Thursday... iPad... Hurray!!!!

I'm telling you Luke is a SMART cookie! He catches on quick and has a slyness that rivals Al Capone. I'm already nervous for the future!!!

The back story is that Luke is ADDICTED to the iPad! It all started a few months ago when we thought it would be fun to see how Luke reacted to some of the games on it.... Well he took to it like I take to a bag of Doritos! He was ALL over it and "devoured" it in seconds!  He loved it so much that every day, almost hourly, he would ask to play with it.  Then he would start throwing temper tantrums when we took it away.  Finally Bryan and I decided we needed to set some ground rules, otherwise we forsaw a future with an obese child sitting glued to the couch, eyes bugged out and fingerprints disintegrating from all of their swipes on the iPad.  The rules, we set, were he could only play with it on the weekends, Saturdays and Sundays.  Believe me, it didn't go over well.

Still, even after the rules were set, every day Luke would ask for it and we'd answer, "Sorry.... The iPad only plays on the weekend.  Today is (insert day here).  This has been going on for a month or so.  Same question from Luke, same answer from us.  But this morning,  I went in to get Luke and the first thing he says.... "iPad!!!" I said "No, today is Thursday... it's not the weekend." He says,  "Yay.... it's Thursday, the weekend. I get the iPad. Hurray!!" I'm not exaggerating. He said ALL of that.  Word for word.  Not to mention that I think he spoke the longest sentence I've ever heard him say, the little smarty pants thought he could convince me that Thursday are weekend days. Great scott!! I had better start attending some smart parenting trainings or I could have some serious trouble on my hands in a few years (make that a few months!).

I'm Gassy.... Again

Luke and I were playing today and suddenly Luke went over to the couch and leaned over it and said... "I'm Gassy."  I couldn't help but smile but quickly came over and said, "oh, I'm sorry.... You OK?"  Then I asked him if he wanted to unbutton his pants maybe that would make him feel better (come on, you know you all do that! :) ).   So he said, "yes."  I unbuttoned his pants and he seemed fine for a bit, but then a few minutes later he went back over to the couch and leaned over again and said with a sigh, "I'm gassy... Again..." and ended that statement with a cute toot that only a mommy of a 2 year old would think was cute.

Welllll.... Howdy Partner....

Today we went to Richard and Jenny Mareno's daughter's (Olivia) fifth birthday party.  They had the birthday party at a really fun park called, Farrel-McWhirter Farm Park in Redmond, WA.   At this park they have horses, pigs, goats, bunnies, cows and cats!  I wasn't quite sure how Luke would react because up to this point he really hasn't shown too much interest in animals.... But he LOVED it!!! He even went on a pony ride. He didn't ask for me at all!  I was actually the one who needed "help." It took me half of the pony ride to finally be comfortable enough to let go of Luke and let him hold onto the saddle himself.  It was like he was at home on the horse.

Me holding tightly:

When I was finally comfortable enough to let go:

After the pony ride he (OK I) did some arts and crafts:

Cute picture with Daddy:

Lastly Bryan saw a hay bale with a cowboy hat and started snapping some pictures.... Too CUTE:

John Wayne with his lil Lady (unfotunately I don't know who this little girl is):

Then Mommy got jealous and had to steal a kiss:

Pick My Nose.... Girls Like It

When I went into Luke's room to get him from his nap, I opened up his blinds and saw that he was sitting quietly picking his nose.  I gave him a "look" and he said defensively, "Picking my nose.... Girls Like it."  Ok, so I think mine and Bryan's message was a bit unclear and maybe got lost in his translation.  We've told him if he picks his nose... Girls won't like it.  Oh well....

No.. Hair BIG

Luke seems to be like every boy I've ever dated... The longer the hair the better.  Ever since Luke could talk if I had my hair down and then tried to put it up in a ponytail or my "signature" bun :) He would say, "No... Hair... Big!"  That still has not changed.  So today, I tried to put my hair in a ponytail while I was cooking and he stopped me and said with vehemence, "No... Hair... BIG!" But now he has gotten particular.  I wasn't able to just put my hair down out of the pony. He indicated that the hair should be on either side of my face too. So that I have hair laying over the left and right shoulders.

Good grief, maybe we have the next Ken Paves (hair stylist to the stars) on our hands!

Pretend Play

Ok... Another sign that Lukie is getting older.  He is doing pretend play now.  I'd been noticing things here and there, like he would feed Mickey lunch and try and put the whole can of tuna in his little puppet mouth.  But the first time I really noticed the extent of his pretend play was today.  He came up to me and said he had a package for me and told me to open my hands.  I opened his hands and he put in a "package" (which was a pretend package). He told me to open it and when I opened it he said, "AAAAahhhhh.... Cookies!!!  Eat it."  So I had to pretend to eat the cookies, as did he.  When I was done with my cookie, he brought me another package and asked me to open it.  This one ended up being peas!  I think I like the cookie package better... Shhhhh... Don't tell Luke :)

Fourth of July

We had a BBQ at our house to celebrate the 4th of July! The weather ended up being perfect! My family, Mom, Dad, Charity, Jeff, Jack and Amelia came over as well as some good friends:  Ali and Ashley Carter, Kristen Molten and her family (Braden, Drew, Reed and Blake), Deanna, Kevin and Tyler Carlisle.  We had great food, a little swimming in our "pool" and some little pop-it fireworks to end the night:

Luke loved the pool.  The water was freezing.  We didn't have a chance to warm it up first... So it was ice cold.  And Luke stayed in there the whole time.  Even when everyone was just jumping in and then jumping out.  He stayed in there. I had to convince him to get out when I noticed he was shivering.

Still in the pool, by himself... Everyone HAD been in there, but felt it was too cold and bailed... Not Luke:

The boys (Jack and Drew, KP's son) came back in to join him:

Now Tyler has joined in on the fun:

Pretty Amelia.... Crazy enough she was the ONLY little girl at the party... The rest were BOYS!

AliCa and me enjoying the sunshine:

It wouldn't be a holiday if the boys weren't fighting about gadgets :(   Good grief, is that already starting?!?

No surprise... My family enjoying the food :)