A Tractor Kind of Christmas.

We celebrated Christmas early with Phil's parents at their mountain house this year, and it was possibly the highlight of Luke's year. PopPop has so many motorized toys that Luke thought he had died and gone to heaven. He was SOOOOOO excited. A few days before we left Indy, we told Luke that we were going to go see Grammy and PopPop soon and that he was going to get to drive PopPop's tractor when we got to their house. Well, he has the memory of an elephant and talked about this for days. The morning before we left, this was how he greeted me when I went to get him out of bed:

Me (opening door, walking into his room): "Hey, sweet boy..."
Luke: "Grammy PopPop soon!"
Me: "Yep, we're going to see Grammy and PopPop soon."
Luke: "Ride tractor!"
Me: "Yes, you're going to ride the tractor with PopPop."
Luke: "Two days!!"
Me: "No, now it's only one day. We're going tomorrow!"

He never quite understood the countdown of days, but he understood very well that we were on our way to PopPop's as we made the TEN hour drive on Friday. He must have said "PopPop!!" at least 400 times during the drive and "ride tractor" 300 times. We spent the entire time reassuring him that yes, we were still headed to see PopPop, and yes, he was going to ride the tractor. It was a very long drive.... Once we got to the mountain house, we parked in the garage where the regular riding lawnmower (mowing is another obsession), the John Deere riding mower, and the 4-wheeler live. He was so excited to see them and immediately climbed up on the John Deere. Later as we were unpacking, he disappeared for a few minutes, and we found him out in the garage back on the John Deere. He run down the hall, through the laundry room, and let himself out into the garage. Needless to say, we were vigilant about dead bolting the doors after that. The next day Luke finally got to go for a ride. In typical fashion, he wanted to DRIVE, so PopPop got the John Deere going and let Luke stand in between his legs and steer. They just kept going in circles. It's a wonder PopPop didn't get sick. Later PopPop got out the big, refurbished Massey Ferguson. He drove Luke on the road all the way down the mountain and back up. It was the cutest thing and Luke absolutely loved it. When it was time to put the tractor up, he started to pitch a fit, but we told him that the tractor had to go nigh-night, and he was okay with that. The next day he got to ride on the 4-wheeler once with PopPop and once with Daddy and kept calling it a motorcycle. I guess it does kind of look like a big, fat motorcycle. By this time we had opened Christmas presents and Luke had received some lovely camouflage overalls and a hoodie from PopPop. Perfect 4-wheeler riding attire. We had a great time celebrating Christmas with the whole family (minus JoJo and Brian--boo hoo), but you'd never know to look at our pictures. They are all of Luke on some sort of machine. Oh well. Those are the only pictures he'll care about when he's older anyway.

I wasn't there for this and am wondering if PopPop really let him drive the John Deere out of the garage. Surely not.


He did let him steer, though!
Here is circle #374. And he only turned left, like a true race car driver. If this is a glimpse into his future, I'm in big trouble....


He insisted on "mowing" with this fertilizer thingy.


Overall-ed and 4-wheelin'. Yeehaw!


Headed down the mountain with PopPop.
(Luke absolutely had to have his hoodie up, even though it covered half his face.)


It was a long way down....


And they're back!


Riding the tractor is serious business.
Two hands on the wheel, and get out of my way!

Watching begrudgingly as the tractor goes nigh-night.

Thanks, PopPop and Grammy for making Luke's Christmas so special. He won't soon forget, which means neither will we!!

THAILAND.

One of the perks of Phil's job is that he gets go on international trips every once in a while. This time I got to tag along, and we went to Thailand. What an experience it was...traveling on numerous planes for a total of 32 hours straight, arriving to 90 degree heat and tons of humidity in DECEMBER, smelling and tasting the freshest, most delicious Thai food we've ever had, meeting the people and understanding while the country is called "The Land of Smiles", spending time alone together for the first time since Luke was born, and visiting some of our missionary friends and seeing how God is moving amongst college kids in Bangkok. It was an exhausting trip, but we are so glad we did it. Here are a few pictures of our adventure...


Testing out the rickshaw. It wasn't made for Americans. Phil barely fit.


Bikes, bikes, and more bikes at Thammasat Univeristy.


Photo-op on the side of the road in Phuket.

Beautiful fishing boats on the beach.

Phil's favorite part of the whole trip. The motor bike we rented for 3 days while at the beach.
If it weren't so incredibley cold in Indy right now, he would have left me and taken the bike home instead.

Making memories.

You're So Vain You Probably Think This Blog Is About You...

Luke has a new obsession: looking at pictures of himself.

Almost every time someone is on the computer, he will force his way onto their lap, practically yelling "YUTE! YUTE!" This is his way of saying his name, and we have learned that in this case it means, "I want to see pictures of myself now, and I could care less if you are busy doing something else." Here is a picture of him on Annie's lap during Thanksgiving. He's got her wrapped around his finger, for sure.

Thankful.

We have soooo much to be thankful for, but tops on our list is definitely our punkin.

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Atlanter.

As you know from the last post, we were in Atlanta visiting Phil's family just a little while ago. Phil and I had a great time, but Luke had a BLAST.

Grammy bought him this awesome bike and let him ride it all over her house.

When we went to visit Madison and the Del Angels, he spent 99.9% of his time on Madison's cute little car.


He forced his way into Madison's favorite basket, paying absolutely no heed to the look on her face that said, "You better back off, buddy. This is my basket."

He got to play with cars, trucks, buses, and airplanes (and Jorge!) even though he was at a girl's house!


Then he got to visit his other Atlanta girlfriend, Mary Beth (pictured with her sweet mommy, Betsy).

Being waaaaay bigger than Mary Beth (but just 2 months older), he was able to use intimidation to commandeer her ride.


He ran around Mary Beth's house in this really sweet hat.


(Meanwhile, I was hoping Mary Beth would let me wear her adorable necklace.)


He played a mad tune of chopsticks with his girl.


He tossed Mary Beth's baby doll on the floor and took a stroll through the living room.

And lastly, he visited Grammy at work and showed all the doctors and nurses who's boss.

We heart our fam and friends in Atlanter!
Thanks for such a great visit.

Guest Blogger...

We have been so busy lately. While Phil's been traveling like a nomad for work, I've been doing my best as a single mom, counting down the days and minutes till he gets home. Thankfully this past weekend we got to go with Phil to Atlanta for a quick visit. We didn't get to see Phil much, but we had some great times with his family and with friends. We FINALLY got to see our good friends, the Del Angels, and meet sweet Madison. Since I only have a second, I am going to let Tiffany (Madison's mom) be a surprise guest blogger on the TatumTot today.
Go HERE to see the fun we had with our friends!

What a Stinker!

Guess what Luke was for Halloween....

Well, a skunk of course!

We had been very benevolently loaned a fabulous Elmo costume that was in the running for a while, but Luke's Elmo love has since waned, and (brace yourself--your not going to believe it...) it was too big. So we went with the most appropriate costume that we could think of. Together with my mom's help, I collected 3 black articles of clothing-- pants, a turtleneck, and a hat. Then I went to Joann's and bought the longest, most skunk-like fur I could find. I cut it into strips, thereby scattering fur all over the table and floor and releasing it into the air to haunt my house for years to come. I sewed it on using big fat stitches that I could easily remove later, and ta-da! A skunk was born. When test driving the costume a week before, the Stinker would absolutely NOT wear the hat for more than .004 seconds. I figured it was pretty much a loss, but crossed my fingers that on the big day, he'd somehow sense that the hat did indeed make the costume and surrender to wearing it for at least a few minutes. Little did I know, he'd wear it the WHOLE time! All it took was a little bribing. He'll do just about anything to be allowed outside, and if you throw in a ride in the wagon, you've got yourself a deal. Thus, he succumbed to the ridiculous hat and made his mommy sooooo happy! We took him out trick or treating but didn't think he'd last very long. Well, once he realized that we were actually going to let him ring any doorbell he wanted, he was in it for the long haul. We'd pull the wagon into the driveway of a house, he'd hop out and RUN to the door (usually the garage door for some reason, only to be redirected by one of us to the actual front door), yelling "Do-beh! Do-beh!" all the way. Several doorbells were actually low enough for him to push on his own (apparently gnomes live in those houses), so he'd go to town pushing it as many times as he could before a parent snatched him up, apologizing for their overly zealous Stinker. When asked to say, "trick or treat", he'd say "treat". He totally knew what was up. To heck with the "trick" stuff, give me the treat. If offered the bowl of treats to choose from, he'd touch just about every piece before picking one, only to then put it back and take another. Thank goodness we only went to a handful of houses on our street. Mommy and Luke could have kept going for a while, but Daddy fizzled out and was ready to go home and have dinner. All in all it was a great night, and I couldn't be prouder of my big boy. I think he had a lot of fun, too, especially once Mommy let him taste what the night was all about!

Getting ready and looking a little more like Dopey than a skunk.

All dressed and ready to go.


"Are you sure I have to wear this hat?"


The Stinker rockin' his State Farm Insurance ride.


Ringing Mr. Ben's doorbell. It was the perfect height for Luke!


Yay! Every successful ring was cause for celebration.


Headed back to the wagon, but not before doing a little dance in the gutter.


Loving the lone bowl on the porch. In true Stinker form, he poured the whole thing out while we were talking to our new neighbors in the yard.


When we got to this neighbor's house, there was a surprise on the other side of the door...


Dorothy!!


Isn't she ADORABLE??!!! Her real name is Tessa, and she is just a few weeks younger than Luke.


Putting his candy from Tessa in his bag.


And then it was time to mow! He spotted Tessa's mower just inside the door and therE was no stopping him.


Thankfully Tessa's grandparents needed their house mowed, so they didn't mind the Stinker taking over.


Onto the next house. Luke was a pro by this point.


All done and headed home.


One happy Stinker enjoying some of the night's plunder.

Tuttle's Orchard.

As promised, here are the rest of the pictures from our trip to Tuttle's Orchard last weekend. It was so much fun this year, now that the Big Man is big enough to enjoy it. We'll definitely be going back!

First things first, we had to go say hi to a real Llama Llama Red Pajama (one of Luke's favorite books) and a random baby goat. Luke wasn't really that impressed. Apparently the book was better.

We headed off to the kids' area where there was a very cool hay maze. Luke was very good at finding the dead ends.

Eventually he made it to the center of the maze.
Very anticlimactic.


"What the heck? How do you get out of this place?"


"I've got an idea! Follow me, Daddy!"


Free at last.


He spotted the big red tractor and was not at all concerned about its maximum capacity.


I guess the kiddos saw him coming and got scared. He ended up having the whole thing to himself for a few minutes until a brave little boy came and joined him.


He was very serious about driving.


Mommy forced him and Daddy into one of her favorite things in the world-- a field of sunflowers. Heaven will be full of sunflower fields, don't you think?


The tractor-pulled hay ride went by while we were there and Luke was mesmerized.


Once the trance lifted, he found a sandbox with several big trucks. Of course he wanted to ride on them all. Poor guy doesn't realize that not all cars/trucks/tractors are made for riding.


Thankfully we found a tractor that was made for riding!


And then the big tractor passed by again and nothing else mattered. (It just so happened that Luke's friend Jackson, the one in the middle, was there with his friend. Jackson is the one who is 3 months older than Luke and half his size, but in every other way is SO much like Luke.)


Finally it was our turn to go on the hay ride!


Then we headed to the orchard to pick apples. They were out of little red wagons and Luke is way too heavy to hold for long periods of time, so the stroller saved the day.


"Huh. They really do grow on trees."


Later, as we walked out to the pumpkin patch, the tractor passed by yet again, this time much closer. So cool.


Luke quickly found the perfect pumpkin.


And another. And another.

Mommy was so excited about all the cute pumpkins.
Daddy and Luke not so much.

It wasn't long before they both gave me an "all done" and started heading home.