Nostalgia

When my family lived in Moline (1982-ish), I have a clear memory of my dad coming home from a business trip with a special gift for me. How exciting! I remember coming down our staircase excited that he was home, and he handed me the package. Keep in mind that gifts upon arrival were not expected or the norm, and most times that he travelled I was excited to get the little soaps and shampoos from his hotel room. I had to be in K or 1st grade because we moved in the middle of 1st and my memory tells me that this moment was in our lovely yellow Moline home.

Getting to the point, Dad got me my first Care Bear, Tenderheart. I really loved this bear, and he immediately went to the top of my stuffed animal collection's pecking order. My collection of CB's grew over the next few years (memories of feeling packages under the Christmas tree and knowing a new one was there b/c of their oddly shaped package I could feel under the wrapping come to mind) but Tenderheart always remained my #1. He is much more worn than the others and still seems more special for some reason.

Getting to another point of this story, I have kept my CB's up in the attic the past few years not really thinking about them and when we knew we were having a boy, I figured they may never go to use, but...Luke noticed the characters on another vintage CB product in the house and seemed really interested in them. The item is a 25 year old metal garbage can with all of the bears on it that we use for the bathroom trash, he spotted it after his bath on Monday. This inspired me to get the bears down from the attic, throw them in the wash machine and see what would happen.


Well, once again, Tenderheart was the bear that Luke thought was cool, too. I am not making this up, but Tenderheart is the one that he picked out of the row to spend some one on one time with and even read a couple of books to this morning. Can I just confess to the surprising happiness that having these bears out brings me, and to how thankful I am that my dad brought this little guy home for me 25 years ago. (I have to wonder if my mom didn't tell him to find it and bring it home?)

Independent Fella

Once I notice Luke's eyes have become glassy from a busy morning and his belly full from a (hopefully) good lunch, we move our activities back to the playroom and his bedroom for a diaper change, lots of tickles and giggles because he goes into really amusing hysterics trying to avoid me on the futon all the while NOT avoiding me and laughing while I tickle him, and eventually over to his room for four or five stories then a few verses of 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star' before he cuddles up to George and knocks out for two or three hours.

The last couple of days Luke has completely banned me from the story time chair and has instead read to himself before he gets down and grabs my hand for some snuggles before he gets in his crib. Actually, on Monday he grabbed a warm blanket from the laundry basket and walked it and me back to his crib for nap time. So, the point to these run-on sentences is that our little fella is getting to be a really independent little fella and I am pretty impressed. Here are a few shots of him reading in his room and showing how proud he is to be the sole owner of the story chair now.


P.S. I am not sad yet over lost story time since now he wakes up and is eager to read right away. We read for nearly 45 minutes today before he tugged me by my index finger down the hall for a pre-breakfast and some juice.

Yoga props

Sometimes in a yoga class you will use props to help your body adjust to new or difficult poses. I recently purchased a really great DVD with five yoga routines on it that I really enjoy using.

The best session is when I need a little Luke prop. He will just give me hugs, sit real close, challenge me to stretch around him, etc...Yoga has never been more challenging or more enjoyable than with my little snugglebug trying to drive his tractor down my back and legs during a lunge or hugging me during a downward dog or wanting to sit on my lap during a twist.
Precious moments defined.

I especially enjoy these pictures b/c Luke is still a little sleepy in them from having just gotten up from his nap, and because of the fact that Steve took them with out any prompting from me...he just knew it was a moment to capture.

This was bound to happen

It was a warm but overcast day today with spots of rain and then sun...We did get out for a nice walk in the woods after a morning of cooking and playing, where Luke especially enjoyed chucking gumballs as far as he could, walking in puddles and climbing all over the benches. The dogs got to swim, we played on a dock and then had a quick visit with Gma Susan and Gpa Paul. Luke and Gpa put the Thomas train track together and then Luke played with it :)

The pictures are of a morning event. I was in the living room reading the paper and Steve told me we had a new development happening in the kitchen. Luke likes to throw dog treats out of the dog door to the girls, but today he tossed his cup and he followed it right outside. Yeah...can you sense how happy Luke was to be on the deck ALONE and playing at his water table in the rain. So much fun!

Peanut butter and sunshine

Earlier this week, we spent lots of time out in the backyard. Touching our trees, examining the fence, normal stuff people do in their backyards, right? I also spread some peanut butter on the deck for the wonderful birds that visit our backyard. Luke saw this and wanted to take part in the treat so he walked around with a spoonful of peanut butter, a big smile, a cup of milk and the dogs trailing him in case he dropped the spoon. I LOVE the simplicity of our life right now.

The Rave

We have had some extremely mild and welcome weather for the past week or so. Over the weekend we took advantage of it and headed to one of our favorite little trails for some good fun in the woods. We don't take a stroller anymore b/c Luke is happy to walk along with us, explore on his own or be carried when he needs a rest. Sunday on the way home we ate at a little diner near our small airport, no plane sightings unfortunately, but the food was good. After lunch, Luke was nearly passed out in his car seat but perked right up when we got home. We did the normal nap thing and he snuggled right up ready to knock out...however, there was no nap on Sunday :) This is what I spotted as I went to get him after 30 minutes of listening to him party with his buddies (who I saw were tossed from the crib during the party)
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Happy 22 month birthday, Luke!

Deep thoughts with/about Luke

I am writing this as Luke tries to throw a myriad of items into the toilet. Diaper, toothbrush, stationary, hotwheels, etc...He just screamed because his daddy told him that pee is the only thing we want going in the toilet. He is also wearing his big boy underwear so Steve is taking him to the toilet every 10 minutes or so to try and get him to pee. I would love to have a third world 'squat' right now which seems so sensible when you are thinking of potty training.

Besides the fun bathroom gags, we are just having the time of our life with our little family. Knock on wood. Luke is making a lot more sounds, he knows to say mommy really sweetly when he wants something, talks about his daddy all day long, loves to brush his teeth (like 10x a day) will take a time out during the day to chill in his room and read a few books to himself, loves to try to ride or love on the dogs, is cutting 2 two year molars, has a good time with a sheet of stickers, has just fallen in love wih puzzles, puzzles, puzzles, has started to enjoy SuperWhy in the morning on PBS (is it silly if I enjoy this little show too?), he goes down for a nap or for bed with a smile on his face, talks to his crib buddies for a bit and conks out, wakes up yelling mama then daddy b/c 75% of the time daddy gets there first, wears a 6 1/2 shoe, size 5 diaper and 18-24 month clothes, really likes to smile, really likes to climb, really likes to give high 5's and fist bumps when you ask him, still isn't talking much, but really gets what is going on and seems to be a confident and happy kiddo. I couldn't dream of asking for anything more.

That is quite a run-on...Oh yeah, he loves his new car seat - the Britax Roundabout 50 which I would recommend to any parent. Our car seat was not secure enough and this one seems to be superglued into the Honda. I like that. I also like not annoying my husband about the carseat or being annoyed by my husband because he wasn't magically fixing it. Did I mention our happy little family? Knock on wood...

Local Produce

I understand that there are only a few readers of this blog, but even so, I want to draw some attention to a blog that I have added to my blog list.

http://clearcreekcsa.blogspot.com/

This is a farm run by a friend of mine, Anne, that I have recently reconnected with here in southern Illinois. Anne and I were in the same dorm freshman year of college and hung out some then, but we are now both in education here and have little munchkins close in age.

So...check it out if you are in the area and want to get some great organic food delivered to your house for 22 weeks this summer and fall...I am looking forward to the deliveries and to being inspired to use all of the produce in my cooking!

And here is a picture of Luke just because :)

Strike

I heard about bowling for little kids from a mom friend earlier this week so we tried it out this week, and it was REALLY fun. Luke was very excited to get the ball to hit the pins even if it meant running down the lane to do so :) He was intrigued by how the balls make their way back to the stand and after a while decided he needed to check out the arcade and search for money in all of the machines! Daddy helped him win 200 tickets playing Deal or No Deal. Luke liked playing with the tickets for a minute but shared them with an older girl there which made her night (and allowed her to buy a quality toy, of course!) I love this kid (and his daddy!) >

It is a beautiful day to celebrate!

It is Grandpa Paul's birthday today. We are sending love to Las Vegas where he and Gma Susan are celebrating a long weekend with Uncle Glenn. They will be spending lots of time watching football and hopefully getting out to soak up some Vegas sun as well.

Happy Birthday Grandpa! Here is Luke today with a special Grandpa shirt on after sharing some lunch at Daddy's office



It also feels like spring outside so we took a long walk in the sunshine (!) in the late morning with the dogs and with a new treat that Uncle Eric and Aunt Shannon sent from Italy! We opened the mail right before our walk and Luke wouldn't put his new toy down so we walked today with a camel for company :) Thanks for the treats, Shannon and Eric!

The M word

Luke's first molar is popping through. He had a fever Friday night and that nasty (really nasty) teething poop over the weekend but seemed okay otherwise. In honor of the current sixteen teeth he has, I thought I would post a few smiling shots. We spent the morning cleaning the house together, which basically consisted of me scrubbing the bathroom while he squeezed layer after layer of handsoap onto some part of his body. Then we shopped fora very short time a the mall before spending over an hour on the kid rides. Good thing he doesn't get the fact that money makes them 'go' yet. The arcade owner actually came out and gave him a free ride, though, which was pretty darn nice of him! Good times for all. I have a feeling we are both going to enjoy the changes that the summer brings. School for him and work for me...Back to the toothy grins -The water is green due to some bath fizzie things that we were experimenting with...
Hamming it up with his pal, Addison
How do you like those big boy underpants? For that matter, how do you like the word underpants? It makes me laugh a little.
Pretty cozy in the laundry basket with his books, of course.
Is it obvious that his train/car/craft table is a big hit?

Snow Day

Steve went back to work for three days and then got a snow day...we are happy to have another day to hang out with him. Luke helped me bake a loaf of bread, gpa Nick came over for breakfast, the dogs had a blast wrestling in the snow and Luke got to investigate the white stuff a bit before the cold wind brought us back in...