Luke can now swing 3 times without falling, but I don't have video of that yet.

I think that Preston is going to get the first giggles out of Alyssa!

First ice cream cones of the season

I  like to think that my boys are pretty well behaved.  They are CRAZY,  but they aren't violent or overly disobedient or mean.  I now have the same type of family as my Grandmother, two big boys and a youngest girl, and we can truly relate to each other.  She always says that she had two wild indian boys followed by a lovely calm little girl.  I get it!  I actually love having the boys first, because it feels like I can accomplish anything, and that Alyssa is that much easier.  
When we are out somewhere the boys are generally pretty good, but once they start getting bored things go downhill.  Luke will have a tantrum because I gave him the wrong cup, and Preston will start RACING around because he literally does not know how to sit still.  And then people will ask me "Geez, what was going on with Luke?"  Luke is two.  That's the only thing going on with Luke.  I don't even apologize.  His tantrums last a few minutes at most and if I were to remove him from the situation it usually feels like a reward to him.  Preston should know better, and I'm working on it with him.  Some days are better than others, but he will generally calm down if we can easily change his surroundings.  I've found that the very best way to ensure his somewhat acceptable behavior is to lay down the law ahead of time.  For example "we are going to church and I expect you to sit still, not bother your brother, and come up to the steps with me for children's time.  Do you understand?"   It helps, but it's not perfect.

I didn't intend to blog about all this.  I really just wanted to tell a cute story that I forgot to put in the last post.  Grandma and Grandpa have a clip-clop rocking/jumping horse in their playroom (they keep trying to pass it off on someone else, but I do NOT need that giant thing in my house) and Luke LOVES it.  The kids sometimes fight over it, but Luke must have won whatever battle may have occurred because he was riding that horse for a LONG time, at least half an hour.  I was sitting nearby talking to friends and not paying any attention to him when my friend Amy instinctively reached for him as if he was going to fall off.  I looked up and he was nearly asleep sitting up and rocking himself on the horse.  He had literally rocked himself to sleep for his nap.  I wish I had gotten a picture because it was both silly and adorable, but I felt like I needed to get him down before he got hurt.  What a silly, sleepy boy!  
Luke is now at an age where you could say that he likes to symbolically "stop and smell the roses."  Sometimes, if I'm in a hurry, it's frustrating.  But I'm trying to be patient and slow down a little bit with him.  Everyone is happier that way.  When we get home and I unbuckle him from his seat he has to make his way around the car to every empty car seat and "cupple" all of the clips into place.  He also likes to stop and pick all the flowers when we go on walks, tell me about EVERY car, truck, motorcycle, airplane, etc that he sees.  He takes FOREVER to eat his meals because he wants to have what everyone else is having and it takes him a while to decide how to eat things, in what order to eat them, etc.  He also changes his mind a lot.  He wants juice and then he wants milk and then he actually wants juice again but then ends up drinking water.  But it's all in the fun of being 2, terrible or not, and I mostly love it - mostly.

​Last weekend we celebrated Alyssa’s baptism and had a party at Grandma and Grandpa’s house after the church service.  Mom and Grandma worked to get us all dressed up for the occasion in matching outfits!  It started out with just a dress for Alyssa made out of a baby skirt that Mema wore!  Grandma embroidered it and sewed it onto a bodice to make it a beautiful christening dress.  But they couldn’t stop there!   Alyssa needed a party dress to change into, so Mom made her a little blue dress out of some fabric she had left over from a project she did a few years ago.  It spiraled from there.  Grandma made me a matching blue vest and Luke a matching blue shirt.  Then Mommy made Daddy a matching blue tie!  The only one who didn’t have something blue was Mommy, so she made herself a quick blue necklace (with matching headband for Alysaa), and the ensemble was complete.  We looked pretty adorable.  I guess this turned into a fashionable affair, but the important part is that Alyssa was welcomed into the church family.  She slept through the WHOLE thing.

Mom and Dad took us down to a part time schedule in daycare in April, so Mom has all 3 kids home on Fridays.  So far it’s been pretty good.  The first Friday I was at the lake with Grandpa – checking things out and chasing trains… the usual – and then the next Friday we went to the fish hatchery for the morning and had a low-key afternoon at home.  Yesterday Grandma came over for our Friday-at-home and we all packed up and went to visit Mema and Poppop.  We had a really fun time at their house.  It was nice to be there while things were quiet.  Usuallly when we go it’s for a party with a lot of people, and I get shy.  I love to climb their big tree in the front, because it has strong low branches that I can reach.  We discovered that the tree is a ladybug habitat, and I caught FIVE ladybugs.   I let them go after a while, but Lukey accidentally smushed one.  We had lunch on the porch, played legos, and spent a lot of time outside!  It's important to note that one of my favorite songs right now is James Taylor's "Sweet Baby James" - Mom grew  up with that song, and now Grandpa is passing it on to me.

​From Alyssa:
I’m supposed to go to daycare in a little over a week, but my parents discovered a few days ago that I hate bottles.  Mom hasn’t been diligent about practicing bottles with me, so I don’t know what to do with them!  They have been making me take a bottle a day for the past few days, and I am getting better, but I’ll only do it for Daddy or Grandma.  I think I’ll be ready for daycare next week, but it was touch and go for a few days.  Mom hates having to pump and would rather just nurse – it’s so much more convenient.  I’m 11 weeks old tomorrow!  I still don’t love tummy time.  But I love baths, and I love to sleep.  I also like to be on my back and look at toys and mobiles.  Now that the weather is nice I also love to be outside.  There is SO much to look at!  I like stroller walks and cat napping in the stroller outside while my brothers play.  I like to be part of the action!  My big brother Preston is really good at entertaining me, and I give him BIG smiles.  I love Luke, too, and he likes to give me kisses, but he mostly leaves me alone, which is just as well. 

From Luke:
I’m big enough now that I can go on some adventures with Grandpa and Preston to watch trains!  Today we went to Steamtown for the day and got to RIDE behing a steam locomotive TWO times.  That was my favorite part.  The whistles and noises of the engines are too scary for me, but I’m ok if I stay with Grandpa.  

Woah!  It’s been a while.  Mommy’s been working on some new cross-stitch designs and various projects around the house.  We celebrated Easter and April Fool’s Day!  We are so excited for spring!
From Luke:
Gymnastics classes are really paying off for me.  I go with Mom, now.  Dad likes to have the time at home with Alyssa, and Mom is pretty good at being my gymnastics assistant.  She’s not as good as Dad was at helping me with my dismounts, and she makes me climb back DOWN the ladder (because part of climbing UP is also climbing DOWN) when Daddy would let me fly down from the top.  She also makes me do the low balance beams all by myself – no holding hands.  The high balance beam is still a little too high for me, but I can definitely do the low ones as long as I focus on my feet (and not on what everyone else is doing!).  I can do the rope swing all by myself out and back 2 times!   And last week at gymnastics I was the star of the class with all of my tricks.  One time I jumped off of a high mat into the pit, aiming for the big pool in the middle.  But I haven’t figure out how to jump OUT yet so I ended up falling on the soft edge of the pool, bouncing, and doing a back flip into the middle.  It was pretty epic. 
I also work on hanging from the monkey bars at gymnastics.  When we were at the playground Mom was sitting on a bench talking to her friend and nursing Alyssa.  When she looked up, there I was hanging from the monkey bars WAY across the playground.  I wasn't worried or anything, just hanging there with a 2 foot drop.  Mom jumped up from the bench, Alyssa still nursing, and ran over to catch me... just in time!  She's super Mom.  She wasn't mad, but she told me that I needed to wait for a grown-up before I did that again.
Gymnastics has also taught me how to climb ladders.  Now, when Preston is playing on the top bunk, I climb up!  I really surprised Mommy one night.  She was up there with Preston reading books while I was supposed to be in my own bed on the bottom bunk.  She looked over and there I was – peaking over the edge of the top bunk!  She had to call for Daddy to come rescue me down.  That’s why part of climbing up a ladder is also climbing down!  It’s just not as fun to climb down. 
Last night Mom was snuggling with me in my bed.  She let me have Preston’s old Tick-Tock pillow, because it has stars on it.  Anyway, I was looking at the pillow and pointed at each of the numbers and started counting!  Mommy was impressed that I knew that they were numbers.  Daddy didn’t teach me how to do it either.  Maybe we talk about clocks at school?  Mommy will have to check in with my teachers about that!
Some cute Luke words:
Strawbears
Seltzer Water
Preston, TIME OUT
Susie! Come get din-din!

His favorite show is Daniel Tiger, he loves to go for walks, and he’s very interested in the potty!

Easter:
We celebrated Easter with egg hunts, a family pot-luck, baskets from the Easter Bunny, and dying eggs!  I am really good at egg hunts now.  I’m awesome at finding all of the eggs, and they even let me climb up on the roof to get an egg that the silly Easter Bunny left up there (Mommy wasn’t around to put a stop to me climbing on the roof, she was helping Luke).  Lukey is getting better at egg hunts, but he would much rather stop and open each egg to see what is inside before moving on to find the next egg.  It takes him forever!  Alyssa didn’t try this year, but she can look next year when she can walk.  We did an egg hunt at school, at Mema’s house, AND at Gigi’s house!  Can you even believe it!?  The Easter Bunny also brought me the Hot Wheels SHARK track that I have been waiting for.  It’s SO cool!  It gobbles up the cars and then flings them out of its mouth.  It also came with color changing cars!  If you put them in warm water… they change! 
I am so excited to go visit Dyken Pond, the T1, Dorney Park, AND Kindergarten.  It’s really hard to wait for all of those things, but I FINALLY get to go to Dyken Pond this weekend with Grandpa.  It’s going to be pretty chilly, but I don’t mind.  We sleep in comfy sleeping bags and wear boots outside to stay warm.  It’s going to be awesome! And Mom told me that Dorney Park opens this month, so we can go SOON!  I have to wait a bit longer for Kindergarten and the T1, but my time will come for those.  I told Timmy he could come see the T1 with me, and MAYBE it will be a shark nose T1 – but, actually, Mom says she thinks it’s a circle nose T1 and to not get my hopes up for a shark nose.  But I really want it to be a shark nose.   Also, Grandpa is trying to get me a CAB RIDE in a steam engine, so that will be SO FUN, too. 
I really like gymnastics, too, and I want to be like a ninja and do flips and stuff.  I practice my flips on the big bed so that I can get better and stronger, and I wrestle and fight with Daddy because it makes my muscles big!  And healthy food makes me muscles big, too.
Do you know that flies drink your blood so that they can make eggs!  Gross! I learned that from Wild Kratts.  I learn lots of stuff about animals from Wild Kratts!
From Alyssa:
I’m almost 2 months old!  Mom thinks I sleep too much, but should she really be complaining?  I’m hitting and exceeding all of my milestones, so she should just enjoy the quiet time.  I love to sleep in the swing, just like my big brother, Luke.  I give really good smiles now, and I starting to have some little giggles when I talk to the animals on my play gym – proto-giggles – but the real ones are coming soon!  I love to take walks to go pick up my brothers, and I like to lay on my back to play, even if it makes me spit up a lot.  I do not particularly enjoy Tummy time.  Mommy gets it.  She hates doing push-ups and planks, too, but we both have to do it to get our core muscles into shape!  My head control is getting much better.  I turn 2 months this week, so hopefully Mommy can convince Daddy to do a little photo shoot! 
Easter was fun for me, too.  I got passed around a lot, and got dressed up in the little pink dress that Mom and Dad bought forever ago when Mom was pregnant with Preston and didn’t know if he would be a boy or a girl!  They kept it all these years.  

Some Easter Photos... And Beyond!