I'll do it!

Luke's favorite phrase of the week is "I'll do it!". He says it so many times that it has become one word... something like "allduit allduit allduit". I thought he was Mr. Independent before, but he's even more so now!

Grandma E also got him a monstrous Easter basket. We've had so much fun with the new markers, bubble blower, bathtub basketball, etc. And I've been putting little treats in his eggs each day so that when he comes home from school he goes through them again - he loves it!

His teacher sent me these pictures of him in the classroom:

Luke loves to sweep - I guess even the grass needed sweeping...


Looking at a book - he loves books!

Happy Easter!

Grammy came over with a MEGA Easter basket customized just for Luke! (minus all the candy, plus a fun puzzle book!)


Luke immediately went right for the ball and LuLu wanted to help him play with it...

Easter Egg Hunting

All ready to go with my little ducky easter basket! (which Mommy soon figures out is way too small for all the eggs we find)


Now who is this scary guy?
Mommy, do you see this giant bunny??

WOW - there are TREATS in these things!!

Here you go, Grammy, you can have all the treats...

Coloring a picture for Mommy...

MUST SEE VIDEO... Luke goes through all his eggs and takes out the treats to give to Grammy, then completely un-prompted, takes his basket of eggs and starts giving them back to the Easter bunny!!

Sleeping

All tuckered out after a morning at the Bark Park with Daddy....


Check out those loooong eye lashes...

enclosure

my own children enclose me with softness
scent of sweet milk from the late afternoon yawn laced with strawberry somethings dried to plush skin.......inquisitive eyes.......questions emerge in untamed sequences
seeking closure to a puzzle newly formed

I want to bury the bulbs of truth deep.....just enough and not too far apart
in hopes for a full bloom

I want to break that soil in their hearts hardened from late afternoon years
to fine plate sand so love is what frees them from disappointment and toil

~ Ingar Brunnett

Driving around

Luke loves to ride around on his Power Wheels. He can steer somewhat, but mostly just drives until he hits something then uses his feet to turn the car.

Today Luke went potty at school!! They regularly ask him to sit on the potty, but he finally relaxed enough to actually go. And he goes pretty much every time I ask him to at home, so we just try to stick to about a 30 minute potty break schedule since he can't actually hold back # 1 until he can get to the potty. He definitely lets me know when he needs to go # 2 by gleefully saying "poo poo" over and over again. Is it bad that the highlight of the day is when he does #2 on the potty??!! Ha!

Luke's vocabulary has finally taken off like a rocket - every day is a new word or two, including colors, nouns, verbs, and even adjectives like "hot". It is so wonderful to finally be able to communicate verbally with him! He's never had any problem getting what he wants, but it's like a lightbulb went off in his head that if he gives me a specific word I am much easier to boss around!!

I don't want you to take my picture!!

Luke would rather take the pictures himself than have his picture taken!

Here is a self portrait....

Luke's teacher asked me to make some very custom tablecloths for school. They have the outline of the plate, fork, spoon, and cup so the children can set the table themselves. What a clever idea!

Teacher conference

This week parents signed up for a 30-minute observation of the classroom, then we each had a 30-minute conference with the teachers today.

OBSERVATION DAY
Luke didn't notice me enter the classroom. He was very busy for about 10 minutes working on some puzzles. When he finally saw me he got upset - either that I wasn't supposed to be there, or why wasn't I there to take him home. But I did have a chance to observe all of the wonderful activities the children were doing. They were working on dressing and undressing and toileting. And the teacher did a language skill development activity where they passed around objects learning the names. The children were all quiet and well-behaved - it was like squirmy, yet somehow organized chaos. Most of them worked as a group, with Luke and Anna (the two youngest) working independently. The funniest thing was when a child dropped a very loud metal bowl, the entire room lit up with sporadic "uh oh"s .

The teacher later emailed me: "That was an interesting reaction we got from him when he noticed you in the room! I have noticed that Luke is very attuned to order in the classroom, and even small changes can upset him. I think that's why here acted the way he did to your presence. He had a fine rest of the morning."

CONFERENCE
Steve and I met with both Luke's teachers today. We got a "report" on each area of skills that they work on in the classroom. We discussed Luke's language skills - they said his receptive language is good - he responds well to instructions. And he learns new words quickly - he will point to objects when they say the word. And I have noticed in just the 3 weeks that he has been there that his spoken vocabulary has probably doubled (the cutest thing he says VERY expressively is "no waaaaay"). One interesting thing they told us was not to put pressure on him to come up with a word - don't point to things and ask what they are. They said to continue telling him words and asking him to point to objects that we name, then he will spontaneously repeat words, then he'll eventually start coming up with the words on his own.

They also noticed that Luke is much more quiet in the mornings and prefers to work independently on manipulatives, puzzles, language baskets, and watering plans (he's not much of a morning person - just like his Mommy!!) But after nap, he really starts to talk and do more physical activities - washing dishes, mopping, etc. Once when I picked him up, his teacher was playing guitar for them, and Luke was dancing and really enjoying it.

I know, I go on and on. My mom made me a sign: "Blogito ergo sum. I bog, therefore I am." LOL. I promise new pictures soon - I have avoided the camera since Luke has had such a runny nose. But he's better and maybe this weekend will be nice for pics. :)