Down the Rabbit Hole

Oh the wonderful things we can do with a toilet paper roll! What fun we can have with a simple piece of cardboard. Forget the fancy colorful plastic contraptions from expensive children's outlet malls. Give us a rock or a stick, or an ordinary sheet of paper and our imaginations will take us across galaxies, beyond time, through mysteries never pondered by the likes of humans. The most complex challenge of all: convincing Mom that without another bite of brownie the entire human race will be snuffed out like a candle.

Daddy's Shirt

Luke tried on a big boy shirt last night and it was obvious that he's just not a big boy. For now he's just a cute boy.


This is the way Luke talks on the phone. He picks up the receiver and says, "Hi!". The other day when Charity and the kids left he waved and said, "Bu-dye".

All Opposed to Strawberries, Say Nay

Nay.




Charity and her kids came over yesterday and helped cut strawberries for an hour. They took home 3 jars of jam (at my insistence). 35 jars and 5 more batches of strawberry jam to go.



Forgive me for being sick of strawberries. This is sweet peas all over again (if you don't know the story here is the reader's digest version: I wanted sweet peas for my wedding bouquet so we planted tons of sweet peas. Then the volunteers from the year before came up and we spent hours - HOURS - every day just cutting sweet pea flowers to keep them blooming until the wedding. By the time May 22nd came around I wasn't sure I wanted sweet peas in my wedding bouquet anymore). Just too much of a good thing. I finally finished cutting the tops off of all the strawberries this morning, and the rest of these berries are going in the freezer as they are. Maybe next year I'll have the nerve to make more jam with the frozen berries that are already cleaned and cut. Although I think we're not going to need jam again for a very long time.

I Can't Turn it Off

This is a sweet video of Luke pointing to my nose. I wanted to put a video up of Luke screaming, because there sure was a lot of crying yesterday. Nap times got messed up and then barely happened, and grumpiness set in with a vengeance. At first I thought, "it would be cruel to put up a video of Luke's crying". Then I thought, "But they get to turn it off whenever they want! I have to listen to it as long as it lasts". And I must admit I felt a little sorry for myself at that point. So you lucky duck - you get to turn it off.

Jam Jam Jam

Sorry I don't have a new picture of Luke today, but I put in this video from a few days ago. We went out for breakfast with grandma and then went grocery shopping to get the rest of the ingredients for jam. Derek has been begging for homemade strawberry jam for years, SO - today we are making strawberry jam! I have $72 worth of strawberries, a HUGE bag of sugar, and lots and lots of pectin. After I had cut the green tops off of one pail of strawberries I realized that to finish this jam I must remember that I love my husband very much. And he better love me.

Talking on the Phone

Luke is very good at saying, "Hi!" at appropriate times now, and his little voice is so high pitched and airy. Friday night at Harv and Helene's we were in the basement with the kids, playing with the plastic kitchen set and Luke picked up the phone, rolled the back of his wrist up to his ear so that the phone was in the crook of his arm, smiled and said, "Hi!". He was so proud of himself, and also sort of confused when grandma's voice didn't come back through the phone. When nobody returned his conversation he placed the phone back in its receiver.

These pictures are from Derek's grandma's birthday party in the park yesterday evening.

Video Bonanza

I only captured the Walter walk for a few seconds in each of these videos because Luke gets distracted by the video camera. Today we are going to do "Where's Luke's nose?" on video, so hold tight until monday.