Luke Lately

So many fun things to report from Luke lately!  First of all, he's loving school and doing great.  At his (phone) parent-teacher conference his teacher told me that she's proud of him and how far he's come already.  He seems to really enjoy social studies and I love hearing the tidbits he shares.  "Mom, did you know that Hindus have 33 million Gods?"  "Mom, did you know that in China red means good luck and good fortune?"  "Mom, guess who my favorite Greek God is."  (Answer: Hephaestus)

Luke saw this photo pop up on our Chromecast and immediately
recognized the figure on the right as a Hindu god (Vishnu) and told us
how he always has 4 arms and how each hand is holding something specific.

Luke was excited about the mask he made while learning
about ancient China.  And he delayed doing his homework the
day he brought home the character page because he wanted
to practice making the characters and having me guess what they meant.

This is the Chinese lantern he made.
POP QUIZ: What does the color red mean?

"This is me."
He explained his preference for ancient Sparta over ancient Athens by saying,
"I want to go to war camp when I'm 7 on my exact birthday."

He was pretty excited when we finally played The Polygon Game,
which he'd brought home as an optional math activity a few weeks earlier.

This & That:

This is a frozen nugget Luke concocted.  He described the contents thus:

"Leaves that had been beaten, and tiny wood bits, and the taddest bit of soap."
(And also, I took this picture on the Sunday of General Conference weekend,

a day when he'd gotten dressed in Church clothes, even though he didn't have to,

and without being asked.)

Luke really wanted to work on this big 3D puzzle with Ben.
They've plugged away at it, little by little,
and they're probably about halfway finished now.

A friend gave each of the kids a lollipop with a scorpion inside.
Luke was proud of himself for eating a tiny bit of the scorpion.
He was the only one of the children to do so.

Ben was being interviewed for a local magazine and
Luke just wanted to hang out with him the whole time.

(sees packing material from a package)
"Mom! Wrap me up!"

I brought a bin of toddler toys upstairs from the storage room
and Luke was entertained for quite a while.  The other kids
joined him too.  It was really fun to hear, "I loved this puzzle!"
And "We watched so much Bob the Builder!"  So cute.

...but he doesn't want to learn to play piano.

More Luke-Lines:

"I'm done doing this conversation."

(after someone missed a hit during backyard baseball) "That's why I keep my eye on the ball."

(after Ben and I kissed nearby) "I'm glad I didn't see that."

(seeing Ben's back when he was sitting down) "Dad, maybe you've outgrown those pants."

What are you doing out there?  "My business."

(after using the bathroom twice at dinner) "I had a lot to drink yesterday."

(when Cat offered to share her Italian soda) "No I want my own individual Italian soda.  Also, Salutations!" (His class is reading Charlotte's Web.)

(after someone complained about car rides, during a 30-minute ride) "You should get used to it. I got used to it after 7 years and about 6 months."

Luke has a fantastic sense of humor.  He is great at making us laugh.  He loves to play and have fun, but he also loves to learn.  Luke is getting more and more confident on his bike (still getting the hang of brakes).  He is getting along with Jack better, which we're all very thankful for, but he still has a pretty short fuse and an inclincation to retaliate by inflicting physical harm.  I think those things are getting better too, though.  Fingers crossed.