The McDermotts

Trick or Treat

With a very last minute switch, we ended up with 2 cowboys for Halloween!

Luke went as a dolphin earlier in the day. He's playing a huge game of operation (a.k.a. Alien Autopsy) at the community center festival.

Trunk or Treat

A dolphin and a cowboy.

Cowboy crack!

The Dolphin and The Whale

Wildlife

This is my first time ever posting videos to our blog!

Here's the huge snake that was in our backyard a few weeks ago. If you look closely, it has a big bulge in the middle of its body, so I guess it had just eaten. Gross. I was secretly hoping it ate a toy and that it would mean the end for Mr. Snakey. Guess we'll never know. My neighbor said it was a Garter snake and not poisonous, but I would still prefer it to not be in our backyard and am now slightly paranoid whenever we go outside.

For our next big wildlife adventure, we took the boys fishing for the first time yesterday. There were zero fish, but a turtle saved the day! Luke caught it several times using his net.

Another family stopped by to check out the action and helped us play with the turtle on the dock for a little bit. After this interaction, we didn't see the turtle anymore. I think he got smart and swam far, far away. Thank you for the entertainment, Mr. Turtle!

Luke and Steve have Matching Capes

Super Luke watching Super Steve on Superfriends Blues Clues.

Happy Halloween?

Recently, Luke has been talking about what he'd like to be for Halloween. This is definitely a new stage since he insisted on going as Regular Luke this past Halloween. He'll randomly say "I'm going to dress up as a ____ for 'Christmas Treating'" or "Should we dress up as 'Christmas Treaters?'". At the pet store, he said he was going to dress up as a bird and a rabbit and a branch. When he asked if we should dress up this weekend, I thought it'd be a good chance to put Max in a few costumes I never managed to get on him in the fall. Unfortunately, we don't have any spare costumes in Luke's side (aside from his Firefighter stuff - Oh! and his new superhero cape - I guess we do have some) but he was quite entertained anyways since Max and I managed to get outside without him seeing us so he was surprised with what he found when the doorbell rang. And Sammy got in on the action as a Superhero!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Getting into the Green of things the day before.

Wearing various shades of green on the actual day.

A St. Patrick's Day hug at Chic-fil-a.

There's a Bowl on My Head

Happy Birthday Luke!

Somehow Luke is 3 years old already! Lucky for us his birthday fell on a weekend this year so we got to play all day.

His day started with a red balloon at the foot of his bed - inspired by his favorite book of late, Little Rabbit Lost, by Harry Horse. The first words out of Luke's mouth when he woke up were "hey! it's my red balloon!" as if he knew it would be there for his birthday.

After breakfast, Luke unwrapped the playroom door to reveal his ...

new train table!

Max getting in on the action.

Then we went on a picnic at the school park. Aunt Jill met us there.

Complete with Mickey Mouse shaped chicken nuggets - an impulse purchase at Costco landed 5 pounds of these in our already over-crowded freezer, so I was happy to make a bunch of festive little nuggies.

Aunt Jill gave Luke a new frisbee.

Then Daddy brought out something big, yellow and exciting ...

a new bike from Nan and Pop-Pop!! Patrick picked this "retro" bike because it reminds him of his bike when he was little.

Daddy also wisely slipped Luke's helmet into the wrapping and amazingly, he wore it. We've only had moderate success getting him to wear his helmet in the past.

Cruising.

In the afternoon, we had his party.

For the 2nd year in a row, I made a slightly mauve-ish firetruck cake for Luke! This year we did a "Cars" theme and I was delighted that Luke was able to identify his cake as "Big Red" with no hints or prompting.

Cheeeese!

Aunt Jill gave Luke the coolest lollipop.

Every kid's dream!

Every baby's dream too :-)

To wrap up our day of festivities, we had our first ever Family Movie Night in the basement, featuring "Cars" and mock lasagna. I like that Max is waving in the picture below.

Poor 2nd baby - a lollipop and a movie all in one day :-(

Just before bedtime, Luke opened one more present - - a superhero cape!! Aunt Ann was inspired by my friend Melissa's blog where Luke and Owen ran up and down the hall playing Super Me. Here he is sporting his new look!

Recent-ish Pictures

10/23 Dinner. Luke stands in his chair most of the time and Max has recently joined the table compliments of the Bumbo our friend Laura was kind enough to loan us.

10/29 Max enjoying the Bumbo.

10/31 Trick-or-treating. "Regular Luke" and Max the Lion. I didn't do a very good job with pictures this year - possibly something to do with my anti-dressing-up, anti-picture-taking toddler! Luke rang the bell and actually said "trick or treat" at the first house, then rang the bell and ran at the second house. At the third house, he was already hanging back a little when Albert Einstein answered the door (holding a little rat-thing-looking dog dressed as a French Maid which was actually quite humorous) and that was the end of Luke being anywhere near the door!

10/25 Here's most of Luke's firefighter costume (minus the pants and hat) that he happily wore a week earlier to play in the rain with Daddy. His boots were on backwards and he insisted on keeping them that way for their entire 45 minute walk. He has refused to humor the firefighter jacket ever since it was referenced as a Halloween costume.

Stomping a puddle!

11/3 Max loves his exersaucer and so do I. It buys me some 2-free-hands time. Poor Max spends much more time in the exersaucer than Luke ever did. Good thing he likes it!

11/5 Popping a regular wheelie. Luke recently showed me that Aunt Jill taught him to pop a wheelie while turning the wheel at the same time. This is big stuff and makes him quite proud - I need to get a picture of the souped-up wheelie. When Luke does a trick or something he thinks is cool he asks "Is that was cool?"

Beat It

Our friend Al gave Max a Michael Jackson onsie. The tag says "Beat it" and it comes complete with fake zippers and a hood!! Pictures from Sept. 6, 2008.

Gangster Max

New Old Posts

I just logged into Blogger for the first time in a couple months and found some posts (below) from this Summer that I never published. Now if I could just keep up with blogging on a regular basis ... it will never happen, but I can try!

Frus-ter-ated: A little lesson from Blue's Clues

The other day during Luke's "rest", I was watching him on the video monitor. His entertainment de jour was sticking his fingers in his mouth until he gagged and then saying "I'm sick. I'm so sick". Repeat. I wanted to go in there to tell him to stop (he's not really sick and this was not the infant thing of trying to soothe a sore throat), but waited for a few minutes hoping he would stop on his own and take up a new task (reading books, throwing things out of his crib, pulling the blinds back to look out the window, standing on his head, etc.).

Then he started calling, "Mommy, I think we made a problem." I went into his room. He pointed at a little bit of throw-up on his pillow and repeated, "Uh-oh. I think we made a problem".

Me: Uh-oh. What happened? Why did you do that?

Luke: I was frus-ter-ated. I think my's needs to go to the doctor. I think my's need some medicine, so my's can feel better. (Note: Luke's Daddy is sick and went to the Dr. this morning).

Me: What hurts?

Luke: My tummy (pulls up his shirt to show me). I think my's needs to go to the doctor right now for some medicine.

Me: I think we'll take some medicine at home.

Luke: Ok.

Meanwhile I've pulled the pillowcase off his pillow and am checking the rest of the crib for throw-up (sheets, animals, blankets and bumpers are all clean ... hooray!) when I notice him standing with both feet on the side of his sippy cup of water (which is usually not in his crib).

Me: Please don't stand on that.

Luke: Oh, why not? ("Why not" is Luke's version of "why" and we hear it no less than 100 times a day!).

Me: Because it might break (said at the exact second that the sippy screw-top manages to separate from the bottom of the cup and all the water pours out onto the bed).

Me: Uuugh. Now that frustrates me.

Luke (and here's the lesson compliments of Steve on Blue's Clues): When you get frus-ter-ated, you need to stop and think.

OR, you just need a little comic relief from a toddler to make it all better!

It's Called a Mini-Van

Have I mentioned that we joined the mini-van club? I was initially very resistent to this movement, but have now fully embraced it and I LOVE it! Luke has told quite a few people, "It's called a mini-van".