Uh Oh!

Well, it's official. We may now have big problems with Luke going to sleep. Today when I went to get him after his nap he was not in his bed. It scared me for a second because I didn't know where he was. It turns out he figured out how to climb down out of bed without hurting himself and he was sitting on the floor amid all of his stuffed animals and cloth diapers with a huge grin on his face. I could tell he wanted me to say good job but I just couldn't because I know this means that now he may not stay in bed after we put there. I sincerely hope that this will not be the case but I have a feeling it's inevitable.

Another Perfect Gift

Those of you that have been reading my blog for a while may remember that 2 years ago Luke gave me the best birthday present I had ever received: an ear to ear smile when I got him out of bed that morning. You can refresh your memory here: Amazing Gift. Today he topped that gift. This morning when I went to get Luke out of bed our conversation went like this:

Me: Today is Mommy's birthday. Can you say Happy Birthday?

Luke: Happy birthday Mom!

Me: Will you give Mom a big hug and kiss for my birthday?

Luke gave me a huge hug and multiple kisses (that was enough for me but it got better).

While I was getting him dressed a few minutes later:

Luke: Happy birthday again?

Me: You can tell Mom happy birthday all day long.

Luke (very enthusiastically): Happy Birthday!

I had several people ask me today whether or not Luke understood that it was my birthday. The above answers that rather emphatically for me. By far he is the greatest gift I will ever receive!

Serenade

Luke has been randomly singing songs for quite some time now. Yesterday he found an older toy that had some favorite songs of his so he sang along. Enjoy!

Exposed

Last night before I went to bed I went upstairs to check on Luke as I always do. On many occassions I have found him in various positions of uncomfortableness--at least to me they would be. Last night takes the cake though. I couldn't take a picture because the flash wakes Luke up (I learned that the hard way). So picture this: Luke is curled into a ball with his legs tucked under him with his head facing the foot of the bed; his right arm is pulled out of his sleeve and sticking out from the bottom of his shirt; and his left arm is pulled out of his sleeve and sticking out of the neck hole of his shirt so his whole back is bare and he's freezing. Can you picture it? I had to really bite my tongue not to laugh out loud. The other crazy part was I had to put his shirt back on correctly and in his sleep Luke helped me. He pushed his arms into his sleeves and then rolled over and was sound asleep again. Sweet, sweet boy!!!

As a side note, Luke did successfully remove his shirt early this week during nap time. I don't know if he did it before or after he slept but he was very proud of himself when I went to get him. It really surprised me because he had never done this before. I can't wait until he figures out his pants and then his diaper :)

MDO Art

Each week at MDO Luke has an art period if you will. I'm thrilled about this because it means I get new decorations for my frig every week and Luke has really been getting into art projects lately. I'm going to try and get pictures of his creations posted at least every 2-3 weeks.

Luke really enjoyed the sponge painting. For a few days last week after we put it on the frig, he would say, "Squoosh it, squoosh it." He also was very proud of his sunflower yesterday although he wanted to take the seeds back off the plate.

Surprise!

Over the weekend we went to Dallas to surprise Troy's brother Todd for his 40th birthday. Troy's parents and his aunt and uncle came to our house Friday night and then Saturday morning we all drove down to Dallas. Georgia, Todd's wife, had planned for us to surprise Todd at the Rangers/Yankees game Saturday night. Todd was very surprised when he saw us all sitting there. It was great fun! Luke loved the baseball game although he kept putting his arms up and saying touchdown. Luke also really enjoyed the sugary goodness of a Lemon Chill. He made it to the middle of the 4th inning before he climbed up in my lap and put his head on my shoulder. Sunday morning we all enjoyed brunch and ice cream cake before we headed back home. A few pictures:

26 Months Old

Wow! Luke is 26 months old today. Time flies! Here's a list of things I can think of right now that Luke has been up to lately.

*Luke has been singing a bunch lately: Twinkle, Twinkle; Baa Baa Black Sheep; The Alphabet Song; Wheels on the Bus; Frara Jacha; and more.

*We can have conversations with Luke. This amazes me! I love hearing what Luke is thinking and feeling.

*Luke has been doing a great deal of pretend play lately. It's so cute! One of his favorites is to play with Elmo and also to tell me how Elmo is feeling.

*We have started playing Candy Land as well. Luke doesn't quite get the overall concept but he loves to turn the cards over.

*The terrible twos haven't been too bad lately although there are definitely moments when I wonder how we'll get through the day.

*Luke is very stubborn (I have no idea where he gets that--most likely from his Dad) :)

*We are very slowly making progress with eating more vegetables. Luke will now eat fried okra, green beans and corn on the cob regularly and occassionally we can do peas, carrots and sweet potatoes.

*I would say Luke's current favorite food is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. He requests them several times a week although he never turns down rice food.

*Luke will tell you whether or not he likes something be it food, books, toys or activities.

*One of his newest phrases: "Not right now."

*We are still very slowly working on potty training. His interest is getting greater I think but I'm not ready to push it yet.

*Luke loves his big boy bed and still sleeps about 12 hours a night and between 1 1/2 to 3 hours during nap time.

*Luke's favorite question, "What are you doing?"

*He is very aware of his surroundings and is incredibly observant. Whenever we are in the car he is constantly telling us things he sees (school bus, city bus, police car, motorcycles, big trucks, etc.) and he's always looking for trains.

*Favorite toys: his Thomas the Train stuff; Legos; cars.

*Luke loves to play with Benjamin and they are both learning about sharing.

*Luke still loves to watch 'Dinosaur Train', 'Thomas', and 'Sesame Street'.

*His current favorite books: 'Belly Button Book', 'The Mixed Up Alphabet', 'Go Dog Go', and Berenstain Bear books.

*Favorite activities: playing in his ball pit, wrestling with Dad and riding on his shoulders, Skyping on the computer with grandparents, drawing with crayons and just being a boy.

*Luke can also spell his name and tell you his first and last name and also his age.

I know there is so much more I could talk about but I have to stop somewhere. :)

Luke's Summary of MDO

Luke had a good 1st day of MDO. The first question his teachers asked me when I got there to pick up Luke: Does Luke talk a lot when he's trying to go to sleep? Yep, that's my son. I just laughed. But much to my surprise Luke did take an hour nap today. That was a rare occurance last year at MDO so maybe this year will be different.

This was Luke's and my conversation on the way home:

Me: Did you have a good day?

Luke: Yep, I played with toys.

Me: Did you make new friends?

Luke: Yep.

After a pause, Luke again: It was nice.

Me: Did you listen to your teachers?

Luke: Yes.

Me: Did you eat lunch?

Luke: Yep, sat in a chair.

Me: Did you take a nap?

Luke: Yes, Elmo did too. (The kids can take one animal for nap time.)

Me: Did you play in the gym on the mats? (It rained all day.)

Luke: Yep, fun.

Overall a good day and an excellent conversation for 26 months old.

1st Day of MDO

Today is Luke's first day of MDO for the year. We went to meet his teachers last Wednesday which went okay but not great so I was expecting a few tears this morning but no. Luke did great! We gathered all of his stuff together last night and he enjoyed playing with his backpack although the little stinker wouldn't let me take a picture of him (so I took about 50 to get some decent ones). Luke also tried on his new tennis shoes which made him look much too old and like a big kid :(

This morning when I got Luke out of bed I told him that we would be going to school today and he said, "Not right now." In Luke terms that means no I don't want to do that. Well, we got ready although Luke didn't eat much breakfast (that's not a huge surprise) and Luke was very excited to carry his backpack again. This morning though it was full of his stuff and he told me it was heavy. We put on his new shoes which he also really likes and off we went in the rain to school.

I carried him inside the building because of the rain and then he walked to his room with his backpack on--such a big kid!! Luke was definitely hesitant when we walked in the room but he didn't grab onto me or start crying. We found his cubby and put his backpack in it. Luke was watching another little boy who was quite upset and so I told him that the boy was sad and maybe he could go play with him to help him feel better. Luke slowly walked toward the boy and I quickly gave him a kiss and said goodbye. I was very impressed by how well things went this morning. I'm already anxious to know how the whole day is going.

These two are from last night.

And these are from this morning.

Impressive?!?

So I'm not sure if I should be super impressed, impressed or just really proud (all is an option too) of Luke. Maybe you can help me because I have nothing to compare him to. Tonight while reading stories before bed Luke helped me read "Go Dog Go". And by helped I mean I would turn some pages and he would tell me all the words on the next page in the right order without any help from me. I don't think I would call this reading but more memorization on his part. It blew my mind!!! I know he would look at the pictures and go from there but still how does a 26 month old remember several pages of a book we read only sporadically?!?!? I would say he read 10-15 pages out of the 60 pages in the book. I think I'll go with really super impressed at this point.

One other impressive item of note--lately Luke has really been in to counting. He will randomly start counting at various times throughout the day. This also amazes me because it is not just 1, 2, 3 it's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 (although he forgets 8 a bunch), 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and sometimes more. Huh?!?!? We work on numbers a bunch but I've never gone over 10. I guess he really is paying attention to Sesame Street. The other part of this is that I can ask him what number comes next after say 5 without counting to 4 first and he'll say 6. It truly is amazing to me and makes me one proud momma.

Outside Fun

These are just a few random clips of some outdoor fun this summer. Luke loves to be outside!!!