Big Talker...

Luke has been talking so much for the last month or so. Every day he has a new word or two. I have been making a list of his words, and it just keeps getting longer. It is virtually impossible to get him to sit still long enough to video him saying all of his words, but I did get him to say some of them in this video. I could just kick myself for not asking him to say more, but at the time I couldn't think of many to ask him to say. Still, I do LOVE this video and have watched it 1,000 times. I keep trying to get him to do it again, and I can't even get close. Oh well. At least I have this one!

(For the baby book and the G-parents)
Here is a list of the words that Luke is saying as of now:

• Bye-bye
• All done
• Mama
• Dada
• Ball
• Nigh-night
• Bottle
• Car (this used to be a double word for him for some reason and sounded like "ga ga", but now it's just one and sounds like "car"!)
• Truck
• Bubbles
  
• Cookie
• Yellow (he seems to recognize this color, too!)
• Purple
• Off
• Down
• Up
• Eddie (his blanket)
• Pop (for "Pops")
• Papa (for "Papa T.")
• Glasses
• Apple
• Outside
• Wow
• Whoa
• Yogurt
  
• Oops
• Uh-oh
• Slide
• Hot
• Open
• Juice (this is more of a sound than a word, but it's what he says when he wants juice.)
• Blueberries (this is only a 2 syllable word for him instead of 3, but it works!)

He signs:

• More
• Please
• All done
• Eat

I'm sure I'm forgetting some of his words and tomorrow he'll probably start saying some more. It's so much fun for him to be able to communicate with us, even just a little bit. We go nuts with every new word and constantly ask him to say his words to us. And when he's not saying words we can make out, he's always talking in jibber-jabber that is only understandable to him. Still, we think it's adorable!

A Big Man Birthday Bash...kind of.

Well,
.....{sigh}....
We had Luke's birthday party last Saturday. It started at 5 pm, and the plan was to have a big cookout in the backyard. We invited a bunch of families and planned on having tons of fun playing, cooking, and eating outside. I (with help from my sister, Anne, and friend, Carli) put lots of time and effort into making decorations, buying/borrowing toys and things to play with outside, and making the desserts and sides. We were so excited for this party.....
And then we woke up on Saturday to the crummiest weather ever! The temperature had dropped about 20 degrees (I'm not exaggerating. It was in the low 50's!), the wind gusts were ridiculous, and it was sprinkling on and off all day long. BOO HISS!!! We were so bummed. We had no choice but to move the party indoors, and since we don't have a giant downstairs, we had to set up the tables in the dingy garage. Not what I had envisioned for Luke's first birthday party. It all ended up working out, but I can't lie---it was somewhat of a let-down. Lots of people couldn't make it at the last minute, but that ended up being okay, since we were now all stuck in the garage. Those that did show up were very kind and flexible and didn't seem to mind eating in the same place we park our cars. We managed to have fun, but most importantly Luke had a lot of fun. He played and played with all the "big kids" and seemed to have a blast....until cupcake time, that is! Thanks to all of our friends who showed up and celebrated our Big Man's first year with us. It was a special time, despite the kinks in our plans, and we are so grateful to you all for being a part of the party and a part of our lives!!

Here are some pictures and details from the party. Since we have always called Luke "Big Man", we wanted to have a "Big Man" birthday party. I used neckties and mustaches to carry out our theme. It was such a fun theme and so cute (well, as cute as possible in a garage)!

I don't have any pictures of the invitations, but they were striped in the colors I used for his party (teal, turquoise, and lime green), and I glued onto each one a necktie that I cut out of turquoise cardstock. On the inside I wrote the details of the where/when/what on one side and this poem on the other:

We can't believe it,
But Luke is turning 1!
He's a BIG MAN now,
and the fun's just begun....
So throw on a necktie
And run a comb through your 'stache.
Then come and join us
for a BIG MAN birthday
BASH!!

This make-shift wreath greeted our guests and gave them a laugh.

It's made out of a paper plate, ribbon, crepe streamers, felt and cardstock.


The dessert table.


The cupcake stand.
(My awesome sister baked every single one of these cupcakes, with a little help from our neighbor Katie. THANK YOU, ANNE!)


Necktie sugar cookies.
They were super yummy, if I do say so myself.
(Thank you Anne and Carli for helping me make/decorate all the cookies!!)


Mustache sugar cookies with chocolate icing....and you can also see the chocolate mustache lollipops that were scattered around the table.


And speaking of chocolate lollipops, here is a picture of Luke during the lollipop making process...


...And Daddy, too!


The necktie banner made from Goodwill ties and cast offs from my dad and Carli's husband, Joel.
(This would have been SO much cuter hung up outside under our harbor, with the beautiful wisteria as a backdrop. Boo-hoo.)


Anne and I painted this "frame" which held tons of pictures of the Big Man from the past year.
(Our garage walls = G.R.O.S.S.)


A happy birthday banner made of paper plates and crepe streamers. (It also would have been much cuter hung up outside in our backyard.)


A view of the necktie banner and tables with buckets full of felt mustaches on sticks.


Another view of the tables and picture frame.


My handsome, goofy husband with a necktie napkin.


Jake modeling his necktie napkin.


Luke's buddy Anthony hard at play.


My living room full of our awesome neighbors. I love it!


The Big Man wore his own necktie that my mom and I made for him using a real tie and this tutorial.


Such a stud muffin.


Busy man taking apart a refrigerator magnet during his party.

My sis and I also made a million different mustaches on sticks. I found some great templates that I used and ended up with 13 different styles.


Jake and his Super Mario mustache.


Dominic with a Luigi mustache.


Silly Katie with yet another 'stache.
(Can you tell that they were a big hit?)


Even some of the big kids enjoyed the mustaches.


Jackson could have cared less about the mustaches. He was busy playing with the wagon full of balls and the big plastic bowl that he kept wearing like a hat.


Poor guy had a broken leg, but walked and played like a champ!


Luke and Marcus hard at work. The punching balloons were a super-smart purchase from the Dollar Tree. Little boys love punching balloons!


Luke enjoyed chewing on the bubbles while the big kids blew them.


Our neighbor Meghan helped me out a ton by feeding Luke his dinner.


After dinner we stripped Luke down in preparation for his blue cupcake. We all sang him "Happy Birthday", and he totally freaked out by the end of the song. I guess it scared him that we were all suddenly making a ton of noise while staring right at him.


This was during the song. Not a happy birthday boy. Notice the tears on his face.


Marcus helped us blow out Luke's candle. Luke was in total freak-out mode at this point.


Sweet Marcus was trying to explain to Luke that it was just a cupcake and that it was yummy.


Luke wasn't buying it.


He DID NOT like the 2 bites of cupcake that I forced him to have.


Look at that face. NOT HAPPY.


He decided to taste the candle to see if that was better...


Bad idea!


Gerber Lil' Crunchies to the rescue!!!
Luke couldn't be more addicted to these things if they were crack cocaine.


Clapping because he has his crunchies.


Daddy provided some comic relief by holding up different mustaches and speaking in (what he thought was) the appropriate accent.


A little Fu Manchu action for the Big Man.


This cracks me up.


Now it's Daddy's turn.


After the cupcake fiasco, Luke wanted to hang with Mommy for a little while and entertained himself by pulling all of the shredded paper filling out of the centerpieces.


By the time the last guests were saying goodbye, it was an hour past bed time and it certainly showed!

In other news, my sister was here for Luke's party and helped me out SO MUCH. I could not have pulled it off without her! Unfortunately, I was a loser and got practically no pictures of her with Luke. Seriously, I got 3. Two of which are below and the 3rd will never be posted on this blog for fear of her disowning me if I did!


Wearing pj's and flying on Annie's legs...


Oh what fun!!!

Thanks so much to Anne, Carli, the Barnes family, the Schrock family, my mom, and my mother-in-law for all of the help and/or contributions to Luke's party. I am so grateful!

Welcome to Toddlerhood...

Since turning one, Luke has morphed into a toddler...and it seems to have happened overnight. It's been a little hard to get used to. I feel like he's a whole new kid in some ways. For one thing, he's a walking pro. Ever since our trip to Tampa in the beginning of April, he's been walking circles around us. It' so much fun, but boy, is it a game changer. All I do is chase him all day long! He's also been working on the rough draft of his own Declaration of Independence. He wants what he wants, WHEN he wants it, and heaven help you if you don't give it to him or help him get it. He wants to go outside all the time. He wants to climb all over the couch. He wants to figure out how to climb out of the corral and how to climb into the pack n' play. He wants to get down and walk around the grocery store. And worst of all, he believes there is absolutely no reason he should ever have to lie still to have his diaper changed. Last week our friend Devan came over to bring the Stinker a birthday present. It was a super fun Jeep with big Legos and a little driver dude that attached to it. Luke, Devan, and I sat on the kitchen floor playing with it for a while until Luke decided he wanted to go cruise the living room. Since the living room and kitchen are attached, Devan and I could stay seated on the floor while we chatted and still see the Big Man. At one point I noticed that Luke pushed aside the corral and headed toward the TV. I thought to myself that I'd finish my sentence then hop up and go rescue the Wii remotes and DVD player from Luke's inevitable death grip. As soon as I finished what I was saying I looked at the TV, sure to find the Stinker wreaking havoc on our stuff....but he wasn't there. My eyes began to scan the rest of the room. What I saw was like an episode of Mind Freak or something. As I looked out over the back of the couch, I could see not only Luke's head, but also his entire torso. In a split second of utter confusion, I thought to myself, "How did he get so tall?" I then realized something was wrong and jumped to my feet. This is what I saw...

The Stinker had climbed up onto the coffee table in a matter of about 1.5 seconds and was standing in the middle of it, holding 2 different remotes with a look on his face (not pictured) like, "Aww yeah....How do you like me now!!!" He was SOOOOO proud of himself. After a near heart attack on my part, Devan and I laughed hysterically and then took a few pictures.

At Luke's one year check-up, the doctor told us we needed to turn his car seat around. We had been thinking we'd leave it rear-facing for a while since it's so much safer, but the doctor said that since he's so big and has no room for his legs when facing backward, we needed to turn it around now. That was fine by me, so I had my handy hubby take it out and reinstall it facing forward. Luke's first trip facing forward like a big boy was to the airport to pick up my sister, Anne. It was SO much fun for both of us. Actually, I may have been just a wee tad more excited about it....but Luke liked it, too. I took the passenger seat headrest down so that he could see out the windshield, and he had fun looking at all the big cars and trucks on the interstate.

All buckled and ready to go!

Woo hoo!!! He struck this hysterical pose all by himself. I guess he was excited.


Mommy's new view of the Stinker.


Checkin' out the view of the front of the garage.


Whoa. So much cool stuff to look at.


Happy boy, laughing at Annie.
I love being able to turn around and see my precious Big Man looking at me!

Luke received lots of cool presents for his birthday. He got an awesome school bus in the mail from Phil's sister Emma, Luke's Auntie Em. He LOVES his school bus, especially after we figured out that it sings a song and flashes its lights!


Playing in the kitchen with his new bus.


He pushed it all over the place.


It can carry all sorts of important stuff.


Playing with the bus is serious business.

Daddy and Lukie smiling and singing along with the school bus.

Luke also got a very cool lawn mower from Phil's sister Joanna, Luke's Aunt Jo Jo. He is so funny when he pushes it around because he tends to want to push it with just one hand, so it doesn't really go in a straight line. He loves to push it around, though, and when he plays with it outside, we plug in the bubbles so that it blows bubbles as he mows!

Mowing in the garage.


Making sure that corner gets mowed.

My parents, Flipper and Pops, sent us some money to buy Luke some much needed sports equipment for his birthday. Anne and I picked out a golf set, a basketball hoop, and about 42 different balls for Luke to play with outside. Here he is working on his golf game.


I think I'll go with my driver for this shot.


Luke decided there was no need to stand up to play golf.


Can I help you?


Once again. Golfing while seated.


Using the clubs to bang on Mommy's car. Thanks, Big Man.


The basketball hoop was more of a mystery for Luke. We'll have to work on that one with him...


...But Daddy had fun playing horse with Annie and our neighbor Katie.

In other news, the weening process has been going really well. Luke's lactose intolerance has gotten so much better, and he seems to have outgrown it! I am now down to nursing only once a day and will soon be phasing that out, too! We've worked up to 3 oz. of whole milk mixed in with 6 oz. of formula for his two bottle feedings, and we'll keep upping the milk-to-formula ratio every few days until we get to all milk. I can't wait to have formula off my grocery bill!! As nice as it has been to drop the nursing, I still can't get used to seeing him feed himself a bottle!

Doesn't he look so big??!!

And speaking of big, the Big Man is king of big messes!

This isn't even his best effort, either.


No matter the mess, no matter the trouble that he seems to go looking for, we couldn't love our little Stinker any more than we do. He is an absolute delight and the joy of our lives. WE LOVE YOU, LUKIE LU!!!