Aaron

has an ear infection. Everyone is miserable with him, at least until the antibiotics start working. He says his tummy hurts and even TV isn't keeping him happy. Going to be a looooooong night.

Dinos at dinner

Aaron told us that, "T-Rex is a cool guy!" and fed him most of dinner. Aaron did eat a few olives, at least.

Ears are...

Aaron was naughty at daycare today. After correcting him several times, Meghan stopped him and asked, "Aaron, what are your ears for?" He said, "Wiggling!"

100 Days of school - celebration!

"When I'm 100 years old I will be bald and wrinkled. I will play outside with grownups."

Luke's school is celebrating the 100th day of school this Thursday - a cool idea with fun projects for us to do at home: a 100 t-shirt, "When I'm 100" writing assignment, 100 objects bag, plus an odd assortment of donation requests so they'll be having more 100 projects on Thursday. Luke is having my definition of a great kindergarten year..... happy, loves his teacher, several good friends, reading well, and if he's gotten in trouble its been minor enough that I haven't heard about it. We do a lot of reading at home and writing when we can fit it in around gymnastics and piano, so the amount of homework seems managable for a little guy.

Momma is wonderful talking through ideas with Luke. They looked at Grandpa Hap, who's in his 90s, and photos of centenarians online to think about how people change as they age. Luke was really pleased with his drawing, especially the ears and the wrinkles on his face.

The 100 day shirt has 100 wiggly eyes. Boy were they a pain to glue to the fabric - especially the tiny ones! No idea why Luke decided to glue them in the Y shape.

Playing with Momma

Not the best pics in the world, but boy, did they have fun!

Guy's guys

A few things....

In the middle of the night, Aaron was crying and Rich went to check on him. Aaron said, "I missed you Daddy. Snuggle me?"

Last night I ended up sleeping with Aaron - always an adventure with all of the hard plastic dinosaurs in his bed - and at 4 a.m. and decided that he'd rather sleep with Daddy. I could have felt rejected, but what it really meant was a comfy, newly dino-free, bed to myself, AND the added bonus of knowing that Rich would need to get up with our early riser. It was heaven!

We go to church with a great family with teenage boys. Luke and Aaron were wrestling with the youngest son, Leonard, and have a wonderful time playing with him at church. Tonight we went out to dinner with my parents, so I asked Leonard to babysit. It was a great success - when I told Luke that Leonard was babysitting, he said, "Cool! Leonard is fun and so nice to us!" After Leonard left, Aaron told me, "I love him. He's funny!" Then he kept calling out "Bye!" and waving to the window. So important to me that my guys get the experience of being nurtured and look up to a great older kid.

Dinosaur puzzles

These were a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Luke has also started the kangaroo and peacock puzzles - also 3D wood puzzles. Aaron was SOOOO excited to work on this with Momma and he really wants to play with them, but they're too delicate. We're off work today for Martin Luther King Day, so we'll find an adventure this morning with Momma.

Nightmare

Aaron awake before 6 a.m., sobbing "I dropped my cake!" By the time we got upstairs he'd decided, "Daddy make a new little cake."

St. Louis gymnastics meet

Good trip! Luke was supposed to go with Poppa, but when it was time to leave he burst into tears and refused to go, so I went with them. Luke perfected his car-sleeping technique, and had his first (very, very exciting!) jump on a trampoline-bungee cord gizmo at the mall. Oh, and there was a meet, too!

This photo of Luke's run to the vault isn't particularly memorable, but his two practice runs sure were -- on both of them he jumped in a crazy drunk frog position and landed on his stomach. Coach Jim had him take a third trip down the runway, and pointed at his feet as a reminder before his competition run. That one, fortunately, went off without a hitch.

Vault 13.9, parallel bars 12.3, high bar 10.5, floor 13.9, pommel 9.4, rings 14.4.... judging not terribly consistent meet to meet we're learning, since other parent also noticed scores lower across the board on some events and higher across the board on others.

Snow Day

At home with Luke....Oldham County cancelled school and Jefferson County just announced early dismissal. I took a sick day to take care of Luke. He came in to school with me for an hour so I could set up for the sub, then we had a great breakfast at Wild Eggs (wild mushroom & goat cheese omelet, french toast stuffed with blueberries & cream cheese, hot cocoa covered in marshmallows - no wonder they normally have a line for a table!). To fill the time, I treated Luke to a Star Wars Lego set that he's so excited about - a droid fighter plan with all sorts of exciting weapons. Maybe he'll let me take a nap?

Landmarks

* Luke asked, "Why can't I have a credit card?"
* Aaron discovered that he can get out of his big boy bed.

Fortunately Aaron went back to bed when Rich told him he could sleep with his t-rex skeleton. He's following a brotherly tradition.....Luke used to sleep with construction vehicles.