On Tuesday Luke graduated from Physical Therapy.  He has a degree in full range of motion and standing independently for 10 seconds at a time.  It was a good 5 months.  Vinnie thinks that Luke will be walking in the next few weeks.  He's already taking some half steps!  

From Luke:
I like to push buttons on toys.  It's one of my favorite things!  Usually toys play music, or talk, or something pops up and makes a noise.  That's why pushing buttons is so fun.  
The other day I saw a button on a Lego train.  Naturally I knew I needed to push it.  Except this time it didn't play a song or talk to me... it MOVED.  The train started to makes it way across the room.  I did NOT like that.  I wanted it to stay near me.  But when Mom turned it around it came back and bonked me in the leg!  I didn't like that either.  It was scary!  So I did the only thing I could think of.  I tipped it over.  There.  Now it couldn't move and scare me!

I'm also learning how to use a fork!  Check out this video that Daddy took of me:

I've been having a harder time sleeping lately, much to Mom's dismay.  I wake up in the middle of night several times.  And one night we decided to have a party!  

Some Preston stories and videos:

Preston has been using some pretty grown up words lately.  Daddy build a barn out of legos the other day and Preston mentioned that the top part of the barn, where the guy sits to drive the crane (yes, the barn had an awesome crane), is insulated.  We aren't sure where he learned the word "insulated" but we think it had something to do with overhearing a conversation that John and I had.  
He also used the word "Junction" to describe a place on the P&X where there are a lot of switches.

This morning as I was putting on my makeup Preston saw me use a blush brushed.  He told me that I had to put make up on my cheeks so that I wouldn't get holes in my cheeks.  I was a little confused, so I asked him what he meant.  He said that Sid on "Sid the Science Kid" said that he had to brush his teeth so that he wouldn't get holes in his teeth.  So naturally, brushing your cheeks would prevent you from getting holes in your cheeks!  He asked me to put make up on Lukey's cheeks so that he wouldn't get holes either.

Preston likes to tell jokes now:

I am FOUR now!  Can you believe it?  I had a few celebrations.  First, on my real birthday, I took some yellow cupcakes to school for my cupcake party with my friends.  Then that night Gigi and Grandpa, Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Joe, and cousin Judy came for dinner.  We had blueberry pie with candles in it, and I got to open a ton of presents!  
When I went downstairs on my birthday morning, I saw some presents on the counter.  So I ran upstairs and I told said "Mommy!  Guess what!  Santa brought me some more presents!
Then on Saturday, some of my friends came over to my house!  It was so fun to have them here.  We played with my toys in the basement for a while, had some pizza for lunch, and then opened some more presents.  We headed upstairs for a double header rainbow train birthday cake - with a water tower - and just as everyone finished their cake a firetruck arrived at our house!!  My friends loved climbing around on the truck, sitting in the drivers seat, checking out the cool gauges, and honking the horn!  The truck was a little loud for me, so I just wanted to stay on the grass.  
It was a very fun day, and a super awesome birthday!

From Luke:
I had fun, too, on Preston's birthday.  I'm doing LOTS of new tricks lately. Over the weekend I really learned how to clap hands, and I love to clap hands now!  It's my new favorite thing.  Mom is going to try to get it on video soon, because I'm SOOO cute! 

Catch Up

Mommy has really been slacking at blogging in the new year.  We all have been sick, so that makes things a little more difficult.  We try to go to bed earlier, and then blogging doesn’t happen.  Lukey had a really bad ear infection last week.  Mom took him to the doctor on Jan. 2; that’s when they first discovered the problem.  He wasn’t feeling better by that Monday, and I was sick, too, so we both went to the doctor.  I just had a really bad cold (which I passed on to poor Daddy), but Luke’s ear infection was even worse than it was on Friday.  In fact, the doctor said it was one of the worst he has seen in a while.  Poor LUKE!  So Lukey got a stronger antibiotic and was thankfully feeling better after a day or two.  Then Daddy got a bad cold, and he hasn’t been able to get rid of it, so we’re all a little worn down.

In other news, I am going to be FOUR on Friday.  Can you even believe it!?  Mom and I baked cupcakes yesterday so that they will be ready to go on Friday to take to school.  They are lemon cake (yellow) with neon yellow frosting and blue sprinkles.  I still love yellow, but I’m willing to branch out into some different colors now. 
On Saturday Mom and Dad went car shopping.  They were hoping to just be gone for a few hours.  But they were gone ALLLLLL DAY.  Mom was sick of it.  But they did buy a new car: a brown Buick Enclave.  When Grandma told me it was brown I had a melt down.  I wanted a FAST YELLOW car.  I calmed down after a little bit, knowing that it was a faster car than the Jeep.  Then, when I finally got to SEE the car and explore it, I realized that it has way back seats!  I REALLY want to sit in the way back, but Daddy installed my car seat in its usual place in the middle row.  Mom says it’s too hard for her to buckle me in if they put my seat in the way back.  I keep asking, though.  I keep asking.  And asking.  And asking. 
Grandpa stayed with me and Luke for the morning while Mom and Dad were car shopping.  As usual, Grandpa and I went to go watch trains on the East Penn, but this time Luke came, too!  It was Luke’s FIRST train watching experience.   He didn’t really watch trains.  He liked sitting on Grandpa’s lap in the front seat playing with the steering wheel, the buttons on the radio, and all the other fun gadgets inside the car.  I watched the trains.  We saw FIVE.  3 coming from the right, and 2 coming from the left.  And guess what!  We saw TWO yellow diesels.  Most of the trains just had lots and lots of stacks, but one of the trains had tank cars!  Grandpa is going to have his hands full with TWO boys going to visit trains.  Luke will be ready in no time.

On Sunday, Mom and I made cupcakes, and Daddy and I worked on a special dinosaur project.  We have had it for a while, but Daddy was waiting until I was big enough to really handle this project.  We had to mix plaster, pour it into a special mold, wait for it to dry, and then pop out the pieces that look like dinosaur bones.  It’s really cool.  I get to paint the pieces, too, but I think we might do that tonight or throughout this week. 

Luke is 10 Months!

From Luke:
I’m 10 months old today!!

I got another TOOTH!  It popped through on Friday morning, finally.  So now I have 4.  But sadly this is only the beginning.  I have many many more teeth to come.  It has been a rough new year for me.  The ear infection really wiped me out, and Mom and Dad had to each take a day off of work to stay home with me while I recovered.  I’m better now! 
I’m REALLY thinking about walking.   I stand up on everything and cruise around the room.  I can also stand independently for a few seconds.  I was working on that with my Physical Therapist last week. 
Last night, while Mom was finishing up the dishes, I was chasing the cats around the chairs at the kitchen table.  I was standing up on one chair and Jack was a few inches away on the other one.  I REACHED my arm out as far as I could to grab the chair, but I just wasn’t close enough.  I started to bend down to crawl to the other chair, but then I stood up again.  I REALLY wanted to take that little step and lunge for the target, but I'm not quite ready.  I’m SO close, though. 

On my ten month birthday:
No words yet – but I say many different sounds and am starting to point at things

Things I love:
- Playing with my big brother
- Taking baths
- Silly noises like sneezing
- CATS
- Opening and closing things: doors, cabinets, drawers, boxes, etc
- Eating food all by myself
- Yogurt Yummies
- Cheerios
- Broccoli
- Meatballs
- Chewing on paper (mom isn’t a fan of this one)

I’m a pretty good sleeper, but lately I like to party in the wee hours on the morning, and Mom has been a party buzz kill.  She makes me go back in my own bed. 

Preston Stories

From Mom:
Preston locked himself in his room one afternoon.  It hadn’t been long, but I went up to check on him, and asked him to unlock the door.  “Ok Mom, just a minute!”
A few seconds later he unlocked the door and peeked his little head around the corner.  “Um, can you get me a towel” he asked.
“Preston, honey, why do you need a towel?”
“Um, I can’t tell you that.”
“Why not?”
“Well, because it’s only a little bit, can you just get it for me?”
“Preston, did you stick your fingers in the fish tank to pet the fishies?”
“Well….yes, but they LIKE me!  They are my friends”
“Honey, I know that you want to pet the fish, but it can hurt them if you touch them”
“Well, alright, I’ll only do it a little bit”
“Pres, you can’t touch them.  That’s the rule.  I’ll have to move them if you can’t follow the rules”
“Well, alright.  But can you get me a towel?”
“Sure, let’s go get a towel.”

Then another day I was upstairs changing Luke, and I hear Preston calling for me from downstairs.
“Mommy!  Do you know where the tape is?”
“I don’t know, Pres, why do you need the tape?  What happened.”
“Um, I can’t tell you, but it’s ok, I can fix it with tape”
“Preston, honey, what happened, did something break?”
“Mommy, I can’t tell you, because I’m afraid you will put me in time out.”
“If it was an accident and you are sorry, then maybe you won’t go in time out.  But I need to know what happened”
“Well, look, see, this stick broke”
Preston got a remote controlled MONSTER truck for Christmas and the antenna on the remote had snapped off. 
“How did that happen?”
“Well, there was a hole in the truck, so I just stuck it in, and then… it broke!  It was an accident, Mommy”
“Well, I’m sure it was, but we can’t fix this with tape.  It’s broken forever.  I’m sorry”
“Mommy!  Mommy!  We can just get a new one!  We can go to the store with Daddy and pick out another blue one, and just buy it”
“Preston, I don’t have money to buy a new one, that’s not how this works.”
“Well, Mommy, Mommy!  Calm down…  Mommy… I have some money in my piggy bank.  See (shakes his piggy bank) we can take this money out and go buy a new one”
“Pres.  I don’t want you to use your piggy bank money like that.  You are supposed to save the money in your piggy.  We aren’t going to buy a new one.  I think Daddy might be able to make this one work again when he comes home.  But I hope that you are more careful.  We need to use things the way they are supposed to be used.”
“Ok Mommy, I’m sorry.  I’ll wait for Daddy to look at it.”

P&X Business Plan

Last weekend, when Grandma and Grandpa went to Massachusetts, Preston and I drove to their house to feed their cats.  It takes about 25 minutes to get there, and in those 25 minutes Preston laid out an entire business plan for the P&X Railroad. It would be difficult to write out the conversation, but basically the business plan goes like this:

Rolling Stock:
The P&X will run yellow diesels, toasters, and some steam engines, because Grandpa likes steam engines, but they are too loud.  Preston and Mommy will drive the trains, and we will haul stacks. And double head.  Double head steam engines and diesels.  And sometimes the steam engines will be pusher engines.  And we will have yellow cabooses, and red because Grandpa likes red.

Infrastructure:
The P&X mainline needs to have 2 tracks, so we can put the box cars on the second track like a siding.  We can borrow track from the cement secondary to build the second track.  Workers will move the track, because Preston has workers to do that.  Preston only drives the train.  They will build the second track on the mainline.  We need a crane to get the track from the cement secondary.  We can carry the crane on a flatcar; and a yellow diesel will pull it.  We need another flat car to put the track on, too.  And a yellow diesel can pull the track and the crane to the mainline, and the workers will build the track.  We might need another diesel to double head, because the crane is going to be HEAVY.