The Farm Report

Category: Tom

  • Happy half-birthday

    (This is where there’s supposed to be a fun picture of us attending Wilco, but I forgot the camera on the car floor. Again.)

    Tom was born in December, just a few days before Xmas. Which is a silly time to be born because everyone is all worked up around the coming holiday and your birthday kind of gets left in the dust.

    The first few years I tried to make his birthday really special and totally independent from Xmas. But that was a whole lot of pressure for me, so we started celebrating his half-birthday in June. Which worked out really well until he became a father, and now I have his half-birthday and Father’s Day within a week of each other. I can’t win.

    But this year I actually came up with some decent present ideas and we got to go to dinner and a concert, thanks to Bonnie and my mom and Doug pitching in with the kids. Brussels sprouts and getting to hold hands with your husband while enjoying good music—it kinda felt like MY half-birthday.

  • Dad

    Dad

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    Neko has really been into wrapping gifts. (I swear, the kid seems to have an infinite supply of blue tape.) She wrapped this present for Tom, but her latest addition is to make sure it’s properly labeled.

    We must thank Kate N. and her recommendation for the most annoying yet educational DVDs ever, The Letter Factory and the follow-up, The Talking Words Factory, for this huge leap in reading knowledge. Boy, do the kids love that DVD. Even Shep is learning his letters.

  • Nekoyt

    Nekoyt

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    Tom did the N and K, Neko did the E and O. And the mysterious Y and T. Above, Neko is hopping like a frog.

    (No comments on the dirty carpet, please.)

  • Bread man

    Bread man

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    After sitting in our cabinet for years, collecting dust, Tom finally broke out the bread machine. And, lo and behold, making bread was easy. And delicious.

  • Turntable

    Turntable

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    Tom came home from his mom’s house with an old Fisher Price record player (which, strangely enough, I had as well). He claims this is where his obsession with vinyl began.

  • Jam

    Jam

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    Shep has recently fallen in love with the guitar. Tom has had to keep some Kleenex on hand just for moments like this.

  • Making fairies

    Making fairies

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    Since we made the Cowphabet shirt, Neko has been clamoring for another one…a fairy shirt. We figure she knows her market, so we’re launching that shirt as well as a dinosaur and train. They should all be up in the next week or so.

    Anyway, she desperately wanted to be a part of the process. Tom and Chris brought her out to the shop for an afternoon of child labor, which she loves.

    Thanks to Chris for the photos.

  • Saturday morning rock star

    Saturday morning rock star

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    Someday, when they’re famous, we will demand a big, fat thank you in the liner notes of their debut CD.

  • Doppleganger

    Doppleganger

    Whenever I go to playgroups, people look at Neko and nod with this look of, “Well, of course they’re mother and daughter. They look exactly alike.” But when their eyes settle on Shep, my blonde, blue-eyed child, they look at him, and then me, and then back again. It’s clear they think I must be babysitting.

    Then we see these people at the grocery store, but this time it’s our whole family. And they look at Tom, and there is that look of relief, like when you finally found that missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle underneath a couch cushion.