Luke Too

Aaaaauurrrghhh!!!!!!!!!! I love my son. I love my son. I love my son.

Life with Luke

Do you know what these are? How about another hint...
How about now? Do you know any of those people who say "Oh we never _____ (example -put locks on cabinets). We just taught are children not to do that." Well if you count the number of cheese packages in the first photo you can see the number of idiotic times I tried to teach Luke "not to do that." How about just move the macaroni and cheese to another shelf?! Great idea. How could anyone resist the sound of macaroni being dumped down the vent, even if your mom told you not to.

And the M&M fire truck? I guess it needed a new paint job. Luke brought it out to me and told me he used "mommy's paint." Also known as foundation- MAKE-UP. I guess that "paint" color didn't look that good on me anyway.

I'd like to thank Grandma Payne once again for the sample bottles of Clinic make-up remover. I love the product!

Out with the cousins

We went with my cousin's family to Elena Gallegos park this afternoon to take some snapshots. It was a dark and stormy night, but a few turned out.
3 headed, six legged boy
And here we have Mr. Wesley and his hot mama. He likes to stand these days - especially in his pouch.
Allie was dying to hop on the rock with the boys. When it was finally her turn, she played up the drama to let us know how patient she had to be...
Luke found a cactus and we had the fine privilege of picking out 30 or so "pokeys" from his leg. We wound up stopping by Smiths on our way home to buy tweezers for the remaining few. He was not impressed. On our way out of the park Allie asked "I thought we were going to a park?"

Baby Food

We wait to begin introducing food/solids to our babies- usually until they are 8 or 9 months. I know that is pretty unusual. Most people begin around 6 months and some even earlier like 4 months. We wait because we are trying and hoping to prevent things like Celiac disease and diabetes among the many other allergies that Payne intestines have- milk, ,bananas, peanuts - to name a few. The other reason that is almost equally as strong is that I don't really like feeding babies baby food. They grab the spoon, fight with you for the food, it is messy, takes longer and they always want to eat when I want to eat. That is pretty selfish- I know. It is fun maybe the first couple of times but really, I like when they can start feeding themselves. But as I said before, it is mostly about the allergies.

Ideally we begin feeding our babies around 8 or 9 months with introducing fresh wholesome fruits and vegetables, whole grains- rice, oatmeal, then wheat. No preservatives. Just wholesome fresh goodness for their little tummies to adjust to one at a time.

The reality: dried up Ramen noodles, garlic bread with butter and mayo, old bananas and banana peel, crunchy Trix (Hello yellow #5 and Red #2), Cheerios soaked in cow's milk, pieces of Fruit Roll Up (high fructose corn syrup), and peanut butter sandwich crusts. Those are just the food items I have witnessed.

The combination of early crawling and standing (the little kid table is just the right height for his chubby little reaching hands) and older siblings who are really just little kids too makes for adventures in food scavenging. Yep, the self-feeding stage. My dear sweet Wesley- may the antibodies I have given you be strong and your intestines be steel.

You know, maybe the reason that my children are such good eaters is because we make them wait for so long they are willing to try ANYTHING.

Zoo Night

Last night was Sandia National Laboratory's Division 5000's annual night at the zoo -that is a mouthful. The above photo is Luke counting to 5,000. (He got to 10). We LOVE zoo night! It is so fun for the whole family. They have hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken with potato salad and chips and all the fixin's (is fixin' a southern word?) and you eat in the beautiful green grass below the green canopy of cotton wood trees and in front of the the outdoor stage with the live music playing (usually some group of one of the employees). They were really good. And then you run around to see as many of the animals as you can before they go to bed. Which isn't many. But still, it is so fun!

I love these photos. You can see why Luke has a hard time keeping up with Allie. It is all in the length of your stride- just like your cross country coach and Pres. Kimball said.

Jason took some snapshots for the Ottesens while the rest of us looked at the animals. Here is a nice photo of Mitchell:
And now for the highlight of the evening! Jingles the Clown painted Allie and Luke's face. They were THRILLED!!! And of course did NOT want to wash their faces when they got home. Luke's little face has a blue car on it. He made me pretend it was driving all over his face last night as I was tucking him in. He loved it even though his photo below doesn't show very much enthusiasm.She was smart. She would paint on the little kids hands while painting on their face. It helps them to hold still while their face is being worked on.

Good Morning

Wesley is always trying to steal some "chocolate caliente" from Luke and Allie.

Allie's first day

The local high school here has a class for students who are going into teaching, social work, psychology, etc. where they get a hands on experience. It is free preschool program for people living in the school boundaries. It is great because your child has a 2-1 ratio- two student teachers to one preschooler. I am not a big believer in preschool. My siblings nor I went (or did you Paul and Peggy?) and I really don't think it is necessary for one's educational prepardness. BUT as I mentioned before it is FREE and the kids love it! Allie has been so excited about this for years (for two and half years actually. She was just two when we submitted her application. Yes, there is a waiting list). The school is 3 days a week for 3 hours a day. Here is Allie on her first day of Preschool. She hardly even noticed when I was trying to say goodbye as I dropped her off. This is the child who went to nursery and never looked back and was thrilled to see a babysitter every time since the very beginning. I was so excited to hear about her first day when I went to pick her up. She said she had fun but she wasn't in the mood for talking. She was sniffling and had an ice pack on her head -- a mirror fell on her head just before I arrived. Jason said "I guess that's seven years of bad luck. The sixth grade should be great..."

Today was day 2. She was more open about what they did- they played and had a snack (the essentials. Made me think of Camille). They also had a story read to them and some circle time. That is what she told me. What she told Luke while playing this afternoon was something like "LUKE! Stop, eyes up, focus!" I am not sure that Luke knows what focus means. She kept repeating herself over and over. Perhaps it's his hearing?

Thank You

Have you ever had anyone do something really nice for you totally out of the blue and you feel like a total schmuck because you would never have ever thought of something like that? Thank you so much Becky for bringing me (us) chicken noodle soup for dinner!!!

Looking For a Shoulder to Cry On

Please do not mistake this for patting my own back but many people seem amazed that I choose to give birth naturally and say things like "Wow- you must be so tough" followed by comments on pain tolerance. Folks, that has little to do with it. And I am not against medicine. In fact, in the last three days I have had cough syrup, Benadryl, Musinex, Emergen-C (not really medicine exactly but stay with my here) Zicam, Tylenol PM, whatever that nasal spray stuff is, throat spray (the numbing kind) and lots of herbal tea. And nothing works! Isn't the FDA supposed to check these things out?! It is false advertising if nothing else. I am MISERABLE and sick and my throat hurts and I just want to lay on the couch while the kids tear the house apart. I am a wimp ok! I am telling you, natural birth is very painful but at least you can work with the pain- it has a purpose, you get breaks in between contractions, you can even SLEEP while laboring and at the moment that that sweet precious baby- a whole other human being- leaves your body to start it's own life apart from you the pain is totally gone. It is such an AMAZING HIGH! And it's all over in a number of hours. This... what I am currently suffering through... feels endless. There are no breaks, I can't breath through my nose (which as you know affects tastes), my head aches, my neck is sore, my mouth dries out, the skin around my nostrils has been completely removed, and my throat is KILLING me! Oh the aches and pains. And there is no cute little baby to hold and cuddle at the end. Boohoohoo. Aren't you so thrilled to have wasted 30 seconds of your lift to hear (or read) me whine?! And how are you feeling today?

While the mom was away...

...the kids will play. Joy is at church tonight with Wesley. After extra buttery mac and cheese, Luke and Allie joined me on a sunset walk at the top of the street...As you can see, she earned three stickers at the doctor's office today after two separate shots. [Joy here. I was so proud of Allie today. She was so brave. She knew Wesley was going to get a shot and when she realized she also would be getting not one but TWO... well she was NOT very excited. And although it hurt- she looked rather pale- she did not cry which surprised me. I told her it was ok if she wanted/needed to cry. I think she was pretty proud of herself that she didn't. Getting in the car she told me it didn't even hurt. She was proud of earning 3 stickers for her bravery.]
Mt. Taylor in the distance... [Aunt Linda- I have wanted to get this shot for you. You can see the horizon (horizontal) and a sunset. Jason took this from the top of our street. So I dedicate this sunset to you. Wish you could be here to see it for yourself. I guess I wasn't there for this one either but you know what I mean.]
Wearing mom's socks...
There were tons of gnats and Mr. Luke usually had 5 or so on his face. So with gravel in the sandals, our three hour tour had to be cut short.Here is a shot of Wesley just because we miss him...

Visitors leave, a new visitor comes

We just finished a great Labor Day weekend with the Payne Family Reunion. There were roughly 175 in attendance with 17 staying in our 4 bedroom ONE bathroom house . Maria, Kent and their four kids were the last to leave this morning and now our home is quite again. What a bummer- I hate the end of family visits. Jay, Ilene and Andrew were the only ones not able to make it. I didn't take any photos (may I should have) and instead just enjoyed the visit. I'm sure Joy will add detail to "enjoyed."

Just when we were super lonely, this little guy crawled into the garage. Luke and Allie had a good time playing with him... If you click on the picture and look at the full size image, check out his (or her as Allie would prefer) wing - amazing "bio-mimicry" of a leaf.
This is the only photo I took during our reunion (Joy's famous corn meal pancakes). Krista and Dad, please share your pics...Allie always uses these gloves when she wants to play with bugs. She came in a few weeks ago from the garden and had found a massive cigar-like tomato worm that had eaten most of the leaves off of our bell pepper plant. I conned her into putting on these gloves and pulling the worm off the plant. When I told her he needs to go live down in the street, she became concerned that he might get run over (hmm...). She wound up naming her Priscilla if I remember right and put her in a shoe box with some carrot tops.
Like all of our "bichos" (bugs), Allie wants to name them and keep them. He's living on our apricot tree for now...