August 20, 2013

This just in: Luke loves dirt and water.  He'll splash in any mud puddle, dog bowl, or rain-filled you-name-it.  Levi and I pulled the dying squash and zucchini plants on Friday and cleaned out the gardens, leaving only tomatoes and watermelons now.  It's quite a switch.  I watered the tomatoes in the late afternoon and Luke pretty much dove right under the shower to play in the mud, eat the mud, spread the mud around...it was quite a sight.

Levi LOVES working on his "farm" (he came up with that, not me!).  He hops right up into the tomato plants, darts in and out around the beans (in the back bed), and picks cherry tomatoes and stuffs them in his mouth.  I love letting him just play around in the dirt with his bare feet.  Dirt is healthy and potentially healing, in addition to the fact that I'm less concerned about my garden being perfect and more loving the fact that it's a great tool for teaching the boys about life.

Luke outgrew his infant car seat (well, he didn't really outgrow it, technically, but when I feel like I'm stuffing my baby in a bucket, it's time to move up), so Matt installed the other Britax this weekend.  Luke really seemed to love being able to sit up more and see out the window.

We're on the letter "I" this week, finally finished up the letters of Levi's name!!! 

We walked to the library yesterday and checked out books on insects and iguanas and fire trucks (which clearly don't start with "I" but walking out without a fire truck book is high treason).  Levi's verse this week is Philippians 4:13 - I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.  He played with his bean bin and colored blocks, glued together his iguana "I", and played his new favorite game that he invented last week: "Garbage Truck."  To play garbage truck, he sits in a car seat base that is perched on a box, and I roar in (I think I'm actually the garbage truck) with a laundry basket, back up, lift the basket over my head the way the arms of the garbage truck lift the trash can, and dump a piece of "garbage" on him.  This is very academic, you see.  I'm crafty. I can play along with this.  Each piece of "garbage" has a required task.  If it's a shape, he has to tell me the shape.  Or color.  If it's a worksheet, he has to do a task with the worksheet: paint, cut, or color it.  He's not so eager to just up and color something, but if it's dumped on him like a piece of garbage, we're in business.

He really likes doing his foam craft letters.  Especially if it involves googly eyes!

Doing his "garbage truck" tasks.

He actually came up with this himself: plugging pipe cleaners into the holes of the pegboard-style wall in the basement.  I thought, huh, great fine motor activity!

I'm not usually one to post messy baby/food pictures, but Luke really does nail the messy meal.  This picture isn't actually that messy compared with how he usually is.  He refuses to wear a bib most of the time (he'll rip it off again and again and again) so I do end up changing his clothes sometimes three or four times a day.  I made calico beans last week and whoa baby, that was a HIT.  He's been chowing the leftovers ever since.

Partners in crime. Luke loves to climb.  Especially Levi's time-out chair. (It didn't start out as a time-out chair. It's a really cute chair that Aunt Lisa scored at an antique store before Levi was born.  It just serves the purpose well. So well, and so frequently, in fact, that it's permanently parked facing the corner of the living room.  Hm.)

Annnnnd.....Levi can pedal his tricycle now!!!  It just clicked yesterday!!!  He said, "Look! I'm riding my bike like Grampa Mark!!"  Yes, he has a helmet, and today I convinced him to wear it by telling him that Grandpa Mark never goes without a helmet.  It also helps that it's a Lightning McQueen helmet.