Luke ate what?

Luke ate spinach and mushroom stuffed jumbo pasta shells for dinner! YAY! He ate some new solid veggies! Of course they were surrounded in cheese and covered in tomato sauce but he still ate them and that's what counts. I was totally not expecting him to eat it but he did. IT WAS AWESOME! I have to say they were mighty tasty- so glad I tried a new recipe :)

A Good Sign!?!

Yesterday after Luke's nap he kept repeating potty. That's not terribly uncommon. We have a "potty" for him in our bathroom that he has occasionally sat on usually with pants still around his waist. On Monday I bought a "potty seat" at Babies R Us in the hopes that we would get more interest from that. It has Elmo on it so that was pretty much the attention getter on Monday. So after changing Luke's diaper yesterday and still hearing a repetition of potty, potty, potty, I asked if he wanted to sit on the potty. He said yes! Totally surprised me! He took off for our bathroom which surprised me even more because we were closer to the guest bath by the kitchen. So in we go to our bathroom. I put the Elmo seat on the toilet and Luke sat there for 15 seconds maybe. Nothing happened but that's okay. I was totally thrilled that he asked to go in the first place! So let's hope that's a sign of good things to come! By the way, I'm not crazy for being excited about my child not needing diapers any more (they are expensive and let's face it who likes changing diapers anyway). We have a long way to go but we definitely took a tiny step forward yesterday. Way to go Luke!

Mud Pies

One activity that didn't make it in my post below was Luke making a mud pie on Wednesday while Troy was grilling dinner. He was so proud of himself and thoroughly enjoyed getting totally muddy and dirty. Luke is definitely all boy!

A Summary

Of last week that is. We had a rather eventful week. Monday was our low key day at home just chillin' after the busy weekend we had. Monday night after dinner though we had a nice surprise. Our friends the McBride's came over asking if we wanted to go out to get ice cream. Hum, no thinking required on that one.

On Tuesday, Luke and I went out to lunch with Ashley and Benjamin and the rest of the day was spent getting ready for my mom's arrival on Wednesday. After dropping Luke off at MDO Wednesday morning, I ran a few errands, got my hair cut, ate lunch in the car by Lake Hefner (it was a totally random decision and I really enjoyed the quiet time eating my lunch) and then I drove to the airport to get my mom. We drove home quickly and then went to Ann Taylor Loft because they were having a big sale. I was excited that we managed to get in a little shopping before we picked up Luke. Luke was very excited to see Grammy and ran right to her when we picked him up. After coming home for a snack we went back out to a newly discovered park for Luke to run off some energy. He had great fun showing Grammy how he could go down the slide by himself and watching the ducks at the pond.

Our plan for Thursday morning was to go to the zoo; however, when we got there all we could see was school buses (we later learned about 5000 kids were there) so we decided to pass on the zoo for the day. After debating our options for a while, we decided to go to the OKC Art Fest downtown. This turned out to be a great decision. Luke had fun with a balloon, getting a train painted on his arm, running through streamers and people watching. Mom and I really enjoyed the art and we each bought something. We ate lunch there which was interesting because of all of the people and trying to find something for LJ to eat but we managed and Grammy bought Luke strawberry dippin' dots which were a huge hit.

On Friday we called before heading to the zoo. We arrived about 9:30 and headed straight for the new children's zoo. Luke loved it! We splashed in a rocky stream, watching monkeys eating their breakfasts and we got to pet goats and a rabbit. We toured quite a bit of the zoo and saw tons of different animals. One of my favorites though was the merry-go-round that Luke and I went on after lunch. He picked out a zebra to ride and once we got moving he was all smiles :) Grammy got some great pics of us together!

Friday night we ordered pizza rather than going out as we had planned because Luke's allergies were really bothering him. His nose was runny and his eyes kept watering plus he was a little on the fussy side but I couldn't blame him because he didn't feel good. After Luke went to bed we all watched "The Informant." Troy loved it and Mom and I were less than enthusiastic about it.

On Saturday morning I took Mom to the airport before heading to the farmer's market. Then I came home and Troy and I did some yard work in the back while Luke played with his golf set and bubbles. Saturday afternoon was rather nice because I was able to scrapbook for a bit. And then Saturday night we went to the McBride's for dinner. Ashley and I enjoyed not cooking because we ordered Pei Wei rather than try to come up with a meal spur of the moment.

Yesterday was a definite chill day again. Troy played golf early and was home by 10:45 and then we all had lunch before the boys took naps and I scrapbooked again.

Our Saturday BBQ

Yesterday was a wonderful day in our home. We had friends over for a BBQ and truly enjoyed the companionship. The Dolezal's drove over from Tulsa and the McBride's came from about 7 minutes away (they just moved to Edmond from Pennsylvania). Everyone arrived in time for lunch and then all the kids (Henry and Rosie Dolezal and Benjamin McBride and of course Luke) played while the adults enjoyed a break from entertaining young kids. The best part for me was the girl time. We snuck away for a bit and it was so nice to get out of the house with good girl friends and without kiddos. Troy would say the best part was the ribs he grilled. They were mighty tasty! We enjoyed those, sweet potatoes, salad and bread for dinner along with a few tasty desserts. Needless to say, we were all thoroughly stuffed!

The connections among our three families is really quite amazing:

Patrick McBride and Darin Dolezal went to college together at West Virginia.

Patrick and Troy worked together at Unocal in Houston.

Patrick and Darin worked together at Dominion in Pennsylvania.

Troy and Darin worked together at Samson in Tulsa and Erin and I became quick friends there.

And finally, the McBride's moved to Edmond so Patrick could take a new job at Chesapeake.

And I know that Ashley and I will also become quick friends here because in the 10 days they've been here we've spend part of 4 days together already!

The boys: Benjamin, Henry and Luke.

Rosie was MIA.

The gals: Me, Ashley and Erin.

I didn't manage to get a picture of just the guys but you can see Patrick, Troy and the top of Darin's head in this one where we all enjoying the pictures of peopleofwalmart.com.

It was so awesome to hang out with good friends and good food!

Watering His Toes

Luke has really been interested in helping me water all of my flower pots on the patio and also the tomato plants that will hopefully produce tomatoes for the summer. The problem has been that my watering can is much too heavy for him when it's full so the other day when I was at Target I found this little watering can just the right size for Luke. Well, now the problem is that he likes to water his toes rather than the plants. I guess I'll have to keep watering in order to get those tasty tomatoes!

Don't Forget

I have thought of a few more things Luke has been doing lately that I don't want to forget.

Other New Words:
*windy
*golf
*Benjamin (a new friend that just moved from Pennsylvania)
*snack
*rock

New Foods:
*strawberries
*grapes
*pulled pork
*animal crackers
*peanut butter (not that new but eating more of it)
*still not very many solid veggies (UGH!)

Random Things:
*Luke's eyes are changing color- they are turning brown. I was really hoping that he was going to keep his blue eyes.
*blowing bubbles- it's funny because Luke puts the wand against his lips- he occassionally makes a bubble or two which makes him very excited.
*Luke loves to go out to get the mail with who ever is going out to get it.
*He loves to watch Troy mow the grass. He liked to last summer as well but now whenever he hears a lawnmower he says, "Daddy?"
*Luke helps us put on his shoes and he can take them off by himself.
*Luke is counting to 4 and then doing an activity. He loves to count and run or count and have us swing him by his arms.