Let me apologize before hand...

If you're offended by the material I just posted online, I'm sorry. But I live in the real world. And in the real world your son gets into drawers in your bathroom that he shouldn't. And then he makes a giant mess.

And while you're in the other room you hear him laughing hysterically....and then silence. Then more hysterical laughter. You go to inspect. And you find all your personal items distributed around the floor, JUST in case you might need them. How thoughtful.
This was the only actual toy in the room. Tried giving it to him to distract, but he'd rather just keep my personal items. Great.

Oh. Did I mention he totally thinks he's awesome?

1 yr check up

Yes. He's eating toilet paper. He thinks it feels funny on his tongue. And he's teething again, so pretty much everything goes in his mouth. He even snuck one of my fingers in his mouth and gave it a chomp. Not cool. But he's doing great. Walking all over the place, no running yet. Getting more coordinated everyday. He loves to start walking away from you and then do a quick pivot turn and come racing back. Luke loves to chase us almost as much as he loves to be chased.

He's a very sweet little boy. He loves to be hugged and now is on the bandwagon and loves to give hugs...even to the dogs. Much to Tim's chagrin. But he can't even deny Lucas when he's being that cute. Luke will just reach over and grab Tim's head with both hands and draw him close. Tim of course freezes and immediately tries to go to a "happy place" until the exchange is over and then he runs away, naturally. But all the dogs are privied to this special sign of affection. Minnie absolutely loves it because it gives her unlimited access to licking his face. Bruno usually just gets an all over snuggle since he's usually laying around all day.

Luke's playtime has been enriched since Christmas and his Birthday. All these toys in the house! His current favorites are the music set that Aunt Leslie and Uncle Ricky sent. How could you miss with a toy that bring endless noise? Classic. And he totally has a boy crush on the car seat Aunt Mary and Uncle Chad gave him for his birthday. But he still plays with all his toys.

We have now entered the "Separation Anxiety" phase of life. And it's rough. He cries big alligator tears whenever we drop him off at the sitter. Of course that stops 5 minutes after we leave, but it's quite a show. And he's even displaying that at home. If we walk out of the room without his permission he can get quite sad. But it comes and goes and we try not to make a big deal about it.

Sippy Cups. This is hard. First trying to find a cup he'll drink out of was ridiculous. Now all he wants is juice. Really? He use to hate juice. Now that we need him to transition to big boy milk, he just wants juice. And he still totally hearts his bottle. He hugs it. So we're going to have to cut it cold turkey. Xanax please. Will try to be tough...

He still speaks his own little language. All we can really understand is MOMMA. But his comprehension is great. He understands most simple commands. And I think he can keep up most of our little conversations together.

He went to the doctor on the 19th for his 1 year check up and here are his stats.

Length: 29.25 inches & 33.58 percentile

Weight: 21.12 lbs & 25.15 percentile.

When did my chunker fall into the 25th percentile?? Beats me. Dr Hrkal says he looks great but just needs to eat more solids. But what do you do when your child wants to live off of yogurt, gold fish and graham crackers? Drives me crazy. He use to be just a great eater. Loved his veggies and fruit. Now he's trying to assert his independence with food. AWESOME. We offer yummy alternatives with every meal. But he know what he wants.

All in all, life's been good. This past year and flown by and it's been chuck full of wonderful experiences and memories. We've definitely had our challenges too, but we wouldn't trade it for anything.

What is this house a Nudist Colony?

The other day I layed Luke down for his nap despite the fact that he was NOT acting tired. Thought he would just sing himself to sleep, he does that quite a lot.

Well, an hour later he was still awake. Matt and I could hear him singing and talking. So I decided to just give in and get him up.

I walked into his room and he was standing up dancing in place....with only his shirt on!

I'll spare you the photos. And to be honest I was too busy yelling for Matt to come look at his son to really remember to get the camera. Oh and I was laughing hysterically because Luke was giggling like crazy. He knew what he was doing.

Just a little story to brighten the day :)

Happy Birthday Luke!

This year we are celebrating Luke's birthday on Saturday so we could gather some family together. We went with a Mickey Mouse theme, and I decorated a little and made Mickey Mouse cupcakes. Since it was 74 degrees out we BBQ'd, of course. We didn't really want anything big so we just invited Chad and Mary (Ranger & Liam) and Erin and Aric (Brayden, Riley, & Carter).

We had a blast. It was so great getting all the family together. And all those boys in the house! It completely cracked me up. All the boys took turns riding in and pushing around each other in Luke's car stroller out back. I wish I had pictures or video of this. It was hilarious. And probably dangerous too. They would take off running and try to make tight corners. That stroller is not made for such abuse, and it would nearly tip over every time. The boys loved it. And can I say that you could tell when it was a the pusher of the car was a sibling of the rider of in the car. They were much less concerned for the well being of the rider.

I also set up the pop tent that Luke got for Christmas. Cousin Liam thought that was the best thing ever. He kept running in and out and giggling. All the while we had movies on the TV and just enjoyed each other's company. I only have a few pictures that Matt snapped. I always forget to take enough pictures when people are over. Easily distracted I suppose.

SQUIRREL!

Just saying.

We wish all of the people we love and care about that live so far away could have been with us. We're so happy to have this special boy with us. This year has flown by, I can't believe it's been a year. How grateful I am to have this little miracle in my life and blessed to see him grow and learn everyday.

FYI

Just a note to let you guys know that I have video of Luke walking on my facebook page. Unfortunately I can't upload video to the blog right now, not sure why. Only know I'm not smart enough to figure out how to fix it.

Gotta run. We're in the middle of a MAJOR meltdown at my house...

Feeling Groovy

We're having a really nice day. It's going to be 71 degrees. The sun is shining. We're all feeling pretty healthy... Can it get any better? Here's just a couple pictures of Luke with his shirt off. Because, YES, it still makes me giggle.

Observing Man in the Action

Matt got to sleep in this morning before he went to work. Luke and I tried to be quiet so Daddy could get some rest, but Luke just wanted to go see him. So we snuck in and snuggled in bed with him before he had to get up.

But when Matt started to get ready for the day Luke just became fascinated. He would follow him in and out of the bathroom, around the bedroom, the whole time must staring wide eyed. So cute. He's observing what it's like to be a boy. I'm sure he's filing it all away for when he'll need it.


Here he is chasing after Dad. You can see Matt in the reflection of the mirror.

"Oh...that's how you put on socks. Good to know."

"Um, excuse me mom, kinda busy..."


That's the face of complete and utter adoration.