slice of life

Setting: Friday morning, as Luke and I are getting ready for the day (me for work, him for school). In Luke's room, I'm trying to entice him to come over and let me put his pants on. He's distracted by the very cool new fire station he got for Christmas.

Luke: Where's the fire hydrant?
Mama: I don't know. Where did you put it?
Luke: [Moving over to the fire station, shaking his head, letting out a big sigh] Sophia. I told her to put it back. [Shaking his head] She doesn't listen. [Puts the fire hydrant back where it goes, and comes over to me to finish getting dressed.
Mama: [Trying to stifle the laughter]

wordless wednesday: summertime at the zoo

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!

wordless wednesday: portrait of the artist as a young man

our imaginary menagerie

I am seriously overdue with sharing our news, and will be getting caught up -- promise! And, the best way to start getting caught up is simply to start.

We have a wonderful menagerie of imaginary animals (all created and named by Luke) living with us these days:

• Carl Wilson, the peacock, to whom Luke throws imaginary bread crumbs
• Louis Armlance, the kitty cat, who also happens to be a cousin of Louis Armstrong
• Norbert (last name unknown), the dragon who just joined the gang

Norbert sits next to Luke at meals, and I've been laying out a placemat and plate for him (Norbert, that is). And, yes, Luke's imaginary animals have last names as well as first names!