Soccer and the Zoo

Here are pictures from Luke's first two soccer games. It's alot of fun to go and cheer all the kids on, and it's not nearly as chaotic as I expected it to be. They are actually making improvements from week to week as well, so it's fun watching them learn the game. The league has this tunnel that all the kids run out of before each game, it has smoke and everything, and the parents line up and cheer. It's all very exciting. You see Luke with 2 of his buddies from church that are on his team. There are actually 2 other friends from church that are on his team too (5 of the 8 go to Altamesa!), but they weren't there yet, so I only had pictures of these 3 boys. They were so excited to be all dressed up in their soccer gear.

Next are the zoo pics. I have a zoo membership, so I go with the boys fairly often. I never think to take pictures though, so one day last week when it was so beautiful, I actually took my camera. We hadn't been to the zoo in a while because of winter, and we stayed a long time, much longer than usual (we usually just go for 1-2 hours), and had a great time. Despite their expressions in the pictures, they were really good and we enjoyed the day. Luke is pouting in the picture with the lions in the background because he didn't want me to take his picture. The lion on the ground is actually a lion cub, the lion had 4 cubs and they were all out that day; as you can see, they're not small cubs anymore, but they are definitely not the size of mama lion (unfortunately, I cut the top off too much, so you don't get a good view of mama lion lying on the rocks with another cub). The kangaroo, well, Luke just thought he needed to be on his back for the picture, so that's what he did. I couldn't get Ben to stand still long enough to get him in the shot. The others are in the penguin exhibit. It's indoors so it's kind of dark (and no, the water is not that green in person), and there is a glass that separates from the penguins, but they swim right up to the glass so you get to see them upclose. I got too much glare off the glass, so you can't see the penguins there real well. Ben did not want to sit still, he wanted me to hold him, so that's why he's crying in all the pictures. They played hard, as seen by the last picture. That's how we arrived home, and it's only about a 10-15 minute drive from the zoo to our house, they were pooped!

Easter

Here are some pictures from our Easter, it was alot of fun. Luke is all into it now, and understands it better. He understands the Easter bunny, but he also understands about Jesus dying on the cross for us. Ben is just old enough to participate, and that was fun too. We decorated eggs, and you see our finished products. And then the egg hunting. They were both excited to see their baskets, which had a few small toy items and a movie for each of them, and some candy that was too big to put inside an egg. Well, then you see Ben crying on the floor. That's because when he saw the candy in the basket, he would not stop crying until he got a piece. He just sat on the floor and cried. Finally, so he would participate, I put a small chocolate egg in his mouth (second picture of Ben), and then he was happy as could be and helped Luke get the rest of the eggs. What a stinker. The last two are the best, and only pictures we got of the boys dressed in their clothes for church Easter Sunday. They're humorous at least. Luke has a cheesy look on his face in the first one and Ben wouldn't put the toy hammer down. Second picture, Luke looks just as cheesy and Ben is crying because I took the hammer away to try to get a better picture. Oh, well. At least they make me laugh even if they're not the "best" pictures of them!

Luke's Birthday

So here are FINALLY some pictures from Luke's birthday (only a month later!). I included some of Luke playing with his presents, and several from the party itsself (it was at a local bounce house party place, I think Aaron had as much fun as Luke did!). I had to include the picture of Luke blowing out his birthday candles. Notice no cake-just ice cream sundaes. That's what he likes best anyway. The guy from The Jumping Party who was helping in the party room was very confused as to how we could sing happy birthday without a cake, but it turned out just fine. Even at Luke's four year check up, the doctor asked him if he had cake at his party, and Luke said, "No, I had birthday ice cream." That's my boy.

Fun random shots

Since I have TONS of pictures to put on here, and I finally got around to downloading them from our new camera, here are some various random shots of the family. More "themed" posts and pictures will be coming very soon. Most are pretty self-explanatory, but I'll comment on a few. Aaron took the pics of the boys playing outside. Ben loves sitting in that rocker, so I snapped a picture of him one morning. We both thought the shot of Luke on the swing was cute because he was just in his own little world playing. Ben climbing the ladder shows his little independent streak that is developing; he can climb the ladder up to the slide platform completely by himself now and he's quite proud to do it. And the one of him looking down at Aaron from the little clubhouse part was just too adorable. I took the one of him eating at breakfast because I was laughing at how dirty he was. He has to feed himself these days, and peanut butter and jelly toast is not eaten cleanly! I captured the cute grin amidst the jelly too, and that was an accomplishment. The last one of Luke and Aaron in bed says it all. Luke has always liked to get in bed with us in the mornings, and sometimes he'll go back to sleep. He gets very upset when he comes in our room and Aaron is already up and getting ready for work, because he likes to "sleep with daddy". This morning was actually Easter morning, and since we weren't in a huge rush, Aaron got back in bed with Luke so he could "sleep with daddy" for a few minutes before getting up. I wanted to take their picture because it was sweet, and Luke is about as much a morning person as I am, so there's your shot.... pretty appropriate actually.

Back on the horse, or bicycle

Well, happy to say that Luke is back on the bicycle. He wanted to ride his new bike every day the first week we got it, and then out of nowhere he refused to ride saying he didn't like his bike. Me, being the sympathetic mother that I am, forced him to ride his bike around the corner, to which he screamed in terror and cried the whole time saying, "I'm gonna fall, I'm going too fast" over and over. He didn't understand it's impossible to fall if you're not even pedaling and you have training wheels! Well, after 2 days of forced bicycle riding (who says only trained clinical psychologists are experts in exposure therapy!), with no falls mind you, he suddenly exclaimed that he did like his bike after all and have had 2 days of successful, happy bike riding at normal speeds. Yeah!!!

By the way, I promise birthday and soccer pictures are coming!

Just random

Well, I desperately need to post pictures, but I need to figure out how to download pics from our new camera, so it may be another week or so before that happens, so I'll just write a little about what's going on these days with us.

Luke just turned 4. We had a great party down at a bounce house party place. I believe Aaron had as much fun as Luke did. We did not have birthday cake, because Luke inherited my love of ice cream (although I do enjoy cake as well), we had birthday ice cream and Luke loved that. Luke is maddening and entertaining. He's so full of energy, and gets so excited over the simplest things, it's a joy to watch. Then he makes me want to pull my hair out because of how difficult he has to make everything. Nothing easy with this guy. But anyway, his developing awareness of things around him, and how he expresses things, constantly humor me. Two examples: For those who don't know, Aaron's mom died from cancer just over a year ago. We called her Pamma. Aaron's dad, "Nonni", has since remarried. Her name is Lynda, and she makes Randy happy and the grandkids have all taken to her very well, and we're happy to welcome her to the family. Well, Nonni and Lynda came down for Luke's birthday and we were all eating doughnuts for breakfast. Luke looked at Nonni and said," You had a good time with Pamma last year?" (these days, his reference to anything in the past is called "last year"). Randy replied, "I sure did." And Luke looked at him and said, "Yeah, but you got Lynda now, that right?" We had a good chuckle over this, it was a sweet exchange. Second example: One of Luke's good friends is Esther; her daddy Lloyd is black. Someone gave Luke a little figurine of Albert Pujols (who has dark skin) for Luke's birthday because they know how much Aaron loves the Cardinals and Pujols. This figurine is very lifelike, and as Luke looked at it, he suddenly pointed at the face and said, "He like Esther's daddy! They both have... they both... they got....... He's black!" It was so funny watching him search for the word to try to describe his skin color, and we got so tickled how he got so excited comparing him to Esther's daddy. The next day, Luke brought the figurine in to me and said, "What's his name?" I reminded him that it was Albert Pujols, and he looked at me and said, "Yeah, but I'll call him Lloyd!" (In case you're wondering, Lloyd and his wife Julia got a kick out of this story too.)

I've also been wondering what has possessed my child lately. Luke has been extremely emotional, and cries alot easier than he used to; that in itself I don't mind so much, because it's better than the raging fits he likes to throw (which we still see sometimes). But he's doing other things very out of character. I forced him to ride his bike tonight-exposure therapy I say-, which he LOVED the first week he had it and wanted to ride it everyday, but tonight he cried the whole time and screamed in a terrified voice, "I'm gonna fall, I'm going too fast!" and would barely go faster than a snail pace. What happened to my little daredevil speed demon? And at his last soccer practice, he ran off the field in tears during the scrimmage because he didn't get the ball every time it was kicked. At his first game, he didn't leave the field crying (he had been given many pep talks about not giving up), but he did leave the field early several times and didn't finish his time on the field. He really had no good reasons; once it was because he fell and got mud on his hands (he said he needed a shower- like he's ever cared about being dirty before!) and once he wanted a drink, and once he had no reason. What happened to my tireless energetic aggressive child!

Ben is growing and quickly changing from my little baby boy to a little toddler- makes me sad to say it! He's still quite the character, and his language skills are beginning to explode. He has quite a few little words, and he uses several signs regularly. He's too cute when he puts his thumb in his mouth and carries his little bear around, and he's developing some defense mechanisms against big brother that are quite annoying! He has this half yell/half growl he does anytime something doesn't go his way. Doesn't matter if he dropped a toy, Luke took it away, Luke hit him over the head with it, or if Ben just looked at something and it wasn't given to him immediately- same response. His teacher at school (he goes 2 days like Luke from 9-2) even commented one day on how he's got the yell down pat. Of course, she called it cute, I don't think it's quite so cute. But it's fun to watch them play, Ben follows Luke around and is going to be quite the pest of a little brother I think. I love to watch them interact, and it's amazing to see how different he is from his older brother (for better and for worse).

Anyway, lots of thoughts on my little men. I'll have pictures very soon, I promise!