Third Person: November 2012

Lukie turned 1 last Saturday. A year already. I knew it would go fast and I have tried really hard this past year to be present for those precious, fleeting baby moments. Even so it's hard to remember that he was ever so, so tiny.

Luke at age 1 is a funny little dude. He has really started to love interacting with toys and books. Every night after bath Matt reads to GG and I read to Luke. I spread out his 10 or 12 favorite picture books on the ottoman and he will stand there and choose which one he wants, then hand it to me. We read it, put it aside, and repeat until we've gone through almost the whole pile. The current fave is Goodnight Gorilla, which has seen so much love it's falling apart. In any of the books, he will 'klunk' a page to show it a little extra affection. This is especially adorable in a peek-a-boo book which has a little mirror page, so he klunks himself. No lack of self esteem for this growing boy.

Nighttime books are about the only time Lukie will sit still. He loves anything on wheels and has been making things 'go' for months. He'll stack blocks and he's started to dance at the music table. The last couple of days he's figured out how to get on his walker/race car and hollers to be pushed around (luckily, Big Sis thinks this is a fun activity too. My hamstrings can only take so much). His favorite hobbies include getting into whatever GG has, and systematically disassembling anything that resembles an organized pile. This goes double for baskets of clean, folded laundry. Best of all, GG has given Luke several new names, the latest of which is "Fun". It's adorable.

Luke doesn't really have any words yet, yet he does not struggle to communicate. If he wants something he'll point and holler 'DA!', and the da-ing will become increasingly louder the longer he is made to wait. He can mimic the cadence of phrases like 'uh-oh', although that usually happens as a warning that he is about to drop something, instead of after. He will "da-da" all day and night. A few months back I was changing him and I leaned into his little face and said, "can you say mama? just try it. maaaaaa maaaaaa." That little turkey looked me square in the eye and whispered daaaaa daaaaaa. He knew exactly what he was doing which is why I'm sure there will be no shortage of jabbering in a few short months.

Let's see, other milestone stuff. He's been nearly off the bottle for a few weeks now (he gets just one after nap), he's doing pretty well moving to one nap a day, and he'll be moving into the next room at school in just a couple weeks, where they sleep on mats. I remember being horrified when G reached that point too. My baby!

Eating continues to be one of Luke's strong suits. He's got 11 teeth, including two eye teeth, which explains why he's been such a gem about every other week for the last five months. He's also got a two year molar bumping through. At his one year check up Monday Boo Boo came in at 30.5" and 22 pounds, the 75th and 35th percentiles. Still long and lean. Favorite foods include any kind of fruit, and anything with syrup. Sweet tooth, anyone?

good morning, birthday boy!

he's chowing so he's good

where'd you get those eyes, mister?

see those cheeks? full of smushy banana goodness

So last weekend we celebrated our baby boy. Grandma Heidi and Pop Pop came in to town (a record number of visits this fall) on Friday, and we ventured out to Marty's for pizza Friday night. Thank god they have a few video games to keep the birthday boy's attention while waiting for the chow. Saturday - the big day! - started off as usual; ballet for G, grocery store, etc. But by midday the kitchen was filling up with smells of cupcakes and we were in gear to deck out the dining room.

my lovely assistant

customized party hats ala big sis

monthly shots from the first year - so glad i had the good sense to steal this idea from you, robin

a little puffy paint poster

and some big tissue balls for fun

i would like to take this time to publicly apologize to lukie for putting him in a purple bib for his birthday. none of the blue ones were clean, kiddo. no worries, it takes a real man to wear hearts

K&K and Uncle Steve also made it over Saturday night. Although he had taken an ok nap, Luke was rapidly fading so we had to get cracking on the smash cake the millisecond dinner was done. It was totally worth it. The boy absolutely understood the purpose of a smash cake and we were howling as he tore it limb from limb. Nothing like a little buttercream to perk you up.

best big sis ever

birthday boy is skeptical

the cuteness factor here kills me

cannot be bothered for a photo

let me just take a little nibble here...

is anyone looking?

so annoyed

there is so much cake in his mouth it's actually spilling out

yes! let's drum it!

annnnnnnnd we have lift off

After a little washdown and some jams we headed back downstairs for presents. GG was more than happy to assist and she's still playing with the toys like they're her own.

le giraffe for all of those back toofers

showing off the card she made for him

cautiously checking out gg's gift to him

yeah, let's play!

To cap off his birthday evening, Luke decided to start walking. He's been doing this "Thriller" move for a week or so now (one leg firmly planted while the other shuffles in a circle) but apparently enough was enough and buh bye, off he went. A couple days later crawling is still his transport of choice, but there is truly no going back now.

We were planning a trip to the library on this drizzly day, so I decided to bring along the camera and get some shots of our one year old somewhere other than his high chair or the bath tub. Here's the big boy at age 1. Love you, little man!!