A Mommy Date to TarHeel City

Alright, TarHeel fans and my fellow UNC Alumni, what did you see in the background of the pictures??? That's right - the Old Well on the most beautiful campus in the USA, UNC-Chapel Hill, of course. Friday was a gorgeous day - Landis was playing golf, so Luke and I headed North on I-85 to my alma mater - UNC! We had an amazing time! :) Something about the tradition that surrounded us, the absolutely, unseasonably perfect weather, and the super fun mood that Luke was in made this trip the best road trip that Luke and I have ever had!! :)

Our original purpose in visiting Chapel Hill was to go to the museum that I wanted to visit this summer but couldn't because it was closed for renovations. Well, I'm not quite sure what they renovated because this museum was the worst museum that Luke and I have visited - and, as you know, we have visited quite a few. The whole museum, every exhibit, was crammed into a room that was the size of my house - which is not very big and was not enough room for all the children that were there. Luke and I were there for about 45 minutes and that was a stretch. Luke played with the fake garden, cooked a few things in the play kitchen, pushed some cars around in the toddler area, opened and shut the toddler area door about 20 times, crawled over the toddler area wall TOO many times, worked one puzzle, and then told me that he was ready to go home!!! Here are the only pictures that I took...

Oh....I should tell you that because Luke wakes up at 4:30 or 4:45am, these road trips work out quite nicely. Luke usually takes a nap for the entire drive to our destination and then he's full of energy and ready to play. Well, here we were, about an hour and 15 minutes from home and this museum was awful and Luke was saying he wanted to go home! Well, not so fast, little man, we are going to make the best of our trip. But, first, lunchtime!!! Thank goodness, I, obviously know Chapel Hill well so I very easily found a McDonald's within 2 minutes of the museum. Luke and I enjoyed our lunch together as we talked about some places that we could visit. I told him that we would start by visiting the big water fountain at mommy's school - I made sure to explain to him that mommy went to this college and it is called CAROLINA! :)

After lunch, Luke and I headed to the big water fountain - or, more formally called, the Old Well. I was very prepared for this trip - I knew this city well enough to know that I was going to need quarters for the parking meters, so I pulled out my bag of quarters, loaded up the meter, and off Luke and I went - we walked through the beautiful gardens on North Campus, along the brick walkways, and finally, reached our destination - the Old Well. Luke was so excited as soon as he saw it! He was most excited about the steps that he could climb and run around. That's what he did first - he walked around, or mostly ran around the fountain over and over. He would run around the big white columns and then run up and down the steps. It was very difficult to get any still pictures because he was WILD! He and I did make sure to get several sips of water from this traditional site.

As you will see in the pictures below, Luke's favorite part of the entire trip to the "big water fountain" (as he called it) was running everywhere! The brick walkways, sticks, acorns, and every other part of nature was like a huge playground for him! He ran, danced, jumped, picked up sticks, picked up acorns, talked to everyone, and even climbed in a tree. There's a couple cute stories that I must journal...

As Luke was running around near the Old Well, this sweet little family walked up with a girl that I will say was probably around 9 years old. She just stared at Luke for quite awhile. Her mom must have thought that I was wandering what in the world she was staring at because her mom started talking to me. She told me that her daughter had just received twin baby dolls as a Christmas present and that she thought that Luke looked like one of her dolls! Now, I've always said Luke was hansom but I never thought he looked like a baby doll - what a sweet compliment! Anyway - while this mom and I were talking, Luke began showing off. He very dramatically pretended to climb a tree and then in such a dramatic voice said, "This is a big tree. I can't climb it" - as he continued to lift his leg like he was trying to climb it. It was quite entertaining and adorable! I told the mom that he was wild like this all the time - you know what she said, "I hope you have some family that lives near you to give you a break every now and then." Oh my!!! Even strangers notice his energy. As the mom and I continued to talk, Luke takes off running as fast as he possibly can up the brick pathway. I knew what was going to happen but I couldn't stop him. All of a sudden, the "brick monster" got him - you know what I mean??? Those bricks that jump up and trip you??? Well, Luke went sliding head first about 2 feet! :) As usual, when he falls, I didn't make a big deal out of it. I knew that his head didn't hit and he had on long sleeves and pants so no skin should have been scraped. I just watched his reaction and waited! Well, Luke looked around at everyone staring at him, he puckered his lip a little and thought about crying and then all of a sudden changed his mind and took off running again! That boy is crazy!!! :) We all laughed and the sweet family went on their way probably talking about us as soon as they turned the corner!!! :) They might have been saying, "I bet that little boy sleeps good with all that energy he's burning!!" WRONG!!! :)

Another cute story - as Luke and I were walking away from the Old Well back to our car, we heard the Bell Tower's chimes. Luke said, "I hear the chimes." I was caught off guard by this - how in the world does he know about chimes? I said, "Luke, how do you know those are chimes?" He said, "They ring at school." Oh - that makes sense! What a great connection!

And....last cute story - as we were walking toward the car, Luke had a blast running and playing! There was no one else in sight for quite a distance, so I let him run and explore ahead of me a little. He rarely gets to do this! He all of a sudden started doing this silly dance in the middle of the grass. It was so cute! I have some video at the bottom. This dance that he does is the weirdest looking thing. He bends one knee and taps one foot really funny. He does it all over the house! We have named it the "Luke Dance" in our house! It's quite catchy! Mommy and Daddy now do it with Luke! :)

For the last few minutes of our walk to the car, I carried Luke because he had just about ran his little legs off. And, of course, I didn't mind wrapping my arms around this bundle of joy! As I walked down these brick walkways that I have traveled 100 times going to and from class, I couldn't believe that I was holding my sweet Luke! Back over 10 years ago when I lived on this campus, I thought I knew what life was all about - college life, friends, and having a good time! Well, with age comes wisdom and now I know, what I was holding in my arms - this gift from God - this is what life is all about! :) Enjoy the pictures...

















I helped Luke climb this tree so he could pose for some pictures - he actually did a good job of smiling for me!




I love this one...check out the Old Well in the background! :) This is a classic....maybe one day I can frame it for him on his UNC graduation day! :)






Luke heard this loud drill sound in the background so he started pretending to weedeat! :)

After our trip to the Old Well, I headed to a nearby park. You all know that I can find a cool park in any city that I go - thanks to the internet and other blog moms out there, you can compare parks just like you can the hottest shoes! :) Anyway - I found this park that is called the Dinosaur Park. It's nothing over the top - just a park that has a slide with a dinosaur head and some really neat, smaller safe slides. Luke loves dinosaurs so as soon as I told him that we were going to a dinosaur park, he was thrilled! We had a blast there!

The first thing he wanted to do was swing! So, we did....as I pushed the swing, Luke and I sang a few songs - "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood" our "Swinging in the park" song....Luke was so sweet trying to sing the words to them by himself after I sung them a few times! Here is Luke swinging....

Luke's favorite part of this park was the slide you will see here - it was the one that had the big dinosaur head on it-it also had very safe, enclosed steps and small, slow slides so Luke could climb the steps and slide completely on his own. Because this slide was so safe and the park was not crowded - there was only one other family there - Luke and I played hide and seek around this slide! He laughed and laughed! Check out the pictures...








Oh...real quick...you might be wandering why Luke changed clothes - in between the Old Well and the Dino Park, Luke had an accident in his diaper (or should I say outside of his diaper)...thank goodness I brought more clothes! So...in these pictures, you see outfit #2!

Another part of the park that Luke loved were the big piles of leaves that lined the edge of the playground - he had a ball just running around the edge kicking the leaves! I would chase him and then he would chase me! :)

More hide and seek....
This is how he slid down the slides....
He loved this large tunnel...
Some other things that Luke enjoyed at the Dino Park were....

-playing with the two other girls that were at the park - they put leaves, acorns, and mulch on this little play counter that was attached to the big set of slides

-rolling the acorn through the tunnel

-digging in the dirt with a stick

-climbing the big portion of the playground all by himself and then sliding down on this belly - he did this like 50 times (no joke!)

When it was almost 3:00pm, I had to tell Luke it was time to go. He would have played for another hour but I wanted him to take a little catnap on the way home before it got too late in the day! As we walked to the car, Luke sat on my shoulders and talked to me about all the fun things that we did together on this road trip. I taught him to say when asked what he saw today, he should say, "We saw the Old Well in TarHeel City." Well, he would come close- he would say, "We saw the big water fountain in TarHeel City." Close enough! :)

As planned, Luke slept all the way home, matter of fact, he woke up as we pulled into our driveway. I, on the way home, thought back at the fun times that we had! :) I am so glad that I took the time to make the trip! Even though the museum was a bummer - the trip was awesome - one that I will remember for a lifetime! :)

Now...before I go to bed....here are a few pictures of some fun times that we have had around here the last few days....

I should go ahead and explain these first few pictures....as you know, Sunday afternoon was gorgeous! I knew that today and the rest of this week would be cold so we tried to stay outside a lot on Sunday. I had to get creative with games that we could play. In the pictures, you will see that one game that I thought of was to "hide" Luke's foam numbers and then have him go find them - I am trying to teach him to identify numbers so what a fun way to practice! Here is Luke searching for the numbers...

The next game we played with these numbers included the lawn mower. I put the numbers on the ground and asked Luke to sing them as he mowed by them. He enjoyed this! :)

And...of course, he rode his big lawn mower ALL OVER THE PLACE!



He had to stand up to get it to go fast because he's so little - can you see how hard he is working????

I love his face right here....

And, finally, Luke and I played t-ball. At first, Luke hit the ball a few times and I chased after it. Then, Luke wanted me to hit the ball. So, Luke would go sit on the steps on the porch, watch me hit the ball, and then run as fast as he could to go get it and bring it back to the t-ball stand. In the video I show you below, he sure doesn't run as fast as he was - I think he was tired! :) Luke loved to hear me say, "Batter, batter, swing batter!!" before I hit the ball. Here are some pictures of us playing t-ball!


For New Year's Eve, Luke, Landis, and I went to the Mills' House for a little while for snacks and to let the boys play. Here are the boys running up and down the hall. Luke was wild as usual!


We came home for Luke's bedtime and then after Luke went to bed, our friends, Mark and Melissa came over for a few card games and to watch the countdown. Here's the gang sitting around being silly - I mean what kind of face is Landis making???
Luke doing his crazy dance...
Luke playing in his toy box...








Luke reading a book....notice that Luke moved this piece of furniture over to the toy shelf and then climbed to get the book on his own. :)

Over the break, I did some reorganizing around the house. I put a lot of Luke's toys in the back bedroom where Max used to live, and, we bought new rugs - one for the living room and one for Luke's room. The house looks so much more roomy than before. Here are some pictures...this is the living room.
Luke's room....
The music/play room....

And, some pictures of Luke playing outside...


T-ball with daddy early in the week...






And, some cute videos....

#1- Luke chasing the ball after I hit it.

#2-Luke going down the Dino Slide.

#3 - Luke riding the lawn mower.

#4 - Luke doing his special dance here at home!

#5 - Luke trying to find his numbers in the yard.

#6-Luke doing his special dance in "TarHeel City"!

#7-Luke pretending to weedeat in Chapel Hill.

For now, that's all folks - I already have another blog planned. It's really Monday, January 2nd and because today was the last official day of Christmas break, me, Landis, and Luke had a great time doing some family things today that I will post about later in the week. I sit here watching the new season of The Bachelor dreading returning to work tomorrow. However, I'm trying to remember - I work 9 days and then I get another 4 day weekend!!! And....look on the bright side....I had some super quality time with my husband and my little boy over the last 2 weeks! Time that I will never get back but time very well spent! It has been the best Christmas break ever! I will lay down tonight with such a peaceful feeling!

Happy New Year everyone! And, to my educator friends - welcome back! :)

Toddy