Fix it

This week we've moved on from psychic pain to real, hard-core physical pain. Luke was diagnosed with hand-foot-mouth disease (just the mouth part at least) and it has involved some of the cruelest sores imaginable for me and him. In fact, most of the things I was prepared to describe this week fell under the TMI category. I kept thinking, "I should write about...oh, never mind." No one wants to read about it, maybe not even me fifteen years from now. Let's just say it's hideous, awful, painful, and making all of us cranky.

Since we've had so much lap time this week I've had a chance to observe lots of Luke the Reader. He has a great time with books, usually going from one object to another "Wha dis? Wha dis? Wha dis?" and so on. Other times he loves to name individual things: "That digger. That lawnmower. That forklift." Sometimes if he's particularly jolly he likes to mess around with Dave: "That pig. That pig. That pig" to everything on the page. Sometimes, if he's in bed, he just likes to hear the story, and he fills in the gaps where necessary. Like in Corduroy, when he creeps down from the shelf at night, "All shoppers gone home."

Apropos of nothing, today I had to miss the day with Luke. Instead I spent the day speaking at a conference...and I didn't get nervous or foul up or anything bad (woo-hoo!). It was just cool and easy, and I was so proud of myself. But I kept having this weird alter-ego thing where I kept trying to think of ways to incorporate Luke into my examples or anecdotes, just so people knew I was also a mom. I couldn't help it; I guess I didn't realize how much I thought of that as a central part of my identity, even as a professional person.

I came home to find Dave and Luke in the guest room, guiltily holding on to forbidden wires and plugs. Luke has an almost insatiable need to "fix" things, whether it be the car (see above) or the drums or the box that the rice steamer came in. His prize toys are the hammer from Grandpa, the chainsaw from Cousin Sam, and any tool at all, especially the forbidden ones, in daddy's garage. Sometimes his fixes cause more damage than the cuteness can justify (again, see photo above). Some fixes need to be done time and again (see the rice steamer box). That said, some things just plain need fixing, and we're all frustrated because we don't know how to fix them, other than to see what happens over time.