Wow! The past two months with Luke have brought about so many amazing changes. He is such a little boy and so very sweet. Some of his most recent accomplishments:
1)
PUZZLES are one of his most favorite things right now. He LOVES his 24-piece Thomas floor puzzle, and can put it together entirely on his own within a few minutes. He also has a fire truck floor puzzle which he can very nearly complete on his own.
2) Learning the
ALPHABET. He has been singing his ABCs for a few months now, but just in recent weeks we have noticed that he is able to match a letter name to its shape. He loves using the alphabet game on his computer, and calling out the sponge letters in the bathtub as he puts them on the wall. He is also able to identify his name now and verbally spell it out. Pretty amazing how much he is learning every minute of every day!
Letter naming in the tub
3) Sleeping in his BIG BOY BED. He took to his new bed with no problems at all. In fact, I think that he is actually sleeping better, and seems just thrilled with it.
Sleeping well with our "other" little boy - Linus, who apparently thinks he deserves a big boy bed as well!
4) Saying goodbye to the
PACIFIER. Yep, it's gone! We had been talking about how big boys don't need "binks" for a while now (and I was nervous about the possibility of some sleepless nights), but finally last week I took them away and told him that they had gone to the babies who need them. He whined a little bit on the first day, and we had one incident about 3 days in when he woke up from nap crying for it, but that's about it. I do notice that sometimes it seems to take him a little extra time to settle down into sleep, but I'm sure that as the days go on, he will learn to soothe himself to sleep quickly without it. Yay!
First night with no pacifier
5) Sitting in a
BOOSTER! I ordered Luke a booster seat that came just this week. He was getting too big for his highchair and his legs and feet would often get stuck when getting in and out. Despite all of Luke's eating issues, he really, truly loved sitting in his highchair. However, he surprised me again when he very happily and easily transitioned to the booster. We made a big deal of it and even went to the store together to pick out some special place mats (his choices: a monkey face and a frog). He seems happy with his new spot at the family dinner table - and we love having him there. For the time being, the highchair went up into storage at my parents' - that way it is not an option to go back to for Luke, and it makes room in our house for the baby swing which will be back very shortly!
6) READING to us! Luke has several of his books memorized and now enjoys reading some of them to us. The one that he knows best and is his favorite right now is "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" by Eric Carle. Luke loved this book several months ago, but was reintroduced to it at school and now we read it nearly every day.
7) Using the POTTY. Okay, despite an effort over the weekend that Michael was out of town a few weeks back, Luke is not officially potty trained. I was hoping that we could get it done that weekend, but after a few days Luke decided that he was NOT going to cooperate. He ended up screaming, arching his back, and simply refusing to even sit on the potty. So, we are taking a break and will revisit again in the coming month or so. What I have noticed since our initial attempt is that he has the ability to be trained during the day and that he is starting to show some interest again (this morning in fact, he woke up and immediately came to get me so that I could help him use the potty). He also has his eye on a package of Thomas underwear that he knows we are going back to get once he is using the potty ... we'll keep you updated!
8) TALKING about everything, and in full and complete sentences. I know that over the past year I have made mention of Luke's increasing ability to converse, but now I feel that it has really hit a peak. I hear him say new things all the time - things that he didn't learn from me (which is a little strange, but I should get used to it). I love listening and talking with him - it's really amazing how much is in that brain of his!
9) Staying HEALTHY. Knock on wood, Luke has been pretty healthy for a long stretch now. He did get an ear infection back in September, but thanks to the tubes, did not suffer any from it. We had a 6-month re-check on his ears this month with the ENT specialist and he said both looked really good. Both eardrums healed nicely after the surgery. One tube (in the left ear that had the infection a few months ago) will not be in much longer, as it is very anterior, but the other is still in place. We just have to hope now that his anatomy has changed enough so that if his left ear is infected again this year, the fluid will be able to drain on its own.
10) SINGING songs. Luke can now sing, hum, and "la-la-la" a bunch of songs. It amazes us that he not only knows the melodies, but also nearly all of the words. Some of his favorite songs right now include: the ABCs, the Itsy Bitsy Spider, Let's Go Fly a Kite, I See the Moon, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Old Macdonald had a Farm (which he also sings when we go to McDonalds!). He also has informed me that he likes the song Bubbly by Colbie Caillat, and can identify it after just the first few notes ... "Ooh, Mommy, I like this song!"
