easter eggs

We hosted a week-after Easter egg hunt this weekend, and, as you can see, Luke knows that finding easter eggs is serious business indeed. I got away with just putting out eggs this year, but I imagine that next year, I'll probably have to put some candies inside. Luke also got his first taste of chocolate, with a fantastic milk chocolate bunny from Pop-Pop and Nana. He declares chocolate to be MMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmm.

joy of play-doh

Luke had a fever for a couple of days at the beginning of this week, which appears to have been a reaction to last week's vaccinations. Feeling feverish, Luke was fairly low energy and wanted to play quietly, so we opened up the play-doh. While I was cleaning up from lunch in the kitchen, I noticed that Luke had been awfully quiet for a while, which usually isn't a good sign. I was treated to this view of Luke, in the little alcove where the stairs lead to outside and where the cat was laying in the sun. Luke was patiently giving his balls of play-doh to Le Chat! He's a sweet boy.

book of the month club

It seems that every month, Luke develops a new favorite book that must be read over and over and over. Fortunately, Dada doesn't mind this (he says that repetition isn't boring, but a good aspect of analytic thinking). Mama however, sets a limit on how many times per day she will read a book before her brain turns to analytic mush. It's usually about 4 times. Here are a few of the book of the month selections:

This last one was chosen by Luke at the library yesterday, and he immediately requested that it be read four times in a row.

stirring up rebellion at music class

Luke was quite the union leader at our weekly music class (thanks again, Grammy, for this gift!). He really wanted to do the jam song, where the teacher opens up the magic giant tub of instruments and we all just jam out. He stood at the tub, and enlisted the help of another little boy, Eli, to try and pull the tub out, and he kept repeating "box, box, box!" The smile on his face, as we opened up the tub and began the jam song -- priceless!

preschool already?

Apparently, we are already one year behind in selecting a preschool for Luke -- which he won't attend for another 18 months, minimum. San Francisco is preschool madness: too many families trying to get into too few "top top top" preschools. Since neither Luke's mama nor his dada think that preschool is a feeder for Stanford, and since we can't afford Stanford anyways, we're going to focus our preschool search on small preschools in our neighborhood. Maybe a Montessori or a co-op. Hence this Google Map.

UPDATED 3.25.08: You may be shocked, as I was, to learn that preschool costs roughly $12k per year, and that's mostly for half-days. $12k?! for a 3-year old?!

a big shout-out to all my fans!

luke's day

I loved reading about Cousin Claire's day, so I thought I'd share Luke's and my daily routine:

7:30 a.m. wake-up and breakfast

9:30 a.m. morning quiet time, reading, snuggles and bottle of milk

10:00 a.m. playtime outside (we love to visit the playground, the zoo, Bay Area Discovery Museum, etc., and on Saturday mornings, we go to music class)

12:00 p.m. lunch at home

1:00 p.m. nap (yep, we both nap! one of the loveliest pleasures)

3:00 p.m. playtime, usually around the house (we like to make music, play in the backyard, build towers and knock them down, play hide and seek, and read, read, read!)

3:30 p.m. afternoon snack and quick return to playtime

5:30 p.m. dinner and silly daddy games

6:00 p.m. bath

6:30 p.m. bedtime routine: pajamas, snuggles, bottle of milk, reading, and singing night-night songs

7:00 p.m. the little monkey is in his crib, usually asleep for the night

the water table

This is our new water table, smallish but with super-cool funnels and water wheels. Luke is CRAZY for the water table. He's super-serious about this work: scooping, pouring, and transferring water from hose to table to bucket to plants. It's all very serious business. And, a toddler's work is never done! If we can convince Luke to come inside, he'll spend the next 10 minutes at the baby gate at the top of the stairs (stairs which lead, of course, to the water table) shouting, "Agua!!!" It's a fantastic rendition of the jailhouse cry for freedom!

luke's words

Luke's been saying words for about four months, ever since Pop-Pop and Nana visited us at Thanksgiving, and the little man, ever the diplomat, let loose his first words in a string: Mama, Dada, Pop-Pop, Nana, apple, and bubbles (or, more specifically "bub"). With four months of practice under his belt, Luke's spoken vocabulary includes an amazing array of words:

People:
Mama
Dada
Pop-Pop
Nana
Nounou [Luke’s nanny, Jackie]
Ezra [Luke’s share care buddy]
Momo [the monkey]

Food and drink
Agua [water, in Spanish]
Milk (muh)
Apple
Poire (pwahr) [pear, in French]
Cream cheese (cr-cc)
Ham
Ananas [pineapple, in French]
Banana

Actions and descriptions
No! (nah!)
Up (uppa)
Encore (unk) [more, in French]
Il n'y en a plus (a-phew) [no more, in French]
Uh-oh
I know (uh-no)
Attend! (ah-tah) [wait, in French]

Animals
Panda (pahn-da)
Panther (which sounds remarkably like Panda, but really is different)
Bear (bah)
Armadillo (ah-ma-b)
P'tit Ours Brun (puh-t-uh) [little brown bear, in French]
Le chat (sha) [the cat, in French]

Other things
Car (cah)
Bus (buh)
Manos (mhan) [hands, in Spanish]
Bubbles (bubb)
Airplane (uhp-l)
Star (tah)
Alphabet (ah-buh-but)
Cape Cod (c-cd)

Animal noises
Moo
Meow (m-ow!)
Bark (woof)
Rhhhhh [elephant]
Baaaa
Coqorico! (coq!) [rooster]
Quack (cop-cop-cop)

Baby signs
Milk
More
Eat
Play
Work
Hot
Airplane
Fish
Diaper

All of these words, signs, and sounds makes our day so much fun!