Luke is a little tornado. He's 10 months old now and kind of in between 12 and 18 month clothes--too big for his baby car seat anymore! Now he's got a big, comfy convertible seat. We were gone for 3 weeks over Christmas (not quite 2 weeks seeing Scott's family in Texas & Louisiana, and then a little more than a week in Utah--pictures coming soon!) and during that time he learned how to crawl, cut two teeth, learned how to pull himself up in his crib, quit eating baby food, got a nasty ear infection (it took two kinds of antibiotics to FINALLY get rid of it), started saying "mamamamama," went from 5 or 6 feedings a day to about 4, etc. etc. And since we were traveling, he got used to sleeping in the same room as me. Basically January has been a very, very long month of teaching this kid how to go sleep and stay asleep in his own room again. He had just barely started sleeping through the night right before we left, and it's taken 4 miserable weeks to get back to where he can do that again. But now as long as we get him to bed on time, he's pretty consistent about going down and staying down. (YAY!!!) And as a bonus, we've broken the habit of him nursing to sleep, so now Dad can do bedtime all the time. Luke loves it. Mom really loves it. :-)
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| Books with Dad before bed. Sorry it's grainy! |
Besides all the sleeping hullabaloo, Luke is just the most darling little monster. He loves to read books--he'll turn the pages, open the flaps, point at the details in the pictures (especially anything that looks like a ball!), and grab the book & turn it back to the front cover when he's done if he wants to "read" it again. Thank heavens for libraries. His favorite ones right now are the Spot books (Of course! Flaps and doggies!); other hits are Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs, Elmo's World: Balls!, Colorful World, and War and Peace. (Or not...) Anything with pictures of animals or babies and anything with moving parts or patches to touch are good choices. He loves balls ("babababababa"), especially his beach ball, and especially when he can situate himself about a foot from the wall and bat the ball back and forth to himself. His favorite thing this week is walking around the house holding your fingers, kicking the beach ball ahead of him, breathlessly exclaiming "Bah! Bah! Bah! Bah!" the whole way.
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| Everything is a toy. Don't trust that face for a second. |
He's got four teeth now--well, two and some change, since the top two have broken through but haven't dropped much yet. He still looks like those baby logos where they just have the bottom two teeth. He's definitely putting all his chompers to good use, though, including on his crib rails (Mom's working on sewing rail guards, but they're not quite finished!). He will eat just about anything (and eat a TON of it) as long as he can feed himself: Today he had scrambled eggs, cheerios, peas, blueberries, a peanut butter sandwich, 7-layer dip, and pear slices. And some lint off the rug. And a corner of a cardboard box. I need to vacuum more often.
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| Taco night. Of course I couldn't pick just one picture! |
As a matter of fact, Luke is the best helper when it comes to housework. He has a cupboard and a basket of "toys" (tupperware, plastic spoons, bottles, bibs, etc.) in the kitchen on a low shelf he can reach, and he helps me with those while I'm making dinner or doing dishes by spilling the basket on the floor and chewing on all the plastic edges. He likes to help me load the dishwasher, too, by taking out all the dirty dishes on the bottom rack and throwing them across the room. Then he helps me sweep by eating any trash or food scraps he can find on the floor. If I'm busy doing other things, he'll even go the extra mile while I'm not looking and fish out gunk from under the dishwasher and taste it to see if it's still good to eat. He also helps me remember to mop the kitchen by leaning over the edge of his high chair to check if gravity applies to food he spits out. Today he helped me mop the floor in the bathroom, too, by pulling back the curtain while I was in the shower and playing in the spray. (That also helped me wash his hair, arms, and shirt.) He is just so handy to have around!
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| Look at that adorable bald head. |
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| "I'm helping, Mom! Where do you want this one?" |
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| Aftermath. "I didn't do it!" |
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| Helping me fix the TV stack. It was too, you know, straight and not-broken before. I think this face means "Am I in trouble?" |
We dance to music, make towers with blocks, drum on the floor or the shelf or a box with spoons, roll balls, crawl and chase each other around, have puppet shows, make "forts" under the table, play peek-a-boo, clap hands to rhymes, sing songs, hide toys under towels and cheer when he finds them, and so on. He is getting more fun to play with by the day. We still go on a walk for about an hour to the library, grocery store, park, etc. almost every day (even when it's cold--we just bundle up!). He doesn't do spectacular in the car, but he's usually up for a quick trip as long as he gets to sit in the shopping cart and flirt with the cashiers once we get there.
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| Out for a stroll one December evening. He actually seems to like being snuggled in like this. |
Speaking of, Luke is quite the ladies' man. He's got a harem of girls at church that all adore him: Gloria (1), Zoey (2), Gabby (3), Kate (4), Grace (6), Rachelyn (7), TeeTee (8), Marreanna (8), Marshala (9)...the list goes on. Obviously he's into older women, although Camilla (2 months) will be coming to church soon so we'll have to see what he thinks of her. Besides Camilla he's the youngest kid in our branch, so he gets plenty of attention from the Relief Society sisters, too. He's getting too spoiled by his adoring public.
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| But can you blame them? :-) |
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