Highway to the Danger Zone

The Tobia Men (Luke, Alex & Grandpa) headed to airshow last weekend to see the Thunderbirds! Luke loves planes, so you know he had a good time. I know he had a good time because he still tells me multiple times a day about the "loud big planes".

I think Alex looks a little like Maverick here...

As great as the planes were, I don't know if they beat out the school bus on Luke's

Greatest of All Time list.

Every time he sees a school bus, he shouts "I DID RIDE A SCHOOL BUS!" and he wants to get on it and cries when he realizes he's not getting on it. It's fun.

Aren't you supposed to keep your head inside the bus?

And he loves the plane Grandpa bought him. It's his new favorite toy. You can almost hear him making his plane sounds, can't you!

And this is what I found in the kitchen. So Top Gun.

My Fair Luker

We loaded up the car for the long drive from Wichita to Hutchinson for the Kansas State Fair (I may have been under the impression it was a 3 hour drive. I may have been made fun of for that). Luke had a great time breathing in the (not so) fresh air and walking all over. He had no choice but to walk as we, parents of the year, forgot a stroller!Hoofin' it with Daddy.

The best part of the fair for me was that Toyota was a sponsor, so they had a new Swagger Wagon that we got to try out. Luke approves!

After drooling over a minivan, we finally took Luker to see some animals.

It would have been a good day to buy stock in Purell. Gah-ross

After Luke extricated his fingers from the nose of whatever that animal is, he cleaned off in the fountains!

Wow! How is that for a farmers tan?! Let me get some sunglasses to stop that glare!

Then it was on to the way over priced train ride!

Hot and sleepy on the train. He may not show it, but he was having a great time.

See! He had such a great time that he sobbed when he had to get off.

After a Pronto Pup, fried pickles, a cheeseburger, french fries, gallons of lemonade and funnel fries (funnel cake sticks-not great, more like a doughnut, but tasty) this little guy was ready to pass out and dream about Swagger Wagons. He may have made it out of the parking lot, but I don't think so.

It was a great day. A smelly day, but a great day.

Yeah...

she's a Momma's Girl.

The Roadmaster

Luke is O.B.S.E.S.S.E.D. with tricycles right now. It's his new thing. His adorable little feet don't quite reach just yet, so he's content with sitting on it or pushing it around-and around, and around.How cute is he? (Even cuter with this vintage preset-LOVE IT)

He calls it "Elmo Bicycle" because of his favorite Sesame Street episode that is watched usually a minimum of 3 times a day.

I even love dirty piggies!

He is the Roadmaster.

Luke's Day Out

We enrolled Luke in a Kids Day Out program to give him a social life and give me a few precious hours to get stuff done or just chill out with my favorite baby girl. It sounded great in theory.

As the day got closer, I began sobbing, a lot. I don't know what I thought was going to happen to him, but it must have been horrible judging by my convulsive hysterical sobbing. I used to cherish those days when Luke would go to Miss Angel's and I would have an entire day to myself. Now the thought of not having him with me was heartbreaking! But I was assured by many that it would be "fine".

"Fine". What exactly defines "fine"? Whatever it is, I'm pretty sure it was no where in the vicinity of the church where I dropped him off.

It started off "fine". He is completely fascinated with the stained glass. When he saw it again he looked at me like I was the best mom in the world for bringing him to see it! He even tried to break in to the sanctuary to get a better look.
And then we found his room. And one of his teachers is an old classmate of Alex's! Small world. I did feel a bit better about leaving him with someone who knew Alex. Alex doesn't have many sociopaths for acquaintances, so I assumed she was trustworthy with my only sweet son.

Again, things were "fine" in the room. He liked all the toys, especially the slide. But that's when "fine" exited the building. Another boys parents did the "give mommy and daddy a hug, we're going bye-bye" and the boy started crying. This proved quite worrisome to Luke. As evident by this look.


Followed by "Why crying?" and a look of panic. So I kissed him on the head and bolted for the door, leaving him crying a top the slide. Surely, losing my "best mom in the world" status. Much to my surprise, I didn't cry. I was bit misty eyed as I heard his blood curdling scream as I exited the church, but I felt a sense of peace- that he would be "fine".

"Fine" he was not. When I went to pick him up he was snuggled up in his teachers lap (yeah, you read that right. Snuggled! in someone's lap! Luke!!! My non-snuggler) That was clue number 1 that things had not been great. Clue number 2? The change of clothes. It seems Luke was so upset he made himself vomit-on Alex's friend. This is the part where it may have been better not to have known this very nice woman. I mean, what do you say? I believe what I said was "Oh, he usually reserves that for hair cuts". So KDO ranks right up there with the trauma of hair cutting. J.O.Y.

So the self pride I felt in not crying when I dropped him off, quickly vanished after picking him up. He looked so pathetic that I sat in the parking lot sobbing for a good 15 minutes before feeling emotionally ready to drive us home safely. I felt like I tortured my sweet boy for 3 hours. And why? Because I wanted him to have fun. That worked out well. So now I am even more anxious about doing it again this week. I KNOW I need to send him back and eventually, he will be "fine" and enjoy being there. But how long will it take?

Wish us luck this week!

Tanganyika

We love Tanganyika Wildlife Park. It's the perfect place for a 2 year old's attention span! We pretty much had the run of the place when we went this week and the animals were loving the attention from Luker.Of course, it seems silly to pay to go somewhere, when all he really needs to be entertained is a puddle.

And then there were the bunnies. He L.O.V.E.D. the bunnies!

and they loved him.

Despite his pleading "come here kitty", the kangaroos decided to stay where they were.

It was a good day.

Can I tell you a secret?

Luke has a super fun Aunt! He really, really loves going to Auntie Shana's house. Maybe it's the triple chocolate brownies, or the "no bedtime" rule, or the fact that she took him outside to play with a LAWNMOWER!-does it get better than that?But what I think he loves most, is when she tells him secrets.

Luke sure does love Auntie Shana! That's not the secret. I was not let in on the secret- it was just between Auntie Shana and Luke. They traded secrets all weekend!
Thanks for making sure Luke had a great time!

And a little more Pittsburgh

We had a great time playing at the park before our flight home. We got these babies good and tired and they slept like angels on the plane!