A New Skill

Luke has learned a new skill! He now knows that when he has to sneeze or cough he should do it into his arm or the crux of his elbow. No longer is my little man showering me with droplets of influenza with every sneeze. I'm not sure when he exactly picked it up. I just started noticing he was doing it with his most recent cold. He isn't perfect and sometimes he forgets where to deposit his sneeze but with encouragement when successful and reminders when not he'll get it.

He's done this for ages but when we sneeze he'll say "gazoontite". Super cute.

1, 2, Tickle!

I like to tickle both Luke and Alyce. Seeing them squirm and hearing them giggle brightens my day. I spend the first 10 minutes of each night when I get home roughhousing and tickling the kids. Luke has picked up on this and has taken it upon himself to tickle other people. Most recently he'll let you know it is coming. He'll come up to you and say "one..... two.... tickle!" and proceed to tickle your belly. He doesn't tickle enough to laugh so I fake it. He doesn't seem to know the difference and keeps doing it as long as I respond in kind.

Kids are fun.

Dad and Luke Train Time

The week after the Coal Car was the Train Engine. This time however it was just Luke and I. Alyce came down sick so couldn't attend in person. We did get her a kit so she could still make her train. Luke and I got to spend some time together to bond in that father son way.

Like last week Luke wasn't too terribly interested in what we were doing. I did most of the assembling and I got him to help drive a few nails. Once finished he was quite interested in putting on the stickers.

When the train was finished he proceeded to run the train all over the place. The train had a pull back and go motor and with enough tension could really go places. We weren't in a hurry to go anywhere so I let him run it around the organization section of Lowe's. He was enjoying himself and I think he was entertaining all the other shoppers. When Luke is happy he has so much joy and energy it spills out and infects everyone else. It is his gift.

Build and Grow: Coal Car

Last Saturday morning the family took a trip to Lowe's to take part in what I guess can now be called a tradition. We went to build some Christmas trains. Throughout the year on Saturday mornings Lowe's puts on these Build and Grow classes. It's a simple project for kids requiring the use of a hammer and some nails. All of the pieces are pre-drilled, go together easily, with easy to follow instructions. The best part is that these little projects are free! While I appreciate the good gesture from Lowe's I know they want to build brand loyalty plus if you can get people in a store chances are they'll buy something. So far we have yet to let them down. Every time we've gone to one of these we buy something.

The project last week was the middle "coal car" car of the train. We kind of forgot about the caboose the week before and by the time we tried to register the only store with openings was 30 miles away. Alyce had built a caboose the year before so it wasn't a huge loss to miss that one. Once we got to the store and found where they were doing the builds we got our project pack, aprons, hammers, and safety goggles. They let the kids keep the aprons and goggles too.  Alyce was wearing both items. Luke, didn't want much to do with them.  He was too small for the goggles. That being said he really did need a pair as he kept encroaching on me and the hammer. I almost conked him in the head twice.

Mom helped Alyce and the two of them did a good job. Alyce hammered in a nail until the easy part was over then Mom would finish off each nail. Alyce also helped reading the directions and finding the piece for the next step. Luke on the other hand lost interest after the first few nails. He tried to use the hammer but his swings were pretty wild and only hit the nail a small percentage of the time. After that he moved on to playing on and around the boxes nearby.

When both cars were made it was time for the Christmas stickers. Both Alyce and Luke were very much into that. Alyce did all of the stickers herself with Mom helping with the alignment. For Luke I had to pull off the stickers and get them started. Once started he'd finish them off by pressing the stickers down.

When finished they pushed the cars all over the place having a great time. When we got home we took the new cars and added them to the existing train. They fit perfectly and behold we have a really big train! We are going back to Lowe's a week later to make the engine. Luke needs to start his own train rather than freeloading off of Alyce's.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas

Tonight I shared with the kids a Christmas classic, How The Grinch Stole Christmas. We watched the show created in 1966 based on the book of the same name. There was a remake a few years ago but I like the old classic better. I couldn't find this version of the show on broadcast TV so instead I found it on YouTube.


I grabbed both kids, put them on my knees, and pressed play. They were enthralled. Alyce and Luke laughed at all the funny parts and were a bit concerned as the Grinch was stealing Christmas. When it was all over they seemed pleased that the Grinch was with the Whos. Alyce said that her favorite part was at the end when the Grinch was having dinner with the Whos.
Having watched the show as an adult the theme shines through; that you don't need presents or decorations to have Christmas as long as you have each other. A pretty good theme even if it took me 33 years to figure it out.

I'm a Jumping Bean

Luke has been flexing his sense of humor every now and then.  His most recent antic is saying "I'm a jumping bean!" and then jumping up and down in place.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was kind of a bust for our family. We spent the day home sick while everyone else was eating turkey and pie we were home trying to keep our lunch down.

The weekend before Thanksgiving Luke came down with a stomach bug. He couldn't keep much of anything down for 24 hours. The next morning he was mostly fine. He kept his food down however his appetite wasn't there. We thought we were in the clear when nobody else got sick for the next few days. Our luck ran out on Wednesday. I get a call at work from Mom that she has come down with a stomach bug that sounded eerily familiar to Luke's.  Mom like Luke woke up the next day feeling better and kept her food down. However, her appetite had not returned and is still missing.

Even Wednesday we knew we shouldn't be going out on Thanksgiving but we held out a bit of hope for some miraculous recovery that would allow us to make the trip. Alyce's upset stomach and a fever of 103 erased any doubt where we were going to be spending Turkey Day. Alyce luckily only got sick once and spent most of the day either taking naps or laying on the couch watching TV.

I took the opportunity to do some work on my wall. I received more than one awkward look from the neighbors as I was loading shovelfuls of rock into a wheelbarrow as they were off to Thanksgiving dinner. After explaining to them our situation you could see the understanding in their eyes. Each and every person I talked to offered to bring food back from their dinners. It was very neighborly of them and embodied the Thanksgiving spirit.

The aftermath of this round of influenza is still felt. Just yesterday Luke's appetite came back a full 7 days after the first onset of symptoms. Alyce never really seemed to lose her appetite however the quantity of consumption has gone down. Mom has yet to regain her appetite and is limiting what she eats. Not because she couldn't keep it down but because it isn't agreeing with her. I'm hoping that this will pass me by. If I am to get sick I can be thankful that I was healthy while everyone else was sick so I could take care of them.

Climbing with Gideon

Last weekend Alyce had her birthday party at McDonald's. We invited all of our friends that had kids and some classmates of Alyce's and kids from the neighborhood. Gideon, being the kid of some friends was there.

As both Gideon and Alyce get older they are playing with each other less and less. While that is a loss for Alyce it is a gain for Luke. He and Gideon are fast becoming friends. While Alyce was running around with all of her girlfriends Luke was doing his best to keep with with Gideon.

The playground at this McDonald's was rather large. It spanned two stories and was probably 30 feet wide. The only way to get up into the maze of tunnels was to climb up from one ledge to the next. The problem for Luke was that each ledge was about two inches too tall for Luke to get his knee up on the ledge and up to the next level. In comes Gideon to help Luke up each and every ledge. A first Gideon tried to push Luke up by his behind but after a few failed attempts Gideon climbed up to the next ledge and drug Luke to his level. It wasn't pretty but it was effective. Once up top Luke was able to keep up, find the slides, and ride down starting the process over again.

I have to give Gideon a lot of credit. By helping Luke he was really cutting down on the number of cycles he could ride the slide. He was acting like quite the big brother making sure Luke wasn't left behind.

Flips

Luke has learned a fun trick. It's something I've been doing with Alyce for some time. I just call it flips. Basically Alyce or Luke grabs my thumbs, walk up my legs, and finish it off with flip and landing on their feet. Luke when he does is only successful about half the time. When he fails he spreads his legs apart and they get caught on my arm. I'm not in a position to help him out when he does that so he ends up on a pile on the floor. It is a gentle drop so it's not like I dropped him on his head.

We do flips mostly when I get home from work. I first flip Alyce once or twice then Luke sees what we are doing and wants to join in. After that I make each one of them take turns. And of course Jake is jumping on me all excited to see me so it makes for quite the commotion when I get home. I wouldn't change it for the world.

Halloween

Today was our first Halloween in the new neighborhood. We weren't sure what to expect as the neighborhood is packed full of kids and we weren't disappointed. We were told by the neighbors that there was going to be a lot of kids. Since we are the biggest neighborhood for miles around we get a lot of transplants from the county. I like to hand out full sized candy bars so we bought a few boxes and an extra bag of small candy bars for an emergency supply. Luckily we didn't need to dig into that and we can return the bag of candy.

Alyce was dressed as Strawberry Shortcake and Luke was Thomas the Tank Engine. Alyce has been bouncing off the walls about her costume for weeks. Luke has been kind of cool to his. He likes Thomas for sure but I think he didn't like it going over his head. I had to wear it for a few minutes before he wanted it on. He didn't want the hat either but eventually that went on and stayed on all night.

Mom did most of the candy handing out while I took the kids around the neighborhood. I met up with a friend from the neighborhood Cris. Cris along with his kids Keegan and Kennedy made up our trick or treating party. We are trying to introduce Alyce to more kids in the neighborhood and Cris's daughter Keegan is around Alyce's age. Keegan is a lot more outgoing than Alyce so she can get a lot from the relationship. They were first introduced at the neighborhood Halloween party last Friday night. I wouldn't say they hit it off but tonight they ran around together like kids should. I think a few play dates will solidify a friendship.

While rolling through the neighborhood Alyce and Keegan were leading the way. Luke was picking up the 3rd position. The girls would start off saying "trick or treat", Luke running a few paces behind them would pipe in squealing "twik or tweet", and then run to catch up. At first Luke didn't get the whole candy thing but after a few houses he was able to fend for himself and started to pick out his own candy.

Towards the end of the block the kids were starting to run low on energy.  We had to skip the last few houses as Kennedy, Cris's other daughter, had to go pee. She probably told 20 people in a row the exact same thing. Upon finishing the loop I packed the kids up in the wagon and rolled the back to the house.

The thing I am most proud of was how well behaved my kids were. They didn't run too much and they said thank you to every person handing out candy. They even stopped when I said to as they were about to run into the street without looking both ways.

Hospital

Mom and I are sitting at the hospital with Luke. It's his first trip. The circumstances for our trip could have been worse. Mom took the kids to the park today after Lunch to enjoy the great weather. While there Luke missed a step and fell head first into a pole. He came up bloody with a cut above his head. Papa took Alyce while I met Mom and Luke at the hospital.


We are sitting in a room now waiting for some numbing agent to do its thing so Luke can get some stitches. They aren't sure how deep the cut is but it might require multiple layers of stitches.


Luke is being a real trooper this far. Especially since he is missing his nap. We'll see how well he does when the needles come out.