Tucker’s Self-Portrait Photo Essay

  

 

  

Our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

Tucker’s friend Henry had TWO Christmas trees, so Tucker begged to get a table tree.  Austin and Tucker went into the woods and found a little evergreen to cut down to fill the need, and Tucker decorated it just perfectly.  I didn’t have a stand so I taped a mason jar to a square of cardboard, and tried to wedge it into the mason jar so it wouldn’t tip over.  I need to work on my wedging skills next year (actually, next year I’d pack it into the mason jar with gravel). 

Tucker's Christmas Concert

Tucker's preschool had a Christmas concert on Thursday night that was highly entertaining. Tucker was in the second row behind a little girl in pink so it's hard to see him (he's wearing a green and red stiped polo shirt). I wasn't sure if he'd sing or not, and was surprised by how excited he was and how into it he was. By the end of the concert I think he was the only boy left in his class still actually singing!

He looked forward to the concert all day, and took a bath and picked out Christmas clothes all by himself with no prompting besides asking him to at the dinner table. Wow! He did have a moment of stage fright when we were walking to the concert hall (the local middle school auditorium) when Austin told him this was where the big boys went to school. It took a lot of reassurance to convince him that it was, in fact, just his preschool friends that were going to be there that night.

Besides seeing my little man sing, the other highlight was the youngest class--the two and three year-olds--that had two boys who stole the show. Someone had taught one boy how to bow low, and he spent the first half of the concert continually bowing low. Another little boy in that class had the only solo of the night when he started "This Little Light of Mine" about 10 seconds before everything else--yelling. I think throughout the concert he was as loud as almost all the other kids put together.

Quote of the Day

“Is that tent bigger than God?” -Tucker

Quote of the Day

“Heavenly hosts sing wa-wa-woo-wa!” –Tucker, telling me the words to Silent Night

At church this week, Tucker really got into the Advent singing.  He sang with real pleasure and definite gusto—Austin and I had to restrain our giggles and smiles because Tucker can get quite self conscious these days. 

I wasn’t sure how many other people could hear him, but it turns out his voice carried from the altar to the back row because we had people from both places commenting on his singing.  In fact, Fr. Glenn said that he heard Tucker and his first impulse was to laugh and then his next impulse was to cry it was so beautiful.  “That is how it’s supposed to be done!” he told us after the service.

Gingerbread Fun

 

Helen treated us to another Gingerbread workshop.  We were more prepared for the rigors of house decorating this year, and Tucker was even better prepared for the amount of candy that was going to be available. 

 

 

 

Santa was there and waved a bell over Tucker’s head to determine if he has been naughty or nice.  The bell indicated nice… I wonder then why he has lost TV privileges and dessert privileges this week?  I must be confused.  :)

 

Incidentally, Santa was also very scary.  Tucker made sure to look away and cover his ears when Santa addressed him.  His awe of Santa made it too much to take in at once.

My son is a complete pack rat and insisted in collecting every scrap of leftover candy to take home.  It wasn’t just about the candy either, he collects tiny pieces of everything that anyone else in the world would throw away.  It makes craft time with him challenging, and I frequently have to raid his art area to throw away the detritus.  One of his favorite things right now is cutting paper into miniscule bits and calling it “wrapping paper” and then insisting these scraps are all treasures.  Hmmm.  At least in this candy case we convinced him that 1/3 of it needed to go to Henny and a 1/3 of it needed to go to Luisa, so we only got 1/3 of the leftover candy junk.

Tucker’s New Love

Tucker has a new love in his life and her name is Candy Land.  I was wondering when he would get interested in board games and actually following the rules.  When he was two he received a fishing game as a present and it immediately dispersed around the house as fodder for random imaginative things (fish sandwiches, treasure, etc.).  I tried to play it with him but the idea of the thing was completely lost on him.

Fast forward two years to Candy Land.  We gave it to him for his birthday in September and it took a couple months for him to warm up to the idea of following rules, but now he is absolutely obsessed.  In love.  Transfixed.  He still is torn whenever he receives a bad card about whether he REALLY should follow it because as he states almost every turn "I want to win."  But, my secret to getting him to follow the rules is to remind him that if he goes backwards like the card says the game will be longer and we will play longer. 

The one thing to be prepared for is that when he asks what piece you want to be because you can choose first: whatever piece you pick is going to be the one he wants.  Related to this, my other big Mommy secret these days is when Tucker has leftovers in the fridge I want him to eat, if I offer them to him and he says "No, I don't want that."  All I have to say is, "Okay, well maybe Molly wants them instead."  The idea of Molly taking something that was his stuns his little brain and suddenly he does a 180 and is begging for his leftovers.

Bible Study Concert

I find this video hilarious. Tucker had a concert last year where he was so animated he was the star of the show... no longer! The shy monster has gobbled him up and this time he stood in a corner looking at his friend. I think he mouthed the words once!

Quote of the Day

“My cheese is dead!!!!” –Tucker, screaming down the hall at 2 am

Lots of singing: processionals and light up shoes

Here are a couple recent videos of Tucker. The first is his rendition of a processional at church… he was carrying the Swiffer around the house as a cross while chanting until Austin made one of his own. The lyrics to this song he made up make sense, but sometimes he sings Jesus chants to the tune of Old Macdonald, and in fact, the other week I think the lyrics went something like “Old Macdonald tickled Jesus….”





The second video is Tucker enjoying some new light up shoes by dancing in circles to make them light up.

Me and the Old Ladies

My new favorite store is Walmart these days. Me and the old ladies love those motorized handicapped carts with the little basket out front. Molly likes them too and has learned how to drive when my attention wavers for a second. She prefers to navigate the store with one hand on the wheel (is she a backseat driver already?). Tucker isn't as enthusiastic as expected, perhaps because he kept falling off. Surprisingly, those carts probably weren't designed for three people. I really should take a picture of the three of us whipping through the aisles. It definitely beats grocery shopping on crutches. (Two more weeks to go!)

Mushroom Walk

September had 20+ days of at least a trace amount of rain here in Virginia, which means our mushroom population enjoyed a renaissance. Tucker loves to find mushrooms and show me (it is always urgent that I drop whatever I am doing to look). I proactively addressed the situation by taking the camera and searching for every mushroom I could find with him in the yard. We got a lot. (Note, this was a couple weeks ago, the crutches have put a damper on these kind of activities for the moment!)

Quote of the Day

"I want to play golfball!" -Tucker

(Any real sport apparently needs to end in "ball")

Quotes of the Day

Tucker: We're animals too, right, because we're camels?
Austin: You mean mammals?
Tucker: Yep, mammals.

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Tucker: What are you going to do with all this basil?
Me: I'm going to make pesto.
Tucker: No, let's make pie with it.

Quote of the Day - the Facts of Life

"Did Benny come out of Mommy's tummy?"
-Tucker

Quote of the Day

Tucker: Let's go ask Daddy! He knows EVERYTHING.
Me: He does?
Tucker: Yes, I think he does.

Quote of the Day

Today Tucker was talking about whether dinosaurs were real, and trying to make sense of them being extinct. He said, "Did the dinosaurs die on the cross?" Then he asked if they were in heaven with Jesus and if heaven is big enough to fit dinosaurs.

According to Tucker clowns, pogo sticks and pillow fights are NOT real.

Quotes of the Day

"You guys think I'm a nut but I'm not." -Tucker, out of the blue one morning during breakfast

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Austin: A couple more minutes in the garden and then it'll be night-night time, little buddy.
Tucker: A couple more minutes in the garden and then it'll be night-night time, big buddy.

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Tucker: Why does the screen make noise when I shut it?
Me: Because it's hitting the door jam.
Tucker: Ha! That's funny. The door isn't jam!
Me: [Trying to explain...]
Tucker: The door jam is not the kind of jam we eat?
Me: No.
Tucker: The door jam is not sticky like the kind of jam we eat.

Quote of the Day

Tucker: What are you making?
Me: Diced tomatoes.
Tucker: Dust tomatoes? Ha! That's funny. [Driving around on his truck, looking around the kitchen] I see dust tomatoes!

[This was actually from several weeks ago, but I was waiting to upload a picture, and then forgot. They don't look very impressive because I should've cooked them down longer so the sauce would be thicker and they wouldn't separate like they are in the picture. Oh well.)

Vermont

A few videos from our time at my mom's house. Her connection is so much faster than ours, I need to post videos while I can!

Molly picking blueberries:


Tucker blueberry picking:


Tucker and my mom doing a dress-up parade (there have been a lot of parades this week at her house):


On an unrelated note, I was a bit surprised at lunch yesterday that our waitress didn't know that wheat was in all bread. Hmmmm.