Letter

(when we first introduced underwear, he thought he didn't need to wear pants anymore....)

Dear Luke,

Remember when I was so good at writing letters to you and you thought you had the coolest-nicest-most-attentive mother around? Yeah, sorry to disappoint.

Anyway, I just wanted to jot down some thoughts I've had today while you've been off playing with the Giver of the Mega Blocks.

I am missing you today. I am missing your cutest little voice that tells the most hilarious stories (like the lion eating your car seat...you told me about that yesterday) and telling me things that are so off the wall that it sometimes shocks me (get me outta here mom!...you told me that one two days ago) Where do you come up with these things? You really just crack me up.

Your innocence makes me smile every day. Like yesterday we ran to the bank and it was closed, and when you asked why we weren't going in, I told you that it wasn't open. Then you told me I just needed to go buy some keys (at target) to open it. it was more like (go to target, buy more keys, open da bank)

You are the sweetest thing I've ever known. I can't even count how many times in the last week I've said "oh he is just my favorite thing" "oh my gosh I just love him so much". I don't know how you became such a good boy. How you got so smart, so cute and so funny. (probs from me, right?)

Can I also say how proud I am of you? For all the aforementioned characteristics, and also for the fact that you were potty trained in FOUR DAYS. Two days after eliminating diapers, you were staying dry all day. Four days later you were pooping in the toilet (for real, that's an accomplishment. and one that I hardly feel I can even take credit for.) staying dry through your naps and even all night! I am just so proud. (what am I supposed to do with all the left over pull ups??)

As I sit here thinking about you, tears welling up in my eyes, I am in awe at the little person you are becoming. I so badly wish that I could freeze you like this forever. My only request for you is this: please stay my nice little boy forever. In my mind, you probably will. So please don't make me the foolish parent who thinks you are just as innocent as nice as always, when really you are mischievous and mean to other children. Sound good? Ok good.


I love you so much. So much that the word "love" doesn't seem like enough to convey how much you have impacted my life. While you were at your Grandma's today, and it was just me and your dad hanging out all day, it made me try to remember what our life was like without you in it. It made me imagine what our house would look like without the pictures of you hanging on the walls, without the toys scattered around the entire place; how it would be without you asking if we can have a dance party in the middle of dinner-prep in the kitchen. That is such a lonely life to imagine.

I know it's cliche, but you bring so much life into our life. I know that you have helped mold me into the person I am today. In fact I think that you actually created an entirely new and improved version of me. Someone who strives every day to be worthy of being your mother. So, thanks for making me a better person. I know that you have helped mold the person that your Aunt Amber is. She loves you so much. You are so incredibly lucky to have so many people surrounding you that love you (almost) as much as I do.

Please stay my nice and funny and smart and clever boy forever.

Love,
Mom.

PS: this turned sappier than intended, sorry.

celebrations

Here are some cute pictures of Luke's 2nd Birthday
(yes really...second. It's been two years already)

The Guests...


McCall is super excited. Libby is not so much...


Luke and his bff Paxton.


Ashlee will probably want to kill me for this super-preg shot.
(happy to announce the delivery of cutest Aiden too!)


Lukey and Auntie Megan.
He loves her.
And the whoopee cushion she got him too.


On to the decor...


I started this tradition last year where I hang a picture for each month of his life. The picture you can see the clearest was at his 1st birthday. I almost didn't realize how different he looks now.

I love this bandanna banner.


And the food...

14, 15, 16 & 17

Well, here we are....4 months later. Maybe now I wont feel so intimidated and overwhelmed by writing these monthly blogs for you now that I'm getting all caught up.

You have turned more into a little boy the last few months than I thought even possible. Here are some specifics...

*you can say between 20 and 25 words. You love to talk, and are great at picking up what we are saying more easily every day. i almost hate to admit it, but you say "mom" so many times in a day that it drives me crazy. except when you see me for the first time and yell "Mau-aum!!!"

*you can climb up and down just about everything. there have been multiple times i have had to get you off the kitchen table. nothing is safe anymore.

*you are obsessed with keys "sees" as you like to call them...you love to unlock and lock doors. over and over and over again. luckily i've convinced you that screws in the door hinge are locks too....otherwise i'd spend my entire day holding you in front of the door.

*you still only weigh about 20-21 pounds. you get skinnier every day i think. however, i think if i moved as much as you, i'd get skinnier every day too!

*you still amber so much. she is your favorite person to play with...you are the silliest and the biggest show off when she is playing with you.

*you have the greatest little laugh everywhere. We introduced you to how cool it is to play inside a fort, and you just climb under the blanket and CRACK UP. you think it is just hilarious, which in turn makes us all crack up too.

*you love to play at the park. we have been lucky enough to have warm enough weather recently, so we go to the park almost every day. you love to take your ball, throw it up the slide and watch it come rolling down. you aren't sure about the swings yet, i think they make you nervous.

*you have learned the sounds a dog, horse, pig & (usually) a lion make. however, you still think almost every animal is a dog.

*everything circular is still a ball to you.

*you have started to love coloring. we are working on the concept of keeping it on paper only. you somehow got a hold of a crayon and colored all over your time out bench, the floor and a door frame before we realized what was going on. so...thanks for that.

*you are basically a tornado to our house. i clean up tupperware, towels and toys 971435897 times every day.

*you LOVE to read. one of my favorite things is when you sit down in front of your book cabinet and pull them out one by one all by yourself and read them to yourself. I also love when you come to me with one book after another to have story time. i sincerely hope that this love continues your whole life. I think you're destined too, considering your dad and I love it so much.

*you learned how to say "no" and whenever do, it's never just one "no" it's "no no no no no" in the cutest little voice and always point your finger in the air right in front of your face. one of these days i'll hopefully catch it on video because it is just so cute.

We all have to fight laughing at you when you do this "no" thing because it is just so funny.


Anyway Luke, I'm sorry i've been a slacking mom lately. Although if you really think about it, I must be slacking less than I used to because I spend all my time actually following you around and entertaining you rather than writing about entertaining you!


We love you lots and lots

Love, Mom & Dad

13 Months

Well Luke, I almost missed this month's blog...I kept thinking "oh yeah I should write that" and then would put it off...so we're lucky it's only a day late!

You are currently sitting on my lap listening/dancing to Andrea Bocelli & Mary J Blige sing "What Child Is This?" no matter what music it might be, you love to dance. My favorite is when you dance to the songs in church. Not really ideal...but oh so cute

You have picked up your growling trick again. Whenever we say "go get it" or "i'm going to get you" you run growling.

This last month seemed like it just drug on and on for some reason. You have learned a lot...you love to talk. you say dog, dad, ball, uh-oh, achoo when anyone around you sneezes - which you think is the funniest thing by the way - mom, num when you're hungry or like the food you're eating and sadly...poop. You tend to say this right after you poop. Every once in a while you'll say it right before - then we could ditch the diaper! You know where your nose, belly and feet are. Oh and you love to say "sh" for shoe.

You love going into the closet and picking out my shoes and bringing them to me, or dads and taking them to him. You spend probably half of your day trying to put shoes on and walk around in them.

Your current favorite place to hang out is in the drawer underneath the stove. weird, i know. You climb in and take all the pots and pans out, stack them on the kitchen floor and then proceed to take all your toys - one by one - and put them in the drawer and shut it again. If we ever lose anything at least we know where to look right?

We still have a pinching problem with you...I have found that you become quite the little bully when you are hungry or tired. I have no idea where you get that..........must be from your dad. it's the only explanation.

We had such a fun visit with Michelle & Emma. They came in to town for a few days, and we had them and McCall & Libby over to play. You had so much fun playing with Emma, however apparently you didn't want to sit by her...

You love going places too. Maybe it's because I love to go places, so we are constantly out and about. It is getting to be so fun because you understand more and more of what we say to you. Like today, I said "Luke, do you want to go to Target?" and you walked right to the door and reached for the handle. Then I said "well, we need to get your socks and shoes on first" and you led the way into your bedroom to get them on. And then went to the door...again. ready to go.

You are still as curious as ever. And by curious I mean messy. I don't know why you love to empty things so much...closets, drawers, toy bins, cupboards. You name it.

You have become quite the cheesy little boy too. You LOVE to laugh and you especially love to make other people laugh. You have quite the funny fake laugh too.

So after your birthday, Amb took you to get your haircut...I am so happy she did that and I didn't have to. Poor Jessica thinks you will hate her forever for cutting it. You had a serious meltdown. I mean SERIOUS. You sobbed and sobbed and sobbed the entire time. The whole 15 minutes...I have to say, it was totally worth it. Your hair looks a million times better than it did before.

You were the superstar at Thanksgiving dinners with all of Dad's families too. They sure did love you.

We also took away your bottle this month....oh man. It wasn't quite as bad as I thought it was. I think the problem is that your molars are coming in, so that mixed with the lack of bottle soothing you to sleep made for some rough nights. After about a week and a half though we are back to normal...actually, I think better than ever. You are sleeping for 12 hours at night, and still taking 2 naps that are about 1.5 hours each. So awesome.

Thanks for being such a great little boy Luke. You are incredibly easy going and love to be around people. That makes our lives so much easier...especially this time of year when there are lots of holiday parties going on.

We love you very much Luke.

Love,
Mom & Dad.

1st birthday party(ies)

Here are some great pictures (thanks mccall) from lukeys first 1st birthday party.

And here are pics from your second first birthday party...

364 days, 24 hours and 8 minutes

Dear Luke,

As I sit here contemplating what I want to express to you in this letter, I am completely overwhelmed with emotion. When I think about what our lives were like 365 days ago, and how much I thought I loved you then....it blows my mind to see how far we have come.

You have grown and learned so much - it amazes me every day. From the little things like learning how to play peek-a-boo by yourself, from learning to walk and go up and down stairs...it all seems like so much.

It has brought so much happiness into our lives to be able to watch you learn and grow every day. I can still remember the first time you smiled at me, the first time you recognized me and got excited to see me walk into the room. I remember the first time you reached out to me, and the first time you saw a basketball and almost exploded with excitement.

I want you to know how much we have enjoyed the last year with you being a part of our lives. It has been a great time, full of fun and happiness. We are so excited to see what the next year is going to hold.


We love you very much Luke. I hope you never forget that, and that someday, when you are 17 and hating us thinking we are the worst parents in the world, that you will able to look back on these letters and realize how much love we have for you. No matter what.

You have helped/transformed me into a much stronger, patient and loving person. You have had more of an effect on my life than I ever could have imagined, and more than you will ever know. You have brought friends back into our lives, and built bonds with them that can now never be broken. I am so grateful for that - it's something I guess I will always owe you for.

You are growing up to be an incredibly little boy, who is full of energy and curiosity. We love you very much.


Love,
Mom & Dad

11 Months

Dear Mr. Lucas...

To start things off, you are officially considered a "toddler"! You started walking a few weeks ago and are getting better and better at it every day. You started with one or two steps - and are now to where you can walk all the way down the hallway and all around the place! You are quite proud of yourself as well.

You are still referring to me as "dad". I'm starting to take it personally. Anytime I walk into a room you point and get excited (which I love) and then say "DAD! DAD!" At least you're excited right?

You have been so fun lately - so much of a personality and you love to make people laugh. You are incredibly comfortable with strangers and anyone new. You are still very flexible with your life schedule and very easy going.

I feel like you and I have finally gotten in our groove. I think we've learned how each other works and how to handle each others moods and schedules. My work schedule and Dad's work/school schedule are pretty nice right now. You spend Monday and Wednesday mornings hanging out with Dad until 1 when I get home from work. Then I get you to myself on Tuesdays. We hang out with Amber on Thursdays until she goes to work and on Friday you spend a few hours with your Grandma Daley while I go into work for a bit. You seem to be handling this life very well. I love that you get to spend quality time with your Dad a couple of days each week. I love the time we get to spend together.

You love going to work with me whenever you can and playing with Tim and the basketballs. For some reason Tim (my co-worker) is your favorite person at that place. You even cry when I take you. It's quite the ego-killer for me. :) You LOVE to play with basketballs - you are so intrigued by the fact that they bounce every time you throw them. And they make a great bouncing noise too.

You got another tooth this month - your third one on the bottom. You handled it surprisingly well. There were only one or two nights when you would wake up and just need a little medicine and you'd go back to sleep. Thanks for making that so easy on us.

You are still becoming more and more of your own person every day. Whether that is a good or bad thing is still up for debate. You know what you want, and get quite upset if you don't get it.

You learned out to say please by just making the "p" sound over and over again. It is dang cute if I do say so myself.

Thanks for being such a great little boy and for loving us unconditionally. You are so fun to hang out with and so easy going. We love you more and more every day. Dad and I talk often about how amazing it is that the love for you grows so much as time goes on.

We love you very much.

Love always
Mom & Dad

oh and ps: sorry for the failure of picture-taking this month. I even have a new camera and keep forgetting to use it! please don't judge...we still love you. :)

10 months

Well Luke, another month has come and gone.

You are just the goofiest little character. It is as if you have so much personality trapped in your little body, and you just have to be going ALL THE TIME in order to get it all out!

We finally got you back to sleeping through the night - getting 4 teeth at one time was deadly for everyone involved.

You learned how to open the cabinet doors the other day - what a treat!
I think I clean up tupperware at least 6 times a day now.



This is what you did with the bowl today....You sat there like this screaming into it. I think you liked the echo. And that we laughed.

You learned how to roll your "r's" too. You just crawl around going "r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r" all day.
Sometimes it is loud, and sometimes it is quiet - it just depends on your mood I guess.

You are quite the opinionated little man. I wish you could use your words instead of just screaming when you don't get your way. You know what you want and you do whatever you can to get it!
We are working on the word "please".

You are working on standing up - finally. Your balance is good enough to do it - it just freaks you out to let go and do it on your own. You will let go occasionally until you notice, or someone else notices and makes a big deal about it.

You are still not one to show off...whenever we ask you to do all your tricks for people, you just grin as if we are just so ridiculous for even asking!

You learned the concept of "catch" too - you used to not like it because you were worried about not getting your ball back. We now play catch often. You growl often too.

When we ask "what does a monkey say?" you say "who-who-who" or sometimes just one really long "whhhoooooooo".


You know how to give five, say mom, dad, ball and WOW! - always sounds excited too, clap and say "yay", you dance ALL the time. You hear the beat and stop what you are doing to shake it. It is so great.

Your favorite place to play is under the kitchen table - you can fit just perfectly under there. There have been a few times that i've had to get you out when you get stuck in the bars under the chairs. You don't really appreciate that.

We went boating with Chris, Sandy, Kylee, Travis, Kat and Amber the other weekend - it was your first trip on a boat. You handled it surprisingly well. You only hated your life jacket for a few minutes at first. You slept for a bit and LOVED playing the water! you laughed and squealed and kicked and splashed the whole time!


You are learning so much and becoming such a great little boy. We love watching you grow and explore your environment. We love you lots and lots!


Love
Mom & Dad

9 months - pt. 2

luke...I feel like your last blog didn't do your 9th month of life the justice it deserved. chris, sandy and tyler all came over while i was in the midst of typing it so i got distracted.

a few things I forgot:

dancing - while amb and i were in st george dad taught you how to dance. it is so cute. you sit on the floor and just rock back and forth. if we say "dance dance" and you are standing, you sit down and start rocking back and forth.

screaming - you have found your high pitched voice. it's like the sissiest girly scream ever.

sharing - you now share everything. whatever you eat, you show the people around you and hold it in their face until they say "numnumnum" like they are eating it. haha. you are so funny.

the best part of all of this, is you do it on command. we say "shake it" and you shake whatever toy is in your hand. we say "dance dance" and you start dancing. it is so awesome.

and last but not least...teething. you have gotten all 4 of your top front teeth and i'm pretty sure you are getting your canine's now too. let me tell you, it has made for some seriously rough nights. you still only have the two front ones on the bottom. your smile is getting pretty cute with all those teeth though!

9 Months

Dear Lukey...

Well, you have been here with us now as long as it took to make you inside me....(minus one week but we won't go there). Let me tell you, 9 months of you went by way faster than 9 months of pregnancy!

When I look back at what our lives were like 9 months ago, it was so entirely different. The freedom...the late nights...the independence. I wouldn't trade you back for any of it!

You have gotten to be SO much fun. I swear in the last month you have just come into your own and are so your own person.

Here are a few things you learned this month....

growling. it is so funny - you just sit in the back of the car talking away to yourself and you throw in a growl every once in a while.

clapping. this one took you forever to learn!

you totally know who mom and dad are. whenever one of us is not around you don't stop saying the other person's name (when mom is gone you just say "mamamamamamama" and if dad is gone you say "dadadadadadadadada")

you LOVE your ball. and i mean LOVE. that's your other word - bahbahbahbah - that's how we know you want your ball

you love to drink out of water bottles and don't really care for your sippy cup

you still love amber probably at least as much as you love me and dad.

you force laugh. oh my gosh this might be my favorite thing. we start laughing (or amber walks in the room) and you force out this "ha. ha. ha." and then look back and forth between everyone in the room just to make sure we are all still laughing. it usually just makes us laugh harder, so it is a downward spiral.

We moved to a new apartment this month too. Our new place is about twice the size - you love having so much more space to crawl around and play. Moving with you around was quite the experience. I never realized how much STUFF you have! man alive. and you think you are so helpful...trying to pull everything out of the boxes I put them in. I really appreciated it....

I also left you for the first time this month. Well, for more than a few hours at least. Amber and I went to St. George for the weekend and I didn't see you for 3 whole days! Ok, well two half days and one whole day, but still. It was so long! I missed you like crazy...and slept until 10am every day. Which I loved.

As you can tell by the fact that we have only two pictures of the last month of your life, you can probably understand how busy we have been!

This picture I took of you makes me remind you of your dad. You are definitely just like him!

We love you lots and just love watching you learn and grow!

Love, Mom & Dad

8 months

Dear Luke

Another month has come and gone...it's amazing the things you can discover in only 30 days! You learned to crawl this month - therefore you think you are invincible. You climb up EVERYTHING and think it is SO AWESOME that you can stand up! (holding on to furniture of course...but still. it's cool to you) Everytime you pull yourself up, you look around for recognition like you just accomplished the coolest trick ever.

You have learned to love to play with a ball. It's so weird how you are just attracted to all of them. For a few weeks you had a little rubber basketball that you carried with you EVERYWHERE. You now have a purple mini-kick ball with a bat on it...so ugly, but whatever. You actually took it to bed with you last night. You tend to have meltdowns when we take it away.



You don't seem too interested in many of your real toys anymore. You LOVE LOVE LOVE dad's xbox controller. and the remote. and the blow dryer. and the straightener. Basically anything that isn't a legitimate toy. Oh, and power cords! Oh my goodness do you love power cords! You sit and chew on them for as long as I'll let you. (I usually let you get away with that more than Dad does....he loves his electronics)

We have started giving you more and more "people" food. You had spaghetti for the first time this month. I'm not sure if you actually ate any of it or just made an incredible mess....




You have this really weird love of wipes. It is so funny. I left you unattended for not even 5 minutes, only to find you had done this.....oh man you were proud of yourself.





You love to eat them. After the "snail incident" I made/let you chew on one. just because i was SO incredibly grossed out. You look like a little puppy because you'll shove a wipe in your mouth and then crawl around the floor with it hanging out! It is so funny.



Oh and just in case you ever wonder about that "snail incident" here's a picture of the actual snail....I really hope to never see another one of those in my life. Ever.




Ambie and I went out for dessert the other day, and some of our friends were there so we ended up having you and Dad come and join us. You played with Chris/critter/kristakunte for quite a while and thought the window was like the greatest thing ever. You love to drum on things and the window made such a great sound! You also blew some wonderful raspberries on it - I'm sure whoever had to clean up after you really appreciated it...




You have started to say "momomomomom" and "dadadadadad" A LOT. We still haven't decided if you know what they actually mean, but you sure say it alot. You have become quite the little shadow for me...I start to worry if I am walking around the house and don't hear you behind me saying "momomomomomomom" and following me around. I still can't decide if I love it or not - I was secretly hoping you'd learn to say Dad's name first...then I wouldn't always have to be the one to get you in the morning!


Lukey, we love you very much. This is probably your shortest month-long post. It was kind of a boring month (besides the snail and crawling...). Me, Ambie and you are going to Canada tomorrow for a week and once we get back we are moving to a new apartment - so next month should be more exciting for you!

We have love watching you grow and turn into your own little self lately. I think you have more personality inside you than you know what to do with. It's amazing how quickly you can make me switch from being so entirely annoyed, to so happy that I have you in my life. Thank you for teaching me all that you have so far - patience mostly - and for loving me unconditionally. I think the tables have finally turned and you might love me more than Dad. But just might.



Love,

Mom & Dad