Fun at Home

Sweet Luke and Mommy having fun at home...

Playing in boxes...
Cleaning the house...
Flipping and tossing....
More playing in the boxes...
Peek-a-boo...


Tossing the balls in the boxes and then climbing in with them...

I know that many of you who read my blog probably wonder...."Does Natasha and Luke ever stay at home or are they going all the time?" Well, believe it or not, we actually have a lot of time at home and, even though we enjoy our road trips and play dates, there's no place like home and sometimes that's where we have the most fun of all.

Here are some more pictures to tell a little about what we do at home:

-We play on the big bed. Luke loves to do his front rolls while I sit on the bed and "spot" him. He also loves to scurry around in the covers in the mornings.

Luke loves to "help me" around the house. He carries laundry to the laundry room, helps me sweep, helps me feed the dogs (he goes and gets their bowls and brings them to me), and he helps me put some of his toys away. In the picture below, he's helping me bring water bottles that daddy left in the bedroom to the kitchen.
While at home, we play with the dogs. I let the dogs out one at a time to let Luke play. Here are a few pictures of Luke playing with Max.

We, of course, have some educational fun - we work puzzles, read books, practice matching the same animals with Luke's Noah's Ark animals, we color, write his name, and draw lines and shapes, we build towers with the blocks, and have Luke put the shapes in his shape sorting bus. We also do some random things that I found in a Toddler Game book like use bowls and spoons for drums - use cereal in an old bottle as shakers - and, use stickers to practice identifying body parts. Here is Luke showing me his nose, ears, and toes using stickers.

In the mornings, Luke and I purposely get a slow start. Luke lounges around in daddy's big chair and watches Clifford while I get his toast or oatmeal ready. Then, we sit in daddy's big chair and eat our breakfast together (breakfast is the only time we don't use his high chair - this is mommy and Luke special time together). :) Here is Luke lounging in the big chair...



At home, Luke and I cuddle and tickle and, of course, when daddy gets home, he gets a few cuddles and tickles too. Here is Luke sitting bonding with daddy.


Every Monday night, papaw Bumgarner comes over for dinner before he and daddy go to play guitars at a friend's house. Papaw always makes staying at home fun. Luke's favorite thing to do with papaw is to "drive" papaw's car (he pushes every button there is and he even knows how to crank it.) Papaw also pushes Luke in the big red car and walks him around outside and tells him about nature. Here is papaw pushing Luke in the big red car.

Quick cute little side story - Luke loves his papaw Bumgarner so much that the other night while I was rocking Luke to sleep - he had his eyes closed, and, all of a sudden, looked up at me and said, "papaw". It was so sweet! I guess as he went to sleep and was thinking about his day, he thought of papaw and wanted to tell me about it.

At home, Luke helps me water my ferns on the front porch. I let him get out his pool cups and bowls and fill and dump them into the plants, on the sidewalk, and many times, on himself.

A lot of times, we are just plain silly at home - I ride Luke on my back and shoulders (he loves it when I go slow and then all of a sudden speed up and go fast), I chase him while doing the Spider monkey walk, I tickle him, play hide and seek with him, chase him with the popper and his string of blocks that he calls a "snake", we sing and do the Elmo Slide and the Barnyard Dance. Our biggest laughs come from goofing off at home. That out loud laugh of Luke's has to be the greatest sound in the world. Here are some pictures of Luke being silly...

There have been a few days that Luke and I have opted to get our sunscreen and bathing suits on and play in the pool in our backyard. This is fun because Luke can also play in his sandbox and slide and then jump in the baby pool for a minute to cool off. One of Luke's favorite things to do is to fill a bucket with water, carry it to his slide, pour the water down the slide, and then slide down the wet slide. Here he is playing on his slide...






As you know, Luke loves the outdoors so we play outside as much as we can possibly stand the heat. Often times, we will play outside a lot early in the morning and then right before bedtime. Some things that we do outside include: throwing all kinds of balls - the big blue ball, the tennis balls (he loves to bounce these off of the brick steps and porch), the see through ball, the orange ball, and the basketball. Luke likes to put the see through ball under the front of the car and watch it roll down the hill and come out behind the car.

Here is Luke playing outside...

Yes, that was the dog's water bowl. He thinks he can stand in everything.
Some other things that Luke and I do at home that I don't have pictures of include:

-running up and down the hill outside while pretending to be different animals (like a duck, frog, bunny, etc.)

-shooting basketball in his tiny basketball goal and giving each other high 5's when we make a slam dunk

-looking at pictures in photo albums and naming all the family members and friends that we see - Luke loves to look at pictures of himself as a baby - he says, "baby" so sweet!

-sitting on the front step of the porch reading books (most of the time in the mornings when mommy is drinking her coffee)

-pushing the lawn mower in the front yard

-riding the bicycle and wagon in the back yard

-feeding the dogs together

-riding Thomas the train and the Radio Flyer scooter

And....then....after all of this...sometimes we take naps together on mommy's big bed....:)

I will end with a video of Luke and Max playing together.

Have a wonderful weekend! I have some super cute pictures from our road trip yesterday....it was awesome! Maybe the best road trip yet! Check back soon for details....

Toddy