Happy birthday, Cora!

Luke and Cora (much like their older siblings) had a love/hate "you're more like my sibling than my cousin" relationship for a while. They're both stubborn and see the world differently.

Lately, they've bonded as they've found that they share a common love of antagonizing their older siblings...that coupled with their desire to get into mischief.

So, I was excited to have Luke draw Cora a picture for her birthday. Luke did it, and I asked him to explain it to me. Luke said, "This is Cora with a parachute, but it's broken and she's falling down. And, this is me with a gun, and I'm shooting her."

Perhaps the rivalry still exists?

Blast for the Past: Moo, Baa, La, La, La

Man, we love that book...


My favorite line?
Me: It's quiet now. What does Lukey-boy say?
Luke: The end. (pause) Poop.

Mom, I Have a Good Idea...

Since Christmas when Luke started creating "Santa traps" (don't worry, I just need to get down the string for his "Easter Bunny traps" and take a picture so you'll know what these look like), Luke often comes up to Nate or me and says, "Mom (or Dad), I have a good idea..."

...and then, proceeds to tell us some creative solution to a Lukey problem, like:
Mom, I have a good idea.  Let's get a seesaw, you can put me on one end and jump really hard.  That will shoot me over to Walter's house.

Dear Dad

This is why I hate moonsand.

This is an email Luke had me type to Nate on Friday (we're trying to loose the nighttime pull-up):

Dear Dad,

I won't pee in my pants anymore. I will go to the potty right away, and this is so I can get a movie or Hot Wheels, or a doughnut, or go to Old McDonald's or get an ice cream all the way to the top or to the zoo (Mom, type "toooo the, the, zoo.").

And, I will get something with the Friday, Saturday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Saturday, and Mom and Dad are going to tape it up to the wall.

I will put stickers on the other days, there and there and there.

Dear Dad, and I will do underwear until I say.
Love,
Luke

Things Everyone Enjoys

Food:
green noodles (pesto penne)
Costco teriyaki chicken and rice (the silence that descends around the dinner table when I serve this kind of breaks my heart--why don't they like anything I make that much?)
"chinese" noodles, which is any noodle with chicken and a sweet brown sauce, so pretty much, it combined the first two favorite meals in one dish

Shows:
Curious George (really, it's the #1 favorite)
Backyardigans
though, Emma and Luke love Baby Einstein and Olivia

Outdoor activities:
jumping on the trampoline
chalk (some like to eat it, some like to draw with it)
bubbles

Too bad these favorites will have fallen out of favor by summer. I hope we'll find as many new favorites by then.

Santa trap

Last night, Luke set out a trap for Santa. He put a bunch of balls behind his door, so "Santa would fall and break his butt."

It was cute for the first couple hours, but now that both Mom and Dad have almost fallen and broken their butts, the cuteness has worn off.

Luke on Church

Today, we were eating lunch, sort of the calm before the storm when we all get ready for church.

I was trying to have a pleasant conversation to set the tone for getting ready for church, so I said to Luke, "What's your favorite thing about church?"

Luke said, "I don't have a favorite thing about church." (pause) "But, I do like it when my dad and I stay home and don't go!"

Also, this picture? Luke staged it one morning while everyone was getting ready for school. He got out all his favorite stuffed animals, set them on the dining room table, found me, got my camera, and had me take this picture.

Happy Halloween from Thor/Obi Won

Luke totally wanted to be Thor for Halloween (after he insisted on being a Thor/Woody/clown hybrid, we told him that it wouldn't be possible to wear all those costumes at once and he had a major meltdown for about 3 days every time Halloween was mentioned). So, once he settled on just being Thor for a couple days, we got this costume at Target complete with Thor's mighty hammer.

The day after he got the hammer, I let him take it school. His teacher was nice about it, but clearly, not so happy, and when I told Nate, he said, "What were you thinking?!"

(Seriously, I have no idea. I guess I was thinking, "Here, Luke, take this big hammer to preschool. No kid would ever figure out within 10 seconds of holding that hammer what an awesome game it would be to run around smacking each other on the head for 4 hours.")

But, then, on Halloween, Luke put on his Thor costume for school and freaked out because it was covered with little spider webs. You know the polyester stuffing they use to pad the muscles on those costumes? Luke saw a few stray ones poking out of his chest and was convinced the costume was dirty. He ran to the bathroom sink and got the costume completely soaked. And, wouldn't ya know, those fibers still stick up, even when everything else is completely drenched.

Fortunately, Luke didn't wear the costume he insisted on getting last year, Obi Won Kenobi. At the last minute last year, he decided the costume was too messy (it has some tunic hanging parts on it), so he was Woody for the second straight year. With minutes to spare before carpool, Luke got the Obi Won costume on and was happy.

I told him I'd wash the Thor costume while he was at school, but I got nervous about washing all that synthetic fabric, so I just told him I washed it and tried to pick out all the stray fibers. It didn't fool Luke. Luckily, he was quite content to put Obi Won back on that night for trick or treating, which meant that for the first time ever, our family had a quasi-theme Halloween:

Aunt Rachel would be so proud...

The Best Birth Control Post Ever

This is my side of the conversation that Luke and I had today while I was in the bathroom, trying to shave my legs and he decided to come in and go poop.

“Luke, don’t forget to wipe your bottom.”

“Eeew, Luke, not with your hand!”

“Yeah, just use the babywipe.”

“Wait! Don’t throw the babywipe in the toilet! That will break the toilet!”

“Luke, there’s still lots of poop on the babywipe. That means your bottom still isn’t clean.”

“NO!! Don’t throw the other babywipe in the toilet!”

“Ok, now, wash your hands.”

“Luke, that wasn’t long enough. If your hands still smell like poop, they aren’t clean.”

“Yeah, I know they still smell like poop. I don’t need to check. Wash them with soap this time.”

Crazy Kids...

Asher was thrilled about our church's General Conference last weekend. He's been asking every Sunday since April if we could "just watch Church on tv like we did that one Sunday."

Luke informed me today that "the green ones are going to destroy our world." I can't get him to be anymore specific than that. Sorry for the bad news...

Emma is learning a few words: mama, dada, up, woof, and uh-oh.
Of course, if you ask her what a doggy says, she says, "Uh, oh."

(In these pictures, Emma really hopes someone will rescue her after a Monday evening of fun, but no, we just kept taking pictures of her.)

Luke and God's Plan

For our upcoming church primary kids' program, Luke was given a part, "I can follow God's plan by [fill in the blank]."

Nate and I are worried that he'll get to the pulpit, decide to be funny and say one of his two favorite "bad" words. "Poopy diaper" or "boobies."

So, we've been working on helping Luke fill in the blank. Here are some of the "blanks" Luke has offerred:
I can follow God's plan by:
eating marshmallows
eating dinner
eating bananas
speaking English (?!)
playing with trains
poopy diaper (we all knew that was coming, didn't we?)
giving hugs

So, we're going with, "I can follow God's plan by giving hugs." Fingers crossed that he'll actually say it come the big day.

Your Car is Awesome!

This picture taken at Luke's preschool's picture day last April (I know, I'm behind on blogging. Sigh...) made me laugh out loud.

Could there be a post more unnatural for our Lukey boy?

This picture has nothing to do with the pose, I just couldn't keep it to myself.

Last week, Luke, Emma, and I had to do some errands downtown. So, we were driving, and Luke said, "Mom, look at that awesome, awesome car."

It was some sort of 1960's classic Camero looking car (um, let me point out, I know NOTHING about cars. That's my best shot at a description.). It was grey with some red stripes on it.

Luke said, "I want to talk to those guys. Roll down my window."

I looked, and they were two men, about my age, probably, driving with the windows down (which means their classic car had no air conditioning, and it was 111 degrees that day), mopping their faces with a towel.

We're all stopped at a stop light, and I figure it'll probably make the guys' day or at the worst, they'll ignore Luke.

So, I get ready to roll down Luke's window when he says, "Wait, Mom. I have to put on my sunglasses."

Luke gets on his Buzz Lightyear sunglasses and says, "I'm ready."

I roll down the window, and Luke gets shy.

Then, he yells, "Hello! My name is Lukey boy!" right as the light changes.

The men smile at him and are getting ready to drive off, so I roll down my window and say, "My son wants to tell you that you have an awesome, awesome car."

The men smile, wave at Luke, and drive off.

And, Luke still wants to know when we're going to see "those guys" again.

Luke Loves Cookies

"Look, Mom...they have cookie robots at the grocery store!"

Praise for Uncle Dave

Luke's unsolicited assement of his uncle:

Uncle Dave is the bestest party ever!
He kills monsters
And bad guys
And monsters
And bad guys

You Know It's Going to Be a Long Day When...

Luke has a tantrum because you offer him pancakes for breakfast. HE DOES NOT WANT PANCAKES!!!

Then, he comes out of his room 20 minutes later, tantrum free, to have some pancakes.

Except that his brother ate all the pancakes while Luke was pouting.

I'll let you guess what happened next.

(This is a picture of Luke with his "trophy," a weird spoon he found in one of Nate's auction purchases.)

Luke's birthday

When Asher was 3, he got to have a big, fun birthday party at the train park. So, I planned on doing the same for Luke when he turned 3.

But, when Luke turned 3, his mom was in her first trimester of pregnancy. March came and went without a thought to planning a big, fun party for Luke.

So, we tried to make it up to Luke when he turned 4 by having a big jungle-themed party. Doing trains has sort of been a passion Luke picked up from Asher, but animals? Well, Luke has always loved him some animals.

We had Jungle Jill come and she let the kids pet and hold animals. She was fabulous. Seriously, hire her for the 8 and under set. I'm glad we waited a year. Luke's social behavior has come a long way, and I think he enjoyed the party much more this way.

Thankfully, Jessica took pictures of the party. (My kids owe just about all photographic documentation of their lives to Jessica and my sister, Rachel.)

For our family birthday dinner, Luke picked the menu: Mamma Mia's pizza, salad (ok, I picked that), and strawberries. Then, he asked for vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting for dessert (and I thought chocolate cream cheese frosting would be that much better.

Lukeisms

This picture shows Luke, wearing his dad's glasses and with his face painted in White-Out (he and his cousin, Cora, did that). Know that White-Out does NOT wash off, and despite daily scrubbing, he remained painted for 5 days.

Anyway, I keep putting off a post about Luke because he keeps saying so many funny things. Here are a few:

When someone asks Luke's name, he says, "My name is Lukey-boy."

The other day, he pooped his pants (again), and I told him that it smelled bad and he needed to go in the potty. His response: "My poop smells like strawberries."

Sometimes, Luke will spontaneously say in his most grown-up voice, "Give me my hug!" and proceed to strangle you with a giant hug around the neck.

"Baby Emma is my best friend." Luke and Emma are now best friends. They will look at each other and smile, and then, Luke will sing his very special lullaby for her. You know, that famous lullaby, "I've Been Working on the Railroad."

Also, should you come to our house and be worried about not knowing anyone, never fear, Luke has taken it upon himself to introduce people when the come over, including Nate when he comes home from work. Luke makes sure he has both of our attention and then, says, "Mommy, this is Daddy. Daddy, this is Mommy."

Feliz Navidad!

Because this is as close as we"ll get to a Christmas card this year :)

Christmas ornaments 2010

Every year, I get the kids an ornament. My mom was more ambitious than I...I had all red angels, Sarah had all green angels, and Rachel had all blue angels with David having nutcrackers and Tom having Santas (or maybe the boys are the other way around).
This year, I let Asher and Luke pick the ornaments on a day when Asher had pink eye and I needed a bribe to get through the day. I had gone to the Hallmark website to look things over and had a pretty good idea of what we might get.

I wanted to get Luke this Animal from the Muppets ornament. I got Luke an Animal t-shirt this year that scared him until I showed him a few YouTube clips of Animal. Now, Luke LOVES Animal and unfortunately, imitates him at inopportune moments. Still, if Luke played the drums, he'd do it with his feet, too.

And, I wanted Asher to get this cute Green Eggs and Ham ornament because we've been working so hard on his reading. And, because we've tried a few new foods this year that Asher has ended up liking to which I point out, "Now, aren't you glad you tried it like Green Eggs and Ham?" Of course, then, he has to remind me he is allergic to eggs.

But, I'm flexible...I was willing to go with the Tom and Jerry ornament. Don't love it, but I was open to it.

I was hoping if Luke didn't want Animal, I could talk him into this Star Wars ornament, but I didn't have a lot of home. He's kind of burned out on Star Wars since the whole "my mom made me be a

Jedi for Halloween" thing.

I was even willing to go with this Scooby-Doo ornament (though I may have changed my mind the 532nd time I heard Scooby say, "RERRY RISTMAS!").

Like I said...totally flexible.

But, what I didn't forsee is the train ornaments because seriously, I like to think we're seeing the light at the end of the train fad tunnel finally (FINALLY!).

Totally wrong though...

Asher got this little Lionel steamer that is supposed to hook together, but won't.

And, Luke got this Polar Express ornament. We did this yesterday and have already lost the bell. But, don't worry, it never rang (I checked with Asher and Luke to make sure it wasn't me ;) ) anyway.

I was firm when both boys decided they desperately wanted this $45 ornament where that train you see? It goes around the ornament and through the tunnel--sheesh!

Not to fear, though...I got to pick out Emma's ornament from this shop. At least she's not old enough to fight me.

I just try to get my kids an ornament of something they liked that year.

Halloween 2010

So, I've lost my camera, and I have a sneaky suspicion that I packed it with my Halloween decorations, which fortunately (or unfortunately), Nate hasn't packed it in the attic yet. And, I just find it too demoralizing to unpack it all to see.

I keep asking Nate to unpack the Halloween decorations, look for the camera, repack, and put everything away. Lately, I'm getting more insistent on him doing this because (as I like to point out) we'd probably like to document the birth of #3. Nate says we can just use our phones as a camera.

Luckily, other people took pictures of my kids...

Here's Luke at his preschool getting ready to trick or treat. (Though Luke begged to wear his Jedi costume ever since it arrived in the mail, he only actually wore it to preschool and quickly ditched it when he found his Woody costume from last year.)

{And, all my pictures from Trunk or Treating with our Church are on the missing camera.}

But, fortunately, Rachel took pictures of our impromptu Halloween evening with family.

Asher vetoed my Star Wars theme idea, which was fine. I've already been in full Jabba the Hutt form since the beginning of September (both in terms of size and personality).

He wanted to be a Hot Wheels car for a while but suddenly, decided to be Scooby Doo instead (which was a much easier costume to find!). So, we borrowed one from Luke's preschool teacher.

If I'd known Luke would want to be Woody so bad, we could have had a free Halloween (at least in terms of costumes).

My friend, Jessica, had the excellent suggestion of me being Mike Wazowski, using my stomach as Mike's face. If only I had thought of that about 3 months earlier, I might have had the time to get

the material and make--I mean, have my sister, Rachel, make it for me.

Hopefully, some pregnant woman can use this suggestion in the future.