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.)

Field Trip with Asher

So, I went to chaperone Asher's speech therapy class' field trip to the airport today.

Asher was horrible--not listening to me, hitting me and his friends. Pretty much acting like the girls I used to work with as a residential counselor in Boston, except I didn't have 3 other adults to help me manage a restraint.

He had a time out in the bus. He had a time out where I just held him and he screamed and everyone looked at us. I took away every privilege I could think of.

(The kids in my group hugged me and told me I was a good mom. That's how awful I looked--5 year olds were ready to comfort me.)

Asher finally turned around his behavior (kind of) so he could try and earn back his privileges and fell asleep on the bus ride home.

He woke up and said, "So, do I get my privileges back?"

And, I said, "Yes, but you know what, Asher? I'm not going to go on another field trip with you. You hit me and were mean to me, and I didn't have a fun time."

Asher's response, "But I got my privileges back, right?"

Buddy Bear and Asher

For a school project, each kid in Asher's kindergarten class took home "Buddy Bear" for a week, wrote about their adventures with him, and took some pictures of what they did together.

I was a little horrified (given our school's tendency to have lice outbreaks and my general germ-phobias) to see children sleeping with Buddy Bear, eating with Buddy Bear, playing at parks with Buddy Bear while I touched Buddy Bear and realized that if he had ever been washed, he would fall apart.

But, I tried to be a good mom, and we had a picture with Luke and Asher having ice cream with Buddy Bear, and then, I tried to be really brave and let Asher read a book to Buddy Bear and Emma.

Imagine my surprise when I downloaded this picture (and a few others), which show Emma munching on Buddy Bear. Sigh...

Baby Asher/Baby Emma giggles

Emma and Luke Love Each Other

And, Asher and Emma love each other, too.

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.