Living with Luke

He's finally starting to have that word explosion that everyone talks about - he'll try to copy a lot of things that you say now - even if they don't come out quite right. I love it!

Aside from that, he's said/done some of the cutest things in the last week:

- I was in the living room and he brought me an empty bowl and said "uh oh." Turns out it was the bowl that used to contain the cat's water. Uh oh is right.

- If you're doing something that he doesn't like (changing his diaper, or doing something for him) he will tell you "no no me." We think it either means "no, don't do that to me" or "no, I want to do that."

- He loves to play the piano. If he starts banging and you tell him to "use one finger" he will start to nicely play with just one finger on each hand.

- Tonight he brought me a book and said "dog" and then signed "go". Yep, the book was "Go dog go." Such a little smarty pants!

- He brought me a cat toy and told me that it was "ball cat." I love that he's putting words together, even if they aren't quite in the right order.

17 months old

Age: 17 months

Weight: 29ish lbs

Length: ???

Size: Size 5 diapers, and mostly 18 month clothes. They are starting to get small though so I just bought a ton of 24 month/2T clothes at a garage sale. PJs and 1 piece rompers are most definitely in the 18-24 month range. Shoes (according to Stride Rite measurements) are 5 ½ wide – although 5’s in other brands are still too big. He does have fat feet though.

Hair: People are surprised by how blond his hair is.

Teeth: 16 teeth! Now we wait on the 2 year molars. I’m hoping for a break, but he has been so drooley lately.

Sleeping: Great! Between 11 and 12 hours at night and he typically takes one nap now for 2 hours.

Eating: I would like to have a different answer this month, but still picky picky picky. He will almost always eat yogurt, granola bars, french toast sticks, mac & cheese, chicken nuggets, cheese, and cheerios. He's started to eat peanut butter on graham crackers. He still loves his milk, but will go through cups of water a day.

Movement: All.over.the.place. He seems to fall down more now, but it’s because he tries to run. He’s now had at least 3 bruises on his head from falling down.

Talking: mama, dada, ball, no, yea, and wow. He will whisper hi, hot, duck, cat, and finally the actual version of dog. He’s also tried shoe, but it came out more like “ish.” It’s adorable though – as he tries to actually say a word, he’ll whisper it until he’s confident enough to say it out loud. Also, when he says no, most of the time it’s “na-no” – sort of like a stutter. We think he’s doing it because a lot of times I tell him “no no Luke, we don’t do that.” Guess he’s a better mimic than we thought – we’d better start paying attention to what we say.

Signing: As he's starting to try and talk more he doesn't sign quite as much, but the words that he knows are: more, milk, eat, sleep, water, please, thank you, mom, dad, yes, no, uh oh, all done, wash hands, bird, fish, cat, dog, friend, play, dirty, stop, go, car, and book

Milestones: First family vacation!

Favorite toys/activities: This hasn’t changed at all since last time - playing outside, playing in water, playing with balls - he loves to throw them, kick them, shoot them into the basket, hit them with a bat - I think he's going to love sports.

Dislikes: diaper changes, being told no

Disposition: For the most part he's such a happy little guy. He loves to gives hugs and kisses, which makes me melt every time.

Other cute things about him:
*He can now hold up his finger that he's 1.
*He gives high 5's AND he fist bumps. :)
*He is becoming pretty opinionated and lets us know when he doesn't get his way. He got really mad at me because we shut the door to his room, so he sat in the ball pit in his play room and cried.
*He likes to test us. If you tell him no (don't throw that, don't touch that) he'll grin and reach out like he's going to do it again, but then doesn't.
*He knows almost all of his body parts.

Sidewalk chalk and popsicles

What a great way to spend a summer afternoon!

Great Wolf Lodge

We went on a mini vacation this week to Cincinnati and the Great Wolf Lodge. We planned it months ago, knowing that our little water baby would love it. Imagine our surprise when 2 weeks before we left, he decided he hated pools. He didn't want to go near them, which was surprising because he still loved the sprinkler pad and loved water.

To our relief, he started to warm back up to pools shortly before we left and while we were there he starting jumping back in again. Whew!

After the 2 hour drive (which was great for a nap!) we stopped to eat lunch.


We started by eating at the Rootbeer Stand. I'd heard Anne talking about it and knew that we would have to stop there. It was kind of a hole in the wall type place, but was so good and we loved eating outside.




Then we went to IKEA - yay! And we (er, Santa) did some early Christmas shopping for Luke. No pictures of the shopping trip, but Jason also bought Luke a little train set that he loved playing with in the hotel room.


Finally, at Great Wolf Lodge!


We had so much fun playing in the water park! There was a whole toddler area with some toddler slides - Luke went down a few times, but had a hard time staying in a sitting position. His favorite was the whole Fort MacKenzie area - a huge fort with all sorts of splashes.






There was also a wave pool and a lazy river - both where he had to wear a life vest. He hated it at first, but got used to it and was happy to put it on when he realized he could go do other things with it on.




There was also a fun outdoor area - as you can see, our waterbaby is back!


We did some fun things away from the resort as well. The waterpark itself didn't open until 10am, so on Thursday morning we went to a nearby park. Luke loved the ducks!


Other highlights were a trip to an outlet mall, and dinner at Frish's Big Boy!



Back at the lodge, we also played in an area called Cub Club that had some arts and crafts and lots of toddler toys. There was also a fun game called Magiquest that older kids could play - you had a wand and went on an adventure throughout the lodge - Jason and I almost wanted to sign up!



One of Luke's favorite things were the pictures of dogs (aka wolves) that were on every single door. Every.single.time we walked down the hallway he would point them out. And yes, that is how he says dog. (Although I'm happy to report that just today he started saying it the right way! Well, almost ...)


At night they have a little show at the clock tower and then read a bedtime story. The kids show up in their pjs - and if you're Luke and especially when it's an hour after your bedtime, you also show up with your paci and blankie.


Poor little guy was worn out!


We had such a great time on our very first family-of-3 vacation!

Can't hide from grandma

Last Monday while my mom was watching Luke, he snuck into the bag and decided to put the sunscreen on himself. They were planning to go to the pool and apparently she wasn't moving quickly enough for him. She found him hiding in the corner of the sunroom.

Sprinkler Park

One of Luke's favorite places to go this summer is to the sprinkler pad down the road. Most of the time he runs around making faces like this:

Nooooo!

Luke has been communicating the word no by shaking his head for awhile now. This morning he actually learned to say the word! For now it's adorable, but I fear it will get old quickly. :)

(Sorry for the bad quality video - it was still early in the morning. The sound is all you really need though.)

Happy 4th of July!

(Picture taken by Kathy!)

We had an amazing time this morning with some of our friends at a parade and lunch. Kelli's neighborhood has this great little parade in their neighborhood with a band, some cars, a fire truck, and lots of the neighborhood kids! We decorated Luke's little car to push in it. Balloons, candy, water, and popsicles were passed out!

Here comes the parade! We waited on a corner just a little ways down from the start so that we could see them coming. We joined in as they passed us.


Balloons are cool!


Buddies Rowan and Andrew shared a wagon


Miss Leah - poor thing had to put up with boys all morning


Popsicles are good!


Ok, I'm done now. I think I'll climb out.


After he got bored with the car, Luke got to chill with his friend Sammy in their swagger wagon.


After the parade we had lunch and played in Rowan's backyard. Luke seemed to enjoy pushing the car around.


Today's attempt at a toddler group shot. Luke says "see ya! I'm out!"

Holliday Park

There is an amazing park in Indy, near 64th and Springmill Road. Awesome playgrounds, lots of shade, some trails, the White River, and a nature center. We met up with some of my mom's group on Saturday morning and played at the playground.





It is difficult to get a group of toddlers to sit still for a picture, but yogurt melts go a long way in bribing them. :)

Stony Creek Farm

I bought a Living Social deal last week that let us go play at Stony Creek Farm for half price. We went with our friends Kari and Josie and had a great time!

He got to ride a pumpkin train - twice! After he got out the first time he tried to climb right back in.


We rode push pedal bikes. Little man's legs weren't quite long enough, so I pedaled. It was my workout for the day!


Some fishing was done ...


And the best part was the super bouncy pillow. Luke LOVED it!

When daddy gets home

I know I've mentioned how much Luke loves daddy's car. This was on Thursday - we were outside playing, and around the 12 second mark Luke hears Jason's car - coming down the street that is behind our across-the-street-neighbors. How he heard that, and knew it was Jason, I don't know. He gets so excited and goes to the end of the driveway to wait. (Also, he signs his version of daddy - which is identical to mommy. You just have to guess which one of us he wants.)

Attack of the chocolate chip cookie

Luke and I got a chocolate chip cookie to share at Target. I let him finish it on the way home. Maybe that wasn't the smartest idea ....

(Yes, it's on his face, forehead, arms, legs, and hands.)

He thought it was fun!