Happy New Years, again!

Luke giddy with excitement to go to bed.....which isn't as weird as it seems! It's his first night in his new bunk bend and he's thrilled with his big guy status on the top bunk and the redecorating in his room. He helped pick out furniture and bedding and we agreed on pale green walls, white furniture, and lots of red accents. I'll post pictures when everything is done (hopefully Tuesday when the other matress and photo collage arrive).

A few favorites from 2009:
Luke's toy - anything Star Wars
Aaron's toy - anything dinosaur
Favorite game for boys to play together - dinosaur, with roaring, biting, and chasing
Luke's favorite food - ketchup
Aaron's favorite food - mac & cheese
Luke's biggest accomplishment - learning to read
Aaron's biggest accomplishment - incredible improvement in his speech

Home Sweet Home

After 12 hours of driving and many, many stops, we made it home from New Jersey after visiting Rich's family. Luke was easy - opting to take naps, watch DVDs, and play on his Leapster (new Star Wars reading game!). Aaron was better than on the trip out, which isn't saying very much. We resorted to some candy-flavored bribery and bought a couple of new movies, and he only had one accident in the car when we just couldn't get to an exit fast enough. Aaron refused to sleep in the car until we were in Shelbyville, KY, which is within 2o minutes of home. I love this picture because he has a death grip on his lollipop, even while sleeping!

Sweet boys

Silly pics

Sleeping like puppies at Aunt Linda's house

Chicago gymnastics meet

Tired & happy little boy after the meet

Talking with the judge after his rings routine

Coach Jim spotting Luke on rings

Luke's team watching each other on the floor routine

Parallel Bars

Luke's 2nd meet - meet was beautifully organized and run, with about twelve teams of little boys rotated through six events smoothly and pretty quickly. Rich and I agreed that overall Luke had a few more little bobbles but he was still very composed and was happy with his performance.

Vault 14.7

Floor 13.2

High Bars 12.4

Parallel Bars 12.9

Rings 12.4
Pommel 8.0

Aaron and Niko in their element

Christmas pageant

was wonderful! Rich was the music director, and Luke sang (mostly) rather than doing a dead fish impression like last year. Aaron sang along from the audience.

New Tactic

Tonight's sleep avoidance strategy a la Aaron: stripping.

Piano Recital

Luke's piano teacher had a very informal recital for her students tonight in her living room. About halfway through Luke looked up at me and said, "I'm scared." When it was his turn he burst into tears and refused to go to the front of the room. Later Rich talked him into going and they played a couple of duets, and Luke did just fine. His teacher Jamie said that isn't unusual for little kiddos.

First gymnastics meet

Luke had his first meet this morning and really enjoyed it. He said he was a little nervous, but he looked so composed. All of the little boys were so cute!

Here are his scores (no idea how they work exactly - will have to check online): floor 13.40, pommel 7.20, rinkgs 13.50, vault 13.90, parallel bars 10.00, and high bar 13.40.

Early morning with Aaron

It's a good thing he's cute, because.....

At 6 a.m. on the nose, he's crying. When I went in, he said, "It's time to get up. Get sum-tin to eat." I brought him back to bed with me, and he tried to stay still for a couple of minutes, then, "Get up now Mommy. I go potty first. It's time to get up. I play the cool train upstairs." Upstairs, sit on the potty, "I make bubbles!" In the living room, "Turn on the lights! I play the cool train. Watch movie Big Dinosaurs." Later, "Those not monkey, they're lemurs. See the big dinosuar allosaurus. There's trodon! There's the brachiasuarus. That's anklylasuarus - it's not a puppy." I remember going to bed last night and thinking that I might be able to sleep in a bit on Saturday morning.

A bit of this and that

My aunt Kristi sent a box of Christmas gifts early, and it's still sitting in the entry way. On the way down the stairs tonight Aaron stopped by it and said, "It's my birthday! It's mine, not for Luke!"

We went to Kansas City for Thanksgiving with my dad's side of the family. Long drive - 10 hours - but Aaron did pretty well, considering. Dad reminded me that a couple of years ago we drove to KC after Luke had potty trained, and both boys figured out pretty quickly that "I need to go potty!" is a good way to be released from the car seat for a few minutes. Both boys loved being with my cousin Dean's kids - cool older kids who were happy to play with them. Luke especially liked Dustin, who is 16 and can juggle, and was willing to rough house with him. I wish my extended family was nearer.

Big couple of weeks for Luke -- he won a price in a PTA art contest for his collage he made with Mama called "Transformers are beautiful AND cool!", he has his first gymnastics competition this Sunday, and his first (very informal) piano recital next Tuesday.

Aaron has stopped saying "Bob the Yo-Yo," now called him the more common "Bob the Builder." Rich and I are both disappointed. Fortunately, he still says, "Tricera-pops."

I have a statistics final on Monday, then a delightful 4 week break from classes. Tired, don't want to study. Oh well.