Happy Birthday Luke

 It was Luke's birthday this week!!!  He is now the big 1.  Very exciting.  As you can see we had cupcakes on his birthday-- he loved it.  The thing about this child is that he loves to eat.  He eats a ton at every meal, he sees other people eating and he just has to eat, he will even go to the garbage can and root out old banana peels. When he sees food but has none he has a physical reaction.  His mouth makes an o, he starts to breathe heavy, and his body starts shaking-- it is pretty intense. If he thinks you are holding out he pants or makes some grunting noise as a warning noise- a give me the food now noise. If you don't it is just tears, turned out lips, and a why do you hate me face. The crying is so intense that he gets food all day every day. You can't say no, plus if you do and he can reach, he will just take it from you. Even when he is done and has started 'sliding' food to Tigran, if he sees you get new food he has to have it. Food is his life.  We haven't had our official doctor's appt. yet but we went to WIC today and they weighed him-- it said 21 lbs 10oz which isn't bad, but we have weighed him here before and it has been 23 lbs so we will see what the doctor's scale says. Other Luke stuff-- not standing solo and not walking.  He does pull up and cruise and go from couch to chair. We try to give him stuff to hold with two hands but he knows he can lean his chest in toward us or the couch or whatever and still be upright so no need to stand solo in his mind. Oh well, that is how sitting was for him too and he can do it now. I suppose when he feels like it he will. No real words but lots of sounds like ma and da and ah and ba and etc. He does sort of know mama and dada and uses them appropriately lots of times but there are still times he throws them out when you know he just likes the noise. Also, he makes a noise that sounds a lot like the word this so when he says it we tell him what thing he has in his hand. He likes to brush his hair, 'call' us on the phone, when you ask him about his shoes he is able to grab them and put them down by his feet, and if you tell him to go get his bogey or blankie he can do it (not that he always does). He is attempting the few signs we are teaching him but he doesn't have it down yet- he said all done today and when we took his food away he cried and wanted more.

We did a thing at the library where you say you will read 4 hours to your kids in a month and for each hour you get a prize. We read 4 hrs in the first couple days, but we spaced it out a bit on our sheet.  The first prize was just bookmarks, the second free Moe's children's meal and 4 dollars book bucks for the book sale in March, the 3rd hour was a cloth tote bag to put all our library books in when we go to the library and the 4th was a book for the whole family to enjoy.  They had picture books and chapter books, but we went with the picture books. I let Jack pick it out. They had some pretty good books in thereCaldecott winners-always a plus for the bookshelf stash, but we brought home The Dinosaur Who Lived in My Backyard. Jack loves dinosaurs, we just got a dinosaur floor puzzle and a dinosaur encyclopedia, so this was no surprise.  Haha-it isn't an award winner but it makes Jack happy.

Happy Valentine's Day

This morning started out busy--

I didn't realize that the snow melting = muddy yard so Tigran comes in and runs through the house with muddy paws. I had to trap him in the kitchen and clean up the floors. Blah. Then I stick Jack and Luke in the tub and Luke poops. I have to rush to grab Jack so he doesn't freak out. I had to clean the tub and the toys with bleach because well- you know. School was at our house today ,and in the AM, so there was a lot going on this morning.

At school today we made candy necklaces, decorated valentine bags, made little foam valentine's, ate yummy cookies, and handed out valentine cards. It was fun. Here are some pictures of what we did.


The chocolate strawberries are not from school, but from our dinner tonight. Pete grilled steaks, we had asparagus, and bread with dipping oil. It was all super yummy.

Here are some pictures of the boys.

Jack wanted some pictures with him and his sword. Crazy face.


Luke has started crawling like a proper baby-- most of the time.


Jack and Luke battling

Dear Jack, you just can't do that

Pete brought home toaster strudels, Jack really wanted one, I made him one that evening. The next morning I wake up and there is no Jack, but there are lots of signs of Jack's presence. There is a chair by the refrigerator, there is a chair by the toaster, there are tongs on the coffee maker, and there is a feeling of guilt in the air. I begin by putting the chairs back- they are covered in something crusty feeling. I put the tongs back. I move next to the garbage can, the lid isn't on all the way so I glance down, and notice two toaster strudels. I begin to imagine the scene again, and it all comes into focus. Jack put a chair up to the freezer to get the toaster strudels down, he moves another chair to the toaster and toasts both of them, he can't get them out of the toaster so he gets the tongs and uses them, and I still an not sure where the icing packets are but the crusty stuff on the chairs must be icing. My eyes move over to the utensil container, and I notice next to it are the kitchen scissors out and slightly open. I also put my hand on the table and notice that it is covered in the crusty stuff too. I go to the freezer to see how much icing he used and my guess would be about 4 or 5 packets for two toaster strudels. He comes in around this time, and acts all innocent. I send him to his room and tell him he doesn't get breakfast now since he already made his own, and then decided to just throw them away. Plus, now I have to explain to him why the following things are dangerous: 1. using the toaster unsupervised 2. sticking tongs in the toaster 3. using scissors when unsupervised. Today, which is about 3 days after this incident, I went to get something out of a kitchen drawer when I noticed our super small spatula had icing all over it. Ahh- this is how he spread the icing out-- I was wondering. * Note to Jack- please don't put dirty utensils back in drawers even when trying to be sneaky.

This is a funny Jack thing. I wasn't there but I laughed super hard when I heard it. Pete and Jack went to Wal-Mart to buy garbage cans for recycling and some groceries. In the check out line Jack asked for the black olives,threw them into the garbage can, and then turned to the people behind them in line and said, "If anyone wants some black olives just hop in our garbage can." haha too funny.

Another Jack wanting to get his own breakfast story. This morning Jack was in our bed and at 6:30ish he said he wanted to go in his room. I hear a noise so I go out and tell him to get back in bed for another hour and then I will get up. Ok. 30 minutes later I hear-CRASH! I jump out of bed and there is Jack in the kitchen with a chair up against the refrigerator and his plastic golf club on the floor. There is also the box containing two doughnuts (one for Pete and one for Jack but not to be eaten until after dinner) and my snickers stash (that I keep hidden on top of the freezer) on the floor.

I love that he can do so much for himself but we need some rules like - you can eat bars in the morning because all you have to do is open the pantry and reach in. We need other rules like- No using appliances and no knocking stuff off the top of the refrigerator.

Smiles

Here are Jack and Luke during story time. Luke decided that he wanted to listen to stories while lying on Jack. After this picture, Jack just started patting Luke's head while I read. Pretty cute.


Everyday Jack wants to play Monopoly Junior at least once a day. He loves this game. Anyway, we have major draft issues, so sitting on the floor is super cold. I told him he had to put on some clothes before we played. He walked out of his room wearing the shirt as pants and the pants as long hair.


I was trying to get a picture to show how curly Luke's hair is. It is so pretty. I know he is a boy, but it really is wonderful hair. However, every time I tried to take a picture of his hair he turned his face to me and smiled super big. So, here is a picture of baby Luke eating oyster crackers.


Of course, you can't take a picture of Luke without Jack deciding that he wants to be in the picture too. In this picture it looks like Jack taught Luke how to smile.


Ok- one more of Luke because he is so darn cute. We were talking the other day about things we love about each boy, and this smile (and all his many other smiles)= Love!