Laughs from Luke

Just a few funny things Luke has said over the last few months:

Luke: "Mom! That lady is about to lay a baby." Thankfully the very pregnant lady didn't hear him. We did discuss "laying an egg" vs. "having a baby."

Luke started school on a Wednesday. Fletcher started one day before on Tuesday. At home during lunch, Luke said his blessing and prayed: Dear God, please make Fletcher not be mean to his new friends today at school and that he won't bite anyone. Oh, and help his lunch taste good. Amen.

And here is the most recent exchange from last week.  I'm still processing this one.

Luke (age 5): I kissed T on the playground today....a LOT of times.
Me (trying to maintain parental poker face): Oh...What did she say?
Luke: I don't remember. 
Me: What did her mom say? (Her mom is the teacher of the class)
Luke: I don't remember.
Me: Well, her mom and dad probably don't want you kissing on their little girl. You should wait until you are married. For now, you can save your kisses for mommy and grandmas and aunts. 
Luke: Well, I tried to kiss G too, but she ran away.

We are in so much trouble.  I knew I would have to deal with this eventually because he is a cutie pie, but I thought I had a few years...

First Day of School 2012

Fletcher started school on Tuesday and Luke started on Wednesday.  They are both together at a new school.  (We moved over the summer which deserves its own blog post).

Fletcher said the first day was "awesome."   Luke said it was "good."

I told them beforehand that I would ask both of them a question when they got in the car at the end of the day.

"What color are your teacher's eyes?"

We are working on getting both of them to look an adult in the eyes when they are talking to them.  It is a sign of respect (as opposed to staring at the ground and mumbling).  It is also a confidence builder for them.

For the record - Mrs. H has hazel eyes and Mrs. B has brown.

Next up, Fletcher has to find out the eye color of his Latin teacher, his music teacher, his art teacher and his PE coach.

Speaking of coach, both of the boys will be playing soccer with their school through the YMCA.  Should be very interesting for so many reasons. Have I mentioned that I know nothing about soccer.  Well, except for the black and white ball and the goal part.  I guess we will all learn together.

Before I show the obligatory first day of school photos, I do have to share Luke's lunchtime prayer on Monday.  Luke was at home with me while Fletcher was at school.

"Dear God, please make Fletcher not be mean to his new friends today at school and that he won't bite anyone. Oh, and help his lunch taste good. Amen."

Ok so Fletcher looks about 16 in this picture.  

Luke was a little nervous.  But doesn't he look adorable in his uniform?

Carpool Line

Luke's teacher brought him out to the car last week for carpool line.  She is one of the carpool "loaders" so that part didn't alarm me.

I opened the side door, smiled and said, "Hey, Luke" like I always do.  As she was helping Luke get into the van, she said, "Luke really impressed us today with his vocabulary."

My heart stopped.

My eyes widened.

My face fell.

I was horrified.

We all know that "Luke impressed us today with his vocabulary" is really nice preschool teacher phrasing for "Luke said a bad word."

I was bracing myself for the worst.

"Uh-oh...um...what exactly did he say?" I asked trying to maintain my composure.

She looked at my face and immediately sensed my panic.  "Oh no, nothing bad at all.  I mean, he really did impress us.  We were doing an activity and he used the word 'extraordinarily'.  The other teacher and I were impressed that not only did he know the word, but he used it correctly in a sentence." 

I. Was. So. Relieved. And. Overjoyed. 

"Well, he does watch Word Girl on PBS,"  I said. 

The next day, this is what came home in his class folder.  They were studying the letter "U" and they painted an umbrella then drew something underneath it.  The top of the page (got cut off on the scanner) said "Who is under my umbrella?"  Each child drew a picture and the teacher recorded the child's response.

Luke said, "A people who has one eye and extraordinarily long arms."  I think I can see the long arms and the one eye. 

I'm so proud of my little wordsmith!

Did Someone Call A Repairman?

Kevin wanted to get his lawnmower ready for the spring season.  I can honestly say I had NO IDEA one must "get his lawnmower ready" for the spring cutting season.  I guess it involves sharpening the blades and tightening the doohickeys and what have you. 

Kevin found a guy that comes to your house and takes care of it all.   How convenient is that? 

Mr. Lawnmower Man showed up and Luke was fascinated!  He has a toy lawnmower that he loves (we've had it since Fletcher was 2).  So Luke decided he needed to get his lawnmower ready for the spring cutting season too.  I wanted to go outside and video him, but I knew as soon as he saw the camera he would stop what he was doing.  So I videoed him as best I could from the front door through the side light window.  You can see Mr. Lawnmower Man in the background.  Seriously, it was one of the cutest things ever.  At one point Luke went and found a bungee cord to figure out a way to suspend his lawnmower like Mr. LM was doing.

Wacky Wednesday

In honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday, Luke's class held Wacky Wednesday last week. 

Can you tell he was not into it at all? 

I think Fletcher was a little sad that his school wasn't participating.  Boring school uniforms.  



Busted!

Several weeks ago we had a lice scare at our house.  Our pastor's wife called me Monday afternoon and told me Luke had been exposed to lice Sunday night at church. I immediately went into prevention mode - stripping bed linens, bagging up stuffed animals, and washing hair. 

Luke's bag of stuffed animals stayed in the garage for several weeks in a garbage bag just to be sure. Rocky #1 was in that bag.  Today before church Luke asked if he could have his bag of animals.  Not thinking, I said "yes".  Fletcher came running into the office with a panicked look and said, "Hide Rocky." 

At that point, Luke came around the corner and said, "There are two Rockys?" 

So now he knows.

Groundhog Day

A Boy and His Dog

When we did the photo shoot before Christmas, I brought Rocky along hidden in my bag. Ordinarily, Rocky is not allowed to leave the house unless we are going on vacation. Early on, we decided to make that a rule so that we wouldn't accidentally lose her (yes, Luke says Rocky is a girl) at school or at the grocery store or at church. We do have a duplicate Rocky that we rotate with the original Rocky (That's so the wear patterns are the same. Yes, it works. No, Luke still doesn't realize there are two identical Rockys. I highly recommend buying at least two if your child happens to gets attached to a particular lovey).

Back to the story.

Because Rocky is such a huge part of Luke's childhood, I wanted to make sure I had some pictures of them together so I could remember.   I've seen Toy Story 1, 2, and 3.  I know kids grow up and their loveys get shoved under a bed or in a closet (cue the soundtrack for "When She Loved Me"). 

These pictures are so very precious to me. In the one where his mouth is by her ear, I told him to tell Rocky what the photographer was doing. He was very seriously whispering to her. Not sure what he said, but Rocky looks a little nervous.

New Favorite

Luke was sitting on the potty last night singing this song at the top of his lungs.  The acoustics in the boys' bathroom are excellent.  He couldn't remember all the words so he just kept singing "All I know is I'm not home yet.  This is not where I belong"  over and over again. 

If you haven't heard this song yet, it is great.  It has quickly become one of our new favorites.  Every time it comes on the radio, Fletcher and Luke ask me to turn it up loud!

Christmas 2011

I was so caught up in the excitement of Christmas morning, I only took a few pictures and videos.

One advantage of buying pjs a few sizes too big is that they get to wear them two Christmases in a row. 

This was Fletcher's face after he realized the really big present was for him. 

They sat still long enough for a quick picture, then it was off to play with new toys.

These videos capture the personalities of our children when they wake up. We later found out that Fletcher had been up since 4 am (but didn't come out of his room until 7). We had to wake Luke up a little after 7 for fear that his brother might burst with anticipation!

Luke


Fletcher

Phases

We love our boys. We love being parents. We are not perfect. We don't know it all. We sometimes wish our kids came with "How To" manuals so we could figure them out. What we have realized is that kids go through phases. And just when you think that particular phase is going to do you in, they move on to another phase. Thank goodness!

Luke turned 4 in August. He is cute, loving and funny. He is also very opinionated about how his world should work. His way. Always. (I would use the term "strong willed" or "stubborn" but I want to avoid labeling my child). Lately, he latches on to something that he does or does not want and WILL NOT LET IT GO. Same question over and over. Not doing what we tell him to do no matter how many different ways we say it. We've tried redirecting, distracting, giving choices, time outs, other consequences, and even spankings. He still isn't getting the fact that he is not "the boss" (yes, he used these words with us -- "I'm the boss!"). It is sort of cute at 4, but it wont' be cute at 14 and it will definitely be problematic at 24 so we are trying to prayerful guide him. And it is wearing me out.

But I know this is just a phase. Just for posterity's sake, I am including this brief video as a reminder to me. We were coming home from the beach a few weeks ago. We have a DVD player in our van. Sometimes we let the kids choose the movies they watch. Other times I choose for them when they can't agree on something. I had chosen a movie (Veggie Tales Jonah which they had seen before and like very much). Luke decided my movie choice was unacceptable. For thirty minutes...30...half an hour...26 miles...this is what we heard over and over again.   In case you can't understand it, he is saying "I want a different movie" over and over again. 


He told me the next day, "Mommy, my throat hurts."  Hmmmm...wonder why.
I'd like to say this was a one time occurrence, but yesterday after church, we went to lunch with some friends. Five of the seven of us were already seated eating our food when Luke decided he wanted to sit somewhere else in the restaurant. He proceeded to scream when we didn't move so Kevin took him out to the van and strapped him in his carseat (which he can't unbuckle). Kevin sat out there with him. We ate our lunch inside and came out about 30 minutes later and he was still screaming. Screamed and cried all the way home too. Part of me wants to just give in, but I know that giving in to his every ridiculous whim is not the best thing to do. 
Like I said, I love being a mom. I am really hoping this phase passes very, very quickly. I heard someone say once that the Bible uses the phrase "and it came to pass" many times. That's because whatever trial or circumstance we are going through will pass eventually otherwise God would have used the phrase "and it came to stay".

*sigh*

I was out of the room for maybe 5 minutes.

 (At the breakfast table)

 Me: Luke, why is your hair wet?

 Luke: It's milk.

 Me: Milk? How did you get milk in your hair?

 Luke: I stuck my head in my cereal bowl.

Someday I will miss this!(I kept repeating this to myself as I was washing the milk out of his hair at the sink.)

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

Bob Dylan is getting old.  I think we may have found a possible replacement.
Still makes a mama proud.


This guitar has served us well.  Remember this?  Fletcher was about the same age as Luke is now.

Sesame Street Is Brought To You Today By The Number 10

In the car driving home recently, Luke started counting.  He likes numbers.  He does great through about 29 then he starts saying random numbers in a very random order. Drives. Fletcher. Nuts.

Luke:  (counting) 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 53, 65, 34,

Fletcher:  Luke, why don't you count all the way to 100 by 10s. 

Luke:  10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10....I have to say a lot of dem because 100 is a long way away.

Fletcher:  (exasperated) Luke!  I mean why don't you try counting BY tens.

Luke:  (I am not making this up)  By 10, by 10, by 10, by 10, by 10, by 10

I had forgotten how very literal 4 year olds are.  Fletcher tried to teach him how to do it, but it wasn't clicking yet.  I kinda like Luke's way better anyway at this point. 

What A Difference A Year Makes

Remember this from last year? 

Here are two clips from this year's performance.  I was so happy and proud that I completely zoned out for about 15 seconds in the middle and then realized I didn't even have the camera on Luke.

Fill 'Er Up

I'm not sure how this whole thing started, but I love it.

Our bedtime routine with the boys is pretty standard:  baths, teeth brushed, Bible time, prayers, tucking in bed, hugs and kisses, music on, and lights out. 

When I lean down to hug and kiss Luke, he says, "Let me see your Love Tank." 
I open my mouth for him to see (like I said, not sure where this game came from). 
He says, "Nope, not filled up."  Then he starts giving me numerous hugs and kisses to fill up my Love Tank.
He asks to see again and says, "Yep.  All filled up now."
Then I say to him, "Let me see your Love Tank." 
He opens his mouth as wide as he can and I say, "Nope.  Not filled up.  You need 7 more kisses and 4 more hugs."  And he giggles as I count them out. 
I look inside his Love Tank again and tell him, "One more big hug to fill it to the tippy tippy top."

We both go to sleep with a full tank!  Of course, we have to do it again the next night because Love Tanks leak during the day! 

So the next time someone around you is feeling grumpy, ask to see their Love Tank.  They may just need a fill up from you!

Down on the Farm

Luke's preschool had a fall farm day instead of having any "Halloween" festivities.  They got to go on a hayride, pick out a pumpkin and see some live animals. 

I've never seen a cuter farmer!

We are going to a Not-A-Halloween party tonight.  The kids will still wear costumes and we will eat pizza and have a bonfire.  There were a few families who decided to get together instead of trick or treating this year.  Some people around here go all out in trying to scare the little kids to death and we just didn't want to have to deal with that.  Our friends live in one of those neighborhoods where the houses are acres apart so they never get trick or treaters out their way.  The kids will have a blast.  Pics soon! 

Growing Up

The firetruck and firemen came and visited Luke's preschool last week. 

Luke:  Mommy, guess what I want to be when I grow up?
Me:  What do you want to be?
Luke:  A fireman! 
Me:  Wow!  That would be really cool.
Luke:  Mommy?
Me:  Yes, Luke?
Luke:  What do you want to be when you grow up?

More Surprises!

When we knew we were going to be in the Raleigh area on Saturday, Kevin thought it might be fun to go to a work site and let Luke drive a real excavator.  He is still fascinated with big machines.  He loves playing with his dump trucks, bull dozers, skid steer loaders and tools.  One of his favorite things to play is "worker" at the "working site."  Kevin's friend knows how to operate the big machines so we met him there.  His son got to go first and Luke was mesmerized watching this other little boy drive the track wheel excavator up the hill through the dirt and then dig a hole.  Since it was somewhat loud, I wasn't sure if Luke would want a turn.  But as soon as Kevin asked, Luke was ready to go.  He loved it.  I couldn't zoom close enough to see his expression on his face.  Let's just say that he thought the Lego Fest was cool, but driving the excavator was way cooler in his book!

But we had one more surprise before we came home!

Surprises!

I love a good surprise.  Well, let me rephrase that.  I love planning a good surprise for someone else.  I think it is fun to see someone else's reaction when something happens that they are totally not expecting. 

This past weekend was full of surprises.  Kevin had to go to work in Chapel Hill on Wednesday and was going to be there through Friday.  The boys know he has to be out of town periodically for his job, but they just don't like it when he's away.  I asked Fletcher if he thought it would be fun to drive to Chapel Hill on Friday and surprise Daddy.  Fletcher loved the idea.  He said we could wait until 10 pm and sneak into his hotel and knock on the door and yell, "Surprise!"  I tried to steer him in a bit of a different direction while trying to maintain his enthusiasm (I am sure the other hotel guests were glad we didn't go with his initial plan).  We opted to surprise him at work. 

Now in order to pull this off, I had to get Kevin involved.  Otherwise, he would be driving home as we were driving to Chapel Hill.  Fletcher didn't want to tell Luke because he was afraid Luke would spill the beans if we talked to Kevin on the phone.  He finally told Luke and Luke thought it sounded really fun. 

Kevin was in a meeting and played along perfectly when Luke yelled, "Surprise!"  Fletcher was so excited and flustered that he couldn't do anything but giggle.  We left work and headed to Kevin's hotel.  I asked if Kevin knew how to get to the Raleigh Convention Center....for another surprise.  I told the boys that there was a conference going on there.  Fletcher wanted to know what a conference was. I told him about the math conferences I used to go to when I was a teacher.  He was not impressed.  And a little less than thrilled at the thought of going to a "boring conference." 

He saw the Lego logo when we drove up and his attitude changed.  He had no idea what awaited him inside the Convention Center.  Lego Kids Fest goes to five cities each year.  There's so much to do and so much to see.  We had a blast! 

All of these structures were built out of legos.  Notice Fletcher's Lego Star Wars shirt.  I suggested he put that on in the morning because I knew what was coming later that night.

 C3PO and R2D2

Captain Jack Sparrow

 Lightning McQueen from Cars.  It must have taken forever to build this one.

 Darth Vader

 Boba Fett (?)

Storm Trooper or Captain Rex or some other Star Wars character.  You would think I would be better at naming these. 

 Droid?  Clone fighter?  Star Wars thingy.

 Indiana Jones

Buzz and Woody (and proof that I was actually there with them since I am usually the one taking all the pictures)

 Mystery Mural.  Each person gets a small tile with colors on the front and a number on the back. Here in this picture they are making their tiles based on the colors they need. 

Then they get to put it on the big mural wall according to its number.  By the end of the weekend, the huge mural will be complete and we will get to go to a website and see what the surprise mural is.  My guess is that it will be the city skyline of Raleigh. 

 Luke felt like such a big kid putting his into place.

 Just a giant pile of legos to sit in, sift through, build, etc. 

 We buried Fletcher and Luke. 

 This was the Duplo area.  Duplo blocks are the lego brick that are for smaller children. 

They built a tower taller than Kevin.  Kevin got reprimanded by the Lego Staff guy.  He told him we had to take it down after our picture.  Since this area is for smaller children, they didn't want anything to fall on them.  We had to laugh because Kevin deals with building codes and Homeowners Associations all the time for work.  Who knew Lego had a building committee. 

 This was an outline of the United States.  Each person could build a scene with anything they wanted on it and then tell the worker what part of the country to put it in.  We'll get to go to the www.legokidsfest.com website this week and see the completed US. 

 Here's what Fletcher built.  He chose to put it by a tall tower near Georgia so we could (hopefully) find it in the completed picture online.

 Build A Story.  This might have been Fletcher's favorite area because he especially likes creating different characters.  There was a little town built with football field, soccer field, movie theater, sidewalks, lighthouse, etc.  Kids could come and make their own minifigures to be part of the story.  There seemed to be lots of skeletons and zombies in this town.

 Luke liked the lighthouse.

 These were bins of heads and hats and accessories. 

I took this video as we were leaving.  Notice all the bins and crates and boxes behind the curtains.  I can only imagine how many legos they have to bring to each city to pull off this event. 

As we were leaving, Fletcher said, "This was so awesome!!! This was a great memory!!!" 

But there were more surprises to come.....stay tuned for the next surprise (besides getting to sleep at Daddy's hotel which they also thought was very cool and fun).