Saying Goodbye to 2009

So we're back in Chicago after spending Thanksgiving and Christmas in Upstate NY. Luke now has professional traveler status - no kids/family security line for him! Actually we flew for Thanksgiving and drove the 11 hour trip for Christmas. I can't really say one was easier than the other - does anyone else see a problem with this statement? On the way home for Christmas, Luke's eagle eyes were able to spot NY state from the lovely Indiana tollway: "I see New York!" Yeah, I wish, kid. We broke up the trip by staying in Cleveland overnight - and now Luke is in love with hotels. Before I move on to details of our overly gifted Christmas, I need to alert you to the fact that Matt and I grew smarter while in NY and purchased a portable DVD player for the trip home.

And now on to Christmas! We started the week out in Canandaigua where ravioli making and swimming at the Y were some of the highlights. Luke is quite the sous chef - just ask g-pa. Then off to Corning for a few days of spoiling highlighted by a brand new power wheels (Ford 150 model) which will stay at mimi's house. Again, Luke's kitchen skills came into play but this time as a pastry chef - think "sprinkle man extraordinaire." Luke learned how to wake a sleeping princess up (Aunt Emily) with kisses and learned how to wake up a hibernating bear (Uncle Tommy) by barging into his room and yelling. And on Christmas morning, Luke had so many gifts that he pooped out halfway through opening them so mommy had to go the distance for him. Aunt Emily scored at Carter's and got Luke some great new clothes and enough play food for 6 play kitchens and Uncle Tommy got Luke some really exciting and noisy toys! And of course, mimi bought out 8 toy stores to round out Luke's gifts. On Christmas afternoon, we headed back up to Canandaigua for the annual family ravioli dinner. Luke had fun playing with his second cousins and even held baby Ellie. The next day, Luke had Christmas #2 where he was spoiled yet again by the grandparents and Uncle Nick. Luke now has an entirely new library of books, a new closet of clothes and a Cookie Monster to go with Elmo. He even received a new firetruck from Uncle Nick which Luke keeps mistaking as a ride on toy when it clearly doesn't look comfortable to sit on. This kid just doesn't get enough attention being the first and only grandchild on both sides of the family.

Oh, this is exciting: Luke is day potty trained! It took about a week and to be completely honest, our nanny did the heavy lifting on this topic. Now of course, we've had a few accidents here and there, most notably the time he let it go while he was sitting on my lap. I guess he wanted us both to be able to feel what wetting your pants feels like. But since that time, we've had almost no other accidents! Now arguably the best part about potty training a toddler boy is the cuteness of little boy underpants! We've got elmo underpants, plain ol tighty whities, monster underpants and even some box briefs. And I just couldn't pass up posting some pictures of said underpants below.


Well tonight is New Year's Eve and we'll be saying goodbye to 2009. We celebrated with an early bird dinner at Sushi Mura, or as Luke affectionately refers to it, "The rice store." 2009 didn't treat us badly at all but here's to an even better 2010. We've already got some excitement cooking for 2010 - most everyone should know by now that Luke's going to be a big brother in June!

Goodbye 2009, we'll miss you, thanks for being so good to us!

Luke's sibling comfortably baking at 16 weeks:

More presents than Luke can deal with:

Modeling his new tool belt, hard hat, and underpants:

Riding the non-riding firetruck:

Christmas Came Early

On a recent adventure to Target, Luke gave me inspiration for this year's Christmas present. As I dragged him kicking and screaming from the pink princess play kitchen on display in toy department, I knew what to get Luke this year. No, I didn't get him a princess kitchen, but I did get him one fit for a prince. The deluxe model I ordered came in just 2 days, just in time for the weekend which meant time for Matt to put it together- you can imagine he was thrilled. And if you think I was going to hide it from Luke until Christmas, you're wrong...there was no way I could contain my own excitement about this thing! Ah, I still remember the play kitchen in my kindergarden classroom with fond memories...

So 4 hours of hard labor later, the kitchen was ready. Now it normally would have taken handy manny, Matt about 2 hours to put it together but because he had a special helper that was stealing screws and our only screw driver, it took a little extra time. Matt and I both agree that we've never seen Luke play with one toy for as long as we've seen Luke entertained by the kitchen. We did have one small issue, our technilogical prodigy was a little miffed that the "buttons" didn't actually make noise, light up, or make something move. He kept telling me that the number pad on the microwave needed batteries. Sigh, this is a wooden kitchen Luke, no batteries, no beeping! Apparently Luke's already a part of the "plugged in" generation.

Needless to say, Luke is really looking forward to Christmas this year. He knows that Ho Ho Ho (what Luke calls Santa) brings toys to children. He doesn't quite get naughty and nice yet but we're still working on that concept. He does know that he's a good boy and he thinks that daddy is a bad boy. I'm laughing to myself as I write this.

Behold the play kitchen: