Woof, woof!

Whenever Luke does something he thinks is cute, he asks me to take his picture. This occasion was no exception.

Just like Daddy

Luke's favorite thing to do in the bathtub is "shave". He has a toy razor, and he loves to put shaving cream on his face and shave it off. The funny thing is that he shaves his whole face - forehead, nose, ears, mouth. He also likes to shave his legs, arms, and sometimes even his belly. It's pretty funny to watch. I'm sure he'll get the hang of it by the time he actually needs to shave!

I scream, you scream

This evening the ice cream truck came to our neighborhood, and when Luke heard it, he jumped up and shouted, "Hooray!" He picked out a Dora ice cream bar which had black gumball eyes (it was a little strange looking, but he didn't seem to mind.) Since it was 95 today, it wasn't long before the ice cream started to melt and Luke was a complete mess. Good thing it was bath night!

Sprinkelier

Luke's favorite afternoon activity is playing in his new "sprinkelier", as he calls it. The first day we played in it, he ran all around and got wet, but since then, he's just filled up his little watering can and poured it out. Until the pool opens every day, this will be our way to cool off in the hot afternoon.

Splash day

On Luke's last day of school, the children got to go outside in the afternoon and play in water. Luke was very hesitant at first (imagine that!), but he soon warmed up to a couple of the sprinklers. I got about as wet as Luke did, but since it was HOT, it was OK. We're both sad that school is over, but we have lots of great memories of his first year.

Paranoia

I've been meaning to post this for quite a while, but I'm just now taking the time to do it. Several months ago, I asked Luke to get some shoes out of his closet, a task he's more than capable of doing. He told me he couldn't because, "Cookie Monster's yooking at me." I had no idea what he was talking about, so I went to investigate. There was a door hanger on his door with a Cookie Monster sticker on it, and he wouldn't go anywhere near the door because Cookie Monster was looking at him. I turned the door hanger around, and, POOF, problem solved. However, many other things started looking at him. There are certain books he doesn't want in the bed with him because Swiper the fox, or the Cat in the Hat is "yooking" at him. While all of this is pretty funny, the funniest was when when he was sitting in the living room and he told me the "P" (on our Panasonic TV) was "yooking at him." I tried not to laugh because I know he doesn't find it funny, but even now it makes me giggle to think about it. I have no clue where all this came from, so I'm just chalking it up to 2-year-old silliness.

Happy Mother's Day!

We had a nice Mother's Day. Luke sang his "I love Mommy" song he learned at school all day, and gave me lots of hugs and kisses, because that's what you do on Mother's day!

Muffins with Mom

Last Tuesday Luke's class had muffins with mom in honor of Mother's Day. They decorated little pots and planted flowers in them for us and made a sweet picture with their handprints as flowers. We ate muffins and had juice, and then the children sang a song for all the mothers. They've also been working on a shapes, colors, and numbers book, and we got to see it on Tuesday. It's patterned after Brown Bear, Brown Bear; each of the children is on a different page and they all "see" a different color, shape, and number. It's a wonderful keepsake that will help us to remember Luke's first year of preschool. Muffins with mom was such a sweet morning, one I know I'll always treasure.

Happy Birthday, Nana!

My dear Nana turned 85 last Tuesday! I know she'll cringe when she reads this because I'm broadcasting her age to the world, but I think it's something to celebrate. She and my mom got a last-minute airfare to come out here last weekend, so we actually got to see her on this momentous occasion. Luke enjoyed helping her blow out candles, and he's still enjoying the cake. Happy Birthday, Nana!

Funny feet

As soon as it's relatively warm, I start wearing flip flops. I absolutely live in them in the summer. I bought Luke his first pair a couple of weeks ago, and he loves them as much as I love mine. I don't know why, but I think his little feet are so funny in them, and I laugh every time he wears them.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all our friends and family! We had a really nice day. Luke hunted eggs and opened his baskets in the morning, and then we headed off to church. Our service this morning was really wonderful; I can't remember a better Easter sermon. After church we went to my friend Adriane's parents' house for lunch. Luke got to hunt more eggs with the other kids, and he had a ball playing all afternoon. We skipped a nap thinking he would sleep on the 30-minute ride home, but he was so wound up from playing he never conked out. We still had a good afternoon, even sans nap! I'm so thankful to have such wonderful friends who open their homes to us and make us feel like part of the family.


Huntin' eggs!













Oooohhh! What's in here?














Yummy!














Ready for church.













Got one!

Pretty Easter eggs

Luke really enjoyed dyeing Easter eggs this year. He would pick a color and Gary & I would help him put the egg down in the cup. I'm continually amazed at how much fun all this stuff is again. Dyeing eggs by yourself is no fun, but it's loads of fun with a two-year-old! Picking just the right color!

Gary had as much fun as Luke.

Lookin' a little bored!

Spectacular!

Easter egg hunt

We had an Easter egg hunt at church today. The kids got to make a craft first, and then it was on to hunting eggs. Luke took off when we went outside and saw all the eggs. He loved finding them and kept counting them until we got to ten. There were all sorts of fun things inside - stickers, tattoos, bouncy balls, candy, ink stamps - and he loved all of them. Truth be told, I helped organized the egg hunt, and when we were picking out treats to put inside the eggs, I picked things I knew he would love because I figured if he loved them, most kids his age would, too. It was a beautiful day, sunny and about 75, so it was the perfect weather for an outside Easter egg hunt.

The glue expert makes a magnet.

On the hunt!

Treats!

Just a-swingin'

Have I ever pushed my child this high in the swing? Is it surprising that his daddy pushed him so high he could look over the fence into our neighbor's yard? Is it going to drive me nuts that now every time he swings he's going to insist that I push him that high? (By the way, the only question you should have answered "yes" to is the last one.)

More Luke-isms

Here are a few more of the funny things my child says . . .

-One of his favorite words is "probably". He uses it ALL the time!
Question: "Do you want a snack?"
Answer: "Um . . . probably."

-He's also started using "maybe" and often substitutes it for "probably".
Question: "Should we take Molly outside and play with her?"
Answer: "Maybe."

-He uses the word "awfully", but in a funny way.
Question: "Do you want to build blocks?"
Answer: (with much enthusiasm) "I awfully do!"
He also uses this word randomly. I just heard him say to Gary, "I awfully want to wear socks."

-Yesterday I asked him if he wanted to go play trains, and his jubilant answer was, "Hooray! I'm so excited! It makes me so happy to play trains!" There are lots of things in his little life that make him "so happy". I guess that's a good thing!

-Luke is all about putting "ed" on every past tense verb (what we professionals call the regularization of verbs . . . impress people at your next party with that one!) He has been known to say things like, "I hitted the table." He even puts the "ed" on verbs that already have it. For example, "I bounceded that ball!"

-"I yuv you, Mommy" remains my favorite expression. This morning he was in bed with Gary and me and he looked at us and said, "I love you guys." I'm not sure where the "you guys" came from, and I'm working on getting him to say "y'all", but it was sweet all the same.

The giver

This afternoon after Luke's nap, I decided to do some scrapbooking. I keep all my stuff on the dining room table (does that tell you how much we actually use it to eat?), and Luke likes to come sit with me and color or put stickers in a notebook. He brought his crayons in and the box was so full he had a hard time getting it on the table. He said we needed to get a bigger box, and I told him we just needed to get rid of some of the old crayons. Imediately he started to separate them, and then he told me he wanted to give the old crayons to children who didn't have any. My heart just melted when he said that, and so I told him we would. When we got up from the table, he asked me to carry some of the crayons he picked out. I asked if he wanted to throw them away, and he again said, "No, Mommy, these are for other children." What a sweet boy!

All aboard!

Yesterday we headed down to Grapevine for a Day Out with Thomas. This event was made for Luke Chumley! As soon as we got there, Luke started saying, "I'm so excited! I'm really excited!" We got to see Sir Topham Hatt, but Luke was content just to wave at him and didn't want to take a picture with him. Then we got on a real train with Thomas as the engine. There was even a conductor who greeted us with, "All aboard!" We sat in a window seat so we could see outside, and Luke was absolutely in heaven. He loved just sitting and watching the scenery pass by. We also got to take a few pictures with Thomas after the train ride.

Kiss me, Kate

We have a little game we play sometimes. Gary or I will pretend to be asleep, and Luke will kiss us to wake us up. I'm not sure how it started, but I think Gary thought of it. Anyway, Gary and I love to play it because it's a sure way to get a smooch from Luke. Until today, no one else had participated in our little love-fest. As many of you know, Kate, a girl in Luke's class at school, is his girlfriend/best friend. Today at school she was pretending to be Snow White and was lying on the ground like she was sleeping. Luke went over to her and told her to wake up; when that didn't work, he kissed her. His first kiss! His teachers thought it was really sweet, and I only wish I had been there to see it.

How does your garden grow?

Gary and I have always enjoyed planting a few vegetables each spring, and we had pretty good success in Columbia. We were less successful here in Texas until our friend Steve helped us out. He is quite the gardening guru, and he helped Gary build a nice sized garden, despite our tiny backyard. We have planted lettuce, spinach, carrots, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers, and the lettuce and carrots have already started to come up. Last weekend Luke helped Gary plant the tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers, and they both had a good time. Gary built this trellis. Eventually there will be cucumbers growing up it.















Luke helps Daddy plant tomatoes.
















Luke loves to scoop dirt, so this was a perfect job for him!

Big boy bed

Well, we finally made the move to the toddler bed this week. Everyone I talked to said to keep Luke in the crib for as long as we could, and I think if we hadn't moved him, he would have gladly slept in it till he was 12. He only tried to climb out once and was always lying there waiting for us in the morning. But a few weeks ago as I hoisted my 35-pound-child into the crib, I thought, "OK, that's it - time for a bed he can get into himself!" So this week was the week for change.

I got the bed and put it together Tuesday while he was at school. When he came home I told him I had a surprise for him in his room. I thought he would be a little more excited about it than he was; he just stood there and looked at it for a minute and then said, "Is there anything else?" I ignored his ungratefulness (who wouldn't love a bed as a present?!?) and talked up the big boy bed. He didn't want to get in it at all that afternoon, but that evening once he realized he could get in it all by himself, he thought it was pretty cool. He was a little unsure about sleeping in it and did cry for about 5 minutes Tuesday night, but then he gave it up and fell right asleep. He's been staying in it all night and waits for me to come get him in the morning. We left the crib up in case he really balked at sleeping in the new bed, but we took it down this morning (with his blessing, of course), and he has said several times this week how much he likes his new bed. So all in all, this transition went pretty smoothly.
As you can see, we didn't get rid of any of the stuff that was in the crib. It's a little more crowded in the new bed with all the stuffed animals and books, but he finds a little spot right in the middle to sleep in.