Reasons to love Jack, Cora, and Luke

There are many but these are reasons from this week!

Jack

- Jack loves, loves our weekly library trip and had read 4 full books, including a chapter book, within hours of getting home.  Jacob bought him a clip on light for his bunk bed so he doesn't kill his eyes with his late night reading.

- We are working on responsibility right now and after a complete fail on Monday morning being ready for his carpool ride, Jack rocked it on Tuesday, bounding into our room at 6:30am fully dressed and with his bed already made.  He even had put his socks by the stairs.


Cora
- In the Waldorf Kindergarten, each child has a symbol that labels their chair, drawing book, cubby, etc.  I saw Cora's symbol was a purple flower but I didn't recognize the flower.  When we were in the grocery store, I asked Cora if she could point out her flower. She said, "Oh I asked Ms. Heidi the name, my symbol is a Never Forget Me" :) :)  We've said the correct name several times but it's not sticking.  To Cora, the flower is still a "Never Forget Me."

- Tonight, in an impromptu sports session on the porch, Cora said "I'm the Saints!" then proceeded to grab a baseball bat, hit a wiffle ball as if it was a golf ball, and then yelled "Goal!"

Luke
- Luke now grabs my legs and lays his head on my legs or in my lap.  :) :)  His hugs are the best.

- Luke's bedtime routine continues to be the highlight of my day. He's so sweet, so cute, and so entirely into every element of the routine from commanding "Yight!" for me to turn on the lamp to "Door!" to make sure the door is shut, "book!" until we've read all 3 of his books, and "Dat" and pointing to exactly where he wants to sit/be or what he needs.  He cracks me up.

- When I was putting Luke down tonight, we hear a crash and Cora wailing downstairs.  Luke stops nursing and says "Tota!" So we went down to check on her together.  I love to see his awareness and empathy developing.

I love these three.

Jack Landry, 1st Grader

We are very proud of our quickly growing biggest boy.  We can't believe we have a child who is old enough to be missing his two front teeth and who is in the first grade!

1st day of 1st Grade assignment: bring in your favorite book - yes, this is a 1980's edition, thanks Uncle Chris!

Of course in this Kindergarten pic, he now looks so young to me!

4.5 - Waldorf Kindergarten Year

3.5 - Waldorf Nursery Year Two

2.5 - Waldorf Nursery Year One

Cora - growing up!

My memory is that Cora's back to school pictures from last year were similar to this year's - that she hadn't changed that much.  Well a quick look back tells me I'm wrong!  Here's the evidence!

4 years - August 2016 - LONG legs!

LONG hair!

3 years - August 2015 - look at that sweet baby chub!

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2 years - August 2014

Those curls!

14 months - August 2013

17 Months!

Our gentle baby is easing us into the toddler stage. There are moments now where I see the little kid that is emerging but still many more moments where he remains our snuggly baby.

There are lots of cute and fun things to share about Luke this month!

Likes
- He loves to go outside and will be by the door with his shoes at the mention of the word. He likes to swing, be pushed around in the little fire truck or on his "bike" and he's figuring out how to get up our slide. He loves the ducks still and walks over yelling "Ey Duh!" and now insists on helping carry and dump their scraps.

Vigorous pushing from brother Jack

- He loves Ms. Larita his infant teacher who spends part of her day in his new toddler room.  Stop the presses but this mama's boy actually cried to leave Ms. Larita one day recently and REACHED OUT OF MY ARMS TO GO BACK TO HER. My pride was hurt but for Ms. Larita, who has so abundantly loved my baby, I can take it! We are in the ridiculously sweet situation of a 4 child classroom with 2 rotating teachers who are awesome. I know Luke loves having a space where everything is age appropriate and fun and not a constant whir of "no", "not that", "No, Luke", "No!" like our house can sometimes feel!

Big boy off to school

- He still loves his mama's milk now referred to as "mah mih" which is his quicker way of saying mama milk but which also cutely sounds like he's personalizing his supply.

Celebrating with Tante Sara at her shower, the only boy allowed!

- He still loves to sleep and is that rare toddler still happily taking two daily naps at 17 months.

- His blankie. We had 3 versions but somehow lost one. That leaves one home blankie and one school blankie. This has obvious challenges.When Luke got a 24 hour stomach bug and threw up all over his blankie we tried to offer replacements and he just gave us these quiet and insistent head shakes. He wasn't a happy camper until reunited with clean blankie several hours later.

What's New and Notable
- Luke says "Mine!" loudly. My hypothesis is not that he picked this up from anyone else but that he divined the necessary word to compete in his world. Jack and Cora often take things from him (usually because they are trying to keep him safe) but he's learning to speak up. Since he's still our baby, we still find the "mine" shrieks cute.

- Lots of new words: "down," "knock-knock," "hot!" (which he says both for food and the weather), "boy", "no," "more", and "all done!"  The last two he both signs and says loudly, along with "wawa!" to help keep us informed of where he's at in his mealtime.  He calls himself "babble" for baby and that's one of those babyisms that we promote and say right back to him.  For Jack, I remember we said "nummy" for "another" bc we thought it sounded so cute when he said it. And we still call oatmeal "yum-yum" around here.

- Jacob worked hard to teach Luke "I love you." This past weekend Luke called out "I lub-ew" unprompted as I was walking out of his room. Heart melting moment for mommy :) He also blows kisses when you prompt him to say goodbye.

Daddy Attack or Attack Daddy?

- Luke is a head shaker. Whenever there is something suggested he doesn't like, he just vigorously and (usually) silently shakes his head. It's really cute!  I actually was mimicking him to Jacob and pulled something in my neck that hurt for days...

The day Luke broke a plate, drew with a green marker on his face, and tracked poop around when his diaper malfunctioned :)

For some reason, we weren't even mad at him :)