Luke's stats, latest Messes, etc.

 

My precious boy! 1 week old.

He still sleeps like that.

*huge post alert*

We took Luke in for his check-up on Friday. He's getting so big!

3 year stats:
Weight: 28 lbs. 10 oz. (18th percentile)
Length: 37 1/4 inches (46th percentile)

He's only 10 inches shorter than Madelyn! He wears size 2T (although he's growing out of it) and size 7 shoes. Since he's stopped wearing diapers, his pants are always falling off of him. Not that he likes to wear them, anyway.

His favorite things to do are to play computer games on pbskidsgo.org, play with his various alphabets, run around outside, climb on the kitchen and bathroom counters, snuggle, sing songs that have actions to them, get really close to your face and then poke and prod it, peer inside your nose, stick his finger down your ears, pull your eyelashes, etc., read books, and untidy the house/smear the TV screen/sabotage orderly progress.

He's so smart. He's known the alphabet since he was two, but he can also sound each letter out phonically. He knows about upper and lower case. He goes through the alphabet saying, "A...apple, B....bike, C....cat", etc. He can count to 30 on his own and to 50 with an adult saying every other number. He's learning how to count by 10s to 100. He knows shapes and colors and is basically brilliant. Mark says there are 6-year olds who come into the clinic who still don't have a grasp on those things.

 

He's doing well with potty training, but he won't go #2 on the potty. So that makes for some interesting times. Luckily, our pediatrician was reassuring and told us that it only took his son till he was 4 1/2 before he'd poop on the potty. Oh boy!

Favorite foods are yogurt drinks, celery, broccoli, cucumbers, bananas, strawberries, apples, watermelon, popcorn, goldfish crackers, Ramen noodles, anything from Panda Express, quesadillas, ham, ice cream, pizza, chocolate milk, fruit snacks, and root beer. (When we go out to eat, he thinks that the huge fountain drink we get is just for him and hogs it.)

He likes to run into a room and shout, "HEY, GUYS!"
He gives exploding kisses. He calls them bubble kisses. He has you make fishy lips and then he'll smoosh his lips into yours (with a big pocket of air in his cheeks) and then he'll explode all the air out.
Or sometimes he'll just say "Mmmwwwaaaa!" when he gives you a kiss.
When you're at the computer and he wants to get on, he'll say, "Get up!!"
He'll hold random stuff up to his eye and say, "KKchhh!" like he's firing a gun.
He pronounces "yeah" like "yah" and "doggie" like "dough-gie". He is good about saying "thank-you" or "thanks...." for stuff
Still drums on everything.
If you lie on the floor, he'll immediately come and jump/stand on your stomach. If you're on all fours, he thinks it's time to go for a safari ride on your back.
He loves to jump onto my bed right after I make it and hurl all the pillows back off.
He calls coins "piggies", presumably because we put them in the piggy bank.
When you hold a tissue up to his nose and tell him to blow, he just says "Achoo!!" (and doesn't blow because apparently that is a very complex procedure)
Sometimes, when we're headed out to the parking lot after church, he'll stop to hug/kiss/lick the handicap sign poles that he comes across. It is truly bizarre.
When we're all driving somewhere, he'll shout from the back seat, "Daddy! What you doing???"
If you ask him what he's doing, he'll reply "Nuffing."
His favorite phrase (gleaned from computer games) is, "No, that's not right. Try again!"


Anyway, here's what he's been up to.

 

This morning. He asks us to get the ladder out so that he can survey his domain.

Also this morning.

Appx. 5 seconds ago. Don't worry, I had just folded all those clothes.

 

He and Madelyn like to play together outside. She likes having someone to boss around, and most of the time he's happy to oblige her.

 

  Grandma Carolyn gave him some awesome workbooks and a grow lizard (which got huge and slimy) for his birthday.

 

He always insists on making a mess in Madelyn's room as well as his own. He loves his "mebows" (marbles)

Chilling out with the TARDIS...can you guess "WHO" he's going to be for Halloween?!?!

 

  

He finds letters everywhere!

  

On Sunday, he got out these alphabet blocks I made and was arranging them into "words" and phonetically sounding them out. He's almost reading, folks!!!

 Last Thursday, I gave him this card to color, and he traced inside the letters instead (the first time I've seen him do that). He's just so anxious to learn. Too bad he has nearly three more years till he can start kindergarten.

He's still quite the stinker, though. When he turned 2 1/2, he decided to become a Domineering Toddler Tyrant. He will now freak out with a screaming, flailing tantrum if any of the following occurs without his assistance:

• Flushing the toilet. He actually has nightmares about this. He's come running into our room at 3:00 in the morning, crying, because he thought he heard someone flush the potty, at least four different times.
• It's gotten to the point that he won't even let you get your own toilet paper any more, either.
• And he doesn't like you to try and wash your hands at the same time he is.
• Using the microwave. He wants to push the buttons and open and close the door. Then he makes you stand there holding him while he counts down with the timer to zero.
• Turning on the washing machine/dryer. Because they involve pushing buttons, too.
• Opening/closing the garage door. Buttons. Imagine him wailing, "Push the butttonnnnnn!!!!"
• He also refuses to get out of the car once we come home from running errands. He pushes all the buttons he can find, and sometimes I don't realize that he's turned an interior light on until the next day. (Luckily, he hasn't killed the battery yet...)
• My new favorite is that if he sees you eat something that he wanted, he'll run up to you, open his mouth wide, and expect you to somehow get it back from out of your mouth (or stomach) and give it to him. Maybe he's watched too many nature documentaries where the adults regurgitate food to their babies????
• Once, I was in the kitchen and he was at the far other end of the house, and I opened a can of Dr. Pepper. He heard the noise with his timberwolf ears and came running/crying with his mouth open. I hadn't even taken a drink yet! I now have to open cans of stuff in the garage so he won't hear.
• And if you're getting yourself a drink of water from the faucet, you'd better offer it to him first. Or there will be consequences.

You get the idea. He's insane.

He makes a mess of chocolate. Then he usually wipes his hands on the couch, if he didn't already get it sufficiently wiped off on his clothes.

Apparently, pulling all the tissues out of a box never grows old!

 

This is a bill for the eye doctor that I had to send in with a note that said, "I'm sorry about this, my 2-year old son tried to eat it." If you leave any papers lying around, this is what happens. He does not differentiate between junk mail and important papers.

  

Once a month, I have to drain out the water from our washing machine via a little rubber hose that comes out of it. Curious George here found the hose (with the cap off) and shoved it clear back into the hole, into the bowels of the machine.

Then, daddy got to take it all apart and fish it back out with tweezers.

He knows how to use my paper cutter. Again, he does not discriminate between scrap paper and high quality cardstock that I do not want cut up!

#*&^$##%#!@ !!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Last night, he thought he'd unravel about a mile of my waxed linen cord I use for jewelry, too.

Honorable Mention (no pictures because I was too involved trying to save our fish): A couple of weeks ago, I was feeding the fish and he grabbed the container out of my hand and dumped the entire thing into the tank. Luckily it was only about 1/4 full, and I scooped a lot of it out, but ever since then it's been rather green in there. And I can no longer feed the fish while he's in the room.

 

 Nevertheless, he really is a sweet, loving boy who still loves to be held while he sleeps. I will never get tired of snuggling him and smelling the top of his head and giving him a hundred kisses each day. I love you, Luke! ♥♥♥