I Two

Our favorite little man turned 2 on November 3rd!  Lukie at age 2 is a total stinker and about the cutest, funniest little thing we've ever seen.  His personality is far more laid back and goofy than Genevieve...he's just not as tightly wound as our type-a first born.  But he is a lot more physical and wild.  This makes for some hilarious moments and lots of silliness.  Which isn't to say that the two of them don't fight or make.me.crazy, but overall they get along really well and for that we are eternally grateful. 

Luke is a total jabber-jaw of a toddler.  I don't know if he's just trying to keep up with GG or what, but he makes sure his voice is heard.  Half the time we have to stop and really think about what he's saying (in Lukie-language) but he generally gets his point across.  He's easily stringing 5 and 6 word sentences together, reciting passages from favorite books, and singing familiar songs.  He's absolutely got the classic toddler mispronunciations ('t' sound for 'c' or 'k'...'d' sound for 'th' and 'g') which means he loves his sister DD, and his favorite food is deeps (grapes).  Adorbs!

Luke is all about doing things 'self' and has very little interest in your assistance with...anything.  At his 2 year appointment he came in at the 50th% for weight and 70th% for height.  This string bean is a hard one to dress - all his pants fall right off.  But he's still got some chubby thighs which I work hard to squeeze at least once a day.

Favorites for this 2 year old include roughhousing with daddy, riding his bike, anything involving Jake and the Neverland Pirates (I watch Tzake!), reading books, and copying anything GG does.  He's not so much into puzzles or coloring, although he'll do it if Geeg is doing it first. Luke's a good eater and loves grapes and bananas (#1 snack request is nana-mop), anything crunchy, yogurt, mac & cheese...all the toddler essentials.  All of his 2-year molars are in (can't believe we all survived it) and the tubes are still doing their job.  And we get good reports from school every day which is basically all a parent can ask for.

Less popular for the young prince are being clothed, sitting still for anything, and getting his hair washed.  We can deal with those.

After Thanksgiving last weekend Lukas decided he was ready to start going on the potty.  I intended to avoid this fully until the springtime but he was insistent so we are now going back down that road.  He's peed in the froggy potty every day since so it's off to a decent start, but we're not holding our breath.  Time to stock up on disinfecting wipes in the bathroom. 

Here are a few shots from his birthday weekend, along with some silly moments captured over the last couple of months that I didn't have time to blog.  We heart this little man!

couch snuggles with mommy

smoochies

post-nap: one nana-mop coming up

love this shot

frankenstein hat from grandma heidi

14" bike from mom & dad

i'm outta here!

dino-cake

ready to sing!

nothing like an 'f' sound to blow spittle all over the entire cake

i think he's got it down

hazel eyes still surprise me

grandma heidi got him a ken doll to add to G's barbie collection.  turns out taking ken's shorts off is HILARIOUS

 And some randoms from the last few months:

buzz cut boy

probably not what that was intended for.  genevieve is clearly not impressed.

making his way up the playset...'self' of course

let's ride!

speaking of ride, he suddenly took off on g's 12" bike this summer at about 20 months.  daredevil.

super helper

he knows he can fly on the trike, and loves to head down the driveway at top speed right into the street.

waiting for mom & dad to look the other way

hanging at the lake

his school picture - that face

at the children's museum, checking out their favorite ride

well this looks normal

just your average sunday morning

sure, who doesn't eat deeps on the floor like a dog?

cutie pies

demanding HORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRSIE rides

love love loves daddy

makes a mama happy

Halloween Adventures

October flew by with lots of school field trips for Genevieve, parties for both kids, and prepping for Halloween of course. 

We hit up two pumpkin farms this year.  The first early in October with the Bansemars.  GG had her first sleepover at a friend's house for Alana's birthday (big girls!!) and we met up the next morning to go collect some pumpkins and enjoy the farm. 

It took a while to get everyone out of the cars and situated but we headed in and made our first stop at some of the animal pens.  Which turned out to be a huge mistake.  The girls went to check out the turkeys and they declared that they were too stinky.  Matt and Luke were right behind.  Up came a big gust of wind and they were smacked with a little eau de Bird, which didn't sit well with young Maio.  He turned away and without hesitating just hurled ALL over the ground.  Being the superb parents we are we about died laughing.  Fortunately it was a warm day so we peeled off his jacket and quickly made our way to the tractor.  Much better. 

the girls at ground zero

post hurl and ready for tractor fun

off to find the great pumpkin!  lukie kept saying, "i lite DAT one! i lite DAT one!"

women on a mission

two silly pumpkins

baby pumpkins

A couple weekends later we hit up another farm with the Willes.  It's starting to turn into a little tradition to get together with them this time of year which is very fun for all involved.  This time it was freezing out so thankfully there was no horking - we did not have layers to spare.  But there was a great corn maze, silly cut outs, and of course the tractor rides. In going through these pics I discovered I don't have any shots of the littlest Wille, which is criminal because she is the CUTEST.  Erin, remind me next year!

lovely lasses

spooky

this farm has a bunch of silly toys and luke thought he was the coolest on this horse

huddling together for warmth

do we not feed you?

found our winners

i lite DIS one!

erin made dan get a bunch of corn stalks.  he practically disappeared into the horizon, which was only half as entertaining as watching him get it on their car

With all these pumpkins, it was time for some serious carving.  The two-night extravaganza was really cute as both the kids were totally into it. Luke continued on his chat a thon yelling "I lite PUN-TINS!" with quite a bit of enthusiasm.  I think he got it.

what is this one's face?

sillies

this year's spooky collection.  ralphie is my favorite.

proud of all 'their' creations

One thing both kids were old hands at this year was trick or treating.  Our Princess (Wisconsin princesses wear hats under their tiaras, leggings, and boots, dont'cha know?) and firefighter made a HAUL this year.  GG walked almost the entire time and Luke had basically no interest in riding in the wagon.  Matt and I had a dinner event for his work that night so we had to bug out early, but Grandma and Grandpa Maio were on hand to keep the candy collection on track.  I finally threw out the rest of the candy the other day...I couldn't take seeing those stupid buckets sitting on the counters anymore.  And it's possible that I was struggling to keep my own hand out of the goodies.  Possible.

ready to roll

my god that face

my god those cheekers

we are ready for CANDY

faster mom!

the first of many stops

And, a taste of what might happen lest you leave a fleece hat on too long...