Social Bug

Luke is turning out to be quite the ladies man.  He is becoming more and more social every day.  I find it hilarious that he will strike up a conversation with just about anyone anywhere.  When we go to the grocery store, Luke will walk up to other mom's shopping, or the grocery store employees and tell them just about anything.  Sometimes he tells this "this is my mommy, and this is my Clara" or other times he tells them stories about dinosaurs and monkeys.  It's always a surprise what he will say.

A funny story about preschool: Luke had a preschool field trip last week to the bowling alley.  They were putting about 4-5 kids per lane.  Luke has a crush on a girl named Abbie.  I think the crush is mutual, maybe a little more for Luke than Abbie.  There is another girl in Luke's preschool class named Addie.  Addie is completely in love with Luke.  She just follows him everywhere, but is quite a bossy little girl, so she like to tell Luke what to do.  Luke doesn't care so much for her, but has a hard time avoiding her since she is totally smitten by Luke.  Addie HAD to be on Luke's lane.  I'm not sure if Luke understands the difference of D and B in their names, but he only pronounces Abbie.  So he calls Addie, Abbie.  Addie looks past this small mistake, and she told me that its ok that he calls her Abbie.  Luke really was looking for Abbie, because Luke wanted to be on her lane.  Its a hilarious little love triangle.  There were some other kids fighting over who got to be on Luke's lane.  Some of the other little girls aren't as forward as Addie, so Addie gets the most face time with Luke since she is so willing to seek him out.  I just think it is hilarious that at least half of the other mom's in Luke's preschool have told me repeatedly that all their kids talk about is "LUKE"  I'm pretty sure its because he is the goof off, so the funny one is more memorable.

Luke has also been into talking on the phone lately.  He lists off relatives he would like to call everyday.  Mostly he wants to call Uncle Sterling and grandma.  I guess those are the ones most willing to listen to him.  I think its funny that he will go get things and hold them up to tell the person on the phone about them, as if they can see what he is holding up.  I don't know if he quite understands the concept of talking on the phone.  I guess he is just becoming a regular little social bug!

Oh Clara....

My darling Clara,

You are a handful!  You are cute as a button, but you have drama!  You talk so well for such a little girl, and express yourself plainly.  You have a mind of your own, and won't settle for anything less than EXACTLY what you want.  I hope you grow up to marry a very patient man!  You are inventive, and come up with solutions to your problems in unique ways.  Thus leading back to your determination to accomplish just exactly what you want!  Last night, when you threw quite an impressive fit for 2 hours....you proved that you are not one to back down a bit.  

You are picky about the clothes you wear, and you aren't even 2 years old yet.  Your favorite color is purple, and you like to wear hoodies.  Specifically, you like to wear your hoodie up, and you just have to have your jackets on.  You are picky about your shoes....which I really don't know why since you won't leave them on for more than 2 seconds.  You are a master of taking off your shoes in socks in under 2 seconds!  

You love chocolate.  I must admit, we call you a chocolate whore!  You beg for chocolate, and you sneak into the kitchen and climb up on to the counter to get in the cupboard where some chocolate is hidden.  You can smell chocolate anywhere!  You also love cheese and oranges.  You are even picky about your fruit snacks.  I try to not give in to you all the time, but I hate it when you throw yours fits every day, several times a day, if things aren't exactly perfect for you.

You also love your blanket and your puppy.  You just can't sleep without them, and you have to lay a certain way for you to fall asleep.  You are so good at pouting, and somehow you've figured out that when one parent doesn't give you what you want, you just go ask the other parent.  You like to blame a lot of things on Luke, and you try to take things that are his.  Sometimes I think its just to spite him, but other times I think Luke better watch out, because now you are starting to get big enough to fight back.

Besides all of your drama, you really are a sweetheart.  You like to ask for kisses and hugs.  Some how when you ask for these things you ask it in a pouting manner with your bottom lip out, as if your life depended on whether or not you get hugs and kisses.  You like to cuddle and watch tv, and you love lots of cartoons.  You know most of your letters, and can count to 10!  Wow, what a smart little girl you are!

Let's try and work on the drama.  Maybe you can tone it down a bit?

Love Mom

A little bit of life lately....

I have made the same mistake far too often.  I keep telling myself that life will slow down....it just doesn't.  Just when I think I have simplified, something new pops up and life just keeps getting busier and busier.  This past week has been one of those super busy weeks, where I have felt I haven't even had a moment to wander in my thoughts.  It was my birthday!  Welcome to my thirties...

I had a fabulous birthday, and celebrated in some fabulous ways.  Gilbert and I attended a Valentine's ball at the Provo Library that was on the evening of my birthday.  We had a blast.  It was semi-formal and real dancing.  We found that we were a little rusty on our social 101 dance course from Ricks College.  None the less, we found each others two left feet and had fun together.  It was a formal dinner with pictures and everything.  It was a fun way to celebrate and have some time to ourselves!

 

Also this week, Luke had swimming lessons at the Lehi Rec Center.  It's a fabulous indoor pool, so I decided that Clara and I would swim while Luke was in lessons.  I took the kids a little early so Luke could enjoy some free time in the pool before his lessons began.  Within the first 5 minutes of our swimming, Luke fell on the slide and split his chin wide open.  It was definitely going to require stitches.  I hurried and scooped up both children and calmly walked over to the life guard to ask for a bandage.  Realizing I needed Gilbert's help, I quickly called Gilbert to head our way.  Luke was in pain, and I needed to get us all dressed, so we could on our way to the urgent care.  

Some day, I want to be able to look back on my life and laugh at this crazy busy stage I am in.  My kids provide me an entertaining life to say the least.  What happened next was one of my most embarrassing moments EVER!

The Lehi Rec center has two family dressing rooms right off of the pool area.  The door was opened to one of them, which means its not in use.  With two wet children, one on each hip, I hurried and grabbed my bag of dry clothes and ran into the family dressing room, locking the door behind me.  Luke was crying and Clara was wet and cold.  I decided to change myself first, so I quickly took off my swimming suit and started going through my bag to find my dry clothes, only to turn around and see a 10 year old boy standing there. In my nakedness, I grabbed for the towel, and quickly apologized.  Since the door was open, I thought no one was in the dressing room.  I was in such a hurry to get help for Luke that I didn't notice the boy using the bathroom.    He quickly exited the family dressing room, which he shouldn't have been using anyway!  So I again, locked the door behind him.  As I continued to get myself dressed, Luke must have gone and unlocked the door, because another mom with her kids walked in on me....thankfully by this point I had managed to get my underwear on!  In all of this frazzle, I finally managed to get myself and the kids dressed and out the door, just as Gilbert was arriving to help.

We took Luke to urgent care where they put 6 little stitches in his chin.  By this point, it was so swollen, it looked like his entire chin was exposed.  Poor little Luke laid down so still while then stitched him up, and I felt terrible that this had to happen to him!  Needless to say, we had to miss swimming lessons all week.

 Then Valentine's day came...and although these cake pops were WAY too much work, they were so cute and fun to make.  I made these heart cake pops as Valentine's for Luke's preschool.  All these holidays are so much more fun for me rather than Luke.  I was so excited for Luke to go to preschool and have a "Valentine's Party" he just cared that he got a bunch of candy!

In all this crazy busy-ness of life, we have to have some comic relief.  Usually the kids do or say something funny, in between their bouts of fits and crying.  Sometimes some bath time fun is what makes the end of the day fun.  Clara wasn't too happy about getting foam all over her, but she thought it was funny when Luke got foam all over him.  

Clara is only beginning her sassy-ness.  I'm afraid we've only seen the tip of what she is capable of.  Clara is exercising her talent of becoming the world's best drama queen every day.  It's incredible the emotions she is already capable of.  She can pout, and cry nearly on demand.  Anything and everything she gets mad about is always the worst case scenario for her.  There is no middle ground for her, she always takes it to full steam!  This little girl is smart and catches on quickly.  She knows what she wants and will not be distracted or brought to change her mind.  She holds her ground, but to her defense she does have to put up with a lot from Luke.  Luke likes to pester her, just to pester.  Right now he isn't the best big brother, but I am sure one day, he will be.

For now, I just need these pictures and stories to one day remind me that this is a good stage of life.  Right now, it just seems like these kids are just too crazy, but at the end of every day, when we finally get the kids to sleep and the house is momentarily quiet, I am grateful that I have these two crazy kiddos in my life to keep me so busy!

bathroom funnies....

My favorite quotes from Luke this week:

"There you go pee-pee's, there you go, into the toilet"

As if he was coaxing and then delivering his "pee-pee's" into their safe place.

Shortly there after:

"Oh- here comes the poo-poos"

"Oh there they are- Hey mommy, let's count the poo-poo's"

"wow! so many poo-poo's"

Just for some bathroom funnies....

indoor soccer