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.

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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.

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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.

LUKES LIFE LATELY

Luke is developing so fast lately. Both in skills and abilities as well as in personality. 

He is walking more frequently now, though often he still decides to crawl instead because walking takes more time and patience, and patience isn't something our little adventure seeker has. After all, he only has so many waking hours to terrorize and tornado through our home.

He has also started to climb things. Usually he will find something to use as leverage...a book lying on the floor, one of us sitting on the floor etc... and he tries to climb onto things. The other night he successfully climbed onto the coffee table using Jakes leg as a step (see video). 

He is slowly though quite reluctantly learning to understand and follow instructions. Sometimes he opens the desk drawer and throws the stationery out, or plays with the scissors... obviously not the safest choice in toys, so I usually tell him 'no' as soon as I catch him. A few days ago, I asked him to please close the stationery drawer, and I kinda tried to show him by using pushing movements (I was sitting across the room)... to my surprise, after watching me for a few seconds, he pushed the drawer closed...though, it wasn't long before he tried his luck opening it again to get more 'loot' to play with. lol

Something we have really been enjoying lately is that Luke has started to laugh at things completely spontaneously... before, we had to tickle him or do something to make him laugh... now he laughs at random things that he finds funny. We caught him on camera the other day. Jake and I were sitting on the couch chatting, while Luke was playing at the bookshelf... suddenly, he just started giggling... we looked over at him, and he caught our eyes and just kept giggling.. it was really funny. I wish I knew what he was laughing at though. LOL 

 

Here is a video of our boy with the giggles, the tail end of him climbing on to the table, and some more of him wobbling his way across the room.

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He has also become so loving and affectionate over the past few weeks. I always felt like I had missed out, because I never had a baby who liked to be held and cuddled. Luke always fought us if we held him to tight, or tried to cuddle with him, so it has been a welcomed change to have my sweet little boy occasionally lie on my shoulder for a cuddle and a back tickle and to give kisses. He has also grown very attached to his 'Snuggle Monkey'... we have 2 of these, so one stays in his crib, and lately one has been driving in the car with us. Lukes face lights up whenever you give it to him, and he immediately pulls his monkey in tight for a little snuggle. We asked him the other night if he would give his Snuggle Monkey a kiss... and he very willingly did. He still give wide, opened mouth wet kisses. LOL I love those wet kisses :D

Quite some time ago, we bought the collection of Baby Einstein DVD's. I sometimes put one on in the background, and just let Luke listen to the classical music that they play. The Baby Beethoven DVD seems to be his favourite from the collection. For the most part, Luke has really been too young to sit and watch the DVDs which are about 30 minutes long, but recently, he has been showing a greater interest in them. I mostly put them on in the mornings, so that I can get a few minutes to get myself organized, and try to wake up properly. LOL. A couple days ago, he sat very intently watching the show for about 15 minutes. 

Not that I plan to encourage extensive tv watching, but Baby Einstein provides a few minutes of peace and I find most of the DVDs to be visually stimulating for Luke and combined with their choice of classical music, I think it's pretty harmless in short stretches.

He is definitely turning into a little boy, and leaving his baby stage behind.

We allowed Luke to try feeding himself with a spoon the other day. I don't really think he is ready, because he hasn't shown any signs of wanting to try it himself. He is happy to either use his hands for finger foods, or allow me to spoon feed him things like yoghurt etc.. but I thought we would let him try anyway. 

This is the outcome. LOL

"Sporting a silly face in his new Pooh Bear pj's from his uncle Jarryd and Aunty Doma"