Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn

Luke didn't finish his dinner the other night. He ate everything except his salad. I didn't make him finish it because he said he was full. But then he wanted a treat. Our conversation went like this:

C: I think you're too full for a treat.

L: No, I'm not.

C: If you're too full for lettuce, you're too full for a treat.

L: But only the lettuce parts of my stomach are full.

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Yesterday I asked Luke to watch Pete and KEEP HIM SAFE while I took a quick shower. I put the baby gate up and got ready for the day. When I came out, both boys were at the kitchen table, heads bent over in concentration. On the table, there was a full cup of milk, with straw, and a 2-Liter bottle of raspberry soda.

Luke stood up with a sharp knife in his hand, and said, "I'm sorry I got this knife out."

Turns out, he had also retrieved a sharp pair of scissors. He wanted to mix the milk and raspberry drink together to see what it would taste like. He wasn't strong enough to unscrew the top, so he had gathered tools to do the job.

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Pete still wacks people on the head and pulls hair and bites and yells and he also screams and pounds on the door of the dressing room when I won't let him out to go walk around Target by himself (making another baby in the dressing room cry.)

As we walked through Target yesterday, Pete was yelling (not crying, just yelling) and everytime Luke would get close enough, Pete would try to pull his hair. Luke was a pretty good sport. He just copied me and kept telling Petey, "You're dangerous."

The other thing we say to Pete is, "Stop hittin' your money-maker!" Because he hits himself in the head to be funny.

Oh yeah, he also has a fake cry that we love. He cries and half-smiles and then looks out of the side of his eyes to see if I'm watching and if it's working. It's not, but it's entertaining.

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This is Luke at swim lessons this summer. He didn't want to jump off the diving board. I knelt down beside him and gave him a stirring peptalk. "I believe in you!" ("@%^&! I was eloquent!" Name that movie for a date with me.)

Anyway, I was eloquent and he was unmoved.

Then I said, "I'll buy you an ice cream cone if you jump off that diving board." He didn't even hesitate or have to think it over.

Me & Luke at the Silent Wings Museum.

Huck Finn--I mean--Pete. After black beans.

I am in love.

Where the High Seas Will Take You

Yesterday Luke said, "I'm Spy-Boy. Pete's Spy-Baby. And you're Spy-Mom."

Today, he had a rolled up piece of paper in each pocket (treasure maps) and a cardboard telescope. "We're the pirate family. Pete's Baby Pirate, I'm Pirate Brudder, you're Pirate Mommy. And my Daddy's Pirate Dad. He's-he's-we're on a pirate ship and he's on another pirate ship workin'."

The conversation continued: "We're sailin' to..." long pause.
I start to fill in destinations: Bermuda? The Carolinas? The South Pacific?

"No, no, we're sailin' to Ok-ah-homah."

(Oklahoma.)

Keep scrolling down for pictures. I'll post more of our Virginia trip later.

So, it's my Brag, I mean Blog, and I'll post what I want to.

Words L. has used appropriately:

familiar (as in, "That looks familiar to me.")

surface (while smoothing the sand at the playground, "to make a flat surface.")

predator (reading a book about ducks: the mother duck will hide her babies from enemies. "L, do you know what enemies are?" "They're other animals that would want to hurt you, ya know, like predators.")

dissertation ("Daddy has to work on his dissertation.")

realize ("I'm going to realize my full potential." Hee-hee, just kidding. More like, "I didn't realize that...")

Vocabulary SAT, my kid's gonna kick your trash. (I'm so eloquent, he must get it from me.)

But he's still my baby:

"Mommy did you buy night-night underwear at the store?"

"No."

"Did you forgot?"

I love how he still calls McDonald's, Mickle-Donald's, too.

These pictures were taken back in December. L & P (They sound like a utilities company) wrestling. P. in the tub. L & P with our good friends' baby girl, J.

It's hereditary.

He was kneeling beside the black folding chair, quietly coloring.

"L, you can't leave your markers strewn all over the carpet with the lids off."

"I'm an artist. Artists do that."


Notes:
His very own real desk was less than a yard away. He put the lids on the markers...after he saw the ring of blue around the baby's mouth and smeared on the baby's cheeks and shirt and light-grey sweatpants. Osh-Kosh-B'Gosh!

Your House is Definitely Cleaner than My House

Just to illustrate that sad state of my housekeeping:

4 y.o. L.: "What are we doing today?"
me: "We have to do some major cleaning."
L.: "Why? Who's coming over?"

Happy 4th Birthday, Kiddo!

L. turned 4 this past November. Happy Belated B-day, Buddy!

When he grows up, he wants to be a construction worker.

or a shoe model...just kidding.

Out our front door in jammies....at least he's clothed. When he's naked or in just underwear, he spreads his arms out proudly as if to say, "Look at me!"

Then, with a huge smile on his face, he says, "Do I look embarrassing?"

For his party we had a "Kids' Night at The Movies" with movie tickets for invitations.

We did pizza, pj's, and Disney's Robin Hood.

This one was a party-animal.

Walmart 911

As I loaded up the cart with apples, I believed that L. was drooling over the donuts. He wasn't. I turned around. I turned back around. He. was. gone. I looked and looked. I looked long enough that I asked for help. I closed my eyes right where I was standing, in the middle of Produce, and prayed. Then I asked the guy in the navy blue vest with the button name tag.

When we found L (on his way in to the arcade) I grabbed his little grey Texas Tech hoodie with one hand and covered my face with the other and BAWLED. You know, that heaving, silent cry. Then, surrounded by 5 or 6 Walmart employees, I knelt down, still crying, but able to speak.

"I was so frightened. I thought someone might have taken you away from me and never given you back. I was worried you were kidnapped. Please stay close to me. Don't wander away. I thought I might have lost you...."

Midflow, he said, "But I thought you might have been mama-grabbed."

TV Land

Me: I think you watch too much t.v.
L: No way! My brain's still workin'.

He'll be 4 in 2 weeks.