Birthday party!

Luke had a great birthday party on Saturday! We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family. The party was pretty low key, but I think a great time was had by all.

We had a Sesame Street Beginnings themed party. It started with an adorable invitation with his picture on it, and then we had sesame street items and primary colors at the party. I think my favorite parts were the cookie monster cupcakes I made, and also the "growth" banner. I made it out of the monthly pictures that we took of Luke with his bear. (If you click on this picture (and then again if you want) you can see it bigger.)


Mommy and the birthday boy


Daddy and Luke looking at a book


Luke wasn't entirely sure what to expect.


Cake time wasn't what we expected at all. In the past, Luke has been known to lick icing off of the table. We thought for sure that he would love his cake. The look he had in this picture should have tipped us off.


Get this stuff away from me!


After we calmed down from the evil cake, it was time for presents! He got so many amazing things - some V-tech toys, a "future hoosier" sippy cup (go IU!), some books, personalized family magnets, a snack bowl that never spills, car keys (for his future Nissan), college savings money, a ball pit, a wagon, and an anywhere chair. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that his favorite were the balls. They are awesome to throw and all day long he's been yelling "ba! ba!"


A wagon full of balls? Woah!




I'm pretty sure this chair is not only going to be a good place to watch Signing Time and to read - but also to climb on and jump off.


Thanks everyone for a great birthday!!

1st birthday celebration!

We'll do this as a post per day, because we've had such a great birthday weekend!

Friday morning unfortunately started out with a return trip to the pediatrician for an ear recheck. Luckily those are looking better - his crankiness is due to the molars that are coming. He didn't let it completely affect his weekend though.

Then we went to lunch at McCallisters Deli - yum!


Next we went to a preview class at Gymboree - Luke had SO much fun! It's a place that's like a big gym for little kids. It's semi structured playtime.





His favorite part was pushing this roll thing. He had a hard time keeping up with it, but kept on going! At the end when everyone else was done, he kept pushing it, backing the teacher into the wall. (We stopped the taping too soon to see that though!)


After Gymboree, there was a quick nap in the car and then on to our other big event of the day - first haircut! He doesn't have tons of hair, but what he had was getting long - especially over the ears. We took him to Cookie Cutters, where he got to sit in at train. He did such a great job!



The best part was the balloon he got at the end of it.


Then it was time to go home and have another nap - such a worn out little 1 year old!


After naptime, he had a breadstick and his first bite of pizza (which he chewed for a little bit - and then spit out.)



Then we did our presents and he had a cupcake. No pictures of that, although it should have been a warning as to how he would respond to the cake at his party. Pictures of that later ... :)


What a great day!

Happy birthday Luke!

How are we to this day already? It seems like just yesterday that we met our little bundle of joy and now he's becoming a toddler. We had no idea just how much he would change our lives and how much joy we would experience this year. It has been, in a word, amazing. It obviously hasn't all been super easy (hello, 5 ear infections and 2 dislocated elbows!) but we wouldn't change any of it for the world.

On to what our little man is doing now!

His year checkup isn't until next Tuesday, but weighed at home this morning he was 24lbs, 3oz. I'm not sure how tall he is at all.

He has a whopping 9 (yes, 9) teeth and is working on at least 1 of the other molars right now.

He's still sleeping great at night - goes down easily and unless he's sick - doesn't wake up until morning (about 11 1/2 hours.) Napping is a completely different story and is a struggle every day - especially days at school. He is just go-go-go and doesn't want to miss any of the action.

He eats a mixture of table food and purees, depending on his mood for the day. One day he ate half of a chicken sandwich at school. A few days later he threw one on the ground. Such a little turkey. We can pretty much always count on yogurt or yogurt melts though.

For the past 2 weeks he's been completely off the bottle! Still just formula, but all out of the sippy cup at breakfast, snack time, lunch, snack time, and dinner. We weren't really planning on it - it just sort of happened. We thought we'd try dropping the morning bottle and just doing a sippy with breakfast. That went so well that we did it the rest of the day and haven't looked back! Once he gets off of his current antibiotic (5th ear infection) then we're going to try some whole milk.

Speaking of ear infections - we have an appointment with an ENT in a little over a week to talk about tubes. I just feel so bad for the little guy!

Things he loves to do right now:
Clap - especially when he realized he's getting something he wants (yogurt melts, a sippy cup, signing time dvd)

Wave at people and sign milk - it can get very confusing as waving and signing milk look similar. When I get him in the morning is he waving at me? Or telling me he wants breakfast? (Probably both!)

He loves anything with buttons - remote control, Xbox controller, buttons on the tv, mommy's cell phone (he has so far made successful calls to grandma, Uncle Pat, and daddy)

He loves music - banging on his toy piano, banging on the real piano, beating anything like a drum ... Sometimes, but not always - when he hears music he'll start to bounce up and down like he's dancing.

He is crawling the "right" way now - up on his hands and knees. He cruises along furniture like a pro, and will take some steps if we're holding his hands.

He babbles all the time - says mama and dada and I think tried to say ball the other day while watching Signing Time (ba!) Otherwise it's a lot of babbles and yells. Sometimes he'll have little conversations - changing tone and inflection - just like he knows what he's saying.

We wanted to write a letter to Luke each year on his birthday. The official one will be in his baby book, but I thought what we started was pretty funny. See if you can tell where I stopped and Jason took over. :)

Luke,
Happy birthday sweet baby boy! This past year has been the most amazing year of our lives and we love you so much!

Daddy wants you to know that he loves you and will always be your best friend. He can't wait for you to get a little older so you can hang out with him in the garage and work on the cars (Nissan's only!). Make sure you are always a good boy and while you will most likely always be the center of attention anywhere you go, don't get to cocky. You'll never be funnier, smarter, better or better looking than daddy.

Love you buddy,
Daddy and Mommy

The transition room boys

There are 3 boys in Luke's room at school and this morning they all got there first. Jackson, Josh, and Luke decided to hold a little pre-breakfast meeting.

What a difference a year makes ...

My 30th birthday dinner (5 days before Luke was born)


My 31st birthday dinner:

Tortured Artist

Luke and I worked on some Valentine's today for his friends at school. I cut out the red hearts and he painted them. It went surprisingly well!





And then he decided he wanted to taste the paint.


Which led to our little tortured artist.

Babies Don't Keep

Luke was having a particularly clingy day this past Friday and I found myself getting frustrated. I had things to do - clean the house, laundry, taxes, birthday party prep, some work for work, etc. I happened to log in to facebook that afternoon and saw that a friend had posted this poem. Needless to say, I quit worrying about what I needed to get done and enjoyed the time with my little boy.

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

Where's the puppy's nose?

Jason had the toilet turned off and the back off all day - he had to get a part to fix it. When he went to work on it this evening he saw that a certain somebody decided to drop a toy in there. (It's a bath foam letter O.)

I'm guessing he did this around the same time he unrolled the toilet paper roll. :)

Fridays with Luke

Fridays are my favorite day of the week because I get to spend them with my favorite little boy. As we enter into the toddler stage though, they are also the most exhausting!

Here are a few pictures of our day. Not pictured: lots of playing in the play room, feeding me chicken nuggets (yes - Luke fed me the chicken nuggets instead of the other way around), and pointing out noses on the stuffed animals.

Helping me unload the dishwasher. Luckily he grabbed a spoon and not a knife.


Learning how to take apart the remote - after he learned how to use it to turn on the tv. (We blocked the tv and the xbox from him so he can't actually push the buttons on it. He had to figure out a way around that.)


Pulling the old Nintendo off of the shelf. I think he wanted to get to the old Playstation - he's learned how to turn it on, and then push the button to make the tray come out - in the right order.


Leaving a trail of destruction ...


It was bound to happen sooner or later ...


And finally, bath time!

11 months old!

Luke is 11 months old! He's been changing daily and is so much FUN now! (Not that he wasn't before - but he's interacting and learning so much - everyday is exciting and something new.)

He weighs 23lbs, 9 oz, so an increase of less than a lb. He's still mostly wearing 12 month clothes and size 4 diapers, but we've been buying 18 month clothes as well.

He's been sick and on an antibiotic for the last 2 1/2 weeks, so his appetite has been strange. Some days he'll only have 3 bottles, and not even finish all of those - and other days he'll have his usual 4. He's sort of taken a step back on the table food - some days he hasn't even wanted pureed fruit. On days that he'll try table food, he surprises us. He refushed peaches one day, but came home with a note from school that said he ate a chicken sandwich! (Breaded chicken patty and bread cut up into small pieces.) He'll pretty much never turn down puffs or yogurt melts though.

He's been like a little sponge. In the 2 weeks that we've had the Signing Time DVD he's learned to sign milk. He's learning to flush the toilet (so far he hasn't quite pulled it down - he tries and laughs though.) He's figured out how to turn on the old PS2 and then push another button to get the disc out - in the correct order! Things that he seems to try to do but isn't an always thing is to point out noses, and also to repeat "moooo" after we do when I point out a cow in books/puzzles. He can say mama and dada and seems to associate it with the right person.

He's crawling and crusing along furniture with ease, and has taken a few steps behind his lion walker. Mostly he likes to "walk" behind it on his knees.

He's getting out of the phase where we always have to be in the room with him. We rearranged the baby proofing upstairs so now he can get out of our loft room and get into his bedroom, the bathroom, or his playroom by himself.

I can't believe that we're starting to transition out of the baby stage! How is my little boy going to be 1 in a month??

Children's Museum

My mom and I took Luke to the museum a few weeks ago to kill some time on a Friday. Each time we go he seems to interact more and have more fun. This time he got to play at the water table - and I already know this is going to be a favorite.




It was still Jolly Days when we went so we were able to go down the big slide a few times (the line was so long the first time we were there!)

Ping pong balls

Playing with ping pong balls is one of Luke's favorite past times - they have just the right bounce when dropped from the walker.

An "oops" moment

Due to all of the antibiotics Luke has been on, he has a pretty bad diaper rash. One of the biggest suggestions for treating it is to let him air dry as much as possible. We bought a waterproof mattress pad to lay down in his crib over the sheet so that he can play in there - diaper free - and we don't have to worry about it. Tonight after his bath we put him in there to do just that.

An important lesson that we learned - the waterproof mattress pad does nothing when the little boy stands at the crib rail - and pees out of it.

Milk

Luke can sign "milk"!! He's actually been doing it for a few days - his mommy and daddy were just a little slow to catch on. Honestly, Jason and I thought he was trying to wave. He mostly did it while sitting in his high chair and Jason even commented that he had his hand turned the wrong way to wave.

Then today we were watching Signing Time and I decided to start taping, just to show his reaction to the show. I had no idea he was going to do this!

We don't think he exactly knows what it means, but does seem to associate it with eating/food/hungry/bottle/milk.

I can't wait to see what else he learns - we're so proud of him!

(And pay no attention to how close to the tv he is. We moved the coffee table in front of it to block him from turning the Xbox on and off and that's where he ended up today.)

A fun game

Luke can't stand it when things are stacked up - they are just calling to him to be knocked over. Most of the time I can only get 2 or 3 stacked high before he sees it and wants to demolish it.

Visiting with Grandma and Grandpa

Jason and I had a lot of baby proofing to do around the house (not to mention getting an early start on "spring cleaning") and that was a perfect time for Luke to go down and stay with grandma and grandpa. We met down in Greenwood (about halfway for both of us) and had breakfast at Bob Evans. Then we came back home and Luke went on his way to a fun weekend!


It sounded like he had a great time - he got to go shopping with Grandma, visiting at the library, church on Sunday morning, and then breakfast at Wee Willies - yum!

Our poor little guy hasn't been feeling very well lately. He had a cold, turned long lasting cough, turned sinus infection, turned double ear infection (which actually happened while he was on the first antibiotic!) After switching meds a few times, and several doctors appointments, he finally seems to be feeling better. He ended up having to get an antibiotic shot to get rid of the ear infection, although still has the cough. He was checked for the flu and for pertussis (whooping cough) and both came back negative. So hopefully we are almost back to our healthy little boy! This week was the most pitiful I've ever seen him. He had a fever for a few days and didn't even feel like smiling. It just about broke my heart to see him like that.

And a few have asked about tubes - as of right now we aren't getting them. Their criteria is 5-6 within a year. So far he's had 4 in 7 months, so we'll see what happens.

Shake that booty

We watched Luke do this a few times before taping him. It's not an every time thing, but it's so adorable when he does it!

Signing Time

Luke got an awesome DVD for Christmas called Signing Time. This thing is like Baby crack. As soon as he hears the music he turns towards it mesmerized. He's been sick (more on that later) and one particularly bad night/early morning he was inconsolable until we turned the dvd on. Then he was content snuggling and sniffling (you know, that awful sound when they've been sobbing and are trying to stop) and watch that until he fell asleep.

He hasn't done any of the signs yet, although I swore we got "more" one day, and sometimes when he sees them do "eat" he'll stick his fingers in his mouth.

It's also been good because Jason and I have learned signs this way as well.

Linus and Shroeder

This:


Plus this:


Equals this:

Fun time with daddy

Happy New Year!