Luke's Very Favorite Books

Luke chooses the same 3 books every night before he goes to bed. His all time favorite is Goodnight Moon. He reads it himself. The funny thing is that I only have the book in Spanish, so Luke reads it according to our translation. My friend lent me her copy this past weekend, and quite a few things are different-- like it rhymes.

When I read the book to him in English he kept correcting me. For example, we read the Spanish book saying a painting of the cow jumping over the moon. In the English book, the word is picture, but when I say that, Luke always says, "Painting. Painting."

I got this book from Debbi, and Luke loves it. He won't listen to the whole story, so we read the first stanza on each page and then say, "Night Night (whatever animal is on that page)." Luke's very favorite is the otter. I don't know why.

Last of all, Luke loves Corduroy. We also have to shorten this book because he turns the pages too fast, but he gets a nice edited version every single night.

I really love books. I'm glad that Luke does too. I have a big list of books that I want to get for him. Some of my favorites when I was little were:

1. The Five Chinese Brothers

2. The Story of Ping

3. The Little Engine that Could

4. Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel

5. Make Way for Ducklings

I also would like to get "Ferdinand the Bull" because I saw it on the movie the Blind Side. I remember seeing a Disney Cartoon of that story when I was little, but I didn't know it was a book. I can't wait until Luke will sit through stories like this. Then it would make it worth it to buy them. In the meantime, we'll enjoy his 3 favorite stories and few others when he'll let me read them.

Things that Always Make me Smile

1. I love to see old people-- I mean white haired, hunched over love birds-- holding hands. The other day as I was leaving Wal-mart I saw just such a couple crossing the parking lot and I just sighed. I guess it's the romantic in me, but it's my dream to be such a couple. I love holding Jared's hand. I hope I always do.

2. I love to see dads playing with their kids when the kid is just peeled over in laughter. I especially love it when it's Luke playing with Jared. I can never get Luke to laugh quite as hard as Jared can.

3. I love children's prayers. Of course I am thinking of Luke again. Two days ago while he was saying a prayer he said, "Thank you I can see air cushioner (air conditioner)." So funny. It reminded me of the time Ethan thanked Heavenly Father for his fork.

4. I love a good love story. I got "Emma" from Netflicks this week and watched it twice.

Jamestown River Beach

Luke loves to dig at the beach! This morning Keegan, Caleb, Luke and I headed over to Jamestown River Beach to play in the sand. We were the first ones there and had the whole beach to ourselves for a little while.

Luke sure wasn't going to win any fashion contest this morning. His ensemble, as you can see consists of a brown hat (keep the sun off his face-- pointless since he turned the hat to the side), an orange and white shirt (UV protective swim shirt), jean shorts (because they're the least likely to stain should he sit down in dirt, etc.), and black and red rain boots (because Luke HATES the feel of sand/ rocks on his feet).

Caleb and Luke had so much fun digging. Luke also spent quite a bit of time throwing rocks into the water.
After 20 minutes or so, Caleb got adventures and ran out into the water. Luke followed him out, which surprised me because he almost never goes into water. He was wading in almost to where the water would go into his boots. Luke has had a big growth spurt over the last 2 months or so and had outgrown all his shoes, so these were brand new rain boots and I didn't want him to get the inside wet. I pulled him out of the water and put his Crocs on his feet, but then he wouldn't get in the water because he could still feel the sand. I finally crammed (literally) his feet into his old too small rain boots that I had brought for Caleb and let him have at the river.


He tramped around completely water logged for a good long time just having a blast. I'm really glad I brought his old boots along, and really glad I was finally able to get them off his feet. They were suctioned on pretty tight and for a while it was questionable whether or not they were coming off again.

I loved the beach because for the most part Luke stayed in one general area. I got to sit and talk and relax and wasn't constantly hauling him away from whatever random distraction he preferred. Also it was shaded so I didn't feel like I was going to die. We can't wait to go again.

Prayer

On Wednesday night after I put Luke into bed, I could hear him in his room talking to himself. I crept to the door to listen and heard Luke saying prayers. We had just finished saying our prayer together, and he was mostly repeating what I had said, but I thought it was so cute! He was laying down with his arms folded saying, "Heavenly Father, thank you day. Thank you Baby Emmett. Thank you Caleb. Thank you Isaac. (These are all friends of his) and then "Thank you Mima. Thank you Papa. Amen." (To Mom and Dad Wilkerson, I want you to know that we also pray for you every night as well.) He said the same prayer a few times and then he went to sleep. I felt so proud of him that I almost cried. Too sweet!

Awkward Questions

(This picture has nothing to do with the content of the post. I just thought he looked really cute.)

Today Luke and I stopped by the library to play with the trains. But first things first for a pregnant lady. We had to make a stop in the restroom. I brought Luke in the stall with me and he kept trying to poke his head under the adjoining stall and I kept telling him to stand up straight. The person in there was obviously having a moment if you know what I mean-- the smell was pretty strong. I hurried and finished up, but as I was washing my hands, Luke walked back around the corner and asked (very loudly) "Do you have poo poos?"

Pulling the Plug

Last night, we took the BINKY away. Luke didn't cry much, but he did ask repeatedly for his binky, and it took him over an hour to finally fall asleep. And then around 12:30 am the fun started. Luke woke up 3 times during the night asking for his binky and then for Mama. So I am super exhausted from the fact that I was padding back and forth last night, as well as the fact that when I got up at 12:30 am I realized I hadn't taken my Unisom and took it then. Perhaps taking a sleeping pill just after midnight is not such a good idea when Luke wakes up at 6. But then again, being tired is much better than being sick. I hope he takes a good nap today without Binky. And I hope tonight is better. And maybe Luke will learn to look on the bright side-- Blankie isn't going anywhere.

Trip to Maymont

Last year I saw pictures of Maymont gardens on a few friends' blogs and have wanted to go ever since. On Saturday we made the trip to Richmond to check it out. It was beautiful even without all the flowers in bloom. Did we miss them or are they not out yet? I don't know, but it didn't seem to matter. It was a pretty long trek to get to the gardens, and since we didn't have tons of time, we had to make a choice. Italian or Japanese? We (or really I) chose Japanese, and none of us were disappointed.

View on the walk to the garden:

There is a bear exhibit on the way to the garden as well. The real bears were too far away to get a clear picture, but this statue was right there on the path.

Inside the Japanese garden:

I want to go back and see the Italian gardens as well as Maymont mansion. There is also a petting zoo that we didn't have time to see, but I think Luke would love it.

Baby News

Yesterday I had my 24 week appointment. I had another ultrasound because at 20 weeks the baby was facing in such a way that the tech couldn't get a clear picture of the heart or diaphragm. Luckily he cooperated better this time, and they got all the pictures that they needed. They checked his kidneys again too because one of the kidneys has liquid inside. They said a little liquid is normal, and he is in the normal range. Also, if there was a problem with his kidneys there would be an abnormal amount of amniotic fluid, and there wasn't. The doctor seemed worried that I would be freaked out, but I wasn't at all. He moves so much and kicks like crazy that I am sure he's a healthy little guy.

I'm not sure what is up with the picture-- something with how it scanned. We don't have a name for our guy yet. Jared is just not cooperating with the name game. I like 2 names that start with an M that Jared hasn't completely vetoed, so Amber and I have started calling the baby "Baby M." Luke is just starting to understand bits of what's coming. When we ask him where his baby brother is, he will point to my tummy and say brother. He still doesn't seem to understand what that means though-- that there will actually be another person coming to our family to live here all the time. I guess after the baby is born, he'll figure that out really fast.

I've had to scale back and go on a sort-of South Beach Diet. I can't cut completely back because then I get light headed and tired, but I'm trying to watch what I eat. I also renewed my gym pass that expired while I was on the out and out, and I've gone 5 times a week for the past 2 weeks. It is helping because I cut down from gaining 10 pounds the past 2 months previous to 7 pounds this month, but I still need to do better because my doctor said I should only be gaining 1/2 pound to 1 pound per week. At first I wasn't concerned about the weight because I had lost so much at the beginning, but if I keep it up at this rate, I'll be very sorry when the baby is out and I'm 40 pounds over where I started. I had a hard enough time losing 20 pounds. I don't even want to think about 40. It's a bummer, though, because if you imagine a time to indulge and eat whatever you want, pregnancy seems the time, doesn't it? Ah well. I had 2 good months, and now it's time to be good.

We are so excited to meet our little guy in a few months! But it's also crazy to think about how much our lives will change. Luke and I have a pretty good pattern/ schedule going on that is going to get majorly juggled. I hope we can adjust fairly quickly.

Live and Learn

On Memorial Day, we went to York River State Park to fly the kite that Jared got "me" for mother's day. Before we went Jared searched YouTube videos on kite flying and found quite a few on trick kites. Turns out that the $10 kite from Wal-mart was a trick kite and we just didn't know how to fly it. So... apparently Jared shouldn't have put it in the trash. Well, you live and learn. And don't buy kites at Wal-mart.

Our new kite

Jared flying "my" kite

And where am I?

Chasing Stinker as always.

This is Luke trying to sneak over to the air conditioner he found

(in the employee outside wet lab)

This is me stopping Luke from playing with the air conditioner

This is Luke's reaction-- repeated several times!!! Sneak, stop, scream. Sneak, stop, scream.

This is how long we stayed at the park: NOT LONG.

Today, for the first time...

Luke made a...

poo poo in the potty!

It's totally sick that I actually took a picture, but we were so proud of him, and how else do you document this moment? Here's how it happened:

1. Luke told Amber he needed to poo poo.

2. I put him on the big potty and held on to him. Luke laughed and sat for about 15 seconds, then got off. I put him back on 3 times.

3. Luke decided he wanted to sit on HIS potty, and he started to walk to it.

4. Right in front of it, he got a panicked look on his face. Oh no!

5. I grabbed the bowl out of his potty and held it up to his bum. Then I helped him sit on his potty where he finished.

6. Amid the look of panic/surprise/shame from Luke, Amber and I started clapping. While I wiped him up, Amber ran for the M&Ms.

7. Luke helped us flush it down.

We are so proud of our Luke man!

Birthday, Birthday, Coming to Earth Day

Amber's birthday was May 26th. To celebrate we first got rid of Luke for a few hours (Thanks, Keegan!) and went to Wallermill Park to do the peddle boats.

I had a little trouble getting my knees up. But we definitely got our exercise for the day.

Later we went to dinner at a little diner called Jimmy's Oven and Grill because I'd gotten a "gift certificate" from Motherhood. It was pretty good, and Luke (for the most part) behaved himself.

Then we had cake!

Luke helped us frost

Great job, Luke!

He also helped spread the sprinkles.

And stole some.

For Dad: the classic cake shot.

Yesterday (June 3rd) was Jared's birthday. I tried to make it a good one. I got up early (meaning that I didn't just put on a movie for Luke and get back in bed.) I made waffles with real whipped cream. Actually I tried to make real whipped cream. I thought you just whip up the cream and whalla! it would taste good. It turns out you need to add SUGAR. So we ended up having waffles and syrup instead. Amber watched Luke that night while Jared and I went to MovieTavern for dinner and a showing of Iron Man 2. I thought for a super hero movie, it was pretty good. Jared liked it except for the girl fight scenes. His thoughts were something along the lines of "a 95 pound girl could never do that. It's just ridiculous." I pointed out that a 95 pound girl could especially not do that in leather pants so tight you couldn't even sit down let alone wrap your legs around some dude's head and knock him out. And she DEFINITELY couldn't finish her fight with her hair and make up still perfect (and without breaking a sweat).

The gorgeous and delicious cake-- Tres Leches, of course!