Toddy: This & That

My baby boy is sound asleep in his toddler bed and mommy is not far from laying her head down on a pillow too....but, first I had to post a ton of pictures and some other random information in order to get caught up on my blog. I need to get caught up so that I am blogging about current events and not things that happened weeks ago....with this blog complete, I will be very close to being caught up.

It's been such a good night around the Bumgarner house that I have just enough energy to update you on my little man. Luke has been so sweet lately - I mean, he's always sweet, but had his moments where he whines a lot or pitches toddler fits when he doesn't get his way. Well, here lately, he has been in such a good pattern - he plays and plays in the afternoons without whining, eats a ton of dinner in his high chair without fussing, goes to sleep easily, sleeps most of the night, wakes up in a good mood, naps good, and then starts the good cycle over again. This weekend we went to ride Thomas the train in Spencer and then we spent the whole afternoon in Charlotte visiting my college roommate and her husband and new little girl. (I will post pics later.) Luke was very good the entire day. I was very proud of his behavior around a guest house, a new baby, and even their dog.

Luke is eating a ton of food lately too. He went through a streak where he wouldn't eat vegetables. Well, in the past few days....he is like a bottomless pit. Yesterday, for lunch, he ate sloppy joes, green peas, and a yogurt. Then, last night, he ate two containers of applesauce, potato casserole, 1/2 cup of yogurt, and then a few bites of brownie. Tonight, we had breakfast for dinner and he ate a biscuit and almost two pancakes. I think he's going through a growth spurt because he is chowing down! :)

At gymnastics tonight, he was so good! He listened to the teacher and tried to mock each of the animal sounds and motions that she did. He stood in line and waited his turn....then, climbed the ladder all by himself, walked on the balance beam with me holding only one hand, jumped on the mini-vault several times, jumped on the big trampoline, did his front rolls and donkey kicks, and then had a few, super cute silly moments in between where mommy couldn't help but give him an extra tickle session or twirl upside down. We had such a good time! When we got home, my dad (his papaw Greene) was here, so I let him stay up about 30 minutes past his bedtime so he could play....he never got whiny or ill....he just played and talked with pappaw....he rode Thomas, pushed his lawn mower while papaw pushed the popper, showed pappaw how to push the cars through his homemade tunnel, played hide and seek and played with pappaw's flashlight. You should see him play hide and seek....we will tell him to go hide and he will crawl up on our bed and bury himself in the pillows. He will stay perfectly still and will not say a word until we "pretend" to find him - I mean, he seriously hides....it's so cute! :)

He also had a great day at preschool today. He has been crying and clinging to Carolyn just about everyday that he goes to school. He calms down after about 5 minutes and usually does well, but, thankfully, this morning, he barely whined and went right to his teacher. The teachers said that he had one of his best days yet. He came home with the cutest pictures of Noah's ark that he glued and colored. The teachers told Carolyn that he was extremely sweet to the other children in the class, especially the younger ones and that he interacted with them all well. I'm so glad - what a relief to have a child that already shows signs of a kind heart toward others! :)

The toddler days are filled with ups and downs - right now, I sure am enjoying the ups....he may wake up and have a terrible day tomorrow, but, if he does, I will still love him with all of my heart....in the meantime, I sure am having fun with my sweet baby boy!

Here are a few more updates that I want to share...

Nighttime Reading: Luke will now name the books that he wants to read each night. He actually did this for the first time on September 28th. On that night, he kept pushing the books away that I would show him so I said, "Luke, what book do you want to read?" He said, "Tuck Me In" (which is a name of a book that we always read). I was so excited that he knew the title and was able to communicate that. Ever since then, I have made sure to say, "The name of this book is..." for each book. And, now, I will say, "What book do you want to read?" He will name exactly which one he wants to read. He definitely has his favorites which include, If You Give a Moose A Muffin, Opposites (by Sandra Boyton), Click, Clack Moo, Moo, Baa, La, La, La (Sandra Boyton), Frog's Friends, and Dancing Feet. For these books, he will "read" them with me - by this I mean, if I read the first part of the sentences, he will tell me what the rest of the page says. For example, if I say, "If you give a moose a muffin...", Luke will say, "he wants some jam to go with it...." Or, in the Opposites book, I will say, "Big..." and Luke will say, "and small." I will say, "Short..." and Luke will say, "and tall." Then, he will tell me which animals are big and small and which ones are short and tall. Some books he likes so much that he will tell me to "read it again" over and over. Some books he knows so well that he will start saying the words to the book just randomly during the day even when we are not reading the book or even have it in front of us. I know I'm just a bragging mommy but I really do think Luke's memory and language skills are ahead of the game....I could be wrong, but I think he's quite intelligent. :)

Food Fetish: Even though Luke is eating great lately, he still has two very weird fetishes with his food. 1. Each bite has to be the perfect size. If a bite is too big, he spits it out. Because of this, when he is feeding himself and he gets too big of a bite, he will ask me to get the perfect amount on the spoon or the fork and then he will pick it up and eat it. I guess I accidentally instilled my fear of him choking into him because now he is super picky about making sure that he is not going to choke. 2. The temperature of the food must be just right. If a food is the least bit warm, he will not eat it. He will say, "too hot" and spit it out. He likes his food lukeworm. I don't know what caused this fetish....strange....just strange....

Just Watching: Luke is at the age where he will play by himself at times. When he is playing like this, instead of taking the time to do things that I need to do, I find myself watching him. I love to watch him "work" his mouth as he tries to push the cars through the tunnel. I love to hear him ask himself questions and then answer them. I love to watch him put the puzzle pieces in the puzzle. One of the best memories I have of this summer was my last week out of work - I took him to the Winston Salem Children's Museum for their Monday morning music time. They had the neatest lady there that did a ton of cute songs with the children. She also brought all kinds of props to use with the songs - scarves, shakers, drumsticks....Luke absolutely loved this! I sat back behind the circle of kids and just watched him for 30 minutes. It was so sweet to watch him attempt to "play" his instrument and try to sing the words even though he didn't know them. After each song, he would put his instrument away like the teacher asked and then look back at me like he was so proud of himself for accomplishing something. In between songs, he would put his little hands together and stand perfectly still just watching what was going to come next. I don't think there's anything sweeter on the planet than these innocent little kids....not a care in the world.....they live to play and learn and it's awesome to watch! :)

Cute Sayings: I will end with a list of cute sayings that I have been writing down....he is like a little parrot, he repeats everything so he says a ton of cute things all the time....but, these are some of the cutest....some of them are quite mature sounding....

"Pop a Willy" (he says this when we are pushing his red car....he wants us to lift the front up and pop a willy)

"Pizza Sounds Good" (I asked him what he wanted to eat and he told me that.)

"Oh my goodness, that's a lot of clothes." (after seeing a pile of laundry on the floor, he said that and then picked them up and put them in the laundry basket.)

"Sit Down, I spank you." (he tells himself this when he is standing up in the chair that he knows he's not suppose to stand in. When I hear him say this, I end up really spanking him because he knows better.)

"Shake it for me, girl!" (These are words in a country song that his daddy has taught him.)

"Green....yellow...." (When I say, what color is that? He tells me that almost everything is green...then, when I say, no, that's not green....he says yellow.)

"Is Mommy in there? NO!" (He asks himself this as he looks for me during our hide and seek games. It's hilarious to listen to him answer himself.)

"It's Nice Outside." (he said this one morning as we walked outside)

"Give me some honey." (When you say, Luke, what does a bear say? He says this....and then the best part....he will look at us and grin and say...."Now, that's funny") :)

"I'm getting situated." (he tells us this when we put him in his high chair or car seat.) :)

Here are a ton of pictures that I have needed to post....enjoy...

Luke "working on" Thomas...

Just playing outside on a "nice" day....

Luke LOVES to play inside of cars....as soon as I get home from work each day, this is what he does....goes straight to the car and tries to open the door so he can play...

Playing at the museum in the sandbox....

Ironing his clothes....oh, that reminds me, he will tell us "Uke is naked" when he has only his diaper on.....Uke is his name....he never says the L part. Oh...and he does know his full name, if we ask, "What's your name?" He says, "Uke Bumgarner"

Playing guitar with daddy...

Playing hide and seek....

Talking to memaw on the phone at dinner time...

He likes me to put pieces of his food in one of his dump trucks and roll it to him so he can eat it....here are his peaches in a dump truck...

Last weekend, we went to Everybody's Day in Thomasville, here are some pictures of our fun there...memaw and Lexi went with us....

Drinking a squeezed lemonade...

Riding the big strawberry....check out my mom in the background...it's all she can do not to get sick from all of the twirling....Luke loved it! :)

Riding the train...

About three weeks ago, I took Luke to the Central Carolina Fair in Greensboro....just me and him....I bought him his first cotton candy....he liked it okay....he ate a few pieces but didn't want too much...

At the fair, I let him play a game where he got a chance to pick up a rubber ducky to possibly when a prize....well, he won and the prize was....a rubber ducky....this made his day....he loves this bath tub duck....I showed him the Rubber Ducky song that Ernie on Sesame Street sings on You Tube and now we both sing it in the bath tub during bath time. Sing with me...."Rubber Ducky you're the one....you make bath time so much fun...."

Anyway....in this picture, Luke is giving his rubber ducky the numi....see him try to put it in the rubber ducky's mouth....you know he likes something if it's special enough to receive the numi...

See???? There's his ducky....

Cotton Candy! Yummy!

Being silly at home...

In his new toddler bed...

Oh...by the way....he fell out of his bed for the first time the other night. I heard a small thud and then a whimper. When I looked in the monitor and couldn't see Luke, I went to check on him and he was lying on the floor, still covered up, and still asleep....thank goodness I always put a blanket on the floor so that the hardwood floors don't hurt him if this happens...it must not have because he slept right through it...