FAMILY PICTURES

This morning we had a friend of ours, Tricia, take some family photo's for us. It got HOT HOT HOT and really humid super fast...even though we were there by about 8:30am. It was a really pretty place that we went to, so the scenery is great, unfortunately, Luke wasn't in the most co-operative mood, so you'll see that he doesn't have his usual handsome, charming face on in some of the pics. These are some of my favourites (minus Lukes sullen looking face. LOL)

I saw a cute frame idea at my friend Rachel's house. You take a decorative curtain rod, and hang 3 full sized photo frames from it, with pretty ribbon, and then mount it to the wall.. well anyway, I was thinking of maybe using these 3 pictures for the 3 frames.

CRASH, BUMP, OOPS, OUCH!!!

Luke, as rough as he is, has up until now, survived beyond his first year with no 'serious' injuries.
Of course, he has the occasional bump, bruise and scratch, but most of the time they are so insignificant in severity that I don't even know when or how he got them.
Yesterday, however, he sustained his first war wound.
We went to Smithfield, to a nice big outlet mall they have there. Luke needed to pj's and Jake needed some shoes, so we decided to head out and hit the outlet malls Memorial Day weekend sales. We stopped into Carters store, to pick up some pj's for the little man. I let him out of the stroller, because it's a pretty kid friendly store (they sell baby and toddler clothes), and they have a little lego table for the kids to play at. Luke was all over the place... having a blast 'running' away from dad. He is starting to do a kinda walk-run... he wants to go faster, but hasn't got the whole running thing down quite yet. Well, I was in the check out line, and Jake was chasing after Luke, trying to keep him out of trouble, and next thing I see Luke heading right for the check out counter, which is kinda octagon shaped so has multiple cornered edges, and BAM... he trips in his attempt to run, and plants his face into the corner of the counter.

He got a small gash on his cheek bone, along with a scratch. It was quite the bleeder. By this morning he had a shiner extending from his cheek up to the corner of his eye. Poor thing was so sad.. that ended all the fun of the day for him, but after a cuddle and some kisses from his mommy, he was all better, and ready for lunch and a nap.

Yesterday after we got home and his cut was cleaned up

Today, with his new shiner

Surely I knew it would be coming shortly, because he is walking so much, and constantly on the go, but my heart still broke when I saw the blood and tears on my little boys face.

Of course, it would be in perfect timing too... tomorrow we are getting a good friend from church to take some updated family pictures for us.. needless to say when you see the family pictures, they will be photo shopped, so that Luke's war wound doesn't need to framed and hung on my wall. LOL.

But, boys will be boys, and this I am sure is just the start of many bumps, bruises and bloody knees, and I will be there to wipe away all the tears, and kiss all the dirty, stubbed toes and scratched elbows. That is after all one of the joys of being a mommy... we get to make everything better! :-D

DADDY AND ME... MALE BONDING RITUALS!

I have managed to get a few nice pictures and videos of Luke and Jake recently, so I decided to do a 'Daddy and Me' blog post.
I have such good looking men in my life!

Jake and Luke play quite a bit in the evenings. Luke has chosen which parent has which role... daddy is for fun, and mommy is for cuddles. He is showing signs of turning into a mommy's boy, so he often fusses until Jake hands him over to me, however, he knows that his daddy is definitely more fun than mommy.
One of Jake and Lukes favourite games is 'stack and crash'... Jake builds a tower out of Lukes stacking cups, and then Luke knocks them over and enjoys hearing them crash to the floor. Luke becomes extremely determined to knock over those cups...sometimes so much so, that Jake struggles to just get all 10 quickly stacked. I got a video of them playing their game the other night...you can see Lukes determination in the video. LOL

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Luke is still not saying any words, part of which might be because he is processing two languages (Jake speaks a lot of Japanese to him, while I only speak English to him) and partly because I think his ear infections from ages 6-9 months limited his ability to hear properly, so he didn't learn to process language as early as most. Despite his slow language development, Jake and Luke seem quite able to communicate in other ways. The next video is what I call,  "A Male Bonding Ritual". lol

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Yesterday we went to a friends birthday party... Lukes little buddy, Carson turned 3.
Carson got a bicycle for his birthday, so Luke decided to try it out.

After the party, we hung out in the car for a while, so that Daddy could teach Luke to drive.
You gotta teach kids young these days. lol

These are just a few pictures that I thought were kinda cute.
Luke found a low window at the party, and was staring out at something. I love how he leans on the window sill.

Luke 'on the go' before the party.
Don't you just love those sandals. LOL

A SPECIAL PACKAGE FOR LUKE

My mom had told me a while ago, that they were sending Luke a package for his birthday from South Africa. I knew that my mom had sent something sentimental, and that the gift from my brother and Doma (his gorgeous girlfriend) was home-made... other than that I had no idea what the contents of the package were. The package didn't arrive in time for his birthday, but it was well worth the wait. I was so excited to see the wonderful gifts.
My sister sent the most appropriate shirt for Luke, "100% Mischief Guarenteed" ... lol
He needs one of those to wear every day of the week. Or maybe we could alternate... Monday can be 'Mischief', Tuesday can be 'Terror', Wednesday 'Wild', Thursday 'Trouble', Friday 'Fiesty', Saturday 'Super Attitude' and Sunday 'Stinker'. LOL
(Blogger kept turning the pic sideways... ???)

My dad included a very typical boy toy... Lukes 'Pops' as we call him is making sure that our son is ALL BOY.
He sent him a katty (slingshot).. the handmade kind you can get back home. LOL... He will definitely be '100% Mischief Guarenteed" if we let him play with that. LOL

Jarryd and Doma sent a great gift. A book and narrative CD called "How Giraffe Became So Tall", an African Folklore Tale.

What makes the CD great, is that they sat and selected songs that fit in with the theme of each page, and included them between each pages narration. Originally my family had tried to order the real book online, but later came to find that they were out of stock and failed to notify my mom that her order had therefore been canceled. So, as a plan B they put a handmade copy of the book together until we can at a later stage get the real deal. My smart hubby, has created a slide show of the story, along with the narration and music, so you can all listen to it if you like.  There are a couple of glitches to the video, but you'll get the idea.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The gift that made me cry, was the 'sentimental' gift my mom and dad sent. They got a story book personalized with Luke as a character (an engineer none-the-less. lol) It even includes some of Lukes little friends on one of the pages (Joshua Giordano, Brent Cutrell and Adam Linegar)

So much thought went into these gifts, and I think Luke will realise in years to come, just how much ALL of his family love him. Even though everyone lives far away, he has lots of grandparents, aunts and uncles thinking of him often and spoiling him so much. What a lucky little boy!

12 MONTH STATS

Yesterday I took Luke to the pediatrician for his 12 month well baby visit. I am so used to going and finding out that Luke has had another massive growth spurt and is on top of the charts for his size, that I presumed it would be the same yesterday, however I was wrong this time. Luke is finally averaging out. In the past, he has usually always been in the 90th or 95th percentiles for height and weight, but he is now down to the 50th-75th percentile for both height and weight. So he is still well proportioned, just a little more average sized. (Though he still feels like a chunk to me, lol)

His stats for 12 months are:

Weight: 23lb 14 oz (10.82kg)
Height: 30 Inches  (76.2cm)

All in all he is a healthy boy. The pediatrician is still a bit concerned about him not yet saying any words, like 'mamma', 'dadda' etc, but I told her that I am 100% positive Luke can hear as he reacts and turns when you speak to him etc, so she is willing to give him a few more months to start talking... he did after all get a late start at processing language, because he had constant ear infections from 6-9 months, so his hearing was probably a little like hearing under water. To me, Luke is just focusing on his gross motor skills first... he is a very physical boy. We will continue to read to him and talk to him often so that he has the chance to learn and understand words, but I know he will start saying them in his own time.

The poor little guy had to have 4 immunization shots and a blood draw yesterday. Luke has never been much of a crier - he is a whiner and complainer, but doesn't cry that much. Yesterday though, my sweet boy SOBBED, with big crocodile tears streaming down his cheeks. For the rest of the afternoon, he wasn't himself. He was quiet and a lot less responsive than normal. I think he was really sad that I had 'let them' hurt him. My heart was broken.

Unfortunately he had 2 immunisations he has never had before. Varicella (chicken pox) and MMR (measles, mumps & rubella) and one of them, he didn't react well too. Within a few hours of the shots, he had a fever of 101.7'F (38.7'C) so we gave him a cool bath and some meds and put him to bed. By 2am this morning, his fever had spiked to 102.7'F (39.4'C) and he was not a happy little boy. My usually hyper, bouncy boy was lethargic and just lay dead still in my arms. It turned into a rather long, rough night. Fortunately, by this morning, after 3 rounds of fever reducer meds, his fever was much lower. He is still not very happy today, and quite tired, but his fever at least is almost gone.

Sometimes, it's so hard being a mom. Even though I know how important immunizations are, it doesn't make it any less painful to see my little boy so sad and unwell from them. That said, I am grateful that we have a happy healthy child that hasn't suffered any major illnesses. Even though he is exhausting on most days, I know that at least with Luke, "A Hyper Child is a Happy Child" and I love my bouncy, energetic little boy.

BIG BOY BIRTHDAY BASH

After a month of planning, lots of stressing, and a full day of cake baking and decorating, Lukes party has come and gone.

THE PLANNING:

I tossed around many ideas and themes in my head, but finally decided on a BBQ at home, and I chose a Mod Monkey theme. Invitations for Mod Monkey were expensive, so I just decided to design my own and print them as 5x7 photorgraphs.

All in all I would say it was a success. Our big boy was so spoiled, and mostly everyone had a good time. I planned on the party being at 3:00pm, because on most days, Luke has taken his afternoon nap by then, or wakes up shortly after then, so I thought that by the time everyone arrived, he would be fresh and ready for the chaos... obviously, he had to be otherwise yesterday, lol and decided NOT to nap before his party, so he didn't last long.

THE CAKES:

I wanted to do something special for Lukes first birthday, so I decided to try my hand at baking and decorating the cakes myself. I wanted a Mod Monkey themed cake, and a 'smash cake' for Luke to enjoy. It took me an entire day, from about 8:30am until 11:10pm (with a few hours of doing other things in between) to get his cakes done.

I started out with baking one 11x15 sheet cake, and a 6" round cake. I had planned to torte the sheet cake (cut it horizontally) and fill it, but it didn't rise evenly so was too thin on the one side to cut like that. So I baked another sheet cake.

Then I leveled them off as best I could

and filled them with a chocolate filling

The frosting was the hardest part. I did a 'crumb coat' first, to seal in all the loose crumbs

Then I let that set in the fridge, and then put the final coat of frosting over that. I let that set in the fridge, and then smoothed it over using Viva brand paper towel and a flat spatula. (Viva brand because it's smooth)

Then came the decorating. I 'traced' a Mod Monkey face onto wax paper, pricking needle holes alone the outline. Then I placed that over the frosted cake and brushed cocoa powder over it which goes through the holes, and left the outline for me to follow.

And then I spent the next few hours getting the frosting on as neatly as I could.
After 5 boxes of cake mix, 15 eggs and 7 tubs of frosting...

THE FINAL PRODUCT:

I decorated a corner in the back room in the Mod Monkey colour scheme and put his cakes etc out there. We had tables off to the sides with food and drinks. On the wall, were pictures of Luke throughout his first year. I really enjoyed watching everyone look at how much our little monkey has grown through the year. He has always been a gorgeous baby.

THE GIFTS:

Our living room was complete CHAOS. We had kids, parents and toys everywhere, and the sound volume was something else. LOL. My family wanted to be on the webcam when Luke opened his presents, so we did that first, because it was getting late in South Africa (that turned out to be a good idea, because he went down for a nap right after were were done with gifts). Luke isn't really old enough to be excited about opening presents yet, but his buddies all were, so we gave each of the children a chance to open a gift for Luke. WOW, what a spoiled little boy.

Lukes 'Loot'

Lukes got so many new toys.
From us:
Thomas the Train DVD

Mega Bloks

Magnetic Fridge Farm

From Family:

Mega Bloks Farm

ABC's Book

Walk and Ride Convertable Toy

From Friends:

Elmo-in-the-box (jack in the box toy)

Blowing bubbles

Finger paints & Picture posters to paint on

Board books

Tonka Truck

Jigsaw puzzles

Stacking cups

Shape sorters

He also got a really cute Mickey Mouse robe and slippers from his 'aunty' Leanne in London, but I forgot to grab that to put with his toys when we took the picture (we opened that gift on his birthday, so it was already packed in his cupboard), and his gifts from my parents and siblings are still on their way, so more spoiling is to come.

Thank you everyone, for such wonderful gifts. My little boy has so many toys, it's just crazy.

After Luke went down for his nap, we all took the chaos outside, and enjoyed a BBQ lunch of hotdogs, potato salad, fruit salad and my sisters secret recipe curried pasta salad. I was so worried that we wouldn't have enough food, and we ended up with far too many leftovers to be able to eat, so had to give some away. lol.

SMASH CAKE:

When Luke woke up from his nap, we sang happy birthday and gave him his cake. Some of our guests had already left, but we still enjoyed it with those that were still there. We bought him a Mod Monkey bib to wear when he 'ate' his cake.

Luke wasn't really that eager to 'smash' his cake...perhaps cos it was dinner time and he had only just woken up. When Luke failed to devour the cake himself, his little buddy Adam, who is 10 and a half months old, decided he would help himself to some cake... what started as a couple of finger licks of just the frosting, turned into handfuls of missing cake. LOL.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Adam, the little cake eating culprit. LOL

Who could get mad at that cute little face.

After the days events, Luke was cheery and energetic (obviosuly because he slept through most of the party. lol) and had some fun playing with his new toys.

This little boy has been such a joy and such a blessing, and we are so excited to enjoy every coming year with him, as we watch him grow and learn and go from baby, to boy, to man.

LUKES BIG DAY

Today is Lukes Birthday.

 

I can't believe my little baby is already ONE, and officially starting his life as a toddler. He has come such a long way in the past year. Every day is a new milestone and adventure. We have so loved having this little munchkin in our family... I don't even really remember what it was like before he was born...less exhausting, I am sure, but far more boring, and much less fulfilling. I love being a mommy, and Jake loves being a daddy.
To start off Lukes big day, we opened a few gifts. We have saved some for his party on Saturday, so he just opened 3 today. He got a Thomas the Train DVD and a big tub of Mega Bloks from Jake and I, and then he was very spoiled and got a Mickey Mouse robe and slippers and a Disney t-shirt from his 'aunty' Leanne in London. I know he will be even more spoiled on Saturday with lots more still to open.

The day was just our usual day... we went grocery shopping, played a bit, napped etc...
When Jake got home, we decided to head down to Strawberry City, just a few miles up the road from our house, to pick some strawberries.

And then 'Daddy' and Luke of course had to get in some play time with Lukes new Mega Bloks. Jake was more excited than Luke about the blocks (I obviously made a good choice. LOL), but Luke enjoys any playtime he has with his daddy. Mommy is for cuddles, daddy is for fun. LOL 

The day was good. Jake and I are the proud parents of the CUTEST little boy (and I'm not biased. LOL)
and we have survived the first year of parenthood with only a few extra wrinkles and grey hairs. I am looking forward the the adventures we will have with our 'Bean' in the next year.