what a night

Wow. What a night we had last night. Let's just say I dusted off the old "Strong Willed Child" and "Solving Sleep Problems" books last night and implemented a few techniques. The battle of wills finally ended around 2am with Luke's bedroom door being locked. He was pretty upset about that, to say the least. Boy does this little guy have a strong will! It's what I love about him and what makes him him, but it sure does make his life a lot harder sometimes. So here's to "shaping his will" not "stamping it out"! I have a feeling this is going to be a long, tiring process.

{A Note To Luke}

Dear Sweet Boy,

As you realized last night, Mommy and Daddy are serious. You must stay in your own bed all night long. No more coming into Mommy and Daddy's bed and "sneaking in like a mouse", as you call it. There will be consequences if you disobey, as you surely understand now after last night. Mommy and Daddy love you very much which is why we must do what is best for you and teach you how to stay in your own bed. Please, oh please, make better choices tonight. According to the book, Mommy and Daddy must win this battle of wills. If not, you will begin to disrespect us and could end up a hardened criminal one day. Like I said, Mommy is serious. Stay in your bed. Prison is no fun and I'm pretty sure they won't let Mommy come and snuggle you to sleep every night in your little 5x5 cell.

Hugs and Kisses.

Mommy

last day of school

Today is Luke's last day of school until after Christmas so I am at home enjoying the silence and relaxing. Sissy is taking this opportunity to catch up on her beauty rest and has been napping for 2 hours already.

I think I will take a bubble bath and read a little before I go pick him up. Ahhh...what a relaxing, wonderful day. I needed this...

score!!!

So who do you think found a "real" motorcycle tonight?  And not just a "real" motorcycle, but a blue "real" motorcycle?  Uh-huh, that's right.  Found it at Wal-Mart for just $49!

Well...it's not actually a real motorcycle.  It's more of a 3-wheeler electric scooter that just happens to sorta/kinda look like a "real" motorcycle if you turn your head and squint real hard.   So what if it only goes 2mph?   

So my Santa confidence has been renewed and now I just have to find a "real" motorcycle helmet.  I found this one online at Walmart.  I now just have to search the city for a Wal-Mart that carries it in store.

And then if I can just find a "real" motorcyle suit, we will have everything checked off the list.  I thought this whole "getting your kid what they want from Santa gig" was supposed to still be easy at 3 years old.  Why couldn't he have just asked for a football?  I guess that's just what makes Lukey Lukey.  I love him and his craziness.

halloween trunk or treat

Luke decided he wanted to be a "race car driver" (hence the nascar costume and thanks to my dad who took him out to the race track) the day of the the trunk or treat. He did end up wearing his peter pan costume on actual Halloween and I got some cute pictures of that that I will post later.

luke's first day

Here are a few pictures I was able to snap on Luke's first day of school at Friends In Christ preschool. His teacher was wrangling the girl I have termed "wild child" so I wasn't able to get one of Luke and Ms. Michelle. But, I'm a momma on a mission and yes, I will have my camera in tow for day two.

big things happening at the evans' house

For starters, Lukey got a "new, brand" bicycle.



Secondly, Luke started preschool yesterday and had a so-so day. His teacher told me at pick-up that he was being disruptive at naptime and wouldn't stop chatting with a little girl named Jasmine (his new BFF). She told me that she took one of his pennies away so he didn't get a trip to the treasure box and was very sad. She said that he asked if he could earn it back and she told him he could earn it back on Thursday at naptime if he was quiet. Hmmmm...still letting this marinate.

My first instinct is that he should have had a chance to earn back his penny that day so that he could leave on a good note and not have to wait two days to be back in good graces. But then, I also know that naptime is at the end of the day and so there probably was not much time left to earn a penny back. And, I know what a little turkey Luke can be...but still. I feel sad for him. He has been talking about it since yesterday. Let's just hope he can keep his little mouth shut tomorrow at naptime so he can hang on to his pennies. But, seriously, do 3 1/2 year olds still nap? Especially on the first day of school? I really can't imagine any kid Luke's age just crashing out at naptime in a room full of other 3 year olds. Am I being a psycho, over-protective mom?

luke - age three

Wow. He looks so grown up in this picture. It makes me a little sad, but I guess it's okay that he's growing up as long as he keeps letting me snuggle him and still cries for his mommy when he bumps his noggin. When that stops, I don't know what I'll do. Maybe then, I'll cry for my mama.

oldie but goodie

I've been sorting through some of our older pictures and feel in love all over again with this one. I HEART him.

lukey pants

nothin' says summer like playin' barefooted, in your undies.

we've got chickens

well, not really us, but our neighbor. and lookie who got to go help coral them back into their chicken coup. cocka-doodle-do!

go rowdies!!!

luke had his first soccer game today and he did SO good! I am so proud of my little soccer man. I was a little worried (shhhh) about how things would go, but he got right out there and chased the ball and played his little heart out. and, he especially liked the juice and snack after the game. we can't wait for next week!

here he is in action. go lukey!





here he is taking a break.



and what was olivia doing during all this, you ask? oh, you know, a little of this, a little of that.



stop with the pictures already!

it's official

lukey is a big boy. he had his first soccer practice tonight. he looked so grown up in his little soccer shorts and shoes and shin guards. he slept in the shin guards last night, he was really excited. i could see this was going to be more of a social hour for him. he would kick the ball and did listen to the coach (a little) but when he was told it was his turn to run the drill he said "but i'm talkin' to him", pointing at a new friend. he is such a friendly little guy. too bad the other kids are there to actually play soccer.

overall, it was a success. luke had fun and we all got some fresh air. olivia enjoyed pulling up grass and releasing it into the air.

so here's my big boy. all excited and ready to go.



and this one pretty much sums it up. playing with his shirt, trying desperately to stand still while waiting for his turn again.



and an "action" shot. when asked to dribble the ball this is what he did. he sort of walked and casually kicked it and then we he got close to the goal he picked it up to center it and then kicked it in to score. he doesn't quite get the "no hands" thing yet.

a few more from the arboretum

first a couple of jody's adorable little girls.





and one of luke. i call this one. heeeeeere goatie, goatie, goatie.

the boy's got it bad

well, it's official. lukey has his first crush, the sweet little sophia that lives down the street. the first time they played together her mom and i caught them playing "wedding". sophia had a blanket draped around her head and was hand in hand with lukey. they would walk a little bit and then turn and kiss each other. on the lips!!! and, well, the rest is history.

so today we took the kids to the arboretum and lukey had a little bit of competition. His name is logan. he's charming and sweet and smart and for those reasons he is quite a threat. haha. the boys were literally fighting over who was going to sit next to sophia, who was going to hold sophia's hand, and who got to talk to sophia. there may or may not have been a couple warning swings in either direction. and there may or may not have been a couple of screaming temper tantrums (luke not logan). oh, and there also may or may not have been an attempt of going straight to the top (logan's mama) and asking that she not allow logan to talk to sophia anymore (again, luke). boys! i learned so much about men in general by watching these two little 3 year olds nearly duke it out today.

so without further adieu. here she is. the one, the only...the beautiful miss sophia.



and i love this picture. it so clearly shows how smitten he is. poor little fella.



so other than the fact that sophia is an absolute doll, i believe the reason she stole my son's heart has to do with the fact that she will gladly play swords and pirates anytime. oh, and she likes to ride shot gun in the monster truck. we all love sophia!

sick house

so olivia has an ear infection. she is miserable, can't sleep, and has been fussing all day. the only time she is happy is if i am holding her or letting her nurse. i'm exhausted to say the least. and if that's not enough, luke starting throwing up right as we were about to start eating all the snacks and cookies i made for our early christmas party with nick's parents. i'm surprised anyone still had an appetite after seeing luke projectile vomit all the way from the living room to his bathroom. so after cloroxing just about everything in the whole house, we are finally back to square one. both kids are finally asleep. thank goodness. but, i'm not expecting that to last long. since the first puke episode, luke has been throwing up about every 30 minutes. and he is such a little trooper. he was literally opening up presents and taking breaks in between to go throw up. fun times, let me tell you.

scratch the "healthy sleep habits", replace with spanking

as it turns out the "healthy sleep habits" was a bust. at least as it pertained to luke. olivia seems to be doing great on it and, in fact, she slept from 8:30p to 5:10am this morning. but with luke, not so much. it was more of a game for him and with his endless supply of energy and persistence, we were just not going to win. so, we went back to our original plan. get out of bed and you get a spanking. the only difference is that we no longer threaten it, we just do it. the first night it took three spankings in a row for him to know we meant business and things were a changin'. the second night was about the same and then the third night on he has been sleeping all night long! he wakes up about 7:30a and just calls for me from his bed. and when i go in to get him he is in a great, happy mood and is usually singing or playing or has something silly to tell me. this morning he told me to "not go to work with daddy. stay home with lukey forever and ever and ever." we are also putting him to bed earlier (7:00p) and that seems to be helping too.

getting a little sleep at night really changes your entire outlook on the world. i am still waiting on olivia to wake up (it's 8:24a!) but when she does i think i will take the kids to see santa.

i'm exhausted

I started reading this book a few nights ago and realized that we have totally messed up with Luke. The kid just hates to sleep. I am finding myself getting up several times a night to deal with Luke not Olivia. Something is wrong with that.

So, two nights ago we implemented the "silent return to bed" technique. The first night was a fluke since he actually stayed in his bed all night. So last night was the first real night of the new rules. And also by some fluke Olivia decided she wanted to eat 4 times last night instead of the usual one. So starting at about 3am Luke began the nightly ritual of trying/bargaining/sneaking/scheming his way into our bed. After about 25 "silent returns to bed" he finally just got back in himself and went to sleep without a peep. I was up several more times with Olivia, which is why I am exhausted, but I am so pleased with how well this method worked with Luke. They say night two is the worst, so I am dreading that, but by night three it's supposed to be significantly better.

It was pretty difficult trying to stay "mechanical" and not smile or make eye contact. Especially when he was grabbing both of my cheeks in his hands and trying to turn my face to look at him. He would say "big smiles, mama" and "please talk to me, mama". I realized that all of this getting out of bed business is his way of getting more attention from us. I am going to try to devote more time to just do some Lukey and Mommy things during the day when sister is napping and also spend more one on one time after dinner.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that we have been "sleep training" sister for the last week or so and she is doing awesome, well except for last night. She is getting pretty good at self-soothing when we first put her in her bed for the night and is "protest crying" less and less. I have no idea what happened last night. :)

take two

i attempted for a second time to get a good photo of the kids for our christmas card. i don't know if i am just feeling the pressure because it is already a week into dec and i usually have my cards done by nov, or if i'm just having a hard time making decisions or maybe i am just being too picky. getting a good shot of one of your kids is one thing. getting a good shot of two of your kids, together, is a whole other story. i am exhausted. so since we will not be using any of these on the card, i thought i would share some of my favs. i have decided now that we will make attempt #3 tomorrow morning as a family. it should be a real good time.

our pudgy little princess.


and look who's almost sitting up!


this one is cute, but you can't see luke's face very well, so it's a no-go for the card.


buzz lightyear all cleaned up.


and this is the smile i get now every time i pull out the camera.


cute, but i can't be sending out a christmas card with my two year old's snake tattoo peaking out of his shirt sleeve. and the bag of candy just screams 'i'm a little stinker and my mom had to bribe me for this cheesy smile'. nice.


so stay tuned for 'take three'.

big helper

this is luke being a "big helper" today and holding up my grey card for a light check.



and this is luke showing ava how to smile.



luke had a hard time watching me take pictures of other kids today. he whined and cried and threw himself down on the floor a couple of times. rough life. poor kid.

i think i like this one better in black and white