Here's a quick video of Luke ordering his hot chocolate. This proves the argument of nurture vs. nature: Luke may not have Nana's genes, but he is clearly her grandson. (Love you, Nana!)
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
thanksgiving crafts
As part of our Thanksgiving festivities, we created pine cone birdfeeders. The idea was to "share the bounty" with the birds. Pop-Pop and Nana kindly collected pine cones from North Carolina and shipped them out to us in advance of their visit. Mama and Luke bought the birdseed, and then we all sat at the "kid's" table to mash shortening into the pine cones, roll the pine cones in birdseed, and tie on a loop of twine. We had a lot of fun mashing, smashing and rolling, and then hanging the bird feeders outside. Fun, that is, until I started feeling itchy. It turned out that the birdseed had peanuts in it! Who knew?! I had to dash inside, take a full shower, put my clothes in the wash, while Pop-Pop and Nana got all of the peanut-birdseed out of the house, vacuumed the rug in the garage (so as not to spread peanut dust) and basically disinfect everything. It was quite the drama!
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
backseat conversation
Luke is in school with his best friend, Sophia, and because we live very close to Sophia's family, I drive both kids to school on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. We've developed a nice morning routine: Sophia usually arrives at our house while Luke is having breakfast, her usual 3-year old antics distract Luke from any last-minute anxiety about going to school, and before walking out the door we go through our checklist to make sure we're prepared. (Mama: "Lunches?" Luke and Sophia: "Check!" Mama: Jackets?" Luke and Sophia: "Check!") Lately, the conversation from the backseat, during our drive to school, has been particularly entertaining:
Sophia: I wanna sit in Luke's seat!
Luke: I wanna sit in Sophia's seat!
Mama: [Removes the hanging monkey above Luke's car seat, because Sophia likes to grab it 1000x in a row, with requisite monkey squeaking and jingling, and this drives Mama coco loco--Spanish for crazy head]
Kids are now all strapped in, and we're driving to school ...
Sophia: What happened to the monkey? Where's the monkey?
Luke: Mama took it down. There it is! See, Sophia!
Sophia: What happened to the monkey?
Luke: Mama took it down. It was making Mama coco loco.
Sophia: Whhhhhhyyyyyy?
Luke: Because you were playing with it!
****
PS: Thanks to Grammy, Sesa and Megan for the emails to Luke! So far, we read them, but I can't interest him in responding. He seems to think email is a one-way communication. He loves the e-cards and asks to see the Halloween Snoopy card that Sesa sent nearly every day.
Sophia: I wanna sit in Luke's seat!
Luke: I wanna sit in Sophia's seat!
Mama: [Removes the hanging monkey above Luke's car seat, because Sophia likes to grab it 1000x in a row, with requisite monkey squeaking and jingling, and this drives Mama coco loco--Spanish for crazy head]
Kids are now all strapped in, and we're driving to school ...
Sophia: What happened to the monkey? Where's the monkey?
Luke: Mama took it down. There it is! See, Sophia!
Sophia: What happened to the monkey?
Luke: Mama took it down. It was making Mama coco loco.
Sophia: Whhhhhhyyyyyy?
Luke: Because you were playing with it!
****
PS: Thanks to Grammy, Sesa and Megan for the emails to Luke! So far, we read them, but I can't interest him in responding. He seems to think email is a one-way communication. He loves the e-cards and asks to see the Halloween Snoopy card that Sesa sent nearly every day.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
luke's email
Luke now has an email address: luke [dot] vally [at] gmail.com.* Please feel free to send him an email! We plan to check it every few days, and to serve as transcribers for Luke's replies. (Why an email? We had to create an email for him in order to set up his own YouTube account and figured, "why not?!")
*Sorry for the funky writing, but I don't want our 3-year old getting spam!
*Sorry for the funky writing, but I don't want our 3-year old getting spam!
Monday, October 5, 2009
birthday celebration: my boy was bustin' a move!
A few pics from Sunday's birthday party. The singer is the fabulous Charity of Charity and the Jam Band! More photos are on our Flicker site.
Monday, August 3, 2009
welcome ellie!
A big hello and welcome to the world to Cousin Ellie! She's beautiful, we can't wait to meet her, and I'm more than a little jealous that it took only 3 pushes. You go, Kit!
Thursday, April 2, 2009
a song for grammy
Luke learned a new song, and he wanted to sing it for Grammy -- and his fan club, of course.
Grammy, this one's for you!
Grammy, this one's for you!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
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:
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:
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
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."
Thursday, March 12, 2009
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.
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.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)