The Genius Baby

Listen closely, Luke reads the book about the "duck". He says "duck" several times. He's just the smartest kid. This morning when we were playing in his bedroom on the floor he grabbed the "Snack Kiosk" from his Little People zoo set. It's got pictures of peanuts and carrots and seeds that the little people can buy to feed to the animals. He studied it for a few moments and then dug around in the box until he found the cart with the carrots and apples on it. He held them up side by side, looked at me and smiled. "Yes, both of those have food on them!"

He put the kiosk down, still holding the cart, and dug around in the box some more discarding several potential comparisons until he found the frog. He held them up together and smiled at me. "Yes! Both of those are green!"

Wednesday evening Luke and the men were sitting out on Harv and Helene's sun porch and I was inside with Helene and Jaime. Luke walked right over the the door and reached for the door knob! Derek was so proud of him. This morning when Luke and I were holed up in his room he did it again. Walked right over to the door and reached for the knob. He's not tall enough, and may not even be strong enough to turn it, but he knows that turning that knob would get him through the door! It's just amazing that his mind can follow a process like that!

Yesterday while Luke was napping I got the backyard seeded with grass, and got beans, green onions, two kinds of squash, and pumpkins seeded in the garden! It's so amazing to have things growing in the yard. It makes me so happy just thinking about it as I fall asleep at night. There is green outside my windows.

We picked up our new dining room table last night! Mexican pine. Rustic and charming. I love it. Luke's high chair looks like a throne with these high backs.

See his top teeth?

Sunshiney Day

I have no pictures yet...maybe later this evening I'll edit this post and add some pictures. Sorry!

It started out a bright sunshiney day at 5:45 am. The sun woke Luke up and we were all awake! He went back to sleep around 7:30 and is still sleeping at 10am. So much for trying to get back on our schedule. I'm going to have to keep him up until his afternoon nap after all this sleep!

I was going to go out and plant grass in the backyard today, but now the morning is nearly over (I have no idea how much longer Luke will sleep!), and as soon as Luke wakes up we have errands to run. We are totally out of milk, eggs, cheese, bread and butter. The basics.

Last night we went to look at a dining room table we saw advertised in Pembina Valley Online. We were looking because Luke has dumped our dining room chairs over on himself three times now, thankfully only once with painful consequences. Guests regularly tip the chairs over and our one-year old house bears numerous marks due to the disastrous tendencies these top heavy beasts have. We made an offer and are waiting to hear on it. I hope they take it! How nice to have a dining room set that doesn't tip over all the time. Most of the time we have the chairs pushed up against the walls, but Luke has figured out how to scoot them away from the wall and push them around until he grabs the wrong leg and "Man Down! Man Down!"

Wednesday Sweep

Luke is sweeping the floors now. He loves the broom. He loves the vacuum too, but I don't often let him play with it because once he was trying to pull himself up on it and it tipped over on him.

One of the Three tulips that survived the Winter is blooming today. Lonely tulip. Luke and I felt sorry for it, so we went out and sat with it for a while. We have color!

I also went to the doctor's office this morning. I had that crazy itchy hand thing again. Allergies. Mysterious allergies. Now I have to start writing down everything I've eaten or touched in the last twenty-four hours, and my family doctor will refer me to an allergist. Now my fingers are swollen to twice their normal size. Which is why I'm done typing now.

Do You Like My Hat?

No, I do not like your hat. Good-bye!

I heard my Mom's voice come out of my mouth the other day when I was reading Hop on Pop to Luke. It was the line, "Stop. You must not hop on Pop." I knew I was reading it with just exactly the same intonation my Mom read that same line to me when I was little.

Towel Cape

Luke loves bath time. He especially loves to sit in the tub while it's filling up and playing in the water coming from the spigot. Usually Derek turns on the water, I undress Luke in his bedroom and then set the little naked guy free. He goes straight for the tub, Derek plops him in, and the bath commences. After his bath he usually gets wrapped in a baby towel, Derek calls him "burrito baby", and he is carried into the bedroom to be diapered and dressed in jammies before nursing and going to sleep.

Last night we set the "burrito baby" free, and his tortilla became more of a cape. Now he's "Super Baby"!

For our anniversary, Harv and Helene watched Luke overnight on Saturday. Derek and I took the time away from Luke to go horseback riding! We drove out to the Pembina Valley to Medicine Line Ranch, and rode horses through the valley. It was a gorgeous day for riding, there were hardly any bugs, the sun was shining warm and there was a small cool breeze. Derek rode Poko, and I rode Bo. Bo was a great horse, and though he didn't want to make friends at first, halfway through the ride when we took a leg-stretcher, he was nuzzling me. Derek's horse wanted to run but was walking in the back of the line so kept tailgating me and Bo. Derek and I have wanted to go horseback riding since our honeymoon, but the stars have never aligned in our favor...until Saturday. It was so much fun. And now we are sore.

Luke had a good time on Saturday too. Harv and Helene took him uptown to run some errands and apparently he was just charming the hats off of everybody. The report was that he was very happy and pleasant to be around, and that he was quite good at entertaining himself as well as interacting with grandma and papa. He talked to himself for a few minutes at bedtime, and slept from 9pm to 7am without waking up. He only cried when Derek and I showed up Sunday morning just before nap time. He was overtired and smacked his chin into the coffee table.

Tomorrow or Wednesday I will have pictures of my vegetable garden! Derek tilled it and I put in a bunch of vegetables on Saturday morning. I'd have some pictures today, but it's raining and is too muddy to get out there.

Pitiful, Just Pitiful

Luke's shirt says, "Always Hungry". Normally that's true, but not the last few days while he's been sick.

If anything was ever pitiful, it's this sick boy. He's losing his voice and he sounds hoarse with his metallic cough. When he cries he squeaks like a teenager going through puberty. He gets so tired sometimes that he just lays down on his belly on the floor. If he doesn't show any signs of improvement today I will take him to the doctor tomorrow.

Today is Derek's and my 5th anniversary. Sometimes it's hard to believe it's been that long. And other times 5 years feel like 15. We've lived in 8 places in 5 years (some of them temporary while we were in the process of moving someplace else). Derek and I have both graduated from the programs we were in when we got married. We've both spent at least a year working full-time. We have moved to Canada, back to California, and back to Canada. We have gone from a King size mattress, to a Queen, to a Full (downsizing!). We have gone from a 500 sq ft apartment in Fresno(was it that much?) to owning a house that we rented out half of, to renting an 1100 sq ft apartment that we shared with 2 other adults and two dogs, to owning our very own home with wonderful space for gardening.

What else have we done in 5 years? I have started a new career as a photographer. We have both started the journey of parenthood. So much has happened in five years. I really don't feel like the same person as that girl who got married in her parent's back yard five years ago. It's been a wonderful five years. And a difficult five years. If I could do them over again I wouldn't. I'll just have another round of five!

It's Not Teeth

It's not his teeth. It's a cold. And now I've got it too. I can feel a tickle in the back of my throat and when I woke up this morning my eyes were all crusty. Luke went to bed at 8 last night, woke up at 6:30 again, nursed and went back to sleep. It's 9 now. Thirteen hours!

Part of me thinks I should wake him up so that he'll nap properly. But he's sick, and if he's sleeping so long I know he needs it, so I don't want to wake him. Boy, it's a good thing I haven't had anything planned these few days. His routine is all out of whack.

The other night on my drive home from Winnipeg I saw a deer cross the road way up ahead of me. It was dusk, that time when everything's hard to see because the dark things blend into the dark, and the bright things blend into the bright. So I slowed down a little and then thought, "That deer was way up ahead why are you slowing down? Deer don't often run around by themselves, that's why." So I slowed down even more. Moments later, perhaps even as this conversations was going on in my head, my peripheral vision caught something and before I knew it a second deer ran out in front of me. If I hadn't slowed down there is no question that I would have hit that second deer. It was inches away.

The whole rest of the drive I was tense, peering into the darkness beside the road for any sign of another deer. I was afraid that a deer was going to run across the road BEHIND an oncoming car and I wouldn't see it. Well, I guess it was my night for deer. Just past Carman, green lights sparkled just outside my headlights' reach. I turned on the brights and at least 8 deer shadows stretched menacingly across the ditch! I slowed and honked my horn, and the car coming towards me realized what I was doing and also slowed down. Just after I passed, a herd of deer crossed the road in the dark. In my rear view mirror I could see their profiles clopping across the road, silhouetted by the lights of a tractor out in the field seeding.

I wonder how many deer are hit by tractors every year?

Can't Believe The Sleep

It's 9:40 am. Luke went to bed last night at 8:30. He woke up at seven and cried for fifteen minutes, I nursed him thinking we would get up right away if he was going to stand at the corner of his crib and scream. He fell back to sleep while nursing and it's now almost 10 am. Normally 10 am would be nap-time. Poor baby, I think these teeth are really messing with the quality of his sleep. When I went in to nurse him this morning his nose was all stuffed up and he sounded how I imagine a teddy bear would sound if they could cry.

Here's some shots from my photography class field trip last night. I was playing with shutter speed in the ghost images. Two hours of shooting one of the most historic buildings in Winnipeg...so much fun! I promise I'll have some new ones of Luke for tomorrow's post! For now I am going to let him sleep.

Tuesdays = Long Days

The biggest news today is that my website is up! Check it out here: Laura Ann Thiessen Photography. and give me a little grace, it's still a work in progress.

Luke didn't sleep well last night. I'm blaming it on the teething. But I'm exhausted after being up four times in the night, and so is he, which is why he's sleeping so nicely now.

My to-do list is very long today. I have laundry, and meals, phone calls, errands, and thankfully Luke and I already hit the pharmacy and the grocery store. Because now we have to wait for the appliance repair-man to come take a look at our fifty year-old dryer, which is no longer heating. And I have one clean cloth diaper left! Let's pray he can fix it and I can dry the diapers.

This evening I am headed to Winnipeg again for my photography class. Today we are going on a field trip to the Legislature Building and taking architectural photos. Our assignment from the last week was to take abstract photographs of everyday things in our home. Here is what I've got so far.

Yoga Zebra

Luke is wearing his yoga zebra jammies today and he's so cuddly in them. They're just a little small, so he fits in them snugly, which makes for a great chubby thigh squeeze.

Today is a holiday here, so Derek is outside working on siding. Saturday he put in the ground trim for our deck, and we hauled rock back to lay on top of the weed screen. I also planted a few roses, and Luke got to ride in the wagon at the nursery (when I went to buy roses). And as you can see he got another ride in the afternoon, in Daddy's wheelbarrow!

Luke was pretty grumpy all day Saturday, and took LONG naps. He had a little bit of a fever and when he woke up from his naps his nose was runny. For now I am blaming it on his top front teeth. They've been taking forever to break through! But his left one is finally out, and I don't think the right one is far behind.

Yesterday Derek and Luke did Greek and Hebrew flashcards on the couch. Luke was very helpful, but got frustrated with how slow Derek was at getting some of them! I got the frustrated face on camera, at last! He pulls his hair, clamps his teeth together, closes his eyes and goes, "Da-da-da-da-da!"

First Steps

Here is another one of those things that is so normal for most people, but seems amazing and fresh when Luke does it! Last night he walked from the couch to the TV and back, and today he is off...there's no stopping him. Luke is Walking!

Lost on the Prairies

These are pictures from last week. This morning Luke and I ran out to get groceries first thing, so I didn't get a chance to take a new picture yet today.

They say that if your dog ran away on the prairies you could watch it run for three days. But yesterday Luke and I got lost on the prairies. There's actually a valley called the Pembina Valley, and we got into it and lost our way.

We were headed for the Pembina Hutterite Colony west of Morden. We got some directions that said to turn on a certain road and once you hit gravel it's just a bit further. So we turned on that road, hit gravel (which was actually an enormous mud hole!), and drove a way in. And a little more. And a little more. Where was this place supposed to be? Did I miss the sign?

I kept driving down this gravel road thinking, "A bit further" can mean different things to different people. Plus, I was afraid to try to turn around in the mud. Finally I came to a dead end. The road was closed up ahead due to the mud. I turned around and the first house I came to I stopped to ask directions.

"Whoa, you're really lost", was her reaction to my tale. Miles and miles and miles away the Hutterites were laughing. I'm sure they weren't laughing at me, because they're very polite people, but I sure felt silly. So I drove all the way back down the muddy gravel road, down the paved road, onto the highway, and 20 kilometers after that I was at the Hutterite Colony.

When I drove up there were kids playing in a field, but the rest of the place seemed totally dead. I parked in the first lot I came to and got out thinking I would knock on doors if I had to. I was not going to leave without my chickens now that I've been driving for an hour and a half!

As I was getting Luke out of the car a young boy came up to us. He couldn't speak, his toes were pointed in, he seemed to be double jointed, and he was real scrawny with his hair buzzed off and pointing in all directions. I asked about buying chickens and he nodded his head in an exaggerated way, grabbed my hand, and off we went. Down the garden stairs, across several court yards, into a dark building, down some more stairs into a smelly basement, past some cattle carcasses hanging from hooks, through banana boxes shouting "California" in yellow and blue, and finally we stood next to a man speaking German into a telephone next to a bloody meat shaver underneath a clock that was frozen at 10:24.

The man nodded at us and the boy made a sound like a seal. Finally the man got off the phone and said, "Good job Joseph! You knew I was here." Joseph had let go of my hand only when the man nodded at us, and my sweaty palm was shaken by the man and I asked about chicken. "Yes, yes. How many do you want?" "How many in your family?" And Joseph came out of a freezer carrying sausage and pickles. "No, Joseph. Don't bother the lady." But Joseph insisted I carry the sausage. So the man said, "I'll give it to you half-price. You try it and if you like it you come get more."

Joseph smiled and disappeared. The man carried my very own banana box full of chickens and sausage through the cold storage, up the stairs, across the courtyard, up the garden stairs, and put it in the trunk of my car. $40 got me six chickens, and a package of sausage! And I had such an adventure finding the place, and then following Joseph around, that I left without remembering I wanted to buy eggs, too.

Our little Soccer player

What do you think of our newest game? We walk all around the house kicking the ball. I usually narrate our game something like this, "Now Thiessen has the ball and is swinging wide around the island, dodging Sookie and Lightning McQueen, he takes his chance, he shoots, GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOal!!!" And then we run like mad around the dining room table with our hands in the air.

In other news, Luke has started drinking cow's milk. Last Thursday when Derek came into Winnipeg to have dinner with me and Luke, we went out to Applebee's and ordered Luke a macaroni and cheese kid's meal. It came with milk, so we decided to let him try it out and it was a hit.

Last night I counted as Luke walked across the living room floor: 9 steps!

Just the other day the City of Winkler planted a crabapple tree in our front yard. Then Derek came home yesterday all depressed saying he felt like the house was never going to be finished. So I was inspired. I made a few phone calls to make sure everything would be okay even with the frost, and this morning as soon as Luke goes down for his nap I am heading out to plant grass! Surprise, Derek!

First Kiss

Last week Luke gave me his first real kiss. He puckered up and leaned in and put his lips on mine. It was so sweet. Ever since then I've been begging for another one, but he won't give me one. He leans in with a big slobbery tongue hanging out and I say, "no, do it like this", and he refuses. I guess he missed me enough last week to give me a dry kiss. This week he's like, "enough already!"

Luke took four steps the other day. When he walks holding my fingers he steps out so confidently, and he only falls because he's still hanging onto my hand when I stop walking and he keeps going. Any day now he's going to take off. And boy am I frightened. The kitchen cabinets aren't all locked yet, so I'm spending large parts of my day refolding table cloths, and picking up tupperware. I'd be okay if he stayed on all fours a little while longer.

New Pitch

Luke has found a new talking pitch. Instead of doing his high little chatter, he is fluctuating his voice. It's one of the sweetest little sounds. The first video is Luke's progress with sign language. "More" is one that he gets, most of the time. Last night he would only say more after I gave him a bite, and this morning he only said it when I helped him. The second video is of Luke playing and talking to his toys. He chatters a lot in his new-found deep voice.

A story from last week:
Luke wasn't too upset when I left each day in the morning, but if I was gone until his bedtime in the evening he crawled over to the door, banged his head against it crying, "Da-da Da-da". Isn't that pitiful?

Welcome Back

*Luke is happy to be home in his own cupboards. Derek got a lot of siding done while we were gone!

Here we are again, in our own beds, in our own home. We are happy to be home. However, it was nice to have other people making food for me all week, taking care of Luke (putting up with a grumpy Luke). This morning was rough for me. The dog was whining and the baby was grumpy. I have a huge list of things to do, but there's no way any of it's happening when I can't leave Luke to play on his own. So finally I gave up trying to get things done and decided to take everyone for a walk. Normally walks are happy times.

We got two blocks down the road and I realized I hadn't eaten anything yet. And Sookie had diarrhea. Half-way into the walk Luke started to scream. But I was on the path already and it's a loop, so I had to go ahead or go back, and either way it was quite a long walk already. By the time we got home I was nearly a basket-case. I very seriously considered leaving Sookie off her leash and letting her fend with the traffic herself.

Luke is asleep now, and I'm going to go get something to eat. Hopefully I can do some dishes and clean up from the party we had yesterday for Mother's day while Luke is still sleeping. I'd also like to make a few phone calls, read my book and sit in the beautiful sunshine. (I don't even want to tell you that it snowed on Saturday, but since it's so beautiful today it's not so scary to talk about the snow)

The most important thing to get done today is color-balancing my photos from last week. I have to take them into Winnipeg tomorrow before my photography class. It was a really fun week for me. The poetry class was AMAZING. And I got so many good photos! I think Luke had fun too, but he was sort of confused and over-tired most of the time. Plus he's got a tooth that is JUST about out, and has been making him uncomfortable.

Here's a poem of my own that we edited in workshop last week (for some reason I can't get the line spacing right, but you get the idea):

Dead Goose on the Side of the Road, It's Mate Remaining

severed communion
fractured Self
a
lone
goose
crying
where?
where can i go?
the sky is empty
life
less on the ground
flightless
without You

(gone is We, Us,
alone is
i)

Dinner on the Floor

Jolene's dining room table is Japanese style, so all of our meals have been eaten on cushions on the floor. All of our meals have been delicious, too! Is her cooking just incredibly delicious, or is my shorter perspective making everything taste better?

This evening our friend Sarah came over for dinner and it was SO nice to sit on the floor and eat and visit. Luke loves that we are sitting on the floor and he can be eye level with us. It's true that I had to run out and photograph a reading at CMU just after dessert, and by the time I came back all the adults were sitting on the couch again. But still, our time on the floor, so far, has been delightful.

Bob Marley

It's only Tuesday, but I feel like it should be Friday already. I am running around like a chicken...and you know the rest. There is so much film-friendly action happening around me that my camera is constantly attached to my face, and to top off my rushed feeling my professor is crazy about assignments and handouts and I am always dropping stacks of papers filled with my chicken scratch and other people's comments and the prof's notes. It's insane and I feel disorganized and oddly energized by it all. It's a week-long adrenaline rush.

I don't have time to upload any pictures, I am off to my photography class (from 7-10pm). But I thought I'd tell you a cute story (of which there are MANY!) about Luke. Jolene was dancing with him, listening to Bob Marley trying to put him to sleep. Luke was holding tightly to these little magnet bar toys, and wouldn't let Jolene put them away. The problem was that when Luke finally did fall asleep in Jolene's arms, he dropped the magnetic toys and they clattered on the floor waking him up again! He cried until Jolene put the toys back in his hand and he fell asleep in his play pen with the toys clutched tight in his fist.

more later. We are having a great time!

He Knows How to Have a Good Time

Cameryn, Jaime and Roehn came over yesterday afternoon for "coffee". No coffee was had, which is why it's in quotes. We did however, eat these delicious Sour Cream Orange Buns! I am delighted with the likeness they bear to Gingerwood Lane's Orange Rolls. So so good. Click here for the recipe I used: YUM!


Cammy would have dragged Luke all over the house if he was walking on his own. She kept grabbing his hand and saying, "Come 'Ruke!" Instead, he held onto the back of the race car and she drove up and down the hallway, with Luke practically running to catch up. Luke just loves playing with Cameryn.


Every time Cameryn laughed (at him, or anything else), Luke broke out into peals of the most beautiful laughter. I could hardly keep the camera straight because their laughter was contagious! Luke also does this funny little face: he scrunches up his nose and with his mouth open breathes real hard, almost a pant. This is one of his new excited expressions. I caught a little of it on another video, which I may post next week.

Speaking of next week, it is the week I am going to be in Winnipeg. I haven't yet decided if I will leave Sunday night or Monday morning. I have to be at CMU around 8:30, Monday morning. I am photographing the School of Writing, taking a poetry class, and starting my photography class! It will be a busy week, and I may not post every day, but I am hoping to post at least twice with updates on all the fun Luke is having with Jolene.

Well, I hear the little one stirring. Happy Friday! And welcome to May!