Category Archives: Luke

>Date Night

>Last week, we had one of Luke’s friends over after camp, and this week, Luke and Jack went to his house. Dave and I had a date! Yea! And then, when I was putting Luke to bed, we had this conversation:

Luke: What do you do when you are invited to someone’s house and they have a brother. Do you need to play with them?
Me: Are you talking about you and Jack at your friend’s house?
Luke: No! No, not like that!
Me: OK, what are you talking about?
Luke: Like, um, if you had a friend, with a brother, or a sister, or like, a twin brother, and you are at their house, and you like the sister, but do you have to play with them?
Me: Well, if the sibling wants to play with you, then you would be a polite guest and play with them. But I can imagine times where you’d just want to play with your friend and then maybe the parent could arrange for that. Are you talking about (Insert a million examples and a million “No” answers.)
Luke: Long convoluted example that makes no sense, but in which he insisted that the example sibling was at least 4 years old.
Me: Are you talking about you and Jack?
Luke: Yes. I don’t want him coming on my play dates.

Poor Luke. I had to explain that it wasn’t really a play date for him as much as a date for mommy and daddy.

In other news, Luke lost another tooth. This one didn’t seem that loose, but Luke took a kazoo from Jack and put it in his mouth, and when Jack yanked the kazoo out of Luke’s mouth, the tooth came with it.

>Mission Complete! What Ten Ho!

>I am sure Uncle John, my loving and caring brother, will be happy to read that the batteries in the Tonka Ambulance that he purchases for Luke about 4 years ago are still going strong. It has a siren, flashing lights, a little song about Tonka and a little saying that goes like this, “Mission Complete, Let’s Head Home.” Or, if you are Luke, you might insist that it says, “Mission Complete, What Ten Ho.” And now Jack has discovered the truck, and he likes to play that song that goes, “It’s Tonka, to the rescue, we’re coming through for you!” while he does a little dance. I took about 10 videos over 2 days but I could never quite capture the perfect dance. Part of the problem was that Luke was thwarting my attempts by making the truck play the other noises instead of the song. Over and over. This all took place about a month ago, but I’m just blogging about it now for several reasons. Number one reason is laziness. You wouldn’t believe the ideas I have filed away, with no time to write them all down. Then yesterday, we saw a real rescue vehicle, which was very exciting. Also, I was just hearing that my biggest blog fans, Rose and Anthony, like videos the best, and since my camera is broken I decided to see what I could find in my archives. So here you go:

Sometimes it turns out that the first take is the best one:

>Yes Ma’am

>Luke is a very busy boy this summer. His camp packs more fun into a week then I could probably provide all summer. And in addition to a daily (awesome) field trip, he also has two swimming lessons a week and a soccer practice and a game. And we bike to camp almost every day, and that bike ride is 1.5 miles straight up hill. It’s serious. The first time we did it, I allocated 20 minutes for the 1.5 miles up hill and 20 minutes for the 6 miles downhill to work. I was sad when we got to camp 35 minutes later after much crying and gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair. (But I made it to work in 18 minutes!) The next day I brought a water bottle and a fruit twist for Luke to eat if we got to the top with out any complaining. We got there in 20 minutes with no stopping. Since then, I have forgotten the snack twice and we have had some complaining here and there.

Here is an excerpt from our conversation on the way there yesterday:
Luke: (After going really fast for a while) I need to stop and push my bike.
Me: Well, what you need to do is focus on pacing yourself. Pacing yourself means regulating the speed at which you are traveling, so you find a speed that you can keep up for a long period of
Luke: I KNOW ALL THAT ALREADY
Megan: You know, when I am talking, and you already know what I am saying, a polite way to respond is “Yes Ma’am.” That way you communicate to me that you know what I am saying, and you get me to stop talking. But you do in a way that makes me think you are polite and then we are both happy.
Luke: (Silence)
**Time Passes**
Luke: This hill is really hard.
Me: When I have a bike ride that I do a lot that I find challenging, I like to break it up into sections in my mind. Then I can feel a sense of accomplishment after each section. For instance, I’d break this ride into 4 sections, one for each hill. The first section would start at our house and end
Luke: Yes Ma’am.

And then, interestingly, we had this conversation at dinner tonight:

Luke: Why do people get divorced?
Me: Some people are much happier when they live apart.
Luke: But you and Daddy aren’t going to get divorced?
Me: No
Dave: No, I would never be able to find anything if I couldn’t ask your mother where it is.
Me: Daddy and I love each other very much and we
Luke: Yes Ma’am.

>If That Doesn’t Work, Try Throwing Me Down The Stairs

>At least a year or so ago, Luke’s friends saw an America’s Funniest Home Videos episode about different ways to get that loose tooth out of your mouth, and they have been dying for a chance to try some of them out. And that is how Luke came to have one end of a string tied around his tooth and the other end tied to a hippity hop.

From May2009

Dave and I both find loose teeth to be sort of disgusting, so we had to leave all the string tying to our good friend.

From May2009

The plan was to throw the hippity hop down the stairs to the basement. It didn’t work, but between you and me, I think Luke was pushing the string off his tooth with his tongue at the last second. I came to that conclusion because in the video, you can hear, “You are pushing the string off your tooth with your tongue!” I’d share the video, but it’s just the back of everyone’s head as they crowd around to see the spectacle.

After a few tries, Luke said, “Hold onto the ball and throw me down the stairs.” That’s when I decided to stop the madness.

This all took place about 2 weeks ago, and I am happy to report that the tooth is finally out. This morning I noticed that the tooth appeared to be about 1/4 inch taller than the rest of Luke’s teeth. I think it was just resting on his gums because when he wiggled it with his tongue it just came out. Finally!

>The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

>According to Luke, Alexander didn’t have anything to complain about because at least he didn’t end up in the emergency room. But the way I see it, if you fall out of a tree and end up the E.R., but it turns out you just have a (Pause because Jack is throwing up. And… I’m back.) bruise and a flesh wound, then hey, it’s a good day. Well, that’s what I was going to say before I cleaned up a bunch of vomit.

What happened? Luke fell out of an apple tree and landed on a stump or something. I had my back to the tree, so I didn’t see it, and that seemed to make the nurse think I was a terrible mother. Luke wished Aunt Beth was a nurse at the hospital and I did too! He got the wind knocked out of him when he fell and he was pretty scared and upset, and he said it hurt to breathe. So off we went. X-Rays showed that everything was fine. I had imagined canceling the whole summer of camp and swimming lessons and soccer and just laying around healing, but instead they said to take it easy for a few days, and no tree climbing for 6-7 days at least. Totally doable!

As for Jack, I think we’ll have to see how the rest of the night goes! Wish us luck!

>Last Day of Kindergarten

>So many boring details about my life so little time to post. Consider yourself spared!

I did shed a tear or two on Luke’s last day of kindergarten. It seems like the first day was just yesterday! I put him in the same shirt for the last day of school, but we had to go with a different pair of shorts, because he actually grew out of a pair of shorts for the first time ever.

Speaking of how Luke never grows out of shorts, I put Jack in a pair of 18 months shorts and I thought to myself, “Hmm. I think Luke wore these until he was four. For some reason I don’t see that happening with Jack.”

And then, as I was digging through the unfolded clean clothes pile for shorts for Luke, I decided to play a joke on Luke and I handed him a pair of Jack’s pants (size 12 months) to wear instead. He didn’t notice. I had to tell him.

I wish I could link to a picture of him wearing these pants 5 years ago, but they aren’t really that cute, so the only picture I have is on a Christmas ornament that the daycare made.

>Books For Sale!

>Luke has been writing books lately. He wrote an Underdog comic, and a book about Wdir Sports. (“Does water have an A in it? On no!”) And today he made a big announcement! Luke will be selling chapter books for $1.00 and non-chapter books for 2 quarters. I got really excited and offered to set him up an Etsy shop and Dave said he’d get him a PayPal account. However, he said he’d rather have people just come to our house and give him dollars in person. But Dave suggested selling prints of his artwork too, and maybe we just figured out how to pay for college. And to think all this time, I have been gathering stacks of his work and just mailing it out!

Anyway, Luke said I should blog about his project in case there are any readers who like to read and who live close enough to stop by with a dollar. Some of the books are still being written, so start saving.

>Haircut

>It was Saturday Hair Cut Day at Casa de MetaMegan this past weekend. I wanted to take Before and After pictures for my blog, but I couldn’t find my camera, and the charger for my cell (camera) phone had been lost for weeks. Dave said if I used his camera phone, then he’d be the one to blog about it. Curses. I found my phone charger and my camera just minutes after they left, so all I really have is the After picture, and we’ll have to just imagine the Before. Luke’s choices were buzz cut or nothing, because he barely needed a haircut. He chose the buzz cut, probably just to get the free sucker and then yesterday he said he didn’t like how his hair feels like a fuzzy ball. But then again, he was also upset about having long eyelashes, and after he blew his nose for 5 minutes straight, he was really angry when I said, “Watch out, your brain might come out.”

But look how cute they are, post haircut!

The trend in Boulder is a shaggy haired look for boys, but Dave and I have, thus far, been able to steer clear of that trend. Don’t get me wrong, we are dirty hippies like the rest of this town, but I just don’t want to deal with tangles in my sons’ hair. (Aside – We cut up half a burrito at dinner the other night, and then became engrossed in adult conversation while the boys ate. Next thing we knew, the rest of Jack’s burrito had been ripped open and he had beans* all over his face. And the burrito was an empty shell. The waiter said to Jack, “Um, you have a little something on your face…” I said, “Don’t worry, it’s bath night.” And the waiter said, “And that is… once a week?” “No, twice a week!” “Oh, Ok.” )

But back to the haircuts, Jack was looking especially cute on the morning before his haircut. (You know when your hair is perfect, and you are almost tempted to cancel your appointment, but you know if you do, you’ll look like Medusa every day for the next month while you try to reschedule? What? No, that’s never happened to me.) Then I had the best idea when Dave asked me how I wanted Jack’s hair to look. So I ran to find my latest InStyle magazine and I tore out a picture and said, “Have his hair cut to look like this:

Wait, that isn’t a good example, I mean, it should look like this:


And do you know what Dave said? He said, “No.” And he said it sort of derisively. Just short of scorn. He said, “I am not getting his hair cut to look like that. That is what his hair looks like now. That is why I am taking him to get his hair cut.”

Hmm. Well. Now what am I supposed to do with that magazine picture? Hang it up in my locker? Well, just like C, N, S and B, I am not in high school anymore.** Would it be weird if I hung it up in my cube at work? Just kidding, I never ripped it out of the magazine. I couldn’t risk tearing it!


* I capitalized Bean at first. Sigh.
** Since I wasn’t able to impress anyone with my one degree of seperation from Gossip Girl, I’ll just assume no one gets this.

>Overheard at Casa de MetaMegan

>
Are you getting so, so tired of hearing about our fabulous vacation? Ok. I’ll take a break to tell you about this little conversation:

We left a lot of milk in the fridge before we left for Mexico (sorry – still talking about the vacation here) and when we got back I sniffed Jack’s milk and it seemed fine so I poured him a glass. Same for Luke’s milk. They drank it. The next day I poured a glass for Luke and decided I should taste it before I gave it to him.

Me: Aaaggh. Blah, ptoouey, yuck, yuck, yuck, gag, etc.
Luke: What’s wrong?
Me: This milk is disgusting!
Luke: I KNOW! It tasted like my fingers when they are really dirty!!