Party of Five

Thursday, April 22, 2010

A First

I never have a problem dropping Luke off at Punky's in the morning. Well, I shouldn't exactly say that. Everyday I feel that mommy guilt. Everyday. I walk back to my car after saying "love you, have fun, bye bye" and wish that I could spend the whole day with him instead of going to work, but then I remember how happy and excited he is to see Jamie in the morning and try to get on with my day as best I can. Lately he has been almost taking off out of my arms before I can even get a hug and a kiss in there. He hears the kids in the other room and heads straight to his chair to eat some breakfast. The only time the mornings are a little rough is when Jamie isn't there and Punky greets everyone in the morning. The kids all love Punky, but they don't love seeing her in the morning. It totally throws them off and Luke is included. Jamie was off last week for a couple of days and Luke was a little hesitant to go in the first day and the second day he full out cried (broke my heart). So we are always thankful when we see Jamie there in the morning, luckily she barely takes any time off!

Pick up time is always great. As excited as he is when I drop him off in the morning, Luke is at least 10 times more excited to see me (or Wally) when I pick him up and that makes me a very happy momma! His little legs go as fast as they can to get to me and I get the biggest hug and smile ever! He waves and says bye to everyone and off we go.

But today was different. He was still just as equally excited to see me, but he wasn't quite ready to go home!

I pulled up to the house and went to walk into the house, but the door was locked, which means the kids are in the backyard. So I headed to the back and as I peaked over the fence, I saw Lukey running out of the house into the backyard. He seemed super excited to get outside! Punky unlocked the gate for me, and he saw me as soon as I walked in. He came running up to me, like always, but then he just as quickly pointed to the yard and said 'ball'. He was off to get the basketball that was in the grass. And then he was off to climb on this tiny tricycle they have out there, and then he was off to stand on the scooter with training wheels, then he was off to try to climb the slide steps (until he was told to get down), and then.....he just kept going. Everytime I tried to tell him it was time to go home, he would run off to do something else. He just got outside, he wasn't ready to leave. So we played for a bit with everyone and then unfortunately, I had to just pick him up and go. He was not happy for about, oh 10 seconds. Once he saw the car, he was good. But that was a first...he was having too much fun to go home. He loves being outside! We finally made it home and had our own fun! We made mini pizzas (on english muffins) and Luke helped to sprinkle the cheese - he thought that was pretty cool. Although it was a 'some cheese for the pizza and some cheese for me' kind of a deal! :)

Weekend of Walking

Last Saturday morning Luke and I, along with my mom and Kathy, left La Salle bright and early (6:15 AM) to head down to Illinois Wesleyan in Bloomington to participate in the nursing program's 50th anniversary run/walk (Aunt Car Car is a nursing major there - only one more year - woot!). Stacey took the train down there on Friday night too. It was a bit chilly since it was pretty early - the run/walk started at 8 AM - so we had to get bundled up. Stacey and Carly ran, the rest of us strolled our way to the finish line.

He wore my gloves for awhile!

Nice Carly and Luke, ha!

Being silly with Stacey

Run Carly Run!

Strolling along with Aunt Kathy

After the race, we took a little tour of the nursing classrooms/lab and wandered around campus for a bit. Luke wasn't digging the stroller at this point so he did some walking and we did some carrying! We then made our way to Panera for a late breakfast. Lukey fell asleep in the car though and was OUT! I thought for sure he would wake up when I took him out of the car - NOPE, then he would for sure wake up when we walked into Panera and ordered - NOPE...he was tired! So we sat at a booth and I laid him down and there he slept for probably 30 minutes or maybe even longer. Once he woke up, he enjoyed the bagel we had bought for him and we were off to do some shopping.

Look what I found!

Passed out at Panera Bread

I was in search of a new picture for my kitchen/dining room so we headed to Gordman's. Between 5 women and a cute little boy to buy for, we did some damage there. Kathy said she could spend 6 hours just shopping there - I think we all could! They have so many fun, unique decorations/stuff for your home. I think I could re-decorate my whole house just from buying from there. Then we made a quick stop at The Children's Place and headed back to Carly's apartment to hang out.

After some chaos when leaving Carly's (just confusion and plans gone awry), we headed back to La Salle. (Stacey stayed another night and took the train back to Chicago on Sunday morning.) My parent's had a 50th birthday party to go to that night and Wally was in desparate need of seeing his little man (he had games every day this week and only caught Luke maybe twice before he went to bed) so Luke and I headed back to Monee around 7:30 PM. I wanted him to have some "out of car" time since we did lots of driving that day. So I put him in his jammies and off we went. He fell asleep about Morris and was out until our exit. Wally had his 2 assistant coaches over so Luke and I hung out with them for about 45 minutes and off to bed we went. Luke was still up bright and early (5:40 AM) so Daddy got lots of time with him on Sunday!!!!

This was at my parents - Luke somehow got music to play on the computer!!!

Sunday we went to church, Luke took a nap, and then we took a walk to the park. After some fun there, Luke decided he didn't want back in his wagon so he ended up walking all the way home (probably about 4 or 5 blocks). I couldn't believe he made it the whole way. And he walked on the sidewalk and didn't even dilly-dally too much. We had some more fun in the backyard and then it was time for dinner, bath, and bedtime. It was a long, but fun weekend!!!!

Wwwwweeeeee!!!!!

Check out that hair!

He thought he would pull the wagon home.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Week in Pictures

Here is a wrap up of our week thus far in lots of pictures!

Sunday
This video makes me laugh!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Monday
Someone forgot to call J.U.L.I.E (LOL) and they hit a gas line outside the Village Hall so we got to leave early that day...yay! I picked up Luke and we enjoyed the weather.

We got out the sidewalk chalk, but he wasn't really into it, maybe later this summer.

Tuesday
Luke and I headed to Andrew's baseball game at Marion Catholic.

Reading a baseball book at the baseball game of course!

Wednesday
We ate some ravioli for dinner and since we haven't had any dinner or bath pics lately, here you go.

Thursday
Nala's birthday - see previous post.

Here is Luke during our walk with Nala that day.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Happy Birthday Nala!

Today, April 15th, is Nala's 5th birthday! This date is better known to others as Tax Day, but as a CPA who doesn't do taxes, we would rather celebrate our dog's birthday :)

Just for fun, here is Nala's Story:

We got Nala in July (or maybe the end of June - I can't remember and don't feel like digging out the paperwork) of 2005. I was living in an apartment in Willowbrook at the time. Wally and I knew that the dog we picked out would be our dog and Wally was going to be moving to the 'burbs with me soon. So we started our dog search at a couple of shelters and gradually were looking. Then, when driving on Ogden Avenue one day, we saw a Happiness is Pets store with a sign that said "Puppies!". We pulled right in! We went in "just to look" of course, but there was this little black furball all curled up in the back of the cage. You couldn't see her face, but the sign said she was a peek-a-poo (pekingese/poodle mix). We had a peek-a-poo when I was little (Ginger) and though she was a little (ok maybe a lot) crabby in her old age, she was a good dog! So right away I wanted to see this one at the store. Another thing that grabbed our attention was that she was on SALE! When asked why, we were told that she was getting too big since she was born in April. Well as soon as the lady said that, I wanted her even more. So we got to play with her and hold her and she was just as sweet and furry as can be...she had this mane that made her look like a lion (hence the name Nala (from the Lion King), although it wasn't quite that easy for us to come up with a name we both agreed on). So we paid for her, went straight to PetSmart and brought her home. And so began the potty training and the fun of being a dog owner. She is our first baby and is definitely a big part of our family. She is the best sale item I ever bought :) (I have to say that I really can't believe that we got Nala at a pet store...you hear some bad things about them. We got very lucky, but I think in the future we will go a different route.)

So here are some pictures and video from Nala's 5th birthday!

Lukey helped Nala open her presents.