Daycare update

Day #1 was borderline ... lots of crying at drop-off time, which made Mommy feel terrible all day long and all she wanted to do was pick Luke up, take him home, and cuddle him. As it turns out, he did pretty well - took two short naps, played, cried only on and off in the morning, and ended up actually having a bit of fun.

Day #2 (today) went even better - again, crying at drop-off, but that stopped before Mommy even made it out the front door. One short nap and one long (he's actually down to one nap a day, but when he is awoken so darn early in the morning, a double nap session is in order!), lots and lots of food consumed, tons of playing (apparently a ball pit and bubbles were on the agenda today), and a happy boy at pick-up.

Whew - Mommy is relieved ... and can't wait to have the next two days off to spend with her favorite boy :)!

As promised, video of kisses

He really lays one on Michael in this clip!

High-fives still to come...

1st haircut

Okay, you're all thinking, "He hardly has any hair." This is true to some extent, but actually the hair that he does have was starting to get long and hang over the back of his collar, over his ears, and fall over the top of his head like an old man's comb-over. I kept hoping that the long hair would turn into big curls ... but no such luck as of yet. So, today Luke went for his first haircut. He wasn't a fan.

Settled first in Daddy's lap (who just had a haircut of his own)

He looks like we are torturing him, but thankfully the whole thing only lasted a few minutes ... and Tu did a great job.

The handsome boy post-haircut

If you were a toddler ...

and someone left you alone for about 40 seconds, wouldn't you find your toothbrush on the edge of the bathtub and then proceed to crawl down the hall and into Mommy and Daddy's bedroom and....

into the shower and taste the products,


and then sit on the shower floor and brush your teeth?

Hey, why not?

He cracks himself up

Here Luke is watching a video of himself on the computer

This is how ...

Linus the cat gets back at Brooklyn for sniffing, licking, and chasing (see picture below) him ALL DAY LONG

The little rocker...

I know I've called Luke my little rockstar before ... and he really is. Dancing, and just music in general, have always caught Luke's attention. It is so obvious how much he loves it. So, again, I must post to show you just how much he loves to rock out.



Okay, sorry it's sideways, but for some reason I canNOT figure out how to flip it around right now :(

Mommy is nervous ...

She doesn't want to leave me on Thursday to go to work ...

...and she really doesn't want to get up before the sun to get everyone where they need to go :(

Oh, wouldn't it be easier if we could all just stay home and play all day?

Kisses & High-fives

Luke can officially do both now ... and do them well! It is so incredible to me just how much he understands, even though his communication back to us is so limited. Every day now he shows me that he knows EXACTLY what I'm talking about - so incredible, the ability to soak everything in.

I will try to get some pictures and/or video of Luke giving high-fives (which are always followed with a huge smile) and kisses (usually open-mouthed) to post.

We had a great weekend visiting Todd and his girlfriend down in Monterey. We took Brooklyn with us, who had a blast playing on the beach with her cousin, Cosmo.

That's about all the news from here - Mommy's busy setting up her classroom for the school year and Luke's first day of daycare is on Thursday - I'll let you all know how it goes (I think Mommy is more worried about it than Luke)!

Have a great week!

Signing "milk" and "all done"

Here's a clip of Luke signing "milk." You have to watch his hands carefully to see him do it, but he does say it a few times.

And one more of him waving "bye bye" and saying "all done" in the bathtub

Down, down, down

Watch him as he makes his way down the stairs

Rocket walking

Here's a clip of Luke walking behind the rocket ship that he received for his birthday. By the way, he LOVES that rocket. As you can see, he is doing pretty well with the walking - he could probably do it on his own if he would just let go.

The Sea & Sand Table

As you can see, it's a lot of fun for Luke ... even if I am cleaning up sand every time we open it. Obviously a good pre-bath activity!

Loving Tahoe

We just returned from a wonderful long weekend in Tahoe. My cousins from NJ were in town visiting, and Luke loved playing with them. By the way, up for discussion while we were all in Tahoe was what relation Luke has to my first cousins ... I believe that he will be 2nd cousins with their children, but what is he to them (first cousins once removed?)? If you know, leave me a comment - we were trying to figure it out!



Brooklyn also joined us for the trip - it was our first vacation with her and she did so well. She very obviously loved being in Tahoe. The weather was perfect for her, she loved playing with the dog next door, and she spent lots of time exploring the grounds. Here are some photos of our trip:



Luke playing in Bklyn's water (look at her face - poor thing)


Daddy & Bklyn


Mommy in the hammock (and for the record, I always thought that the most relaxing landscape to me was the beach, but I may have changed my mind!)




With Courtney & Kelsey

Bad Mommy!

I haven't posted in so long - sorry! And, there are so many new things going on in the life of Luke, so I'm going to try my best to catch you all up in the coming days. I have bunch of his new "things" that I want to catch on video, plus some recent pictures to post.

Here are just a few of my favorite new TODDLER (yikes, I can't believe that I have one of those!) things:
1. Signing and saying "all done" when he's finished with his food
2. Signing "all done" for anything else that is over (putting the toys away, letting the water out of the tub) or turned off (the TV)
3. Turning around and going down the stairs on his own ... and sliding down on his belly
4. Turning around to be feet first when getting off the bed or couch
5. Communicating so much better. If he points at what he wants and I hand him the wrong thing, he can almost always tell me what he wants either by pointing again or signing the word (this happens a lot for milk)
6. Walking behind his new rocket ship
7. Starting to stand on his own
8. Trying all sorts of new foods!
9. Petting the dog and cat without making them want to run away
10. Drinking water from his new water table :)
11. Dancing to everything - music, singing, drum beats, hammering
12. The way he tips his cup and head so far back when drinking juice or milk that he nearly topples over