Birthday and Bargains

Random shot that I like of Luke eating a colorful dinner of macaroni, carrots and baked beans. He had some blueberries for dessert. I love that you can see Star in the dog door thinking of coming in the house. We really didn't have too much planned this week, but we did celebrate another birthday in our house, have some fun visits with friends and wrangle up a bunch of bargains this morning making the yard sale rounds. Luna turned EIGHT on Tuesday so Luke, Grandpa Nick and I took her and Star to the lake for a fun morning romp and then Steve brought home the traditional DQ soft serve as a treat for her special day. We split the ice cream b/w Luna and Star which Luke just didn't like that at all. He and Daddy each took a couple of bites so once he knew what the dogs were eating he was trying to take the bowls away from them - and some say that sugar isn't an addictive drug?! I am a confirmed addict! Here are some pictures of the day. We also enjoyed visits with Amy and Angie this week and Steve and I got to golf together on a beautiful evening with some school folks which was a real treat. There was a hole at the course we played that is so lovely, I told Steve we could have saved the Jamaica airfare and gotten married on the green! I would go golfing again just to enjoy the beauty of the course! It was a treat, though, to play with Steve and to have all of my dad's tips and golf ideas going through my head as I played - thanks for getting me out to Wildwood all of those times, dad! My mom kept Luke while we went out and when we got home he had been down for about 30 minutes, and my mom was beat. He is a little workout for sitters (and for his parents) now that he is in constant motion. I am going to have to get a short list of CCHS students going so that we don't wear out the grandmas, and so he starts to get comfortable with other caretakers. I am already thinking (panicking) about how daycare will go a year from now! This morning my mom brought me coffee and we headed out (on a COOL 70 degree JULY day) to wander around the yard sales. It is fun to see what people will put out and find a treasure here and there. We ran into some friends, even, and later they scouted a great find for Luke. We got a great baby pool with a slide for $2.50 and I bought a bunch of balls so that he has an indoor ball pit in his playroom now...He has napped through its creation so 1. hopefully he likes it and 2. hopefully I can get a cute picture of him liking it up on this blog. I bought the pool at a church down the street from our house and rolled it home, yeah, I rolled it home... As we were driving along this morning, I suddenly yelled 'hey, that is my family!' Steve was doing the parade route with Luke in the stroller and the dogs leading the way. So cute :) We also visited a very crowded farmer's market and a few other shops. It was lovely time with my mums and the bonus was coming home with a few goodies. Just for the record, Steve does not understand yard sale - anything I come home with he asks how much we will charge when we sell it next year. Gotta love him and I do! LASTLY, here is some summer beauty. This rose was a gift for Luke on his one month birthday from Gma Susan and it was Luke's Great-Gma Louise's, favorite rose. My mom took great care and planted it for me, and it is a wonderful sight to see.
video I got of Luke exploring the ball pit...fun

Perfection

That was my day. Perfection.

More details to come but I just had to get a couple of pictures up here and tell my family and friends that I love them for loving me! Birthdays are fun. I might just go eat another cupcake!

Oh, and I have to mention that next year my FIL Paul will be doing the moonwalk as we grill out and enjoy the day. Can't wait ;)


Last year's birthday

This year's birthday!

My folks and a happy boy with a balloon (my mom still decorates for my b-day! What fun!)

I love the audience here for the grandpa performance. He got up pretty quickly b/c he was falling asleep on his feet and didn't dare sit still too long!

Pictures

A quick Luke story and then lots of recent photos that I just adore.

The other day one of the girls' new dog toys ended up under Luke's little table. I asked him to find Luna's toy and bring it to her so he toddled over, crawled under, retrieved the toy and threw it (yeah he can throw pretty darned well!) at Luna. It was just a moment that I wanted to remember.

Tomorrow is my b-day! I will be 26 - oh wait 32! - yikes! I am in the middle of a fortunate life and I am so thankful.

Luke (Steve) got me a new brain game for the DS which Steve is now playing as he sits here next to me. Just a sidenote in the past few years, my b-day or Christmas presents have been the DS, Wii, WiiFit, and each one of them become Steve's favorite thing for a while...I love giving him a hard time about that (and I truly love the gifts!)

Luke went down quickly tonight for the third night in a row without a bottle. I think I am getting rid of them?!?! Now for the pics:

Last pic of Luke enjoying his bedtime bottle. This was last week. He was in his own little world with his buddy Frogger. This frog is from Gma Jackie. It was waiting in Luke's crib before he was born as a surprise for Steve and I and he has been a great buddy to Luke. Actually, this week Frogger survived the washer and drier after a naked Luke peed on him.
Trying to figure out how to open a candy bar. On our way up north last week we let him loose in a convenient store and the first thing he did was trot down the candy aisle and grab this candy bar. We had to buy it because he was bending it every which way trying to open it in the store, and Steve ate it later :)

He loves hotel phones. I unplug them and he just loves pushing the buttons and dragging it all around the room.

He also really enjoyed the carpeting after an evening swim-

Watching the Wimbleton men's final in bed on Sunday morning. This is one of my favorite hair moments and a favorite Luke moment since he isn't one to pause for snuggles very often. Between the banana and the tv he was content for a few minutes.

Brunch with Brovie and my parents. Post-July 4th fun! Luke was in awe of Brovie - just loved feeding him bagels and listening to him talk.

Changing a picture and an old splatter painting that I did at my first counseling job (with the art class) was in the frame. Luke was interested in all of the colors and I was interested in getting some great pictures of him.

Can you see all of the raviolis on the floor - Luke is working on using a fork, and he is getting pretty good at it. We lost a few to his practice and then a few more to him being done and just clearing his tray.

His belly is full, and he is happy.

Is it obvious that he needs a tad bit more practice with the fork?

Luna loves a snack - I love a helper!

The tennis racquet belongs in the dryer, mom!

He is just checking his height against the racquet.

He stands on this lunchbox inside his playpen in order to reach the magnets on the fireplace. He then throws them everywhere and has a blast doing so...I just love his feet at work.

As I loaded the pictures on this post, Steve just killed me at Yahtzee. Time to clean up a little and go to bed.

Bottle

As I listen to Luke protest going to bed without a bottle, I thought I could at least post some pictures and write about some neat things that he has done in the past couple of days. I hope that the pictures will load. I am going to try those first so that I don't get as frustrated as he is right now.

He has been really busy today and got home from his first sunset concert pretty tired so I thought that after his bath and a solid bedtime snack (yogurt, blueberries, banana) we could to the normal routine (book, giggles, songs, lovin') and he would go right down....When did I think that I knew anything?

It is 45 minutes later and Steve is now taking a turn at rocking, singing and rubbing his back. It isn't the end of the world if the bottles continue, but it would be nice to be done with them and it would be better for the beautiful mouthful of teeth that he has to not have milk resting on them all night. Interestingly enough, the health of baby teeth does play a part in the health of adult teeth.

Okay he is quiet - we may have just turned a major corner of NO MORE BOTTLES and again blogger is having issues loading pictures. At least I got one on here (which shows off those teeth that I mentioned earlier!) Bedtime for bonzo...I mean mama

Friday morning edit: He fell asleep a little before ten and is still zonked at 7:25. Yeah!

Sleepy

Well, I managed to get one pic on here today. This was post-brunch on Sunday (and post Federer win!). He was asleep before we left the parking lot.

Growth

It is 8:40am and I am typing this as Luke sleeps (yes, he is STILL asleep) This is very new territory for us. We are used to being awoken at 6:00, but the past week or so we have seen a change in sleeping patterns. I think he woke up around 4:00 today but I was in a coma and Steve handled him so I should probably be in bed still!

We have all had a busy couple of weeks. Since June we have visited Kansas City, Louisville (thanks for the surprise Steve!), Chicago suburbs and Effingham. We went up north to see family on the 4th, but left early the day of the party b/c rain was covering the entire state of Illinois. With a toddler that wants to run around and play, we just decided to hit the road and stay in a hotel in Effingham since we were meeting a friend on the 5th anyway.

Our 4th of July turned out pretty well. We still got to see lots of family, stayed in a nice hotel, ate a good dinner and went swimming afterwards. There were even fireworks outside of the pool area (it was a wedding party celebrating!).

It is good to be home. We have no real plans for the rest of the summer which also feels good. Steve is getting comfy in his new position and Luke and I are finding adventures close to home. Yesterday we met Gma Susan for some fun at the Herrin library story hour. It was a 'stretch and grow' program which Luke was a little young for, but he enjoyed looking at the other kids and running through the stacks of books.

Lately, Luke likes to:
throw things - he will clean out his playpen very quickly and he is very interested in throwing balls whenever he gets the chance

'get the giggles out' before bed he will get really giggly and it is really fun to laugh and love on him before he reaches for George and signals it is bedtime

do what he wants - he is growing that strong will of a toddler

be outside

climb whatever is available

I tried to get some pictures on here but blogger is malfunctioning...

climbing

Here is Luke today showing off, not only a fairly new trick, but how swiftly he can accomplish his task.

He said "up" today to his dad. I was really excited about that since I have said then when I pick him up since he was born ;) He seems to be changing before our eyes and, dare I say it, becoming cooler by the day. We are lucky.

Happy 4th of July weekend!