First night away from home

Luke was so excited to get to go a day early to Grammie and Papa's house. Once I set out his things by the front door, he just sat in his car seat and waited for Aunt Cara to get to our house. This is his first night away from home without mom or dad. I don't think he will call home sad, especially because he was so excited to go. I think it will go well. My parents have all sorts of fun things planned for him. I can't believe he's big enough for a grandparent sleepover

Mom, I'm going to be alright!

I'm glad I found this when I did!

...and how did Titus even get a tear in his diaper? Whew, very gross crisis avoided!

Trying to rationalize with a three year old

I am truely worn out by the end of the day. I'm pulling Titus out of the pantry again! I'm down on the floor searching for "Chick" (the green car from the cars movie). However, I think the thing that wears me out the most is rationalizing with my three year old.



Today, Luke is in the back seat making all sorts of really frustrated sounding noises, so the following conversation begins:



Me-"Hey little man, what's the problem?"

Luke- "Mommy, all these trees are not blue."

Me-"God made the trees green, and during this special time of year the leaves can turn yellow, orange, and red too."

Luke - Even more upset now-"Mommy, ALL these trees are NOT blue!"

Me-"I'm sorry the trees are not blue."

Luke-just decends into crying "That's o.k. mommy, (sob sob) you didn't do it."

Is this allowed?

Found this picture...Thinking about it...

Another one bites the dust

Here we go again...

If you missed the post from a few days ago, when I catch Titus with something he's not supposed to have, he totally chunks it at the floor. I say, "No, No", and the very obedient Titus sends the object flying from his hands immediately. This is not always a good thing!

I thought I'd handle it differently this time (last time was a glass). I can hear that he has a plate. I sneak quietly around the corner. In the sweetest voice I can think of I say, "Titus, can Mommy have the plate?" Knowing that he should not have the plate, Titus looks at me and throws the plate. Again, I caught him before he threw himself on the broken plate.

Luke left the plate from his lunch where Titus can reach it. I can't be too hard on Luke b/c I left a container of crayons where Titus could pull them down just this morning. I guess we'll all have to be more careful for a little while. This too will pass...but how many of my nice plates will I have to replace when it is over?

Camping in Arkansas

We had a great weekend in Arkansas. Micah took the day off and we headed to Searcy. It was our first big family road trip in the van. We got doughnuts as we headed off to Harding.

Titus, you've got a little chocolate on your face :)

Hanging out on campus. Luke in his quest for Angela. He needs to get her in the swing 2 more times. Harding lore= 3 swings and a ring. Watch out Josh K.!

We picked up Dustin, Angela, Josh, and Tessa from Harding and headed off to Jacksonport State Park. We all rode together in the minivan. We got to the campsite right as the sun was setting, so there's no pictures of the night. Basicly, we set up camp, ate hotdogs, s'mores, talked, sang, and went to bed. It was a wonderful perfect camping night. Pictures start up again in the morning. A big thanks to Josh K. for the fire.

One funny thing was that Luke liked the s'mores, but after a while just wanted a plain marshmellow. He would ask "Can I please have a marshmellow with no fire, no chocolate, and no cracker."

Why are we in the car? Should I even go into it all? Skip over it if you like...Micah and Luke actually "slept" in the boy tent all night. They ended up in the same sleeping bag and Luke was a happy camper, but Micah got very little sleep. I ended up driving Titus around in the car to get him back to sleep around 11:30 pm. Then, I just got my sleeping bag in the car and let him sleep in his carseat and I slept across the 2nd row. He got up around 2:30 am and again around 4. When Micah and Luke joined us in the morning to get out of the wind, I was in the 2nd row and Titus was in the floor by me. It is totally a mixed bag to camp with little people.

After a VERY long night

Morning: Let the fun start back up again. It was really windy, but Josh K. got the fire going. Hurray. It was pretty cold. We sat around the fire, ate breakfast and tried to stay warm.

Luke and Angela eat muffins

Mommy watches Titus closely as he sits by the fire

Josh K. and Luke play football. Luke is borrowing one of Dustin's gloves.

Dustin and his girlfriend Tessa

Micah holding little bear Titus with the White river in the background

Uncle Dustin shows Luke how to climb a tree. Luke becomes more convinced that he needs to eat his "good bites" so that he can grow big and strong enough that he can one day be able to climb the tree too.

Now we're off to see the rest of the park.

Luke, Tessa and Dustin run ahead of the group.

Luke wrestles Dustin

Luke, being no respector or persons, also tackles Josh K.

Titus getting some hugs from Uncle Dustin

Angela, Josh and Luke walk back to the car.

We had a great visit with Dustin and Angela. I'm so glad we got to get to know Josh K and Tessa better. We're looking forward to Josh and Angela's wedding in May!

Stroller Skating

After I dropped Luke off at pre-school, Alison and I went stroller skating. We didn't know what to expect, but it sounded like fun. Neither one of us had been skating in years. It was wierd not hearing "Aruba, Jamacia, Ooh I wanna take you ..." playing as we skated around.

Basicly, you skate while pushing your baby in a stroller. Fun! Titus slept and Madeline had her hands up in the air like she was at a concert. They both seemed to like the disco ball and music. We plan to go again :)

Titus throws a fit

Titus has been throwing fits lately. Usually it goes down just as you see here. It is rediculously predictible.

Here's how it went down today: Titus gets a glass off the kitchen table. He attempts to drink the water spilling it all over the floor. Luke tells on Titus. I look up at Titus. NO, NO...As the words left my mouth I knew what was going to happen. First, the glass gets thrown on the floor and of course breaks. Then I realized what was going to happen next. I jumped to catch him and I was so greatful to be able to get to him in the air right before he threw himself on the broken glass.

Seriously, in your prayers remember all the mommies out there who are charged with keeping these rascals safe. Sometimes it is a pretty big job.

Halloween

Trick-or-treating was not quite like we expected. Titus was really sick (104+) fever all week. Even though his fever broke the morning before, he was completely ready for bed by 6pm. I stayed home with little T and Micah took Luke trick-or-treating.

What a great daddy. Here are SpiderLuke and Micah before:

Here they are after trick-or-treating. The extra pumpkin came from...Aunt Cara. She had a whole pumpkin for him filled with yougurt raisins, teddy grahms and light sticks. She even had treats for MIA Titus.