Luke the school boy

I had my reservations about signing Luke up for preschool. I like knowing his entire world and being part of all his learning experiences. I stay at home, and so extra childcare isn’t necessary. There are still several years for him to acclimate to a school setting before kindergarten – why rush the growing up when this stage is so sweet?

But after looking into it further, we grew more and more excited about the benefits of preschool for our precious little boy. Luke loves his friends but we rarely see them more than once a week. Getting to see friends twice a week and having teachers guide them as they play together is such a fun way for him to learn and grow. It gives Luke a new environment to explore which can be hard for me to achieve each day with Eleanor’s morning and afternoon naps. It reinforces lessons we’ve been working on at home: Bible stories, sharing, potty-training, etc. I was craving more one-on-one time with the sweet Ella-princess for playing baby-geared games and relishing the baby stage. Plus it would be nice to get a few chores done during her morning nap. I’ve also appreciated having a dependable time slot to schedule appointments or activities that are best done with only one child.

So I visited five different schools and we zeroed in on an aptly named institution – St. Luke Preschool and Kindergarten! Perhaps our goal for preschool is summarized in the school’s name? :) We signed Luke up for two mornings a week and after nearly two months of school, we’ve experienced many preschool rites of passage…

1. A school-wide field trip to McCall’s pumpkin patch. A parent chaperone was mandatory and Erik was able to take the morning off so we could all go together. I was glad he could come since this turned out to be our only chance for pumpkin harvest fun this year!

The corn pit was a favorite with both our kiddos:

Here Luke is scouting out the prime pumpkin to take home. He seems to still prefer the green pumpkins, which I quite like as well. (Check out last year’s visits here and here, more of this year’s pumpkin pics here.)

2.  A pertussis outbreak. (Whoop!) We didn’t catch it thankfully. We did receive a very serious notification call from the NM board of health though. I listened to the phone message while I was making dinner and thought the caller was announcing an Ebola outbreak in Luke’s class at first!

3. Halloween costume parade (fire fighter reprise, photos here)

4. Class photos, which I loved but Erik didn’t think we needed to order. We do have plenty of wonderful Luke faces, but I adored the series caught by the photographer. In the first one Luke wrinkles his nose and looks at the camera suspiciously. In the second he’s sitting very awkwardly as if trying to follow some sort of direction. And in the third his eyes are bugging out and he’s sticking his tongue up over his top lip like a crazy person! I wonder what the photographer said to elicit expression #3?? I love it though!

5. The problem child?  Back in September a birthday boy brought cupcakes in for Luke’s class. At the end of the day, I passed a number of normal-looking children and then found my blue-stained boy. It was clear that he’d been cleaned well but a bright aqua stain remained on his face, shirt, and hands from the blue icing. The next school day there was a notice announcing that birthdays would be celebrated differently from now on. Instead of cupcakes, there would be a song, a crown, and birthday children could bring their favorite book to be read during circle time. I wonder if Luke’s blue face was a reason for the policy reversal. I don’t serve him cupcakes at home either – too messy!

6. Next week we have another school staple – parent/teacher conferences! I can’t wait to ask lots of questions about what Luke is like during the school day. His accounts to me in the car just aren’t detailed enough!

I had a hard time dropping off our big boy at first, but from the beginning he’s jumped into playing with the other kids and listening to his teachers. He was a little reluctant and nervous about going the first few weeks but now he often asks hopefully: “Luke go school today?” Followed by the query: “people coming over?” He’s dismayed if the answers are a double negative!

Mommy the Patient

Train rides, dinosaur museums, and aquariums are frequented during Luke’s imaginative games with me. But his current favorite is  a clear front-runner. It’s an amalgamation of Luke’s experience being scratched by a cat that he was overly eager to greet and a Caillou episode (‘Caillou the Patient’). Luke’s game goes like this:

- First Luke is a nice cat who comes and gives his Mommy cat a kiss.

- Then he comes back announcing that he’s a bad cat! I scream and run but Luke catches me and scratches me (very gently in a pretend way of course).

- Luke rushes to get the ambulance (his ride-on fire truck) which he drives to the hospital (bathroom) with the wounded patient holding onto the back (and pushing the truck preferably).

- I sit on the stool in the hospital while Doctor Luke gets ready to help me. Without fail, the only wounded area is my knees. Doctor Luke starts the treatment by washing my knees carefully.

- Then he applies various medicines which are stored in the soap, shampoo and bubble bath bottles found around our bathtub. Most medicines are “not ouchy” but every once in a while I’m administered an “ouchy” one. And it stings!

- Finally, my treatment is completed with two band-aids. The doctor pronounces me “all better!” at last!

Usually the bad cat reappears and the cycle continues. But sometimes Luke gets scratched by the cat. He pages me and also calls “nurse!” (Eleanor). After treatment he tells me in the sweetest voice, “Thank you Mommy Doctor!”

Well, I better run… the bad cat is coming!!

World’s cutest Fire Brigade

Both Luke and Eleanor adore their ride-on pickup truck. Oh, the miles we’ve put on it racing back and forth in the backyard! The trusty pickup got a new identity this Halloween. Ready for action, it held the Fire Brigade!

Luke was the fearless chief.

With a heart-melting Dalmatian puppy as his sidekick!

Her ears proved a bit of a visibility challenge.

But they couldn’t conceal her cuteness!

Off they zoomed to save the day

And collect yummy treats!

Hope you had a happy Halloween! More pics of the chief and his pup here.

Nine months of Ella love

Our little Ellabelle’s zeal for life is contagious. She bounces herself up and down with delight throughout the day, overjoyed to see one of her parents smile at her, watch her brother run by, or spy an interesting toy. She and Luke play more and more, though her limitless delight in him has become a little more conditional. There are times now when she seems to have had enough of his wildness and prefers to look on at his antics from our arms.

Recent Milestones

So many milestones to report since I wrote in with our girlie’s seven month stats. Just after that post she started to crawl and has since picked up speed. She’s also a fairly confident ‘cruiser’ – moving around on two legs between furniture hand-holds. If we worked with her on it, I imagine we could coax her to take a step or two, as she often stands unsupported for a few seconds. But we’re in no hurry for the hazards of walking to begin!

We have worked with Ella on waving, clapping and (air) kissing, all of which she’ll do on request if you catch her in the right mood. Her first word was ‘mommy’ and now she also says ‘daddy’. Luke taught her to raise up her arms in response to the classic question: “How big is Eleanor? So big!”

Her two front bottom teeth are fully in place and for the past two nights it’s seemed that the top two are moving in to join them. We’re starting to give her a few table foods in addition to our pureed specialties. This morning she enjoyed bits of french toast and last night we let her chew on pizza crust!

Likes/Dislikes

It’s sad to report her first big fall! Luke managed to escape any really bad tumbles until just a few months ago. But Eleanor fell out of Luke’s ride-on truck onto the concrete when we left her with a babysitter, resulting in a purple bump on her forehead, a badly scraped nose, and a Mama with separation issues!

Sibling Report

She keeps constant tabs on what Luke is up to. More and more they enjoy their own form of gentle wrestling together on the floor. Lately though its escalation to injury-levels is just as often due to Eleanor’s aggression as it is to Luke’s! She commonly grabs his hair or ear and pulls, reveling in the reaction it evokes, and the hubbub as a parent jumps in to remove Luke before he’s tempted to push her in return.

The other day another child pointed to Eleanor and declared, “baby”. Luke was quick to correct, saying, “No, that’s Eleanor!” Luke seems to enjoy his sister more and more, but he has also grown more concerned about her duplo-destuction capacity. When she starts crawling toward his creations, he tells me, “Mommy, pick Eleanor UP!”

Routine

Now that Luke’s in preschool two mornings a week, I get to savor these fleeting baby days and focus on Eleanor in his absence. Instead of tagging along on Luke’s mixer truck rides, longing to tear apart the train track he’s making, and chasing him around the house, Eleanor gets to be the center of my attention for a little bit of baby-stage geared play.

At nine months, our little girl has now visited nine states (not counting airport layover stops). They are, in order of visit: NM, NC, VA, MD, CO, NH, CA, NV, NY. If we could keep this up she will have seen them all before she reaches Kindergarten! Everywhere she goes she spreads delight with her smiles and coos. She also has her serious moments when she sticks out her bottom lip in a little bit of a pout as she studies the world around her. You are irresistible in every way, our little Ella-light!

Like-a-Luna

We call her Luna for short. At times we sing the praises of Bella Luna, our dream home that we would so enjoy restoring to loveliness. In other moments we sigh about Luna-cy as we consider all the repair work that accompany this property. It brims with potential both good and bad. We’re trying to think realistically and pray humbly about whether or not this house would be a good match for our family. We’ll let you know what we decide!

We’ve also been traveling. I’m hoping to write in soon with a recap of our coast-to-coast adventures and updates on our two little lake-lovers. They’ve been growing fast!

Where the wild things are

I couldn’t indulge in an entire room of pink for our baby girl since she shares a space with her big brother. But injecting a little girlyness into the boy’s room turned kids’ room was only fair. I also rearranged the furnishings to fit each of their essentials in its modest 10x10 dimensions. How sweet it is when they fall asleep in their room together. Usually though, their time together is a little more wild.

I’d hoped to find time to snap a few more kid room pics, but as you can imagine, the room is usually in use during my spare moments! So rather than wait for all the stars to align and more photos to be taken, I thought I’d go ahead and post what I have from a few months back. These pics show the mostly-completed space only Luke managed to rumple a few things in between my final straightening and Erik’s photo-taking! (:

This is the view from one corner, with Ella-belle’s crib and a peek of Luke’s bed. I love the denim-like curtains that my mom found for me.

Here’s the Ella-girl’s bed in full view. I think the simple white crib skirt and bumpers were just the ticket here. They aren’t too busy for a little room and are easy to liven up with a printed sheet.

My favorite thing though is the gorgeous quilt at the foot of her crib. What a treasure!

The picture above her bed was an easy little project. I just punched heart-shaped holes in white paper, taped colored paper behind the hearts, and popped it in a frame.

You may remember Ellie’s dresser from way back here. For $15, it came to us like this (with the other drawers).

After a coat or two of white paint and new hardware it was Ella-ready!

And here’s a zoomed-out shot of the room’s feminine side. Beside the dresser is a clip like the ones in our hallway for Luke’s artwork. In here it holds a ribbon of girly-girl hair bows.

Now let’s check out Luke’s side of the room. I chose this Craig’s List toddler bed because it’s a similar wood tone to the crib, which traveled to Albuquerque tied on top of our station wagon. Can you believe that giant Uncle Jack and Uncle Sam slept in that crib at one time?

The bookcase, also from Craig’s List, mirrors the tall narrow shape of Eleanor’s dresser. The two boxes on top are to archive Luke and Eleanor’s artwork after it comes down from display in the hall. No, Eleanor hasn’t made any wall-worthy art yet, I’m just thinking ahead. (:

And finally, between the closet door and the entry door, we have another dresser and another Babar print. The print’s hot air balloons tie into Albuquerque’s renowned fiesta. The other Babar print’s airplane is appropriate too, since many planes pass overhead coming and going from the ABQ Sunport. The dresser came from JCPenney clearance online since I wanted to find one with deep drawers that matched the wall width well.

There you have it, our compact little nursery for two. I’ll leave you with the sleepiest picture I could find of the two of them. A flashback to January!

Backtrack to Denver

Only in dire circumstances do I drive on steep, windy, narrow mountian roads. So of course I saved a trip up the Mount Evans Scenic Byway for Erik’s day off from his Denver conference. He grew up in the mountains and is unfazed by a dizzying drop inches from our vehicle’s wheels. Unfortunately, Luke is neither a sure-steerer or a seat-gripper. He throws up on windy roads. But the DVD player seems to help.

After just one emergency stop, we made it to Summit Lake and piled out. This cascade of turquoise lakes was just a short walk from the parking lot. We tried to catch up to a mountain goat that we’d spied ahead but missed him. Those mountain goats know how to pick their real estate don’t they?

Then we walked back to Summit Lake and peered in its clear snowmelt waters.

Don’t fall in Luke! (of course he did)

We didn’t make it to the tip-top of the Byway. But Summit Lake, at nearly 13,000 feet high, is a destination in its own right. It was hard to believe that the pristine wilderness and chilly temps here were just an hour and a half drive from Denver!

We enjoyed a nice dinner in quaint Idaho Springs, at the base of the road up to Mount Evans. Luke admired their antique mining cars.

And he was smitten by their old steam locomotive.

He would have worked on revving it back up all night if the bedtime enforcers hadn’t torn him away.

Of course Ella-belle wanted to get out and show him how to drive it. But I kept her warm instead.

What a happy train-lover boy!