Skip to main content

Luke gets Lost

Luke loves to "garden"--- he will sit digging in the dirt for up to 30 minutes at a time (he might sit for longer, but I have never let him). The other day we were by the back door gardening, when I heard the girls screaming inside. I went in to find they were fighting, and left Luke a few feet away gardening happily. I even left the door open so he could come and find me.

When I went outside again, I thought I could hear him around the corner playing in the leaves, but when I went to check on him he wasn't there. I didn't worry yet, I walked around the house. Then through the house. Then around the house again, but this time I was starting to get frantic. I went into the house through the back door and heard someone (an adult) at the front door. I ran up the stairs, and there was our neighbor holding a screaming Luke. The big problem was that it was our neighbor from across the street. He had been using his weed whipper, turned around and saw Luke standing there, screaming.

Luke recovered quickly from the trauma, although he had little blisters on some of his toes from crossing the street (they healed overnight). I am still recovering, although I think the answer is that Luke has a much shorter leash for a long time. It didn't seem like I was dealing with the girls for a long time, but it was longer than I thought and Luke is quicker than I thought. I think he looked up from gardening, saw I was gone, went around the house to the front yard, saw the neighbor and went for help. Thank God there were no cars driving down the road...

I don't know that Eleanor or Amanda would have gotten that far that fast. I am needing a bit of adjustment to raise Luke, and a bit more imagination for the trouble a 15 month old will get into.

Popular posts from this blog

My hero, Helen Parr

Otherwise known as Elastigirl , a.k.a Mrs. Incredible. She is a stay at home mom ( SAHM ), she clearly feels that what she is doing is important and is willing to give up a lot to do it (remember her comment in the intro: "I'm at the top of my game! Leave saving the world to the guys? I don't think so.") But she is finding fulfillment in leading her family from day to day, in doing a hard job well. She also knows that she is very talented, and that knowledge helps her see beyond the repetitive drudgery of staying home. My favorite scene is from the deleted introduction, where she talks with a "career woman" who is of the opinion that staying home is fine for people who can't do anything else. She responds that taking care of her kid is at least as hard as saving the world, and is valuable contribution to society. The point for me is that someone has to do the job that I'm doing, and it's not something that you could pay someone to do. I see...

Kindergarten Fashions

I was informed the other day that Eleanor wants to get a new thermos. She lost the o-ring from her purple Tinkerbell thermos, and I have so far resisted buying another one for her, on the theory that you shouldn't just replace things that are broken since it doesn't encourage being careful with one's things. I have been sending her with the sippee cups that she has been using since she was a year old, which she has resisted giving up to the point of becoming partly dehydrated when I don't let her use them at home. Here's how the conversation went. Eleanor: Anna and Jane said today at lunch, " Kindergartners don't drink from sippee cups!" Me: That's very interesting. Eleanor: They are supposed to drink from thermoses. Me: Eleanor, would you like a new thermos? Eleanor: Yes! Get the purple one, please. If there is a crayon one, that's the one I want.... Who knew that peer pressure started in kindergarten? The sippee cups are perfectly f...

Girl toys

A friend just had a post about her son's desire to have a pink bejewled play phone (she and the people who comment have great things to say: here it is so you can read it). Thinking about her post made me very glad that for girls 5 and under (which is all I have experienced lately) there is no toy that is off limits as far as I can tell. Amanda's favorite toys are trains (although she doesn't play with them the way some of her boy friends do. I think Chanson's kids would play well with her version of trains). Her favorite movie is Cars. Her favorite TV show is Bob the Builder. No one in her life (relatives, friends, teachers) tells her that she can't enjoy all of these things. On the other hand, she likes to play with all these things while she is dressed as a princess... In Eleanor's class, everyone's favorite thing to do is woodworking, both girls and boys. The only mathematicians she knows are women, so she expects to do well in math as well...