Merry Christmas Everyone!

Yes, unfortunately the rumors are true. There is no Christmas letter this year. Due to the lousy economic conditions it was the victim of budget downsizing. The good news, however, is that we have applied for bail out money from the Federal Reserve and thus fully expect the letter to appear next year in even better shape.

There was actually a draft of the letter - but Ben the cat destroyed our only copy in a fit of editorial rage about the way a "talent" like his was being portrayed. Next year we will remember to put a cone on him around Christmas time.

Truthfully it's been incredibly hectic this month as we get ready for our impending move to Tulsa (see below) and the holidays and we decided instead of a letter this year to introduce those of you that haven't already been here to our blog!

From the whole Thomas family we wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

My Kingdom For A Sneeze!

I looked over at Gray last night during dinner and found him sticking a pea up his nose. At first I thought it was kind of funny and quickly took this picture, and got the pea out. Then I realized that he had been doing this for a little while and that there was a whole pea patch up his nose. After pushing a few out and having a couple more come out on their own I thought we were safe. Later when we were getting him ready for bed I realized that there was one more that was too far up for me to get too. How do you get a 20 month old to sneeze? Well, sucking at the pea with a bulb syringe, squirting saline up the other nostril, putting ground pepper under his nose, shining a bright light in his face, and faking sneezes to get him to copy me just made him giggle and squirm (mind you that the pea didn't bother him at all). After consulting dad, a mommy friend (thanks Bunnyface), two books and paging the nurse hotline. I decided we would have to go to the ER. While getting ready the pepper we had been sniffing got to me and I sneezed. Then I hear a "Choo" sound, look down and what do you know, Gray copied me and the pea had come flying out! Ah, the adventures of parenthood.

Wagons Ho

The Thomas family is moving to Tulsa, Oklahoma.
You read that right, Tulsa. Robert will be starting a new job in January as the CIO (Chief Investment Officer) for the George Kaiser Family Foundation. You can learn about the foundation at www.gkff.org. He will move down there right after the first of the year and live in an apartment while we look for a house. I have to finish collecting data for my dissertation so it will be a few more months before Gray and I join him. My mom and George have decided to move to Tulsa as well and have just signed a lease on a gorgeous apartment in downtown Tulsa, so we aren’t losing all of our child sitting help. We will miss Seattle, but are really excited to be part of the amazing work that the GKFF is doing for early childhood education and health-care among other projects.
Tulsa is a really nice up-and-coming little city. It doesn't have the traffic issues I found in both LA and Seattle so that will be a nice change for me. It has lots of beautiful art deco buildings (there's even a Frank Lloyd Wright house), a river running through one side of the city with 20 miles of park along its banks. It has theaters, a new stadium, and a ballet and it even has at least 3 Sushi restaurants. I also made sure that it has a dance studio that teaches adult classes before I agreed to move. I will send out our new contact information once we get settled so that you can all make plans to come visit us.

Election 2008 - Starting them young

I know it's fashionable to vote by mail in ballot but I still love going to vote in person. So, today Gray got to have his first voting experience when he went with me to my voting location. He ejoyed the attention he got from all of the volunteers and especially loved being able to walk underneath the voting booths. Maybe for the next presidential election I'll try explaining what it's all about, do you think 5 is too young to understand politics?

Happy Halloween

Here are pictures from our Halloween adventure. We met our friends Tom and Yaya at a local outdoor mall. Had dinner and then hit the stores for some trick or treating. Gray picked up on the idea pretty quickly and was very good at saying thank you (with sign language). However, he did not seem to like actually carrying the candy. After each stop he took out the new piece and handed it to me. The only piece he showed interest in was the grape lollipop so I let him suck on it for a few minutes until he became distracted and then I tossed it. He also loved having the chance to play the big musical instruments they have at the Town Center. I think it was a very successful Halloween, Gray had lots of fun and I got to eat most of his candy!

Hitting the pumpkin patch

Last year we waited so long to get our pumpkins that our choices were pretty slim. So this year we hit the patch early and were rewarded by a plethora of big, beautiful pumpkins! One of Gray's favorite words right now is "Ba" (Ball). He spent the whole time we were there pointing at pumpkins and shrieking BA, BA, BA! His only disappointment was that he couldn't move the wheelbarrow like daddy could. We can just tell that he is desperate to be a big boy, we just tell him "maybe next year buddy"! Now we will have to see what he thinks of carving his Ba's.

First skinned knees

Now that he has mastered walking Gray is working on running. The other day while running down the path at the park he took a header and recieved his first two skinned knees! One more sign that he isn't my baby anymore.