All creatures great and small

So the great Fratello Four-Day Weekend is still in full swing and we've done so much I can barely even remember the beginning. A haircut for Luke...a day in Topanga...a day at the aquarium...and we still haven't made it to the beach yet. That'll be tomorrow. For now, we're basically trying to keep things interesting while we manage this new-found habit of throwing a tantrum over the smallest thing (Where's my balloon? I want a cupcake! I don't want to get dressed! etc.). It's balanced out by an even richer sense of humor, especially while reading the food book (tell him there's a picture of spapple and aghetti instead of apple and spaghetti and he's completely gone). Things tend to balance out on the positive side, at least for now. Now it's time for some much-needed rest.

who puts you to school

The first night after I wrote the sleep blog, Dave helped Luke with the whole jamas-on-and-teethbrushing routine, but then Luke came looking for me, grabbed my hand, and led me into his room. When we got there, Dave was sitting at the foot of the bed, in the book-reading "put you to bed" spot.

"Oh, NO!" said Luke. "Who's sitting there?"

Poor Dave. He just does not get enough credit. Let's give him a round of applause for elevating the school drop-off to a fine art. As in, maybe I can take Luke to school without a tear now, but no one does it like Dave does. I'm going to take the liberty here of sharing his daily morning update from today:

Well, when Postman Pat was over, Luke jumped out of my lap, said, "T'mon, Daddy, go to school!" And I said let's look at the lunchbag, and he said, "Maybe some blueberries!" And there were, and he was pleased, then said, "Get the Cold One." So we did, and we went to the door and he said, "Let's see Miss Beverly." Of course we did that too.

I gathered an all-boy crowd again for book-reading, 4 of them, until Roxanna came over and boldly handed me a book about manners featuring a monkey. I deferred to her and read that after we finished book one. Meanwhile, Kadin left during the monkey book to bring back a gigantic book (seriously, like 3 ft by 3 ft) about a mouse that eats a strawberry while fearful that a big bear is going to come get the strawberry. Actually it was cooler than that sounds maybe.

While I was reading the strawberry book (which Kadin called "the scary, scary book" and "monster book" because of the looming bear - who never actually appears), Luke and Roxanna took over naming most things on the pages. Luke asked me what the words said frequently.

When we finished that book Luke rolled around in my lap, put his face up to mine and said, "Let's see Miss Beverly." I said "great" and we went over there. He said he wanted Papa-Damma, but he brightened when she told him that today they're going to do something messy with shaving cream outside. But first they're going to pull out instruments. OK! he said. And off I went.

No question, he's the most famous guy at school. And he writes me a complete update every day. How can you not love a dad like that?

Who puts you to bed

No need to remind anyone that sleep is somewhat of an obsession in our house; aside from me and Dave, now there's Luke. Every night, sometime between dinner and teeth-brushing, comes his inevitable question: "Who puts you to bed?" as in, 'Who's putting me to bed?'

In the past there wasn't much of a question or an issue:

Ages birth-3 weeks: Sleep?
3 weeks-5 months: Nursed to sleep by mom, then swaddled and rocked by dad
5 months-18 months: Nursed to sleep; occasional rocking to sleep with bottle from dad
18 months-19 months: Rocked to sleep by dad after protesting wildly for mom
19 months: Gently (albeit noisily) trained to put himself to sleep by dad
19 months-24 months: Happily accepted being patted and tucked into crib by dad
25 months: Increasingly resisted being put into crib by dad and certainly not by mom. Culminated in one unfortunate night of dad being in Sacramento and mom in tears on the phone at 11 pm with toddler screaming in the background
25 months plus a day after that: Changed over from crib to bed and happily willing to go to sleep again, only this time prefers mom once again. Theories abound, but most likely having to do with the fact that mom curls up in the bed with him and nearly falls asleep in the process.

For a while, when Dave started putting Luke to bed, it was a huge relief to me. I had a whole extra 30 minutes of my day, whittled down by only the amount of time it took to do the dishes and clean up the kitchen. But what Dave wasn't telling me, and what I only gradually learned, was that it is increasingly cool to put Luke to bed, especially now that he talks. Dave wasn't kidding when he said he felt like he had pulled one over on me by taking over the tucking-in role.

Now I "let" Dave put Luke to bed but I am secretly happy when I get a chance to do it. For one thing, it means I don't have to do the dishes. But for another thing, I get to hear the last remaining things that are on his mind from the day. It often comes out after we say our prayers....he'll mention that he wants to give special thanks for Daoud and his drums, or that Michael pushed him at school, or that Teacher Alinda was chewing gum today. For the last few weeks, he'll often curl up and mumble something about wanting his Grandma and Papa, or perhaps tah-sert (dessert).

Last night (continuing this on Monday morning) Dave had to go to Sacramento. Nevertheless, I got the question anyway: "Who puts you to bed?" "Me, of course!" I told him. He mulled this for a moment, then agreed, "Yes, Daddy go downstairs and do dishes."

This morning, given that Dave was not here to do the usual morning drop-off at school, I got another interesting question: "Who puts you to school?" Luke asked. Well, kid, you're stuck with me today.

My school-taking skills are pretty rusty (much like my bed-putting skills once were). I don't have the funny banjo music in my car, I don't know most of the kids, and I don't have the ability to draw a crowd with my book-reading sessions. Yet amazingly, it went by without a tear. Dave's going to be in trouble if I start liking the drop-off too.

The perch

Before we had Luke in our lives, one of my favorite down-time activities was lying draped across our love-seat, reading or sometimes just staring off into space (or sleeping, especially when I was pregnant). Dave called it my "perch." After I had Luke, I never had much perch time and I sort of got out of the habit.

But lo and behold - the perch is back in my life, only now I'm not alone there. Luke has started to enjoy lying back in the perch with me. We pull back all of the curtains so we can look up in the trees and telephone lines and scout for squirrels, or if we're lucky, an adventurous cat. Luke calls it "my nest." For a toddler, he can lie amazingly still just watching and listening to the sound of an occasional airplane (or jackhammer).

This morning we were sitting in the perch, more comfortable than ever, and we were lucky enough to see three squirrels.

"This is nice," I said.
"Nice - Yes!" he agreed.

I knew that we had a concert to go to but I didn't want to interrupt precious perch time. Finally I got up to see what time the concert started so we could get out of the house at a reasonable time - Yikers! - It started 10 minutes ago!

I briefly considered just staying on the perch. But we had friends to meet and In-N-Out Burger to eat. Maybe we'll go back to the perch after naptime.

Table for three

If you have a day that's filled with fun activities that you can check off in your mental scorecard of how you're doing, how does that compare with a day where there's nothing on the books but you still have a good time? Today we did nothing much of anything, but yesterday we did everything...Mother's Day tea at Luke's school, picnic at my office, then Shabbat at Eitan's house with Hatcher and assorted parents. Today - eh? We had big plans to go to the beach but when Luke seemed to be having just as much fun walking around with a hose, we just scaled back on our ambitions. Fine with me; I needed a day like this. Lots of other things to say, probably, but I just want to go to bed and see if I can make it through tomorrow (24 hours) without another load of laundry...

Luke's latest revelation: "I have blond hair!"
Latest skill aquisition: He can sing the alphabet now (but it's probably a good thing he learned "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" first)
Latest bizarre kid activity: Sneaking out of his room when he was supposed to be napping, taking our framed wedding invitation down from the shelf in our bedroom, and curling up with it to go to sleep. Huh?

The mysterious older woman

Yesterday at school Luke was talking somewhat insistently about "Sophie," to the point where Teacher Beverly asked Dave if we knew a Sophie. No, we don't...and yet, Luke kept insisting that Sophie was at school.

So this morning, determined to get to the bottom of it, Dave and Beverly figured out that Sophie is one of the kids in the 3-year-old class. Luke's class doesn't have any regular interaction with the older kids, but the teachers had just opened up the yard so that the kids can see each other through the fence.

The best we can tell is that he met her by talking to her through the fence. (Luke: "What's your name?")...

Take me out to the Dodgers

Just a few quick mementos from the Dodger game last night...Luke entertaining us in the car on the way there while singing "Take me out to the ballgame"....Getting there and meeting Julie and Stu's friend, who told us, "I know you asked for six tickets, but I thought I'd just give you seven so you'd have the whole row".... then seeing that he gave us a whole row *on the field* ten rows back from Larry King, who threw out the first pitch...Watching Luke and Hatcher march around in their gown-length Dodger shirts....Luke with his new mini-bat standing in the aisle and shouting down toward the field, "Throw it to ME!"...Staying until 9 pm without even the slightest meltdown...All in all, a pitch-perfect evening.

Life as a carnival

Is it any wonder that Luke is losing out to his battle with a bad mood, considering the revolving door in our house last week? First there was the thrill of Papa and Bomma, then saying goodbye to Papa, then saying goodbye to Bomma, then saying hi to Bomma again, then saying goodbye. Add the uncertainty of when Suzi and Bill and maybe other Grandma and Grandad are going to be around and you've got one semi-confused kid. (Now he's started saying "Where am I going?" not just when he wakes up in the morning, but after nap as well.)

This morning we went to a big carnival at Luke's school, and that's only half of the activity for the day. We still have yet to go to a baseball game with Hatcher tonight. The carnival was interesting...I guess it would be a little confusing because Mommy and Daddy both came along, and all the usual toys were put away, and there was Miss Beverly dressed like a princess, and Miss Melissa trying to paint faces, and there were all of these cupcakes just sitting around. No wonder Luke had no interest in the big bouncy house. I mean, there were perfectly good cookies just sitting there!

Luke has for some reason convinced himself that when Dave goes to Sacramento he eats donuts, and even more mysteriously, rides a Ferris wheel. If nothing else, I'm glad that that's Luke little fantasy of the world beyond our house. He's upstairs sleeping now, a much-needed break until the next round of sweet food and fun.

the brotherhood of the drum

We just wrapped up the weekend of crazy family fun, tucking an exhausted Luke into bed and preparing to say sad goodbyes to Papa on Tuesday.

I told Dave that having Mom and Dad here makes me feel like I have my two most trusted advisors at my side at all times.

Sadness aside, I have to say we've made the most of the past few days, avoiding the freeways and just heading to the beach at every opportunity. Oh, and the drum circle. That was clearly a highlight for Luke, and the picture is going to make a good album cover one of these years.

So what did we learn:
1) That Luke is willing to walk if the carrying grandpa complains that his back hurts enough;
2) That bird poop is more interesting than diggers, shovels, buckets, actual live birds, bugs, other people, or just about anything else on the beach;
3) That a large group of perfectly mature adults will all willingly hide under pillows and pretend to sleep if so instructed by a 2-year-old;
4) That a flock of birds and ducks will eat honey-roasted peanuts fed to them and not die, or at least not yet;
5) That talking about taking out a splinter is just as bad as the act of taking out the splinter;
6) That Luke can play the piano with his toes ("Ready, toes?)
7) That the issue of what to call the spikes on the back of the pink dinosaur's back is so important that it's worth going upstairs and waking up Dad for;
8) That you don't need to carry your goofy plastic kids' drum to the drum circle because even the hardened pros will soften a little and let your 2-year-old have a go at one of the "big drums;"
9) That nothing gets a kid tuckered out more than a day at the beach, some drumming, a stroll down the crazy Venice Beach promenade, and a visit to the Mexican restaurant where the lady cooks the tortillas; but
10) That the promise of ice cream is always enough to keep even the most tired guy awake for just a few more minutes.

Lucky for us, Mom is in town for a few more days...