St. Patrick's Day

A few weeks ago the family joined our friends Ted, Molly, and their kids for the St. Louis St. Patrick's Day Parade.  St. Patrick's day is Ted and Molly's holiday.  We like to host the Christmas party, they like St. Patrick's Day.  When they host it they go all out.  They got there at 9:00 in the morning for a 12:00 parade.  They set up a tent, grill, and cordon off an area on the parade route so we can have our own little party with a great view of the parade.

Alyce and Luke had a great time at the parade.  They watched all of the floats go by with particular interest in the Irish Dancing Schools and Marching Bands.  When they would go by playing their music both kids would start dancing.  Alyce was showing off some of her dance class skills whereas Luke was just moving his hips forward and backward.

Ted and Molly provided hot dogs and bratwurst for us, however, the kids weren't all that interested in eating.  Luke, instead, was more interested in sneaking cookies off of the cookie tray while we weren't looking.  One time we made eye contact before he touched it and he just sat there waiting for me to do something.  It was a Mexican standoff.

By the time the last float passed in front of us the kids were ready to go.  They had lost interest 20 minutes earlier and were staying busy with sidewalk chalk and goodie bags.  Before we ventured out for the parade we had swimming lesson's so both kids were wiped.

Gym Time

Mom just sent me this picture of Luke at Gym Time. Gym Time is a weekly class at the Early Childhood Center. Luke needs that time to stretch out and burn off that stuck inside energy he'd been saving all week. It also gives him a chance to expand his physical limits (climbing, jumping, etc) in a padded environment.


This class is in our old school district so we won't be going back after this year. Hopefully the new district has something comparable.

Mooooon!

Luke has quite the love affair with something up in the sky, the moon.  Whenever the sky is clear and the moon is up he can be heard from all corners of the neighborhood saying "moon!". I don't really know why he likes it so much but like it he does.

Swimming Week 3

Luke had his third week of swimming lessons. Even though the heater in the pool was working this week he still come out of the pool with blue lips.


Mom took Luke into the pool this week; I handled last week. Luke seemed to be enjoying himself. His favorite activity was being put on the side of the pool then jumping into Mom's arms. Other favorites included riding the last few feet of the slide into the pool.


Besides being familiarized with the pool some rudimentary swimming skills are being learned. Luke gets a toy and throws it out in the pool. Then Mom holding him by his ribs basically helps Luke crawl in the water toward it. Luke is getting pretty good at it.


The final learning experience Luke had today was that you shouldn't pout in the pool. He was unhappy about something and hid his face in his hands. Well his hands were in the water and he plunged his face in right after them. Needless to say he wasn't pouting for long as his face came flying out of the water.

Lunch at the Park

Today Mom and the kids picked me up for lunch at the park. It's the first time this year as the weather and our schedules finally lined up.
It has been a long time since I last saw Luke on some playground equipment and I was very impressed with how he progressed. He was able to manage the entire playground without our help. Also he was able to sit down and scoot forward to go down the slide all by himself. Very impressive indeed.
Alyce used a digger and with my help we were able to move some really big scoops of sand. Alyce enjoyed doing it however she did have some trouble doing it by herself. There are three different hinge points on the digger so it can be difficult to use them individually.
Afterwards Alyce had to use the restroom so we swung past my office. It is always fun to show off your kids to your coworkers. After they left I had more than one coworker comment on how big they are getting. I guess they are... I hadn't noticed.
I'm glad they came out and I look forward to doing it again.

Toilets

Luke as of late had taken an interest in toilets. He sees us using them and is trying to figure out how the whole process works. It's a worthy goal but learning new things carries some risk. This week he has taken to putting things into the toilet that don't belong. Lucky for us he hasn't tried the handle yet so Mom was able to fish the stuff out.

We hope he gets over this fixation soon. I don't want to have to put locks on the toilets or call a plumber.

Pizza Pizza

This past weekend we picked up some pizzas for dinner. Instead of delivery I went and picked them up. When I walked in the door I was accosted by Luke with him squealing "pizza pizza" at the top of his lungs. This kid must have been really excited about pizza. If memory serves I think he ate two whole pieces. To put that in context I ate three and I have 170 lbs on him.

Fast forward to this afternoon. Mom got a package from Lands End, a swimsuit. When Mom walked in the door Luke saw the box and kicked into full on pizza mode by squealing "pizza pizza" again. Sorry little man you'll soon realize that not every box has a pizza in it.

Mommy, Daddy, Sister

Luke has been flexing his vocabulary skills lately. One thing that he's been doing of note is reinforcing what he already knows. When sitting down at the dinner table he will point to each of us Mom, Alyce, and myself individually and say our names "Mommy", "Daddy", and "Sister". When we praise him on his success he seems very proud of himself. We've tried to get him to say Alyce instead of sister and when he tries it just comes out as "leese".

I forgot to add that he points to Jake and his name is "doggie".

Swimming Lessons

The family just recently joined the YMCA. We thought that we needed to take better care of ourselves now that life is settling back to normal. One other reason we joined was so that Alyce and Luke could learn how to swim.

We've pushed off lessons for Alyce for far too long. Luke is just at the perfect age. Luke's class level "skip" requires a parent to be in the water too. Alyce's class doesn't need parents, just 6 kids and the instructor.





Luke's class focuses on getting kids comfortable in the water. There were lots of babies in the class and a few around his age. The few times I checked in with Mom and Luke they seemed to be having fun. Luke already being comfortable in the water is definitely ready for the next level of classes.


Alyce's class consisted of 5 boys and Alyce. The instructor who couldn't be older than 18 took an immediate liking to Alyce. She said that she had a sister with Alyce's name. Alyce took a liking to her as well. The first half of the class Alyce seemed like a cat trying to get out of a tub. The second half of class she seemed to relax and have a good time. In her class they were learning how to kick, put the mouths in the water, and lay on their backs.


I'd say both kids enjoyed themselves and they wouldn't complain if we brought them back next week for another round of lessons.

Yes and No

One word that Luke knows better than any other is "no". The default answer to just about any question is no. Luke do you want to go? "no". Luke are you tired? "no". Luke are you awake? "no". Luke uses the word but may not know what it really means. He probably uses it because Mom and I use it very often around him.

I read a chapter of a child development book some time ago that talked about kids saying no to everything. It said that kids want to have control of something in their life and saying no is their way of taking control. It continued to say that kids say no even if they wanted to say yes. This exact thing happened a few nights ago. At the dinner table Luke had finished all of his milk and food. I asked Luke if he would like more milk. He responded by saying "no" and nodding his head yes at the same time. Since then he has started nodding his head by itself when he agrees with us.

Of All The Things He Says

Of all the things Luke says there is one word that he refuses to say, "grams". Grams being our name for Mom's mother and Luke's grandma. While at their house Grams will ask Luke to say grams. Luke will coyly say "no", smirk, and run off.

I believe Alyce did the same thing when she was his age and eventually she started saying Grams. I think it is some sort of power trip kids play because it is something that an adult can't force them to do.

Polite Little Guy

Luke is turning into a polite little guy. A lot of times after we get him some more milk or juice he says thank you but it comes out as "tank yoo". Whenever he wants some more of something he doesn't usually say please. If we say "what do you say?" he responds with "pease".