We're still alive, I promise! I think I bent down to tie my shoe or something and it was November all of a sudden. Where were we? Let's see...
Luke is 7 months and some change--he'll be 8 months the day after Thanksgiving, something I'm still dumbfounded by.
 |
| Still stealing his mama's heart every day. |
He sits like a champ (although once in a while he still gets a little excited and loses his balance backwards; I keep hoping the head-bonking will eventually sink in and he'll learn to catch himself!). (No, I don't just let him fall on a hard floor--I let him sit on a rug on top of a squishy foam alphabet mat. He's okay, promise!)
 |
I guess you could type the sound he's making
here something like "Hueyyyyanggghhwaah!" |
 |
| Doing his runner's stretch to warm up for, you know, more sitting. |
He has gotten very good at passing objects from one hand to the other, and he can spend minutes at a stretch (hours in Luke Time) turning the same thing over and over in his pudgy hands, tasting it, shaking it, staring it down, hitting it on the floor, and turning it over some more. It fascinates me to watch the little gears turn in his head. He spends at least half an hour a day on "toy time:" I set him down on his mat and dump his toy bin on its side next to him, and he takes things out one at a time and sets them down on his other side when he's finished with them. Some days he can spend almost 60 uninterrupted minutes happily looking at and talking to his toys. He gets bored with everything eventually though, so I've been trying to rotate things out. I'm constantly having to scour the house again for more baby-safe objects to let him inspect. The silicone pastry brush, a big plastic spool, an unused toothbrush, the remote to his mobile, whisks and measuring spoons and slotted spoons, his sunglasses, a (sealed) tin of mints, empty plastic containers, two carabiners hooked together, the straps on his high chair, plastic spatulas, a roll of masking tape, my hairbrush (ew!), a bumpy dryer ball, and the fat bendy straw to my 44-oz. water bottle have all been past favorites but are now passe. Any suggestions??
 |
I'm so torn--I can actually leave him to go do the
dishes for a few minutes now, but how could you
ignore that face? |
 |
This child is nearly impossible to photograph (at least with my little point-and-shoot camera--anyone want
to buy me a fancypants DSLR for Christmas?). Top row too blurry, bottom row overexposed. Every row
SUPER CUTE. |
He eats "solid" food (read: goop) like it's going out of style. No, seriously, the kid is a garbage disposal--he will eat two cups (as in 16 ounces) of purees a day if we let him. I've been trying to keep it to just a cup and a half spread out over two feedings because I guess that's what you're supposed to do, but I swear if he could stand up, I would just open the fridge for him every morning and let him gorge. He'll eat basically whatever we offer him, usually with shrieks in between if we're not shoveling it in fast enough. Right now we're working through a stockpile of pureed green beans, zucchini, butternut squash, carrots, pears, peaches, and pinto beans, usually with a side of mush (cream o' wheat, oatmeal, breadcrumbs, whatever) cooked up with prune juice (keeps the kiddo regular, you know!) and cinnamon and a little vanilla. He's a pro at the picking-up-cheerios game, but he likes rice chex even better (can you even give rice chex to a baby? It seemed innocuous enough to me). Seriously, though, he'll eat anything he can get his grabby little hands on--pizza crusts, ice cream cones (sans ice cream!), cottage cheese, you name it.
 |
| Luke's favorite rattle (the Cheerios cup) and favorite face (the Cheerio mouth). |
Luke isn't crawling yet (something I'm definitely not too broken up about), but if you put him on his tummy he'll turn one way or the other and scoot backwards until he runs into something or gets high-centered on a toy. It makes him crazy, but it's pretty funny to watch. He's getting to where he can rock forward and back on his hands and knees, but only if he's backed up against a wall or a shelf or something. Poor baby. He gets so frustrated, but I feel like he'll never learn to crawl like he wants to unless we keep letting him fuss a little on his tummy and make slow circles around the room.
 |
| Taking out his frustrations on the monkey rattle. |
Luke still loves to be outside and he LOVES to swing. We used to be able to swing every day, but as it's slowly gotten colder and rainier, we've had fewer friendly-weather days. Some of these pictures are more than a month old, but you get the idea.
On warm days, we have a picnic lunch too. Luke's favorite spot at the park is over by the pond, where he can watch the fountains and the dogs on walks and the kids at the playground. It's easy for Luke to get overwhelmed and upset when there's something or someone unfamiliar up close in his face, but from a distance, he can't get enough of just watching the world, so the park is one of his favorite places. It makes it even better that it's such a great place to play with balls. :-)
Scott and Luke are just the best of friends. You should hear him shriek (Luke, not Scott...) when Daddy walks in from work. They love to play with toys together, go on walks and runs and piggyback rides, splash in the bath, tickle back and forth (Luke tries to eat your face/shoulder/nearest appendage), read stories, and sneak-attack Mom.
 |
| Teaching Luke how to make the train whistle work. Luke is helping. |
 |
Scott will kill me for posting this, but I couldn't help
it--they are both so DARLING! |
We just love the heck out of little Luke bug. He's growing and changing so fast that we can hardly catch our collective breath, but he just gets better all the time!
Bonus video time: This is a 50-second clip of a much longer video where Luke continues being ridiculous. He's just sitting in his high chair after lunch one day, but the clip features the boy doing almost all of his favorite things to do: chewing on spoons, screaming, hooting, babbling, dropping things, grabbing for things he's not supposed to have, trying to eat non-food items, bouncing, twirling his toes, loudly mouth-breathing, hitting things, making moon faces at the camera, generally being chubby, etc. etc. etc.
Edits 11/16: Videos should be working now!
