caring for luke

we left for new castle friday afternoon to Luke sit for the weekend. chris left work early and i got everything ready including finishing references on a paper. hoo hoo, free for the weekend. pepe was so excited. he helped pack his bag and carried it downstairs. we looked down the window to see when daddy returned, so that we won't miss any precious seconds. the trip was so slow bc of traffic (and chris's driving, but that is another story..). friday night was uneventful. pepe seemed to understand that grandma was not home. he played a lot, watched bob the builder, read stories and finally went to bed at 9pm. chris and i settled into watching the wire (second time around) and stayed up way to late not anticipating an early morning awakening...yes, 6 am pepe was up. the light gets to him when we are here. he was up and cheerful and ready to play. he came to wake me up, make sure noone will be sleeping. there was of course morning tv, and no breakfast except a few sips (yes, sips) of yogurt. then pepe discovered "the cello" (whose cello??) and he was so excited and all of a sudden we hear music and we have no clue where it is comming from. chris and pepe went the the playground a bit (and i strategically hid the cello). more playground later, a trip to kittery for a little shopping (and bob the builder hopping, 50 cents/pop), then back home for a much needed nap (yes, 3 hours) and more wire for us, a nap for me, tennis for chris. playground with mommy followed - lots of fun, pepe made a few friends and they were all jumping up and down those tire bridges; also i realize more and more that this kid needs a sibling as the only things he wanted to play with were those that other kids were already playing with - excavator, "I need it" only when another kids was using it; excavator, "No, no no" when it was free to use. chris came to pick us up and we all went downtown. i wanted an icecream, pepe said he did not want one, but as soon as i got mine, he immediately announced "that's mine". there you go. we saw lots of cranes and boats and pepe was so entertaining and entertained. fun fun fun. the ride back home was trickier, but bob the builder did the trick, and pepe even ate one waffle and 1/2 banana, and we just finished changing him (using the excavator digger dump track analogy to get him in and out clothes) and now he is sleeping or on his way and lets hope for a later start of the day tomorrow. wire, here we come! again.

new discovery

pepe slipped into the driver seat this afternoon when i got him out of his car seat. "I drive the car", he said. and then, the following:

P: " And this is for the night time" (turning lights on and off)
P: "And this is to make it warm in the car, for cold weather (pointing to the heater)
P: "And this is to clean the window, when it rains" (pointing to the windshield wipers)
P: "And this is for when the car no work" (pointing to the warning lights).

so pretty soon he'll actually ask whether he can drive the car, and then he'll get a license....no,no, no, let's stay present oriented here.

wake up, mommy

pepe has been into waking me up in the morning these days. chris is usually the first up except on saturday when i have my early morning run. pepe calls us, chris gets him and brings him into the bedroom. here is a glimpse into this morning's routine:

P: "I up".
C: OK, lets get up.
P. Where is mommy?
C: Mommy is sleeping.
P: I need to wake mommy.
C: OK, lets go.

Pepe comes into the bedroom and starts shaking me
P: Mommy, wake up, it's sunny out.
C: Well, it's not sunny today, but it's light out.
P: Wake up, it's light out...I need (trying to climb into the bed), I need, I need to pull covers.
(Pepe pulls covers off me).
P: Mommy wake up, coz, you have to wake up, coz, no sleep now, coz it's light out, coz you go to work, coz i need to show you the bulldozer book.
(Finally I open my eyes).
AM: I am up, but I need kisses from my boys.
(Kisses follow). Everyone goes downstairs.
Day starts right!

is this the begining of something

when i picked pepe from school today his teacher leslie took me aside and told me that pepe started spitting and now all the kids are spitting as well. she said pepe thinks spitting is very funny and he is pretty proud of himself...

grroming for boys

how do you teach a boy about grooming, washing his hands and face, wearing a clean T shirt, brushing his teeth and hair, taking a bath...

every day i get pepe ready for bed, there are piles of sand coming out of each shoe and sock. shirt is colored with food, dirt, and i can guess what activities he was involved in at school. face is black, legs are black, hands are blocker than black.

changing him is hell. he does not care for anything except playing. he is getting better about washing his hands before meals, but everything else is a struggle.

will it always be? should i blame chris and his environmental concerns for this? should i blame me for not being stricter about these things earlier on? this is starting to trouble me more and more and so i will make it our new little project -just like mica murdarica (one of pepe's favs) he will become pepe the clean boy.

gotta post for buni

buni sent an email this morning, worried about us, coz "you have not updated the blog since may 28th". could she have thought that perhaps there is nothing interesting to post about? of course not, everything about pepe is interesting.

so what has pepe been up to? the weekend was a blur. we had no idea what we were going to do. there was some talk about meeting with grandma in newberry port so that her friends could meet pepe (that did not happen). there was talk about getting together with cave (that did not happen). there was talk about going to karl's for dinner (that happened but i escape to see "sex in the city').

we managed to go the the mall, and pepe rode the cars, had french fries and soda.

on monday caitlin from daycare told me that pepe was so good, that "he even shared his digger, you know, his digger, you know how he is about his digger".

papi et co came over yesteday for pizza and cake, to celebrate dan's bday. pepe was such a flirt - rolling his eyes, chewing with his mouth open, crunching food, ya know, anything to get attention. he hated the pizza (coz it was not peperoni) and cake (coz it was not chocolate). he was a bit upset that dan blew the candles ("i do that") but overall it was a pleasant evening.