What to do about Luke and more pics.

Is he just cute or what? We were trying out some fun hairstyles after we cleaned up from some chalk playing, which you will see below.
Before we get to that, though, I wanted to write about this boy. As some of you may know, Luke has moderate to severe asthma, he also has some pretty severe food allergies and moderate to severe eczema. He is just a mess isn't he? Last night I spent 3 hours at urgent care (no they were not busy, just slow, slow, slow) because Luke was complaining about his ears and coughing some. On a side note, we had one of the worst storms I can ever remember last night and it was pretty scary being out in it. Anyway, He came down with a stuffy nose on Monday, which he gets whenever we get rain (we have gotten a lot of rain this summer). The stuffy, runny nose usually turns into an ear infection. This time it was no different, he has a pretty severe double ear infection. He had another double ear infection in May, March, January and December, I am sure there were more in the last year but I can't remember right now. I am just so tired of him getting these ear infections. Have any of your kids had tubes put in? If they have how was it decided that they needed them? Do you think I should bring this up at his next appointment. He has a quarterly check-up with his asthma/allergist doctor on Wednesday and I was wondering if I should bring it up with him. Any thoughts and feelings on the matter would help.
The twins have probably each had 2 ear infections in their almost 7 years of life. Luke has probably had 5-6 a year.
One last thing, I believe Luke will be getting retested for his nut and egg allergies on Wednesday. Please keep him in your prayers. Last year the egg had gone down but the nuts were still in the severe (off the charts) range.


Now for more pictures. This one is of Luke writing his name. He found a broken piece of chalk in the rocks in front of our house and just started writing L's and U's. I was very impressed and Grandma Rosie and I talked him through writing the K and E. I think he did a very good job for a not quite 3 and a half year old. He is above his name in the picture because we were trying to get him to pose. He did not write his name upside down.
Here was another silly hairstyle, but you can't see it very well.
This one is Grandma Rosie and the boys right before we took her to the airport.

First Day of School 2008

The twins first day of school was Monday, August 11th. Daddy was gone camping in upstate New York, but Grandma Rosie was here for the week from Pennsylvania. The morning started out pretty calmly with all the boys playing their leapsters. I just had to get a picture of the 3 of them sitting on one chair all concentrating on their games. Here is Jonathan ready for his first day of first grade at a new school. He was ready to go with his new Pokemon backpack and new Spiderman lace up shoes.
Here is Matthew not really wanting his picture taken. He was happy that he was going to school and that he would be in the first grade. He was also very excited that Jonathan would get to ride the bus with him again.
The best I could do at getting the two of them together. Grandma Rosie was taking pictures too, so they didn't quite know where to look.
Opening the door to go outside and wait for the bus, which was 15 minutes late. But we were all happy that it was the same bus driver that Matthew had last year and the twins had her the year before when they were at preschool. We love Tracy the bus driver, who happened to work with my husband a few years ago.
Luke's very first day of school ever was Tuesday, August 19th. He would be in preschool at Little Palms Preschool at my parents church. We went to meet the teacher the day before and all the students were given a little book bag to bring to school everyday. Luke was very happy to get an orange one, which is one of his favorite colors next to red. Here he is getting ready to leave for school. He thought he needed to wear the bag around his neck. I think it looks like an apron.

The sign outside his school.
Poppa (my dad) works at the church and gets to ride this golf cart around from place to place. Luke got a ride to the school building. Nothing like VIP treatment on your first day.
Approaching the door. He doesn't look to sure about it.
Here he is getting ready to find some cars to play with. Luke did just great the first day. He did have a potty accident but all was okay the second day. He was all ready to go back on Thursday. I may have to think about adding another day to his school week in January if he continues to do well.

Pictures are coming.

Just wanted to let you know that I haven't forgotten to post pictures of everyones first day of school. I am having a little trouble locating the cable to connect the camera to the computer. I plan on looking some more tonight. See what happens when you clean your house?....you can't find anything.

First Day of School

The twins went back to school yesterday and Mommy was so happy. It has been a rough last 2 weeks with them home. The fighting between all 3 boys was getting to be too much for me to take. I walked in the house as the bus pulled away and just breathed a sigh of relief. Luke on the other hand turned to me and said "I just need them back." It was such a nice relatively peaceful day. Of course the fighting began as soon as we were back from speech therapy and today it was even worse.
The boys were so happy to get on the bus and they both had a great first day and second day. Luke starts preschool next Tuesday so I will wait to post pictures until then. I just needed to get on here to tell you how HAPPY I am that school is back in session.

Pictures

Here are some pictures that have been on my camera for a few weeks. The first 3 are pictures of Luke with his new love, Watermelon. Every Summer it seems he has a new favorite fruit to eat. 2 years ago it was blueberries, last year he couldn't get enough of strawberries and this year it's watermelon. He still loves all the other fruit but this is his favorite right now.

The next two pictures are from the night he decided to go pee pee in the potty and got his Thomas and Friends Cranky set. Daddy set the whole thing up on his train table, which by the way, my dad made for him last year. That's the best he would give me for a smile at the camera. He was a little preoccupied.

The following picture is of the lilies that Eric's coworkers gave us. Once the smell was too much for us to deal with Eric went and planted them under his grape vine out back. I think they have since died, but since I never go out back I wouldn't know.

The next three pictures are from my very quiet birthday on the 10th. It was the day after my surgery so things were pretty somber around the house. My mom made a cake (raspberry jello cake) for me. Eric, Luke and Jonathan had fun putting lots of candles on there. I then remembered that I had the 3 and 2 candles from Luke's past birthdays and since I was turning 32 I thought it would be fun. As you can see I had lots of help blowing out my candles. Yes, there is cake missing from the pan, thanks to my mother for keeping a little bit for herself and my dad.



Here is Luke showing off his new underwear. I love how he is looking back at them. I may be silly but I just love his little tushy in underwear.

You know something is up when you see a face like this. What did you do Lukeypants?

This is what I discovered after seeing him in the above picture. I guess the NASCAR cars were hungry or maybe unfortunate to find themselves in a downfall of crumbled up chips.



These next pictures I had actually taken before I read Doni's post about Ty. They are of Matthew playing Disney Pixar Cars on the Gamecube. The first one he is pretty serious about what he is doing and is actually sitting quite nicely.

This is how he is usually playing. He jumps around and talks the whole time he is racing. Sometimes Jonathan joins in but this day he was tired and decided to just sit on the couch like a good boy.
I tried to get him in the air but it didn't quite work. Yes, that is Luke napping on the floor. Believe it or not he stayed out of harms way and slept there for almost 2 hours. It's so nice to have boys who can sleep through most anything. How I wish I could do that.

Potty Training Update.

Luke has been doing a great job with his potty training. Last week he decided he was ready. We didn't switch him over to underwear until this week because of all that happened last week. Monday he didn't really know quite what to do about the underwear and had an accident on the carpet, but yesterday and today he has kept his underwear dry all morning until nap time when I switch him to a pullup. He is very proud of himself.
He has also figured out all the fun stuff he can get as well. Daddy took him to get a new Disney Pixar Cars car last Friday after he went pee pee in the potty a few times for him during the day. Monday morning a good friend of ours, Ms. Sarah (not me), came over and went with us to Toys R Us to get a new Cars King play set that she and I had promised him way back in April. He was very excited to have Ms. Sarah come over.
That same day he got to go to Target with my mom and get a couple more Cars because she and my dad had told him they would take him to the store to get something if he pee peed in the potty at their house. So now he thinks he needs something every time he goes. We have narrowed it down to getting something if he keeps his underwear dry all week and then we will probably do something for number 2 in the toilet, as well. Then he will just have to learn that it's just something he needs to do.
I am just so happy that he decided to do this when he did. What a blessing it was for me last week. I do have a few pictures from the past month that I am hoping to get posted within the next few days.

PS. I am doing well and life is back to "Normal."

Joy in the Midst of Pain.

As some of you may know, Our little unborn baby died last week and we found out this week. Today I had surgery to remove the baby and all went well. It was a little hard to go through all the pre-op stuff as it was almost all the same things I went through for both c-sections. It also occurred to me that both c-sections were on Wednesdays and so was this surgery. Everyone has been so nice and I appreciate all your prayers and all your love.
It has been a very emotional week for us but life goes on when you have 3 boys needing your love and attention. So last night Lukey told me he needed to go potty and off we went to sit on the toilet and voila he DID IT!!!! I was so proud of him and we made a big deal about it and he got his Thomas and Friends Cranky. It has been sitting in a box in my room for a week and he knew he had to "pee pee in the potty" to get it. Last week he was still so stubborn about the whole thing. This week he has been at my moms 3 days in a row and she had him sitting on the toilet but nothing ever happened. I am so glad he did this for me last night. I still have him in pull-ups but plan to start the underwear again next week when I am feeling better. Luke has always been a very intuitive little boy something that is amazing for his age but really needed for his brothers. He has known that Mommy hasn't been having a good week and has added me to his prayers at night all by himself without prompting. As much trouble as he is, he is equally if not more such a joy. He had to give me kisses and hugs all afternoon and was really gentle with me. I love my Lukeypants and am really praying that this is the start of no more diapers!