So, it's sad to say but our first week of summer is almost over and it has been a fantastic week! Before I begin telling about this week's adventures, I would like to journal what I call my "Summer Bucket List" - I saw this topic used on another blog and I liked it so much that I thought I would make my own list. Here is my Summer Bucket list:
1. Study the Bible. More free time definitely needs to provide me with more time to study God's word.
2. Potty train Luke - that's already done! He is a pro!
3. Visit Family - I hope to visit my mammaw and grandaddy Watts every week and also see my Mammaw Motsinger a few times. We also want to see baby Haley, my cousin Erin, and my aunt Sonya as much as possible. And....how can I forget??? Hopefully, we will see memaw and Lexi a bunch!
4. Teach Luke some letters, numbers, and hopefully, a few words.
5. Read EVERYDAY!
6. LAUGH EVERDAY - which means we will have to tickle everyday.
7. Sing and dance EVERYDAY!
8. Give each other hugs and kisses everyday.
9. Try out a few parks that we have never visited.
10. Have at least one picnic together each week.
11. Clean and organize.
12. Finish Luke's baby book and organize his special keepsake drawer that I have been tossing things into.
13. Stay in shape - I should have more time to workout!
14. Spend a lot of time at the pool!
15. Most importantly - enjoy each other through conversation, through play, through hugs and kisses - taking every second I can to enjoy our time together! Summer time is a special time that I must not ever take for granted!
It's going to be GREAT!
In order to help me journal and remember our summer experiences, I decided to make note of what I will call the "Highlight of the Day" each day. Let me begin....
Saturday, June 16th:
Luke and I were eating Apple Jacks at the little table in the living room. He accidentally hit the side of the bowl and spilled some milk. He looked at me with the most serious face and said, "What's the big idea?" (and then giggled) If you don't ever watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse you will have no idea why that's funny - that is what Donald the Duck says every time something silly happens so Luke was quoting Donald the Duck. It was hilarious! :)
Sunday, June 17th:
The highlight of the day came around 8:00pm. After eating dinner with Donnie and Gail at Elizabeth's Pizza to celebrate Father's Day, we stopped by McDonald's and got ice cream sundaes for me and Daddy and got Luke a vanilla ice cream cone. Luke and I sat on the front steps and ate our ice cream together. About 10 minutes after eating his ice cream, Luke went WILD! I mean totally WILD! He saw that Taylor and Blaine were home so he wanted to go visit. He ran from Taylor like crazy - he would hide behind every tree in papa's yard and then run to the other side of the yard. He ran and ran and ran for 30 minutes. Then, he asked Taylor to spin with him in the front yard and he spun around in circles until he was dizzy enough to fall down. After Taylor went home, Luke came inside and was just as crazy as he was outside. He ran up and down the hall and then did his spin moves in the kitchen again! Check out the video....
Before I move on, here are some pictures from Saturday, June 16th. Luke and I began working on the letter A on Saturday morning. See....
Monday, June 18th
On Monday, I went to my new school, Brier Creek, to pick up some materials to study and read over the summer. After I got what I needed from my classroom, I took Luke to the playground. He liked the playground but his favorite part was throwing rocks into the woods. He would use his tough man voice
when counting the rocks as he threw them. The highlight of the day came when I was racing him back to the playground. I said, "Ready, Set, Go!" and we took off toward the playground. All of sudden, he tripped and fell face first. I
waited to see what his reaction was (I never react first) – he all of a sudden got up and said,
“Crash!” and giggled and then started pretending to fall again and again while
saying crash! I was relieved to see that he had such a positive attitude about his fall.
On Monday, another highlight would also be our picnic with Daisy and Minnie and
Clarabelle Cow (we seem to have at least one picnic a day with those girls). We sit in Luke's room and make sure everyone has a plate full of food as we pretend to eat and talk about our day. Luke calls Daisy, Clarabelle Cow, and Minnie "his girls." He will say, “I love my girls.” J
On Monday, Luke and I also had our own back deck celebration - we picked our first tomatoes! We finally had some red tomatoes that were ripe enough to be picked. Here are some pictures of Luke picking and eating the tomatoes....
On Monday, Luke and I also had our own back deck celebration - we picked our first tomatoes! We finally had some red tomatoes that were ripe enough to be picked. Here are some pictures of Luke picking and eating the tomatoes....
Wow! Until posting these pics, I had no idea how busy we were on Monday....while riding his lawn mower, Luke also helped me move some of the files that I took home from my office at Fair Grove and put in the building. Here he is moving some files for me in his trailer.
Here are a few pictures from his crazy time on Sunday night....this is what he looked like after awhile - getting very tired....
I guess this next part could have been a highlight of Monday also - I mean I think we had a whole week's worth of playing in one day (or maybe some of these pictures are from the weekend - I can't remember). Here is a picture and a video of Luke deciding that he wants to hide in his closet during our picnic. Listen closely to the video - Luke makes the cutest comment about Minnie Mouse....I asked him, "Did Minnie enjoy her lunch? And, what was her favorite part?" Luke said, "Her favorite part was ME!" Confident, little fellow, huh?
Tuesday, June 19th
Pretty much, the whole day on Tuesday was a highlight for me. Before Tuesday morning, I had already planned to take our first field trip to the Durham Museum of Life and Science on Tuesday. When I woke up on Tuesday morning, I sent my best friend, Tiffanie, a text and told her that we were headed to her home town just in case she could join us with her kids - Will and Kylie. To my surprise, she texted me back and said that she could meet me at the museum, could get us in for free, and could spend the day with us there! I was super excited! The kids had a blast together!
Luke's favorite parts were....
-digging in the sand box with the dump trucks
-running up and down the big steps, in and out of the playhouses, up
the ladders, around the poles, across the bridge, through the tunnel - he liked jumping from the tall steps with
me holding his hands
-the caboose – climbed up into the tall compartment with
Will and Kylie – climbed into the little storage compartment
-running through the dinosaur trails – he was soaking wet
with sweat because he ran so much
-climbing on the big dinosaur and sliding down his tail –
all of the kids liked this
-looking for the dinosaurs as Tiffanie gave him clues – Tiffanie would say, "Luke, in a
minute, we will see 'little tiny' dinosaurs (and he would repeat this with the
cutest, scrunched up face)" She had him do the same thing when looking for a blue dinosaur and a dinosaur hiding in the grass.
-digging for fossils and then throwing the fossils (aka – rocks) into the woods
-eating lunch with Will, Kylie, and Tiffanie. Luke did well for a few minutes and then he was ready to
get up. This was the only time I had to just about spank him because he was
running off.
-the balls exhibits inside – he liked rolling the red balls
down the pipe and watching the big balls come down – he liked climbing in the box area to get
the red balls from the buckets and then he would wait his turn to push the red
balls down the big hill. He learned after trying this several times that he had to push the balls easily down the hill or they would roll off the wrong way.
-cooking with Will and Kylie in the kitchen and feeding the
animals – Luke would fill up the water bowls and then sit them
down for the animals to drink – he also combed the animals hair
-building towers with the logs
-building a house with the blocks
-playing with a baby in the toddler room as he climbed the
steps, went through the tunnel, and slid down
The highlight of the day for me was watching Luke run beside of Kylie through the dinosaur trails. They looked so sweet walking and running together. When Tiffanie and I were growing up, there was no way to imagine how fun it would be having kids and watching them play together. We had always hoped they would grow up together like we did but distance keeps us apart and makes us cherish days and times like this even more.
Another highlight for me on this day was catching up on life with my best friend. While the kids played, Tiff and I had time to talk and catch up on the exciting things that were happening in each other's lives. I sure do miss Tiffanie! She's a one of a kind friend - the kind that you don't see for months and then as soon as you see her, it's like you just saw her yesterday! I love you, Tiff!
One last highlight for me was listening to Luke talk and converse with Will and Kylie and Tiffanie. I wish I could remember all of the things he said. He definitely brought his big personality. Tiffanie and Will and Kylie would say things and Luke would repeat them in his most dramatic voice – I love it! He has such a cute personality!
When it was time to leave the museum, Luke didn't argue - I mean we had been
there for 4 HOURS! I knew he was tired.
He was asleep within 10 minutes on the way home. I know he had a great time – you could see him smiling and
interested the whole time! Also –
our potty trained big boy did AWESOME with the potty. Even when playing so
hard, he had no accidents. He would use
the bathroom whenever we took bathroom breaks or he would tell me when he had
to go. He peed and pooped in between
exhibits. I was very proud of him!
What a fun way to start our summer field trips! J
Enjoy the pictures....
On the train...(see the cheesy smile???)
Digging...
On the dinosaur...
Wednesday, June 20th
Highlight of the Day: I was picking up around the house and I heard Luke playing
on his Tonka truck. He was scooting
along forcefully while saying, “What are you doing? Get out of my way. Go
ahead and turn.” I’m thinking, unfortunately, that he was mocking my road rage
that I sometimes have. I don’t speed but
I don’t go exactly on the speed limit so I get a little frustrated when someone
doesn’t go the speed limit or when they turn like they are driving an egg
shell. I guess Luke has been listening to me.
J It sure was funny hearing him have his own toddler Tonka truck road rage!
A few other highlights from Wednesday:
-watching him paint on his sheet outside (for our daily craft activity). He seemed to enjoy that.
-playing at the pool – he laughed and laughed as I pulled
him around in his race car float and went under his float and surprised him on
the other side. He also had a great time
when we put on his floatie shirt and let him jump from the steps. He loved letting me pull him around with his
arms in circles. Then, we hopped,
hopped, hopped through the pool with him on my legs while we sang a Mickey
Mouse song – do the bouncy shoe, HOP, HOP, HOP!
And...one more highlight....at the end of the day, we always talk about what our
favorite part of the day was. On Wednesday night, we had this conversation while Luke was in the tub. I said, “What was your
favorite part of the day?” He said, “You Mommy.” I said, “Thanks, buddy, tell me more. What about me?” He said, “You got in the pool with me.” (This just goes to show that these little
ones love interaction time with their parents.) I am so glad that I could make Luke's day - he makes mine everyday! :)
Here are some pictures of Luke painting on the sheet on the back deck.
And, a few more videos....
#1 - Luke building a log cabin at the museum.
#2 - Luke painting.
Thanks for reading, gang! I hope to write again early next week. I'm aiming to write every 3 to 4 days. Luke was officially 2 1/2 years old yesterday - it's hard to believe! Time flies when you are having fun. I'm off to have fun! See you soon...
Toddy
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