Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

I've been meaning for a week or two to post a short update on how and what Tommy has been doing during his special time with Daddy and Jjaja, or to at least get some pictures or video back on the front page of this blog. As I get ready to leave for Africa myself I realize I'm running out of time to do that, so here we go.

Here are a few video highlights:

A couple of bears at the zoo


Squirrel watching, and where are my drumsticks?


General silliness

We've also enjoyed getting to talk to Mum and Mtoto pretty regularly each day via Skype. I'll have to get some video one of these days of Tommy's impression of his baby brother. It's pretty awesome.

Chatting with Mum, and wearing his favorite pajamas

And last, here are a few Tommyisms I've collected over the last few weeks:

Getting ready for bed on Wednesday night, I offered Tommy two suggestions for which pajamas to wear.
     Daddy: Tommy, stripes or penguins?
     Tommy: Oh, penguins. My favorite. I love my penguins.

After dinner last Saturday we had the following exchange:
     Jjaja: How about a bath, Tommy?
     Tommy: (To Daddy) How about an S-R-N-O-P?

I was gathering some travel-related paperwork this week, and Tommy picked up two passport-sized photos of me:
     Tommy: That's Daddy. I want to snuggle him.
     Daddy: Tommy, I'm right here! don't you want to snuggle the real Daddy?
     Tommy: No, I want to snuggle the pretend Daddy (laughes).