thankful

What I imagine Luke is thankful for this year: his entourage (Mama, Dada, Pop-Pop and Nana), vacation food rules (i.e., anything goes: cookies, chocolate milkshake, pumpkin bread, donuts), vacation bedtime, middle of the night transfers to the big bed and plentiful surprises (new books, Cranky, and Stanley). Mama is thankful for this wonderful little man and for the big man who answers to Dada.

top 10 things about pop-pop & nana's visit

Pop-Pop and Nana will be arriving on Friday for a 10-day visit, and it got me thinking about all the things I will enjoy. My top 10:

10. No need to tidy the house, because it's just going to get messy again.
9. Suggestions to walk (rather than drive) to the coffee shop each morning.
8. The book Pop-Pop always finishes while at our house and leaves for Mama to read.
7. Nana's desire to plant flower bulbs in our garden, which we get to enjoy and admire each spring.
6. The Project (two years ago, it was organizing Grammy's china; last year, it was mulching our garden; who knows what excitement this year will bring?!)
5. Pop-Pop and Nana's willingness to do anything and accompany Mama on just about any errand.
4. Outings.
3. Luke's delight at having a houseful of family.
2. Pop-Pop's cooking.
1. Free babysitting!

shout-out to sesa

We finally made a trip to Barnes & Noble to redeem the lovely gift card Sesa, Megan, Kevin & Pete sent Luke for his birthday. We had a blast picking out new books. Luke was very discerning. At first, he would carefully select a book on display, especially if it had a favorite topic (moo-moo cow, dinosaur, etc.), and he would then read it, and decide "yes" or "no" about taking it home. In the end, he selected 4 new books, all about (what else?) trains!

musical beds

Last night felt like a game of musical chairs, er, beds. Luke went to sleep in his crib. In the middle of the night (~2:30 a.m.), he woke up, then woke me up, and asked to come to the big bed. Since Dada is traveling and Mama likes to sleep, rather than enforce "sleep in your own bed" rules, Luke came into the big bed. Several more hours of snuggle-time ensued. Then, at o'dark thirty, Mama had to get up and do a little early morning work before Luke officially woke up. So, the sleeping child went back to his own crib. Musical beds. We made up for it at naptime, which was a lovely 2.5 hours together in the big bed. No moving, no talking, just lovely sleep.

(middle of the night) slice of life

2:45 a.m., sounds coming from Luke's room:
Fussing, snuffly-crying, and then, softly, "Luke find Momo. Luke find Momo."

Mama gets out of bed, stumbles into Luke's room to find Luke sitting up in his crib.

"Sweetie, did you find Momo?"

Luke says sadly, "Nooooo," and he stands up.

Mama finds Momo in the corner of the crib, huddled under the duvet, and hands him to Luke.

Luke grabs Momo, declares, "Luke find Momo," stuffs a corner into his mouth, and dives into the mattress. Fast asleep in about 20 seconds.

Mama stumbles back to bed.

preschool update

My good intentions to write up notes from our preschool visits have fallen by the wayside, as we've been navigating busy or disrupted schedules and colds. Note to self: try really really hard to keep Luke healthy before daylight savings time changes.

In the past two months, we have attended 8 tours and/or parent nights. Luke has now played at four different schools, and he'll visit another one on Friday. And it still feels like we are pretty far off from finding a preschool spot for him next year. Our "sure thing" was a neighborhood school which, while not the kind of school we'd fall in love with, was a nice, convenient, fun school about 3 blocks from our house. It has spacious classrooms, outdoor play space, all the "right" stuff like different play centers (books, puzzles, treehouse for climbing, art, etc.). Totally fine, if a little larger and more chaotic than we would prefer. We brought Luke in for his visit yesterday, and were surprised (shocked really) to see peanuts being served at snacktime. Because of my allergy, we are very cautious about Luke, and would prefer a preschool that bans peanuts. Even if Luke isn't allergic, my allergy is severe enough that it's a risk for Luke to eat peanut butter and then come home and kiss me. Since I don't want to curtail toddler kisses, we have decided that we need a preschool that offers a full ban on peanuts. It's funny that this school doesn't offer that, because nowadays with so many kids being allergic, and this being liberal San Francisco and all, the peanut ban seems pretty standard. Except, of course, at the one preschool where we were pretty much guaranteed of getting in. Sigh.

Of 14 schools on our "hit list," it looks like we'll apply to six or seven, most of which will have up to 100 applications for just a few open spots. Here's the latest rundown:

Apply
Glenridge Cooperative Nursery School
Room to Grow Preschool

Upcoming visits
Miraloma Cooperative Nursery School
Maria Montessori
Centro Las Olas (spanish-immersion)

Trying to schedule a visit
Sweet Peas
Crayon Box

Decided not to apply
Glen Park Montessori (program too rigid)
Little Bear School (peanuts--ack!!)
Noe Valley Cooperative Nursery School (word on the street is that it's really disorganized)
Wind in the Willows (1/2 day program; we decided to consider 1/2 days only if it was at a co-op)
The Preschool (ditto on the 1/2 day program)

Struck out
Trevor Martin Montessori ("don't call us, we'll call you")
Buen Dia Family School (tours already full for the year)

more potty tales

Just before Luke's birthday, I posted an update on potty training (or lack thereof). A few days after that post and just before Luke's 2nd birthday, he went pee-pee in his potty!

Here's the tale: Luke wanted to practice, so he sat down (naked of course) on his potty. I've learned that all good potty practice happens in the buff. He was squirming, squirming, squirming, but he didn't want to give up. We read a lot of books, we put his trains in a circle around the potty for moral support, and low and behold, after about 10 minutes on the potty, with Mama's arm around him, Luke declared "zi-zi!," which is French slang for penis. We looked in the potty and there it was: the pee-pee!! Mama, Dada, and Luke all did the potty dance, which is a sort of celebration parade, and we proudly announced to anyone who would listen that Luke had used the potty.

We saw no action for the next month, but, about a week ago, Luke's interest in his favorite potty books (the classics: Uh-Oh Gotta Go, A Potty for Me, and Once Upon a Potty) started to increase. This week, Luke told his nanny that he wanted to try the potty. He stripped down, and after about 8 minutes, he went pee-pee. There was another potty dance, and lots more pride.

Pop-Pop and Nana, put on your dancing shoes, because there might be some potty dancing going on when you visit over Thanksgiving!

puzzle time

Luke has always loved puzzles, but lately, his interest and abilities have taken on a whole new dimension. Luke simple adores his puzzles, and he's mastered several 12 piece jigsaw puzzles and one 24 piece jigsaw puzzle. He does them over and over, and he repeats to himself little "clues" about how to do them. "Dinosaur back. Dinosaur teeth. Purple volcano." He also likes to have puzzle races. "Luke do it fast!"

There's something adorably quirky about Luke's interactions with his toys. He loves his favorite toys, but it takes him a while to warm up to a new one. He worked and worked and worked on his moo-moo cow puzzle, with hardly any attention given to the dinosaur puzzle. Then, once he started making headway on being able to put the dinosaur puzzle together, he only wanted to do that one all the time.

I brought Luke two new puzzles from my recent trip to New York (and oh what a delight I had at FAO Schwartz), but the new puzzles haven't made it into the ranks of favorites yet.

luke's babyhood

This lovely post has stayed with me since I first read it, and it's made me reflect and reminisce on Luke's baby days.

The first three months were really hard for me. I was bone tired and, like Luke, I didn't really know up from down or day from night. What I really needed was sleep and confidence, and I had precious little of either. But then, slowly and gradually, it started to click. Luke started sleeping. I started sleeping. There were laughs, wonderful fabulous baby belly laughs. And, there was sleepy snuggly early morning nursing. Luke let me play dress up with him, with a baby pirate hat or something else equally adorable. He loved being cheered on for milestone after milestone: rolling back to front, then front to back, finding his hands, eating his toes.

There were so many firsts in that first year. First smile, first laugh, first food, first crawl, first time pulling up, first steps, first words. I loved all of it. I loved being in his babyhood bubble. I loved his determination when he just wouldn't quit until he mastered something. I loved how hard he could concentrate. I loved how he quickly he identified his favorites -- favorite animal in his mobile (the sheep), favorite song (baby don't you cry), favorite color (red), favorite food (sweet potatoes). I loved his sweet, soft, baby smell.

It's been hard to say goodbye to Luke's babyhood. I can still get misty-eyed when I think about how physically close we were, and how proud I was to nurse him for so long. I miss how, after Luke weaned, bedtime still involved a bottle of milk, with Luke snuggled up in my arms, not so far away from his truly baby days.

I miss how little he was. How, even though he walked at 10 months, he was still such a little guy. I miss the shaky, bow-legged legs. (Though, I don't miss the falling--ba-da-boom!) I miss the gummy smiles, the baby belly laughs, the hands working so hard to grasp something, the delight at peekaboo, and, well, just all of it.

I know there are so many wonderful things to come, and my little man's language explosion has added a whole new lovely dimensions to being his mama. But I have truly loved his babyhood, and a part of me is wistful that it was so brief.

Our two years in four pictures (6 months, 12 months, 18 months, 2 years):

happy halloween

Luke's first Halloween, he was a mostly no sleeping infant with a really tired mama. Last year, he was sick, and we put the candy in a bowl on the front steps with a sign that read, "don't ring the bell! sick sleeping baby inside!" This year, however, we were in full Halloween mode.

We read books about Halloween so Luke would be fully studied-up on what happens. Luke picked out his own costume (a train engineer, of course), and Mama dressed up, too (a kitty cat). We carved mama and baby jack o'lanterns. And, our friends, Kina and Isaac, joined us for the evening. Luke was in heaven with four adults to lavish attention on him, and trick or treaters arriving every few minutes. Luke handed out the candy and stood on the steps and waved "bye bye" to the trick or treaters as they left. In between visits, he worked on his favorite puzzles with Kina, and remarked on how tall Isaac is.

When it was time to go to bed, Luke quietly went to his room for jammies, came out and gave everyone a hug, and went down with no fuss at all. Mama and Dada were so proud! Today, we all paid the price for our parting ways, with a low energy day and a loooong nap for everyone.