practicing with the lacing cards

the world according to luke

Luke has been learning how to use my [old-ish] digital camera. On Friday night, he didn't understand the concept that what he saw on the screen was what was being viewed through the lens. He simply thought it was a picture being displayed. On Saturday, after working with the camera for a while, he understood this pretty sophisticated concept! Thereafter, he's been snapping pictures of everything and everyone! Here are a few of pics of Luke's world, according to Luke:

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!

tea party

Mama has so many stories to share from Thanksgiving (and lots of pics, too), but not so much time to pull it all together. And, we're leaving next week for Luke's Père Noël world tour. So, until I can get myself organized, I'll share this slice of life:

Luke: Wanna have tea party (teeeeeee pahrrrr-teee).

Mama: A tea party?

Luke: Yeah. With cookies.

Mama: Cookies are a good idea at a tea party. What else are you going to do?

Luke: Drink tea. Green tea.

Mama: Who will you invite?

Luke: Momo! Momo wanna drink tea. And eat cookies. Luke too. Luke eat cookies!

I love this boy! Tea parties?! Woo-hoo. I have my eye on this lovely tea set, which Père Noël might have to leave under the Christmas tree.

our weekend

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.

portrait of the artist as a young man

wordless wednesday: my little engineer

playtime

speed demon

Luke riding in his "car" with his girlfriend, Yuba. This ride is for the 3-4 foot tall set at the Oakland Zoo. It's a bunch of cars that go around in a circle. It's not super fast, but does pick up a little zip. Luke was driving English-style (on the right) while Yuba checks out the scenery. Yuba's brother, River, is in the back seat.

it's hard to say bye-bye to a wonderful long weekend

We had a marvelous holiday weekend. For the first time in I don't know how long, Dada didn't need to work. And, wow, did we three play this weekend. Saturday was full of yummy food -- a trip to the farmer's market, big family lunch, crepes in the afternoon with Luke as assistant chef and chief crepe eater. Sunday, we went to the Bay Area Discovery Museum and romped on lily pads, helped the fish "swim" upstream, and rang the bell on the shipwreck. Monday, we connected with Sandrine, Yuba (3 y.o.) and River (2 y.o.) at the Oakland Zoo to view the alligators, sheep, goats, tigers, giraffes, and ride the train and cars again! Luke wrangled his way into the big bed every morning for snuggle time, and he earned his new nickname, Snuggle Bunny.

The weekend was so marvelous that I forgot how difficult transitions are for our little guy. I was a bit sluggish getting ready for work, but I know It Must Be Done. Luke, though, had a mini-meltdown when it was time to say goodbye and start our "regular" week. No Mama go to work! No Nounou coming over! Dada no work! My poor little man.

little fireman

The Little Puffer at the San Francisco Zoo has been unexpectedly "sick" for the past 10 days, and so this week, on our Mama n' Luke day, we went to the Oakland Zoo, where they have a variety of rides for the tiny tots, in addition to animals. Here's Luke riding, all by himself like a big boy, in a firetruck ride.

craigslist, you rock

For only $50 and some time spent searching craigslist, we have transformed our backyard into toddler paradise. The new additions: Kangaroo Climber (complete with slide) and horrifically ugly but incredibly fun Naturally Playful Sandbox. Old favorites: the water table and Tonka Truck from Pop-Pop. Craigslist, you rock.

play amongst yourselves

Please feed our panda:

storytime

It's a video kind of week.

Please join us for storytime with Luke: a lovely story about Thomas the Tank Engine. For Luke's fans who don't speak French, "hibou" is an owl. Luke now understands three languages: English, French, and Spanish. While most of his spoken words are English, some are French and he tends to mix the French and English. He also speaks Spanish to his nanny.

a loverly weekend

The weather's been really odd here lately: super-hot one day and super-cold the next.

Saturday was our hot day: 85+ degrees and sunny. We spent the entire morning in the backyard, splashing in the kiddie pool, scooping and pouring with the water table, blowing bubbles, and playing with the new dump truck Pop-Pop sent us. Luke was so tired, that when I laid him down in his crib to rest while I warmed up a bottle of milk, he fell completely and utterly asleep. And didn't wake up for 3 hours!

Sunday was our cold day: 65 degrees, foggy, cold wind. We all bundled up and went to Tennessee Valley Beach. We picnicked on the beach, bundled in a fleece blankie to watch the waves, and laughed and laughed as Dada served as Luke's horsie. It was a super-fun weekend.

the ebay trains have arrived!

we heart pg&e

PG&E set up shop outside our house to repair a variety of underground lines. This meant the arrival of a backhoe (oh, praise be to the construction gods!), a scraper, a digger, and a very large dump truck. This provided quite a bit of entertainment to the resident truckologist.

toy addict

My name is Mama. I am a toy-aholic. Yes, it's true. Luke has many toys but nonetheless, Mama gets bored with them and wants to try something new. I am hoping to stave off an emergency run to Toys R Us by creating a wishlist here.


Trains, trucks, and things that go
Brio or Plan toys road/railway kits are a standard size, and Luke's lovely wooden train set (thanks again Pop-Pop!) fits on these rails. Luke has a starter kit, and this is one of his most favorite toys of late. I'm itching to expand his set with tracks, cars, tunnels, trees, bridges ... woo-hoo I love these things!
road and rail sets, intermediate tracks, and all the fun accessories: a tunnel, a station where the trucks can stop for gas, the Golden Gate bridge, car transporter!





To feed the truck addiction, the toughest mightiest truck ever









Another favorite activity around the house is coloring and painting. Hence the need for this beautiful art easel.






and please don't even get me started on the play kitchens. ...