the grandparents

Pop-Pop and Nana were visiting from last Thursday through today, and we soooo enjoyed their company. Luke and I met Pop-Pop and Nana at the airport, and Luke immediately grabbed Pop-Pop's hand and asked him to go "up up up" on the escalator and then "down down down." It melts my heart to see my little guy with my Dad and Jean, and to see them relishing their new roles in life as grandparents. Thursday night, we all went out to dinner at Joe's Cable Car which has fantastic burgers. Nana and Luke split a chocolate malted milkshake, and Luke had a sugar-fueled evening and didn't go to sleep until 10:00 p.m. Oh, the good life!

The long weekend was a blur of running around the Discovery Museum, more restaurants, Sonoma Traintown, more restaurants and ice cream, sitting in the sun, playing in the backyard, afternoon naps and snuggles. It was sad to say goodbye to Pop-Pop and Nana this morning. We can't wait until our next visit!

Till then, here are some pics of our Traintown extravaganza:

sonoma traintown

Today's adventure with Pop-Pop and Nana, as filmed by Pop-Pop!

oh no!

Yesterday's preschool report was that LUKE, our gorgeous, curious, gentle boy, was the aggressor in an incident with another child. Teacher Monica didn't tell us who Luke hit, but Luke confessed later. Apparently, Hannah (a lovely, petite girl) was using a riding toy that Luke wanted, so he bonked her. The trauma is somewhat mitigated by the fact that Hannah gave Luke a big hug and kiss goodbye, so she apparently forgives him. But, hitting?? My boy?!??

preschool woes

Unfortunately, we're not in love with Luke's preschool. Mama would really like it to be more child-directed, and more in line with this child development philosophy. I'm probably a preschool teacher's nightmare: someone who knows a little bit, has definite opinions, and is a protective Mama bear, to boot. I've been struggling to figure out what is bugging me, and I think I've narrowed it down to philosophy. Here's an example: There are some aggressive kids in Luke's class, and I think the teacher-led activities mean that, at transition times when teachers are busy putting away or getting out materials, these pint-size whirlwinds have the "opportunity" for bad behavior. (Think "Lord of the Flies" after naptime.) Not that all child-directed programs are full of contented, happily engaged children, just that aggressive behavior and transition times can be better managed in a program that offers free access to play materials, and a "curriculum" that responds to and builds on childrens' interests. And, yeah, I'd really like someone to stop that one kid from spitting, because it's just not a cool habit for Luke to bring home. Anyhow ....

We're looking into other programs, which is not uncomplicated, and we are still going to apply to our no. 1 choice: Glenridge. We toured Glenridge again this past Monday, and here are pics from our horse ride "through" the Canyon. This 2nd tour confirmed our opinion: it's an unparalleled setting, with a warm and wonderfully child-centered curriculum, and Luke would thrive here.


Wish us luck. Our application is due April 1, and we hope to hear back shortly thereafter.

In Crayon Box news (Luke's current preschool): Fortunately, our little man is slowly adjusting. Just last Friday, for the first time, he didn't cry when Dada dropped him off. He knows and likes his teachers, he has a best friend at school, and he does art projects and ballet. But, he does not not not like staying past 3:30 p.m. in the afternoon, and we've been fortunate that Dada has been able to rearrange his schedule so that he can pick up the little guy at 3:30 p.m. All in all, Luke spends 6 1/2 hours at school each day, for two days a week. Even though it's not our preferred program, it's OK.

tea party

Back around Christmastime, Luke was very interested in tea parties. I think it was because of his book "No More Bottles for Bunny" that features bunny wanting to join his friends (ducky and piggy, of course) at a tea party, but he can't join until he gives up his bottle. Luke became very interested in the tea party aspect of the story and started asking me to take him to a tea party. On New Year's Eve Day, he and I went to a local tearoom, which is a quite official setting for tea -- high tea menu, scones, china cups, and lots of over-decorated English roses and such. Luke was thrilled! His "prince tea" included a little brownie, teddy bear cookie, and cream cheese/jam sandwich (with no crusts of course). We brought Momo and Luke's new (stuffed) dog, Etoile. Everyone had a great time!


More recently, Luke continues to be interested in tea parties, and sometimes we play with his Schleich animals and the "babies" have a tea party with Play-Doh teacups and purple Play-Doh bread. I'm on the hunt for a nice little tea set for him, so that we can make our pretend tea parties even more official.

And, speaking of wishes, I really wish the weather here would improve. It's been cold, grey, and damp for way too long!

building a fort is an excellent use of a rainy saturday

February and early March was a very rainy time. We did all of the usual rainy day activities (going to the coffee shop, library, reading books, playing with trains), but we still started to get bored. Then, Mama remembered that building a fort was a time-honored, most excellent way to spend a rainy Saturday morning. Behold: our fort!

it's still pop-pop's birthday on the west coast

Happy Percy-James birthday, Pop-Pop! (65, for those who aren't fluent in Thomas language). We love you!! Here are a few overheard Luke-isms to brighten your day:
"That, my friend, is a big train."
"Thank you, Mama, for making lovely big tracks."
"I'll be back in 20 minutes. Luke go get something."
"Luke gonna do it again. Make Mama and Dada prouder."
"Hey, Le Chat, this is for you!" (while waving dinner in Le Chat's face)
"It was a medium-long nap."

potty updates

Six months ago, Luke broke in his new potty with a perfectly placed pee-pee. About a month later, another pee-pee, so I figured we were well on our way to potty training. How easy is this, I thought?! Buy him some books, read the books, put out the potty, and there you go! What do people complain about?! Flash forward six months. Luke and I have this routine, which is not quite so enjoyable for me. First, just after dinner, he likes to make a poopy. (You can't say I didn't warn you about the content of this post, given the title!) So, Luke will be sitting at the dinner table, all charming and enjoyable, and then he'll declare, "Making a poopy! Wanna go down!" He'll usually point down for emphasis. I'll say, "Would you like to try your potty?" He says, "No." Sometimes he says, "No!" and other times he says, "Nooooooooo!!!!!!!!"

For the vast majority of Luke's life, I've been really clever at avoiding the poopy diapers. But lately (and just as Luke has been super-snuggly with Mama), he also wants Mama to do everything. Especially change his poopy diaper. I try and say, "Hey Luke, go ask Dada to change your diaper!" or "Dada would really love to change your diaper!" or "Hey Luke, it's Dada's turn" but that never works. He just points to me, smiles, and says, "Mama." Now would be a great time for the potty training to kick into high gear, only Luke isn't interested. I can be all full of the big child development talk about following your baby's lead, waiting until he's interested, blah blah blah, but I'm really just thinking about how I can weasel out of the poopy diapers again.

25 things about luke

1. Luke has a buddy: Sophia. They've known each other for about a year, from the local nanny group that gets together with the youngsters at library storytime. Then, wonderfully, Luke and Sophia ended up in the same preschool class. They've had a few one-on-one playdates, and are going to start sharing Jackie, Luke's nanny, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They are serious buddies, and Luke often remarks that he wants to put his sleeping bag next to Sophia at naptime.

2. Luke's hair and mine are exactly the same color and texture. Identical.

3. Luke is in a "try it" phase with food. Last night, he declared that the cauliflower was "just perfect," and he wanted to "try it."

4. Luke has mastered the skill of putting CDs on the CD player (thanks, Nana, for teaching him that, um, helpful trick). He changes songs frequently.

5. Speaking of music, Luke enjoys Bob Marley and Eric Clapton. Seriously. The boy can sing along to "No Woman, No Cry," and often won't go to bed until he hears it. His all time, number 1 favorite musican, though, is Charity and the Jam Band.

6. Lately, Luke loves giving train tattoos (i.e., branding you with a train stamp).

7. Le Chat (our cat) running across the yard will provoke seriously-contagious belly laughs in Luke. Yesterday, he was laughing so hard, a little bit of food came back up.

8. Luke really loves doing art projects. He especially likes using glue.

9. His favorite color is black. (Urban baby? Classic San Francisco? Or, the color of steam engines?)

10. Luke is a carbo-loader. He loves bread of any type: waffles, toast, crackers, muffins. Speaking of bread, Luke gets a madeleine every Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning from our favorite coffee shop, Cafe Bello.

11. Luke has an amazing ability to focus. He can (insert verb: play, learn a new puzzle, dance, read books, etc.) with total and utter concentration. Sometimes, I swear there's steam coming out of that boy's head, he's concentrating and working so hard.

12. Luke's favorite animal is a monkey, and the most favorite monkey of all is Momo.

13. Sometimes we like to count all the people that love Luke: Mama, Dada, Jackie, Pop-Pop, Nana, Auntie Karen, Auntie Kina, Mamie, Papie, Tatie Francoise, Tatie Sylvie, Ton-ton Cyril, Cousins Alex and Theo, Grammy, Sesa, Cousins Megan and Kevin.

14. About half of the time, Luke ends up in our bed in the early morning hours, despite my best intentions to be really strict about sleep habits.

15. Luke's favorite t-shirt is (surprise) a Thomas the Train t-shirt.

16. Luke only ever gets in trouble for one thing: terrorizing Le Chat (yelling, hitting, scaring, etc.). Unfortunately, this happens several times a day. It's very hard to keep a straight face when Luke is squealing, "No terrorize Le Chat!"

17. Luke has 2 speeds: high and stop. In other words, he's either running or laying on the floor.

18. When he's being too pokey, I call him "slow coach," coined from one of his Thomas books.

19. Luke has gorgeous manners. He remembers to say "thank you" and "please" with very little prompting, and he nearly always says "bless you" if someone in the house sneezes. One time, during his naptime, Jean-Max sneezed in the hallway, and out of Luke's room came, "Bless you, Dada!"

20. He doesn't jump yet (i.e., off the ground with two feet).

21. Luke will be obsessed by a particular book for a week or two, wanting to read it over and over and over and over again. Then, he'll move on to another one.

22. Luke loves chocolate.

23. Luke loves to help bake muffins. He's a great helper: he scoops, pours, mixes, and helps sweep the floor afterwards.

24. Luke is an expert at making a deal. Nearly everything involves some sort of deal-making. Mama: "We can read 4 books before bedtime." Luke: "No, 5 books." We always end our deals with the time-honored, "Deal?" "Deal" agreement.

25. Luke has always been an independent guy, but over the past few months, he's been super-snuggly, with 99% of these snuggles focused on Mama. I am kinda really loving it.

behold: the glory of Luke's trains

Dada has been hard at work on portrait sessions for all of Luke's trains. When he took the baskets of trains out of Luke's room to photograph them, Luke replied (wistfully), "I"ll miss them." You may notice the appropriate use of the word "I." Luke has been hard at work on "I," "me," and "you." It's a pretty significant language milestone, and I'm awfully impressed by our little man.

Please enjoy the trains: