my first real purchase....

Luke has been wanting this Diego lift truck ever since he saw it and he has been saving up his birthday money and his "found" money for a while. Well, in scouting toys for Henry's birthday he came across the truck in the store and really wanted it. So we sat down and figured out how much he needed to buy it himself and how he could earn the money by doing jobs around the house. So for the last week or so, he has been helping fold laundry, dusting, breaking down cardboard boxes, bringing up the recycling bin and trash cans from the road, etc, in order to earn his $2.74 he needed. And finally he earned enough!!

Picking it out....

Taking it to the "storekeeper" as he calls them...

Handing over the money (we did exchange a lot of the change for a few dollar bills, just so they would not hate us for paying with $8 in dimes, nickels and pennies!)

Alright! Finally got it!

Can't wait to play with the guy and the monkey and crocodile!

I am not going to say he did not have a pang of regret when he realized he had only like $0.24 left, but then he said that he could do more jobs, right? Good old capitalism!

4 yr checkup...

We were a bit late in Luke's 4 yr check-up this year--the pediatrician's office does a brisk check-up/school physical business in the summer!

But Luke had a great check-up this time--a real kid check-up, as he called it. At 4, he got his blood pressure checked, a hearing test and an eye exam with a real eye chart. His favorite part was wearing the headphones and raising his hand when he heard the chimes. The pediatrician was impressed that he knew his address and phone number, as she normally does not expect kids to know that until at least 5. Luke's Waterloo, however, was the 4 shots he had to receive. He wanted to be brave and "show Henry how to do it for his checkup" but the four shots were too much for him and we did have some tears. But he recovered quickly and walked out proudly with his dinosaur stickers (which he knew exactly which ones they were, of course, to the pediatrician's amazement.)

Here are his stats:

43.5 in--95% percentile (up from 40 in and the 90% percentile at 3)

40 3/4 lbs--75% percentile (up from 36.5 lbs and the 93% percentile)

88/55 and pulse 90--perfect for his age

Still kind of a square, but a tall skinnier square...so I guess that is a rectangle!