November 30, 2011

Charlie had to attend a work event tonight, and for some reason I got the crazy idea to take all three of my little ones to Petsmart to get Cracker's nails clipped.  Cracker is a very low maintenance dog, until he leaves the house and then he becomes a total psycho.  Luckily the boys were both good and overall the outing went pretty smoothly.  Isaac thought it was the best thing in the world to have Cracker ride on his lap in the car and to hold Cracker's leash and walk him around the store.  

Luke was mesmerized by the fish tanks.  He has been sucking on his bottom lip a lot lately and making this funny face.  

November 29, 2011

Isaac seems to think that all of the baby toys belong to him, and is always snatching them away from Luke (not in a mean way, just because he wants to play with them too).  He tells me he is doing a "Baby Show" for Luke... whatever that is.  It usually involves lining all of the toys up in front of Luke on the ground, but tonight at dinner it was just swinging toys around in the air.  And as you can see, Luke is always delighted by the "Baby Shows." 

November 28, 2011

Each unit in our complex only gets one covered parking spot.  I usually leave it open for Charlie because when he gets home from work the uncovered spots are usually all filled up.  Unfortunately, those other parking spots are all underneath trees.  Trees with falling leaves... and falling gifts from the birds.  This is how lovely my windshield looked today.  

November 27, 2011

This morning we went to my cousin Roger's missionary farewell in Huntington Beach.  He's leaving in just a few weeks to serve a Spanish speaking mission in Tampa, FL.  After the meeting we went back to Karen & Brian's house for brunch and to visit with everyone.  Just a little before we left, Luke started crying like he was hurt.  I got back and calmed him down but then he screamed the entire drive home. 

After we got home I nursed him, changed him, etc. but he was still crying and I noticed that he wasn't moving his left arm and cried more every time I moved it.  I started to panic a little bit.  See Luke never really cries unless he is hungry or tired or maybe a little bored but even then it's just a little bit of fussing and he calms down right away as soon as he is taken care of.  So I knew something was wrong and it was scary.  We decided to take him to the urgent care.  By the time we got there he had stopped crying but was still not moving his left arm at all.  The doctor checked him out and wanted to do an x-ray, but after getting a second opinion they determined that it was probably just a sprain.  In fact, after they moved it around a bit he seemed to be in less pain.

Update - At his six month check-up I relayed the story to Dr. Baker, his pediatrician, and she told me that she thought it was probably nursemaid's elbow.  I think she's probably right because by the next day he was totally fine.

November 26, 2011

Today we went to Roger's Gardens in Newport Beach and then to lunch at El Ranchito in Corona Del Mar with our friend Naddia.  After walking around and seeing all of the gorgeous decorations, we got in line to see Santa Claus.  Isaac wanted to know where the reindeer were.  He was delighted with the little jingle bell and the mini candy cane from Santa.  

November 25, 2011

We decided to brave South Coast Plaza on Black Friday, but not until late afternoon.  Before leaving, Charlie needed to top off his engine oil.  Isaac thought this was pretty cool and was very curious about all of the engine parts.  Unfortunately neither Charlie nor I know much about auto mechanics.  Luckily Isaac was satisfied with a few of my made up answers about what everything does. 

November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!  We decided to stay home and celebrate with just our little family this year.  Here is the table just before we sat down to eat.  We had a turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, rolls, and pumpkin & pecan pie.  It was all delicious and we have lots of leftovers.

November 23, 2011

I put off doing the shopping for our Thanksgiving meal until today.  But then Isaac was off of school and I really didn't want to take both boys to the store because the carts at Sprouts are too small to fit them both in, and then Isaac runs away.  So I waited even longer and went in the evening after Charlie got home.  The store was a bit of a madhouse but I got everything that we needed (except for fresh sage which they were out of).

We also went to dinner tonight with our friends Melodie & Chris (the ones that got married in Virginia last month) who were in town for Thanksgiving.  I had the server snap a photo with my iphone, but it didn't really turn out.  We went to a place called Jack's in Dana Point.

November 22, 2011

Today I gave Luke some rice cereal for the first time.  It only took one bite for him to decide that he liked it.  A lot.  I thought it was super cute how he would open his little baby bird mouth and lean in for each bite.  He wanted to grab the spoon out of my hand and shove it in his mouth all by himself.  His darling embroidered bib was a gift from one of Charlie's sales reps at work.  

November 21, 2011

For our anniversary this year Charlie & I decided that our gift to ourselves would be a new bedding set.  Our six year old sheets were starting to get pretty worn out.  Bloomingdale's was having a big bed & bath sale this weekend so we went and picked out our new set.  Here it is all put together.  I am actually waiting for one more decorative pillow that I had to order online.  I think it's maybe a tad on the feminine side, but Charlie doesn't seem to mind.   

November 20, 2011

Today was the Primary program at church.  Isaac was supposed to recite the first Article of Faith with the rest of his Sunbeam class.   He was very excited about the idea of talking into the microphone, but getting him to sit still on the stand for 45 minutes was quite the challenge.  I was way in the back but I could see his poor teacher struggling with him, and then eventually Charlie went to go sit with him for the last little bit.  We bribed him with a new movie (Spooky Buddies - a Disney Halloween movie with talking dogs) if he was a good boy.  Here is a picture of the whole primary afterwards.  Of course Isaac is the one in front shooting at people with a stick.  

November 19, 2011

Today we drove out to Ontario because we wanted to do some shopping at the outlet mall.  We made a stop at Sonic for drinks and fries.  Whenever we go to Sonic Isaac wants to climb up in the front seat with us.  Charlie let him sit on his lap for awhile and pretend to drive the car.  He told me he was driving super fast but then the police were coming so he had to slow down.  Lately he is always begging us to please drive 100 mph.  

November 18, 2011

This morning my friend Amy from our ward called and asked if Isaac wanted to come over to play with her son Steve.  They live very close to us so we walked over and Isaac rode his bike.  When I picked him up we still had a little time before school so Isaac rode his bike out front for awhile.  He told me that he was wearing his "secret spy sunglasses" to look for bad guys.  

Isaac is really into "bad guys" lately and awhile ago he asked me where they all were.  I told him they were in jail.  Then he wanted to know where the jail was so I told him it was in Chino.  Today he begged me "Please Mom can I go to Chino?  Because I am really brave and I need to fight the bad guys."  Ha!  I had to hold back my laughter for that one.  

November 17, 2011

Tonight I went to a baby shower for my friend Andrea who is expecting a baby girl.  The dessert table was an impressive display of pink!  I'm not sure there will ever be anything so ruffly, pink, and girly in our house.  I had a pink chocolate covered Oreo.  I left both boys home with Charlie - it's one of the very few times I have ever left Luke, but everyone survived :) 

November 16, 2011

Today in karate class Isaac tested for a second black stripe on his belt.  He had to do a series of front kicks, side kicks, up blocks, down blocks, and kata.  He needed a lot of help from Sensei Wayne to get through everything, but he did it.  He got a certificate, a pretend medal, and another black stripe.  But what he was most excited about were the lovely flowered sunglasses that he picked from the treasure box.  

November 15, 2011

Tonight we went to Whole Foods so that we could buy an organic turkey for Thanksgiving next week.  Isaac was fascinated by the fresh whole fish.  He's recently started asking all kind of questions about meat and where it comes from.  Even though he is a huge animal lover, it surprisingly hasn't seemed to bother him to learn that we eat animals.  He just wants to know what happened to their eyes, feathers, tails, etc.  (And this information is for Karl & Janelle who brought us several pounds of fresh Alaskan halibut:  the fresh halibut at Whole Foods is $26/lb!)

November 14, 2011

Monday's are always laundry day.  I gave Luke some toys to play with on the bed while I was folding clothes, but he preferred to play with (and snack on) socks from the sock pile.  

November 13, 2011

I love it when Luke wakes up from his naps and I go in his room.  As soon as I get near enough to his crib for him to see me he gets a huge smile on his face and his arms and legs start shaking with excitement.  It is a great feeling to have someone be so delighted to see you.  He looked adorable for church today with his button down shirt, cardigan, corduroys, and little baby loafers.  

November 12, 2011

Here we are at the check-out at Trader Joe's.  It was raining outside so Isaac was excited to wear his rain boots.  He also has been wearing the hood up on his new shirt all day long.  I didn't realize he liked hoods so much!  And Luke is just his cute smiley little self.  

November 11, 2011

Tonight we went to our friends' Sam & Sherri's house to celebrate their daughter Vera's first birthday.  There were cupcakes for everyone, but that cake for Vera was just a little too tempting for the 4 and under crowd.  I think every kid at the party took a turn sticking their fingers in the frosting.  After Vera finished attacking her cake Isaac told me "Mom, that baby is really messy!"  

Another funny little thing from Isaac today: we were driving home from somewhere and the car in front of us was driving really terribly.  I was in a hurry and was getting quite irritated.  Then Isaac says to me "Mom, you need to just calm down."  (I tell him this all the time.)  "How about you just go around him?"  Good idea Isaac, good idea.  

November 10, 2011

I always lay Luke on the floor in Isaac's room while we clean up his room and get ready for bed at night.    I left to do something and when I came back Isaac had the lights all turned off and was showing Luke his helicopter with flashing lights and music.  Luke was totally mesmerized by the thing.  It was quite funny.  It was hard to get a picture with the lights off, but the flash didn't capture the moment quite right either.  Here's both pictures.   

November 9, 2011

We went to Sandy's house this afternoon.  Katie & Hailey are both fascinated by little Luke.  Katie was having fun showing him all of the baby toys.  When I had to change Luke's diaper, both girls pulled up little plastic chairs so they could sit and watch.  I just had to laugh at them.  But all it took was a little spit up for Katie to change her mind about Luke.  She looked absolutely horrified and moved clear across the room!  

November 8, 2011

Mr. Lukester is growing up way too fast.  He turned five months old this week and he is getting close to being able to sit up all on his own!  Right now he is still in the tri-pod phase and topples over after just a couple of seconds, but he seems to like the new view of the world being upright rather than rolling around on the ground.

And just in case anyone is interested, I also updated our family blog today.  

November 7, 2011

I was surprised to hear a package being dropped on our doorstep this afternoon.  I couldn't remember ordering anything recently.  I was even more surprised to see that it was from ProFlowers.  I was sure that it was a mistake until I saw my name on the box.  I did a favor for a friend last week and she sent me these flowers as a thank you.  Of course it was a nice surprise to receive flowers, but it was totally unnecessary.  It was really no trouble at all.  

November 6, 2011

We had fish for dinner tonight and somehow the conversation turned to discussing snakes that eat fish (because we have a 4 year old boy - otherwise I'm quite certain we would never think to even mention snakes at the dinner table).  Eventually Charlie and Isaac ended up watching YouTube videos of snakes eating fish.  Exciting stuff, let me tell you!  Also, I think it's funny that Isaac loves drinking Pellegrino.  I remember as a kid I thought that mineral water was the grossest thing ever.  He has quite the refined palate.  

November 5, 2011

Today was our six year wedding anniversary.  As you can see, we had a really romantic dinner this evening.  We went to El Torito Grill and the boys took turns screaming at us.  Charlie & I may have a little less - okay a lot less - alone time than we did six years ago, but I love our family and am so happy with what the past six years has brought us.  We probably should look into finding a good baby sitter though!

November 4, 2011

Thursdays are usually my Ebay shopping day, but since Isaac was home yesterday I went today instead.  There were no great deals today, but I did buy a cute new outfit for Luke.  He is such a fun little shopping partner.  He's always happy and charming all of the sales clerks.

November 3, 2011

Charlie is out of town and Isaac stayed home from school because he has a cold.  It was a long day and we decided to have an easy dinner: pancakes.  Isaac enjoyed helping me make them but about two seconds after I took this photo he started waving the whisk around and splattering pancake batter all over the kitchen.  Lovely.

November 2, 2011

This afternoon I was trying to get all of my EBay packages wrapped up so that I could drop them off at the post office before 5:00.  Luke was getting fussy, and I knew he was tired, but I didn't want to put him down for a nap because then I wouldn't make it to the post office.  I gave him his pacifier hoping to buy myself a couple more minutes, and before I knew it he was asleep on the floor!  We never did make it to the post office.  

November 1, 2011

This morning we watched Cody while my friends Erin & Dave went to their 20 week ultrasound.  Cody was cracking me up because I asked him what was in his mom's belly and he told me "a lot of food!"  I was helping the boys build Duplo towers in Isaac's room.  Cody thought it was cool to make them really really tall, while Isaac thought it was cool to knock the towers down with his helicopter.