Our Savior's Birth

I was going through a box of old cards and keepsakes and came across a kind of journal entry scribbled on a couple of pieces of paper ripped from a notepad. They are dated August 2009, but I find the story fitting to share this time of year...

"Changing Luke's diaper is a challenge. He's now so squirmy and tries to roll off the pad. This morning, in an attempt to keep him distracted, I handed him the small wooden cross that sits on his shelf. The cross is there to remind him of what Jesus did because He loves him. But what came over me as he held that cross in his hands was unexpected. It was not joy that holding that cross might begin to teach him of Jesus. Instead, it was an icky stomach-sinking feeling. My son was holding a symbol of torture, a symbol of torture that was used to kill our King.

Many thoughts flooded my mind. The creation of a baby is a miracle in itself. God sending his son through a virgin birth is an even greater miracle. God sending his son KNOWING that the cross would be his destiny is THE greatest miracle of love. As my baby lays here, I cannot fathom the knowlege of that fate. And Mary, the mother destined to care for this little one...she must have done similar things that I have done; stayed up late feeding and rocking him, changed his diaper, cheered for him as he began to crawl, prayed over him, sang to him. She must have had great expectation and anticipation as she waited to see how this baby she would give her life for, the Son of God, would change the world. What heartache, her son's life, her expectations, her investment of love and sacrifice into that little one, ending on the cross. What she must have felt that day, I cannot imagine. One thing I do know, from the day of his birth "Mary treasured up all of these things and pondered them in her heart." Though her heart must have been ripped out on Friday, the redemption of the world had taken place, and death defeated on Sunday with Christ's rising."


We celebrate Jesus birth because it was a miracle, yes, but because his destiny was to save us from the punishment of rejecting Him. What love is that? What King would step down to stand in the place of someone who has committed treason and take their punishment? How truly great is our God.

Today...

Today Brody was standing at Luke's little green chair. There are slats in it and Luke happened to be sitting behind it so Brody peeked through at him. Luke started laughing and said "Boo." Then Brody leaned around the chair, back through the slats, around the chair and through the slats. They were both laughing and giggling. It is so great to see them interacting together!

Today Ashley was here and some how the San Francisco 49ers came up. Her dad is a Seahawks fan (Howie is a 49ers fan). So she told Luke to say 'I hate the 49ers.' Luke looked at her and said, "Go Niners!" She kept trying to get him to say something bad about the Niners but he just kept shouting, "Go Niners!" Its amazing how they pick up on things. He recognizes the 49ers logo...a flag was flying on tv that had their logo on it and he said "Go Niners!" When he asks for a drink he specifically asks, "Niners cup."

Today Brody had chicken and bananas cut up on his tray. He gets frustrated eating baby food from a spoon. He wants to do it himself, so much so that all he will eat is Cheerios! I need to figure out what I can give him that is soft enough to chew and easy to pick up. That's gonna take some work to make for him but he wants to be a big boy I guess.

Today when Howie was reading to Luke, he read a book that says, "Thank you for my family."
Luke said, "family, Buda, Mama..."
Howie: "Dada, Grandma..."
Luke: Gampa!

Today Luke had the phone, brought it to me and said/asked, "Hi Kameron?" He wanted to call his friend Kameron. I told him we could later because Kameron was probably taking a nap at that time. So around 7pm we gave him a call. It was so cute to hear them talk to each other...of course we had to help them with what to say, but here's a little snipet:
Kameron: Hi Duke?
Luke: Hi.
Luke: Go Niners!
Kameron: Go Seahawks!
Kameron: See you later.
Luke: Bye. Bye Kammon.

Sweet Stories 3

Brody has been pulling himself to stand. He'd been pulling himself up on shorter things. Today I walked in to get him after a nap and he was standing in his crib. Excitement and sadness come in that moment. Yay, my boy is growing up and doing cool new things! But he is not going to be my baby much longer. Before I know it he will be as big as Luke and I will have a hard time remembering these moments.

Although Luke is no longer a baby, everything he's learning is cute/cool too.
I've been doing childcare for a couple families since school started. Today they were playing hide and seek. One would go into the kitchen, hide their face, and count while the others hid. Luke was trying to play but mostly just copied what everyone was doing at the wrong times.
-After counting was done and they were on to seeking, Luke ran into the kitchen to count. He quickly stopped and said, "two, three, go!" And ran off to find the kids.
-After some of the kids had hid in the curtains. Luke went and hid there waiting for someone to find him.
-He spoiled a hiding spot by finding them before the seeker. He hopped up on the couch and looked behind the curtain, started laughing and said, "fine!" (find)

Potty Training

Potty Training will be one of those things I will know how to do after its done. Hopefully. Hindsight is 20/20 right!?

We bought Luke a seat that fits the toilet before he was 18months. He seemed interested in using the toilet, flushing it, etc. He initiated it all himself. So we let him go when he wanted to, not pushing it, read him "potty" books, and talked about using the toilet. He got to the point where he was using the toilet for number 2 every time for more than a few days (I can't remember how long). Then one day we were working on pottying in the toilet and he was dry until early afternoon. He was telling me he had to go.

At the end of July we took a trip to my mom's, brought the toilet seat with us, but he refused to go. When we got up in the morning I'd seat him on the toilet and he screamed bloody murder. So I laid off while on the trip. We got home and it was the same thing. So all that progress we'd made earlier went down the toilet! And we hadn't done anything except read potty training books until this past week.

I'd been wanting to start him again but needed the time to do it. So we decided after Thanksgiving we'd be home for the Christmas holidays to focus more on it. Last Monday we started him in pull-ups and took him to the bathroom every couple hours, before and after nap and before bedtime. He made progress over two days, telling me that he had to go both potty and poop. We got really excited about it and praised him and he got marshmellows as a reward. But the third day was back to refusing to go, screaming that he wanted to play when it was time to go potty, and not telling me when he had to go.

He has lots of signs that he's ready: he hides when he goes in his diaper, he asks to be changed after going, he wakes up in the middle of the night wanting to be changed when he wets his diaper, and isn't enough of a sign that we have seen him do it?

So we're back to laying off for awhile. A friend told me that they focus all their energy on learning one thing. It might be learning to go in the toilet for a couple days, and then they are beginning to learn something else that takes their focus off of the first thing. We have noticed a huge jump in Luke's vocabularity and building sentences this week. So maybe potty training happened to coincide with language learning this week and language prevailed.

Oh well. He's not even two yet so I'm not worried about it. I just hate to keep trying and make an issue of it. But what do you do when you know he could do it? For now, we'll wait.

Christmas Activities

There is so much to do at Christmas! Gifts buying, tree decorating, baking, holiday parties, and there are TONS of family activities around town. Luke is just old enough now to enjoy all the fun.


Lighted Boat Parade
We got all bundled up and went down to the Ferry Terminal to enjoy cider, Christmas performances, gingerbread houses on display and a lighted boat parade. All these things were very cool, but the most fun was going with good friends of ours whose son is Luke's favorite playmate.


Lynden Christmas Parade
Again we got all bundled up (but not well enough) to attend Lynden's Christmas Parade. It was cold, but the wind made it so much worse. We got pizza to eat while we waited for the parade to start but that was pretty much the only time the kids were content. I ended up going to the car with Brody while Howie stayed roadside with Luke, who whined the whole time. The parade was neat but we will be enjoying it from our car next year.


Christmas Tree
Usually we head to a tree farm and cut down our own tree. But this year we just made it easy and went down to the Ferndale Boy Scout Tree Lot and picked out a tree. We got a little 5 footer that would fit in the corner behind a baby gate. We brought it home, Luke helped water it, string lights around it, and hang ornaments. He was SO excited about it, you could see it in his body and hear it in his voice. He asked "more? please?" after he hung every ornament. Then he got to hang the star. We hung lights in the playroom and in his room, not to mention the living room. When he wakes up in the morning, he begs to turn them on. He loves Christmas lights.

BP Reach Out
Every year BP helps families in the community by providing food and gifts. The money comes from donations as well as BP. They need a lot of volunteer help to buy gifts, organize and deliver. So this year we offered to buy and deliver. We were given a list of 14 kids, what they want for Christmas, and A LOT of money. It was so much fun to go to the mall and shop for an 18 month old, a 3 year old, 4 & 7 year old sisters who just wanted an Easy Bake Oven (they got much more) and a whole bunch more kids ranging in age from 8-17. We bought clothes, toys, movies, books, science kits...It took us all in all 7 hours at the mall and about as much time wrapping! But it was so fun! The boys were extraordinary cooperative at the mall both days we shopped. We took our time, got lunch, and let them play in the "germ jungle." Luke was getting so tired the first day that he was falling asleep in the Target cart. We were getting a kick out of watching his head bob as he knodded off.

BP Christmas Party
After spending the day at the mall, we loaded the kids in the car thinking they would fall asleep on the way to the party...no. Well, sort of...more like 5 minutes before we got there. So we put Luke in the stroller and let him sleep while we perused the party. But this was a kid party, kind of a carnival, so there wasn't much we could do while Luke was asleep. We got some snacks and Brody and I got in line to see Santa. He sat on Santa's lap and got his picture taken. He just stared at Santa and then gave him a small smile just as I was taking him. We ended up waking Luke up so we all could do the activities. He tossed a ball through a snow mand and got a toy guitar, he shot a nerf gun through a present and got a small car, and used a fishing pole to fish a "superbat" out of a big gift box. There was a lot the kids could do, but they needed to be a bit older. But we went home with two presents from Santa, a few toys, some candy, and a gift box Howie won as a door prize.


Jesse Tree
Amidst all the other activities, we want to instill in our children a deep understanding of what the Christmas season is all about. I heard of the Jesse Tree Advent tradition through another woman's blog and thought it was a great way to teach my children as well as a great reminder for us. So we began by cutting some branches from a tree outside and putting them in a vase. Each day we read a story from the Bible and hang an ornament that has to do with that story. Many of the ornaments are not typical Christmas ornaments so I'm having to make most of them from felt. I love this tradition particularly because it doesn't just talk about the Christmas story. It starts with the story of God creating the world, goes through different stories of how people have disobeyed or forgot about God, the miracles that God has done in people's lives, and ends with the greatest display of love: Jesus coming. It shows the big picture of what God was doing. I love doing this with Luke. Each night when I say we are going to do our Jesse Tree story, he repeats, "Desse Tee." And he loves to hang the ornaments. I hope to make this something we do every year, and build our collection of non-felt ornaments as we go. :)

James Street Christmas Lights
We went to Westside Pizza with some friends of ours, had some dinner, got hot chocolate and headed out to see some lights. James St Estates an adult living community and is famous for having most of their homes/yards dressed in lights. Each year we drive through and see them. This year was fun because Luke was so excited. We let him sit up front and he wanted to be as close to the front window as he could so he kneeled in my lap and put his arms on the dash. Every time he'd see something exciting he'd hit the dash two times with his hand, point and say, "oh..." He recognized Santa, snowmen, Jesus and he loved all the "choo-choo-chains".

Gingerbread Houses
My mom came up for a few days before Christmas. She brought all of her extra supplies from school to make gingerbread houses. So we had fun creating a village, skating rink and all! Of course, Luke ate more than he built!


Mall Train
Luke loves trains. It started with a Thomas the train movie he got for his first birthday. He calls it "Tubby." We went to a birthday party over the summer and he saw a Thomas train toy on the dresser in the little boys room and acted like he just saw a celebrity. He was pointing, shaking, saying, "Mama, Tubby! Tubby!" I realized just how much he loves trains when we went into a toy store that had a train table kids could play with. We barely escaped a fit trying to get him out of there. There is a small train that cruises the mall. We've seen kids riding on it before, but never have ourselves. So we thought it would be fun to do as a Christmas activity. He was excited to go saying, "mall...choo choo chain." We had to stop and get some money to ride and he started saying, "money...choo choo chain." We got to the train. I asked him which car he wanted to ride in and he pointed to the engine with the steering wheel! As we got into the blue car, the conductor punched two (Office Max) carnival tickets and gave them to us. And he offered a free ticket to Brody! Luke seemed a little hesitant to ride at first but once we got on it was like he was so in awe of the train, his mouth was open almost the whole time! And the more we rode, the more he liked it. He kept holding up his ticket and saying "ticka," he was so proud of that ticket! He watched out the window and got excited to see dad, and when the train took a hard turn, he'd say "whoa, chain." So fun to do something he thought was so exciting.

Baking
Luke loves to help cook. He pulls up a chair to the counter and says "help" or "make." Luke loves to help "dump" and he even cracks eggs! We mad apple butter, chocolate peppermint cookies and apple cheesecake bars and delivered them to friends.

Its been a great season!

Brody Can...

Brody's Development so far...

He army crawls (since 5.5 months) with his left arm and right leg. Actually, he kinda looks like a wounded soldier when he does it.

He gets up on his hands and knees to rock (since shortly after he learned to army crawl, so much so that I thought his army crawl would be short lived).

He sits up (since 7 months).

He sits on his knees


And now pulls himself to stand. However, the only thing he's done pulled himself up on was Luke's Sit-and-Spin. But the handle spins! So Brody will get up, then turn to look at something and fall down. He appears to try to pull himself up on the couch or the tub, but he can't get a handle on it with his hands. The Sit-and-Spin is just short enough that he can do it. So I am so excited the boys are getting an activity table about the same height for Christmas from their Grandma. He will love it!

He can hold his own bottle (since 6 months).

Brody eats fruits, veggies, and now meats. All baby food of course.

He LOVES Cheerios!! I started him on puffs because they dissolve in his mouth. He could already pick them up and eat them himself! I don't remember starting him on Cheerios...I think he actually ate them off the floor after Luke dropped them. He didn't seem to have a problem with them so I gave him some. He eats one at a time, chews and swallows. I was always so nervous that Luke would choke. It was a common practice to give babies Cheerious in the nursery at church, but I always told them, "no Cheerios!" If I remember right, Luke would take them by the handful and forget to chew. I didn't plan on giving them to Brody but he seems to do well with them.

He claps (since 6 months?)

He signs more (since 7.5 months). He's recently really gotten it. We haven't been teaching it long either. Today we got to McDonalds, sat him in a high chair, and he started with the 'more' sign. I love that he was communicating, "I want some." I'm sure there are more signs I could be doing with him, but 'more' is what we got for now.

He waves hi. He sticks his arm out with his hand open. Since I don't know when. He's been doing it a long time but only now have we realized it is an intentional wave.

He babbles saying mostly d sounds.

Sweet Stories continued...

Singing
Luke loves music so I sing with him a lot. He likes "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," "Itsy Bitsy Spider," "Mr. Sun," "Jesus Loves Me," "The Wheels on the Bus" especially the "Mama says 'shhh, shhh, shhh'" part. The first time I did it, he thought it was hilarious and pretty much just wants you to sing that part. One day I started belting out "I Believe I Can Fly" by R Kelly. (I don't know why, there are just certain songs that come out out of know where!) Luke started singing as if he were my back up singer!

I believe I can fly. (fy)
I believe I can touch the sky. (ta da sky)
I think about it every night and day. (day)
Spread my wings and fly away. (fy way)

It was the funniest thing! Every time I sang it, he did the back up part exactly the same each time! I want to get it on video but have yet to do it. When I get it, I'll add it.

Peek-a-boo
Brody, as I've mentioned before, loves to play peek-a-boo. He will raise his hands to his forehead (so he can still see you) and quickly put them down in a 'boo' motion. He also just puts his head down on a pillow, on the floor, on your leg or arm, anywhere really and then quickly looks back up. One night Brody was in the bath tub...usually he's sitting in his bath seat, but this particular night he had climbed out of it and was army crawling through the tub playing. He was on his tummy, decided to play peek-a-boo, and full on put his whole face in the water! He came up quickly with a deer in the headlights look, but then proceeded to do it again! I did manange to get it on video. I'd love to leave it for you here, but will refrain from putting revealing pictures of my children on the internet!

Check back for an updated version of this post later for more stories...

Beauty

The sun had just set when Luke and I were driving home from the store tonight. A dark cloud cover had rolled in from the right. On the left there was a patch of clear sky where you could still see the last sun rays of the evening outlining a large puffy cumulous cloud. Luke pointed and said "God."

Nothing fills my heart more than my children learning of the Creator. For him to see the beauty of our world and recognize God in it brings tears to my eyes.

I can write about their first step, their first words, their first outings, which are wonderful, but pale in comparison to their first encounters with God.

Luke, may you grow into a boy who trusts the Lord with all things.

Are You?

It is just amazing how much Luke is talking. It seems every day he is saying something new. He's begun to say "phone" very clearly. Today its snowing so he learned to say "snow" just this morning. Last night he pulled out his movie called 'Baby Songs.' Usually he calls it "baby." He brought it over to me and said, "Baby...Song...Baby...Song." At bedtime we sing, "Mama, sing." And he even sings 'Amazing Grace' with Daddy, just the "me" part, but still!

My favorite is, "are you?" When we are looking for something, like shoes, or his cats, we call, "shoes, where are you??" as we look. Its so funny to hear him say "shoe, are you?"

One day when he woke up from his nap, I hear, "Mama...are you?"

Also, we'd been trying to get a hold of "Gampa" Scobie to thank him for Luke's new cat. We had called a couple of times and left a message. Then one morning, Luke picks up my phone and says, "Gampa! Are you!"

Ah, he cracks me up!

How Great Is Our God

Today we drove up to Birch Bay to visit Ambritt and Kameron. As we were driving past the ocean, "How Great is Our God" was playing on the radio.

"How great is our God,
sing with me, how great is our God.
And all will see how great,
how great is our God."



Luke was in the back seat singing "God, God, God," and swaying back and forth.
When the song was over I asked him, "Were you singing worship to God?" "Yeah."
I told him to look at the water and that God made all that water. He responded, "Disa." (Jesus).

Oh how it touches my heart that he's understanding. Somehow he knew that God and Jesus go together, I'm not sure we've really taught him that. How great is our God to reveal Himself to my little Luke.

Sweet Stories

There are more and more stories each day that I intend to write down, get busy, and forget. I know the ones I write down will be cherished, so here are a few from this week.

Luke and I have been going to Puggles, a Wednesday night program for 2-3 year olds. We've been learning that God made light, the sun, clouds, grass, veggies, etc. Luke has begun to say "Jesus" (Disa) and loves reading his book "If Jesus Came to Visit Me" and singing Jesus Loves Me. One day, Luke looked out the window and said, "I see God!"

Today we went to the consignment shop to drop off some things. I always peek in the toy section to see if there is anything good. We looked while we waited and then we began to leave the store. Luke pretty much jumped out of my arms, said, "toys" and ran back to the back of the store. We weren't in a hurry so I let him check them out again. He stumbled upon a shelf with stuffed animals and wanted to hold them. "Hol, hol." He held Buzz Lightyear, put him back. Then asked to hold the Cat in the Hat. He got him in his arms and walked confidently toward the door. I thought it was so cute that I let him take him home. He's so proud of "hat." He brought him home to show dad, read bedtime books with him and is now sleeping with him. Who says you can't buy happiness for a buck?!

Luke loves his friend "Kammon." He's always asking for him, especially when we get in the car. Kameron likes to eat frozen peas and apparently Luke, who does not eat vegetables, loved eating them with Kameron. Luke and I went grocery shopping one day and I pulled peas out of the frozen section and handed them to Luke, who said, "Kammon!" Funny association!

That same grocery trip I pulled blueberries from the frozen section, handed them to Luke and he started licking the bag. He loves blueberries and must have been trying to express that. I laughed and he says, "Howie!" I could not stop laughing! I realized I must call for Howie when the boys do something funny, so Luke certainly knows the routine!

One night Luke was in the bathtub. He could hear someone on television going "weee we weee" and suddenly said "PIG!" I was confused for a moment and then busted out laughing. I could not believe that he recognized that. There is a commercial that plays on the nursery rhyme "the pig cried we we we all the way home." A pig is getting a ride home in a car and cries we we we out the window of the car. I don't think Luke has seen it THAT much and I didn't know he could recognize a pig, much less a weird looking one.

In the past week Brody has started babbling bs and ds (dabdabdab). He can sit up. He still rocks on his knees but one day was on his elbows and his feet with his rear in the air. Today he crawled up and down our little step. He's approached it, run into it, but has not climbed it until now. Unfortunately that was Luke's little play area where he wouldn't be bothered by Brody.

Brody Plays Peek-a-boo

While at my mom's over the weekend Brody started playing peek-a-boo! I was surprised to see him hide his face then pop up over and over. Its just so funny when they begin to do things for the first time.

October

We took the boys to the pumpkin patch, carved a pumpkin and went trick or treating twice! Luke was supposed to be Curious George and Howie was going to be the man in the yellow hat. But Luke would not put the costume on. So we dressed him in some slacks and a nice sweater and had him carry his plastic golf bag to carry his candy in. Brody had a warm penguin outfit to wear. Thursday before Halloween downtown Ferndale businesses allow kids to trick or treat, so we went store to store. Luke didn't really get it and wanted to eat the candy they were giving him. Saturday night we went to Lynden to trick or treat with some friends who live there. The town of Lynden trick or treats on Saturday when Halloween falls on a Sunday. It was fun to go around with a group of kids and Luke caught on to what he was supposed to do by watching them. The other kids were quite a bit older than Luke and ran from door to door. It was so cute to see Luke bringing up the rear, running as fast as he could carrying his little golf bag. Halloween night we hosted a "Glow Station" sponsored by our church where we handed out glow bracelets, hot cocoa, and candy. Luke and his friend Kameron were our station "security."

Catching Up - Luke

Luke is a smart, load of energy, all boy, and super friendly kid. Sometimes it amazes me that he's only a year and a half. He still loves music and sports. He is talking so much. I love hearing him say new words. The way he pronounces them is so cute. Here are a few:

Brody - Buda

piano - penew

towel - towie

spoon - bush

fork - shook

Uncle Dan - Nan

Grandma - Gabba

Jesus - Disa

on/off - on

vitamin - mona

He's beginning to recognize colors (purple, pink, yellow), shapes (circle) and can count to three, sometimes four. He loves to be thrown on the bed - we count 1-2-3 and throw him - now he calls the game "two." He loves Barney the dinosaur (Bada), Elmo (Elbow), and Thomas the Train (Tubby). We almost had him potty trained and suddenly he refuses to have anything to do with the toilet, though he loves reading the "Zoo Poo" potty training book and cheering for the kid who goes potty at the end of the book. He's very polite, usually saying please and thank you without being prompted. He loves to color. He loves stickers. He loves animals, especially cats. He can now reach the light switches so he turns them on saying "dark/ite."
When we tell him to smile he squints his eyes.

Catching Up - Brody

Brody is a sweet little boy. Can't believe he'll be 7 months tomorrow. At this point this is how I would use to describe him...

Sensitive - He's much more sensitive than Luke ever was. Loud noises, strange people, and random things make him cry or at least stick out the bottom lip. He seems to get his feelings hurt sometimes too.

Snuggly - He puts his head on my shoulder a lot. He appears to give hugs to me and others. He loves to be held. Up until a few weeks ago he'd wake up in the middle of the night and refuse to sleep anywhere but my bed.

Mama's boy - He's always got his eye on me. He'll follow me to the rooms I am in. Often he won't allow others to feed him. I have never been paged to come get Luke from the nursery...Brody is another story. Almost every other time I have been paged because he is unconsolable. At least I know I'm loved. :)

Loves Luke - He loves to watch Luke do just about everything. He watches Luke dance and then kicks his legs as if he's dancing too. He watches Luke play and we've noticed that Brody's favorite toys are Luke's favorite toys. He must see Luke play with them and he wants to too. He often follows Luke to other rooms of the house.

Tidbits about Brody - He wakes up between 5:30 and 6:00 each morning. He's up for about an hour and goes back down for a short nap. He's up for up to 2 hours before napping throughout the day. He WILL NOT allow you to rock him to sleep. Something Luke loved, Brody hates. It has been so nice to just lay him in his bed, give him his blankie (has to be a fleece blanket), he'll rub it in his hands and pull it over his face and go right to sleep. The sad thing has been that I get less snuggle time with him since I don't rock him to sleep or hold him while he sleeps. He took to solid good very quickly. We held him off because he didn't seem ready and suddenly he was grabbing food, moving his mouth like he was chewing, and watching us eat. He seemed to know how to use a spoon right away. We've just given him pureed fruits and veggies, mashed banana, and fruit in a pouch so he can suck on it. He doesn't seem to have any favorites. He learned to army crawl at about 5.5 months. He gets up on his knees and rocks but hasn't crawled yet. He seems to favor his left hand (and army crawls with his left arm and right leg) so we'll see if he turns out to be a lefty.

March

Here are a few updates on Luke. He is now almost 14 months old. Its amazing what he has learned and who he has become in such a short time.

Luke loves to dance. Each morning he wakes up and does a dance move to indicate he wants me to put some music on. He'll see our phones and ask for the ring tone music, he even hears the faint sound of music in the grocery store and starts grooving in the cart. He'll dance to anything, but his favorite music has quite a beat. He Check out his moves!


Luke has become quite the helper. He's beginning to help put things away, although it takes twice as long to accomplish the task, and he especially likes to help push the laundry basket down the hall and load it into the washer. Here is him helping Dad put the paper towels away. The funny thing is, he tried and tried to pick up the entire Costco pack of towels, couldn't, so unloaded them one by one until he could pick up the pack.


We often wait ouside for Dad to get home from work. So we moved the playset to the front for Luke to climb on. He's learned to go down the slide himself by going down feet first on his tummy. He used to stay primarily on the side walk because he didn't like the grass. Now that he doesn't mind the grass, we really have to watch him. He bolts down the yard and the other day darted after a cat. One of his favorite things to do outside is stand on the porch and yell at the neighborhood.

Luke's First Birthday

Luke's first birthday was over a month ago...I had hoped to get these up much sooner. Nonetheless, here they are. Luke's party was February 7th, the day of the Superbowl. We have such a small house, and no longer have television access, so we borrowed a room at the church. We had chili and snacks, watched the game, set out lots of toys for the kids, then did cupcakes and presents during half time. Luke had many friends there, including families that we set play dates with, childcare workers from the church nursery, his weekday babysitter and her family, and his grandma. He loved the cupcake...he housed that thing and was asking for more! Presents...he did not understand why we kept taking his new toys away and making him rip more paper. He had a lot of gifts to get through and ran away a couple times. His birthday was a Tuesday night, so we decided to go out to dinner at Chuck E Cheese. He had a great time. He loved climbing on the Toddler toys. But once someone put a quarter in and let him ride, and he was not into that. He is an explorer, so he was pretty interested in what all the big kids were doing outside the toddler area. He loved playing all the big kid ball games. We took him to the stage to see Chuck E thinking he would like the music and want to dance. No...he did not like the oversized mouse.

A New Year

Well, I haven't posted much in quite a while. Partly because I started working more hours, partly because Bubbleshare went out of existence and I do not know how else to post pictures in bulk, and partly because, I'll admit it, I've just plain gotten lazy. But rather than try to post everything I have not yet posted, I will start fresh with where we are now in this new year and try to keep up.

STATS
Luke is just under 11 months old. At his doctor appointment about a month ago he weighed 22 lbs and measured 27.5 inches.

WALKING
He just began walking unassisted on New Year's Eve. We were amazed as he walked all over our friend's wide open living room.

HUMOR
He gets funnier everyday. He now does this thing where he points at and people and laughs, which can be a bit embarrassing. Its more of a fake laugh but he knows he will get other people to laugh if he does it, so it is becoming more frequent. We can't walk through a store without him pointing at someone and laughing. While home for Christmas, we were in a small restaurant where he was chattin it up with everyone. He was talking, waving, pointing...then he was being held in a corner of the restaurant to where he could see everyone and was putting on a show! He had the whole place laughing and waving at him. What a ham!

GROWLING
He growls a lot. We started teaching him the sound a lion makes and picked right up on that. Not only does he growl when he sees a lion, but basically when ever he feels like it. On our way down to Vancouver for Christmas, we stopped at Jack in the Box for lunch. He was in a high chair pulled up to the table but was pretty far over on one side, enough to see the booth next to us. Well, that booth happened to have two old ladies sitting in it. Luke leans over and gives them a big "ROOARR." It was pretty funny but he's not going to be able to get away with that for long.

SIGNS
He does a bit of sign language which has been so helpful in communicating. He whines and gets angry a lot so the more we can teach him, the better off we all are. He knows eat, drink, more, and all done...we try to use all done for a lot of things so he can let us know he is done with whatever it is he's doing, but for now he only associates it with food.

FRIENDLY
Luke is super friendly. He talks and waves to anyone. He is not afraid to go in the nursery at church, which I am thankful for. Some babies I see just scream when their parents leave...I would not be able to handle that well. But luckily he is happy to play in there. When we leave, I tell him to say goodbye. Sometimes he waves, but often he will lean over and give a hug! I don't know where he learned that, but it is awesome. He got a dog for Christmas that says his name and talks to him. One day the dog said, "I feel sad...will you give me a hug?" Luke leaned over and gave his puppy a hug! So cute!

LEARNING
Its amazing how much they learn in such a short time. It seems suddenly he understands so much of what we say. He knows what you mean when you tell him to go get something...I remember the day a couple months ago when I asked him where his pacifier was (mostly talking to myself) and he reached down, grabbed it, and held it up to me. That was the first time I noticed he was beginning to understand and respond. He knows objects when you talk about them, he knows noses, he knows to put things "in." He says Dada, banana, dog, kitty, roar (but that's more of a sound)...he is just starting to say no...but that one's not so exciting.

TV
Yes, we have let him watch a little too much tv. He has noticed it and been interested in it since he was very little. He went from being enthralled with Dr. Phil to now loving Yo Gabba Gabba and Moose and Z, but its mostly that he loves the music. He knows what the remote is for and goes for it any chance he gets. He likes to push the buttons and make the tv change but gets a startled when he turns the volume up too loud.

MUSIC
He LOVES music. He dances to music where ever he is. His dog he got for Christmas sings to him and he dances, he gets all excited and dances to his music dvds, he dance to commercial tunes, and even bobs around in the grocery cart to the music in the background.

Well, our little one will be turning one on February 9th. I will definitely post his party pictures if I don't post before then.