Grateful - Day 1

I'm starting a little late, but I'll join!

So many bloggers out in Blogsville, USA have been working this month on writing a daily "grateful" blog a day. I knew I had no chance of going the WHOLE month of November, so I thought I'd pick it up now, when my buddy Procrastination keeps reminding me I've got plenty of time for grading. Later.

I used to be very very good about writing in a daily "Grateful" journal, and I'm sure I'll refer back to that during the rest of the month.

You know what I'm grateful for?

Gold stars.

I'm a teacher through and through and I've always been a sucker for gold stars. There is something magic about the gold star that will really make you get things done. There is a sense of gratification and acknowledgment in such a small thing.

One of the teachers on my team and I are always after that "elusive gold star" - that feeling of knowing that you put in a lot of work and are appreciated for it. So this has been the year of really giving the parents so ridiculously adorable clip art. They can't get cranky if a low spelling test score has a cute lil' picture of a bear holding a heart, right?

As she says: "I could get kids to wash my windows for a sticker."

There is truly something magical about getting that gold star.

Every so often, I will just start giving out gold stars to other grown ups. At work, if someone goes out of their way to do something nice, I'll put a gold star on them. And you should see the way their face will light up. It's amazing - gold stars are not just for kids.

I am grateful for small, simple ways to feel acknowledged and let others know what they do is recognizable. What have you done today that should get a gold star?

Krista's Shower

The Saturday before Halloween, my lovely sister-in-law Ellen and I were able to attend our friend Krista's baby shower. I was fortunate enough to meet Krista through Ellen, as we were both in Ellen and Dan's wedding (9 years ago?). She is so much fun - always laughing and in good spirits. So over the years, we been to each others bridal showers and now baby showers.

And, in all honesty, I love taking pictures with pregnant women simply because I look skinny in comparison. Score.

*And she wore fabulous boots to her shower. By this point in my pregnancy, I was wearing slippers because none of my shoes fit. Go, Krista!!

Trick or Treat!

Halloween turned out to be much more frightening than had been previously anticipated.

SALLY WAS LOST.

Let me start from the beginning.


Knowing that Luke's costume looked like an out of place Linus from the Peanuts, I decided to have Luke bring along Sally to justify/explain his costume. Not that it mattered. No one cared anyways. He was way cute and polite.

We had gone to a few houses when I realized that *gasp* . . . SALLY WAS GONE. I think my heart actually stopped for a few seconds.

Uncle Dan (the only one with a flashlight) was kind enough to backtrack and hunt for Sally. It was a long, uncomfortable time until Uncle Dan was able to track her down. But track her down he did! And I held her. Tightly. For the rest of the night.

Luke loved trick-or-treating. It took him a few houses, but he figured it out and loved shouting "Happy Halloween!" and "Trick-or-Treat!" and "THANK YOU!" There were a few problems we discovered along the way though.

1) I forgot to empty the pumpkin bucket after trunk or treating. Poor Luke's bucket was so friggin heavy, he could barely carry it. The handle kept popping out and the candy would spill everywhere. Yikes. And Luke is so stubborn, he didn't want any help.

2) Luke wanted to have a conversation at every house we stopped at. He wanted to talk about his candy and how trick-or-treating worked. Due to the conversational limitations, he mostly repeated the same things over and over, but in a different order every time.

3) Luke just has smaller legs than his big cousins. "Wait up Superman!" was a common exclamation. They were so patient and would wait for him at every house, but it was still tough. A heavy candy bucket was really inconvenient for this as well.

Luke had a great time checking his "loot" after every house, thanks to Uncle Dan's enthusiasm. Luke doesn't know one type of candy from another, but Uncle Dan was so excited about a different type every time that Luke was walking on air.


I snapped this pic and it was so bright that Luke completely bailed. Scraped up his knee (shocking, I know) but hopped back up, shouting "I'm okay! I'm okay!"

Luke was such a cutie and had so much fun - I know he'll be ready for next year.

Fall Festival

Halloween Festivities: Part Uno

One of my co-workers was gracious enough to host an all-out way crazy Fall Festival at her home, open to anyone who wanted to come. Seriously. No RSVPs or anything - it was insane. Anyways, we decided to follow Jake and his family there and let Luke go crazy before trick-or-treating that night.

We began in . . . the bounce house. But please note, this was not just any bounce house - this thing had a full slide inside as well as a cool stair/ladder thing to climb up. Oh - and a basketball hoop, but Luke wasn't too into that. I was impressed at how much Luke's balance has improved since the last bounce house. The ratio of bounce to falling was now in favor of bouncing. Well done! Most photos came out way too blurry - they had a fabulous time.



He found the playsets in back, one even had a kitchen at the top. Luke was a nice reflection of how we cook in our home. Yup, he mostly played with the microwave. Dang.



Luke slid down with Sally . . . mostly. Okay, he really just launched her down the slide then flew down after her. That was one fast slide - he got the wind knocked out of him a little bit.



Their house (farm?) had animals for Luke to look at: rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens and pigs. Luke was freaked out by the chickens - when he went over to the coop to look at them, one chicken walked right up to him, a little too quickly. He was stoked on the rabbits and kept calling the guinea pigs "bunnies." He didn't know what to make of the pigs, except to oink at them.


After the animals, we went "trunk or treating" in their front driveway . . . I guess one would call it a driveway. There were around 15 cars parked, with their trucks decorated. Luke loved it - he was very polite saying thanks to everyone for the candy. He truly couldn't believe his luck - FREE candy!


Luke got to make a foam crown - he is all about his crown!



Checking out his loot. He wouldn't stick his face through the hole, so I stuck my camera through.

Luke was certainly bummed to leave, but there were no tears (Hallelujah!) and many promises of visiting and trick-or-treating with his cousins.

Epic.

Todd and I have clearly never been into "traditional" costumes so this year, we continued the tradition. And I have to be completely honest: this year, it was all Todd. Todd was the idea man, I just did the assembly.

So as I have posted ad naseum, Luke is all about his Sally. We laugh about how he talks to her all the time, plays with her, high-fives her, has her do puzzles while he cheers her on, etc. So they are truly the best of friends, and Luke believes she is just as real as the rest of us . . . just like . . . Calvin and Hobbes.

Todd and I grew up loving Calvin and Hobbes, and discovering that we each had our own individual C/H book collections when we combine our "libraries." So Luke and Sally just had to be Calvin and Hobbes.

Luke's costume was easy (a little too reminiscent of Linus, but what can you do?) but I was able to fudge my way through a little tiger hoodie for Sally. Together they are pretty cute. He totally didn't get his costume (way focused on the candy aspect of Halloween) and most people didn't get it, but we got it. And that's what's most important, anyways.

Seriously. I love you the MOST.

Fall festival and trick-or-treating pics soon . . .

200!

Wow - this is my 200th post and I'm here to celebrate! (I'm through one glass of wine, but I'll wait . . . you can catch up.)

I began this blog primarily so that my fabulous mother-in-law could keep up with all the comings and goings of Luke as she was/is in San Diego and not able to see him as much as we would all like her to.

Over the last few years, it has really developed into so so much more - mostly it has become an online journal allowing me to revisit and reflect on what our family has experienced, especially since I've never had a spectacular memory. And certainly have little to no memories of Luke's early months.

So, in honor of my 200th post, I'm re-posting the first picture of the blog - Luke in his cocoon.


And as it was never really discussed in that first post - this was our lifesaver. Luke would not sleep ever anywhere for any reason, which really was awful (as any parent of a collic-y kid could tell you) and when we discovered this type of swing and how Luke was totally into it, we had to have it. I found a used swing on Craigslist from a woman who lived a few blocks down from me, scraped all the cash I could find (totally stole from Luke's piggy bank) and hustled on over.

He slept in this for a good solid few months. Heaven.

Also at this time, he discovered his thumb. (Do you hear the angels singing? I do.)

Finally the swing really (ahem) didn't swing anymore because he was way too big for it and we had to move on. By that time, the colic had pretty much passed and Luke was sleeping through the night. But this swing was our sanity and therefore, very important to be part of the first post of the blog.



And, in time for the season, Luke's first fall and pics on our front lawn. I love this pic - he really wanted to watch all the cars driving by, but I continued to distract him from the camera. Luke was totally balding at this point and had a rash on his chin due to excessive drool, but I love it just the same.

Happy 200th post Bickel Family Blog!

Now, back to your regularly scheduled blogging . . .

Pirate Luke?

I have no idea how, why or where it began, but Luke began calling himself "Pirate Luke" and saying "arrgghhhhh" a lot. Huh?

He found a wine vacuum sealer and it became a telescope (didn't know he knew that word, or how it worked or that it was associated with pirates) and put it up to his eye like a telescope. Strange.


Argh?


So I found a cheap-o foam pirate hat and hook at Joanns and he knew right what to do with the hat and the hook. I tried to take a picture of him saying "argh!" but he kept laughing. Daddy posed for the picture to "inspire" Luke, but alas, he kept giggling. And I got a pretty funny pic of Todd. (Don't tell him its on here!)