So Josh, Audrey and I always joked that we should have named Luke “Anakin” before he was born.  That way, when he was being good we’d call him by his proper name of Anakin and if he was being bad, we’d call him Vader.  If you’ve read my previous post about SW and my kids, you can imagine pretty easily how we were all loving the idea.  I still say Anakin Aney has a sweet ring to it!  Alas, we couldn’t get Mom to buy off on it…’completely’.  She agreed to go with Luke instead.  See, the Dark Side never wins!

So why am I bringing up the name change again?  In the beginning, Luke was definitely teetering on the edge of the Dark Side especially when Dad was dealing with him.  However, after a couple months, Luke has definitely turned out to be our happiest ‘baby’ yet.  He constantly smiles at anyone who looks at him, and being a ‘thumb sucker’ he can comfort himself in most cases without any intervention.  Of course there are exceptions.

Besides being a very happy baby, he also goes to bed earlier than any of our others.  He usually hits the sack at about 6pm.  However, it never fails.  The few times Ann is able to get out into the ‘adult world’ with a few of her friends after putting Luke to bed, he decides that is the night he is going to wake up at 8:30pm looking for a little nighttime snack.  Given that I want to give Ann a bit of well deserved time off, I usually ‘battle’ with Luke for an hour or two before caving in and calling Ann for backup.  Since, Audrey is quick to point out that I do not have any milk in my nipples, I have limited options in terms of comforting Luke. 

There is one fail safe way to comfort him every time though.  I simply start humming.  It’s the one go to option that Josh, Audrey and I have all mastered.  So if you are ever at our house and hear Luke starting to get frantic, you can bet your bottom dollar that you’ll hear three octaves of The Imperial March being hummed…four if Mom isn’t in the position to comfort at the moment. 

Luke’s affinity to the tune, as well as Vader images, has prompted Dad and Josh to make the change to “Anakin”…we’ll see if it sticks ;)

I wish I could say Ann did it, but unfortunately I’ve created two Star Wars Beasts and I’ve no idea how to slow down their growth!  Josh and Audrey are so obsessed with Star Wars that it is the only thing they think about 24x7.  Okay, maybe Audrey is 20x7, but Josh is definitely 24x7.  You can see evidence of this in this video.

If Josh is the one initiating a conversation (i.e. he’s not answering a direct question from us) it always starts like this, “I was wondering…”  At this point, I tune out and wait to answer “The Force.”.  Every day I get about 10 of these statements…remember I work out of the home, so I only see the kids about 3-4 hours a day, so ten different Star Wars conversations in that time span are tiring.  Here are a few examples, bear in mind these are just random thoughts from Josh at random times.

Upon being woken up, while going to the bathroom, “I’ve been wondering, you know when Luke throws the bomb into the AT-AT and then falls all the way down?  How come he didn’t get hurt?”  Me: “The Force.”

After getting in car after hockey practice, “I’ve been wondering, how come Yoda is so small and he’s like fifty hundred years old?” Me: “The Force.”

After being asked about his play date from Dad and what he learned at preschool…as soon as it was his turn to initiate, “I’ve been wondering, since Darth Vader is Luke’s Dad, why does he burn him up at the end of Star Wars 6?” Me: “The Force.”

Finally, playing up Josh’s new ‘rebel’ attitude regarding speeding in the car (especially when we are late for hockey practice), “Dad, put the pedal to the metal and I’ll watch out for cops!” (ponders for a moment) “I’ve been wondering…if we could go hyper-speed, how fast would we be going?” Me: “The Force.” Josh: “Huh?”

As you can see, the constant Star Wars bombardment from Josh and Audrey has taken its toll on me.  They’ve employed the ‘Jedi Mind Trick’ with such efficiency that they’ve even changed Mom’s opinion of Star Wars and she’s now a fan.  It’s either the Jedi Mind Trick or the brainwashing resulting from the constant humming of this all day.  The end result…Ann now likes Star Wars and now she even hums this throughout the day to Lucas…see I told you Anakin Aney had a special ring to it!

Lucas James arrived today at 12:18pm, weighing 9 lbs 1 oz, and 20.75" long.  Both Josh and Audrey wanted to name him Anakin, calling him Vader when he was being bad, but we chose not to go down the dark side of the Force and stuck with Luke - oh come on, Anakin Aney does have a certain ring to it ;)  In all seriousness, everyone is so excited and relived that the baby is finally here.  Of course it wouldn't be Ann if she didn't make the delivery 'exciting'.... [More]

Whoa, we've got a couple of addicts on our hands.  I thought I loved movies (at least before we had children - now who has time??), but Josh and Audrey put me to shame.  Back in February, our house was decimated by the Flu.  Somehow I avoided it, but Audrey, Josh and Ann all got hit with it and were rendered useless for varying numbers of days.  It was definitely a tough couple of weeks, with puke stains all over everything.  I swear, just when you think a kid is getting over it, they want to eat something bright red (marinara) or in Audrey's case, black and purple (a birthday cake) and then they do it.  Just when you are complacent and not on your toes to run them to a bathroom, they launch puke from one end of the room to the other. We even had to go out to Target and buy a new Hoover vacuum to try and 'contain' the spreading stains.  And to this day, we'll hear Josh ask, "Can I play with the puke vacuum?" and if we answer no, "Can I play with the dirt vacuum?"  Think Hoover would like that categorization?  Puke Vacuums versus Dirt Vacuums.  All I know is that Josh better still like to vacuum in a couple years when we are 'making' him do it!

Anyway, the point being, for those two weeks of down time when someone caused Ann, Josh and Audrey to be 'pinned' at home, we let them watch movies because they literally couldn't move a muscle.  They just vegged on the couch waiting to throw up.  Well, after two, three, four movies a day during that period, we are now out of control.  Is there a "Watch To Many Movies Anonymous" group we can get these two into?  Not that we find time to watch TV, but I find it strange that they refuse to watch regular television (even cartoons).  They want feature length movies or nothing!  Audrey was easily sitting through an entire film with complete concentration at 20-24 months.  I am still trying to figure out if that is a good thing (meaning she's smart) or a bad thing (we are letting her watch TV in the first place).  I do say that I think it's fun to be able to take the kids to a theatre (they obviously love it) and not have to completely 'entertain' Josh and/or Audrey.... [More]