backseat singing & driving

Luke has always been pretty chatty when we drive, offering lots of stories, songs, and commentary. Yesterday was pretty hilarious, and here are two exchanges from our morning drive to/from our day's adventure:

Luke singing to himself ...

It was 45 miles through the Animus Canyon, so they set her on a narrow gauge.
She drank a whole lot of water and she ate a lot of coal, and they called her the Silverton
[falsetto voice] the Silverton train!

Later on, as we were exiting the freeway:

Mama, there's a lot of traffic. I have some advice for you.
My advice is to change lanes.

[I change lanes, and not just because my backseat driver suggested it.]

You see, Mama. My advice was good advice.
There's no traffic in this lane!

overheard

Luke: I have two electric trains that like being pushed, and three electric trains that don't like being pushed. How many is that?
Mama: Ummm, is that, maybe, 12?
Luke: Nooooo .... Twelve is 10 plus 2. 3 plus 2 is 5!

overheard

"I"m going to pick up the train with two hands, and hold it tight. But not too tight, because then it would break. Calamity!"

overheard at dinner

From our dinner conversation tonight .... Luke declared:
"I'm big on milk, small on milkshake [aka, yogurt probiotic drink].
I'm big on chocolate, small on cereal.
I'm big on waffles, small on zucchini."

overheard

[Setting: post snack-time, pre-dinnertime lull in activity]

Luke: Hey, Mama! It's the end of the day. It's time to watch videos!

Mama: Luke, were you a good boy today and did you clear your place? [e.g., clearing his plate from the table after a meal, our current measure of "goodness"]

Luke: Yes.

Mama: What about at breakfast? I think you said you were too busy.

Luke: [thinking]

Luke: Yes. BUT, I cleared my place at lunchtime and snacktime. That's TWO times that I cleared my place.

That's my boy! Solid logic and a passionate and persuasive way of making his case. Soon thereafter, Luke noted that I had changed the sheets on the big bed, and that it must be Dada's favorite sheet because it was blue and Dada's favorite color is blue. I am seriously astounded by this early math-like logic.

3 years old

We had Luke's 3-year old check up yesterday, and the relevant stats are:
29 pounds (20th percentile for weight)
3'2" tall (62nd percentile for height)

Luke spent a good portion of the visit explaining to Dr. Marta that the light switches in her office are just like the light switches at home, and he further explained how they worked ("if you push them up, the light goes on, and if you pull them down, the light goes off!" replete with hand and facial gestures to match). Her reply to me was, "Well, that tells me everything I need to know about his development! Now, Luke, can you show me how you jump?" Which he did, with a chorus of "Blast off!!!"

After three lovely years together, I can confirm what we knew on Luke's birth day: he's an utterly adorable and adored tall-ish skinny guy.

overheard

Luke: Hey, Mama! I have an idea!

Mama: What's that?

Luke: Can you read me this book?

I strike a deal with Luke: if he lets Dada change the poopy diaper, Mama will read him a book, snuggling up in the big bed.

Luke: [puts book on Mama's nightstand] Hey Dada, don't take it! It's on Mama's side, not on your side.

Luke: [calling from the other room, in the midst of the diaper change] Wait, Mama, wait! Don't go to sleep! Wait for me!

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!

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."

(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.

language explosion

In what feels like the space of 24 hours, Luke has burst through to a whole new level of language skill. Up until Monday, he was talking – and talking a lot – about things and events, giving orders, and expressing desires. He was even putting together little 3 and 4 word sentences. But on Monday morning, he woke up with the ability to express more complex thoughts. Some samples from our day: When we called Dada (who is traveling this week), Luke offered, “Miss you!!” Later, during our morning walk, Luke said, “See puppy far far away! Puppy happy!” This morning, Luke (clearly remembering our weekend trip to the zoo, where the sheep at the petting zoo bumped – and scared – him) said, “Luke grumpy a’coz ‘a the sheep!”

In other news, Luke officially gave up the bottle this weekend. We hung onto it for probably too long. Our lovely little guy, who is so easy in so many ways, just loved his night-night bottle of milk, and Mama didn’t have the heart to stop it. But, when Luke can talk about his feelings, I figured it was time to at least give our little man a chance to say goodbye to the bottle. We bought a funky book called “No More Bottles for Bunny,” read it a few times, and then stopped cold turkey. Luke studied the book very seriously, no doubt understanding the subliminal message therein. When we told him that it was time to say bye-bye to the bottle, he was totally cool with it. On Saturday afternoon, he even threw his bottle in the trash (just like bunny). And, this morning, I asked Luke, “Who’s my baby?” and he replied, “Luke no baby! Luke big boy!”*

*but he’ll always be MY baby.

my boss

Mama, take off shoes.
Mama sit.
Mama play train.
Sit on floor.
No, Luke turn.
Mama push.
No more snuggles.
No big bed.
Yes big bed.

.... soundbites from our day.

sweet dreams

I returned home last night from nearly 2 days in the San Diego area (including a whole day in the outdoor sauna that is the Imperial Valley, but that's another story). I was very happy to be home with my little monkey. When I put him in his crib last night at bedtime, and as he was rolling over into his favorite "butt in the air" sleeping position, he said, "Sweet dreams!" That little man shocks me pretty much all the time.

*I remembered a few more nicknames to add to the list:  snuggly bunny and munchkin pie.

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.

more crack for dada

two words

Luke is now putting two words together! Some examples from the past few days:

hold it

watch it

have it

jacket off

ezra's daddy

freight train

train book

poopy all done

(gotta love that last one!)

thinking of pop-pop

feelings

Amazingly, our little man is starting to talk about his feelings! When Jean-Max left for the East Coast on Sunday night, he was telling Luke about it (dada, going to the airport, going in an airplane, back in 3 night-nights). Luke started crying, and then stopped, said, "Sad!" and leaned into Jean-Max for a hug. Oh, wow. On Monday, at our gym class, another little boy bumped into Luke on the trampoline runway, and knocked Luke over. Luke stood up, make a scrunchy face to me, and said, "Mean!" Oh, wow, again.

same

Luke's been working hard on the concept of "same." He takes a red crayon and puts it next to a red train car and says, "same!" This has been the word (or cognitive milestone) of the week. Here's what's the same in our house:

- Fire truck puzzle and fire truck picture

- Train puzzle piece and wooden train

- Momo (Luke's beloved monkey blanket) and a picture of a monkey on his wall

- A photograph of Luke and Momo together and the real Momo

- A picture of Dada that's hanging in our bedroom and the real live Dada!

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.