Who's the Boss?

So, who's the boss???? It appears from those pictures that Luke thinks he is.....

And, unfortunately, we are having to remind him daily that he is NOT the boss in the Bumgarner home. I say that with complete love! :) Luke is beginning to test his boundaries which results in mommy and daddy having to show him with a pop on his hand or sometimes his leg who the bosses of the house are....most of our battles happen about 30 minutes before bedtime...I guess the tiredness leads to poor decision making on Luke's part. Many nights around 7:30, he will begin to touch/mess with areas of the house that he knows he is not suppose to mess with - for example, the glass doors on the entertainment center or the vent covers. He will all of a sudden go pick up a vent cover and look right at me and smile. I will tell him, "put it down or you will get a spank, spank" - he grins again and guess what happens???He gets a "spank, spank." Sometimes he whines after the pop, sometimes he will actually take his hand and hit the floor and look up at me with his eyes squinted like I'm the most terrible person in the world. There have been a few times that I have to turn my head so I don't start laughing - I mean his serious face is truly serious! I am trying to get better at going ahead and popping him as soon as he touches the "off boundaries" areas instead of giving him another warning - by now, he has been corrected for touching these same things so he shouldn't have to be warned. Being consistent is hard....much harder than I imagined before having Luke. I mean, look at what I do all day??? I consistently correct students all day long. If I can control a 5th grader, you would think I would have control over a 16 month old. Well, I DO have control (don't get me wrong), but it's way harder than controlling a child that is not mine. :)

I do have two funny "spanking" stories....the first one occurred at the beach, Luke was messing with Mark's computer and I said, "Luke, do not touch that again or mommy will spank." Luke looks at me, grins, and slams his milk cup on the computer. I immediately pick him up and spank his leg. When I set him back down, he slaps the table and then growls at me (the same sound that he makes when he's being a lion). Hannah and I had to turn our heads to keep from laughing. If he were older, he would have received another spanking but I don't think he understands right now that he shouldn't growl. At least, the point was made to leave the computer alone because he walked away from the computer. The other cute "spanking" story came just last night. Luke got really close to the glass doors on the entertainment center....he kept getting closer and closer and grinned at me the whole time. I asked him sternly, "Do you want a spank, spank for touching that?" He immediately and forcefully shook his head NO! And....he walked away....after giggling to myself that he knew exactly how to answer me, I gave him a HIGH 5 for being a good listener! :)

Now, on to the cute pics of my boss man up above. On Thursday, after my terrible dentist appointment (I am having terrible problems with my TMJ tenderness which is causing me to have anxiety filled dentist appointments - I have just recently decided to use IV sedation to get a crown put on my tooth because every time the dentist attempts to do the crown with me awake, my jaw locks up. It's awful, ya'll, just awful. So, say a little prayer for some jaw healing.) Anyway....after my dentist appointment, Luke and I visited the Greensboro Children's Museum for a few hours. As usual, Luke had a great time! The pictures above were taken at a fake doctor's office. Luke loves to pretend to answer the phone and to play on the computer and at home, he's not allowed to touch the real phone and computer, so he had a blast pretending to type and talk on the phone! What a cutie!

Luke also loved exploring the race car, the mail truck, the fire truck, the blocks, the tot spot center which had all kinds of things for Luke to ride, the edible garden, the old train with fake coal, and the play trains on the track. Check out the pics...

Okay...so, finally, some pictures of Fun Day at Fair Grove. As you know if you read my blog, I prayed and prayed and begged my supervisors to be transferred closer to home for two reasons: (1) to be closer to Luke and (2) to be a part of the Thomasville community that I grew up in and adore so much. There's something special about this little city-it's home to us and I love it here! When I walk the halls of Fair Grove each day, I feel a sense of pride that I have not had at any other school that I've worked at - I love the students, the staff, and the parents. It's a wonderful community school that I hope Luke will go to some day! :)

Last Saturday was Fair Grove's Fun Day and as the assistant principal, it was my responsibility to attend all the festivities. Even though it was part of my "job," I really enjoyed myself...it wasn't like work at all! I was able to spend time with my dad, my sister, Taylor, my brother, Blaine, and of course, Landis and Luke joined me for a few hours. Take a look at what Luke enjoyed at Fun Day!

Getting fed by Taylor and Papaw...
Playing with the yellow school bus in mommy's office...


This is Luke as he stares at the huge, walking Sonic cup...you know what I mean???One of those walking stuffed people..as the Sonic man would get closer, Luke would back up. He kept looking at his feet like he was really confused about how a huge cup could walk....so cute!

This is Luke fishing for prizes...
This is Luke checking out the amount of stickers that he earned on his bracelet. Check out my buses in the background....I love the fact that Luke will always be comfortable around schools because he will get plenty of adventures while spending time there with me.
Trying to throw the football through a target...
Fishing for ducks/fish...
Here are a few random pictures of Luke playing at home....this is Luke pushing his lawn mower, it was his Easter gift. When he has it outside, we let him put bubbles in it, but inside, no bubbles!

He's not crying....in the above picture and the picture below, he is making the vibrating sound with his lips like a lawn mower and a car...
Climbing his "walker"-with the start of gymnastics came climbing EVERYTHING! I have to watch him even closer now.

Speaking of climbing things, he had his first bloody nose on Thursday night because he was trying to climb something. He attempted to stand up on one of his very small blocks. The block slid out from under him, he fell over and swiped his nose on the side of the recliner just enough to make it bleed! Thank goodness he didn't hit it hard enough to cause a bruise or black eye, but he had to go straight to the bathtub because he had blood all over him. I was proud of my reaction - I didn't panic just cleaned him up. It helped that I saw him fall and I knew he couldn't have hit his nose too hard. Because he's in to everything, accidents are going to happen even with me watching! :)
He calls this row of blocks a snake and makes the hissing sound when he picks them up....
Quick update on Luke's eating with a spoon...I'm so proud of him....he must've known that I was writing about my concern on my blog because he all of a sudden is more comfortable with his spoon. He will now eat about half of his food with the spoon. I have to help him get the food onto his spoon, but once the food is on the spoon, he does very well at the getting the spoon and food in his mouth. In this picture, he is enjoying a donut as a small reward and dessert. :)

One more Fun Day tidbit....during the last 30 minutes of Fun Day, I agreed to go in the dunking booth. Well, obviously, I was dunked MANY times in the freezing cold water on a 65 degree day. While I sat in the booth, my dad watched Luke. At one point, he brought Luke up to the booth so he could see me. I waved at Luke, told him hello, and about that time....I was DUNKED! Oh my goodness....Luke had a fit....he cried for 30 minutes! I had no idea that he would react that way. I guess it was traumatic seeing me smiling and happy and then all of a sudden GONE into, from his point of view, a big black hole. Poor thing! He now cries every morning when I leave for work and he's never done that! I think he thinks that I'm going back to that big, dark hole. :) I hope he's not scarred for life (he, he)! :)

Alrighty....that's all for now....Luke and I are so busy doing all kinds of fun things that I can't keep up with the action on my blog. I already have some super cute pictures and some video of our trip to the Spring Folly carnival in Kernersville on Saturday....we had a great time and Luke reached a milestone - check back later in the week or on the weekend to find out what it was!

Thanks for stopping by! Off to bed...

Toddy