"Great kid!"

Last week Luke was sent home with a couple of notes from his teacher, saying how polite and considerate he is. Yesterday, we got this message: "Luke said lots of thank you's today! He even got his other friends to help clean up by simply cleaning up on his own. :) Great Kid!" We think Luke is pretty sweet at our house, but it's so nice to hear his teachers say that he's such a pleasure to have in class. And a good influence on others! Keep making us proud, Lukester.

Luke Turns 2

I'll try to post a full slide show of Luke's birthday festivities soon, but here are a few favorites.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Luke!

Today is my little Lukester's 2nd birthday. We had a great morning--the hallway outside his door was filled with balloons, he opened presents, and we had rainbow pancakes for breakfast. Then, while Matthew and I got ready for work, he and Myla had an epic dress-up session. See the results on the left--awesome!

Luke was in a great mood all morning, as he is most of the time these days. He's such a sweetheart--he seems to really be sensitive to other people's feelings, and if you're sad or hurt he'll be the first one to come see if you're okay. He's still a snuggler, which I love. He also has very strong opinions about things and knows how to get exactly what he wants. As maddening as it can be, I like his spunk. He's wild and daring, and it's even started to rub off on Myla a bit. At a baseball game the other day he was being a terror and Myla was following suit. A friend of mine remarked that Luke seemed to be capable of "leading from behind."

Luke and Myla are absolutely BFFs, and get so carried away chasing each other and teasing each other and pretending together. He calls her "La La" right now, which is so stinkin' cute, though Myla didn't like it at first. There are plenty of fights, but they make up for it with incredible sweetness to one another and by looking out for each other. And they give each other the best hugs.

Luke has many loves--he loves to read, and will still plop himself into any available lap with a book. His passion in life right now is puzzles. We have these four 24-piece Disney character puzzles, and he'll do them continuously, finishing all four and then starting over again. I think he might be a puzzle savant (though it's possible I'm biased). He loves playing sports of all kinds. He loves sunglasses and pancakes and cookies. His dislikes include ice cream and sprinklers.

Luke didn't talk too much until around the first week of July, when it just clicked for him. Now he says countless things. Some of my favorites--if he wants to show you something, he'll grab your hand and drag you, saying "Show! Show! Show!" And on this morning of his 2nd birthday, for the first time he said "love you too!" when I said that I loved him as he was leaving for school. Awwww . . . what a great present for me! Happy birthday to my wild, fun, thoughtful, clever, blonde-headed little chunky punkin'!

Luke: 14 Months

Here are our best shots of Luke at 14 months, back in October. These have been really hard to get lately . . .


Most of the time I just get a not-great photo of him as he's running by me or away from me:

I want candy!

Here's how Luke's trick-or-treating went. First, he fought it:


But soon warmed up to it:


And then at some point he figured out that grabbing candy was fun, like he was getting away with something. He would take candy from the bowl and run off at a dead sprint (or a 14-month-old version of it, anyway). He nearly made it to the street a couple of times:


Then, he started taking other kids' buckets and running away with them. I promise Henry was laying down already when Luke went for his candy. He's an opportunist, but not a bully.

Luke: 15 Month Checkup

Luke had his 15-month checkup today. He was 33.5 inches tall and weighed 28 pounds. The percentile score is actually higher for height (96th) than for weight (88th) but that 28 pound number really shocks me. Myla was 22 lbs. at 15 months, and I'm not sure she's cracked 30 yet. I'm thinking we need to enroll her in some kara-te if she's to have any hope of holding her own against him in the coming months.

The visit went well, though Luke would say that nurse was a little too trigger-happy with those shots.

Finally, a Family Photo Session

A few weeks ago we did something that was long overdue: we had a photographer come and take some family pictures. And not just any photographer--our volleyball teammate and friend Dave Johnson. I wanted someone to capture our kids in action, rather than take lots of posed photos. Dave was perfect for the job and got way more than I thought he was going to! In fact, the star of the shoot turned out to be Luke, which was a total shock given how uncooperative he was. But it turns out that he just wanted to play, and when we let him do that Dave got some amazing pictures.

I'll post a few of my favorites over the next few days, starting with those great shots of Luke. If you're in the Bend area and are looking for someone to take some family photos (and at a very reasonable rate), check out Johnson Creative Photography here and tell him we sent you!

And don't forget that if you want to contribute to our Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF campaign, you should do so here be Monday. Thanks!

Luke: 13 months

Yesterday's walking pictures were from our 13 month photo shoot, but here are the only ones we got with the sign. We had to use trickeration, but I think the result is pretty cute.



Postapalooza, day 5--click here to make a donation!

Overdue Slide Show

Sorry the blog fell into darkness for a couple of weeks. While we haven't necessarily been more busy lately, it seems we've been more exhausted, leaving little energy for posting at the end of the day. We have had lots of fun things like weddings, first days of school, etc. lately, so I'll try to get posts up soon.

But first, here's the slide show of Luke's birthday I promised a while back. There are lots of fun pictures--especially the ones of Luke eating his cake. Click on it to expand.

Luke's 1st Birthday: Party Time

We had Luke's party on Saturday afternoon. Uncle Tim and Jack joined the grandparents as guests at the party. We had a picnic/cookout theme, and I made burger cupcakes (yellow cake and brownies, mmm!) and a watermelon cake for Luke.



Luke had fun opening presents, and Myla "helped."



Thanks so much to all of our guests for making the trip!
Check out Luke's rad new backpack in this photo!

Luke's 1st Birthday: Silverhawks Game

I'm finally getting around to posting about Luke's first birthday. All of Luke's grandparents came to town for the weekend, and we had a great time at the Silverhawks game on Friday night.

Pool Time

Playtime

Luke is in the stage where he just plays all the time. Often by himself, but increasingly with Myla. His favorites are pushing things around on the floor (walker, chairs, giant ottoman), his fire truck, and the play kitchen, which he is always pulling down on top of himself. And more than anything, he loves to roll/throw a ball back and forth.



When he and Myla play together, they mostly just chase each other and roll around on the floor. She will grab his waist and sort of tackle him, until he gets tired of it and starts screaming. It actually drives me a little nuts, but I'm trying to enjoy the fact that they're at least doing something together!