Trading Up -

Luke has noticed the trend of trading up going on in the house lately. A few weeks ago we got a new refrigerator and stove. We went through endless questions at the time as to why we were getting new ones, etc. Yesterday, they delivered our new dishwasher. Again, more questions as to why we were getting a new one. I explained that the other one was getting too old and it was going to be taken away. Later that day, Luke asked when we were going to be getting a new microwave. I told him that our microwave was almost brand new so we wouldn’t be getting a new one. We were only replacing the things that were old. Last night as I was putting Paige to bed, Luke settled into his routine of playing on the floor as I gave Paige her bottle. He said to me, “Mommy, can we trade Paige in for a new baby?” Trying not to laugh, I said “OH NO buddy, we like Paige. Why would we want a new one?” Pleading his case, he continued to explain that she was getting too “old” and that we needed a new baby.
He definitely notices how big, or old, Paige is getting. He will say to me on a fairly regular basis. “Mommy, Paige-y is growing big!” The fact that she walks now is HUGE. He bangs on her less and less and treats her more like a person and less like a drum :)

Pull it together please....

We’ve been working on our manners here at the Peabody house. Before Luke gets up from eating, I’ve “trained” him to say “May I please get up, mommy”. When two adults are talking he says “excuse me”, loudly and gets louder and louder and repeats until someone acknowledges him. We are working on refining that one a bit. When he asks for something, I’m working on starting with a “May I please have…”. Basically, we are working on all the usual manner for his age.
Today, we were getting ready to go out and run some errands. Luke was on the verge of a meltdown about something and I told him that he “needed to pull it together if he wanted to go out”. He said back to me, “you need to pull it together mommy”. I looked at him and said with that you said something wrong look, “what did you say to me?” He looked at me and said “May you please pull it together, mommy?”
I first thought he was bring fresh by telling me to pull it together but then kept saying, “I don’t know how to pull it together. Will you pull it together for me, mommy?” I tried to blow it off because how do you explain figures of speech to a 3 year old but he was having no part of that. I finally had to say, “OK buddy, I just pulled it all together, we are fine now. Let’s go to Target.”
All was OK again at home.

"Who bought her?"

Since Christmas when Luke was getting presents from different people, he has been VERY interested in where everything comes from. He has been asking about all of his toys, clothes, shoes, coat, hat. You name it and Luke wants to know where it came from. About a month after Christmas, we moved from asking about his items to everyday “stuff”; milk, eggs, bread, and any kind of food was first. He started to get the concept of buying something instead of someone giving it to him. So then moved on to “where did we buy it” and started assuming everything had its own store. We bought eggs at the egg store and milk at the milk store. He’s caught on a bit and started using the grocery store for all food items but everything else, socks, diapers, etc. are still purchased at the socks store or the diaper store. It is an evolution. Months into this whole thing he STILL asks where everything comes from. Over and over he wants to know where his coat came from and if you say the wrong thing, he WILL correct you.
Today, we went in to get Paige from her nap. He says, “Mommy, who bought Paige for us?” I said, “We didn’t buy Paige honey, mommy and daddy had her. We made her”. He said, “But what store did she come from?” Again, I explained that she didn’t come from a store. Then he said, “She came from the baby store, mommy” End of story. He figured it out in his head and the topic was over. Onto the next thing. “Mommy what are we having for lunch”.

Paige and her new favorite toy..

***Operation Blankie Phase Out***

We have been blankie free for 48 hours. I repeat, blankie free for 48 hours!! Things came to a head this week when everything he did revolved around blankie. Blankie morning, noon and night. I came home from work on Thursday and Angie, our babysitter, said "no more blankie, I got rid of it today!" I don't know if I was ready for it but decided to try it out as I have also noticed he has become increasing dependent on it lately. I wanted to get potty training out of the way first. We are, crossed fingers, pretty much "there" with the potty so it seems like a logical time to tackle "Operation Blankie Phase Out".

I was shocked when he went to bed without too much of a fuss on Thurs night. Friday morning was up at 5am asking...no, he was whining for blankie. Since then things have been pretty good. Asks for it but we have been telling him "Blankie is on vacation". This seemed like a good way to explain considering his best friend, Jacob was just on vacation as was Angie for a week, so he gets the concept of being away on vacation. It was kind of cute, and sad, on Thurs night. It was raining outside and he was so worried that his blankie was getting all wet in the rain. He must have asked me 67 times "Mommy, is blankie getting all wet in the rain?".
I'm VERY proud of how good he has done. For something he has had since birth, he is doing remarkably well...so far!!

On an unrelated note, this is about the best I can get of a picture of Luke these days. He has SO much energy and is constantly on the move. My camera doesn’t capture moving targets so well ;)

Pinky Lee...Ready to pick brother up at school!!

Lips..

I've been told that I have killer lips. Angelina Jolie has got nothing on me....

HI-YO

Daddy and I play a game at night. It is called HI-YO because that is what daddy yells when he is throwing me in the air. Basically the game goes like this - daddy throws me in the air over and over again. Sometimes I do flips too. Mommy gets all worked up because I get all jazzed up right before bed but I LOVE it.

Lunch with Floppy..

I'm very serious about having lunch for floppy. I put out a plate and food for him. No one can touch it because he will be "eating" and he has to sit next to me on the bar stools...

Welcome to the Gungle...

Luke has taken to throwing all the pillows...any pillow he can get his hands on...on the floor and calling it his gungle (jungle for the rest of the world). Then he throws all kinds of stuffed animals in. He talks his way through each step of the process. Loves it. This is another fav activity these days. Mom isn't so thrilled and usually breaks things up and the pillows go back on the couch.