New Camera

Todd was so sweet and upgraded my point and shoot camera to a lovely new (blue!) Sony 12.1 mp camera. He got a great deal through Linda (Sony) and got a refurb. Mostly, I love that it's blue.

So I've been testing it out and messing around with it and having a lot of fun. My old camera was a gift from Linda years and years ago and had finally had enough. A day after receiving new blue in the mail, Luke thought it would be a good choice to throw my old camera at the kitchen tile. The tile won, the camera lost, and Luke received a quality time out. My poor ol' camera.

But now my pictures are much much better, due to higher mp and a lack of being tossed around in my purse at any given moment.

Popcorn.

This kid won't work for peanuts, but he will work for popcorn.

I was able to go shopping and get him a haircut all for the price of cheap-o Target popcorn. Thank goodness.

What do you do with yours?

My big boy underpants function in many ways.

You can wear them as a hat.


You can wear them like Superman.


Wear them like you? Ridiculous.

Best Friend

Luke has a few "best friends" that he talks about (Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, etc.) but when it comes down to it, we all know who his best friend is: it's Sally of course. Maybe you've heard of her, maybe you've seen her, maybe you have a Sally of your own.

Luke's Sally is something special - although we have three of her. Well, technically, we've gotten up to 5 or 6, but there are a "Luke-accepted" three. There's a "car Sally," a "home Sally," and "miniature day-care Sally." All are equally important and life will be miserable if one is missing.

I recommend to all parents whose children are still under a year to figure out quick what their child's lovey is and then buy a ton of them. We only got to three before Luke figured out whether they were his "Sally" or an unfortunate imposter.

Sally is good for (including, but not limited to)

Calming down:



Relaxing with Daddy:




Dancing with Mommy:




Watching our favorite tv shows:

Poor Sally and her right ear - it is a whole icky color. If you're really lucky and Luke is in a good mood, he'll offer you Sally's left ear. To put on your nose. And for the record, it is surprisingly calming and relaxing. It use to be more so before Sally got . . . icky. I suppose it would be better stated that she is not "icky" but "well-loved."

Just about everyone receives a "Sally" at their baby shower now, if they're expecting. Sally goes by the product name of "Sleep Sheep" and comes with a sound box that plays 45 minutes (no joke!) of a variety of sounds. Everyone needs a Sally.

Luke figured out quickly that if you take out the sound box and slam it against the wall between Mommy and Daddy's room and your own while shouting "HELLO! HELLOOOO," Mommy or Daddy will come into your room to get you rather quickly.

(please note: sound box is still used, but in a seperate location that Luke does not have access to)

Oh how I wish we had introduced more Sallys to him early on. Lesson learned!

Great-Grandma's Cookies

Its like a sixth sense . . . Luke knows when Great-Grandma cookies enter the premises . . .

The second day that Grandpa came to work on our room, he brought Great-Grandma cookies and immediately asked for them. They are his absolute favorite. Either that or I deprive him and never make him cookies. Probably just because they're Great-Grandma cookies.

He loves these cookies and will pester and pester until he gets one and then will continue to pester every day until they're gone. What can I say? I'd do the same if I couldn't open ziploc baggies!

Updatin' the Bedroom

When we moved into our home, we were so thrilled about the neutral colors the walls had been painted - we weren't going to have to paint over bright colors or dark colors or ugly colors. Hooray! We did paint over the pink (ew.) in our bathroom and the yellow (eh.) in our main bathroom, but overall, super thrilled with the neutrals.

Until we looked around . . .

And realized . . .

We live in . . .

A jello chocolate pudding cup.

Everything is BROWN! Ack! All of our furniture and our bed linens and our furniture was all the same shade of brown. It was just too too much. So we tried to lighten it up but getting a new comforter and pillows, but still . . . so much brown.

Before school started, Grandpa spent a few days with Todd putting up crown molding in our room and painting the room a pale gray. I don't have a pre-molding picture (not that it was anything anyone wanted to see . . .) but at least the pudding walls can be seen.

The Before:

The Before looks better than it did, simply because its a few steps towards the After, there's molding up.

The After!

At this point, we've changed our dresser and our nightstands, but still need to replace the bed (its just about to fall apart - good timing!) and find something, anything to put on the walls. Such a blank expanse . . .

But the room feels so much bigger and brighter now - I'm in a great place with gray!

We're thinking now about the front room, with its basic shade of brown, which of course match perfectly to our relatively new brown couches that there's no way we're changing. So paint it is, whenever and whatever that may be.

Day 2

Not as successful as day one, but at least we made it through two days.

I went out for groceries/errands first thing in the morning and Luke had an accident in his big boy undies. He didn't seem phased, which I guess is good . . . ?

After getting clean new undies, he figured that it was the best time to rock out on the guitar. He loves "playing" musical instruments and "singing" which makes him a pretty good form of entertainment.




Luke is pretty into himself and loves to watch himself in videos. Clearly, while taking these pictures, I did not realize that what Luke was expecting was video. When I showed him the pictures, he was confused and said, "move! move!" Whoops. So I recorded a video - not quite as good as the first performance (stills, only) but is still pretty indicative of Luke's performance art.