blog-nanza

It's been so long since I've posted a picture that I have a blog-picture backup of sorts. Luke is a little cranky this weekend because he has a cold, but he's otherwise fine and funny. I thought I'd just jot down a few trends of the last few weeks:






1) Wanting to be buried up to his neck: This can be traced back to Sam at the beach, or any number of our beach books, or curiously, a William Wegman photo called "Pup Pot" that cracks Luke up every time he sees it. At any rate, he loves being inside something (sheets, laundry hamper, sand, afghan) and poking his head out. This afternoon when he was supposed to be taking a nap he wandered out and I brought him back into his room, to find his hamper in the middle of the floor. "I was doing Pup Pot," he explained sheepishly.








2) All things are tools: The house is a mess because basically everything that Luke can get his hands on becomes a new tool for the workshop. I'll find my kitchen spoons, writing utensils, and any manner of musical instruments being used to build. The squeegee from the bathroom became a hammer until he whacked several large chunks out of our new coffee table. We had to absolutely hide the putty. Yesterday at Home Depot Luke was desperate to have his hands on a tool, so I gave him a metal supply line from the toilet/plumbing department. Of course we didn't buy it and of course Luke was mad this morning: "Where's my supply line?" he demanded. We also bought Luke a tricycle recently and as he peddles around on it, he announces, "This is a leaf cutter!" as if he doesn't want to damage his worker's street cred by being seen on a tricycle. (Incidentally, when we last saw Dave's parents, we were laughing about Luke making something into a circular saw, and Dave's dad reminded us that Dave could be counted on at around Luke's age to be obsessed with a recirculating pump. Go figure.





3) The four food groups are cookies, cake, ice cream, and marshmallows: I didn't ever want to make dessert an every-night trend, but somehow it's become an expectation with Luke. We're even slipping into the two-times-per-day territory; yesterday it was In-N-Out Burger (read In-N-Out Milkshake) for lunch; for dinner we ate our pizza at the little shop where the Italian ice is right next to the table, and Luke was completely driven to distraction until he got his "spu-mo-mi." Possibly we started the month of September with too many birthday celebrations for me; today at the supermarket Luke told me we needed some cake for Daddy's birthday. At any rate, once he finds out Halloween involves candy, we are in deep trouble.

Dave and I are stressed about the house not being sold, about the competition, and about any number of unpacking or home decorating issues, but thankfully Luke seems to be oblivious. He likes this house, and when I think about it, why shouldn't he? He doesn't have to travel any great distance to do anything, he can pop up and down the stairs to his heart's content, and he can swim in the pool as often as Dave is willing to let him. Yesterday I took a snooze during Luke's nap, and at some point he must have woken up, seen me asleep (a rarity) and wandered downstairs to find Dave working. He somehow convinced Dave that 3:30 pm was as good a time as any to go for a swim, so when I woke up, disoriented, I looked around only to find the two of them downstairs in the pool, playing with tools, laughing their heads off.

...in which I become Rodney Dangerfield

Luke is getting more and more conversational, all the better for him to express to me how truly bored with me he is. I mean, there was all of that gestating, birthing, nursing, comforting, etc. that I did - I'm sure I've gotten to be a real drag.

I wasn't going to take his Daddy-ism too personally until Monday when I picked him up from school and he was practically insulted. The first word out of his mouth was "Daddy?" and he insisted on going over to the door to survey whether or not Dave might be rounding the corner. Compare that with Tuesday, when Dave picked Luke up from school, and it was practically a national holiday. There was much running, and squealing, and hugging, and then all of the other kids got in on the act, and draped themselves all over Dave like a big happy Maypole. I mean, I swear, I wasn't going to take it personally, but "I don't want you, I want Daddy" pretty much says it all.

Oh, and then there's my cooking. Sunday he was unhappy because he wanted rice and beans for dinner and we didn't have any. Then I remembered that Luke and I had bought a special rice and beans mix at the supermarket. So I made that, and twenty minutes later when it was gloriously gooey and piping hot, he took one look at it and rejected it. "Maybe we can go to Wahoos tomorrow, where the rice and beans are better." I mean, come on!

From Dave's perspective, this week probably reads a lot differently. There was a solo daddy-Lukey trip to a baseball game, Dave finally taught Luke how to blow bubbles in the water, they bought a great giant plastic saw from the 99-cents store...But when you're not part of the club, you tend to see things a little differently.

Anyway, this week is one of those rare weeks when I'm working M-T-W so maybe by the end of the day today Luke will decide that a day with me might not be all that bad. Here's to a long weekend of being second fiddle...

"I don't want to go to the beach, I want to go to Home Depot"

...were actual words spoken by Luke on Friday. Which was followed up by an actual trip to Home Depot on Sunday, which was followed up by a few painting projects, which was followed up by me making the shocking discovery that Luke KNOWS HOW TO OPEN A CAN OF PAINT. Yes, with the actual paint can opener thingy. He's quite proficient at it. On the one hand this thrilled me a little bit (a painting prodigy!) but it scared me in equal measure. I can't just leave him alone in a room for a minute without fearing that some sort of unwanted project (painting? sawing? hammering?) might be launched.

(Side note: When he paints, for some unexplained reason, he insists on having us call him Smoke. I arrived home in the middle of the paint project to have him tell me, "My name is Smoke. This is Smoke's friend," with a nod over in Dave's direction.)

Again, he continues to be fascinated by all things Daddy. If you want to paint, hammer some stray nails, or if you just plain feel like spackling something, Daddy's the go-to guy. Last night Dave had some work to do on the computer so I took Luke in the hot tub with me. But Dave sat just inside the door, close enough that he could hear our conversation and chime in occasionally. That drove Luke to distraction: "What's Daddy doing?" "Daddy, will you come play in the pool?" etc.

I read somewhere that it's very typical of kids this age to develop some sort of passion bordering on obsession. Think birds, or presidents, or...well, those are two good examples. These toddlers want to read and learn and collect and do everything relating to their favorite pastime. I think they also want to mimic. When they see Bob the Builder jackhammering, they want to jackhammer. When they see the man in the Home Depot paint department mixing paint, they want to mix paint. So at least I know where it's coming from.

This afternoon I bought Luke an adorable red kid-sized chaise lounge (or should I say longue) to go out on the back patio. When I asked him if he liked it, he tossed his head back and threw his arms open wide: "Mommy, I LOVE it!!!" And who did he look most like when he made that unabashed expression of joy? Dave, of course.

Toddler shopping list

...as dictated by Luke to some imaginary family member on the phone:

"Hi. We need...milk, bread, um...chocolate chips, cookies, ice cream...electric guitars, jackhammers...um, Gatorade..."

(one furtive sweep around the room to make sure he didn't miss anything)

"OK? Terrific. Thanks. Bye!"

paterfamilias

We've been on a little island of sorts - surrounded by all manner of boxes, bags and suitcases, and entirely disconnected from the world without any web access. And it's OK. Well, it's sort of OK. Dave and Luke are fine and I'm the one having the sporadic freakouts about who knows what.

When it comes to any manner relating to the rental, the home selling, or the move, Dave has been entirely in charge. He's the one on the phone with the exterminator, the furniture rental guy, the plant rental guy, our realtor, the landscapers, the rental company, the moving company, the housecleaners, our financial advisor, and probably lots of other people I haven't even known about. My job is basically to surf Craigslist idly for outdoor furniture bargains. And yet he's the one who's calm, cool, and collected. And cheerily optimistic too. I happened to ask Suzi the other day if Dave had always been like that. "Pretty much," was the response.

Maybe that's why Luke is in a little bit of a Daddy mode right now. Up until now, he's more or less never turned down an opportunity to see me (to be fair, I had the added advantage of offering milk for the first two years). But lately, whenever catastrophe strikes or knees get bumped or chocolate milk gets spilled all over the patio, it's, "I want DADDY!!!!!!!!!" He must have clued in to the fact that Dave's the guy who never seems to get ruffled, always finds a way to get things done, and who can see only sunshine on the darkest day.

Luke chose this weekend to stop taking an afternoon nap and it made for some cranky afternoons, but whereas it sends me up a tree, Dave doesn't seem to mind in the least. He and Luke took off for the beach yesterday afternoon while I ran some errands. Then I strolled down the hill to the beach to meet them, and there they were, silhouetted in the late afternoon sun, jumping up and down with total joy as soon as they saw me.