New Vocabulary Words

Thanks to a trip to Disney World, Luke has discovered a whole lot of new phrases and words. Here are a few of our favorites. Despite the cold, we had a magical time!


"Castle!"
"I'm too short to ride Test Track?"

CHOO-CHOOs!

"Ball!"

"Umbrella"

"Nemo"

"Bye-bye choo-choo train"

"More Teacups!"

"Cold, Daddy"

"Smile!"

"Dumbo"

"More yummies, peez"

"Jungle Boat"

"Genie Ride"

"Mickey Mouse!"

And, last but not least, Luke's new words include "Fireworks" and "Boom!" which he enjoyed every night before bed.

Pepper, Anyone?

Luke found a great deal of entertainment tonight with sprinkling salt and pepper on to a sugar packet which had found it's way onto his plate. He was "cooking." Before I could grab it fast enough, he had the pepper shaker inverted into his mouth with the funniest look on his face. I can't imagine pepper tastes that good to a toddler.

Luke is 2!

Lukeman today turned two
A party surrounded by lots of choo choos
A steam engine cake
That Mommy did make
And Paw Paw and Grandma came too.

Pizza a la Luke was yummy
Luke sampled the toppings for his tummy
Black Olives were good
Even raw onions could
Cause Luke to make faces that were funny.

Opening presents took a while
Each thing brought a big smile
New things for the train
And books for the brain
Plus a tricycle with lots of style.

Luke's height and weight is a mystery
We have to add for his growth history
This poem will end
With a promise to amend
After Luke pays a visit to the doctory.

A Choo Choo Fan We Have

Thank goodness we live in a metropolitan area that has a lot of trains, because otherwise, I might be driving for miles to satisfy what can only be classified as choo-choo obsession. The symptoms have been getting worse, and of course, we can only be too happy to keep feeding the habit. It started with family dinners at the Bartlett Tavern, where Luke could see trains coming into the station. He then started realizing we were heading in the general direction of the train station and exclaiming in a desperate voice, "Choo-choo!" Heaven forbid you would make a turn AWAY from the direction of the train station at that point. Needless to say, we tend to go places via a railroad crossing, which lucky for us, are bountiful.

Then, Grandma Bucciero brought a Thomas toothbrush for Christmas, which plays the theme song. The toothbrush could not just be left to be content in the bathroom, no. It has to accompany Luke to various places in the house and play constantly until we can distract him to turn it off. But, seeing as though it was hard to understand the words, I decided to try and find the lyrics online...I figure I might as well embrace it as best as possible, right? Well, I exposed Luke to the world of You Tube, which led to purchasing a Thomas the Tank Engine video to avoid being camped at the computer for long stretches. He only cares to watch the Sing A Long part (this is one musical kid...yay!) and really, considering he has never been even remotely interesting in TV, I really can't complain. Tonight on the way home from school, he says his usual, "Choo-choo" and then says, "Choo-choo TV." And so it goes.

I'm just so excited that he's taken to something that I've planned lots of train assorted goodies for the big birthday weekend. Hooray!!

Other than the unusual long stretch of super cold weather (we probably have over a foot of snow still on the ground and haven't been near freezing for weeks), there really isn't too much new with us. We enjoyed a nice time over New Years catching up on things and having some family time, and now we look forward to a wonderful 2nd Birthday weekend!!

The Best Christmas Present Ever

It is becoming increasingly difficult to have a chance for a few quiet minutes at the computer to blog. Luke isn't as accommodating as he once was and he is constantly on the go. Even when he's sitting, one body part is moving all of the time, but I suppose that is part of being a nearly two-year-old.

There is so much to blog about, but I must first of all say that I did get the greatest gift of all this Christmas. After months and months of saying "Daddy" and not really calling me something of any regularity, Luke finally says "Mommy." Or at least, it come out very distinctively "Ah-EEE." He just started running up to me and taking my hand and saying it to get my attention. What a wonderful gift!

There are many, many pictures of the last several weeks, which I'll let tell the story. Here, Luke has figured out how to smile for the camera.


He had a bit of stage fright with Santa, trying to keep his head as far away as possible. But, no tears. Next year, we'll work on asking Santa for something.


Luke's new kitchen, where he's doing a great job of imitating Daddy. Although, Luke's versions are decidedly more messy. BTW, this kitchen has special meaning for us, in that it was first loved by the Tieman girls. I look forward to being able to tell Luke about that.


Alas, the box is way fun, too.
In the midst of our holiday, Pinochle had a minor health problem. His anal gland ruptured, but I'll spare the details. Mike became quite good at applying warm compresses, and poor Pinochle had to don a lovely Elizabethan collar (that's what they call it, no lie). He is much better now, and only has a bald spot to show for the whole ordeal.

And then there was snow. I'd like to say that it was due to all of the meteorologists going on Christmas break, but apparently, we had a very rare phenomenon called something scientific (a.k.a. we just missed the forecast). What was supposed to be 1-2 inches turned into 10. But, with no where to go, we could just enjoy it and get Luke's sled out!

Ho, Ho, Ho!

We picked Luke up from day care on Monday to go out for family dinner. As we were driving, we hear a very deep and jolly, "Ho, Ho, Ho!" coming from the back seat. Clearly, Luke is paying extra attention to all of the Christmas stories he hears at school, as he knows this Santa thing can only mean fun, exciting things. :-)

We had a really fun and exciting weekend! Grandma and Grandpa were here to help us get ready for our first Chicago Christmas Party. You can see that Luke had a ball with Grandma's hat.
He got to see trains at the Arboretum, too, or "choo choos" as they are called around here.

The first snow of the year

Death To Christmas Lights

The Chicago weather cooperated much better this year for purposes of putting up Christmas lights outside. Last year, it started snowing the Sunday night after Thanksgiving and didn't stop until after Christmas, forcing those of us who aren't die hards to be Scrooges. In fact, last year, we didn't decorate anything for Christmas. This year, the snow waited until yesterday giving us plenty of time to work on the decor.

I had the whole master plan - new icicles that I purchased on sale last year, netted lights for the bushes, and our candy canes from Virginia. In fact, Dad and Mike finished everything the Saturday after Thanksgiving and it looked great. Everything was tested and approved. Then, night came, and timer clicked on....and no icicles. Figuring a poor connection, we waited until the next night to get out there and make a knot to hold the plugs together. The lights came on....and went out right after we had put away the ladder, replaced the bicycle that hangs in front of it, and pulled the van in the garage.

Now, it's Monday, and we're back out there, except that the first strand of icicles won't light at all. We try fumbling with replacing the fuses. It works...we pack up and head inside. Five minutes later, the lights are off.

By this time, I've decided it's time to google for a solution or throw everything away and give up until next year. But what kind of mother would I be if my kid's house is the only one on the block without more Christmas decorations?? Apparently, according to a site I found, you aren't supposed to hook more than 3 mini-lights together end to end and that appears somewhere in the fine print of the warning message stapled to the wire. We replaced the fuses one more time, and redid the extension cords, and since then....we've had brilliant beautiful icicle lights on the house. Just in time for the snow to start in earnest.