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.