New Trick

Luke asked me to write a quick post, while he is napping, about his new trick. He's such a big boy now that he can sit up just like his big brother. And boy does he think it's a pretty neat trick! He giggles and grins while Mommy cheers. 

Happy Easter!

A Comparison to Tickle Mom's Fancy

Both boys at around 6 months old

Easter Egg Hunt 2011

 Our friends, the Perlicks, hosted an Easter Egg Hunt at their house, and it seems everyone found what they were looking for. Jack had fun filling his basket with Easter Eggs and was only slowed down upon discovering Easter Eggs are filled with tasty treats. Luke enjoys being held and spent most of the afternoon strapped to my chest. His enjoyment of the day was evident in the number of times I felt him kicking his feet with delight. Mom is always looking for the perfect picture, and she found the cutest subjects in the beautiful backyard our friend Nick has worked on all spring. Work has been very hectic lately, and I found watching my sons enjoy themselves and sharing time with good friends very rejuvenating. Nick and Erin hosted the perfect Easter Egg Hunt, and we returned home with the relaxation, memories, photographs, and candy we were looking for.

Sitting with friends

Filling his basket

What's in this egg?

Candy time

Eating more candy in the shade

First Easter Egg

Fireman

We saw the firemen at the grocery store today. You wouldn't believe how many people tried to talk to Jack about his hat. He completely ignored each and every one of them. Lol

On Rainy Days Like This

it's nice to remember that we're going to the beach in less than a month!

Pretty Spring Day

Luke in one of John's sweaters and hoods

Jack's new thing- blowing dandelions

(Notice the fluff on his lip. :-)

Blowing

Do you like my hat? Jack liked the Go Dog Go joke.

In Grandpa Thorn's chair

Baby Got Sass

How do you spell trouble? J-A-C-K. As in, we are in big trouble with that guy. Let me tell you why. This morning I took the boys for a walk. When we got home, I asked Jack if he wanted lunch. Of course he would rather play, so he headed upstairs and I reheated some pasta that was in the refrigerator. Jack spotted me from upstairs eating the pasta. His response was, "That's mine," and he came jogging down the stairs to claim his lunch. Between the two of us, we finished the pasta. Apparently, Jack didn't get enough pasta and asked for more powder. I knew he meant pasta, but I handed him the parmesan cheese instead. He screeched something about how he needed pasta to put it on. I still pretended to not understand simply because I didn't want to cook more pasta. Eventually he said, "I need (he confuses want and need all of the time) more pasta to put the powder on. I'm still eating." I couldn't deny understanding that, so I repeated it. His reply was a very annoyed sounding. "Gosh!" Totally sassy. So the good parent I am, I burst into laughter. I'm sure I've created a monster.

Apples and Trees

Do you know how they say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree?

I think there may be something to that!

John, Jack, and I were looking through a box of pictures of me. Time and time again, John and I would say that reminds us of Jack. Digging through the kitchen drawers, riding our "motorcycles", bathing in the sink, crying... I could have put a lot more similarities up. As I sat down to write this post I started to think that maybe I should be thinking that the apple and the tree go even farther back, back to the people who took these pictures of me (trees) and myself (apple) since obviously we found the same moments endearing. 

A Little Giggle

I wanted to write a really quick post before I forget something that made me giggle this morning. I was changing Jack's diaper when he said, "I want to go see the potty train." Huh? When I questioned him further because I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about, he told me that the potty train was at Ross's house. Aha! He'd overheard a phone conversation Erin and I had about starting to potty train Ross and believed that Ross was seeing a train that he didn't get to see. Try explaining the term potty train to a two year old. It isn't easy.

Do you think it would confuse him even more if I bought this book about potty training for him? It was in my Amazon cart. With this newest misunderstanding, I'm going to have to think this over.

Monkey in the Park

Jack is a monkey. The other day I caught him on the wrong side of the banister that is in our stairwell. If he fell, he would easily have dropped six feet before hitting the ground. He also routinely climbs our bookshelves to reach things I've tucked away so he can't play with them. And you all remember him climbing out of his crib, right? 

I took Jack to the park by Grandma's house today and just watched as he climbed. I found myself almost grimacing as I watched, sure that he would get hurt. The kid is strong, agile, and determined. 

Hanging from the monkey bars

Climbing a ladder

Just hanging

He loves the tire swing. I may push a little too hard according to the grandmother who lives across the street from Jane and Marion. 

Climbing trees too

Special Gift From Home

I grew up going to a church that I loved. The focus was on faith, family, and neighbors. Honestly, that basically defined the entire town I grew up in. Everybody knew everybody, and in turn Odin was more than just a town of strangers. It was a town full of neighbors. With my childhood, that was something I connected with. I loved it that Rusty, the postmaster, greeted me with a smile when I rode my bike in to get the mail. It made me feel good that the old men gathered for coffee at the grocery store wanted to talk to me about my latest softball game. I appreciated neighbors helping my dad get his crops out when he couldn't do it for himself. This particular story really explains what I loved about the community I grew up in. Most of you know that when I was 14 my dad became ill with cancer. He had a major surgery that he never fully recovered from. In the spring of that year, there was cultivating that had to be done in the fields. I had spent most of my childhood around tractors, so my dad thought I could do it. We hooked up the smallest, most manageable tractor my dad owned to the cultivator, and my dad sent me to a field several miles from our house. It turns out there is quite a learning curve to cultivating. Those tiny new corn plants don't stand any chance when they have been run over by the tractor and the cultivator. I was on my second round and not doing well at all. I came to the end of the row and found a huge John Deere tractor with an enormous cultivator behind it waiting for me up on the road. A man I'd never met, and whose name I still don't know, indicated that he'd like me to stop. I did and walked up to the road to talk to him. He asked me if I was Larry Thorn's youngest. I told him that I was. He told me to go on home, that he would take care of the rest of the job for me. He said that he had heard we had more important things to deal with at home. And basically that's what happened that year. The community organized Dad's field work to be completed. 

John and I were married at St. Olaf Lutheran Church in Odin. I won't try to tell you that it was important to me then. It didn't seem significant at all. In fact, I thought we should be married where we met, in Tennessee. Dad threw a hissy fit (no exaggeration), and I decided to give in and marry at St. Olaf. Now I'm glad I did. It's where I come from.

With all of that being said, you can better understand how much this gift means to me. Every year, St. Olaf's menfolk make faith chests for the kids who are being confirmed. It's their intention that the kids would put things like their Bibles (Here's a link to the first Bibles that I want to get for the boys.) and other memorabilia that played a role in them acquiring their faith. Kathy and Kevin decided to order chests for Jack and Luke this year with their baptism dates engraved on them. To top it off, Kevin and Jake were two of the menfolk who made the chests along with my confirmation mentor, Lloyd Carlson, and high school friend, Nathan Olson. They are stunning, and they mean the absolute world to me because they represent where I came from. Thank you, Johnson family. We are so lucky to be loved by you.

An Obsession

Ever since Jane and Marion gave me the video monitor, I have become obsessed with getting sweet pictures of the boys while they are sleeping. I can't help it. Their peaceful faces undo me nearly every day. Today when I saw that Jack fell asleep with his book open to the tractors page, I simply had to sneak in to snap this shot. Getting these pictures is tricky. Jack's room is very dark. I really need the flash, but using it would wake him. I can't get too close. I only get one chance. The pressure...  

Here's Luke today; asleep in my bed (I snuck out) with pillows to protect him once he wakes. This is our routine every afternoon. I could fight Luke and make him sleep in his own bed, or I could let him fall peacefully asleep in my arms. He's only going to be little once, and before too long he won't want me to hold him. So, I always choose to let him fall asleep in my arms. I'll admit, some days I sleep too. 

A Bagger's Summation

Our Publix seems to hire a certain kind of man to bag their groceries. Usually they are retired, and this is the job they do because retirement bores them. They love people. You can tell how much they love people by the amount of talking they want to do while they help you put your groceries in your car. I've talked with the same bagger about how much he likes the Nissan Juke a couple of times. I've heard an awful lot about the weather forecast. And, I know that one particular bagger has one granddaughter, and her name is Alexis. She's eight.

I had a conversation with the chatty bagger at the grocery store last week. He talked with Jack for a bit before he turned his attention to me and Luke, who was strapped into the carrier on my chest. "I bet that's a good baby," he wagered. 

"He is," I replied. 

"You always know the good ones because they have that bald spot on the backs of their heads," he explained. He went on to share his rationale. Good babies sleep a lot. They sleep their heads bald. Inside I was chuckling because I knew that on one account at least (sleeping a lot), Luke had this guy fooled. 

It's funny how with one glance the guy pretty much summed up my baby. Luckily, it was a favorable summation. It certainly gave us something to talk about.

Together

Bike Ride

John took Jack for a bike ride today after Jack laid in bed for an hour without ever taking a nap. They were riding along and stopping frequently to throw rocks in the river when John asked Jack a question only to realize that the little booger had fallen asleep.

Brilliant Morning

Occasionally, I am brilliant. This morning, I had one of those moments. If you've spent much time with Jack lately, you know he's gone digger crazy. It seems that every fifth word out of his mouth is digger. He wants to stop and watch them working along our road. He begs to see YouTube videos of them putting dirt in a dump truck or picking up a quarter (Those operators are freakishly good!). Or, he wants to be playing with his set of Matchbox construction trucks (bulldozer, dump truck, cement mixer, scraper, roller) and his Tomica digger. He's had these Matchbox trucks for awhile and has been very happy pretending to be hauling dirt. Today I came up with a plan. I put oatmeal in a cake pan and let him pretend it was dirt. He loved it! 

In fact, he played with his construction set in the oatmeal for 2 1/2 hours this morning while I emptied the dishwasher, took a shower, and finished two loads of laundry. Brilliant, I say! What did lil' Luke do while Jack and I were so busy? He took a nice morning nap and then played with his friend, Frog. 

Now, brilliance doesn't happen all too often around here (unless John, Jack, or Luke are the ones having them), so don't expect it again for a long while!

When Daddy Works Late

John had to work past the boys' bedtime on Monday. I've been pretty nervous about doing bedtime by myself because Luke goes to bed before Jack, so Jack would have to be unattended while I nursed Luke and put him in bed. Usually I ask Annie to come out and help, but John didn't give us enough time to coordinate that. 

It went better than I expected. Jack found an activity to occupy himself with while I was busy with Luke. See?

Notice that all of the shoes are paired correctly. He's so smart! Trying on each and every one of these pairs kept him busy the thirty minutes it took me to put Luke in bed. And he's done the same activity every day since. He's so silly.

Grandparents

In an ideal world, my boys would have two sets of grandparents to love them. I know for a fact that my dad was an amazing grandfather. I'm certain from what I know about my mother that she would have been a loving grandmother too. 

Since I couldn't have two sets of grandparents for the boys, God blessed me with one amazing set. I loved Jane and Marion before I had kids, but my love for them has grown exponentially since I've gotten to know them as grandparents. They're kind, generous, and they love my children unconditionally. That's exactly the kind of love that every little boy deserves. 

Luke- 5 Months

Little Luke is five months old today. Where has the time gone? Our littlest is a delight these days. He's learning to be a good sleeper. We think that the heater intake was waking him up because it rattles so much. Ever since I started breaking our heater taking the vent out at night, he has been sleeping like a champ. Last night he slept from 10:00 pm-5:15 am. Those hours are manageable. 

Luke is quite possibly the smiliest baby I've ever been around. He finds just about anything funny. John thinks he is going to be our jokester. Wherever I take him people comment on one of two things: his size or his smile. 

I've started feeding Luke rice cereal. He's catching on now, but it was a rough start. Last week, Jack asked if he could try Luke's cereal. When I gave him a bite, he gagged so hard that he threw up on the kitchen floor. Nice. 

I took some awesome pictures of Luke with Grandma today, but I am going to wait and share those tomorrow. They're too special to just throw in with this post.

Playing Hard

He plays hard- digging in the sand, riding his "motorcycle", sprinting as fast as he can down our hill, hunting for turkeys, teaching Lucy new tricks, throwing rocks in the ditch, scaling the fence, jumping on Matthew's trampoline, loading his dump truck with rocks, filling his wagon with sticks for the fire, or riding in Daddy's makeshift sidecar.

Luckily he also sleeps hard. 

Peekaboo

I sure wish they weren't blurry, but oh well.