The Return of Princess Abby

Let's begin this exciting week with an update on everyone's favoriet toddler!  Luke has taken to saying "OH NO!" whenever anything is dropped/falls/explodes.  It is super cute because his face gets all concerned like it is the end of the world and his arms fly out like he just can't believe that something so catastrophic would happen in real life.  We may or may not giggle at his distress every single time he does it.

Luke also has started saying "yea" like a teenage hoodlum - which makes us feel like epic failures as parents.  For the longest time he would say "Yeth" while shaking his head up and down, but now he has this very whiny sounding "yea" whenever we ask him a question.  *sigh*  Even when we say "Luke, say 'YES'" he still replies with an disinterested "yea..." while playing with his trucks. We thought we wouldn't haven't to deal with teenager like behavior until he was, well, a teenager!

There is a small glimmer of hope that we haven't completely failed to teach him manners.  We're trying to get Luke to say "thank you", but every time we say "Say 'Thank You'" he responds with "Welcome!"  *sigh* At least he has the gist of it right.

He has also gotten into participating in prayers.  Not in saying them, but in deciding when they are done.  He has figured out that the prayer is over when we say "amen" so now if the prayer is going longer than he thinks it should be he'll simply say "amen" and then go off and do other things.

Luke has really gotten into taking care of his toys, especially his Baby Panda.  He will share his water, read it stories, and tuck it in at night.  We asked him if he would like a baby to take care of, and when he looked up at us confused we changed our question to "Luke, do you want a baby or a car?"  He answered with an enthusiastic "CAR!" and got really excited.  So I guess instead of having a sibling for him we'll just save the money to get him a car when he is 16.

Luke taking Baby Panda for a walk

Luke giving his friend Tessa a ride in his pickup truck
at the Magnison Park Tot Playtime

Marinda and Luke got invited to tag along to the zoo with some friends this week, and as usual had a great time.  The giraffes and the elephants are still top favorites.  At home Amit had started showing Luke the various zoo cams across the country at different zoos.  Right now our favorites are the National Zoo's Panda Cam (THEY HAVE A BABY PANDA!) and the San Diego Zoo's Orangutan Cam (THEY HAVE A BABY ORANGUTAN!)

The most exciting part of this week would have to be seeing our good friends Liz, Brian and Abby Swanson.  Marinda and Liz were friends back before they were pregnant and had a fun time having their babies six days apart!  Amit use to tell Luke bedtime stories about the brave knight Luke fighting off dragons to rescue the Princess Abby, and it was nice to see that the two kids still got along just fine.  The last time they saw each other they they were six months old!

We met up for some fish and chips and fro yo, and then walked over to a near by park to let the kids play around a bit.  It was great catching up with them and we will miss them terribly.  All the next day Luke kept asking Amit and Marinda where Abby was.  I guess he'll just have to wait until they are both at BYU so he can ask her out.  :)

Luke and Abby when they were 3 months old

Look at those good looking kids!

We miss you guys!

This weekend was the first weekend of April, which means... GENERAL CONFERENCE!  As Luke keeps getting older we keep getting more and more concerned with how he is going to handle the 8 hours of talks, but we're finding that we're not at critical levels yet.  Luke will usually stay still and let us watch if there is food in front of him (will this continue to work through his teenage years?) and though he is on the couch playing with his trucks all over our arms and faces it is actually not that distracting.  We did find that if we really were at our wits ends we could just take the laptop into the nursery and he would play just fine while we listened.

An epic moment of this weekend happened partway though the Saturday Morning Session.  Amit turned to Marinda and said those magical words:  "Do you want to make waffles?"  *GASP*  You see, Amit never asks for waffles and with the stance that they are really a dessert does not think they belong as a breakfast item.  But in the spirit of wanting to start some fun Conference traditions Marinda busted out the waffle maker and we had a great kick off breakfast to our weekend long spiritual feast.

Sweet boys, sweet waffles, and the sweet word of God!
ok ok, I know, that was pretty cheesy.

What a studious little boy!

During the Priesthood Session while Amit was gone at the church, Marinda had a girl's night!  It was fun and Luke seemed to enjoy it too (even though he was the only boy.)  We watched The Prince and Me and were sufficiently girly - though Luke did find a silver lining of masculinity in the lawnmower race!

Marinda's Favoriet Talk: Elder W. Craig Zwick's talk from the Saturday Afternoon Session

Amit's Favoriet Talk: President Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk from the Priesthood Session