Flipper & Pops and the Fourth!

We had the best time with Flipper and Pops over the Fourth of July holiday! In typical Luke fashion, he had been talking about their visit for weeks but then seemed to be just as thrilled about getting to go to the airport as he was about Flipper and Pops coming to visit him.

As usual Mommy was running late, so we didn't get to actually go into the airport. Tears ensued, but once he realized that Flipper and Pops were going with us in Luke's car to Luke's house, he was much happier.

Flipper came bearing gifts, of course, and this silly kazoo from the Dali Museum was a favorite...despite the unconvincing look on his face.

We always go to Trader Joe's when Flipper and Pops are in town (get a clue, Mr. Joe...you need to open up shop in TAMPA!!), and this time Luke was so proud to be able to push his own cart. We were proud that he only ran into things and not too many people.

Pops decided he wanted to take Luke to a toy store, so we went to a retro-inspired one in the historic district of downtown. Luke and Pops picked out a set of really cool race cars that are super fast and can be taken apart and put back together. For the Stinker, though, their best feature was their box, as it made for a perfect car wash (his newest obsession).

While waiting for Mommy and Flipper to finish shopping, Luke and Pops played in a nearby park and made a big-headed new friend.

I am not even going to tell you how many times we went to Handel's for the best ice cream in town, so don't bother asking me.

Four out of five of us were thrilled to go to Three Sisters' for lunch, after having seen it featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. The fifth person was all about it once the food came, but acted like a 2 year old when I forced him to take a picture.

One of the highlights of the trip was Flipper's handiwork-- an eight foot tee pee! Chief Stinkerpants was elated to have a tee pee of his own and required that all matters henceforth take place inside it.
  (Sorry for the blurry camera photo!)

On the Fourth of July, we opted for taking Luke to a parade in the morning rather than keeping him up super late for "yowd" fireworks. He was somewhat interested when we told him that we were going to a parade, but when we told him there were going to be firetrucks and candy, he couldn't get to the "wade"  fast enough.

When the first thing that was given to him at the parade was a flag rather than candy, he began to feel a little misguided though.

Fortunately Daddy was there to show him how to smile and wave to the passersby.

And soon he had collected a fashionable yellow necklace, found a sweet baby girl for Flipper to hold, and gotten Daddy and Pops working his corner.

Our buddies, Kiley, Dakota, and silly Cooper (Luke calls him 'Coopie') were helpful and generous, showing Luke how to run and scoop up the scattered candy and sharing their spoils with him when he was the last one to arrive to the loot.

In no time he had acquired quite a stash and spent the rest of the parade stuffing candy into his mouth like this.

During which time I took a minute to photograph my favorite site at the parade.

Yum.

Anywhooooooo....I digress.

After the parade, it was time for lunch and some shoulder exercises for Pops. Luke didn't want Pops to overdo it, so he gladly stepped in to help bear some of the burden.

He even subbed in and did a few reps on Pops' behalf.

(Shhh...don't tell Pops' doctor!!)

Meanwhile, Mr. Potty kept Luke entertained with his witty banter.

When all was said and done, it was a fabulous Fourth and we were so glad Flipper and Pops were here to share it with us!

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!

A Tractor Kind of Christmas.

We celebrated Christmas early with Phil's parents at their mountain house this year, and it was possibly the highlight of Luke's year. PopPop has so many motorized toys that Luke thought he had died and gone to heaven. He was SOOOOOO excited. A few days before we left Indy, we told Luke that we were going to go see Grammy and PopPop soon and that he was going to get to drive PopPop's tractor when we got to their house. Well, he has the memory of an elephant and talked about this for days. The morning before we left, this was how he greeted me when I went to get him out of bed:

Me (opening door, walking into his room): "Hey, sweet boy..."
Luke: "Grammy PopPop soon!"
Me: "Yep, we're going to see Grammy and PopPop soon."
Luke: "Ride tractor!"
Me: "Yes, you're going to ride the tractor with PopPop."
Luke: "Two days!!"
Me: "No, now it's only one day. We're going tomorrow!"

He never quite understood the countdown of days, but he understood very well that we were on our way to PopPop's as we made the TEN hour drive on Friday. He must have said "PopPop!!" at least 400 times during the drive and "ride tractor" 300 times. We spent the entire time reassuring him that yes, we were still headed to see PopPop, and yes, he was going to ride the tractor. It was a very long drive.... Once we got to the mountain house, we parked in the garage where the regular riding lawnmower (mowing is another obsession), the John Deere riding mower, and the 4-wheeler live. He was so excited to see them and immediately climbed up on the John Deere. Later as we were unpacking, he disappeared for a few minutes, and we found him out in the garage back on the John Deere. He run down the hall, through the laundry room, and let himself out into the garage. Needless to say, we were vigilant about dead bolting the doors after that. The next day Luke finally got to go for a ride. In typical fashion, he wanted to DRIVE, so PopPop got the John Deere going and let Luke stand in between his legs and steer. They just kept going in circles. It's a wonder PopPop didn't get sick. Later PopPop got out the big, refurbished Massey Ferguson. He drove Luke on the road all the way down the mountain and back up. It was the cutest thing and Luke absolutely loved it. When it was time to put the tractor up, he started to pitch a fit, but we told him that the tractor had to go nigh-night, and he was okay with that. The next day he got to ride on the 4-wheeler once with PopPop and once with Daddy and kept calling it a motorcycle. I guess it does kind of look like a big, fat motorcycle. By this time we had opened Christmas presents and Luke had received some lovely camouflage overalls and a hoodie from PopPop. Perfect 4-wheeler riding attire. We had a great time celebrating Christmas with the whole family (minus JoJo and Brian--boo hoo), but you'd never know to look at our pictures. They are all of Luke on some sort of machine. Oh well. Those are the only pictures he'll care about when he's older anyway.

I wasn't there for this and am wondering if PopPop really let him drive the John Deere out of the garage. Surely not.


He did let him steer, though!
Here is circle #374. And he only turned left, like a true race car driver. If this is a glimpse into his future, I'm in big trouble....


He insisted on "mowing" with this fertilizer thingy.


Overall-ed and 4-wheelin'. Yeehaw!


Headed down the mountain with PopPop.
(Luke absolutely had to have his hoodie up, even though it covered half his face.)


It was a long way down....


And they're back!


Riding the tractor is serious business.
Two hands on the wheel, and get out of my way!

Watching begrudgingly as the tractor goes nigh-night.

Thanks, PopPop and Grammy for making Luke's Christmas so special. He won't soon forget, which means neither will we!!