Here are some highlights from our past week...
Tuesday (July 10th):
We stayed around the house and played – we played a letter matching game, watched a few videos that I downloaded from my video
camera, read some books, I carried Luke around the house upside down and tossed him on the bed, we made a
rainbow out of fruit loops, we built a log cabin, played with the refrigerator
letters, bult a block tower, danced and did all the motions and exercises from
Luke’s highlights books
Luke took an early nap. I was exhausted too so I slept with him for the first 30
minutes and then got up to work on the blog.
After Luke's nap, we went to Chuck e Cheese with Memaw, Lexi, and Lauren and had a
BLAST!
For the most part, I will let the pictures tell the story.
This jeep went up and down and back and forth like you were riding down a really bumpy road, Luke loved it. I think it was his favorite ride.
The jeep again...
This time, he has passengers in the Jeep...
On this ride, you leaned back in a seat and then
watched the roller coaster ride on the TV or you could also watch the jet pack ride or a ride
through a huge tunnel. Luke loved this! His eyes would get real wide as we
watched and the chair moved up and down. He rode several times with me and then he rode with the girls!
L
Luke's favorite part of the whole day was crawling through the big tunnels. He has always wanted to do that but this time, he had Lexi to help him
and I felt more comfortable. And, then when Lexi got tired, Luke had memaw –
who doesn’t care about hurting her knees – if Luke wants to do it, by golley, it’s
getting done. Look closely - in this picture, you can see Luke and Lexi in the holes.
Another fun part of the day for Luke was running down the ramp near the food tables and then hiding from memaw! He loves hills and he loves running – no matter where we are!
After he was done playing games, we turned in his tickets. He picked out some candy, a ruler, a very cool mini-car, and some tiny star links. (We still play with his tiny car - he goes really fast and turns circles.)
It was an awesome time!
Wednesday, July 11th:
On Wednesday morning, Luke and I made pig masks out of paper plates. He had to paint the plate pink and he loves to paint! He did such a good
job of trying to put the plate together.
After craft time, we pretended to buy food at a grocery store – we used his play
food, his laptop (as the cash register) and grocery bags to take the food home
– and, of course, the shopping cart was a key piece to our role playing.
We tossed play dough balls back and forth.
We read a few books in the rocking chair
Then, I let him watch Sesame Street (the whole hour of it), which I rarely let him do while I did some things around the house!
Right before naptime, we had a little dance party – we
did the baby genius line dance, he did the whole thing with me. Then I tried to teach him the cupid shuffle
and the wobble dance but he was more interested in hitting the golf ball. He
did do a country line dance that we found on the internet with me. He would do the hopping part and the high 5
part. It was a lot of fun and a good way to burn some energy before
naptime!
Luke saw Landis watching a golf tutorial video one afternoon and he saw the man doing practice swings so when Luke was playing golf, he started doing his practice swings. Here is a video of Luke playing golf....
After Luke's nap, we continued to play around the house and when Daddy got home, we did the line dance again with him. It was an uneventful, yet full of playing time night for our family! Here are some pictures from our Wednesday...
Thursday (July 12th):
When I saw that Thursday was overcast with only 30% chance of rain and I knew that the next week would be
hot again, I decided to take advantage of the weather and took a risk and headed to the
zoo.
The joy of the whole day was the light in Luke’s eyes at
each animal or event – Luke slept until almost 7:00am which is unusual for him
so he was in a good mood all day. He lit
up when he saw the seal swim by, the puffins, the turtles, the snakes, the beaded
lizard (that crawled right up to the glass), the otters, the fish, the bears
(black bear and grizzly bear), the bison, the fox, the quails, the rat, the
coati, and probably several others. For the most part, Luke would stay
in what we called the “buggy”, but was actually the zoo rental stroller as we
moved from animal to animal. He actually ate his lunch and his snacks in this
stroller. We stayed on the move the entire time. Every now and then, Luke would
get out of the buggy and climb the ramps or climb up on steps so he could see
the animals better.
Some of Luke’s favorite parts of the visit were...(1) the garden playground –
he loved sliding down the big green leaf, climbing the spider web, and then playing hide and seek in the tunnel. He
also enjoyed climbing on the praying mantis, the bee, and the walls surrounding
the playground. At one point, a girl
(probably around the age of 5) came up behind him and pushed him down the
slide. I was quite irritated, especially
because she was unsupervised, but Luke was scared. He stayed away from this girl the rest of the
time that he played. The little girl
stood out in his mind so much that about an hour later as we were riding along
on the path, Luke said, “That blue girl she needs to be nice because Jesus
wants her to be nice.” I thought that
was sweet! (He called her "that blue girl" because she was wearing a blue shirt. He identifies everyone by the color they are wearing.)
Another funny moment - about 5 minutes after leaving the
playground, I realized that I left our lunch and food bag at the playground. I
told Luke that we had to turn around and go back. He was so sweet – he didn’t
argue. He looked at me and said, “Oh shut! Let’s hurry Mommy!” (Good boy – he sure doesn’t want to be
without food!) J
Luke and I rode the carousel two times. He loved it both times – he rode the elephant and the alligator – his eyes just lit
up while riding!
Luke enjoyed the small things like picking weeds on the side of the trail and then
using the weed to pretend to “fish” from the buggy. He would say, “Mommy, I
caught one.” He would pick up handfuls of rocks and then throw them into the
woods one at a time while we rode. It
was NOT crowded at all so the paths were very clear - thank goodness.
Luke really enjoyed the new dinosaur section. He loved the noises they made and the dinosaurs that squirted
water. He also enjoyed “digging for fossils” and playing in the jeep.
Unfortunately we had to leave this area quicker than we wanted because Luke had
to use the restroom. He kept asking if
we could go back but we already used our tickets.
Luke rode this little electric jeep with a gorilla, elephant, and giraffe SEVERAL times – he
kept saying he was driving the animals to his house.
On the way back to the entrance, we had quite a walk or should I say, I HAD QUITE
A WALK! Luke just relaxed in the “buggy”
– so much so that he dozed off for about 10 minutes and this would be the only
nap that he got all day.
He woke up as I was getting him out of the stroller. I let him stop by the gift shop and pick out something. He chose 3 small stuffed animals – a monkey,
an elephant, and a lion. He talked to them all the way home! They are quite cute and are still a part of his daily routine!
Overall,
it was an excellent trip. The weather
was perfect! We saw most of the animals that we attempted to see. We never made it to the Africa animals
because we were both exhausted! We plan
on going back again when it gets cooler, hopefully with Daddy so that Luke can
go back to the dinosaurs and go see the African animals.
On
the way home, when I asked Luke what his favorite part was – he said, “The
dinosaurs.” And, I would have to
agree. J What an awesome day!
Loving on Madi...
And, now the zoo...getting in the "buggy"...
Here's a video of him watching the turtles...
Watching the seal...
Luke sliding down the leaf....
Sitting on the praying mantis....
Luke playing in the huge bee hive...
Riding the carousel...
Watching the dinosaurs...
Digging for fossils...
Playing in the jeep...
Friday, July 13th:
I started my morning off with a workout while Luke played at Mammaw’s. Then, we
headed to Winston for what we thought would be a quick lunch with Daddy. Before lunch, we hung out with Daddy as he
showed Luke off to everyone. Luke was unusually shy until he got around Chris
and Troy. He liked them! They threw a
golf ball back and forth with him and he enjoyed that. Troy even gave him a tiny flashlight that had
a blue light. Luke loves looking at all the big machinery at Daddy’s work – he
always asks to sit on them but we have to tell him no because it’s very
dangerous.
We ate lunch at Chick – Fil – A. We had no idea that it was free
chicken day (if you dressed up like a cow). It was crazy FUN in there! There were kids and adults of all ages
dressed like cows – with ears, noses, spots, and even tails. It was hilarious! They had the Chick-Fil-A cows walking around
visiting with everyone. Luke gave the cows a High 5 several times. They gave every child a balloon. Luke loved holding his balloon during
lunch. Luke ate so well that we let him
have his favorite – a vanilla ice cream cone.
After our entertaining lunch, we headed to the mall. Our purpose was to run in real quick and let
Luke ride the train while Daddy looked at the sales in Belks. Well, our quick
trip turned into almost 2 hours. Luke
rode the train with me while Daddy shopped and then since Daddy was still
shopping, Luke asked if he could rent one of the mall stroller cars. We had nothing else to do so, of course, we
rented one. I pushed Luke around
upstairs until I came to Old Navy. I
went in Old Navy and bought Luke a few outfits that were on sale. I also checked in Stride Rite because they
were having a huge sale but they didn’t have Luke’s size in any of the styles
that we liked. I had no more shopping to
do so Luke and I just rode around the mall – well, Luke rode and I pushed – it
was good exercise. We checked on Daddy a
few times and gave him our opinion on his clothes.
Finally, at 2:30, we were done and ready to head home. We returned our stroller car and headed back
to Tville.
The weather was finally pretty enough to go to the pool and as
late as it was, I didn’t want Luke to sleep too long. I let Luke sleep all the way home and then I
ran inside and got our pool stuff and headed straight to the pool.
At the pool, Luke had several friends there – Noah and Ellie
Black and Silas Lohr – and, the mommies had fun talking Mommy talk for a little
while. Landis joined us for the last 30
minutes so that was a nice treat to have Daddy with us. Luke played in the big pool with and without
his floatie. He drove his new car float
in the big pool and the little pool. He
made everyone a “picnic” with his cups and bowls. Noah and Silas joined him. He threw the rings
in the baby pool. He and I played with the scooper balls. We also threw the baseball back and forth.
Luke loves to get in and out of the baby pool to get the ball. Luke played with his new water squirters –
the big one and little one. In the big
pool, he jumped to me and I pulled him around like a motorboat and threw him in
the air like an airplane. It was a fun time! I am so glad that, even on such a
busy day, that we took the time to go – especially since the weather had been
so crummy lately!
Here are some pictures of the boys at the pool...sitting on the picnic table eating their snacks...
Saturday, July 14th:
Because of the busy Friday that we had, we decided to take it
easy at home on Saturday morning. Luke
and I had a great time tickling on the bed, playing hide and seek and chasing
each other around for a few games of tag.
We kept Luke’s music on so we could sing and dance when we wanted. We practiced bouncing golf balls into an
empty box. We sorted and built towers
with the blocks. We used letter stamps to draw a lizard and snake. We read several books. I read Luke his animal sound fact book
several times and then gave him facts about an animal and asked him to tell me
which animal I was talking about – he did fairly well. I was pleased that he cared and was
interested. I let Luke watch a few Super
Why shows. He played in Daddy’s truck
and Daddy pushed him in his red car. He
pulled Minnie and Daisy around in his little wagon. He rode his tricycle and his scooter and then
parked them both perfectly in the back bedroom.
He enjoys parking his riding toys. He will tell me that he is backing them
up to park them. Then, we were both tired. I read him some books and laid down
with him for a few minutes and then tried to leave the room and let him fall
asleep on his own – to no avail – he rolled around and yelled my name 100 times. He will
NOT settle down without me laying beside of him. I let him toss and turn and
yell my name for over 30 minutes until I finally laid back down with him. It’s
quite ridiculous the monster that I have created when it comes to naps and
bedtime. My only option is spanking him
at these times everyday and I just don’t have the heart to make sleeping times
that miserable for all of us. As soon as I laid down beside of him, he was
asleep within 5 minutes! Unbelievable!
After Luke’s nap, we went to the pool – all 3 of us – me,
Landis, and Luke and Heather and Silas were there also AND Taylor was
there! Luke loves Taylor! He played with her in the water for a long
time. He would ask her to spin him around and around and she did. He also rode in his new float, which he calls
a “boat”, for a long time. He didn’t want anyone to touch his boat, but,
instead, he wanted to kick his way
around the pool in his boat. Here are some pictures that I took with my IPhone in the pool (I have the coolest IPhone
cover called Lifeproof – it is water proof so I can take pictures near the
water without worrying about my phone being damaged).
After Luke was finished with his float, he went to the kiddie
pool and ate a snack. Luke and Silas sat down on the towels and ate goldfish
together. It was so cute to watch them
communicate. At one point, Silas said, “Look, there’s an ant.” Luke responded, “I know, Silas.” Before long, they will be chatting away with
each other.
After some snacks, both boys and grownups went back to the big
pool. Silas was doing AWESOME swimming
all by himself (with his floatie on) so we encouraged Luke to try it. As you know, he wouldn't do it on this day but since then is doing great! If you didn't read my last post about his swimming adventures - go check it out!
After swimming for a little while and jumping off the side a few
times, Luke wanted a big chilly willy. They didn’t have anymore so I let him
try a creamsicle. He loved it! He ate
the whole thing all by himself!
We finished the pool date with some use of the water squirters,
a few throws of the ball, and then the best part of all – the boys played
basketball. Landis shot the ball around with Silas and Luke. Luke or Silas would bounce the ball and then
both boys would run after it. A few
times they actually bounced the ball back and forth to each other. After a little while, Luke wanted his shovel
so he could dig in the cracks of the cement and “fix” the gate – his attention
span is crazy short sometimes! Anyway –
it sure was fun watching all of the boys play together! What a fun afternoon!
We came home, took showers, ate dinner, and finished our night
with some family “tag” and “hide and seek.”
Fun fun!
Around 9:45, as Landis and I lay in bed watching TV, Landis
said, “It’s amazing how life changes when you have a little one around.” I said, “What do you mean?” He said, “Well, years ago we never would have
imagined doing nothing on a Saturday night and going to bed at 9:45pm.” Well, I
think play dates at the pool, tickling sessions, hide and seek and tag are way
better than any dinner date or card game with friends ever was! I love this life!
Here are just a few pictures...
This is where Luke put Minnie and Daisy while we were playing in the house. He said that they wanted to sit and watch.
Luke and Daddy chilling out and playing on the bed...
And, the video of the boys playing at the pool...
Sunday, July 15th:
Sunday was a whirlwind. As you know, I ran early in the morning
on the track. Then, we went to a church that meets in the Ledford Middle School
auditorium to watch my brother (Blaine) and my nephew (Caleb) get
baptized. I am so proud of both of them
and cannot wait to see what the Lord does in their young lives. They made the most important decision they
will ever make in their lives! My hope
is that they fully understand that!
After church and Luke’s nap, Landis went to a funeral so
Luke and I played here at home by ourselves.
We played with his cars for the longest time. Luke would park them in
the garage or “roundhouse”, give them gas, and then watch them race down his
race car hill. I enjoyed the nice quiet
time INSIDE (away from the heat) playing with him. He also sang some songs into
his microphone. He did a great job – he
would tell me, “Ladies and Gentlemen” and then he would start singing. There is a cute video of him singing, "He's Still Working On Me" and the "B-I-B-L-E" song posted at the bottom.
Luke mowed for a little bit outside. He mowed the field and while he was mowing,
he found some wild grape clusters. He
would pick the clusters off the vine, load them in his trailer, and then take
them to our yard to “feed the bunnies.”
I watched him closely to make sure he didn’t attempt to feed
himself. J
For dinner, my dad cooked a pot roast and brought it to our
house so that we could all eat. It was a
nice dinner with all of us! After
dinner, Taylor and Blaine and Luke played so well together. Matter of fact, the
grown ups stayed in the living room and talked and listened to Landis play his
guitar while the kids ran up and down the halls and played with the toys in the
playroom. It’s nice that Luke is getting to an age where he can play
responsibly with other kids without me standing right over him.
Luke was sad to see Taylor and Blaine go but cheered up for bath
time. Lately, Luke’s favorite story is
Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We read the book each night at bedtime and then
he asks me to tell him the story again after his lights are out. So, in the bathtub, he always pours me 3
bowls of porridge – a large bowl, a medium sized bowl, and a tiny bowl of
porridge and then he wants me to “taste” each bowl and let him know which one
is too hot, too cold, and just right – just like the three bears, imagine that. J
After bath, Daddy did some tickling on the bed while I
straightened up a little and then Daddy brought him in the bedroom for
bedtime. We read and read and read and
then, finally, turned the lights out. As
we were laying there in the dark, Luke spontaneously reached over and kissed me
on my cheek two times. I said, “Well, thank you, buddy.” He said, “You’re welcome, Mommy.” It was
adorable! J A great way to end a great day!
Oh yeah – I should tell you this – after we read several books,
I told Luke the story of Joseph that I studied from the Bible. Luke loved it and wanted to hear it 3 times!
I also told him the story of Jesus and he loves this story too….I’m so glad he
is becoming interested in these Bilble stories….speaking of the Bible…I forgot to
write about this funny moment…
While I was dumping water on Luke’s head in the bathtub to rinse
his hair out, he said as the water is pouring over his face, “Lord, thank you
for this dumb water.” That’s funny! I
mean – he could have just said that the water was dumb. At least, he used his
frustration of the water pouring in his face to thank the Lord for it. J Quite cute! And, most importantly,
unprompted, he knew to thank the Lord for something we need. Maybe, just maybe, Landis and I are doing something
right! J
Luke playing with his cars....look at how sweet he looks in his little church clothes...
Taylor and Luke playing in the sand...
The video of Luke singing....
Monday, July 16th:
Luke woke up at 4:45am for no
apparent reason, I tried to get him to go back to sleep but after laying in his
bed until 5:45, there was no hope so we both got up. I had planned on working
out early at the YMCA around 5:30 before Landis went to work but that didn’t
happen due to Luke’s early wake up time so Luke and I headed to Grimes Park and
downtown Lexington around 7:00am for an early morning run and playtime in the
park.
It actually worked out nicely because
it was a gorgeous morning and Luke was in a sweet mood. As I ran, Luke talked
about which houses needed someone to mow and we looked for people who were
mowing – I think we saw 5 or 6 people mowing – that’s a lot, especially since
it was so early in the morning. I guess
Monday must be mowing day in Lexington. J
Luke also asked questions about every
pile of grass and sticks that he saw and wanted me to run through them. I
didn’t, of course. As we passed people,
Luke told them, “Good Morning!”
It’s quite cute.
After my little over 3 mile run, I
let him play at the park. He did his usual – slid down and climbed up the
slide, played peek a boo in the tunnel and in the plastic peek a boo hole,
swang, picked up sticks and dug in the dirt, picked up rocks, lined up pine
cones, looked for squirrels – he kept saying, “Mommy, I will give you a clue.
I’m looking for something with a fuzzy white tail. You know what it is?” I
thought, a squirrel, but, no, he said, he was looking for a rabbit.
After we played for almost an hour,
it was time to head to Wal-Mart. Luke almost fell asleep on the way to Wal-Mart
he was already so tired. He was
excellent in Wal-Mart. I let him sit on the lawn mower outside of the store for
1 minute and told him if he was good inside, then I would let him sit on it for
one more minute when we were leaving.
The bribe must have worked because he was excellent! I even stopped and
talked to two Fair Grove staff members that I ran into and Luke was really good
while I talked. One cute moment – I
often use the timer on my phone to give Luke a heads up on how much time he has
at a park or at home before we leave. I
will tell him how much time he has, show him that I am putting that much time
on my timer, and then hit start. He knows that when the bell rings, he is
done. He handles this well – he knows
that I am telling him the truth, a clock will not lie, and he has plenty of
warning. While we were in Wal-Mart, near
the end of our shopping trip, Luke said to me, “Mommy, you have 5 more minutes
of shopping. You need to set your timer and when it beeps, we are
leaving.” That is stinking hilarious! I
laughed and laughed and then politely reminded him that I was the boss and I
would be finished when I was finished! J
Luke rode his lawn mower in the
backyard while I put up the groceries and then fell asleep within 30
minutes.
After Luke's nap, Luke went to mammaw Carolyn's while I took
Madi to the vet. After the vet, we came home, ate a quick dinner,
played in papaw’s car for a little while and then headed to bed – it was a pretty
uneventful night.
Here are some pictures from our time at the park....
Tuesday, July 17th:
Here are some pictures from our time at the park....
This was a very exciting day- so exciting that it had its own post.
The only thing I didn’t post about
Tuesday were two comments that were super cute by Luke…
1 1. When he woke up and saw that I had put Daisy and Minnie on his
lawn mower, he said, “Mommy, I don’t want those girls on my lawn mower.”
2. He
put both Minnies and Daisy inside his house with his piano while he was eating
breakfast. He looked at me and said,
“Mommy, this is my family.” Here are the pictures of Luke eating with his family....
There have been several times that Luke and I have been somewhere and will say or do the cutest things that I will jot down or type in my phone. I found these examples typed in my phone from our time hanging out together recently....
One day, I said, "Let's hit the road jack." Luke said, "I'm not
jack. My name is Luke."
While I was putting on Luke's shirt on, Luke said, "One day I
will be able to put my shirt on all by myself." (Ever since he made this comment, we have been working on it so he can reach this goal.)
One evening, Daddy was fussing at Luke about standing
up on something. Landis was very serious and told Luke that he was going to bust his
crown if he didn't come down from there. Luke looked back at Landis with also a very serious face and said, "Like humpty dumpty."
Luke sometimes says, "I'm 'a working'”.
One afternoon, Luke sat on his bed and said, "I've been
working. I'm sweating." (I didn't see any REAL sweat.)
While Luke and I were sitting on the back steps eating a
snack, he started wiggling around and said, "I'm getting situated."
Luke can now recognize all the letters in his
name and several other letters and numbers.
At night time, he leans over and
kisses me on my cheeks and says, I love you Mommy.” I say, “I love you too. Thank you for my
kisses.” He says, “You’re welcome, Mommy.”
We were eating at McDonald's one night. There is a very sweet lady that works there that will often help me with my food and help me get Luke's high chair because she knows that I have my hands full. Luke calls the lady "the nice lady." One evening, after the "nice lady" helped us sit down with our food, Luke looked at me and said, "That nice lady looks
like she has a horn on her head." I laughed and laughed. The "horn" was her McDonald's cap.
This same night was one of those nights in which Luke had not taken a nap all day and he was exhausted. I didn't want him to fall asleep without dinner, so we stopped at McDonald's to eat. When we first got there, Luke told me that he was ready to go home and go to bed. I explained to him, "No, we have to eat first." (It was only like 5:30pm) Well, about 5 minutes later while we were eating, Luke heard a little
boy crying and he said to me, "That boy is crying. That boy is like me. He wants to go home and his mommy
won't let him." THAT'S HILARIOUS!
When I’m sitting Indian style on the floor playing with Luke, he
will sit in my lap and say, “I’m settling into my nest.”
Here are some pictures that I just downloaded from my phone...some of them are from May and June.
Cheesy smile...
One evening, Luke and I played on the playground at Fair Grove and then stopped by my office to pick up some work for me to bring home. Here is Luke playing on the playground...he had a blast!
Luke playing on the lawn mower at Mammaw and Grandaddy's house...
As always, thanks for tuning in! I can't believe I'm staying caught up on my summer adventure journal.
Before I go let me say - like you, I have been glued to the TV watching the story on the horrific Movie Massacre that occurred in Colorado. I couldn't help but get sick on my stomach just thinking about the mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, and brothers and sisters that are without someone they love tonight because of the work of the Devil. Why do things like this happen? I don't know....I have no idea. What I do know is that God will use this tragedy to bring hope and life in ways that we don't understand. I pray that the victims and the families of the lost loved ones will find hope and peace in Jesus and that somehow, someway, the Good News of Jesus is spread and multiplied during this horrible time. Remember Romans 8:28 - God can use all things for GOOD.
From another perspective - the mommy perspective - I couldn't help but also feel a gut feeling of fear - fear that my child is growing up in a world filled with evil people like this gunman. I will pray that the Lord helps me keep my focus on my purpose and helping Luke fulfill his purpose because that would mean that I'm focusing on LIFE and GOD and not FEAR and DEATH. I have Jesus so I have LIFE and with Jesus, I should fear nothing! That's my prayer....along with, most importantly, like I said earlier, that God comfort these victims and families that were affected. My heart truly goes out to them.
Have a great weekend.
Toddy
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