"I LOVE DADDY"

Sometimes I forget that even though Luke is only 10 months old, he is actually really smart, and he is a real little person, with thoughts, and feelings, and he gets happy and sad.
Yesterday, was the perfect example of this. Monday night was the last time that Luke had seen Jake.... Jake left for work before Luke woke up on Tuesday, and then he had to go straight from work to some 'meetings' for church, so he got home again after Luke had already gone to bed. Then, on Wednesday morning, Luke woke up, just as Jake was getting together his keys and about to run out the door... I quickly ran and grabbed Luke from his crib, and darted into the kitchen so that Jake could say goodbye to him before he left...it had been a while since they had seen each other. Usually, Luke doesn't at all react to Jake leaving... I always presumed it was because he didn't really understand what was happening, and he didn't care, because I am still here, but yesterday morning, as I went into the kitchen with Luke, to say goodbye, Luke got SUPER excited. He squealed, and stiffened up his body in my arms, the way he does when he is really excited... he was just sooo happy to see his daddy...Then, Jake kissed him goodbye, and ran out the door... this is when to my surprise, Luke got REALLY sad, and started to cry. My heart broke...
Our sweet little boy, had noticed the long time it had been since he had last seen his daddy, and couldn't have been more excited to finally see him again...and then daddy left again and this made him sad.
It really amazes me how smart such little children can be, and how accurate their emotions are. He loves his daddy, and he misses him when he is gone... though, I suppose that is to be expected when you have a daddy as great as he does.

CRAYOLA MOMS PLAYTIME

Every Monday, Luke and I go to the Crayola moms play time and the DEPC Center (Down East Partnership fr Children)... The Crayola moms group has the play room booked for 2 hours every Monday...and it's a great play room, so Luke really enjoys it.

In the play room, there is a wooden fort, that has 6 steps going up to the top. Usually, just the bigger kids (the walking ones) go up there, but yesterday, Luke decided he wanted to see what all the fuss up there was about. Seeing as we don't have stairs in our house, I didn't think that he would figure them out too quickly... I was mistaken. LOL... I clearly underestimate my sons determination... he tackled the first step a little slow, but once he had that one down, he was up the remaining 5 in a flash...
 

PLAYING WITH HIS BUDDY IN THE FORT

Luke is still figuring out the 'friends' thing.. for the most part he just crawls around and finds toys he wants to play with, or if he has an interest in someone in the playroom, he uses them as leverage to pull himself to a standing position (good thing he is one of the younger kids, so still has the advantage of being smaller when he is trampling on the other kids. lol)
But, he enjoys the change of scenery and the kiddy friendly environment, where I am not constantly telling him, 'NO'... in the playroom, he can go where he wants and take, touch and play with whatever he wants.
I think that as we continue to go to the Crayola Moms activities, he will learn to share, and be buddies with other kids, and develop some good social skills. He is already a little social butterfly. He really loves people.

OUTSMARTED

On Saturday, Jake and I tackled the task of painting our dining room. Painting while Luke is around can be quite challenging, but we need to get our home done, so we just tried to keep Luke busy, and more importantly, out of the dining room. We don't have any baby gates, so we just tipped our dining room table onto it's side and used it to block the entrance to the dining room. Luke is too short to see over it, so we left a little gap, so that if he wanted to, he could still see us. Well, Luke wasn't going to have any of this... he wanted to be in the dining room, and he was going to make sure he got in there...

And he did...

FIRST HE PUSHED THE TABLE OVER SOME MORE... A LITTLE FATTY CAN'T GET THROUGH SUCH A SMALL GAP...

THEN HE SHIMMIED HIS LITTLE TUSH THROUGH...

MADE IT!!! Now, what chaos can I cause???

ON A LESS SMART NOTE, LUKE DECIDED TO CLIMB UNDER OUR COFFEE TABLE...

HE QUICKLY REALISED HE DIDN'T LIKE BEING TRAPPED UNDER THERE...

THE RESULT WAS THIS!

'OCD' AND A GOOD SALE

Some of you might have already realised that I am a bit OCD in certain areas... I like things to be a certain way.
Well one of my OCD's and addictions, is organizational and storage stuff...shelves, cute little canvas totes, matching tubs and buckets, neatly labeled containers and colourful boxes, etc etc
If I had an unlimited budget, I guarantee, I would spend a LOT of moula in Targets storage department.
They have fun little baskets, and all sorts of gizmos and gadgets for organizing closets, toys, kitchens, pantry's, etc. I could just spend hours there...

However, all these fun and functional things are usually quite expensive. Organizing in style costs money... so I can look, and I can dream, but I can very rarely buy. LOL.

Well, tonight I got so excited because I was able to get a toy organizer shelf for Luke...ON SALE.
I have been looking at these shelves online for months, but usually they range in price anywhere from $60-$200, so I didn't actually think we would ever get one. Then this week, completely by accident, I came across the Target sale ads on the internet (I was looking for something else at Target) and there it was... my organizer shelf, hugely on sale for $37.00

So I had much fun tonight, assembling the shelf - picture it... me with a drill excited about sorting out Lukes toys. LOL

And here my fellow friends and family, is my pride and joy of the evening (yes I love organizing things...with fun storage stuff...THAT much)

Added Bonus: I know Luke is going to LOVE throwing all the plastic tubs on the floor, so hopefully that will help to keep him more interested in his toys, and occupied for a bit longer, because he still has the attention span of a flea on most days, and can't play longer than about 2 minutes on his own. LOL

SNACK TIME AND RASPBERRIES

Luke is very quickly turning from baby into a little boy. He is just barely cutting his first 2 teeth - they aren't through yet, but you can see them right there - despite his toothlessness though, we have been giving him whatever we eat for about a month or so now. He has had curry, bobotie, chicken, pasta, Talapia and a whole variety of other 'big people' foods. For the most part, he seems to enjoy them - in fact, he is slowly starting to refuse his baby food and just beg from us. LOL.
A new favourite of Luke's which he clearly does not get the taste for from me, is cheese... he LOVES string cheese. Right now we have the mixed cheddar and mozzarella string cheese and he devours one with lunch or at snack time everyday. I have even started packing cheese in the diaper bag, because it keeps him happy if he gets niggly while we are out. LOL. Other favourites of his are canned peaches (I buy the kind in 100% juice, instead of syrup) and mandarin oranges. He also loves yoghurt, and cream cheese or avocado on toast. Note the lack of vegetables mentioned... he hasn't quite developed the taste for big people veggies... so I still have to get a jar of squash or green beans into him every now and then.

Lately, he has also started to realise that the fridge is where we keep the food... if he hears or sees you open the fridge, he is there in a flash, trying to climb in and help himself. 

WHAT SHOULD I HAVE FOR LUNCH?

PERHAPS A MANGO...

...AND MAYBE A DRINK OF LEMON JUICE

The other day Jake was giving Luke some raspberries right after his bath. He has a very hearty laugh, but I just love how his whole face reacts to the ticklish raspberries.

He is growing so fast... in less than 2 months, he will be a 1 year old.

THE CAT IN THE HAT MEETS LUKE...

Today, at a local bookstore, there was a 'party' on to celebrate Dr Seuss' 106th birthday. There was cake (it was free, so naturally it was gone in a flash) and they had 'The Cat In The Hat' come in and visit the children and let them get pictures taken. There was suppose to be Dr Seuss story time too, but I think with all the chaos of everyone trying to meet The Cat In The Hat, story time never came to be.

PLAYING WITH ELMO (HE WAS FOR SALE AT THE BOOKSTORE) WHILE WE WAITED FOR OUR TURN TO TAKE PICTURES

So many of the kids there didn't want to go get their picture taken, because they were afraid... one little boy, perhaps about 4 years old, got pretty upset at one point when The Cat In The Hat got too close. Funny thing about that, is that Luke was probably the youngest child there, and I had a number of people say that he is probably just going to freak out when I take him up to meet The Cat In The Hat... but that's the thing about my little monster... he is yet to be afraid of anything. In his almost 10 months of life, he has literally faced everything, head on.... hyperactive dogs, snooty cats, skittish lambs, and The Cat In The Hat...Luke just looks them in the eyes and shows no fear. I am not sure if that is a good or a bad thing... isn't fear sometimes necessary???

CLEARLY LUKE LOOKS ABSOLUTELY PETRIFIED...Lol


NOT THE LEAST BIT INTERESTED IN GETTING HIS PICTURE WITH THIS FUNNY LOOKING CREATURE...

Anyway, after our cake and pictures at the Dr Seuss party, we headed into the mall, and Luke, daddy and I shared some cinnamon pretzel sticks and a cup of lemonade... Luke had his fill of sugar and fun for night, and now he is passed out... though, sadly, I doubt it's for the night!

GETTING ALL SUGARED UP ON HIS PRETZEL STICK