Explanation Anyone?

My question for the day: Can anyone explain to me why toddlers think it's a great idea to change their schedules?

Further explanation behind the question: For roughly the past week to week and a half Luke has decided he doesn't much like his bedtime (usually between 8 and 8:30). Rather than quietly going to sleep like he used to do, now he explores his room, finds very random things to play with, talks and sings to himself, reads stories and open and closes his door to yell at us from the gate. This is all fine and good for a few minutes but the last couple of nights he has stayed awake until 10 doing all this stuff! I suppose that is okay too but I'm not very much in favor of him staying up that late and sleeping in until 9ish and then not wanting to go down for his nap until 2. I know I could break the cycle (hopefully with MDO today it will) but I really don't like the idea of having a super cranky toddler for a day while we maybe get his schedule back to normal. Sigh! Oh the life of a 2 1/2 year old :)

Pizza Picnic

Tonight Luke and I had a pizza picnic on the family room floor. Troy has been out of town and after a day trip to Tulsa I didn't feel much like cooking so we ordered pizza. We've done this one other time and Luke was most excited when I mentioned another picnic. Luke is clearly not looking at the camera but rather is watching "It's a Bug's Life" because you can't have a pizza picnic without a movie.

Pure Joy!

On his face and in my heart. I just love this boy to pieces :)

Visitors

We've had several visitors since the middle of March. Luke has enjoyed having new people to play with and entertain.

On of my college roommates and her husband spent the weekend with us March 11-13. It was fun to hang out with Anne and Jason and Luke enjoyed taking them to the park.

The following weekend Grandpa and Grandma Johnson came for a quick visit. Luke also enjoyed taking them to the "new" park and going down the slide with them. Mom and Dad got to enjoy a movie and dinner out :)

Sarah was here from March 25 until April 4. It was great to have her here for such a long time again. Luke loves that Sarah will do a few things with him that Mom and Dad don't/won't do. Thankfully Luke knows that those are special Sarah activities and doesn't ask about them once she leaves.

Grammy was here from April 3 through April 8. Unfortunately most of that time Luke was sick but we did manage to get out on Thursday. We took Luke to the Lego store where Grammy bought him a new set that includes Winnie the Pooh and Piglet (or as Luke says--Pigalit).

MDO Art

This is from March 30. Luke was really excited about this one because he loves "The Hungry Caterpillar" and I think this reminded him of the end of the story.

This one is from March 9. I think this is probably the first time Luke has used glitter.

Luke had Spring Break the week of March 16 and he was sick last week so nothing from those weeks. I'm anxious to see another springy project tomorrow afternoon when I pick him up.

Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt

Yesterday afternoon our neighborhood had their annual Easter Egg Hunt. It started at 1:30 which is also nap time so we made the best of it and put Luke down about 2:15 instead. He really enjoyed meeting and talking with the Easter Bunny--it was actually pretty funny because Luke wanted to pet his fur. Luke did a great job collecting eggs and filled his Elmo bucket within 5 minutes easily. After the kids finished collecting all the eggs, they blew up the bounce houses and Luke managed to be the only kid in one for the first five minutes. He was most upset when we made him get out so that we could go home. It was quite hot yesterday and Luke was hot and sweaty when we got home so he had a quick cool off in the sink before taking his nap.

Matchy Matchy

After work on Thursday, Troy changed so that he and Luke would match. Luke thought it was so cool. Luke requested that I take a picture of their bottoms too which I did :)

Poor Baby

First off let me say that I am incredibly fortunate not to have allergies or if I do they only bother me when the counts are super high. Even then I only cough and don't feel horrible. Troy is the same way. So, WHY OH WHY, does my poor baby have allergies so terribly? I feel absolutely awful for him. This round hit on Monday afternoon after his nap when he woke up with a temperature of 102.7. We went to the doctor Tuesday morning just to rule out anything else and just like I though it was just his allergies. She did give us a prescription for amoxicillin and we started using the aspirator again but we're still not seeing any results. Luke woke up again this morning with a temperature over 102 and he's still coughing horribly although at least it's not quite as dry now. We need a really good rain and for everything to stop being in bloom (yeah right).

The other factor in this is letting Luke be outside. It's the absolute worst thing for him right now to be out in the air. Unfortunately Luke doesn't understand that and it's been a bit tough trying to explain it to him. The weather is finally consistently warm and we can't enjoy it much.

Let's hope Luke wakes up tomorrow and feels like a new kid.

Also, any of you that have secret tips for allergy remedies, I'm all ears!

A Different Perspective

THREE NICKNAMES: Munchkin, Lukester, Kiddo

THREE THINGS I LOVE: playing outside, racing cars, playing hide and seek

THREE THINGS I HATE: not getting my way, coming inside, going to sleep (although it's only because I want to explore and not because I cry and get upset)

THREE THINGS I DON'T UNDERSTAND: why I have to get dressed every day, why the weather won't just stay warm so I can be outside whenever I want, why I can't watch TV all day long

THREE THINGS ON MY FLOOR: lots and lots of books, a few stuffed animals, the blanket for my tent

THREE THINGS I AM DOING RIGHT NOW: waking up from a three+ hour nap, coughing horribly from my allergies, waiting for mom to quit writing this blog and get me out of my room

THREE THINGS I CAN DO: take off my shoes (when I want to), help brush my teeth, let Maggie in and out

THREE THINGS I CANNOT DO: go to the bathroom consistently on the potty, eat my vegetables, go more than 1 day without whining (I think it's a little unrealistic for mom and dad to expect this but they tell me it's not)

THREE WAYS TO DESCRIBE MY PERSONALITY: carefree, happy, extremely observant

THREE FAVORITE FOODS: hot dogs, noodles, pears

THREE FOODS I DON'T LIKE: vegetables, yogurt, vegetables

THREE BEVERAGES I DRINK REGULARLY: milk, sugar-free kool-aid, V8 Fusion juice

THREE SHOWS I WATCH: Dinosaur Train, Thomas, Sesame Street

THREE FAVORITE BOOKS: Berenstain Bear books, a new book Grammy brought me this week--Tickle Monster (mom highly recommends this one), Dr. Seuss books

THREE PEOPLE I LOVE TO PLAY WITH: Dad, Benjamin, any visitor that comes to hang out with me

*Mom also wanted to let you know that she copied the idea for this post from a friend in Tulsa--thanks Jordan and Emmy :)

The In Between

Each morning, time permitting of course, I check/read several blog sites. I start with my friends who blog and then go to the Ali Edwards site. She is a very popular scrapbooker and I completely identify with her simple scrap style. Her blog is about more than just scrapbooking though and I found a great link on her site this morning.

I highly recommend that you take a moment and read this blog by Courtney Carver at Be More With Less, click here. It is a wonderful reminder to all of us that life is about so much more than our "big" accomplishments. We need to treasure all the "in between" moments as well. Enjoy!

Have a good week my cyber friends :)