Oh my.

Yup. He's three. It's official.

I don't know where the time went, or where I was when it went there, but there it is. Wherever it is.

Before I go through the fun of his birthday party (MONSTER TRUCK PARTY.) I'll reflect as I do on his birthday every year, cry and moan about what a big boy he is, remember fondly (seriously) the day he was born, think about eating another cupcake, think about losing the last ten pounds from when I was pregnant, then be bummed about not having lost the weight, then eat ice cream to drown my sorrows of not having a baby anymore.

What a cycle.

So I'll blog, then eat my ice cream.

Because his birthday is today, I'm letting Luke play hooky from school to hang with Nana (in town) and Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa. (I'm super jealous.) So because he was missing on school on his birthday birthday, he was able to celebrate his school birthday on Friday. I got to feel very "Mom-ish" by baking cupcakes and taking them to his class.

Please note: I am a teacher and sympathetic to the plight of the teacher with classroom birthdays. This is what I brought: mini-cupcakes. That is it. No juice, no full-size cupcakes, no balloons, banners or candles to LIGHT ON FIRE IN A CLASSROOM. No knives, no full-size cakes, no cupcake cakes, no goodie bags. No choices - every cupcake is exactly the same. (vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting and multi-colored sprinkles.) Because it is still school. Heck, I didn't even bring napkins. They have their snack routine, I scheduled the birthday to align with snack, so that I could just drop the cupcakes in with the rest of their snack stuff.

How old are you Luke? Three! Yeah, almost. I'd rather not be reminded.

Birthday party time: 5 minutes, tops. Then they played outside to burn off the sugar in a mini-cupcake.

As I reflect on the last year, it's like I had a kid exchange. Where is the little boy from January 2010? We are now:

1) potty trained (for all intensive purposes)
2) in school - full time.
3) a problem solver. (The solution to almost every parent-induced problem: the step-stool.)
4) a joker. He thinks he is much funnier than he is. Just like I think I am much funnier than I am.
5) looking a little more like me. I like that.
6) taller. Duh. But the pants that fit in the waist are still flood waters.
7) excellent at puzzles.
8) impressive with not only knowing his letters, but his sounds. Even the two sounds of the vowels. And knowing what a vowel is. Crazy.
9) a little "cuddlier." At least he's willing to placate me a little more.
10) a little boy. Not a baby, not a toddler. A little boy. One who is *ahem* very vocal with his opinions.

And now that I am super freaked out about him being such a big boy, I will now dive head-first into my baby memories.

Tis the season :)

My little Luke-pie, first home. I think I post this every year because the memory of how little he used to be is an absolute blur. One of the few times he was asleep in the first three months. No wonder we have a picture of it. We were in shock.

The infamous "Grandpa" photo - in his little old man sweater and hat. I love it - just a little guy at 4 months old.

Luke's personality in a nutshell: He will do everything on his terms, in his way. He will not be constrained by "normal" teeth growth. He will not have his front teeth come in first. He will have his fangs come in first.




8 months, outside in the backyard when we were living in the duplex, letting him jet around in the walker. A time of containment. It was a good time.


1st birthday. Being one year old doesn't slow Luke down. He's moving all over . . . I should have seen this as a sign . . .


Luke is two. Luke loves Cars. That pretty much summarizes 2010.


San Diego zoo. Knot on his head. Par for the course. Amazed my child has only been to ER once. (*knock on wood*)




I can't believe how 2010 flew by . . . Shoot. I can't believe how the last three years have shot by. It feels like yesterday that I was swearing up and down I would "not be pregnant one more month. I refuse to have this baby in February." Or being absolutely positive I would have this kid "before breakfast. I want breakfast."


And yet, here I am . . . I can't believe I have a preschooler . . . I can't believe how independent, resourceful and sweet he has become. I'm such a proud mommy.

So stop now, okay? Three is enough.

Love you, Luke-pie.

Christmas Eve

We decided to attempt to host both families for Christmas Eve . . . dang, that was some serious work. I loved having a "reason" to decorate. So while there were "normal" Christmas decorations up, there were also extra decorations for the party. So everything was all blue and white and silvery, which was fun.

Todd used his new smoker (I swear, I'll post all about that . . .) to make me bbq ribs which was all I really wanted. And I really wanted to eat them on my wedding china. The wedding china has been packed away and hidden for years (5 actually!) and finally made their "Bickel Family Debut!" I thought I was clever having ribs on china. Something about the juxtaposition or equally clever :)



So we had pork butt and ribs and beans and all sorts of deliciousness.


And of course, as has been touted on this blog for years, Great-Grandma's famous cookies. And I know that I am "in," as I received the main grouping of cookies. I got the official "Christmas Cookie Tupperware." Not to keep of course, because Great-Grandma will not fill it up with more cookies if I don't give it back. Todd got a tin of chocolate chip (epic) and Luke got his own tin of Christmas Cookies too. But mine was the biggest. I must be the favorite. Right? Right?

As we were getting ready, my amazing MIL surprised me with a Christmas gift: a new fireplace set! It was gorgeous, with a very simple fleur-de-lis pattern.

A fire in the fireplace - with all my new fireplace swag. Pretty freakin' gorgeous. And weird . . . doesn't it look like a reindeer in the actual flames?

The finished glory.

The Great-Grandparents gave Luke his Christmas gift early - his own tool workbench. With a drill that makes a drill sound (just like the dentist!) that he will drill everywhere. Did you hear that? EVERYWHERE. We spend a lot of time saying, "On the bench! ONLY on the BENCH!" He loves tools and will pick up any tool that is in reach to try to "fix" something. And if it doesn't need to be fixed, he can make it so that it will need to be fixed. I think that's a boy skill.

Apparently, it all packs up into itself like a nice little suitcase, but we haven't tried that yet. Cool, huh?


Cupcakes and cookies, oh my! (And yes, he had both.)

Cute face = more cookies.

Great-Grandma made sure that he was well sugared up before bed.

Me and the hubby. Notice the gash in my lip? Probably not, but I'm super-self-conscious. My darling son zoomed his very pointy jet plane into my face. Merry Christmas, Mommy. The joys of boys.

Some of my favorite people.
I loved having so many people that I love so dearly all with me on Christmas Eve - its why I love the holidays.

We finished up by Luke getting his new Christmas jammies, which he was half-heartedly interested in. I told him that Santa wouldn't be able to find him if he wasn't excited to wear his jammies. I do love Mommy Law . . . gets things done.

Explanation . . .

Hello, mid-t0-late January. Here are my December posts.

Life has been crazy hectic due to going back to work (vomit) and Luke being sick (bleh) and an overall feeling of being behind in all aspects of my life. I will eventually be preparing a pie chart to show exactly what my life is like at this time.

Wait . . . no, I'll do it now.



This is a serious unbalance in my life and I cross-my-heart I'm trying to fix it. I know I'm not the only one, but dang, this year, my kids are impossible and the support from parents, et al. is somewhat lacking. So every day is a struggle: emotionally and physically. Today was a good day (compared to what it has been lately) so I'm doing pretty good.

Is this how I want my life? No. I'm sure that I'm not the only one out there, though, being the martyr that I am (or feel like these days) I like to think so.

That being said, my little green "me" section is certainly getting better. I'm still going to trivia weekly and I'm getting back to scrapbooking with my buddies. More talking than scrapping, but that's what I need. I'm working on shrinking the blue and expanding the other categories. Perhaps that is what my New Year's Resolution is. Oh, that and losing 20 lbs.

And we just got word that one of the kids in Luke's class has whooping cough. Perfect.

But tomorrow is Friday, so I'm trying to be positive about that.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled blogging.

Family Pics

Detour (again)

We haven't taken family pictures since Luke was . . . 6 months old, I think. So it was high time to get together, dress in coordinated but non-obnoxious clothes, cross our fingers and hope for the best.

Luke made it through the first half of the photos cheerfully, but then just lost it. Meh. At least the family shots were right up front. And due to sales, coupons and gift cards, I was able to get a CD and the rights to the photos, so that I could print them (more affordably) elsewhere.

So I'm not breaking any laws, okay?

My boys:

Apparently, I no longer have a baby. Apparently, I also do not even have a toddler. I have a preschooler. How did I end up with one of those? Man, time does fly, doesn't it?

This is the sweet picture for Mommy:


This is the real Luke:


Me and my not-baby:

If we didn't have a car/truck and Sally, we never would get anything done. So here he is with his truck.

Perhaps I should have put him in the little bit smaller pants.

I was so pleased with how the pictures turned out. As any photographer knows, quantity of shots can have a huge impact. You really need to take a lot of photos to get just a few really spectacular shots. And man, were there some bad photos. But there were enough great photos to have really been worth it.

And I will think back to Luke's 1 year photo shoot where we bought a few pity shots because we had to have something. Looking back now, they're pretty funny and definitely him.

Here's the family photos now, and in another 3 or so years!

Practice

Picking up where I left off: in San Diego.

So, yeah, the weather was terrible and there were still more places to go, so . . . we played in the car while one parent ran into wherever for whatever.

Of course we played with cars. Cause that's what we do.

And we practiced our happy face.

And our mad face.


And our sad face.

Okay, he really does do a better sad face - but he really struggles with sad. He always wants to laugh and smile.

I've discovered that Luke really will calm down and focus when he starts getting out of control in public if I ask him to practice his faces. He is such a ham.

The range of other faces:

1. lizard face
2. "hubba hubba" face
3. thinking face
4. surprised face
5. cute face

These faces will eventually be captured and posted, I'm sure. (Just wait for "hubba hubba")

Happy 2011!

Okay, I'm going out of order, this is party #4, but I'm going to attempt to stay current. Christmas is going to take some work/organization, so I'll focus on New Years instead.

Todd had been feeling under the weather the last few days, so we kept it quiet and easy this year. Linda had wanted to babysit, so we could go out, but we decided to stay home. She had already asked if she could have a get together with her friends at our place, which was totally fine. She is a wonderful hostess - it is awesome to see her in her element. It is apparent that the Bickels are quite social, which is where Luke gets it from.



There was enough food for a army platoon, including delicioso ribs, pork butt and tri tip smoked by Todd earlier in the week. (There will be another post on Todd and his Christmas smoker)

The party was actually rather tame (hurrah!) and I stayed up until midnight (barely) and everyone seemed to have a great time. This was the first time that many had seen our not-so-new house, as well as meeting Luke.

I hope you all had a wonderful time ringing in the new year - I always love the idea of starting over fresh in the new year. Here's to 2011!

Cute Face: 2011.

Post Office Adventures

Todd needed to mail a package before Christmas, so we were off to visit a San Diego US Post Office. (These were our San Diego adventures on this trip) It had been pouring for days and we were tired of hanging around inside, so we decided to accompany Todd on his trip.

I always forget that there are people who can go to the post office during the middle of the day. You know, people who work "normal" jobs and can take a longer lunch to go run errands, etc. I don't have that job (45 minutes for lunch, but most of it is spent working/grading) so I expect that nobody else does either.

The line was insane. Keeping Luke contained and not tearing through the post office was insane. So we pressed our faces against the glass and played hide and go seek and still ran. *sigh* But we played "Make That Face" and "Find the Shape" and other fun games that Luke enjoys while we're out.



And like all line standing, we tag team walking Luke around while the other stands in the line. Gotta work the system.


Luke discovered on the San Diego trip that he really liked his rainboots. He had been so resistant to the idea before, but I think the promise of stomping in puddles helped encourage the idea.