Random phone pics

Here are some of the pictures that I've taken on my phone in the last month or so. Playing fireman at Grandma and Grandpa's house (I didn't actually take this one - Luke spent the weekend with them and Grandma sent me this picture.)
Using his bathtub crayons - he LOVES them
Going for a walk! He had to have his drink - mommy and daddy were both carrying drinks too (that might have possibly been of the alcoholic variety.)
A new trick - climbing on the fireplace.

Shopping with mommy - we stopped at the cookie place and they had perfect little Luke sized cookies

At the Nike outlet store in Florida

Seeing daddy after a few days apart - in the Orlando airport right when we got off the plane
At the hospital before his tubes surgery - I think this was about 5:30 in the morning
Messy eater!

Walking!

Look at him go!!

Giving kisses

Luke learned to give kisses last week and those big slobbery open mouthed ones are the best!

How to hide food that you don't want - by Luke Fletcher

Luke's 12 month pictures!

Ok, so we're almost 2 months late, but they turned out great! Karen went to the IMA with Luke and I today and did such a great job! Here are some of my favorites!








This bench was in memory of someone with the last name of Fletcher!

Luke and his girlfriends

My friend Tricia has 2 twin girls - Kate and Anna, who were born 2 1/2 weeks before Luke. They were at Luke's very first playdate, and they're now in his class at school. It's fun watching them grow up!

April 2010 (Their friend Aaron was also there. Luke is in the blue.)


April 2011


And apparently there is specifically something going on with Kate. This was a playdate back in June of 2010. Should we order the wedding announcements?


And then yesterday when I picked him up, Luke was being a little flirt. He would take Kate's pacifier, laugh, then give it back to her. Then repeat. She didn't seem to mind at all though!

Mr. Sensitive

I don't have any pictures of this, or video (because that would just be mean) but Luke gets his feelings hurt pretty easily, and it's the cutest thing ever. If he thinks you're laughing AT him, his little face crumples up, he looks down, and starts to cry. And then of course it's near impossible not to keep laughing (bad parents!)

Reading

I've been worried that Luke hasn't seem interested in books. I love to read, and always have, and really hoped it would be something Luke would enjoy. I know, I know - he's only 13 months old - but it seems that so many toddlers LOVE books and he has wanted nothing to do with them. I worried that we didn't read to him enough the last year and that's why he wasn't interested.

Luckily that has all changed! He loves books, especially big ones with pictures. He likes to point out things and have you tell him what they are.

And even more exciting - he can say book! Well, sort of - he says "bo!" The k gets dropped off. He's very consistent though and it's obvious that's what he's saying and wants. He'll be in the middle of playing, spy a book out of the corner of his eye, say "bo!" and go get it. I just love it!

He's pretty good at pointing out the balls and kitty cat when you ask him where they are.



Not the greatest, but you can sort of hear him say "bo" here.

Eating

Luke really loves to try and feed himself and has been doing such a great job with it! Applesauce and yogurt are the easiest with a spoon - he can just dip the spoon down in and he'll get something on it. Forks are hard - he'll pick up the food and try to put it on the fork but doesn't have much luck.

A video from applesauce last night:


I turned my back after making sure he was ok and when I looked back at him I saw this:

Stairs

Luke has been going up the stairs for awhile now, and we've finally taught him how to go back down without going head first. He does better if you stay above him - if you're on the steps below him he wants to turn and look at you. It's a slow process, but it's nice to have a break from carrying him up and down them!

Weekend update

I feel like it's been awhile since I've blogged, so I thought I'd do a bit of an update first. When we got back from vacation, I ended up sick with a cold, then sinus infection, then bronchitis. That knocked me on my butt and for several days I felt just awful. Luckily that is getting better!

Luke managed to avoid that, but his teeth have been a nightmare. His molars are taking forever to come in - and at this point we're working on all 4 of them. He's ok during the day, but at night it is awful - he's up crying every hour or so. I've spent several nights sleeping in the floor next to the crib so that I can reach my hand in easily and pat his back. Also, on Thursday I got a phone call from daycare that he had a temperature of 103.6! No other symptoms so we think it was just a strange virus that's been going around. Ibprofen brought it down and it hasn't gone back up since then.

In house news - we now have a fenced backyard! We had a 6 foot shadow box privacy fence installed and just love it. It makes our yard feel bigger and more private which will be so nice this summer while we're playing with Luke outside.

We also brought over the Little Tikes swingset that we bought in the fall. We found it on Craigslist and got a great deal on it and stored it at my mom's. Luke got to play on it yesterday and LOVED it!

It wouldn't be a good blog post without some pictures, so here you go!

Grandma and Grandpa came up and we went to the children's museum and then to McCallisters for lunch. Luke showed grandpa how to play at the water table.



Then he had a great big boy meal of mac & cheese, applesauce, milk, and teddy grahams. It was the most he's had to eat in several days and the best he's done at a restaurant.


Playing with the new swingset!


He also figured out that he loves going down the slides on his belly.

13 months old!

We're a little late with this, but he turned 13 months old while we were in Florida!

Age: 13 months

Weight: I think just under 26 lbs

Length: not sure

Size: Size 4 diapers, and mostly 18 month clothes. Poor little shorty legs make the 18 month pants too long, but 12 months are a tad too short.

Hair: blondish and he's starting to get lots of curls in the back - just like his daddy when he was little.

Teeth: Not quite 11 - 3 of the molars are working there way through the gums but are taking such a long time! 1 seems to be completely through, 1 halfway, and the other just poking.

Sleeping: Goes to bed at 7 and wakes up around 6:30. Nighttime is so easy! Naps are a different story. Although they told me that at school today he slept on a cot!

Eating: I have been so amazed with his eating. Once he got the tubes in he became such a different little boy. He hasn't had pureed baby food since before the surgery. He's trying all sorts of new things - spaghetti, hot dog pieces, chicken nuggets, burrito with rice/beans, turkey/cheese sandwich, chicken and noodles with mashed potatoes, green beans, peas .... he still doesn't seem to care for fruit unless it's fruit flavored yogurt or puffs or yogurt melts. He's also 100% on milk out of his sippy cup.

Movement: He's finally getting SO close to walking! He walks behind his lion all the time and can now walk next to us just holding onto one hand. He's also started standing on his own for longer periods of time. I think he'll be taking his first steps in no time! (I actually think he sort of did while we were Florida but Jason says we can't count it because he was kind of falling at the same time.)

Talking: He's babbling a lot more now - still says a lot of mama, dada, and ba! (ball). He still signs "milk" but it now means "want and more" He'll point to something he wants and sign milk furiously with both hands. He also has signed sleep to us the past few nights before bedtime.

Milestones: I feel like everything he's doing right now is hitting a new milestone as we enter this fun new toddler world.

Favorite toys/activities: Playing outside, walking behind his lion, and playing with balls

Dislikes: taking naps

Disposition: He is such a great little guy. I thought he was happy before, but he has been a different child since the tubes. He is certainly starting to test boundaries though. He's hit my face, pulled my hair - and laughs when I try to get him to stop. He can be quite ornery. I pointed my finger at him the other day when I said no - and he pointed his right back at me!

Vacation!

We went to Orlando last week for a vacation with Grandma and Grandpa. They have a timeshare/condo and go every year - it's been 8 years since Jason and I have been!

Luke had SUCH a great time. I think he loved having mommy and daddy to himself for a week.

Luke and I flew - we figured that a 2 hour nonstop flight would be better than a 15+ hour drive. He did great! On the way there he got a little restless during the descent, and on the way back he cried for a little bit mid flight - but otherwise was great! I'm not gonna lie - I was exhausted by the end of them, but he did really well!

Here are (hopefully!) some slideshows from each day that we were there.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

And just for fun - a year ago!

A new way to crawl

Miscellanous videos

Walking behind his lion ...


A new favorite pasttime - climbing up the stairs .... the entire way up. I need to get a gate for that, pronto!


And lastly, as we've been working on table foods, he's been wanting to feed himself more and more. This makes for a messy meal, but he tries so hard! (Until he gives up and either licks the bowl or just uses his hands.)

Children's Museum

I forgot to blog about this, but to finish up Luke's birthday weekend we went to the Children's Museum with some friends.





Driving the tractor




On a date??


And this is what happens pretty much everytime we try to get a group picture with Luke in it. I'm pretty sure he's thinking "Get me away from these girls!" Too bad Josh was sleeping and couldn't help out.

Trip to Chicago

We went to Chicago last weekend for a quick visit with Matt and Alli. We had a great time checking out their apartment and going to the Shed Aquarium.

He didn't really care about the fish in the tank - he mostly wanted to bang on it and yell.


They had a cute play area where you could dress up like a penguin and slide down a slide.

Double Trouble

Jason bought this shirt at Target years ago - probably around when we got married, if not right before. I happened to see the exact same shirt in the kids section and even though we were a long way from that point, I bought it. I finally remembered it today and got pictures of them both in it. (And just in time too - it was a little snug, on both!)

ENT appointment

We had an ENT appointment for Luke today and the result is that he'll be getting tubes next Wednesday! I never thought I'd be excited about it, but I am. I'm just so tired of him not feeling well with his ears. I'll probably have a freakout Tuesday night though. The whole tubes process doesn't bother me, it's the anesthesia that sort of freaks me out.

Anyways, there really wasn't a question. The 5 ear infections, several rounds of antibiotics, the fluid still behind his ears, and his hearing doesn't quite fall in normal all pointed towards it.

The hearing test was kind of funny. He sat in my lap in a little room, facing a corner. There were sounds coming from that corner, and the ones to our right and left. He was so confused at it all and would whip his head around to figure out WHAT that noise was. (Some were a toy, some were when the lady was talking to him.) When it got quieter he wasn't as good at turning the right way. Then she did a test where she blew in his ears and between the two he just wasn't quite normal. she said that she wasn't surprised, given the fluid behind the ears.

When they found out we were flying to Florida in a few weeks they said that we really had to get it done before then, which was a relief to me. My ears pop bad enough on a plane - could you imagine a baby with an ear infection?

We go in at 6am (he can't eat for 6 hours beforehand) and the surgery is at 7am. They said it would take less than 15 min and then we'd be there for an hour afterwards and then would go home. Yay!

We also got fitted for some ear plugs to use while we're in Florida. After about 3 weeks that won't matter as much, but it's important not to get extra fluid in there at first.

Having a toddler

Means that we can no longer rely on him to always sit like this,


because 5 minutes later he is doing this:


In a blink of an eye, we go from this:


to this little daredevil (I stood by him the entire time, but he pulled the seat back down and climbed onto it all by himself.)

12 month stats

Luke had his 12 month appt yesterday and did really well. The shots weren't fun, but he bounced back pretty quickly.

He weighed 25 lbs (clothed) - 79%
He is 30.5" tall (72%)
His head is 49cm (97%!) - He's always had a big noggin' :)

We also found out that his left ear is still infected, so onto antibiotic #2 for this one. Luckily our ENT appt is on Tuesday!

They were impressed with his sippy cup abilities, and now it's time to move from formula to milk. He also should be on table food all the time. We're struggling with that, but seeing as he's been sick almost constantly in some form or another since December, she wasn't surprised that it's hit or miss. We'll keep working on it!