One Adventure After Another

Since we returned from the beach two weeks ago, it has been one adventure after another around here....toddler adventures that is....because of that I still have not downloaded the beach pics yet....I thought I would give you some "adventurous" updates and then post some pictures that I have been needing to post for SEVERAL weeks now.

Let me start with some updates....

First of all, the toddler bed saga....Luke is doing great in his toddler bed...I will post some pictures of his new bed as soon as I have time to download them. :) He is sleeping through the night in his bed (most of the time)....he has had a few nights that he woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep. When he does wake up, he goes straight to his bedroom door and stands behind it....sometimes whining, sometimes silent, and other times, especially when he wakes up too early in the mornings (like 5:30am), he will stand behind the door and then when I come to open it, he will it shut right back in my face as he grunts at me. I'm thinking he's not going to be a morning person....he gets that from his daddy. :) Overall, we are happy about the toddler bed transition....I no longer worry about hearing the dreaded "thud" if he would hit the floor from crawling out of his crib.

Second update....the fever and ear infection....Luke is feeling much better. He still has a runny nose but everything else was back to normal by last weekend. Until.....

Last night.....here was another adventure....not a fun one...

Luke was in a great mood last night - he played, he laughed, we read books, he went to sleep easily, no problems, no drama. I started posting pics to this blog in the kitchen with the monitor right beside of me. Luke had been in bed for about 15 minutes when I noticed that he sat up in the bed. I watched to see what he would....he didn't cry, he didn't get out of his bed and go to the door, he just sat there for a minute. Then, about 5 minutes later, he started whining a little so I thought I would just go peek in the room to make sure he was okay...well, I'm glad I did. He was lying down in a puddle, I mean a huge puddle of vomit. Oh my goodness...it was disgusting. I immediately called for Landis to come help. I grabbed Luke and put him straight in the bathtub while Landis began cleaning up the horrific, smelly mess in his room. Luke still wasn't crying. He didn't seem to be bothered by any of this yet. Matter of fact, when I put him in the bathtub, he looked at me and said, "pour my cups." He was ready to play with his cups and bowls. I discouraged this as I hastily washed him from head to toe. At this point, I wondered....what caused this? Was it the ice cream he ate? Something didn't settle right from dinner? I wasn't sure....

After the bath and changing his bed linens and mopping the floor, I started reading to him again to settle him back down. We read for about 10 minutes and all of a sudden, no warning, no sign of discomfort, Luke barfed all over my lap, the rocking chair, the book, the floor, his legs and feet....oh my! What a mess! So, for the second time, I yell for Landis, I wash Luke off while Landis cleans up the room. At this point, I now knew that this was a stomach virus so I took off to Wal-Mart for some Pedialyte. Luke wanted to ride with me so Landis sat in the back seat with a towel over him and we rode to the store. I called my aunt Sonya and asked her how much fluids I should give him and she, as usual, talked me through everything that I needed to know. I gave Luke a 1/4 cup of Pedialyte and then rocked him on the front porch - it was a nice night outside. Luke fell asleep in my lap and I went to lay him down in his bed. I had barely put him on his mattress and the throw up happened again. Thankfully this time, it was pedialyte only so it was much easier to clean up.

I changed his little pjs and sheets again, gave him some more pedialyte, and then headed back to the porch for more rocking. Luke was very sleepy, but wasn't hurting, didn't have diarrhea, and didn't seem to be too bothered by the sickness. Matter of fact, several times he asked me for macaroni and, of course, I discouraged this. By this time, it was around 11:45pm. We were all exhausted and praying for the throw up to stop. I rocked Luke back to sleep (this time I left him in his diaper only) and put him in his bed. Then, I made a place for me to sleep on the floor beside of his bed. I was so scared that he was going to choke or throw up in the middle of the night and I wouldn't know it. Surprisingly, he did not. I slept terribly, waking up every 30 minutes or so to check on him. Around 3:00am, he woke up wanting more juice and macaroni....I gave him Pedialyte and took him to lay on my chest in the big black chair in the living room. We slept there together until 7:00am this morning.

Around 5:30am, I woke up long enough to text my principal and my mother in law to let them know about work. I immediately received a text from my mother in law telling me that she also threw up all through the night. So, whatever Luke had, she also had. At that point, I was thankful that I decided to go into work a little later so that she, too, could get some rest.

I'm not real sure if this virus was a preschool virus that Luke passed to his mammaw or if they both picked it up somewhere else. All I am sure of is that Luke seemed to get through it without much discomfort to him, just a mess for mommy and daddy, and he got over it quickly. He has been a little tired today but for the most part, he's fine. I look forward to a good night's sleep.

And...now....on to another adventure that we have been dealing with....preschool. :) You know Luke went to school on Tuesday and Thursday two weeks ago, then he was absent for an entire week because he was sick, then he went back this week. Well, on Tuesday, he screamed and cried when Carolyn dropped him off. He reached for her, and, according to her, cried pitifully for quite awhile. She said that she dropped him off, he started crying and reaching, the teacher suggested that she go get his favorite stuffed animal, so Carolyn walked all the way to her car to get his Curious George bear and then came back and he was still crying. She called me at work very upset and worried about him and so was I. Around 9:30am, Carolyn called his teacher to check on him and they said that he had calmed down and was starting to interact. They said that ever so often his lip would pucker up and he would ask for his mammaw. Poor thing! I did feel sorry for him and, for a little while, questioned again if I had made the right decision to start him in preschool.

By 12:00 pick up time, the teachers told Carolyn that he did well. His daily check off sheet said that he ate all of his snack and he brought home some really cute scribbles and finger paints. So, Carolyn and I decided that maybe this would all work out okay.

On Thursday, Carolyn took him to school, and, this time, he whined and called for "mammaw" but he let Mrs. Brenda take him into the room much easier. Well, he must have warmed up and interacted fairly quickly because guess what happened??? When Carolyn went to pick him up, the teachers told her that he had to be put in the time out chair. Yes, that's right, the assistant principal's son, only on his 4th day of preschool ends up in the time out chair. He had to go there because he was throwing toys. He does this with me and his dad and he gets popped on the leg or arm. He does this with his mammaw and he gets "talked to". Carolyn was not happy that he received the time out chair and it made her realize that she is going to have to toughen up here at home. These turn of events took away all of my questions for whether or not I was making the right decision about preschool....yes, I am and Landis is now fully on my side with this decision. His first time out chair experience showed us the boundaries that he is going to cross with others. We would never know this if we didn't allow him to be put in this type of structured environment. We are continuing to work on breaking the throwing toys habit at home - all of us - Carolyn included. So, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the time out chair doesn't happen again (for toy throwing) anytime soon. I can't promise it won't happen for something else. And, if it does, we will nip that in the bud too. All of this is allowing Luke to grow and develop and learn appropriate behavior at a young age. I love it! :)

I do have to add a funny part of this story. Mrs. Felicia described the conversation that she had with Luke when she put him in the time out chair. She told Carolyn that she put him in the chair and then looked at him and said, "Do you understand that you are sitting in the time out chair because you threw toys?" Luke looked at her and nodded his head, "yes." Then, she asked him, "Are you going to throw toys again?" He looked at her and nodded his head, "yes." Oh my! He either didn't understand or he is going to be an honest young man. I choose the second one...I think he understands quite a bit. :)

Alrighty....and now on to some pictures and tidbits of Luke's good adventures....

Here are some great pictures of Luke playing at Jamestown Park. A couple of weeks ago, we met our friends, Heather and Silas, at the park and rode the train, the carousel, and played on the playground. After Heather and Silas left, I let Luke just explore the grounds and while he explored, I took pictures. I ended up getting some of the best pictures of him that I have ever taken...check them out...

Here's another cute story from that day....as we were riding the train, I noticed Luke was paying very close attention to the train tracks as the train moved. I took this chance to talk with him about the fact that a train rides on tracks. We have talked before about how a car and a motorcycle and a truck ride on the road. I explained to him that just like cars and trucks and motorcycles go on a road, a train goes on a track. Well, he looked at me very seriously and then started talking about other things. On the way home, from the backseat, I hear him say, "Mommy, train rides on tracks." I said, "Yes, sweetheart, that's right. What does a motorcycle ride on?" He said, "the road." So, I said, "What about a bicycle? What does it ride on?" He paused and said, "the road." Then, I thought....let me see what he does with this one....we have never discussed this before....I said, "What does a boat ride on?" He paused and then, to my surprise he said, "water." Wow! What a smart fellow! He has seen boats on the water so I guess he understood the comparison. :) Way to go Lukester!

Here are some more pics...this is the coolest manipulative toy that I got at Barnes and Noble...he loves it! Each door has different latches that you open (great for fine motor skills) and then each door teaches a different color, number, and animal.

Luke being silly...


Luke loves to push things around on the coffee table. This is his big train, but, now, he has a ton of little trucks and trains that he pushes on the table. We even made a tunnel out of blocks for him to push them through.
Luke playing outside...

You should see Luke ride Thomas now....I need to video it....he can steer Thomas around the drive way and can maneuver it around the cars. He can also steer him around the house fairly well too. Speaking of Thomas, next weekend, we are going to ride the big Thomas at the Transportation Museum in Spencer. That should be fun!


Luke still loves to ride everything....this is him playing on the blanket that we call the "magic carpet ride".
George always comes with him...
And sometimes Mickey...

Luke is going through a phase where he wants to drink out of a real cup with a straw. So...when supervised, I let him do this...



Luke loves to play hide and seek. He REALLY plays hide and seek. He will now let me count to 10 while he hides and then I say, "Ready or not, here I come" and come find him. He truly hides, which is so much fun. He usually picks one of three places - under the kitchen table, beside of the refrigerator, or behind doors. When I'm looking for him, even though I usually see him pretty easily, I pretend not to and I will say things like, "Is Luke under the table? No!" and I will keep looking. Then, I will say, "Is Luke behind the couch? No!" and then all of a sudden, I will find him.

The cutest part is that now Luke mocks me. When it's my turn to hide, Luke jabbers like he's counting to ten and then he says, "Ready or not"....and then he pretends to find me. He will ask himself questions like I do and then answer himself. He will say, "Is Mommy in there? No!" or sometimes he says, "nope!" which I am guilty of saying. :) I think it's so neat that he has picked up on this game and tries to truly play with me.

Here's Luke "hiding" under some covers...

One more thing about Luke's hiding adventures....sometimes he will run and hide even when we are not playing the game. All of a sudden, he will take off and run somewhere in the house. He will get really quiet. And, to be honest, there are times that I truly have to look for him. On several occasions, he has run and climbed up on our bed and hid himself in the stack of pillows on the bed. The first time he did this I just about had a heart attack because I couldn't believe he climbed on the bed by himself. Now, I've seen him do it so much that I'm not quite as worried. He is very talented at getting on and off things safely. :) One day, Landis and I couldn't find him for what seemed like forever....we were truly getting a little worried....we called his name and he didn't say a word....finally, I notice a tiny toe sticking out of the dirty clothes closet....I open the closet and there sits Luke with his bottom in the air between the laundry baskets grinning! What a sneaky man! :)

Here's Luke being silly in his tunnel after eating some pudding...

Just talking and playing...






Luke loves corn on the cob....here he is chowing down on some...


Lately, Luke LOVES fruit....he wants to eat plums, peaches, grapes, pears, cantaloupe, strawberries...he will hold whatever fruit it is and dive into it. Here are some pictures of the first day that he ate a peach (back in July). He must've enjoyed it because now he's a peach fan! :)





And...even though summer is over....he still loves popsicles....I just make sure he eats them in his pack and play...


And, now let me end with some videos....

Video #1: Luke eating his popsicle.

Video #2: Luke playing hide and seek under the covers...

Video #3: A few weeks ago, Landis' truck had to be worked on so Landis drove one of the company's trucks home...it was an old, terrible looking truck that was actually used as a pilot truck for construction jobs. When Luke saw this truck, he called it an "old, nasty, truck". I thought it was cute and got it on video!

Video #4: Luke loves to watch Landis mow. He just sits for the whole hour it takes. He even sits there and watches him weed eat. Well, one day when we were playing outside, Luke picked up a stick and started to pretend to weed eat like daddy using the stick. Check it out...

Thank you for reading this super long post. Hopefully, my next post will include a sum it up of the beach trip. :) Let's pray that the Bumgarner family has an adventurous weekend (in a good way). Happy adventuring!

Toddy