OCD

OCD. Obsessive-compulsive disorder. We are starting to see a touch of it in Luke's life these days. He definitely gets it from his dad. :)

He has started taking all of his trucks and lining them up. While that may not seem very funny on its own - it is the precision and care with which he does it that is really hilarious.

His is totally focused in on the task and one... by... one... gently... moves... each... truck... til it b-a-r-e-l-y touches the one in front of it.





Once the line has reached perfection, excessive celebration ensues.

Oh, and it isn't just his trucks. He is now lining up ALL of his toys - big and small. This was a clever one... airplane, dinosaur, bus. Why not?





Now, whenever we walk through the house, we are entertained by the orderly lines that Luke has created with random toys.

Pee Pee in the Potty

Monday, May 24th, 2010 - first pee pee in the potty!

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure if this actually "counts" - but there was pee pee in the potty - so, why not?

The reason that I'm questioning its validity is because Luke didn't actually make any attempt to pee in the potty on his own - it was all mom's doing.

We were about to get in the bath, so naturally, Luke was running around naked in the bathroom. I asked him if he had to go pee pee and he said "no". I asked him if he wanted to try sitting on the potty just in case, and again, he said "no".

ok.

So, as I started up the bath water, I was paying careful attention to him. He was holding on to the edge of the bath looking in, being very still, and sure enough - he started to pee.

I immediately scooped him up and placed him in front of his little potty and he peed away!!

So exciting!!!

I tried to make a big deal out of it - I cheered and clapped (and he clapped, too) then we both waved bye-bye to the pee pee and dumped it in the big potty.

Talking on "the Phone"

Andie and I were laughing so hard yesterday at Luke talking on his "phone".

The "phone" was actually the cardboard strip that you tear off of the top of a kleenex box.

LOVE THIS KID!

Happy Mother's Day

...to ME!

A day that was made especially for eating breakfast cooked by my husband... kicking back while he does the dishes... eating lunch at the destination of my choice... and relaxing outside on a beautiful day (while Luke runs around like a crazy man with his dump truck)...

What a good day! Thanks to my husband for making it so relaxing!

Happy Anniversary

...to US!

May 5th was our big 3rd wedding anniversary! We celebrated with a few margaritas that night (which was on a Wednesday) but we saved the real celebration for Friday night.

We got a babysitter. We wore clothes that weren't covered in slobber. We went out for a nice dinner.

It was a lot of fun - we went to a little restaurant in Nashville called Rumba - a satay/tapas place with lots of fun trendy food and cocktails. We did it up right and got drinks, appetizers, entrees, and dessert! It is so nice to go out every once in awhile and just splurge - order whatever you want without even looking at the price tag. We enjoyed ourselves immensely and soaked up every second of our much needed "date night".

For our big day, Andie got me a new lens for the camera!!!! BEST GIFT EVER!!! I'm so excited about it. It came in the mail late yesterday afternoon, so today has been my first day of experimentation with it. I'm in love already! It is a 50mm lens/f1.8 (thanks for the recommendation, Allison!!).

I've been snapping some shots this morning indoors with low lighting - and I've been able to do so without using the flash! Hallelujah!

Here are some shots:

(look at that super, super blurry background - love it!)


(this photo is kinda weird because he's chewing on a hair, but check out those baby blues!)


(no flash, crisp Luke, blurry background)


(no flash, crisp Luke, blurry background and blurry foreground)

So, yeah, I couldn't be more excited about the new lens!

But, to finish this post - I got Andie a single cup coffee maker for our anniversary. He's been wanting one forever! Whenever he makes coffee (usually just on the weekends) he makes a whole pot, drinks one cup or maybe two, then we toss the rest of it. This will be so much more efficient! The coffee maker also makes chai tea - so that's something that I could definitely get on board with (since I don't like coffee).

That sums up our anniversary celebration!

Also, I gotta give a shout-out to Jack Kosek who shares May 5th with us! Happy first birthday, little man!

Nashville Flood Tees

C'mon folks... help the victims of the recent flooding in Nashville and the Middle TN area by purchasing a shirt! Everybody needs a t-shirt and what a better way to show and contribute support.

Buy here: http://nashvilleflood.myshopify.com/

(note: the online shop is currently closed as they have completely overwhelmed paypal! Keep checking back though... they are working to get it fixed...)

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Great Flood

So, if anyone has been watching the news lately, you might have heard about all of the flooding in Nashville! It is so crazy here! Interstates are closed, people in their cars were stranded and stuck bobbing around, one of the videos even showed part of a portable classroom sailing down the street. It is being described as "the worst flooding the city has seen in more than three decades".

Weather issues aside, we had some special visitors come in town on Saturday! Sally, Ronin, and Maeve came to visit us! We had such a fun (and exhausting) day playing with the kiddos!

Here's a little play-by-play of the day...

Once the Badoud's arrived, the boys needed a little time to warm up to each other. They were both being pretty shy and quiet at first. Actually, I take that back... Ronin was being shy and quiet and Luke was on high alert trying to keep Maeve and Ronin from playing with his toys! It was hilarious - my poor boy isn't used to having other kids at "his" house playing with "his" toys. The experience was definitely good for him!

So, the two of them got reacquainted, we fed them lunch, then put them both down for naps. While they slept, we got some good, quality Maeve time!


(hi Maeve!)

She is just the cutest and sweetest little girl and was walking all over the place with her little "Thriller walk" (arms up, hands down... you know, like the "Thriller" dance in MJ's video?). Yes, walking already at 10 months (she actually started walking at 9 months - amazing!!) and that girl is fast! She was relishing her alone time without the two crazy boys running around!

Once the boys got up, we played musical beds, and it was Maeve's turn to sleep.

The boys were full of energy and in no time, were chasing each other around the house and having a grand old time!


(sometimes it is just more fun to get IN the toy box)

Ronin taught Luke a lot about SHARING and HELPING!

Luke was quick to immediately turn on the waterworks whenever Ronin would "steal" something from him - when, in fact, Ronin was really just trying to help him out! For example, Luke was getting frustrated because he couldn't flip open a cell phone (yes, we have an old cell phone that we no longer use in the toy box). Ronin, being the sweet boy that he is, took the phone from Luke (Luke freaked), opened it up for him, then handed it back! SOOOO sweet!

Another helping moment:

Ah, juice break!

(Maeve wandering in "Thriller" style...)

Ok, so remember that during all of this fun, we have a major severe weather situation going on. Andie cleared out the "safe closet", a tiny closet under the stairs, just in case we needed to hunker down in there. On the news, they kept showing "areas of concern" and Smyrna seemed to always be right in the middle of the circle... or square... or red patch (depending on which channel was on).

As Andie was de-cluttering, the kids followed him and discovered this perfect little closet that was just their size and had a ball hanging out in there. Safety first, right?

This next one cracks me up! Luke was dancing a jig, Ronin was inspecting the integrity of the ceiling, and Maeve was just trying to stay upright.

More snippets of fun from the day...

The boys took turns pushing each other around the house on the Mickey Mouse airplane:

Dogpile! C'mon, Maeve, dive on top!



Big brother consoling his little sis (I won't mention the fact that he's the reason why she's crying... we'll just focus on the sweet apology hug!):

Super Mom! One hand feeding the baby, one hand comforting Ronin after he stubbed his toe, and a smile on her face!



Now to end all this fun, it was time for a party in the bathtub!





The End!

Well, sort-of the end. Sally drove back that night and had to take the back way down to Murfreesboro because the interstate was closed at our exit due to flooding.

Then today, more rain continued!

I'm starting to get cabin fever from being cooped up in this house - but I'm thankful that we are at least DRY! They've had weather coverage on constantly today and it looks really bad out there in a lot of areas! Apparently, Nashville got more rain in the past 2 days than its ever seen in all of May. We got 25% of our annual rainfall in the past 48 hours - pretty amazing, huh?

So, although the fun visit had to come to an end, the weather saga still continues...

Luke Lately

I can hardly believe that Luke will be 2 in just a few months! Time has surely flown by!



Lately, Luke has been starting to repeat a lot more of the words that we say. Don't get me wrong, he's still full of gibberish talk mostly, but you can tell that he's starting to make more of an effort. You really have to prod him sometimes though to get some (real) words out of him. Some of his newest words are "moo" (cow), "elmo", "i-bry" (his teacher, Ivory, at school), "a cah" (car), "up" (wanting to be picked up), "mine", and "buh" (bird). He also says a few, simple two word phrases... "hi dad", "bye buh (bird)".

(fun with stickers)

Luke's favorite activity these days is bird watching. He just stares out the window every morning while eating breakfast, just hoping to catch a glimpse of one of his feathery friends. It is really cute! He gets so excited if he spots a bird - he will point and gesture and say "buh - buh - buh..." no less than 20 times!

OH - I also need to mention how Luke's parental preference has done a complete 180. For weeks now, all Luke wants is MAMA!!! Awww yeah!

(at Andie's flag football game)

I realize that this post is just a random, vague update about nothing important, but I just felt like blogging and sharing a few photos even though I didn't really have much to say.

I'll end with a photo of Luke sleeping. I don't know why, but I think that sleeping kids are SO cute!