Dress up

Luke loves to dress himself right now, and his absolute favorite is dressing up - usually as a fireman. However, layers are also very popular as you can see from the photos below.

We were cracking up! He wore this get-up for a good hour, at least. It consisted of his regular outfit for the day (shorts and a polo), a fireman raincoat, train engineer overalls, rain boots, adidas warm up pants, a Yankees backpack and ball cap, a fireman helmet, and pair of binoculars. Oh, and he also happened to be wearing his eye patch when he selected this outfit (he wears a patch on his right eye for 1.5-2 hours each day to strengthen his left eye and equalize his vision. When one eye sees better than the other, the weak eye tends to not be used, and eventually the brain can start to "shut off" the images from the weaker eye ... so we are working towards equal vision in both eyes).

And, of course, my little diva can hardly stand it when Mommy is taking pictures of Luke and not her ... so in an effort to not be overlooked or otherwise outdone she did some posing while shouting "CHEESE" at me!

Never a dull moment...

Now, that's an outfit!

Oh, Luke, you are so full of life right now and you never cease to make us laugh. From your quirky behavior to some of the things you say, I feel like I am constantly wondering if I heard you correctly because I can hardly believe how silly you are ... or how smart.

I couldn't let this one go by - you just looked too cute when you came out of your room after your "nap." Even after a long Mommy day, I couldn't help but stop and take a long look at you as I laughed inside and my heart was reminded of my deep appreciation for this role that I've been given as your mother. Nothing could be better ...

...except maybe a fireman who comes to my house without pants and offers to draw me a pretty picture and then vacuum :)!

Fireman Luke

I often wonder how long this phase of loving to pretend will last. For now, Luke just adores pretending. He pretends all. day. long. Most of his pretend play doesn't require costume changes, but he does simply love dressing in his fireman outfit right now. In fact, I have even found his fireman jacket, helmet, and boots strewn across his room late at night ... a sure sign that he needed to fight a few fires before finally drifting off to sleep for the night.

Firehouse fun!

Okay, seriously, this might have been the absolute highlight of Luke's life thus far (and it was actually pretty exciting for the adults too!).


Day and Paw won a dinner at the firehouse at a charity auction ... and we didn't realize just how many cool things we were going to get to do while there. Check it out:



First up was a tour of the fire house, but Luke had absolutely no interest in seeing their HOUSE ... he wanted to see their TRUCKS! So, we took a raincheck on the house tour and headed straight out to the garage.

We were able to look at and sit in all of the trucks. Luke loved sitting in the back...

...and in the driver's seat with Daddy.

Until the alarm sounded and we had to quickly jump out of the trucks so that the firemen could jump in and take off!!!

While they were gone, Luke got to look at some of the other fire trucks on site ... and the fireman who stayed back from the call offered to take Luke for his first ride in a fire engine!

Luke decided to take a seat in the back with Day while Daddy rode up front and honked the horn and operated the sirens!

Luckily, the rest of the crew arrived back to the station in time for dinner

After a delicious dinner of tri tip, pasta, and salad, they presented Luke with his own hat, and we took the tour of the fire house.

Then we headed back outside to practice knocking down cones with the water from a fire hose

We went for another ride in the other engine

And they showed us how the ladder goes up!

SO. MUCH. FUN.

Luke would like to thank both Day and Paw and the Santa Clara County firefighters for donating to a wonderful cause and making a little boy's dream come true!

Happy Halloween 2009!

Fireman Luke had a fabulous Halloween this year. He really got into it and seemed to understand some of the traditions of the holiday and that it was going to be special and fun.



We started the morning out with a carnival at Luke's school, where the kids played games, made Halloween crafts, and paraded in costume.



He decided after 1/2 of a lap that he would much rather be a costume parade onlooker than a participant.



Off to Trick-or-Treat!



Paw and Day surprised Luke by answering the door dressed up as some of his favorite treats!



He made us laugh all night because he thought (after going to Day and Paw's house first) that he not only should take a treat at each house, but also help himself in their front doors! Luckily, we only trick-or-treated at homes of people we knew! Here he is after walking through the front door of the Rauh's. He LOVES their piano!



Back at home Luke was allowed to choose a treat from his bag ... of course, he chose the KING sized Snickers bar (smart boy!)


HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!