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What's missing?

Luke lost his first tooth this morning! He's has a loose tooth for about 3 weeks, and this weekend, another was loose. It's this second loose tooth that actually fell out today. It was barely hanging on, and I've been trying to pull it out for the last 2 days, but Luke wouldn't let me. This morning I went out to get the paper, and when I came back in, Luke was holding his tooth and said, "It just came out!" He was eating his vitamins and chewed with his front teeth, and his tooth came out. This it Twinkle Toof, a special box to hold the tooth. Luke will put the box under his pillow tonight (and expects to get $5 - that's the going rate for a first tooth!!)
Can you tell how very excited he is to have lost a tooth??

Spring break

We went down to San Antonio on Thursday for a little spring break trip. It was a whirlwind, complete with sleeping issues and a full-on five-and-a-half-year-old meltdown, but overall we had a good time.

On the riverwalk in San Antonio.
Noah slurped up the last of his ice cream. When it comes to sweets, both of my boys take after me.
Feeding the dolphins at Sea World.

Waiting for the Shamu show "Believe" to start.


Back on the riverwalk on Friday night.
For those of you who don't remember, Gary has a cousin Micajah Autry who fought and died at the Alamo. If Gary had gotten his way, we would have named Noah Micajah. Or Autry. I had to say no.
Remember the Alamo!

Luke's inner gorilla came out an hour or so after dinner. He had a super-mega meltdown at the hotel. He was so tired from being up till after 10:00 the night before, that he just lost it about 7:15 Friday night. He was drawing but was very frustrated that nothing was turning out like he wanted. He was screaming and crumpling paper up, and when I told him to do something else, he said, "But you told me to draw!" Then he decided he needed some tape and kept screaming, "I need tape!" I kept telling him he needed to calm down, to which he replied, "I can't calm down! I need some help!" He did indeed need some help! He eventually calmed down and was asleep by about 7:45. It was a rough evening, but I can laugh about it now.

Here's another gem from Luke:

-"Did you know that dolphins only have teeth on the bottom . . . and the top?" He said these words, verbatim, on the way back to the hotel from Sea World. There have been lots of times that he's started a sentence with "Did you know" followed by something interesting he's learned at school. This wasn't one of those times.

Because he can

Noah's latest trick.

The tag in this hat says 12-24 months. Luke wore it when he was 6 months old. Noah's wearing it at 2. Does that clearly show the difference in the size of their heads?

Eavesdropping

Last night when Luke was talking to Gary on the phone, I think Gary asked Luke to guess where he was. Luke didn't know, and Gary must have told him to guess a state. Luke said, "I know lots of states. South Carolina, Texas, Australia." The child can do simple multiplication, but he thinks Australia is a state. Calculus is in his future, but not the geography bee.

Spring soccer

Luke's first soccer game was yesterday. In the past, his team has not done that well. In fact, the last game of last season was their first win. Whatever momentum they had at the end of the season carried over into yesterday's game. The game was a tie, and they played really well. I am so proud of the progress Luke has made. He's really good at defense, and he's starting to get the hang of the game.

Even though it was about 74, it was really windy and pretty chilly. I'm glad I keep a blanket in the van. We spent most of the fourth quarter like this.

A boy of many talents

Luke first did this activity on his field trip a couple of weeks ago. You can tell he planned this structure - it's not just a bunch of marshmallows randomly stuck to toothpicks. This is a really good example of the way his mind works.

Luke's team ended the season 5-3, and while he was by no means a basketball super-star by the end, he had definitely made some improvements. Gary really enjoyed coaching the boys. I'm pretty sure their favorite part of the season was getting a trophy after the last game.

Seen and heard

I've had concerns for a while about whether Noah is delayed in his speech. I now know he is not. He seems to say something new every day, and he's gotten really good at putting two and three words together. Here are a few things we hear frequently around our house:

-"big blue blankie"
-"ow hurt eye" (or ear or something else . . . I think he's going to be a hypochondriac)
-"Hi, Bubba/Daddy/Mommy!"
-"ma-mu (vacuum) Daddy" (yes, my husband does indeed do the vacuuming)
-"more nandy" (candy)
-"nandy mouf" (mouth)
-"nandy nandy nandy" (are you seeing a pattern here?)
-"big potty/truck/chair"

He says lots of other phrases, too. It's still funny to hear him say more than one word at a time because he just started doing it about a month ago.

Just to make sure everyone remembers how wacky Noah is, here are a few recent pictures. I'll have to pull this picture out when we do a yearbook dedication page for Noah his senior year.