Since there hasn't been enough toddler cuteness here for awhile

"Lucas, can you say O-ba-ma?"

"Uppy Mama!"

"O-ba-ma?"

"A-B Mama!"

"Obama!"

"Ah-da Mama!"

He's trying, I'll give him that.

Things that are new

I keep meaning to update my blog, if only so I'll be able to look back at it years from now and remember what Luke did a X years and months old. Then I get distracted by grading, eating, or (more often) trashy TV and blogging just gets pushed to the back of my "To Do" list for yet another day.

Not tonight, though. Tonight, I blog because there are just too many cute new things Luke is doing right now for me to put this entry off any longer.

Cute Thing the First:
Luke is learning new words and phrases every day (really, today's was--"yellow ball, blue ball" complete with pointing at balls that were, in fact, yellow and blue) but the cutest by far lately has been "um". I've tried getting him to say it on camera and he gets too interested in the camcorder to focus on anything else, so you'll just need to take my word for it that, in between half-real words and half-nonsensical babble, he now punctuates almost every sentence with "um". The other night he was getting impatient with how slowly I was turning the pages on his bedtime book and started saying, "Um, um, um" while pointing at the next page as if to say, "Um, not to be rude Mom, but can we speed this up?" CUTE!

Cute Thing the Second:
Along with "um" Luke has picked up shrugging. I'm sure another kid at daycare does it and Luke is just succumbing to toddler peer pressure, but OMG the cute! The best part is that while he does plenty of just-because shrugging, he's also frequently using it in the correct context. This morning we asked him if he wanted to eat another bite of waffles, he shrugged, said "Um" and babbled for a minute before shoving a piece in his mouth. CUTE!

Cute Thing the Third:
Luke loves to talk on the phone. Absolutely loves it. It started last month when Juan was working long hours and wouldn't see Luke at all Monday-Friday. It was hard on all of us to have him gone so much, and our nightly phone call with Daddy became something Luke really looked forward to. He wouldn't just listen to Juan talk, either. Oh no, my son monopolized the conversation with his own very elaborate (nonsensical) stories. We now talk to Grandma and Grandpa on the phone, Mama on the phone (when I'm the one working late), and of course, Elmo on the phone. Or at least that's who Luke says he's talking to when he picks up one of his toy phones (or toys that kind of look like phones) and starts talking. He even says, "Hello?" when he puts it up to his ear. CUTE!

Cute Thing the Fourth:
You wouldn't think that Luke's picky eating would be cute, but it is. Don't get me wrong, it drives me nuts, but some of his finickiness is just hysterical. Take pizza. If you call it pizza, he won't touch it. Call it "bread with sauce" and he'll eat as much as you'll give him. That's when he's not insisting that it's really "pa-tah" (pasta). CUTE!

I could go on and on, but I have to save something for my next entry, don't I? So I'll leave you with a picture of the (do I need to say it?) cute boy from Christmas.

Sure to be the first of many such posts

One of the best things about having a newly verbal toddler is that I now get at least a few clues as to what he's thinking about as he falls asleep at naptime. Today's Thought of the Day by Luke (overheard via baby monitor) is thus:

"Mama, Daddy, baby, towel, Elmo. Mine mine mine gahsh... kitties...(singing)...hey dat da kitties...(banging on the bars of his crib)...mine mine mine mine mine Elmo...(more banging)...no mine no mine MINE bo bo bo bo Elmo...a dis? Dis? Ahhhhhhhh...Ball, ball, BAAAAALLLLLLL...zzzzzzzz."

Six Things That Make Me Happy

M tagged me for this meme and specifically asked for Luke pictures, so here goes--six things that make me happy, a photo essay.

1) This face:



Loved mostly because it's simultaneously his "yummy" face and the face he makes when you ask for a kiss. My boy gives kisses! It's really all I can do not to ask for them every five minutes.

2) This face:



Just look at him! Coloring (brief moments of marking the page in between attempts to eat the crayon) and smiling so sweetly it makes my heart melt.

3) Not Luke, but I have to brag about my AP students for a moment. They're just the best group of kids I've ever had the privilege to work with, and I'm particularly proud of the boy who transferred in halfway through the semester and has already surpassed most of his classmates in terms of writing ability. He's going to pass the big test in May, I can feel it.

4) My family:



5) Dancing!



This is unfortunately the best picture I have of Luke dancing. Anytime music comes on the radio (or from one of his toys) Luke dances by shaking his hips. It's simply adorable, and the fact that we have yet to catch it on camera is criminal.

6) January 20, 2009



Can't come soon enough, my friends.

Cause and Effect

So Luke decided today that he no longer hates green beans, in fact, he appears to love them so much that he's been saying "bean!" all evening.

Exhibit A:





Thus, it shouldn't come as a surprise that he's learned another word that, if nothing else, tells me that he's truly a boy. "Caca"

I won't get into Exhibit B because, well, no one wants to see that, but suffice it to say, he's using the word in the appropriate context.

Language Explosion

I must say, it's one thing to read in all the baby and toddler books that at some point your child will suddenly start acquiring several new words a day, but it's another thing entirely to witness it. Since our vacation over Thanksgiving, Luke has learned more new words than I can count, and is coming up with new ones every time I turn around. There's no rhyme or reason to the ones he's learning (for example, "down" still eludes him, but "up" and "eyebrow" are current favorites) but tantrums are WAY down around here since he can communicate the basics of what he wants/needs most of the time.

I love this age, I really do.

I'm sorry, were you saying something?

Because while you had your back turned, look what Luke was up to



and then he did this



and this



No, it's not really walking, but considering that he's pointedly ignored the push toy since we bought it two months ago, I think of this as significant progress in that direction.

Mother's Day: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

My first Mother's Day was wonderful. The three of us celebrated yesterday since Juan was working today, and Luke and I spent the "official" day together shopping, playing, and enjoying each other. It was a great day, but a rather eventful one for a number of reasons.

The Good: Luke was sitting on my lap playing with a stuffed toy and he kept pushing it at my mouth. After three or four nosefulls of Lamaze firefly, I finally realized that he wanted me to kiss the toy. I always make a game of having his toys kiss him (complete with big "MWAH!" sound effects) and he was mimicking me. He's never done that before, and he started cracking up as soon as I started giving the toy kisses. He'd put it near my mouth, I'd give it a big "MWAH!" kiss, and he'd laugh. Then I'd laugh, which would make him laugh harder, and so on and so forth. I think it was the first time we've shared a laugh like that, and it was wonderful.

The Bad: My grandmother isn't doing too well, and I'm really worried about her.

The Ugly: We got the green light from the pediatrician to start Luke on table foods, but I'm not sure he's ready. We tried two different Stage 3 (meaning small chunks of soft foods mixed in with purees) foods today and he gagged and vomited on both of them. He clearly has major issues with texture, and part of me wonders if he's just not ready yet. The other part, of course, thinks that it's very likely that he needs to continue to try new textures (he did okay with just one or two small pieces mixed in with a more runny puree) or else he'll never get used to them.

So, that was Mother's Day.

Bravo!

Luke has been learning new skills left and right this month at a pace that makes my head spin a bit when I think about everything he can do now that he couldn't just three weeks ago. He can pull himself to standing very easily, crawl across his room in under 10 seconds, and make "T" sounds. The one that I still can't quite believe, though, is that he's obviously starting to understand certain words and phrases we say to him.

His name was the first word he definitely recognized; that was a month or so ago. "No" isn't quite clicking yet (I think when he does react to it he's listening more to my tone of voice than to the actual word--to be honest I rarely had to use the word before he was mobile) but it's close. His newest word, though, is "Bravo!" Our Spanish-speaking nanny taught him how to clap last week, and now whenever someone says "Bravo!" to him (and he feels like it) he'll clap. It's beyond adorable and we're trying to catch it on camera before the novelty wears off.

My little baby is turning into a little boy, and it's going too fast. There are days when it seems like he'll be like this forever and others when it seems that he noticeably grew physically and cognitively overnight.

The cutest thing in the world

I double dog dare you not to agree that this is the cutest thing the world has possibly ever seen.

Nice Time

I have a confession to make--I lied last week when I wrote that Luke and I would be spending Spring Break lounging around the house. We did, but not our house. Instead, we flew to Utah and stayed with my parents for five days. The reason for the deception was that my very good friend Marcie (who reads this blog--hi, Marcie!) is having a baby in June and our friend Michele and I conspired to throw her a surprise baby shower last week complete with a surprise special guest--me! I couldn't exactly talk about my trip when she didn't know about it, ergo the lying. I'm sure you'll all forgive me someday for it.

The shower went well, Luke played wonderfully with Michele's 4 month old daughter, and my parents hardly let me hold him the rest of the week since all they wanted to do was play with their grandson. I can't say I'm feeling much more rested today than I was a week ago, though, what with Luke's refusal to nap longer than 30 minutes or go through the night without two or three wakings.

Since today is mostly just recovering from the excitement of our trip (U2 in 3D! IKEA! Visitors galore!) I'll leave you here with a few pictures of the boy on Easter when Arcadia suddenly had a personality transplant and decided to be very patient with him.


Well hello, this is something unusual


Okay, okay Daddy I see how to pet the kitty. Let me try!


I'm good at this!


And look, there's even this handy little tail for me to grab and put in my mouth! Mmmm.... kitty fur!


Wait, where are you going kitty?

I take it back

Something exciting IS happening in our house after all! My mom and I went to lunch and a movie this afternoon in celebration of her birthday and when we came home my dad told us that he and Luke had a surprise for us. He propped Luke up with some couch cushions, made a funny noise, and Luke LAUGHED! My baby laughs!

In other baby news, Luke slept in his own room, by himself, for the first time last night and did great. I, on the other hand, hardly slept a wink for worrying about him. Hopefully tonight is better, otherwise it's going to be a very sleepy Thanksgiving for me.

Baby Smiles

Peaceful Moments and a Big Milestone

I'm on the mend again, and while I still have a stuffy nose my fever has broken and I was able to get a good night's sleep on Tuesday. Last night was a bit rough because Luke had a hard time staying asleep, but overall I feel much better.

I know I keep saying this, but things are going too quickly. I go back to work in just over a month, Luke's going be seven weeks old tomorrow, and as often as I tell myself that I'm going to slow down and try to appreciate all of the wonderful things about having a newborn I still find myself rushing around and missing little moments. The first few weeks of his life seemed to go by so slowly, but now there aren't enough hours in the day to do everything and still spend hours just staring at him.

Luke is finding ways to make me slow down, though, most notably by giving me his first genuine for-sure smile yesterday. He was in his crib after a diaper change, and greeted me with a huge grin when I went to pick him up after washing my hands. We spent the next 10 minutes exchanging smiles, and I only wish I'd thought to run downstairs and grab the camcorder or camera to capture the moment. I promise to post some smiling pictures soon, though.

In lieu of a smile, then, I thought I'd give you all a sneak peek of the photo we picked for his birth announcements--the precious boy, asleep in his swing.

Like his mother, he is easily amused

Luke is on my lap right now and is just enthralled by the ceiling fan. Glad to know my child doesn't need all those fancy-schmancy toys we bought him in order to have a good time.

Aaaand he just spit up on my leg. Motherhood is fun.