Luke: January 2011

I think the stage Luke is at (9 months old this past week) is one of the cutest and funnest stages of babyhood.  My Lukie-pie is just so sweet.  He is getting very curious about what Gabe is doing, and he wants to be in on the fun.  He doesn't want to lay down or sit down, he just wants to stand.  He is starting to try to walk (with help).  He is super wiggly!  This kid has a smile that could melt anyone's heart, and I'm afraid he has got us wrapped around his little fingers!

Favorites:
Foods: Cheerios, any fruit (especially applesauce, apricots, peaches, pears, and fresh bananas), sweet potatoes, and carrots, and rice husk crackers.

Toys: Luke likes toys that make sounds, have wheels, or which can be chewed on, or anything that Gabe is playing with.

He LOVES things with buttons, so any remote, cell phone, or toy with buttons is an Luke- magnet.  Bonus points if something exciting happens after pushing a button.

Activities: Peekaboo and Pattycake are very entertaining, as are tickling and cuddling (sometimes).  We took this video of Luke about one week before he turned 7 months old, where he is playing peekaboo all on his own.  We were so surprised when he started doing it, but he loved all the laughs he got, and he continued doing it for quite a while that night.

Luke loves to watch Gabe run around and play, and he is beginning to want to be part of everything Gabe does. 
We recently got out this jumperoo thingy and Luke has got the hang of bouncing in it and he is happy since he always wants to be standing.

People: Luke loves his Mommy and Daddy and Gabe tons, and he recognizes and is delighted to see Grandparents and aunts and uncles.  Luke seems to pick up on and react to "love vibes"- or in other words he can sense when someone likes him, and he will cuddle right up- even if they are a stranger.  This happened in church last week when a grandmotherly lady held him for a moment while I had to lead some music.  He stared at her for a minute, then began smiling and snuggled right up in her lap.

Luke is happy any time Gabe is nearby, and thrives on attention Gabe gives him.  He puts up with quite a lot of poking and prodding from Gabe too...

Stats:

Luke began consistently sitting up by himself for longer periods of time when he turned 7 months old.

• Luke still has 7 teeth (he had all those by the time he was 7 months old), but I believe that is about to change.
• Luke is NOT interested in crawling.
• After we came back from Oregon for Christmas, Luke started pulling himself up to stand so that he could see what was going on up on Gabe's train table (8 months old).  Maybe he will skip crawling all together and go straight to walking?

I frequently walk into a room and find a picture like this- both boys just chilling together, often in unusual positions, and just content and jabbering to each other. 

Gabriel: January 2011

Gabe is quite a character!  He is becoming very inquisitive and opinionated.  In true toddler fashion, he is exerting his independence and testing limits.  It can be quite frustrating at times, but I keep reminding myself that he is doing what all two year olds do, and that it is a normal developmental stage.  He is a bit of a charmer too, so my occasional frustration is tempered by lots of sweetness and delight.  Here is a little bit about Gabe currently.

Favorites:
Colors: anything vibrant, but especially green at the moment.
Foods: Pizza, lasagna, raisins, Chex, ice cream, broccoli, ham, cheese, any Mexican food, any Chinese food.  He will pretty much eat anything we give him, most of the time!

Toys: His train table set that he got for Christmas, his monkey (still), a little airplane on wheels thingy, magnets on the magnet board, dishes & measuring spoons.

Activities: Singing (Twinkle Twinkle, I am a Child of God, Heavenly Father Loves Me, Eensie Weensie Spider, I'm a Little Pile of Tin, Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree, Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes, The Wheels on the Bus, Saw a Little House in the Middle of the Woods, and MANY others), dancing (to any old music, or Just Dance- a Wii game), throwing balls, unwinding spools of thread or balls of yarn, looking at books, making Luke laugh, and climbing up on things, coloring (for short periods of time), and playing with Play- Doh.

Outfit: Blue Jeans (I love hearing him say that) and his brown or yellow long sleeved shirts.  And his Thomas the Tank Engine Jammies and Slippers.

Movies: Thomas the Tank Engine shows, Curious George, The Jungle Book

Cute/ Funny Stuff

Overheard:
A week or two ago: Kissing sound, and "Luke, I love you!  Be right back!" and little feet running down the hallway.
Last night: " 'Tinky, poopy bum.  Diaper change? No! Mommy do it." (At the suggestion that daddy would change it.)
This week: "Luke, play trains with me! Come on!"
After a loud noise upstairs: Screaming, followed by "Mommy! Scary! You hear boom boom? Scary tiger, Mommy!" (I don't know where the scary tiger thing came from, other than maybe from The Jungle Book movie.  He has been really spooked by loud noises lately.)

Common Phrases:
"Yes, sir, mommy" -over and over, every day. (Occasionally it is "Yes, ma'am, but usually everyone is a "Sir" to him.)
"Lukie- pie" -I guess I call Luke that enough that Gabe picked up on it.  He understands that it is just a nickname.  Last week we were joking together about calling grandparents "Grandma Suzie-Pie and Papa Ronnie- Pie".
Gabe occasionally calls BJ or I "honey", "sweetie- pie", "Sweetheart", or "Love" depending on what he hears us say.  Today I dropped something on the floor, and he picked it right up and handed it to me without being asked, and said "Here you go, sweetheart!" (Picture me melting.)
"Hningermails" =fingernails, as in, "Long hiningermails? Cut them?"
"Mommy, want to see show!"  "What show do you want to watch, Gabriel?" "Um...... Thomas The Tank Engine!" (enunciated perfectly, of course, after so much practice...)

Gabe and I had fun playing with homemade "instruments" this week- see this blog post on my other blog.  So later that night, I just happened to see that my mom had posted a video of Anna playing the guitar and singing at her first ever guitar recital (she just started playing a few months ago), Gabe was mesmerized, and he demanded his toy guitar that we made, and proceeded to accompany himself singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".  It was funny, and adorable, and reminded me why toddlers are so much fun.  I asked him to do it again a little later for the camera, which he did, but not with as much enthusiasm.  Haha. Oh well!

We have reached the point that getting a good picture of Gabe is kind of hard.  He will smile and cooperate for the first picture, but it often goes downhill from there (although still cute, the pictures that follow become increasingly cheesy- but at least they are happy in this series!)

I love that Gabe loves to be with his brother.  He is starting to be really helpful in keeping Luke happy and entertained.  I have to remind him sometimes that Luke is just a baby and he needs to be gentle and use a quiet voice to not scare him, but mostly they just love being around each other. 

Toddlerhood is a challenge, but a fun one (almost all the time)!

Christmas 2011

This year we spent the night of Christmas Eve at BJ's parents' house.  BJ stayed up until 2 AM putting Gabe's train table together.  It was fun for Gabe (and for us) to wake up Christmas morning and get to open presents with Grandma Sue, Grandpa Ron, and Rhonda (or "Panda" as Gabe still calls her).  We enjoyed breakfast and visiting with Danielle and Kirk's family, and also got to see Taylor and Emily for a while.  We headed home pretty late-ish and still had to finish packing so that we could leave the next morning at the crack of dawn to fly to Oregon.  We got to have a 2nd Christmas with my family after Marissa and Richard also arrived, and it was great!  Anyway, here are some pictures from Christmas 2010.

oops

I don't know why I can't seem to get my act together with the blogging lately.  I think it is a case of letting too much time pass so that the prospect of "catching up" on our family's doings is just overwhelming and I am not motivated to do it.  It could also be that the only time I really have to blog and have "personal time" is during naptime or after the kids have gone to bed for the night, and there are just so many things to do and catch up on that blogging drops down on my priority list.  Whatever the case may be, I have been feeling guilty that I am not recording the things my kids are doing and how they are growing.  So, I am repenting!  I have some photos, videos, stories and things that I have been meaning to post forever, and now I will actually do it.  But not in this post.  I will do a post for Christmas, and each kid, and maybe one for BJ and I.   But probably not all at once.  (!)