since Kevin lived with his Grandma and my maternal grandmother was already Nana), except when I refer to her, in exasperated tones as “Mother!”

She’s had a rough couple of years between us moving to the East Coast, her mother dying, the divorce and hip surgery (and upcoming hip surgery).

Anyway, her e-mail is grandmartha710@yahoo.com, so feel free to drop her a line and wish her a happy birthday or send her a virtual card. The picture on the left is her with Thomas in December of 04. The picture on the right is her with me in December of 76.