Wednesday, March 16, 2011

ultimate failure!

Ok, so I won't start with how I have failed this blog yet again. I mean, really? I guess I should just stick to saying that I will post once a month and then I won't be disappointed when I realize that it has been so long since I posted! Ha! Sooooo....what has been going on at the Smith household? Well, for starters, it's Spring Break for me and I am sick. It's like some kind of cruel joke. If I don't feel better tomorrow, I'm heading to the doctor for a shot & antibiotic! It couldn't have anything to do with the crazy weather.... 60 one day, 80 the next and below freezing at night. Ahhhh, gotta love Alabama weather! In other super duper important news: We have officially started potting training! Can I get a WOOT WOOT?? And I must say, that little blond haired boy is doing way better than I expected!! Could be the big ol' treasure box that I have set up on the back of the potty. Every time he goes, he gets to go to his "cheshure box" and get a prize. We have stocked with goodies like cars, plastic insects, balls, candy, suckers, & pixie sticks. And guess what he picks most of all? Oh yeah, the baby crack. Wait, you didn't know that pixie sticks are baby crack?? WHAT?? Kids around the country are jonesing for that crap! Luke LOVES it (especially in the morning). Nice. Mental note: Only buy toys for the treasure box next time! He really is doing pretty good. A few accidents here and there. We are gonna try to be a no pull -up kind of family (except at night) and see how he does. Tomorrow will be his first day back at school (mommy needs a break!) so I hope he does well. A nugget of truth that I have learned as a mom: When all else fails, bribery works! It's just how I roll. A couple of cute things that he has said over the past little while ('cause I will forget so I have to write it down...not to bore you or anything!):
*He was playing in his cozy coupe car and he un-did the gas tank thingy. He said "what's that?" and I told him that was where the gas goes. He said "my car needs gas??". Next thing I know he goes out the door, down our steps (dressed only in his undies, mind you....thankfully we live in the country. and we are little red. ;) ). He goes to the grass and starts pulling up blades of grass. He comes inside and puts the grass in the little tank part and said, "look mommy...I put gas in my car!". TOO CUTE!
*I put him down for his nap yesterday and I covered him up and he said "I need Jesus." I said What?? He said "I need Jesus moosic". When he sleeps at his daycare they put on contemporary Christian music while the kiddos sleep.....He wanted to hear his "Jesus moosic" while he slept!!! How great is that??
*Luke is talking talking talking talking! His new thing is to say, "mommy, guess what?" and then he will tell me something. Tonight it was "My goo-goo is coming over!" (he calls my friend Jennifer Goo-Goo for some reason...we are kinda hoping he will outgrow that b/c it's just kinda weird!".
*He has officially learned to text. Yes, that is right, text. He will tell me he wants to text daddy or he will tell Tom that he wants to text me and I will get messages that look like this: dlkhog8AY9 8GA4EW alkdhgosaihlka;IHG;OIAHLKDGA;aligagoiah   I always know who they are from! Can we say he is a little too enamored with technology? I keep waiting for that song from Napoleon Dynamite "I love technology....but not as much as you and me.....but still I love technology..."
*Luke LOVES Dora (he says 'Doe-ra) and Barney still. I can't help it. That stupid purple dinosaur really does teach kids good things.
*He knows all his letters by sight & out of order so now we are working on him knowing the sounds the letters make. He knows way more than I thought he did! He is also counting to 20 pretty fluently. What can I say? I'm a kindergarten teacher! That boy is going to go to his "May-May's" kindergarten class READING!!
 ;)
*We are seriously considering having a baby brother or sister for Luke. Yikes. Um, YIKES! Scary stuff! Luke was not planned at all...he was quite a surprise so it was just like, "um, yeah, ok, I'm pregnant....we can do this". But now talking about having another and planning it (and working it into a budget) is terrifying. Plus, I'm no spring chicken. I will be 35 in a few months and the hubby has some other health issues that are making us say "now or never". I guess we will see....When we ask Luke if he wants a brother or sister the answer is always "NO!". He doesn't want anyone stealing his thunder I guess! Ha!

Luke is just a joy at this age of 2 1/2. I mean, he can be quite a pill sometimes....I can say black and he will say white. And there are days when the only things he wants to eat are breakfast bars, grits & Coke, but I know these days are gonna be over in a flash so I am trying to just sit back and enjoy the ride. I can't get enough of him really. It's hard to imagine, but I would so easily without thought give my life for that child. When I hold him and rock him some nights I look at his sweet face and those chubby cheeks and that blond hair and I think, "man, he is going to be grown one day and leave me and have his own life...". It makes me sad and it makes me excited for him too. I wonder how he will be when he is grown. Where will he go? What will he do? What adventures await him? And it's so hard to realize that honestly, he is just on loan to me from God. How could God love him as much as I do and even more? But I know that He does. And He always will. Boggles my mind, I tell you.
Hopefully it won't be another month before I write again! :) I gotta keep up with this or I will forget so many things!!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Just a few pics....

Just some recent pictures....




Getting some kisses on snow day!
 Oh yeah, he was ready to get out in the snow! Notice his roller coaster track behind him? My living room looks like a day care!
 Luke sitting on the counter. Because I'm all about safety, right? :)

Really? It's been over a month??

Man, I am a slacker. My best laid intentions of really keeping up with blogging have evaded me yet again. Each day when Luke says something cute or something funny happens, I tell myself, "man, I need to put that on the blog or I will forget about it!". And I forget. Every time. Nice. So, I will try to do a quick recap (as much as my "mommy brain" will let me!)
*We had a great Christmas! Luke was really into opening his presents. He kept calling them his "prizes"! Too cute! He had to open my stocking and Tom's stocking after he got finished opening all his gifts! I had to convince him that the make-up in my stocking was for grown-up GIRLS....he was not a happy camper! He wanted everyone's prize!
*We got a big snow/ice storm that kept me out of work for nearly a week. Luke and I had cabin fever big time, but we all did get to get out a few times and play. It was just so slick that Luke kept falling. He loved being out in it though and every time I looked, he had snow in his mouth eating it! After a few days, he started asking for his friends. He was seriously jonesing to get back to "cool" (that is what he calls his daycare). He loves his friends there! Especially Carsyn and Mason....They are all I ever hear about!!
*Luke is talking SO much lately...we are actually having conversations now. Even Ms. Nancy at his school commented on how much he is talking now and asking for things in full sentences. I still don't think we are ready for the potty yet and his teacher, Ms. Chantel agrees. He won't be 2 1/2 till the end of March so I am not sweating it. It's just something that I'm not going to fight and stress about. He will do it in his own time. He does use the potty from time to time, but does not ask to go. He will go when we ask if he wants to....but that is about it. And that is ok with us. Don't get me wrong...I would LOVE to stop buying diapers, but I want him to be ready and I am not about to push it.
*I am amazed at how smart this kid is! So, here is where I have to brag. Sorry. He won't be 2 1/2 till the end of March, but so far he can:
   ~count to 18 (most days....) and identify numbers to 10
   ~recognize all letters of the alphabet (out of order) with the exception of K and R ... he gets those confused still
   ~identify all his shapes (including hexagon...thanks Iphone App for that one!) and colors
   ~recognize that if we spell out L-U-K-E that it spells Luke....now, I am sure that he can't read it, but he does realize when we are spelling his name and it is really cute. He is always asking us to " 'pell Mommy, 'pell Daddy, 'pell Samson, and so on. I am amazed at his vocabulary and how quickly he picks things up.
  ~work my Iphone better than I can!! It's crazy!!
* We are working on ONLY letting him have his "pap-pap" (paci) at night. He still wants at least 3 in the bed with him. He does the sweetest thing though. I watch him on the monitor in the bedroom and he takes one paci and taps his nose with it while he has the other one in his mouth and the other one in the other hand. Every night. Without fail. I love it! I guess this is how he comforts himself and it makes me smile when he does it!
*He has learned (ahem, thank you, daddy) how to "drop an elbow" when we are playing. Nice.

Stats:
Last we checked he was 35 lbs and I can't remember how tall. But he seems tall to me. He is a big boy (which is A-OK with me since he was a tiny preemie when he was born)! I do remember he was 97th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height back in early December. He seems to be thinning out because he is ALWAYS moving, running, skipping, jumping, climbing..... you get the picture. People tell me he is built like a linebacker!! Oh my!

Luke truly is my world. I wish everyone could experience that pure and total love that a mommy has when she looks at her baby. He truly is the greatest thing that has EVER happened in my life. I am grateful that God has blessed me with him and I am so proud to be his mommy! I hope Tom and I raise him to be a caring, loving, Godly, respectful man....
Well, that is a not-so-quick recap of all things Luke. I hope to not stay away for over a month next time!

Monday, December 6, 2010

The Frigid South

Man, it has been cold these last few days!! Momma DOES not like the cold....I am dreaming about somewhere tropical to spend my summers when I hit the lottery!! Plus, I have a two year old that hates wearing a jacket AND a hat so mornings have been fun around the Smith household! Um, not. Luke has definitely been a rascal this last week. He has decided his favorite thing to say is NO! And most times, it's long and drawn out like "NOOOOOO"!! He has had to have several meetings with "Mr. Bad Spoon". Luckily, Mr. Bad Spoon can usually talk him into being a nice boy. He also had decided that he needs to live on a diet of suckers, candy, and cookies. So, I had to do a little "purging" of the sugar in the house. He is just like Tom! Tom loves hard candy and so does Luke. I, on the other hand, HATE candy but can tear up a Hershey bar and most things chocolate. Luke has told me several times, "I don't yike (like) chocolate! I want canny (candy)". Weird kid!  He did something so sweet yesterday, though. I told him to look at Daddy's boo-boo (Tom has a bump on his neck that he was messing with) and Luke told him "I kiss it Daddy! I kiss your boo-boo....". Then he said, "I kiss other side...." and gave him a kiss on the other side of his face. And then he said "BIG hug" and gave him a big ol' hug! Talk about melting your heart!!!Now I see why people say that 2 can be so bad and so good at the same time. I wish he could stay this age forever. He is just growing so much and talking in full, complete sentences plus he can be fiercely independent! Where did my baby go? It seems as if I blinked and now I have a little boy instead of a baby boy. I'm kinda sad about it. I'm also a failure being that I have not gotten ANY holiday pictures made! BOO! :( I don't know what I am going to do about Christmas cards. Hopefully we will finish our tree in the next few days and I can take some shots of him by our tree. He loves to look at it and say, "Peeeetty (pretty) yights (lights)!!". I love it! Now if I can just get him to stop throwing his toys in it and almost knocking it down....

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Thanksgiving 2010

What a great day I had with my little Luke and the rest of my family!! I must say, Luke looked absolutely adorable in his smocked  turkey Jon-Jon! I promised Tom that this would be the last of the Jon-Jon's....Luke is a big boy now so no more cute lil' babyish outfits. Boo. I wish I could just freeze time right now and keep him at this exact age. He is so much fun right now!!!! His personality (crazy-man) is coming out full-force and he is just FULL of life!! I don't know what was in the food we ate today, but let me tell you, when he woke up from his nap he was on FIRE!! Hell on wheels, that little boy!! Running around, playing, screaming, yelling, messing with the dogs....he was nuts! In a good way....just out of control and had me and Tom laughing our heads off! He was so chatty today. Some of the cute things he has been saying are "Careful, Go-Go" (he says this to our dog SoJo for absolutely no reason...he has just heard me say 'careful, Luke' so many times! HA!), and " 'Pell Luke (spell Luke), 'pell Mommy, 'pell Dadday....and so on and so on.... He has us spell out pretty much everyone we know on his little writing pad thingy. Oh, one of the SWEETEST things he is saying now is "Aya doin' mommy?" (Whatch'a doing mommy) when he comes up to me if I am busy doing something. Melts my heart. Seriously. And tonight he wanted to call 'Aunt Chele so we did and he actually TALKED to her!!! He is usually just so shy on the phone and won't say anything. Did I mention that Luke is obsessed with his aunt? Well, he is. Like, majorly loves her and his "unc chris". He gets in the car and says over and over and over and over (you get the picture, right?) "I want Aunt Chele/Unc Chris" like 42,000 times. It's enough to make me want to jump out of the moving car. Well, not really, but heavens it wears on me after a while! And when the kid wants you to get up, he wants you to get up! Of course, he says it like, "Geet up Mommy/Daddy/Gandma/Nonna/Samson.....". It's really cute till he starts pushing you off your seat if you won't get up!! HA!
It was a great Thanksgiving this year even though we were saddened by the news that my nephew Michael has leukemia. Very scary. He spent Thanksgiving in a hospital room at UAB but he was surrounded by all his family and friends from church. Plus, my nieces' work sent them a full turkey dinner to the hospital! I wanted to bring them some food but my sis' said they were taken care of....We will go see him tomorrow and love on him!  He started his treatment today and I have no doubt that he will beat this and use it as part of his testimony.  Just out of the blue, people.....anything can happen to the ones we love in an instant. Be sure to love on your family even when it's hard and they irritate you (trust me, I know...have you met some of my family?? ha ha!). I look at Tom and Luke and they are my world. Oh, don't get me wrong....there are about 1700 things about Tom that I would change if I could, but I say that knowing there is about 1900 things about me he would change if he could. But, we love each other, are committed to each other, and we are very committed to raising a good son -- not a perfect son because that is only found in Jesus, but a son that is honorable, confident, respectful, loving, helpful, unafraid, and humble. For Luke and God's great blessing on his little life, I am THANKFUL!!!

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Where the tiger bites Luke....

So, funny story of today. I was folding clothes on the floor this morning and I had National Geographic's Wild Kingdom on the TV. Luke was playing but then a leopard caught his eye. He stopped and watch the leopard climb up a tree and he yelled, "TIGER!!!". I said, "no baby, that is a leopard....kinda like a tiger...but, not". He growled at it (giggling) and then the leopard (who was a momma looking for her cub) growled this low rumbling sound. Luke threw his hands up to his chest and yelled "OHHHH.... tiger bite!!!"!! He ran to me holding his chest like he had been bitten!! I laughed soooo hard! It made my morning. He's such a character. His new thing now is when we are playing "ball" he will stand there holding the ball and ask, "ready??". Apparently I had been saying this to him all along while we play ball. "Luke, are you ready?? Here comes the ball!" and he totally picked up on it! Precious! One last thing before I forget. He loves to say "I fix it" whenever he sees something that might be broken (especially electronics). We sold an entertainment center to my MIL and there was an old radio in the bottom drawer of it. Luke takes it out, plugs it in (danger, danger Grace Adler! for all my Will & Grace fans out there) and announces "I FIX IT!!" Now, the only question is how to keep him away from plugs...we have the covers on them but the dang kid is so smart & strong he can pull them out. Say a prayer for us!

On a mommy note, I had a BLAST with Kelly, James, and Jason last night! Wine, sitting on the back deck and talking WAY too inappropriate for people our ages....I didn't get home till almost 1! And I loved every moment of it! I must try to work in more "me" time like that. It's good for the sanity. But, it's even better to wake up in the morning to a 2 year old with nothing on but a diaper sitting on the couch with his little legs crossed over each other reading a book! And when he looks up at me and says "MOMMY!" with the sweetest smile on his face, I am sure that all is right with the universe and I thank my lucky stars that God chose me to be his mommy!!!

Also, I want to share this quote from a blog that I am addicted to. Flythroughourwindow.com
I read Darby's posts all the time and she always seems as if she has that perfect balance of motherhood and spending time with family/friends. I feel like I know her and would love to meet her one day. She is a twin, she is beautiful, has beautiful kids, and great home and a hot husband. A really hot husband. She is the kind of woman you want to hate because everything looks on the surface absolutely perfect but she never ever puts up a fake front. She will straight up show you a picture of her kitchen when her kids have destroyed it!! Plus, she seems so dang sweet, you have to love her!
Quote

Friday, November 12, 2010

Weather days rock!! :)

Today I did not have to work today (can I get a woot, woot) and my plan was to not set an alarm and to sleep very, very late. Yeah, right. It seems that I now have a human alarm clock. Luke was up bright and early yelling "mommmmyyyyy" which is really cute. Except at 7 AM. On a day that I don't have to work. I let him yell my name for a few minutes in the hopes that he might just drift back off to sleep. But, alas, I turned and looked at him on the video monitor and there he was. Just jumping up and down in his bed holding no less than 20
pap-paps (ok, it was really only 4 pacis...) and yelling for me to come get him. So I did. And I fixed him an oatmeal bar with nutella on it and he was in carb heaven for a while! He loves loves loves nutella!! Best stuff ever! I will never tell him it is just hazelnut spread because he thinks he is just getting chocolate.....ha! We stayed in our PJ's for a while and then hit the store where I bought a bunch of crap I didn't need just because it was cheap. Then Aunt 'Chele and Uncle Chris came over, we ordered pizza (carb heaven again) and Luke acted like a wild man!! He was so excited to see them he was running around like he was on baby crack! His new 'thing' is to jump and and down or run around and then just BUST it on the floor. The kid loves to fall. On purpose. Weird, right? Later, we actually took a nap together which is really strange because my kid hates to sleep with me. You know how parents get all frustrated because their kid only wants to sleep with them in their bed? Well, I get frustrated because Luke has never even wanted to take a nap with me or his dad (except for those 4 months when he came home from the hospital and he slept on my chest while I slept on the recliner. real comfortable, right? but I was a paranoid new mommy....). He usually only wants his bed!! I think he likes his space! So today was really special with him all snuggled up with me in bed. I loved it. Then, a quick visit to "gand-ma's" ended our night. I felt like a stay-at-home mommy today and decided that I could get used to that idea. My bank account, however, could not. Oh well, I've got the summer, right???