Spooner's Farm

Fall is here!... What else to do besides head to the Pumpkin Patch?

Luke is so fun these days. These are sweet days being home as a family and doing "normal" family things (I know, whatever that is!). I know that if we become a family a four it will be just as sweet, but there is something special about being a trio right now.

Duckie races!

Mama and Luke sittin' on a cow ...

Either wondering which pumpkin is juuust right,

or wondering how to get that big ol' pumpkin off his foot.

Here I am, guys! Over here, in the pumpkin!

Oh my sweet little man

"Heart"warming turn-out for Heart Walk

Luke is one loved little boy:

From left to right: Nonna Yvonne, Papa Pat, Joan, Laura, David, Val, Marcus (in stroller), Steve, Rog, Erica, me, Luke (in stroller), Anna, Auntie Andee, Carla, Nana Cindy, Papa Bill

We had shirts made that said, "Team Luke" on the back and number bibs that had Luke's picture on them. Such a great day and thankfully the rain held off until we were walking back to our cars!

Total raised through the American Heart Association for CHD awareness/research: $1,540!!!

Rog and I were blessed to see such generosity and support first-hand. Thank you everyone for making this year's Start! Heart Walk a success!

Lab results

I just got a call from Dr. Stefanelli's office and Luke's metabolic lab results were all within the normal range! Yea! I'm not sure what it would mean if they weren't, but no need to let my mind even go there.

Luke goes to school!

It seems that one of the recurring themes of Luke's life is how he continually exceeds my expectations with how well he adapts to new situations. Last Friday was no exception as we headed to Luke's first day of nursery school. The set-up of the program sounded like a great fit for us, as the parents attend and interact with the kids during the two-hour class. The first 30 minutes is set aside for parent and child play time, and as you can see from the posted pictures below, Luke loved checking out all the cool toys (especially the noisy ones). From 10am-10:55am, the parents move to an adjoining room to meet and discuss child development issues and the kiddo's "stay" in the play area with the co-op's children's teacher and parent helper. What I love about this program is that although the kids are encouraged to stay in the play area, they can come in and out of where the moms are meeting. Luke definitely "checked-in" with me every couple of minutes, mostly coming in to flop down on a big pillow and laugh at how funny he was, but then he would head back out to where the other kids were.

I know this sounds like pretty typical 20-month old behavior, but for a kid that has little to no exposure to nursery settings, I was blown away by how comfortable and confident he seemed. (I won't mention how quickly we got paged by our church nursery the very next night when Luke cried and cried when we left him there to go to the service. Nope, only proud-mama stories today =)

After the moms meet, we clean up, wash our hands and get to have snacks. By that time, Luke was hollering for "naaaaacks". Music time is the last part of the day and that was the only part Luke wasn't ga-ga over. He was looking around the circle like the other moms and kids had grown three heads. Maybe he just didn't like the song selection on this particular day.

We had such a great day and are excited to go back this Friday and play with our new friends!

I am so proud of your adaptibility, Luke, and so thankful you are my son.

These music toys were the first things Luke played with.
Gender differences exemplified: Luke went straight for the noise-makers!

Luke "playing" with the other kiddos.

His little red felt name-tag. Could this be any cuter?