Mr. Smarty Pants

Luke is starting to learn colors, numbers, letters, and shapes at school. They focus on one or two in each category each month, and we try to reiterate them at home. The only color he seems to know is purple - and more often than not, all colors are purple. He has repeated red, blue, and a version of yellow - but mostly we get purple. He was right here though!


We work on the letters ABCDE all the time. He can point out and tell you the letter B. Most of the time he can also point to A when you ask him. He can repeat almost all the way to I though! (This video just goes through G.)

Fall Art

I use this awesome website now called Pinterest - basically it's like bookmarking, but you save things by category and it shows pictures instead of a web address. It makes finding things again so much easier.

I have a whole category of fun art projects to do with Luke and today was a great day to do a fall inspired one.

This was our inspiration - an autumn tree with falling leaves

http://myblessedlife.net/2011/09/fall-kids-crafts.html

This is how ours turned out. Our leaves were not so much falling off, but rather being blown off in the middle of a tornado. I love every bit of it.

Reading our favorite book

If you'd like to read along:
A cow says Moo
A sheep says Baa
And three singing piggies say la-la-la
No no you say, that isn't right
Little pigs go oink oink all day and night.
Rhinoceroses snort and snuff
and little doggies go ruff ruff ruff
and other dogs go bow wow wow
and cats and kittens say meow
quack quack says the duck
a horse says neigh
Shh! it's quiet now - what do you say?

19 months

Age: 19 months

Weight: I would guess between 29 and 30 lbs.

Length: Taller than 34"

Size: Size 5 diapers, and mostly in 24 month shirts. 18 month pants still fit. Someone explain this to me - Luke is 19 months old, and 89% for height - yet some 18 month pants are still too long. Short legs I guess!

Hair: Almost to the point that he needs another trim.

Teeth: 16 teeth - the 2 year molars are the only ones left

Sleeping: He goes down at 7:30 and lately we've been waking him up just past 7. He takes one nap. On Sundays that nap seems to be 3 hours - and then it dwindles down as the week goes on.

Eating: He loves peanut butter now - yay! Other staples are still cheese, cheerios, yogurt, mac&cheese, and crackers. He's been willing to try other things - we actually ate apple slices yesterday!

Movement: All over the place. He can do the small porch step up and down, unassisted now.

Talking: he tries to repeat almost everything we say now, even if he doesn't know what it means. He's also added several words that he uses on a consistent basis. I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but words that were new this month: turtle, paper, poop, mommy, door, bowl, Pat, choo-choo, apple, trash, truck, knee, and Nemo.

There are some words he has said but doesn't necessarily on a regular basis: star, crab, backpack, and pancake. He also does several animals sounds: a cow says moo, a horse says neigh, a sheep says baa, a dinosaur/bear/tiger/lion says "roar", a chicken "clucks" (said by clucking his tongue), and a birdy says "tweet tweet."

The words from last month still apply as well: mama, dada/daddy, ball, no, yea, wow, uh oh, cat, dog, hat, hot, hi, duck, more, Matt, rocks, water, frog, and car.

Signing: This is really phasing out, although there are some words he refuses to say and will only sign. Bird, fish, and airplane are some of them.

Favorite toys/activities: He loves his little people. We have a garage/ramp and a town and he stays busy with them for hours. He also loves music and loves to dance.

Dislikes: He doesn't like waiting for food - when he decides he's hungry he'll start yelling eat until you get him some food.

Disposition: Happy and loving. I was cooking yesterday and he came up to me and put his arms around my legs and gave me a big hug - then went on with whatever he was doing.

Other cute things about him:
*We find out that he knows all sorts of things from school. He can do hand motions to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and he can sing the first part of "Row row row your boat" also with hand motions. It was the same on the animal sounds - we didn't know he knew them until we were reading Brown Bear one night and he told us what they said - we were shocked!
*He knows all of the kids in his classroom. He can't say their names, but they have a poster with all of their faces and if you quiz him he will tell you where each person is.
*Nemo has replaced Cars in the movie obsession.
*Nemo IS the obsession. He loves his little Nemo friend and takes him everywhere.
*He now calls me mommy most of the time, instead of mama.
*They are working on letters, numbers, and shapes at school. There are days when I would swear that he knows A, B, and C. I'll draw them and ask him where the A is, etc - and he knows it! That seems to come and go though, so I'm not sure if it's just coincidence.
*He likes to go around and tell us who things belong to. Daddy or mommy. It's funny to see who he thinks owns some of them. For instance, toilet paper = daddy.

Catch up post

I realized tonight that I've had several pictures on my phone and just saved on my computer that I've been meaning to share. As summer is ending, I thought now might be a good time to do that.

First up - Luke's black eye. This was his first one (yes, he's had more than one) - he ran into a toilet paper roll holder.


You have to keep an eye on him when he decides to feed the kitties - apparently they were very hungry.


He had lucky charms for the first time recently - can you tell which part he liked? (Hint: notice what is missing ...)


We made the mistake of letting him drive the car at the grocery - now he thinks he gets to everytime we go.


That bin on his head? It used to contain all of those pom pom balls that you see on the floor.


He went to see his very first baseball game a few weeks ago. Karen's boyfriend Matt is on a softball team and Luke had a great time cheering them on! (Or rather, like any little kid - he had a great time climbing up and down the bleachers.)




We made another trip to the children's museum. I absolutely love that we have a membership there. The most recent trip was mostly spent in the dinosaur and train areas and we didn't have to feel guilty about not hitting up many other exhibits.





We went to an awesome ice cream social hosted by my friend Annie. I think I ate 9 different kinds of ice cream - my favorites were a salted caramel and a strawberry one - so good! There is a chance that Luke has a slight milk allergy, so he got to have his own special almond milk ice cream. His friend Andrew is drinking a milk shake shooter here.


We've been hitting up several parks. This was at one called Coxhall gardens - they have a neat little area that looks like a miniature village. Luke got to play in the jail, the bank, and here in the garden.


In August we had a picnic with the other kids from Luke's toddler room at daycare. I rented a shelter at a local park and I think everyone had a great time! (The water table certainly helped!)



Our little neighbor came up and asked me if Luke had eaten some chocolate. Nope, that was dirt.


We made another trip to the zoo, and got to see our new baby elephant!



This was a great trip for Luke - he was more interested than before. He told us about the animals as well. Did you know that lemurs are actually cats? And meerkats are really dogs? Luke will tell you all about it.


Petting a shark!


I think that's it for my summer catchup post! Tomorrow's post - my baby boy is 19 months old!

September 11, 2011

Luke's first best friend

We made the mistake of letting Luke watch Finding Nemo recently and he's now obsessed. We happened to stop by the Disney store at the mall over the weekend and Luke came home with a friend .... a friend who now does everything with him. Luke talks to Nemo, hugs Nemo, makes Nemo ride in the Little People airplane, school bus, shoves him in the elevator in the car garage, holds his fin to make him swim ... and is always telling me that Nemo should be in water. I'm afraid we'll find him floating in the toilet one of these days.

This morning Nemo even helped make french toast at Grandma's house.


Not sure what Luke thought Nemo needed to do here ...


Sharing a morning snack


Luke loves him so much he was willing to share the entire bowl!


Nemo had to wear a bib at lunch too - peanut butter can get messy.


Recently Luke has had an obsession with blowing his nose.


Sure enough, Nemo had a runny nose too.


Time to get ready for bed and brush your teeth!


Gotta make sure Nemo doesn't get cavities either


Time for bed!

Luke and Mommy Day!

When I start my new job next week, I'll be working Monday-Friday. I've been trying not to dwell on how much I'm going to miss my Fridays home with Luke - I just start to cry if I think about it. Instead, I made sure that our last Mommy and Luke Friday was a great one!


We had a breakfast date at IHOP. We split 2 pancakes (with strawberries!), eggs, 2 pieces of bacon, and 2 pieces of sausage. I think Luke ate most of the pancakes - he was only willing to share a few bites. Still, the best part in his eyes was the balloon that he got when we were leaving.


Then it was on to Monkey Joes! It's a great place with lots of bounce house type things. Luke had an absolute blast! It was nice for me that he could do his usual running around, jumping, crashing into things - but this was like being in a padded room.




They had bigger ones that Luke could do as long as I was with him. This was one of the bigger slides - it was fast!





After Monkey Joes it was time for McDonald's happy meal! Luke thought the toy inside was awesome - he kept looking in the box for "more!"


After naptime we did a little shopping at fun store called Garden Ridge. You'll see what we bought when I get to the dinner portion of our day.

Then we came home, watched a little Nemo, and made chocolate chip cookies! Luke helped me pour everything in. He especially loved when we cracked the eggs open.



He wanted to help hold the mixer, but ended up settling for just touching the back of it.


Then it was time to put in the chocolate chips ... which he did one.at.a.time. (Until he realized that it was more fun to eat them!)




When it was all ready, he helped put it on the cookie sheet.



Although didn't quite understand why it wouldn't easily come off of the spoon. At one point he flicked it so hard that we had cookie dough splattered all over the place.


And of course, what is making cookies if you don't sneak a little bit of the dough?


Why do these take so long?


While we were waiting, we watched some more "Nemo!" and played with a new car garage.


Finally! The cookies were done! He worked so hard that I let him have one before dinner.


To end our day, we were going to have a picnic dinner, but it was way too hot. Instead, I made toast with peanut butter and used our fun new sandwich cutter that we bought today! It's an awesome cutter that cuts bread/sandwiches into a train! (Or "tchoo tchoo" as Luke calls it.)


So a great great day with my favorite little man!!