Nude Painting

Apparently tummies are the preferred canvas of toddlers

Luke's teacher sent me this picture of him and his buddies painting. I thanked her for the great picture and for stripping off his clothes before this activity. Just glad I wasn't the one to have to clean up that mess.

Bad Hair Day

To the moon, Dad! You did this to me!

Louis gave Luke a haircut today. He's done it before with decent results. The plan today was to leave the top long-ish and just trim up the back and around the ears, which was getting long and wavy. We don't know what was different this time, but somehow the haircut turned out reeeeeally short. And he shaved a big bald spot above one of Luke's ears- check out the picture below I took as evidence.

Louis says this is how the kids wear their hair these days

It could be worse. It's not tragic. Just unfortunate. Sorry dude... It'll grow back, eventually.

March Madness

So here are Luke's picks for the NCAA Basketball tournament (or 'Ba Ball' as Luke calls it). As you can see from the results to far, they are not so hot. He was pretty adamant about a Maryland and BYU final and I can't really understand where he went wrong. Maybe you guys can. Here was his strategy for his picks:

1. #1 seeds automatically win their first game (because he can stick 1 finger in the air and sort of say "one")
2. The name of the team (he's a big fan of teams with "mama", "dada" or "wawa" sounds which is why he has Maryland winning the whole thing)
3. The seed number of the team (his favorite number is "deux" so "2" seeds got picked a lot)
4. He's a fan of Texas and Texas A&M (because he recognizes the Longhorn sign and Gig 'em sign when I presented their match ups)
5. Everything else was either picked because he was either annoyed with one of the team names I presented to him or he was bored and wanted to read his favorite book "Clap Your Hands" that I was using as a writing surface at the time we were making the picks.
   

This was his first tournament so we're not going to be too hard on him. Next year we're expecting results.

Here are some recent pictures. In this picture he demonstrates one of his favorite activities of climbing on large sized items we just bought from the store. His favorites include mega packs of toilet paper, 12 packs of Coke, and this big bag of dog food. If you ever wondered how that toddler sized footprint got on the Cheerios box at our house, now you know.

King of the hill

A couple of weekends ago the Jumalons were in Austin. Luke got to visit with his bud Vince and enjoy the awesome view of the lake from the house they rented. Behold the future point guard and power forward of the Houston Rockets.

Louis, Luke, Vince and Jen J on Lake Austin

Here is a pic of Luke's good friend, Martin, on St. Patrick's day at our house. We had the D'Andreas over for a Irish themed evening including green attire, Irish cheese, Guinness, Jameson Irish Whiskey, and two very shnockered blokes by the end of the night. (And I don't mean Luke and Martin. Their part of the fun ended at their 7pm bedtime.)

Martin cuts the cheese

Luke loves to drive at high speeds all over the house on his scooter. He drives forward, backward, and upward by picking up the whole thing to ride over anything that gets in his way. And on days that we bring home those big items just purchased from the store, he drives over them as well. I see monster truck rallies in his future. GIT 'ER DONE!

I rule this living room

This La Croix is la crushed

Peter Pan's Revenge

This weekend, Luke's Aunt Kim and Uncle Scott came to visit him and we all had a blast. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and we spent lots of time outside. Saturday morning we visited our favorite local South Austin breakfast joint, Taco Xpress. We dined on delicious breakfast tacos and migas and Luke showed us all how to properly don an empty paper food boat. You wear it on your head, of course.

Mas tacos, ahora mama.

That afternoon we enjoyed a fun game of miniature golf at the Peter Pan Golf Course. The four adults used regular golf putters and Luke was given a special big boy blue plastic putter. This game was a rematch a long time coming for me and Kim. We last visited this course over twenty years ago during a family trip to Austin in the summer of 1986 where Kim famously smacked me square in the bridge of my nose with a golf club as she rared back for a long shot down the mini golf fairway. I've been exacting my revenge ever since and she knows it. Being the good boy that he is, Luke beat her bad at golf that one glorious afternoon and properly righted a wrong from long ago. What a good son. It was straight from The Godfather.

Well actually, the way it happened is that Luke beat us all bad at golf that day. He's a genius and proved it by showing us all a much more efficient way to get the ball in the hole. Why whack at it in frustration all day with a long metal stick? Just pick it up and place it in the hole by hand. Duh. Luke scored a twenty, which has got to make even Tiger Woods jealous, especially since Luke isn't even two years old yet. He's a true prodigy. (Takes after his mom.)

Peter Pan Golf Course, the rematch

Here Luke, let me show you how to do it

No Dad, let ME show YOU how to do it

No fear

Svoboda Castle

Relaxing at Shady Grove after a long day on the links, Luke with chicken in hand.

Finally, Luke would like to welcome his two newest friends, and future girlfriends, Vivian and Eleanor, aka Ellie. Click their names to view their blogs. Luke says he's single and looking, so watch out ladies!