"I not a baby, I a big kid!"

For a while now, I have wanted to capture all the sweet things Luke says, but many of the ones I wanted to record have already changed. He's growing SO fast! He's officially 2 years, 7 months. He's at that awesome stage where he's got a certain degree of independence but he's still clinging to babyhood and pretty much everything he says we think is cute. Except when he's full on trouble. But even that is cute depending on our state of mind.

For months, he said "my" instead of "I" and it was precious. He says "I" now...

For many months, he would cutely say "Thank you for duh clean pants!" when I changed his diaper. I used to say this and he picked it up.

Right now, he's all about the fact that he is a big kid, so we hear a lot of "My am NOT a baby" "Cora say I uh baby!" and "I a big kid!"  Last week, I said "Luke you are beautiful" and he said "I not beautiful, I a big kid!"

He often lets me know what "Cora said."  This sounds like "Cora say yucky Lou-Lou," or "Cora say stinky Lou-Lou." On the other hand, he loves his sister. Today, he ran toward her as she emerged, groggily from her room, and just stood in the hallway waving to her. Seeing her through the play ground fence at morning drop-off is what makes his tears stop.

He has cried every single morning since late August when he's left at school. This took me by surprise. I had him in my mind as "third-baby-smooth-sailing." I was feeling super comfortable as Luke moved to Waldorf where he would have Ms. Jan, who had taught Jack and Cora and who is a member of my village. I thought it would be simple for Luke to switch schools, thinking that going to school LESS and WITH Cora was an easy transition. But I forgot that even though he'd been in a daycare setting since four months old, that particular setting was all he'd ever known. He was lovingly cared for by Ms "Eya" and Ms Toya in a class of just a handful of children. This year, he moved to being one of the younger kids in a class of 16 and the transition was a little rough. He cried for hours some days 😓 We tried all the positive talk, we tried Jacob handling drop off, we tried a consistent morning routine. Ms. Jan tried letting Luke visit Cora and letting Cora visit Luke. She resorted to a lot of holding Luke. Finally, we brought star blankie too school and that has helped a lot! My little Linus drags it around and one particularly pitiful day when I asked "who did you play with at school?" he said "I play with star blankie." Ms. Jan said he was only too happy to spread star blankie on the ground and lay down with his thumb in his mouth. I think he was having trouble with earlier wake-ups and a much longer stretch until nap, but she's been putting star blankie away more and more and he's doing so much better now. When I arrive at pick-up he runs to me and immediately says "I cried" but now he says "I cried 2 seconds."  As of early November, he seems to love school and just needs to get some tears out at drop-off and then can get on with his day.

He's learning a lot of independence at school. He likes to put his own shoes on now and he proudly packs up his own lunchbox. He also loves how the school sink is one where he can turn the water on/off by himself and get his own soap.

He continues to follow in Jack's and Cora's footsteps as a little reader and often has a book in his arms along with his blankie. In the morning his priority had been mama's milk, book. (Last month we dropped his morning nursing, leaving him nursing only once each day. I thought he might be fully weaned by now but he (and I) can't quite seem to call it completely quits.) His favorite books of the moment are Richard Scarry's Cars, Trucks, and Things that Go, Come Along Daisy, "BB Wolf", Frog and Toad, and Berenstain Bear books.

He's a precious mix of baby and big kid. He still continues to be my soul-child, saying things like "I love you Mommy" unprompted and out of the blue. He says "You are the best Mommy in the whole world" and also tells me "You're kind" and "You're special" and rubs my arm. He loves to be held and he still loves "nuggles" (snuggles).

After peeing in the potty and pooping in his underwear for a while, I think it has all finally clicked. This is exactly the age that Jack and Cora had their aha moments so they definitely share some developmental genes.

He loves to be outside, he'd always be happy to listen to a story, he's obsessed with the Frog and Toad audio CD "Listen to Frog and Toad?", and he just traveled 1,500 miles roundtrip (in one week!) to visit his grandparents and cousins in SC and he was pretty amazing!

My beautiful, blue-eyed, golden-curled soul-child - I LOVE YOU!