Nap time gimmicks

Luke has been a really good napper for most of his life (once we got past that thirty minute napping phase, which was terrible!). He has always been a very schedule-oriented child and is READY for his naps when they come. Since he's been down to only one nap, for almost a year now, he is definitely ready for naptime when it rolls around. He rarely gives me a hard time about going to sleep. Today, however, he fell asleep in the car on the way home from NCC around 11. This is probably because he's been an early riser ever since the time change and this morning he got up at 5:45 and never went back to sleep. So, he slept in the car for about 15 minutes and I woke him up when we got home. I knew that I'd have to wait a little later than usual to put him down because of that power nap. It worked out well, because I had to watch Evan and Lauren for a couple of hours while my mother-in-law went to the doctor and her office Christmas party. Evan and Lauren left around 1:30 and I put Luke down soon after. He fussed a little, but I just said, "night-night" and left the room. A few minutes later I hear him shouting, "Mommy, look at me! Mommy, look at me!" I didn't go up at first, but he continued to make noise. I went upstairs and walked into his room. He was standing up in his crib and had thrown his blankets out, which is what he usually does if he's refusing to go to sleep. But then I saw something else on the floor by his blankets that confused me for a second. It was something with the Batman signal on it. It looked a lot like the shirt I had put him in this morning - the same one he was wearing when I put him down for his nap. I looked up at him and, as my eyes adjusted to the dark, I realized he was shirtless. He had figured out how to take his shirt off - something I didn't know he knew how to do - and had thrown it on the floor...and then shouted for me to come look at him!

Funny Boy

Here are a couple of recent Luke stories that show his funny, yet smart side:

1. As most of you know, he LOVES all sports, especially the ones that involve balls. He is currently really into football. The other day we were riding in the car and Dave FM was on the radio, which is "the home of the Falcons". A commercial came on for the Falcons where they were playing a clip of Wes Durham, "the voice of the Falcons", calling a play from a past game. Within the first two seconds of the commercial being on, Luke said, "Football!" I have NO IDEA how he knew that. I don't think we've ever listened to a game on the radio, at least not this year. It was a little scary.

2. On the same note, if I tell Luke that daddy is at work, he says, "Football!" And I just say, "Yes, daddy does football at work."

3. I have yet to buy a full-length mirror since we moved into our house (over a year ago), though I have meant to get one. So, if I want to look at my whole outfit, I stand on the toilet in our bathroom, which is right next to the vanity, and just bend my knees a little bit to see from my head to my toes. I rarely ever do that. But, a few weeks ago, once I started to wear maternity clothes, I was unsure about one of my outfits, so I stood on the toilet and took a picture with my phone to send to my sister-in-law to get her opinion on it. A couple of weeks later, when I was getting out of the shower, Luke came in the bathroom, climbed up and stood on the toilet, looked in the mirror, and held up his hands to his face like he was taking a picture and said, "Cheese!"

4. Last Tuesday David was home because the school was closed due to the flood and Anna was here for the day. David did go to the school for a few hours in the middle of the day for football practice. Luke and Anna were playing in the living room and Luke was playing with one of his little guitars. Naturally, Anna then decided she wanted to play a guitar. I got one of the other ones for her, but when she pushed the buttons, there was very little sound and it was sluggish. I told her that the batteries must be dead, and we'd have to get Luke's daddy to put new batteries in when he got home from football. (I hate having to put batteries in the toys, because they all have those little bitty screws that hold the battery cover on. So it's a daddy job.) A few minutes later I looked over and Luke had opened the drawer in a table we have in the living room. We keep one of our short Christmas light extension cords in there and he had gotten it out and was trying to plug it into the back of the guitar with the dead batteries. I explained to him that the cord wouldn't work for the guitar, but I was very impressed with his inginuity. David said it must be because he hears us say that the battery is dead on the laptop and we need to get the power cord. Just goes to show, they're always watching and listening!

More on Luke

Luke is starting to really put several words together to form miniature sentences these days. It's amazing to hear him talk somewhat like a normal person! The other night, after we had gone to dinner with my dad, he suggested we get ice cream. My dad, Luke and I went to pick up the ice cream at Dairy Queen, since we had all come together in the same car and met David when he got off work. (Sidenote: Luke recognizes the Dairy Queen sign IMMEDIATELY everytime we drive past one and says, "ice cream!" over and over again. I don't know why that would be...) We got the ice cream and were taking it home to eat it, so, of course, Luke sat in the back and said over and over again, "ice cream, ice cream". We kept telling him he could have some when we got home. Finally, he declared, "I want ice cream"...plain as day. Dad just looked at me and said, "he said, 'I want ice cream'". That was his first real sentence, but he says a lot of three word sentences that all begin with, "I".

The other day we were on the back porch and he saw a dead flower and a leaf laying on the porch floor. He pointed to it and was saying "flower" and "leaf". Then he stood up and said, "I'll gig it." (I'll get it) He went and got his little broom and came over and started sweeping them towards the porch door. David said that before I got out there, he had swept some stuff out the door, so I guess Luke picked up on it and wanted to be like daddy!

Things I forgot

Here are a few things about Luke right now that I forgot to mention:

1. He loves Elmo. I always kind of hoped that my kids wouldn't like Elmo, but now that we do watch him ocassionally, I realize he isn't that bad. Hey, if it allows me to get a shower without Luke trying to climb in, I'm all for it!!

2. A few weeks ago I went to a consignment sale and bought a plastic bag of about 30+ cars. I wasn't sure if Luke would really be that intersted, but I figured I'd give it a shot. He LOVES them. He pretty much always has a couple with him, including taking one or two to bed at night. He still loves sports more than anything, but cars seem to be running a close second right now.

3. He's obsessed with the concept of "dark". I guess I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that it was dark when we walked into his room and ever since then he says it all the time when he walks into a dark room. In the morning, when he wakes up, he'll sit in his room and say over and over, "It's dark. It's dark".

4. He has started asking for a cracker every night when we put him in his crib. He did it one night and we went and got him one and it's happened every night since. Now we just take a couple upstairs with us when we go to put him down. Funny how they get in these little routines!

5. He can do a forward roll. He learned it last week, with very little instruction. I just helped him do it a couple of times and then he started flipping around the living room. He will do it without hesitation if you just ask him!

List of excuses

Here is my list of excuses of why I haven't written on my blog in almost 3 months:

1. It's summer and everything just seems so jumbled in the summer.
2. David and his dad built a deck on our house during the summer, at which time David was also having to go to football workouts a couple of times a day. Then, the school year started, as did actual football practice and David having to hire a baseball coach. So, I have had Luke all to myself pretty much 24/7 for the last few months, as well as watching the other children I watch. It's exhausting.
3. I'm pregnant. I've felt nauseous and tired, on top of having Luke by myself 24/7. When I do have a spare moment, I'm either asleep or vegged out in front of the TV, honestly. I've been very unproductive the last 2 months.

I could probably come up with a few others, but those are the biggies.

I'm sure most people who read this (if anyone even does anymore) already know that I'm pregnant, but if not, I am. I'm almost 12 weeks. I've felt generally nauseous off and on all day since about 6 weeks and had pretty bad food aversions. It's exactly like I felt with Luke, as far as I can remember, only it lasts longer through the day this time. I've been feeling better the last few days, so hopefully I'm through the worst of it. The baby is due March 24. We're excited and, of course, Luke has no concept of what's going on. He doesn't even really pay attention when we tell him there's a baby in mommy's tummy. It's probably too abstract for a 21 month old to grasp.

In other news, David and I took a trip to Miami, just the two of us, in July. It's the first trip we've been on without Luke. We had a great time sleeping in, taking our time at leisurely meals out, and just relaxing and enjoying each other's company. Our favorite part of the trip was renting a car and driving to Islamorada in the Keys for our last day. We used to go there with David's family at Christmas and have always loved it. We hadn't been there in about 6 years, but it was as great as we remembered.

After Luke had strep, he got a double ear infection, which he kept through several rounds of antibiotics. But, finally he shook all of the illnesses and he's been fine ever since. We did swim lessons for several weeks during the summer. "Lessons" should be taken at the most liberal meaning of the word. The fifteen year old girl basically just stood there in the pool, giving no instruction whatsoever, and watched us as we moved our toddlers around the pool. Fortunately, the class was very inexpensive and Luke did seem to enjoy himself, so it was a good experience overall.

He is still a hard-headed little thing, but seems to be testing us a little less. He's been going through a hitting phase, which he gets spanked and put in timeout for. He's not aggressive about it. It seems to be more of a release of tension when he gets upset about something. He doesn't do it hard and often stops himself in mid-swing. The best part is, I've been telling him that God didn't make our hands to hit and be ugly, but to do sweet things like blow kisses and pet animals and hug people. So now, when he hits, he immediately puts his arms around your neck and says, "hug". I have to keep from laughing and explain that hugging is sweet, but he's still in trouble for hitting.

He's talking more and more. He says a lot of two word phrases, like "mommy's car", "daddy's car", "big bug", "put it back". He can identify many different trucks and construction vehicles, as well as cranes and trains.

Today we were riding home from church and David and I were talking about something. Now, a little background...We love the movie Anchorman and have seen it more times than I would ever admit. In the movie, Ron Burgundy gets the news announcer guy to introduce his co-anchor as "Tits McGee" at the opening of the newscast. Well, several years ago, David, for some reason, put his own spin on it and started calling me "Boobs McGee", really, there's no explanation (that I can remember) for why this started. For anyone who knows him pretty well, this actually probably doesn't come as a big surprise. Ever since, that has been his nickname for me, but he usually just shortens it to "boobs" - lovely, I know. SO...Today on the way home from church, while we were talking, David says, "ya know, boobs?" and we hear from the backseat an energetic little voice say "Boobs!" We, of course, could do nothing but laugh, but I did suggest to David that we table that nickname for a while.

I'm sure there's so much more I'm forgetting, but I promise to update more often now that I'm feeling better.

Whew!

I haven't really blogged in a while and that's because life has been a little crazy. Luke turned 18 months on Saturday. At his well check on Monday we found out he's still around the 90th percentile of height, but he's crept up to about the 25th percentile in weight! We also found out he had strep throat. This is the first time he's ever been diagnosed with an actual concrete diagnosis that they could give us an antibiotic for. As Dr. Clements said, he's been disgustingly healthy!! I was glad we found out he was sick, but it was a pretty inconvenient time for sickness, seeing as how his new cousin, Lauren, was being born via planned C-section just a few hours after his appointment. I was very disappointed, because I was planning on being at the hospital for her arrival. It worked out fine, though. Luke and I laid low on Monday and I got a lot done. He, of course, acted completely fine and like himself, but we stayed in anyway. Himself, by the way, is crazy and dynamic these days. He has discovered this low, growly voice that he uses while he jabbers as he plays. He also picked up a lovely habit from yours truly of making a throaty kind of noise when he's upset or frustrated. Wonderful, I know! He's also started saying a lot of new words, just from hearing them one time. On Monday I said we were going to the doctor, and the rest of the morning he walked around saying "doc-tew". He says car, blueberry, and a lot of random words that he just hears and says at that moment. So, we're watching what we say over here at the Dorsey household. This weekend I said something about something being dumb, and plain as day Luke said "dumb". David just looked at me and said, "niiice", with a disaproving look.


I did get to go see Lauren yesterday. She's soooo precious! She weighed 8 lbs and 2 oz, so she's got big, fluffy cheeks. Her mouth looks just like Luke's when he was born, obviously a Dorsey trait.


We've also been spending a lot of time playing in the back yard or on the back porch with buckets of water. I give the kids some cups and old bottles without their tops and it entertains them for a long time. Luke's other new love is climbing. He climbs on EVERYTHING! He climbs on the chairs, the couch and his favorite is climbing on the outiside of the banister of our stairs. There are only four stairs that the banister goes up to and then the rest of the stairway is a wall, but he has those four mastered. I spend most of my time just trying to keep up with him and make sure he doesn't injure himself severly, since he's a little stunt man now!

In adult news, David and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary on Friday. I can't believe it's been five years!! We went down to Canoe and ate a fabulous dinner and then spent the night at my mom's apartment while she stayed at our house with Luke. It was great! She had champagne waiting for us and candy. She also had pre-made berry pancakes and set the coffee up, so we just had to warm them up and push "on" and we had an instant breakfast the next morning! It was sooooo wonderful!

Below are some pics...

I'm a writer again!

And not just on my own personal blog. I am now the official Atlanta Wedding Scene Examiner on the site Examiner.com. You can check it out and read the articles, if you're into weddings!