Daddo

Turns out I am "Daddo" and Derek is "Dadda". I just figured that out today. Not much to write about today. I am feeling rushed and tired with driving into Winnipeg. But I will get to see Jolene for dinner today, and last Tuesday I had dinner with Megan, so it's really been nice to go in early for that reason. I'm feeling a little depressed about making friends, joining a care group. There have been a lot of frustrations in the last few weeks. It's just so hard to get "In" in a small town. Everyone already has their routines, their friends, their ideas. But I keep trying, and in the meantime I get to have dinner with people who I have old, established friendships with.

This is my vegetable garden in the back corner of our lot. In the picture you can see the diagonal line we were going for from the corner of the deck into the vegetable garden. Someday there will be an arbor at the corner of the garden. Someday there will be a deck :) For now we have the bones. And I love going outside during Luke's nap and checking on my plants. Luke comes out with me lots too. He eats the weeds...he's better than a cow because he eats the weeds and doesn't leave big piles of poop all over the lawn. The big floppy dead-looking one is a rhubarb that we are keeping our fingers crossed will revive. Click on the picture to enlarge. The red cups are covering tomatoes (from the wind), and I have pumpkins, squash, beans, green and red bell pepper, a row of raspberries, sorrel and rhubarb out there too!

It's All About Books!

I filled Luke's hood up with blocks while he was sitting INSIDE the seat of the race car. He kept reaching behind him, over his head, around his waist, but his arms are too short! I was hysterical. Derek finally rescued him.


chocolate chip pancakes

Saturday Luke wandered down the hall to his bedroom by himself. I called out to him from the couch and a few minutes later I heard him step-step-stepping back up the hall. Shortly, he came into view holding the book "Teddy Bear". I praised him and he handed me the book. Before long he was back down the hall and he returned bearing, "Are You My Mother?". Then "I Spy", "ABCs", and "Whales". Finally he went to his room and returned carrying his green frog puppet, smiling like he won the lottery.

Watch: Right past the toy box, to the book!

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.