Reading Nook

Are you a book lover?  I am.  I love to find a good Christian fiction book, full of suspense, intrigue and a little romance…all the while enjoying the back story line that involves God and how he works in our lives.  I think that our baby girl is going to be the same way, if her brother will let her finish a book that is!

Our baby girl has been interested in books for the last 6 months or so.  She is now 15 months old and she will go get any book, sit down wherever she is and start looking through it.  Sometimes upside down, but she is turning pages and getting the idea…so I figure that is good…whether it is upside down or not.

Well, just like her mommy she likes to sit and enjoy her books without being disturbed.  That is hard to do when your brother constantly comes over and bats at your book or takes it away completely.  For Luke I think it is just his natural instinct that whatever sister has, he should have… since he does this with anything she has whether it is a book or a Lego.  But for our baby girl, when her brother takes a book it is the ultimate crime.  She screams louder than ever if Luke takes away her precious book. 

The other day she found the ultimate “reading nook”.  Want to guess?  It isn’t a chair or a corner like you might think.  When the Step 2 wagon we have, that is usually full of toys, is empty she will crawl in and sit down and start looking through her book!  I couldn’t help but laugh the first time I saw this. 

It is amazing but Luke tends to leave her alone when she is in the wagon.  Once and a while he’ll try to take away her book or books, but usually he will leave her alone…or even give her another book!  It is amazing what our kids come up with!

A tissue?

Ok, so last week I talked about toys that you would never think of as toys…like a box or the famous “pillow”.  Well, we have found another “toy”….a tissue….yes I said tissue.  Now it isn’t what you might think.  If you know Luke at all you are probably thinking he got a hold of a tissue and was doing one of two things; either eating one or trying to throw it.  Both ideas would be wrong in this case, he has tried to do both of those in the past.

The other night I was once again washing dishes and cleaning the kitchen after supper, when both kids start laughing really hard.  So I went to investigate, since you never know what “trouble” those two will get in to.  Well, this night they had an accomplice…their daddy.

I look around the corner and for some reason their daddy is taking a tissue and dropping it so that it looks like a parachute.  Of course both kids think this is hilarious…especially when the tissue would land on Luke’s head or touch either one of them!  It was definitely the “main entertainment” for the night.

A pillow?

Ok, as any other mom out there knows….some of the best toys for our kids are not things we buy in the stores.  There is the famous “box”, wooden spoons, or even pots and pans.  Our kids find the craziest things to play with sometimes.  The other day Luke and our baby girl proved this point yet again.

This day they fought over a pillow….yes a pillow.  Not just any pillow either, but one of those couch pillows.  This one came with our couch and so it matches the upholstery of the couch.  Anyway…Luke has showed interest in wrestling with one of these two pillows for the last six months or so.  He will often get one and attack it by trying to bite it or roll around with it on the floor.  The funny part is that this isn’t a small pillow; it is probably at least 18 inches square.  So when Luke is trying to wrestle this pillow he doesn’t always win.  Often the pillow is too heavy or awkward for him to handle for long.

Well the other day our baby girl decided she wanted to play with one of these pillows too.  So she gets it and takes off, and when I see her I can’t see her face or her upper body…so it looks like a walking pillow coming at me!  It was pretty funny.

Then Luke comes over and gets in on the action.  After all, playing with the pillow was his idea first…right?  So Luke tries to take the pillow away from his sister….and a pillow fight of sorts breaks out.  What was nice was that instead of crying when one sibling took the pillow from the other, both kids laughed instead.  It was a fun time!

Lights Out

What is it with certain objects that our kids just can’t get enough of.  When it comes to using our laptop, both Luke and our baby girl always try and reach it and push buttons.  When we watch TV, they both want the remotes.  When they see the phone on the end table, they fight over who will get it first.  I don’t know what is about certain things, but our kids have this inner sense almost like a homing beacon…no matter where I put the remotes, phone or laptop they seem to always find it and want it.

It is like that also with the light switch.  Before laying the kids down each night we get the kids together and pray with them.  One of our favorite spots to do this is on one of the dressers in Luke’s bedroom.  The dresser is right against the wall…and yes…right next to the light switch.  So we put both kids on the dresser while my husband and I hold on to them and we pray.  It keeps the kids happy and we are together.  Sometimes one kid is trying to reach around the other to get to the switch, so it gets fun.

When the kids are just on the floor they can’t reach the switches, even though I’ve seen them reach like they want to get it.  At least I thought they were both too short, until yesterday when Luke proved me wrong. 

I took Luke and our baby girl outside for a while after their afternoon naps.  It was so nice out, but both kids got a little dirty.  When we came inside I had Luke continue to use his walker and go up the ramp (that daddy and grandpa built) and go right inside the house.  Now, I haven’t let Luke loose with his walker in the house for a couple months.  But he has shown a better ability at controlling where he goes, so I let him loose last night.

Once I got both kids in the door, I told them both that we needed to go to the bathroom and wash our hands before I got supper together.  Amazingly Luke took off like a jet across the kitchen and his baby sister followed.  Once Luke got to the hallway though he stopped and I could tell he was pondering what to do next.  So I got our baby girl and led her down the hall to the bathroom and called to Luke all the while telling him to follow and come to the bathroom. 

While I was helping our baby girl wash her hands I could hear Luke screaming.  I figured he got stuck somehow when trying to turn his walker, since I couldn’t do anything to help him at that moment I just called to him and told him I would be right there and that he could back up and do it himself.

Well, the response I got to that was the lights going out in the hallway!  When that happened Luke’s screaming turned to laughter.  Once I got done helping our baby girl and we got into the hallway, I saw Luke holding on with one hand on his walker and the other stretched high reaching for the light switch again.

The silly little man!!  He’s getting so tall.  I’ll have to watch him closely when I let him loose with his walker again.  Who knows what he’ll get into.

And he scores!

I’ve mentioned before about the Little Tykes basketball hoop that Luke got for his birthday in December.  He has tried putting many objects in the hoop, including his little CAT truck.  Now Luke will actually try putting the ball in the hoop.  He is finally getting the idea!

Every once and a while, my husband or I will throw a ball into the hoop from across the room.  This always makes Luke laugh.  Well the other night he finally decided he wanted in on the action, so he got a ball and put it in the hoop too.  It was a great sight to see.

Of course our baby girl wasn’t about to be out done by her big brother, so she came along and got in on the action as well.  They started a little game.  First Luke would put a ball in, which usually got stuck because it is a little big, and then our baby girl would come along and either pull out the ball from the bottom or put another ball on top of the ball that was stuck and the force would usually push the bigger ball through.  Of course once the balls got through the hoop Luke and his sister would laugh.   It was very entertaining to watch.  I think they could of done this for hours.

Fetch

We had a dog for a while, she was a black lab and we took her in when my sister moved and they were unable to take the dog with them.  She was an outdoor dog, and we had to keep her tied up.  When I would let her loose she would go crazy and want to play.  We no longer have her.  We gave her to my parents (who live on a farm), the spring after Luke was born.  We didn’t have the time to play with her as we should, and now she has so much more room to play and run.  She seems very happy in her new home. 

I tell you all this because recently I have felt like we have a dog again, in a way.  Now I am not saying my children are dogs….they are not.  But, one of the games my husband has been playing with them lately is like the classic game of “fetch” that we used to play with our dog.

My husband has been trying to get Luke to do this for years, and usually Luke just looks at the ball and then looks at his daddy like there is no way he is playing this game.  Now with our baby girl, my husband has taught her to play “fetch”.  Yes….I said “fetch”. 

I was gone last Friday so that I could go to the Hearts at Home conference.  My husband took the day off to stay home with the kids.  Obviously they had a lot of fun, because on Saturday morning my husband said, “watch this.”  Sure enough, he threw the football across the room and our baby girl would go get it and then bring it back to her daddy.  I couldn’t believe it, I thought I was having flashbacks for a minute.  Surely my husband didn’t teach our baby girl to “fetch”!  But, she did this several times….so I soon realized I was not imagining things. 

Luke just sat and watched and waved his arm, signing “go”.  Of course, Luke also found this extremely funny.  So when daddy threw the football and his sister went after it, he laughed. 

Oh…what is a mother supposed to do?!  

Rocking Out

Luke loves to rock.  When he sits in our laps in the recliner he will often start rocking, which usually results in head-butting whomever is holding him.  This causes us to rock a little in the chair.  Once Luke starts this my husband or I will start “rocking out” with Luke.  We rock really hard in the recliner and Luke starts laughing.  He loves it!

When Luke was a baby we used to bounce on the ball or rock really fast in the recliner to calm him when he was upset.  He obviously still loves it.

One of his latest forms of “rocking” takes place when he eats.  Yes…I said while he eats.  It is beyond me how and why he does this.  Luke will get a bite to eat and then start rocking back and forth in his chair….or at least as much as he can “rock” in a chair that isn’t meant to rock.  Sometimes his “rocking” resembles a “head banger” at a rock concert.  Then sometimes he rocks so hard that the chair scoots across the floor.  When this happens Luke will completely crack up. 

My worry is that one day he will “rock” so hard he’ll break the chair.  Hopefully that never happens.  

The perfect trash can

Oh perfect trash can…where are you?  I’m sure I’m not the first parent of a toddler/preschooler to wonder about this.  Our old trash can had a simple lid that just lay on top of the can.  This worked great until Luke was 2 years old and was tall enough when he was up on his knees to get the lid off.  Then he started putting toys and juice cups in the trash.  We knew we had to find something better. 

Finally about 6 months ago we got another trash can.  This one has a special button that you push down to get the lid to pop up.  We were so excited…finally a trash can that can keep Luke out!!  I know it is strange to be excited about a trash can…but it is the small things that bring excitement when your kids are young…right? 

Anyway, we thought this was the perfect trash can…until recently.  Luke has figured out how to open the lid!!  So he will open the lid and put his juice cup in the trash or his toys…whatever is handy.  This is a very good OT skill…so I’m happy about that…but at the same time I’m thinking “NO…not again.”  So once again we are in search of the “perfect” trash can.  If we had a cabinet big enough I’m sure we would just put the trash can in there.  But we don’t. 

So for now we have put the trash can backwards.  What I mean is that we turned the trash can around so that it isn’t as easy for Luke to push the button.  The result is that the lid opens towards you now when you push the button….it is taking some getting used to.  But, it is keeping Luke out…for now anyway.  We’ll see how long that lasts.

Big helper

Luke is learning to be a good helper.  Of course his helping is limited to what he can do while crawling…but he manages to do quite a lot. Sometimes his “help” is more an inconvenience for mommy.  For example; Luke will help take all the clean laundry out of the basket, or take folded laundry and put it in  the basket (thereby unfolding it).  He will put clean diapers in the diaper pail with all the dirty diapers.  He will help clean the bathroom floor by dumping water on it while he is getting a bath.  He will get a hold of the remote and do something to the TV that takes a good hour to figure out and fix.  These are just a few of the wonderful “helpful” and yet not so helpful things Luke does around the house.

Other times he really does try to help in a good way.  Luke will often take a towel and make a wiping motion, which I believe is his way of helping clean surfaces.   He will do this on the refrigerator or oven door.  Sometimes he “cleans” the floor.  Just two nights ago he spilt daddy’s water on the recliner and when I was cleaning it up he got a towel and tried to help clean it up as well.

He also helps by giving his sister her juice or milk when she drops it on the floor and is still in her high chair.  He even helps clean up his toys at the end of the day by putting them all in his wagon or the toy basket.

One of the funniest ways he helped lately happened just this past week.  Our baby girl dropped her milk on the floor and by this time Luke was already done eating so he was crawling around the kitchen.  Instead of picking up his sister’s milk and handing it back to her, like he normally does, Luke took the milk and crawled across the room.  Where was he going?  The refrigerator of course!  Luke actually opened the fridge, took up his sister’s milk, and put it in the bottom shelf on the door.  It was like he knew that sister didn’t want any more right now and he was helping to save it for later.  It was pretty cute!

What is that noise?

Ok, I’m not sure if any other mom out there has encountered this unique trait in their child or not.  When Luke was a baby and I was sleep training him, he would scream for hours…literally.  Finally after three tough days he settled in to a pattern and would fall asleep on his own for me.  After that Luke started waking up screaming, and I read somewhere that you should instill a pattern where you never get your children up while screaming….when you know they are ok that is.  So that is what I did.  After a few more days Luke no longer screamed when I laid him down or when I got him up.

Instead of screaming to let me know he was awake by kicking.  When I say this I mean the kind of kick where you lay on your back, lift your legs in the air and then WAM….you let them fall as fast and as hard as you can.  At first I had no idea what it was that Luke was doing…in the middle of the night he would wake and “kick” but it sounded like thunder…so at first I really thought we were having a storm outside.  Finally I figured out that it was Luke.  Then one day I caught him in the act of “kicking” in his crib.  It was incredible to watch.  He got so much “air” under him as he did this and then would bounce a little after the “kick”.  Of course like everything else, Luke found this hilarious.  So it wasn’t long before the “thunder” was followed by loud giggles.

Luke still does this once and a while, he even does it on the floor and you can feel the room vibrate. He has tried it on the bathroom floor which wound up not being so funny, because we replaced the linoleum with tile….so you can imagine how Luke reacted the first time he tried that.  There were no giggles, just tears.

The last few months Luke has found another way to let me know he is awake.  Sometimes he still “kicks” but now he finds it funnier to “rock”.  Yes…I said “rock”.  I don’t mean that he started a music band or anything like that.  He will literally rock back and forth…causing the crib to rock and creak with him. Sometimes he “rocks” so hard that the crib hits the wall. He finds this extremely funny.

Just yesterday Luke was “rocking”  and when I went to go get him, I heard our baby girl wake up as well….and wouldn’t’ you know it?  She started “rocking” her crib too.  Only when I looked in she was doing it standing up….where as Luke likes to do it while sitting in his crib.  Sometimes Luke does it standing up though. 

What kind of big brother teaches his little sister to “rock out” in a crib?  They both find it so funny and all I can do is watch and laugh too.  Below you’ll find a couple videos to “visualize” this.  Since I couldn’t get both kids at once, I got Luke and then our baby girl…and if you listen carefully you can hear Luke “rocking” his crib when our baby girl stops.  It was almost like they were talking back and forth.

Improvising

When we take our kids places there isn’t always room for all the toys and things.  After all when your kids are young you take everything from a bath tub, to crib,s to bottles and bottle warmers.  So much stuff!!  With Luke we also take the walker and new stroller if we have room.

When it comes time to take everything in the car, we sometimes have to make executive decisions.  Do we really need to take the cribs?  Yes.  What about the food in the cooler for Luke?  Yes.  All the favorite toys?  No.  All daddy’s pillows, all 6 of them?  No.  Luke’s walker?  I guess not.

As I’ve mentioned before you can’t get Luke’s walker and stroller in the car at the same time without putting the walker in the front seat.  That also goes for when you have a trunk full of items.  So when the whole family goes for a few days somewhere and we take the car, we have to make the choice between mommy, daddy or the walker.  So often the walker loses out when we go on weekend trips.

We have learned to improvise when it comes to the walker.  Most places we go we don’t have a good substitute for the walker so we work on Luke’s one handed walking instead of his independent walking with the walker.  But, around Christmas time we did visit Luke’s great-grandma who has a kind of walker with one of those seats that allows her to turn around and sit when she is too tired to walk.  Well, Luke was interested in great-grandma’s walker…it was so different!  How did it work?  So Luke and daddy got started using great-grandma’s walker to walk around the house.  Luke was pretty happy about using this new cool walker for a few days.  We have to mix things up a little now and then, right?

Sharing

Well Luke and his baby sister continue to get better at sharing.  Our baby girl still gets REALLY upset when Luke takes a toy she has, but she is starting to be willing to share other things.  What surprised me was what they both have been wanting to share….food….yes I said food.

Anyone who has had the luxury of feeding Luke or our baby girl is probably as shocked by this as I was.  Luke is ALWAYS hungry and thirsty…it is part of who he is.  Our baby girl loves to eat, especially breads…but she also knows when she gets full.  So for either of them to give up food….wow….that is a BIG thing.

The first “sharing” of food happened when Luke reached over and gave his sister a piece of his pancake one morning.  I don’t know if he figured out how much she loves pancakes…or… if he was just playing around….but his sister was pretty happy. 

There have been other times where Luke will pick up cheerios, crackers, grapes…whatever is in front of him and he’ll reach over and put it on sister’s tray on her high chair.  Of course our baby girl is more than happy to have more food, so she’ll make some sound like “aahhhhttt” and then reach for the food offering. 

Although this means that mommy has to intercept quickly and give the food back…especially this last month or two where Luke or his sister have been sick.  I’ve had to put my foot down, “no sharing of food!!  But it was a very nice thought.”  Once again the “mean mommy” and “nice mommy” meet at the same time.  This happens a lot in the “mommy world” or at least in my “mommy world”.

Our baby girl won’t be outdone by her big brother.  No…she will try to reach out and give Luke various food items as well.  The biggest problem with this of course is that Luke has food allergies.  So our baby girl will often eat things that Luke can’t.  Thankfully she can’t reach Luke from her high chair when I am feeding them both.  The problem comes when Luke is done (because he eats much faster) and he is crawling on the floor and our baby girl will reach down and to the side with some kind of food to give Luke.  Crazy kids…I can’t take my eye off of them….they’re sneaky!

One adult and Two kids?

I’m sure I’m not the only one to take two young kids on a long trip, all by yourself.  With Luke being three and not walking on his own, and our baby girl of 15 months also not walking completely yet…presented quite a challenge.  Many of you also know some of the details of this trip…so I’m going to highlight on the “fun” parts.

One the way to Cleveland we went to my brother’s house in Canton, MI.  Who is normally 5 ½ hours away.  Well with two kids and on my own it took a little longer, 9 hours (did I mention we also encountered a snow storm?)  On the way home…..without a snow storm we made it in 7 hours…not too bad. 

Besides the snow storm on the way out to my brother’s, we stopped once for a diaper/potty break.  Mainly because I also needed to go and I wanted to make sure the diapers were changed at least once on this trip.  It was raining but let up a little when I stopped.  I figured we would go in to a local Burger King, change diapers, go pee and then go through the drive through for some lunch…all in one stop.  Well, the good news was that we were able to get the food and I was able to empty my bladder.  The bad news was that they had no diaper changing station.  Their larger handicapped stall also had an overflowing toilet…so water was all over the floor.  So when I went pee, I had to take Luke and his walker along with our baby girl and myself into a regular sized stall.  Without a changing station to strap our baby girl down to I had her also hold on to brother’s walker, and kept telling her to keep holding on (since she tends to go down to her knees quickly to crawl around).  It worked out…but I was quick.

I still had the dilemma of changing the kid’s diapers and the rain was picking up again.  I knew I couldn’t try to change the diapers in the car…with the rain and the only open seat being the driver’s seat…I knew that wouldn’t be a good combo.  So I got out the plastic diaper changing pad and placed it on a booth seat and changed both diapers.  An older lady kept staring at me, I was just waiting for her to come over and yell at me for being a horrible person to change diapers in public like that.  But when we left she gave me a little smile, like she completely understood.

Another fun moment was when I was feeding the kids.  Being on my own, I couldn’t waste time by stopping to feed the kids every time they were hungry.  So I hooked up a tray on both of their car seats.  This worked pretty well.  I would just grab some food and throw it on to their trays.  They were quick to tell me when they wanted more.  I would just throw some more food on their trays.  There were only two problems; one was when they ran out of juice and I had to find a place to pull over so I could fill up their cups (which were attached to straps so they couldn’t drop them…far anyway).  The other problem was Luke.  He found that if he put enough force behind it he could get his tray to pop off.  So a few times I had to pull over so I could reattach the tray before giving him more food.

At one point during our trip to my brother’s house we were stopped completely in traffic, from the bad snow/weather.  At this point I also had ice built up on my windshield wipers, so I got out and knocked off the ice and I also had to reattach Luke’s tray at this point so I could try to feed the kids some supper.  I think all the people around me thought I was nuts.  It was also getting dark…so I had to turn on the dome lights to see and get food out.  With the lights on I would dig around and find food and fill up juice cups, all while looking over my shoulder to see if traffic started to move again.  When it inched forward a little I would quickly turn around and move the car forward 30 feet, then put the car back in park while I went back to finding “supper” for the kids.

Our baby girl did try to help me out.  At one point when Luke was crying she reached over to offer him some of her food.  It was very nice of her.  Of course Luke took it and then threw it across the car.  Oh the fun times we had!!