Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a pretty eventful day. Micah woke up before 6 am, and Jared and I didn't want to disturb anyone, so we tried to keep him happy cooped up in our bedroom. That didn't work so well. Luke woke up soon after, and then it was even more impossible to keep them happy in our room because Luke knew that the toys were in the living room. We finally gave up and let them go out to watch a movie. While I was getting drinks for the boys Micah explored the cupboards-- he pulled out a glass lid for Sarah's frying pan, dropped it, and shattered it. So while Jared corralled the boys out of the kitchen I frantically swept up glass. Later we made embarrassed apologies.

Nathan wanted to get a card table because they were having extra company for Christmas Eve dinner, so Nathan and I made an early morning trip to Walmart. You can see some interesting people at Walmart early on Christmas Eve morning. I'll just leave it at that, except to say that I had no need to be embarrassed about being there without a shower.

After morning naps we went to the city park. It was super cold, and we didn't stay that long because the boys' eyes were running. But it was nice to get out for a little while.

Luke thought it was so funny that D rode on a sea horse.

Side note: I just love the nicknames that Luke creates. He calls Jared "D." Micah is "Mee-kee" or "B." I don't know how I got saddled with "Malls." So I guess I don't really love every nickname he comes up with. I mean, come on. How come Jared gets to be D and I have to be Malls???

All the boys loved the slides.

Zack liked going down:

And my boys liked climbing up:

Micah liked spinning the tic-tac-toe.


Funny faces.

Right before we left Jared helped Luke climb a tree.

Lovin' it!

After we got home I can't remember what we did. Probably just hung out for awhile. I can tell you what Luke did. All day he was OBSESSED with Skyler's little MP3 player and ball popper. He hardly came out of his trance all day. So he played with those things, and we did whatever. Then we started getting ready for dinner. Nathan and Sarah's friends came for dinner at 4:30 ish. We had a fun time eating aebleskievers and lil' smokies.

While the food was cooking Luke and Skyler had a dance party.

10 to 1 they were listening to "Trudge Trudge" (Backyardigans)

After dinner the kids acted out the Nativity.

Joseph and Mary:

Luke was a shepherd:

And then a wiseman:

And Micah just crawled into this chair over and over:

Then we got the boys ready for bed.

While Sarah and Nathan helped the elves, Jared and I relaxed and watched some TV before turning in early. We kept looking at each other and saying, "Should we go help?" but then we kept sitting there. Um.. so sorry about that.

All in all, a great Christmas Eve.

The Great PA- Day 1

We left to visit Nathan, Sarah, Skyler, and Zack on the 23rd of December. We had wanted to make a longer trip, but Jared didn't finish everything he had to do for finals until VERY late on the 22nd. (WORST SEMESTER EVER!)

Before we left for Pennsylvania Nathan emailed us what he thought was the best way to get to his house. It avoided DC traffic and so even though it was longer mile wise it would be faster time wise. Jared decided to trust the GPS instead, believing that the traffic sensor on it would send us the best way. WRONG. We should have trusted Nathan because we sat on 95 for a long time. But once we got there, it was nothing but good.

On day 1 we ate a yummy dinner, had a tour of the house, and then bundled back to the car to go the Herr's potato chip factory to tour the lights. I think it was the coolest thing we did over our entire trip. Even though it was chilly it was so fun and Christmasy. And the boys had tons of fun running around. I just loved to see Luke and Skyler chasing each other and laughing. And poor Micah was struggling to keep up. He failed, but he had a good time trying.

Micah was exhausted because he slept all of 20 minutes on the car ride to PA. But it doesn't matter how tired he is-- he'll be happy outside.

Of course the green lights were Luke's favorite!

I finally have a haircut that I really like, but unfortunately after riding in a car most of the day coupled with a windy, freezy night my hair looks terrible in all of the pictures.

I think Luke took this picture. Not bad for an amateur!

Nathan and Zack

We hiked all the way down to this tree hoping for great family photos, but when we got there we found that it wasn't actually a tree. It was just lights that looked like a giant tree from far away. Doh!

So we settled for a few trunks.

But we got some great shots of the boys by the manger.

We were yelling, "Look at Jesus. Look at Jesus!" but the boys would only look at the sheep.

Then we went home and got the boys into bed. Nathan and Sarah opened one of their presents early-- a game called Ticket to Ride-- and we tried it out. I really, REALLY liked this game and we played it 3 out of the 4 nights we were there. It has now been added to my wish list, right after HOUSE.

Exceptional

I think that Micah is exceptionally cute.

Especially this morning.

Guantes

Luke's favorite episode of Blue's Clues (OF ALL TIME) is Un Dia con Plum (otherwise know as "Blue's Clues Bird Said Hola") in which Steve and Blue learn many Spanish words one of which is guantes or gloves. Luke is very much into guantes right now-- although only of the useless variety. He won't wear winter gloves at the playground, but he WILL and even BEGS to wear cleaning gloves around the house. He just wears them while he plays with toys or whatever and every once in awhile will point to them and say, "These are my guantes."

On Saturday he even insisted on wearing one (yes, he had just one) plastic glove to the fan store, post office, and grocery store. We got some funny looks and more than one person asked, "What's with the glove?" Luke looked at them like they were the stupid one, and I'm sure that put them in their place. I mean, Duh!, gloves are just cool.

Condiments

I think it's safe to say that my kids are quirky. They have the most bizarre obsessions. I've posted about Micah's love of boxes already. But his new love is condiments. Any condiments. This boy will get into the pantry and carry around the unopened condiments that he pulls off the shelf, such as the relish bottle featured in these pictures.

But his very favorite is mustard. This kid is fast, and like Luke, he has some incredible canine hearing. He can hear the fridge open from any room in the house, and he beelines over and steals the mustard before I even know he's there. He just carries around the bottle a lot of the time with a huge grin on his face. He also likes to open and close the lid. Most of the time I don't care. If mustard makes him happy, he can knock himself out. But the other day he really did almost knock himself out. He had stolen a bottle of ketchup and was walking around with it. And then I heard this scream! I ran over to the hallway and Micah was standing there with ketchup all over his face and his eyes squeezed shut. I guess he had fallen or something and the bottle had squirted him right in the eye! He was trying to get back to me and stumbling like a drunkard. Poor little tyke! But it didn't deter his antics at all. He still goes for the condiments any chance he gets.

O Christmas Tree

Luke was so excited about a Christmas tree this year! He loved going to Miss Keegan's where he could see "Lubby's Christmas tree." (Luke has made a nickname for Caleb-- Lubby). And he would point out all the trees at Wal-mart, the bank, school, and everywhere else we would go.

He would ask, "Where is Luke's Christmas tree?"

So last Monday we got a tree and decorated it for our Family Home Evening. All day long Luke asked about when we were getting our tree. When the time came to get in our car to go get it, he was practically dancing. We ended up getting new lights too because our old lights were just clear lights, and Luke had asked two different Santas for a Christmas tree with green lights. So we got some multi-colored ones so that he would get his wish for a little green.

He was certainly excited to decorate it! And even more excited now that he has a brand new school bus ornament on the tree. He takes it off all the time and "drives" it around the living room before hanging it back up.

Hopefully next year we'll be rich enough to get an actual start to put on our tree instead of a make-shift pathetic bow. But, you know, whatever...

NANCY!!!

On December 7 my very good friend Nancy came back from Florida for a visit. I was so excited to see her again! I have so missed this girl! Nancy and her family live in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida right now where Justin recently started a 2-year clerkship.

For five straight days we played and talked. Mostly just around our house, since Luke woke up the morning after she arrived with pink eye, and that threw a kink in some of our plans. Good thing that Nancy and Hazel are Go-With-the-Flow kinds of girls.

Luke and Hazel remembered each other. They were always such good friends, even though Hazel is almost 2 years younger. Their favorite thing to do while she was here visiting was to listen to "In the Jungle" and dance. They would laugh incredibly hard while they danced. And then they would stop the music, and that would be incredibly funny too. Peals of laughter! I hadn't heard Luke laugh that hard for that long in quite a while. He was definitely happy to see Hazel again.

Luke has always loved Miss Nancy, and he didn't require any warm up time at all. He was ready to climb in her lap from the get-go.

On Friday I had planned a big luncheon at our house so that Nancy could mingle with everybody. Unfortunately the pink eye situation damaged the guest attendance by more than 2/3. In the end it was just Nancy, Keegan, Stacy Nielson, Danielle, and myself. Nancy wasn't offended-- she understood that pink eye is contagious and that it makes sense for people not to expose their kids. But I think she was a little disappointed that she didn't get to see everyone.

Stacy Nielson and myself

Danielle and Baby Liam

On several of the days Nancy was here we bundled up the kids after their afternoon naps and went to the playground. My kids go absolutely stir-crazy if they don't get outside a little during the day!

We went to the Virginia Living Museum one day as well, but I forgot my camera. Is anyone shocked? And we stopped by very quickly to our apartment Christmas party so that the kids could see Santa. Luke asked for a Christmas tree. Imagine what Santa was thinking... "This poor kid. He doesn't even have a tree!" But he promised Luke that he had some good ones in his workshop that he'd send our way. I thought I had pictures from seeing Santa, but then I remembered that I actually took them with Nancy's camera. Oops.

It was such a great little visit, and the only thing I'd change is to make it permanent. Come back, Nancy!

Trying It Out

Luke is trying out new phrases that he's heard us say more and more, and it CRACKS ME UP!

Here are just a few things he has said over the past few days:

L: "Is the light turned on?" (It's clearly on)

Me: "Is it?"

L: "I think so. But I'm not sure."

Last night, we were watching Blue's Clues, and I started singing along to one of the songs. Luke turned around with a very stern face and said, "Mom! Don't sing! That's a bad choice!"

And this morning I heard, "I figured it out! My nose doesn't have boogers!"

(Just to clarify-- the part he copied from me was: I figured it out. End quote right there.)

I think the funniest imitation I have heard was on Sunday night. Jared was making some phone calls for church, and Luke was listening to him. The calls weren't all the same, but a lot of them started out with Jared saying, "Hi this is Jared Wilkerson. I was just calling..."

Luke started copying him and picked up his play phone and would say, "Hi! This is Jacob Wilkerson. I was just calling..."

Ha Ha Ha! Jacob Wilkerson! Ha Ha Ha!

More Luke Quotes

I wanted to record a couple of conversations Luke has had over the last couple of weeks.

At speech Luke was doing an activity with his therapist, Ms. Nelson. Luke pointed to one of the pictures and said, "That's a deer."

Ms. Nelson corrected him and said, "Actually that's a camel. Do you know what a camel is?"

Luke responded, "It's like a deer."

Jared was quizzing Luke on Spanish words a few nights ago. The conversation went like this:

J: Luke, what does libro mean?

L: book

J: What does cabeza mean?

L: head

J: What are pantalones?

L: pants

J: What about Lucasito?

L: Pipsqueak

Luke learns rules and figures out rules by repeating things to himself (often out loud) over and over. Lately he's been asking a lot of funny questions about good choices/ bad choices. So we have lots of conversations like this:

L: Do we hit Micah?

Me: NO, that's a bad choice.

L: Do we hug Micah?

Me: Yes (and then to clarify) When Micah wants a hug, that's a good choice.

L: Do we yell during the prayer?

Me: No, that's a bad choice.

And often Luke will ask a question and then answer it himself, like this:

L: Do we push B? NOooo, that's a bad choice.

But lately he's been having these conversations with(?) his teddy bear or his blanket. I hear things like, "NO, Bookie! Don't put your fingers in the fan. That's a bad choice." or "No, Bear. We don't hit. That's not nice. It's a bad choice."

Today Luke was playing the Bad choice/ Good choice "game" at Walgreens while we waited for some medicine. It was pretty embarrassing. And totally weird because Luke is NOT violent at all!

He walked right up to an old lady who was sitting in a chair waiting for her prescription and asked very loudly, "Do we scream at the lady?" I said, "No Luke. That would be a bad choice."

Then he looked over at a mom holding onto her little boy's hand and asked, "Do we hit that boy?" I tried to act normal and calmly said, "What do you think, Luke?" He answered, "No, that's not nice. It's a bad choice."

And then we walked over to the toy aisle to look around until they called us to pick up our prescription. Aack!

Birthday Boy!

Luke's birthday was on November 27. Since that was a Sunday, we celebrated his birthday on Saturday instead.

This year was especially fun because Luke finally understood what a birthday means. I think celebrating Micah's birthday just 2 months ago helped create his expectations and excitement. He knew that a birthday means cake and a party. He could answer questions about what he wanted this year too, which was soooooo exciting for me. He told me that he wanted a cake with green balloons, a drum for a present, and a party at the bounce house. So that's what he got! (Sort of)

We didn't do a big party. It was actually very small. Enjoying the bounce house is a relatively new thing, and Luke still doesn't do great in big crowds or a lot of chaos. He tends to go off by himself, fixate on things (like fans or lights), or throw a fit when there are a lot of people around. So while we were sad that we couldn't invite all of his friends, we thought it best to keep it to the two friends he spends the most time with. Caleb and Rachel joined Luke at Inflation Nation, and then we had pizza and cake for lunch. It was a blessing that we didn't plan anything big because Micah was running a high temperature that day, so the whole celebration was a big of a "fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants" affair. I called Keegan on Saturday morning and begged her to let us do lunch at her house instead of ours to avoid spreading germs around as much as possible. She agreed. So Jared and Luke went to the bounce house while I stayed home with Micah. Then we swapped out, and Jared stayed with Micah while I went with Luke for lunch and cake. So we all got to celebrate with Luke a little.

I forgot to send the camera to the bounce house, but here are a few pictures from lunch and from opening presents:

First time opening a present all by himself!

We just love our silly, happy Luke! He truly makes us take a new look at our world and find excitement in the little things. Luke is excited to begin every day-- he starts each day running. He is (mostly) a gentle, loving big-brother. And he has become a cuddly, loving little boy. We love his hugs and snuggles.

Some of Luke's favorite things are: speed bumps, school buses, fans, air conditioners, books, Blue's Clues, the playground, school, drawing pictures, and band-aides. A new current interest is street names. He always wants to know the name of the street on which we are driving, and he remembers every name! When I make a turn he will tell me, "Now we're on Richmond Road," or whichever road we are on. He's almost always right, even distinguishing between 199-East and 199-West!

He loves to go on dates with D (his nick-name for Jared) to Chick fil A, Lowes, or the bounce house. He is excited to go to school, he's a great trooper about going to therapy, and he is overall our great little helper.

Oh, Luke! We are so proud of you! And we look forward to our many, many adventures ahead!