Luke

Post 374: Shake it off

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This past season of Little League this year I watched many times as Luke struck out and would walk away form the plate with a smile or a shrug.

He also hit plenty of singles, doubles, triples and home runs, but the strike outs were of specific interest, why?

Many of the kids have really strong reactions to striking out, throwing helmets and crying with the most anguished looks on their faces. I totally get it, but was always interested in Luke’s laissez-faire attitude.

After the last game I made a comment about one of his team mates and how frustrated and mad he was over a strike out.

Luke said:

“I feel like crying sometimes after striking out”

pause

“But I decided it was better to go back to the dug out, take a deep breath and put myself back together again”

I told him I thought that was a good plan.

In a nutshell this may be the best part of what makes Luke such a confident person. He can cray all he wants, that is totally fine and supported by us, but what I love hearing was that he really thought about the feelings and found a way that works better for him, and in my opinion better for everyone.

Post 372: Luke tweaks the fridge

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This morning while making breakfast I pulled out a frozen 1 quart tub of yogurt. I mumbled to myself:

“Geez, that’s odd, what is going on with the fridge?”

Luke perked up and said, “what did you say?”

I explained that for a few weeks a lot of things in the fridge have been freezing inexplicably. I then went to the controls and noticed the fridge was set to 33 degrees, to which I further expressed my disbelief.

Luke: “Oh, I did that”

I told him next time if he could please let me know if he wants to change the temperature on the fridge, he said sure.

The bottom line is that I was secretly really happy that he had done it, it is just the kind of inquisitive nature that I cherish, frozen lemons, ketchup and yogurt be gone!

Post 369: Olympics

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We don’t have a tv, but we love things like World Series’, Super Bowls’ (which the kids call the brain damage sport) and of course the Olympics.

So I signed up for some streaming service in order to watch the 2018 games in Pyeongchang. Little did I know, or more realistically, I was completely fooling myself that the screen exposure would come at great cost.

This morning before school I heard no less then four comments made between Luke and Lily about Jack in the Box, Shaq, Big Macs and Oreos. The Oreos commercial was even played out after school eating real Oreos while both kids mimicked the commercial with incredible accuracy.

I watched too much tv as a child, there is no doubt. So much so that I memorized the tv listings between 3:30p when I got home and 7pm when I guess it was time to start getting ready for bed. I spent pretty much every afternoon glued to the “idiot box“. Did it rot my brain?, no, but other than a vast amount of useless trivia and a small amount of relatively useless pop culture memories, it certainly did not add anything good for my life except keep me company. The time spent mindlessly watching could have been put the much better use.

So I decided to “pause” the Olympics. I expected some push back from the kids, but instead a wonderful thing happened! The Olympics didn’t stop! The kids just kept on going with their own.

  • 1. One man bobsled on the front lawn (which is totally flat) using our plastic snow sleds.
  • 2. Curling in the hallway with brooms and marbles
  • 3. Ice dancing in the living room, singles and doubles and I am so sorry to say that I was unable to capture any movies of this, because it was glorious, especially the part where Luke was picking up Lily and twirling her.

The games did continue another day and I decided to go a little overboard with the documentation, as is my style. Below is some “live” coverage.

Post 368: We are all animals

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The other day we were entering a playground and the sign on the gate stated:

“No animals allowed beyond this point”

Lily asked me what the sign said, I told her, she then replied:

“But Daddy, we are animals?”

Its the logic and truth and simplicity that always reminds me that kids are smarter than all of us.

Post 366: Luke and Lily’s cooking show

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There has been a long history of Luke cooking his own concoctions in our kitchen. It started so many years ago when we literally found him all alone in the kitchen, knee deep in flour and eggs. Low and behold a cake he had indeed made! We gratefully donated it to a friends birthday celebration.

Cut to about two weeks ago when Lily decided to start her own baking creations. “Can I make a cake?”

This has turned now into a routine activity.

We even had Luke and Lily cakes for desert the other night. Mom and I were very full and opted for just a bite or two, but Luke dutifully ate quite a slice, god bless him.

Today’s seminar took on a feverish pace, with a constant checking and Re-checking of levels of sweetness and a very specific attention paid what the other baker was doing and adding. Your adding chocolate?, I’m gonna add chocolate!

It all reminds me of this bugs bunny clip so much I can’t help but post it, so you can better understand the intensity of the whole affair.

I sat and watched as the amount of cleanup grew, and grew and grew. I thought fast, because what I was expecting was “I’m done” and a speedy exit. So before that happened I made some new house rules about the baking show.

Counter top needs to be be exactly as how you found it.

It worked!

Cakes were finished, some looked better than others, life goes on until the next episode of:

The Luke and Lily Cooking Show!