All in a Day's Work

When you walk in the door the work begins...not even time to take off the boots!
The noodle has this weird security deal - he rubs his giraffe blanket's corner, and only on particular corner underneath his nose. Whatever floats your boat!
Breaking the rules...status quo.
Wore out.

Wildlife Park

We went to the wildlife rescue last weekend. It is real close to home and Luke is into lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my! We however, are not into mountain lions! The second enclosure was one with 14 mountain lions, or as they refer to them, pumas. As we approached, from the back corner the largest one in the cage began stalking in, literally crouched down, slow moving closer and closer, eyes wide with anticipation. James and I looked at each other to make sure we were both watching. And, just as we thought, that mountain lion was stalking our baby (Luke). Just as he got to the edge of the cage, Luke tripped over a rock and the mountain lion went in for the kill - he leaped up and, of course, was deflected by the cage, but nevertheless it was a bit unsettling! Colorado, New Mexico, and all other such states were immediately deleted from the places to go and see list. We asked the guide about it and he said that they stalked every time something smaller than them walked by and that it upset the parents every time. The workers were, however, pleased. To them it meant these animals that were rescued from homes were finally back to acting like wild animals should. It didn't make us feel any better to see his joy. After all, I sprayed a little weiner dog last week with bear spray because he came a little too close to Luke's stroller on a walk around the block...who knows what I would have done to a mountain lion!

Progress at the Hurst House

Just in case I haven't mentioned it a thousand times already, I am very, very tired. Who knew your body could operate on such little sleep day after day? Sam has a couple of times a day where she'll have an hour or two of uncomfortableness, restless and crying...and invariably they happen either at night or during Luke's nap time (which was planned to also be my nap time). I'm looking forward to her 2-month well baby just to see if this doc has any more ideas...the last thought it was probably gas, which I did too, but if that is the case then the gas relief drops are not providing any relief! By the way, although tired, I don't mind any extra time holdng her or soothing Luke's tired fits, I just wish they were happy all the time instead. Friends of ours just lost their son to cancer last week and I imgaine they would gladly stay up around the clock with a crying or whiny child just to savor one more moment with him...so, I know full-well that I am blessed with the kids right now and aim to enjoy as much of it as possible, as is.

Luke, though, is doing much better. He chose to hit and steal from a little girl in the nursery yesterday, as opposed to his sister. That works better for us. (Actually the little girl was the instigator, and Luke tried to be as diplomatic as he could before whacking her with the toy mop.) He was very sweet to Sam all day yesterday though with his much-practiced easy touches and kisses. He also never ceases to shock me with what he knows. He counted with the Count on Sesame Street yesterday, fingers and all. Two is his favorite, he sort of gets caught in a repetitive cycle when he gets there. Then he also knows some of his letters from playing so much with that crazy fridge phonics thing. Yesterday in the tub he took a stack of his spongy letters and with no prompting went through them calling out the ones he knew and singing the little ditty like the magnet (i.e. "X says ..., X says .., every letter makes a sound, X says...). Of course, besides the letter which was clearly the right one, the words were indecipherable, but the tune was right on. So, he knows H, X, Z, and O. He discarded about 5 others from his pile. I told James we have to dig out the dozen or so letters from under the stove and return to the fridge, otherwise, he'll only ever know half of his alphabet. That would be an embarrassment come the first day of Kindergarten.

Luke is in the stage where he is learning what fits in what, big verses small, etc. He thinks he fits in his play bin in this picture.
Always a crowd pleaser, Sesame Street, particularly Elmo's World. Other favorites are Baby Einstein's Baby Noah and My First Signs. Yesterday he saw for the first time, the All About John Deere video and was into it too.
The first signs of interest in thumb sucking illustrated here. She hasn't done it since, but still cute.