Preschool Hayride & Family Pictures

So...first of all, it's Saturday morning around 10:30 and I just returned from running my first 5K since Luke was born. I haven't trained, I haven't prepared, I just decided to run. Fair Grove's PTO had a Family Fun Run/Walk 5K this morning and to show my support, I (with Luke in the stroller) lined up with the kids and families at the freezing cold start line at 9:00am. I ran as much as I could and had to walk some and 37 minutes and 45 seconds later, I was done. I know, I know, a terrible time, but considering I had no training and I have never run a full 5K with the stroller, I will take it. Luke talked about the birds and the dogs as we ran and he told the people we passed "Good Job." Then, during the last mile, he fell asleep...sound asleep and is still sleeping. The PTO gave him a certificate for completing his first 5K. I have to say even in the freezing cold, it was a lot of fun and was very motivating to me to want to start training with my running again. We will see what happens....

Here are some pictures....

Luke, before the race, all bundled up...

Luke after the race....sound asleep....
Me with the Tiger mascot!!! :)
And, now, my main goal for posting....

As I mentioned in a previous post, I took Thursday off for some family fun time and what a wonderful day it was. It was probably the last warm day that we will see for a long while, so I am thrilled that I had the chance to spend it with Luke (and not at work). :)

One reason I took the day off was to spend some time with Luke at his preschool for the pumpkin picking and hayride. This didn't begin until 9:30, so at 8:30, I went ahead and dropped Luke off at school. On the way, I explained to him that Mommy would drop him off, he would go to Chapel with his friends and then Mommy would come back for the hayride. I thought he understood until we got to the door of the preschool. As I handed him to Mrs. Brenda, his lip curled up and he began to cry. It wasn't a terrible, awful, wail....just a few tears cry. I did as I instruct my mother in law to do- I kissed him once and out the door I went. Knowing that I was coming right back helped me be able to leave. I ran a few errands and then arrived back at the school around 9:15. I parked and walked around to the front of the church where Luke's class and the 2 year old class were having Chapel with Mrs. Leigh. When I walked around the corner, Luke was putting away one of the props from the storytelling lesson that was occurring. I noticed that Luke was the only one of his classmates that was out of the "bye bye buggy". The rest of the toddler kids were sitting in the buggy all strapped in. Ms. Felicia saw me come around the corner, so she picked Luke up and walked him over to where I was. As soon as he saw me, he grinned from ear to ear. I sat down on the blankets with him and listened to the rest of chapel.

As we listened, I looked over in the bye, bye buggy to get a look at the "babies" in Luke's class that he talks about. To my surprise, they were younger than I expected. There are two babies that are only 14 months old. All of them except for one little girl was sitting there with pacis in their mouths. Luke will not sit in a buggy like those kids....I guess that's why they let him participate with the older kids. I really wish they would move him to the class with 2 year olds because he is SO MUCH more verbal than the other kids. Matter of fact, I never heard the other kids say one word. I did see one of the girls make the sign language gesture for "thank you" as we got off the hayride. Now, that was cute! :) And, it told me that the teachers have been practicing that with her.

After Chapel, we loaded onto the hayride. I was so glad that I went because Mrs. Brenda and Ms. Felicia had their hands full loading and unloading all of the babies. Luke and I sat at the front of the trailer to help keep the other babies from crawling out the end. The ride was very relaxing. Luke talked about the tractor and the pumpkin patch that we were going to. Ms. Felicia told me a few things about Luke - they said they love the way he says, "YES," with just a head shake, they said he helps the babies all the time, like, for example, when Avery loses her paci, he will pick it up and give it to her (this surprises me - as much as he likes pacis, I would think he would steal it for himself), they said that he whines every time they come back in from outside and they asked me if he had a wipe warmer at home. I said, "no, why?" They said that he whines a lot when getting his diaper changed. Yes, yes, that's the case at home, but I look at him and say, "Quit whining....mommy will be done in a minute" and he calms down quickly. He knows I mean business! :) The teachers were very complimentary of Luke and very sweet and obviously, very patient with all the kids.

After the hayride, Luke picked his pumpkin and then played with the flowers around the stack of hay while the other kids picked their pumpkins and took pictures. Mrs. Brenda took some pictures for us because I left my camera in the car - can you believe that???? :) After the pumpkin picking, we went back inside. Luke and I decorated his pumpkin, colored his spider, and then I took him with me. It was only about 10:30 but I sure wasn't going to leave him there until 12:00 - he would have been traumatized if I left him again.

When we left the preschool, we went to the playground in Wallburg. It was gorgeous outside and we had the whole playground to ourselves. I got some super cute pictures of Luke going down the red slide all by himself. They had one piece of equipment that was designed for 2 - 4 year olds so it was very safe. Luke climbed and slid on this one several times. One time, I helped him climb the big steps to another piece of equipment and then thought that he could slide by himself - oh my, not the case, he slid down sideways and landed on his bottom. It scared him so he cried for a minute and then he was back on track in no time. While at the park, we swang and when we swing, we always sing. I have the cutest video of him singing "Skit-a-me-rink" at the bottom. I also got some really cute pictures of him giggling and smiling. I would pick the swing up way up high, kiss him on the head, and then let the swing go and he would laugh and laugh out loud. It was so cute! :)

After Luke was done sliding and swinging, we headed to Wendy's for lunch. Luke ate some fries and nuggets and apples. We had a great time on our Mommy and Luke lunch date - just talking about what we did that morning. I try my best to treasure these moments. Luke's my little sidekick. :)

On our way home from lunch, Luke fell asleep and stayed asleep when we arrived at home. I put him in his bed and he slept for over 3 hours. Even though he slept that long, he woke up kind of whiny. It took him a little while to really get happy. At 4:00, we got ready and headed to Archdale to meet Andrea for our family pictures. It was the perfect temperature and the location that she was taking the pictures was gorgeous with tons of fall colors all around. I really thought this photo shoot was going to be great - Luke had a good nap, the weather was perfect, and the setting was gorgeous. But, oh no, this photo shoot was FAR from perfect. Luke was a stinker!!! He wanted to explore - pick up leaves, pick flowers, play with the sticks, try to go in the old barns, look at the bugs on the tree stumps - he wanted nothing to do with the camera, with smiling, or definitely with sitting still for family pictures poses. Every time we would ask him to sit down with us and smile, he would wiggle, wiggle, wiggle and try to get away to go pick something up. Then, when Andrea tried to take pictures of him exploring, he would barely look at the camera. Many times he would turn his back to the camera - almost like he was doing it on purpose. Because of his bull headedness, we had to get really creative. We tried everything - bribery, throwing him in the air, tossing him upside down, chasing him, tickling him, told him to look up for airplanes and birds - at one point, I held him for a picture while Landis danced around behind the camera and then we switched. By the end (an hour and a half later), Landis and I were sweating and Luke was ready to go home. Sweet Andrea was patient and kind and extremely understanding. She also reassured us that she had taken some really good pictures. I didn't believe her UNTIL later that night - she posted some "sneak peek" pictures on her Facebook page and they were great! She got one great family picture and two super pictures of Luke! She told us that she had several more that we would receive on the CD in about 2 weeks. Landis has the photos on his Facebook...I will try to transfer the "sneak peek" ones to my blog soon and then will definitely post some from the CD once I receive them.

I have to say - if you need a family photographer, I highly recommend Andrea Mills. She was super! She is reasonably priced and gives you full rights to all the pictures that she takes without you having to pay any extra cost after the initial photo shoot fee. :) That's awesome! :) You can find her on Facebook under Andrea Mills Photography - you could also google that name to find her other website.

After we left the pictures, Luke was all of a sudden in a great mood - that figures, doesn't it??? :) He ate a great dinner - talked and laughed and scarfed down some grapes and pizza. He sang some songs - this time, he started singing, "I've got the love of Jesus down in my heart." (Now, that's awesome!) He laughed, made silly faces, and smiled 100 times - I guess he was making up for the million times that we asked him to smile for pictures and he didn't. Boy, what a stinker!! :)

After dinner, he played and played. He is going through a phase where he loves his stuffed animals. So, he will get them, throw them on his bed, and then jump on his bed and "snuggle" with them. It's quite adorable. While he was doing this, I had him practice his counting. He can now count to 3 every time you ask him. He doesn't have one to one correspondence - but he is able to rote count to 3. We are working on going to 5 right now. He can also identify the "biggest" object in a group and the "smallest" object in a group. For example, he had 4 stuffed animals on his bed and I said, "Find the biggest one." He pointed to the biggest one the first time. Then, we did the same thing for the smallest one and he picked the correct one. I am very proud of that!

Later on, we played with his blocks from his dump truck. He built him a tall tower. While he was playing with the blocks, we worked on colors. I asked him to take a yellow block to daddy and, he took the blocks apart until he reached a yellow one and took it to Landis. YAY! I then asked him to find a red block and take it to daddy. He, again, took the blocks apart until he found a red one and took it to Landis. Because he had to remove some of the blocks to get to the colors he wanted, I know that this is not just guessing. He knows red and yellow because (1) he loves his red car and (2) yellow has always been his favorite color. We are working on green ("like the grass") next.

By bedtime, we were all tired (in a good way). Even with the struggle during pictures, it sure was a great day! :) The day reminded me of some of those great summer days that Luke and I used to have - beautiful weather, lots of outdoor time, tons of fun things to do, lots of snuggle and giggle time, and some learning time. It just doesn't get much better than that!

Here are some pictures of our fun day!

Luke playing at the Wallburg park...

That is his pumpkin that he picked and decorated.








This is Luke's "surprised" face that he makes when we sing the song, "If you are surprised and you know it, then you...."
Here's one of those smiles BEFORE we left for pictures that I would have loved to have seen during the pictures....
Here he is eating dinner and being silly...



Playing peek a boo...
I love this look....not quite sure why he does this....
Being silly...
And, now two great videos!

Video #1 - Luke singing "Skit-a-me-rink"....

Video #2 - Luke doing his face for the song, "If you are confused and you know it, then you...." (I tell him to say, "I don't know.") Remember, we do all kinds of emotions to the tune of "If you are happy and you know it..." It's a great way to teach him about emotions and give him some new vocabulary words.

Have a super weekend everyone! I look forward to posting some Halloween costume pictures next week. :)

Toddy