a bit of a ham

I just discovered that I could flip the monitor/screen thingy on our camcorder and Luke could watch himself while recording. Big hit with Luke.

So this is how he entertained himself while we got ready for church this morning. Please pardon the fact we're videoing the bathroom. I was putting on make up and I don't trust him by himself with the camcorder. I thought the video was worth posting regardless of location. He's just a bit in love with his own image in the camera. Notice in the song he sings, "I turn around" but can't bring himself to fully turn and quit looking at the camera.

Tonight before bed Luke snuggled up to me and said, "I love you Mommy." First time ever spontaneously. Worth the wait.

picture and new link

After I charged my camera battery, I was surprised to see it actually saved this picture right before it died. Way to go Canon Rebel!

There's a new link under "Helpful Links" some may enjoy. A friend of mine who is a Montessori teacher and mom of two started a blog with great ideas to do at home with your kids. I'm very interested in Montessori methods for Luke. It seems very similar to teaching methods we've used in therapy. But these are great ideas to use with any child. I also have her sweet boy in my Wednesday night class, and can attest his pre-academic skills seem quite advanced.

So the other day Luke and I were working on his full name (his middle name is Thomas). I asked him, "Luke, what is your whole name?" and he said, "Luke . . .Percy Thomas James." He cracked himself up with that one.

sickness and valentine's

Yesterday Luke put stickers all over his face and asked me to take a picture. I snapped his picture and my camera battery died. So I got the video camera. Dead battery. This reminded me my cell phone battery was dead, so I was able to charge it before work. As I was leaving for work, I couldn't find my keys. They were in the van ignition, and the battery was dead (I later remembered the night before I went to a retrieve a video from the player that I let Luke watch in hopes of keeping him awake on the way home because naps at 4:30 are not a good thing. But he fell asleep anyway. I have to turn the key so the battery is on to turn the DVD player on. Apparently I left it that way all night.)

And yesterday was pretty symbolic of how I feel, out of juice. I think it's just the January blahs that were a little delayed. I hope so.

Luke is finally getting over his sickness--strep, virus or both. He's still fighting some congestion. It was a yucky illness, but he was a trooper. It was actually kind of fun just hanging around the house. I could tell by Tuesday he had some cabin fever though. Mimi and Papa stopped by to see us and he BEGGED to go home with him. He couldn't get his shoes on fast enough and head out the door. And he was adamant I not come with them.

The last week or so in photos:


Not much to say about this. No clue what brought it on.



In the midst of sickness. His face was so chapped. His nose ran constantly and he ran a fever for a few days. But still he wanted to jump on couch. Of course.



Looking sharp in mismatched pajamas, and photographing his feet, which he does somewhat frequently. Nice.

Also running fever and dancing with the Doodlebops. The socks are mine. My brother got them for me on a school trip in high school. They say WEST POINT. Luke found them in the laundry basket and wore them all day. He's so fashion forward.

Luke modeling the craft we made at his class Valentine party. I made this sample with the die cut heart we had at church hoping the size would work. Of course Luke wasn't the best tester since he has the largest head in the class. I of course didn't come up with this on my own, but it's a cute, super easy, and the kids loved it.

We had breakfast for dinner the other night and Luke was WAY excited about the bacon. He put the whole pile on his plate. He was also excited about the pancakes but wouldn't eat them. (The Bob's Red Mill pancake mix was really good, though I guess most things covered in fake butter and syrup would be good.)

Way into hands in the pockets lately.

Grandpa came by on his way through town on business. He brought Luke some very cool walkie talkies. Luke loves playing with them. He started just acting out a Doodlebops show where they play detectives and look for Moe (Seriously, I'm not sure how many times I've heard "Detective DeeDee here.") But he's expanding now and using his own language playing with them. He really likes to use them when the other person is standing about two feet from him making walkie talkies very necessary.

Luke at his school party. I had no idea he was this good at drinking from an open cup. Luke at him doing it one-handed! Also notice how he ate all the icing off the cupcake first. My boy! I used Pamela's Baking Mix (gluten free) for these. The yellow cake was pretty good. The chocolate mix I used for his birthday was much better.

I got some cute pictures of Luke's class in their heart glasses, but I don't think I should post pictures of his class on the blog since I don't know how other parents feel about it.

Last year at Luke's Valentine party he cried from the moment I came into the room until pretty much the party was over. I had to hold him the entire time. Of course, he'd only been in school about 2 weeks. This year, we talked about the party a few days before. He started the "No party. No cards." thing, much like his birthday. Friday morning he saw the cupcakes and asked for one. I told him they were for the party. I told him I was coming to his class for the party and we would all eat cupcakes. He said, "Yes. It's Valentine Party!!"

When I got to school to get ready for the party, Luke was in a center playing. His friend Cooper said, "There's Luke's mom!" and Luke said, "Hi Mommy!" I told him I was getting ready for the party and to keep playing. He called me several times, updating me on what he was doing. He even went out on the playground with his class while we got the room all setup. So proud.

Well, I guess I gave into peer pressure and got Luke a little gift for Valentine's (Seriously I was unaware parents are to give their children Valentine's gifts. When did that start?) I actually bought this on sale in October, but he'd kind of cooled off on Thomas then so I stashed it away. Now that he's way into Thomas again, I pulled out the View Master. He loves it and usually can flip through the pictures perfectly. Sometimes he doesn't get the handle quite all the way down before it snaps up on him. Blasted View Master! He does know to hold it up to his face, but in those photos you can't see the big smile.

We're thankful to be on the mend and back to our schedule, crazy as it is.

picture tag

Occasionally someone tags me for one these fun little blog things. I get tagged less and less, likely because I never do them. I always have good intentions, but I barely get around to updating the blog with what's going on in our life, much less a tag. But Sara tagged me with a photo tag that seemed very easy and fun. And I do love pictures. So, the tag said, I think, to find your fourth photo in your fourth photo. So with my folders sorted as they were, by name, this is my photo:




Luke in the bubble bath a couple of weeks ago. Seeing pig and elephant perched there on the edge of the tub reminds me that Luke is doing some great pretending with toys lately. I hear little conversations between toys quite a bit. We've practiced this a lot, and now he's doing it some independently. Sometimes I hear him use lines from videos, but he changes up the words, names, etc. And sometimes it's totally all his language. It's a sweet sound to hear.



So, then I sorted my folders by date and found the fourth folder. This was actually the sixth photo, but I'm going to cheat and share it.


It's a little blurry. Luke was around two months old. Some friends from Macon were visiting and took this picture. Lamar was leaving and saying bye to Luke. Truly, I am never nostalgic for Luke's infancy. Luke was a sweet baby, but very demanding. I love having a preschooler who can communicate with me. Honestly, I think the underlying issue for me is that Luke spent over three years with very limited ability and it seemed little desire to communicate with us. And I never want to go back there. But, all that said, seeing this photo reminded me what a sweet baby he was and for once a bit sad that babyhood slipped away.




We took Luke for his 4 year old checkup on Monday. We didn't do a well-check at three. Lamar and I were both feeling guilty about that, and then we kept running into our doctor at a local restaurant and we were just sure he knew what slackers we were. Luke's been very healthy and we haven't needed a sick visit since he was 2 1/2. But I just had knots in my stomach before we went. I wasn't really embarrassed. I guess it was just having Luke back in a doctor's office after all the appointments where we were trying to determine what was wrong. Just lots of stressful memories.




The appointment went great and the pediatrician was very impressed with Luke's progress. And he said that at the 3 year old appointment it's all a developmental check, and we were up to our eyeballs in developmental stuff, so he would have told us to skip it if we asked. Anyway, I was really proud of Luke. He tolerated the weight and height check. Standing on the wobbly scale has been hard in the past. He allowed the nurse to check his blood pressure and even did the finger prick with minimal fussing.

I was glad to see the doctor and nurse really looked to me as to what Luke could tolerate and how to approach him. I don't remember that from our visits and younger ages, but then I probably didn't jump in and take the lead then either. A lot of water under the bridge since then. Like I told the nurse we'd do the finger prick at the end of the visit only if I thought he could handle it, and everyone was fine with that.




When we first arrived at the doctor's office, Luke ran over to this school bus toy on the sick side and announced, "Mommy, that's wet!" I wondered if that would come back to haunt us. Well, yesterday he came home from school with a rash on his tummy, back and face. So we ended up back at the doctor yesterday afternoon and are now treating what we think is a strep rash. The doctor told me when patients haven't been in in a long time they spray them with a little something on their way out so they'll be back.




After the doctor saw us yesterday on trip #2 this week, we waited for the nurse to come in for the throat swab. Luke asked to leave and I said we had to wait for the nurse and he said, "No nurse. No get your finger." When she came in he said to her, "All done getting your finger." Not the the throat swab was better, but it was faster. He blew her a kiss when we left. Was she that good, or was he just thrilled to be leaving? We walked by the measuring spot our on way out and he said, "I stand right there!" I love his running commentary.




On our way home from the second trip to the doctor this week, we stopped at Walgreen's to get our ammoxicillan. Luke stood at the pharmacy performing in the TV/security camera. "I clap my hands to the music!" As I paid for the medicine the pharmacist said, "Boy, I sure hope you get to feeling better." As we left Luke announced, "Bye everyone!"




He's got a cough today and is a little fussier, and is competing with me for computer time. Thanks for checking in despite my infrequent posting.