Thobe in January 2008

As I said with Alden, I am so amazed with all the things that my kids do. I really love them so much. Thobe is just as amazing as Alden is in his own way. Thobe definitely marches to the beat of his own drum. He loves to talk and jabber about stuff, usually sports stuff, especially Buckeye stuff. He goes through phases where all he talks about are the Buckeyes (today he said to Alden, "I need to run upstairs and cheer for the Buckeyes--I'll be right back"). When we bought our house it came fully equipped with an Ohio State Buckeye room. The moment Thobe saw it, he exclaimed, "Oh my Buckeye room!" Naturally, we had to buy the house after that, right? His other favorite team is the BYU cougars. He used to have a very battered Cougar t-shirt (Cosmo the Cougar was barely distinguishable and the shirt was nearly thread-bare). However, he loved it!!! Unfortunately, we lost it somewhere over our Christmas break. He asks me almost everyday if he can wear his Cougar shirt, and everyday I have to tell him that I don't know where it is. This always produces some form of sadness. On good days, I hear, "Oh man!" and on bad days, there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. On one of our cold Ohio days, he went most of the day without any shirt at all because he wanted his Cougar shirt. Somehow, Michael in all his wisdom, convinced him to wear something when he got home from work. You would think that we'd try to buy him another BYU shirt--we actually tried at Christmas, but did you know that there is no where in St. George, Utah (that I found) where you can buy a BYU kids' t-shirt?


Thobe also loves Superman. He says that he's Superman, while Alden is Batman or Spiderman. When we got back from Utah, we had a second Christmas at Abuelita and Grandpa Monday's house. Thobe was as excited as Alden was about the "treasure" (the box of Superheros), but Thobe was especially excited about the Superman toys that it contained. He also really enjoyed opening gifts from his Abuelita and Grandpa and Tia Shell (notice his tongue in the picture where he is trying out his new dinosaur feet --I bet you can't tell whose son he is).







Perhaps my favorite thing that Thobe does is that he goes around the house and asks, "What's your favorite part of Christmas, (insert name of any member of the family). For those of you who saw our Christmas video, I asked everyone what their favorite part of Christmas is. Thobe very much expects two things after he asks this question: 1) that you will respond the way you did in the video, and 2) that you will ask him what is favorite part of Christmas is. To see his answer, go to http://www.vimeo.com/418326 and watch the first minute of our Christmas greeting. We get this cute little answer, without video cuts every time.

Thobe loves going to joy school and playing in the basement. His Spanish is coming along so well! He'll often ask Spanish or English questions that he already knows the answer to. He'll say things like, "How do you say agua in English?" or "How do you say funny in Spanish." We either answer him or say, "You know, how do you say 'agua' in English?" He'll answer correctly every time. He really loves playing with his dad and brothers. He'll often give Hyrum big hugs or ask me when it will be time to go and get Alden from school.




He also enjoys playing by himself too. He's very creative. Just last night, I found him down stairs playing in his toys, sitting in one of his toy buckets. When I saw him, I was surprised and said hi to him. He just looked up and smiled at me like this was a normal place for him to sit.



We have also been trying to put some finishing touches on potty training Thobe. This has not been an easy task. I really think he wants to be potty trained and is trying, but sometimes, he just forgets to go. Poor kid. Michael and I have tried a number of tactics and have felt like it was mastered one day to feeling like we were back at square one the next. Today, I saw him lying on the floor and knew what he was doing. I sharply said, "Thobe, did you poop your pants?" The regretful look on his face gave me my answer. I told him that he needed to clean it up himself and take care of the mess. Promptly he got off the ground and told me that he was going to take care of it. He ran upstairs, and I finished an email that I was writing. I went upstairs thinking that I was going to have a horrible mess to clean up. When I reached the top of the stairs, Thobe said, "Yeah, I'm doing it, Mom! Come look!" I cringed slightly and went in the bathroom. Thobe was standing over the toilet with his underwear in the bowl, swishing it around in the water attempting to get it clean. I asked him if he was getting his underwear clean. He looked up at me and very confidently said, "Well, I'm trying, Mommy." He really did a great job. I was really proud of him.