Burrrrrrr....

Unless you've been hibernating all winter, you've probably experienced some really cold weather lately. All our peeps down south have been miserable and stuck inside for days due to the recent frigid temps (to which we say, "Welcome to our world, friends"). We up here in the Midwest (some of those same peeps would call it "The North") have been lucky not to have had nearly as much snow as the East Coast, but we've had our fair share. I do have to say, though, that being a Florida native and much preferring the heat to the cold any day, I have had zero point zero zero zero interest in sledding or playing much in the snow the whole time I have lived here. Phil hasn't had much more than I, but the other day he decided he wanted to take Luke sledding for the first time. When Phil told me where he wanted to take him, I reminded him that that very small hill led right into a very busy road and that it might not be the safest. He thought about it and then decided it was too late in the evening anyway, and that maybe they'd try it another day. Instead, he decided to take Luke to one of his all-time favorite places, especially now that it has been so off limits because of constant snow. Where might this awesome place be?? Well, if you guessed the shed in our backyard, then you are the winner! Yes, the shed, or the "barn" as Luke calls it, is a beloved place in Lukeland because it houses the almighty lawn mower...and visiting the lawn mower is AWESOME. Duh.

Here is the journey in pictures. I know you can't wait.


All bundled up sausage style and checking on how the swing has been doing all winter.


Zoning in on the beloved barn...


...and taking off!


Daddy runs to catch up.


Unlocking it together.


The anticipation is just killing you, I am sure, but wait for it....





THERE IT IS!!!
THE LAWN MOWER!!!


So exciting that he lost a mitten and didn't even notice or care.


Daddy had had enough of the freezing cold and took off.


Wait? What do I do now?


Daddy come back!!


Oops! Face plant.
Now was the time that he realized he had lost a mitten and totally freaked out when he saw his bare hand completely covered in snow. It was hilarious, but I couldn't get a good picture.


The next best thing to the lawn mower, in Luke's opinion, is the snow blower. He has quite the love/hate relationship with it. At this point he was begging to turn the snow blower back on (Daddy had already cleared the driveway while I was bundling Luke up). Knowing that Luke would hate the loudness of it once it was turned on, we tried distracting him by taking pictures.


Luke's lisp captured on camera. Adorbs.


Mommy looks like a giant stepped on her head, and Luke can't take his eyes off the snow blower.


Sooooooooooo....we finally obliged and turned it on.

This was the result:



The hate part of "love/hate".


Poor little scaredy cat!

Like {Grand}Father, Like Son.

Phil and his dad, Stan, are very handy and good with tools, which is something that I love about them both. Luke seems to have inherited at least some of those genes, praise Jesus. Ever since staying with my parents in Tampa while we were in Thailand, he has been crazy about tools and goes around the house trying to "fits" (fix) things with his very own tools. Last week Phil tried fixing our very obstinate light in the kitchen. He brought in a step ladder, put on his head lamp, and broke out his tool bucket. Luke was enraptured. He insisted on climbing the ladder himself and using Daddy's tools to help "fits". Little did I know, a new obsession was born that day, and now all Luke can talk about is "ky yadder", or climbing a ladder.

Well, Tuesday, as I was getting home from grocery shopping, Luke met me in the garage and was begging to climb the ladders that were leaning up against the wall in there. Needing to get back in the house and put away the groceries, I had an idea. I brought in the step ladder (safer than a regular one) and put it right smack in the middle of the kitchen. I let Luke climb up and down and play with his tools while I unloaded groceries right there next to him. He loved it and was so cute that I had to get it on video. I also took advantage of his brief moment of cooperation by asking him to say things that I have been wanting to get on video for a while but haven't been able to because whenever I pull out the camera, he just wants to sit in my lap and watch old videos of himself. Anyway, the video is really long, but really funny. If you have the patience, stick with it and watch it to the end, because that is where he sings and declares himself a good basketball player.


**Sidenote: After watching the video, I figured out that when Luke says what sounds like "bop screwdriver", he is saying "Bob screwdriver", meaning that it is like Bob the Builder's (a new hero) screwdriver. Smart little Stinker.**



Last week's helper:


Observing and evaluating Daddy's work.


Giving Daddy pointers on how to do it right.


Giving up on Daddy and deciding to take matters into his own hands.


"Geez...I have to do everything around here. You just can't find good help these days."

Now I just need the weather to warm up so I can get Luke to cultivate those gardening skills that I am hoping he inherited from my dad. With Luke's help, I'll have this place ship shape in no time!

One of My Faves.

Taken earlier this year.
Love it.

Stinker Story #5: Heady Eddy.

Over the holidays, we drove all over the place. From Indy to Atlanta to Tampa to Jacksonville, back to Atlanta, then back home to Indy. It was a lot of driving, but any normal person would pass a good portion of the time by sleeping. Unless, of course, you were the driver. Luke, however, has NEVER been a good car sleeper. It was even worse when he was a baby. He would not sleep in his car seat (while in the car or out of the car) without first throwing a HUGE screaming/crying fit, and then would only sleep for about 15 minutes, tops. Now that he is older, his norm is 30 minutes and many times it comes only after a freak-out fit that can last anywhere from 5 to 45 minutes. So you can imagine how much we love road trips in the Tatum family. Nevertheless, when it comes to holiday travel, we don't have much of a choice. This year's travel was not much better, but it did have its moments of hilarity, which are pictured below. These happened the last 2 days of our travel and were, I guess, a little comic relief to give us the strength we needed to make it all the way home with some of our sanity still intact.

Here are this year's stats:

Indy to Atlanta (10 hour trip): Screaming fit - at least 25 mins. Sleep - 35 mins.
Atlanta to Tampa (7 hour trip): Screaming fit- 20 mins. Sleep - a measly 16 mins.
Tampa to Jacksonville (3.5 hour trip): short trip, so no sleep.

This is where it got interesting. From Jacksonville to Atlanta (5-ish hour trip), this is how he slept:


During this day's screaming fit, he was slinging Eddy (his beloved elephant blanket) around in rage. When Eddy got stuck on his head, it was kind of like Luke's batteries just slowly died. His hands fell in slow motion from holding onto Eddy above his head to resting gently at his sides. It was hilarious to watch. I was sitting next to him, so I got to see it all transpire before me.
The amazing part is that he broke his car-sleeping record. He stayed asleep for 50 glorious minutes!!! Of course once he woke up, his entire head was drenched in sweat, but it was worth it.


A close-up. So angelic. And deceiving.

We spent the night in Atlanta that night and got up bright and early the next morning to make the trek back to Indy. This was perhaps Luke's best travel day ever in his life. He entertained himself so much, mostly reading books. I got to spend a lot of time riding (sleeping) in the front seat next to Phil instead of playing entertainer in the back next to the Stinker. He fell asleep WITHOUT a screaming fit and slept for 40 minutes. At 40 minutes, he stirred, woke up, put Eddy over his face, and slept for 10 more minutes like this:


From the front.




From the side.

I was a little concerned about his breathing, but didn't dare risk waking him up by moving Eddy. Considering that with Eddy's help Luke slept for 50 minutes both days, I might be tempted to cover Luke's head from now on!

New Year's.

For the 8th year in a row, we spent New Year's with our good friends Tito (no, his mom didn't really name him that. his real name is David.) and Stacy. It was so much fun, especially since our kiddos got along so well. Now that Luke is older, they could finally play together and play they did. Jax had a plethora of boy things--bikes, cars, scooters, tools, balls, and even a 4-wheeler. Luke was in paradise. We grownups had lots of fun just being together again and catching up. We even got a babysitter for New Year's Eve and went out to a fancy dinner. Such a treat! Tito and Phil went to the Gator bowl and watched Mississippi State stomp all over Michigan (sorry Mom!). They had awesome seats, thanks to Tito's brother, and had a great time. And since we were in Jacksonville, we got to escape some brutally cold weather up here in Indy. It was glorious. Sadly, though, we big kids only took one picture of the 4 of us together, and it did not turn out well, so I won't be posting it. But you don't look at this blog to see Phil and me anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter!

The Stinkerman playing with Jax's super fancy tool table and showing off his manly chest and equally manly fuzzy footie pajamas.


Pushing the button, turning on the "yowd" table saw, and making Jax cry. Kind of ironic, considering that turning on a hair dryer within a 1 mile radius of Luke instantly elicits a complete freak-out because it is too "yowd".

Quintessential Phil.
He had a little too much fun with Jax's toys, too.

Is Jax not the cutest little redhead you've ever seen, pj's and all?

I LOVE this picture because that is such a Tito face that Jax is making!

Kindred spirits. This is how Luke goes down big slides, too.

Isn't this what dads are made for?


I think Luke would agree.

So cute.
(And hilarious if, like me, your first thought when you saw this was that it looks like a my-two-dads family Christmas card.)

"All dum", with a sweat induced mohawk and a lollipop to save us from the I-don't-want-to-leave-the-playground temper tantrum.

Thanks so much, Tito and Stacy, for such a good time!

A Tampa Kind of Christmas.

After our tractor-time Christmas in Atlanta, we headed down to Tampa to spend some time with my family. We arrived Christmas Eve afternoon and headed to Grandma's house for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner with my dad's side of the fam. We had a great time and Luke managed to hang in there, despite having had a really long day. Christmas day was a little different this year, because we waited for my brother, Ben, and his wife, Abbi, to arrive around lunch time before starting the present opening extravaganza. Thank God Luke was too young to really understand what was going on, or it would have been torture trying to make him wait hours to dig in. Anyway, here are the few pics that I managed to take during the process.

Unfortunately for Luke we didn't start opening presents until nap time, so he was falling apart before we even opened the first gift. Daddy was feeling great, though.

In tears, opening his first gift.
I think all he really wanted for Christmas this year was a nap.

Silly Daddy trying to cheer up the Stinker.

Ooooooh, what's in here??

Now it was Daddy's turn to open his gifts, and we so wished he hadn't. Ben gave him some hair for Christmas. Phil loved it. I did not.

Ben trying on Phil's hair.

That night my Aunt Kate and her family came over for our annual Christmas dinner with my mom's side of the fam. Luke is a big fan of Aunt Kate, especially when she does fun things like play peekaboo through the screen door.

The next day my best friend, Paige, came over with her 2-year old, Finley, and her new baby girl, Khaki. Luke and Fin have been besties for a while now and were perfectly content to sit on the floor and challenge each other to a snack eating contest.

Poor Fin started shoving the cheerios down her throat once she realized Luke's bigger cookies left her at a disadvantage.


(L to R: Abbi holding 6-day old Khaki, Luke, me, Paige, Finley, and Ben)
Paige and Ben and I grew up together. Paige lived 2 doors down and spent half her life at my house. Now we are all grown up and the second generation will soon outnumber us. So fun!

We had a wonderful Christmas with all of our family and friends. I hope you did, too!