May

May has been crazy, just like most months it seems.  John was gone for 4 days, so I had the boys all by myself.  Those are HIGH energy days.  I managed to keep it together for the weekend and even take care of some chores around the house and cook meals the whole time.  Small feats it seems, but it felt like I was moving mountains.  

Luke is such a good sleeper.  I never ever thought I'd be able to say that about any of my children (Preston is still terrible at bedtime).  Luke regularly asks to go to bed, even for naps.  It's a bit of a godsend, especially when I have to handle them both by myself.  Preston can usually entertain himself for the short time I'm putting Luke down to sleep.  
Preston, on the other hand, is mostly terrible at going to bed.  He stalls and begs and negotiates and is exhausting. 
The only thing I miss with Luke being easy at bedtime is reading books to him.  I try, but he’s either interested in something else, or too sleepy and fussy to want to sit with me.  I can get through 2 or 3 Sandra Boyntons on a good night.  We’ll keep trying. 

Luke officially started in the big boy toddler room at daycare this week!  He LOVES it.  He has space to run around, and he loves to open and close the big gate.  The gate doesn’t typically latch all the way, but Luke still insists on pushing the button to make it unlatch every time.  He’s very analytical and is always trying to figure out how to make things work.  He has already figured out how to make every sippy cup drip, and he loves to take things apart and try to put them back together again.  He loves to play peek-a-boo with the other kids, and is learning to participate in circle time.  He sits in a big boy chair for snacks and meals, he sleeps on a cot, and he gets to play on the playground!

One of my favorite moments from my weekend alone with the boys was Sunday afternoon on the patio.  Preston pulled out the giant puzzle pieces and built himself a yard sculpture on one side of the patio.

Luke climbed into the sandbox and was digging and playing in the sand. 

And I kicked up my feet for a few relaxing minutes in the middle where I could watch them both at the same time.  Then, behind me, I heard a lot of angry tweeting! 

A momma bird was very angry with me for being too close to her home in the bird house.  She was busy building her nest, and I was in her comfort zone.  We check the bird house regularly to see if there are eggs or babies, but it’s hard to see much of anything through the little hole.  There is definitely a nest in there, though, we can see lots of sticks!  

Preston is very proud of himself for learning how to spell his own name!!  He’s getting really great at his letters, practicing every day, and he keeps asking me if he can go to kindergarten.  It’s like he has a checklist of things in his own mind that he needs to be able to do before he can go to kindergarten.  The ones I know so far are: Spell his own name, write his own name, know all his letters, and count.. a lot.  He really wants to go to kindergarten school, and I’m starting to feel bad for making him wait another year.  But I know he’s still too little to go, yet.  I’m not ready for that!  

Preston is obsessed with the T-1.  He’s pretty sure that I know everything there is to know about the T-1 and that we are going to visit with it regularly… at train junction.  Dad, do you know anything about train junction??  We sometimes let him watch youtube videos about the train one.  And he told me the other day that there was a man in my phone telling him all about the T-1.  I was a little freaked out at first until I realized it was just a youtube video of an O guage layout.  He’s now quite sure that he can totally have an O-Gauge T-1 all of his own, because other people have them.  We’ll see about that. 

Anyway,  here are some pictures from Mother’s Day at Gigi and Grandpa’s house!