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"

LOVE A GOOD DEAL

So, for a while now I have been looking forward to the time when Luke is old enough to start enjoying art and crafts. There are some great websites out there with wonderful ideas for toddler and preschooler crafts that make learning fun, and I am excited to do things like that with Luke.

Of course, doing things like this, will require some basic supplies...paint, paintbrushes, glue sticks, card stock etc... most of which we don't have. Sometimes I find myself wondering the craft isles in stores browsing the fun bit and bobs you can get for doing crafts... of course they all add up though, and it can get expensive... up until now I have never actually bought anything, becaue Luke is still too young to appreciate doing things like that.

Then, yesterday I went to Michaels, to grab a few things I need for Lukes birthday cake (yes, I am going to brave the impossible and attempt to decorate a cake myself. LOL... i'll let you know how that turns out)

Anyway, outside the store door, they had a table with 'grab bags' - grocery bags filled with art supplies, and then tied closed so you couldn't really tell what was in them. These bags were selling for $2 each. So in the end I bought 2 bags... now I knew there were a few paintbrushes and some paint in them, but I wasn't really sure what all I was getting...but hey, $2 for art supplies is REALLY cheap, even if you get a few things you won't use.

Well, I got a GREAT deal between my 2 bags.

For $4 in total, I got 30 different paintbrushes, over 30 tubs and tubes of both acrylic and water paints, a couple of glitter gel liners, some artist scotch tape and a variety of gel mediums that you can use to make your paint thicker, or use as collage glue etc. Now of course, I wouldn't normally choose expensive acrylic paints for a toddler or preschooler to use for crafts.. but does it REALLY matter, when you paid only $4 for the entire lot??? LOL

OR, maybe I should resell it on ebay... I am after all an addict for making a quick buck from a good bargain. LOL

HOW TO TAME A WILD CHILD

Luke is our little wild child... he refuses to listen to 'No', he laughs at me when I smack his hands if he touches something he shouldn't, and reprimanding him just encourages him to do whatever it is he is doing, even longer... I have an almost 1 year old rebel on my hands, and I am at a total loss as to how to control his behaviour. I never would have thought that his behaviour would be this challenging at such a young age.

Just today, Luke learned how to open the DVD player and get the DVD out. I thought I was smart and decided just to turn the DVD player off, because then the open/close button wouldn't work.. well, I was outsmarted when Luke looked at me like I was a joke and proceeded to push the power button, turning the DVD player back on and then again open it and take out the DVD which of course he just threw onto the floor and stood on... so now our DVD cabinet is taped closed until I get something more permanent to keep him out.

Also today, Luke made his first few dents and scratches to our recently painted living room walls. We have a floor lamp, made out of 'sticks', that Luke keeps pushing over... finally after a few scratches across the paint, he pushed just a little too hard, and a couple of the sticks made dents in the wall (USA house have dry wall interiors, not brick)

Another favourite of his is slapping... Luke will repeatedly slap mine, or Jakes face, or even other little children. For quite some time now, when he slaps one of us, we take his hand and show him how to gently stroke our face, rather than slap us... it has become a game for him, he just laughs, and as soon as you let go of his hand, he just slaps you again.

In addition to his rebellion, we have discovered that we need protective gear and danger pay to parent our little mischief maker... 2 nights ago, Jake was putting up a towel rail in our freshly painted bathroom, and he had the hammer next to him on the edge of the bath. Before he even realised what was going on, Luke had sneaked in, grabbed the hammer and dropped it onto Jakes toe... OUCH! The impact cut Jakes toe, and left it feeling well bruised. Then, last night, we were all sitting on the couch together when Luke grabbed my small Canon camera, and proceeded to throw it at me... it caught the back of my hand, resulting in a couple very painful knuckles, some stiff fingers, and a painful hand, which I am still unable to use without pain today.

I marvel at how smart he is, but I pull my hair out at how stubborn and rebellious he is.
He is smart when he chooses to be and picks up quickly how to do the things we don't want him to do, but so far as shown no interest in learning something you wish to teach him. We haven't had much success teaching him fine motor skills, such as stacking his stacking toys. We have also been trying to teach him how to put toys back into their buckets rather than just throwing them out, or how to touch softly, rather than slapping...all with little success so far.Anything you want Luke to do, he will fight you on, and then anything he is doing that you want him to stop, he will fight you on.

I want Jake and I to raise good, respectful children, but how do you do that when your son, not even 1 year old is already so determined to 'rebel' and seems immune to all age appropriate discipline?

We so love our little monkey, and we enjoy him everyday, but parenting has proven to be a real challenge at times with a little boy that has a very strong will and his own idea about how things should be.

BUGS.COM

Ok, so in the last 3 or so years, I have become well acquainted with the world of online shopping. I am a frequent ebayer, often on Amazon, and before I buy just about anything out of the ordinary in a local store, I first research the prices I can find online, looking for that great bargain... However, I usually purchase things such as baby products, toys, gifts etc online... 'normal' things...

Since moving to North Carolina, my life has changed a little... we have a good size property, and for pretty much the first time in my life, (or at least that I can remember), we have a garden... we have planted vegetables and a few fruits, and I am learning my way around the garden with a shovel, a pile of dirt and a lawn mower... obviously, to start out garden we needed some seeds and plants, which I discovered you can order online... obviously it's no surprise to me that you can get seeds in the mail, but I was slightly surprised that you could order live plants online, that are shipped to you in regular cardboard boxes...
Then, recently we realised that we have some aphids and other small pesty bugs eating our still very young strawberry plants, and I am sure in no time at all they will make their way to our other fruits and vegetables... so, I was in search of a natural, safe solution... then a friend mentioned using lady bugs... so I researched about them online, and as she had said, lady bugs are a great pest control for aphids and other small plant eating bugs, so I started looking around at where I could buy them....

WEIRD... but I could order a bag of 1500 lady bugs ONLINE... so you literally can order anything on the internet and have it delivered to your mail box... so, today I walked out to the mail box and surely enough there was a small box with my mail, which I opened to reveal 1500 crawling, live lady bugs...

Like that wasn't odd enough... the instructions with the lady bugs were to rinse off the bag (it had holes so the bugs would get rinsed), and then store them in your refrigerator until you were ready to release them into your garden. LOL... so, right now I have 1500 lady bugs in a bag in my fridge. LOL...

PAY IT FORWARD

So, Jake and I have this nice big back yard, and Luke loves to be outside, as do we, BUT he gets bored out there VERY quickly with nothing to do... so we have been wanting to get him a play set, but they are so ridiculously expensive. Anyway, Luke isn't much into swings right now because he hates being confined, so I have been looking for something that he can climb on, and perhaps with a slide. There are a ton of really nice options out there, but like I said... EXPENSIVE... Little Tikes Brand has some really fun climbing toys, but mostly for about $250 +
I decided to start looking around on Craigslist, to see what I could find (Craigslist is a nationwide and international online classifieds, where you can look for just about anything specifically in your region)
Yesterday, I was browsing the ads and spotted someone selling a Little Tikes climber slide... it's not very big, and doesn't have much to it, but it usually retails for $75-$100 depending on the store, and this lady was selling one that was in great condition, never been used outside, so no sun fading etc for $15... I thought, WOW, that would be a great start... part of Lukes birthday present, and something to keep him entertained a bit while he is still little...we can always shop Craigslist again later if our savings permit us to finally get him something bigger.
Well, the catch to this slide was that it was in Wake Forest...thats about 1 hour 15 minutes or so from our house...but, we figured, even with the fuel it's cheaper than a brand new one, AND I looked that the other slides people were selling for the same price... all sun faded and dirty, no climber and no platform at the top...just a ladder up slide down kind of slide... so this was by far the best deal. So I called the lady, and she said she was trying to be fair and give the first people to contact her a shot too... I was #3, but she then agreed to let us drive out and come get it. So off we went... after stopping to draw the cash, and grabbing some Subway for dinner on the road, we finally got there... it really was in great condition just like she has said... and then here comes the big YAY... when I wanted to pay her, she said 'no, I want to just give it to you'... she then explained that she thought I sounded so nice on the phone, that she told her husband that if we are as nice as she thinks we are when we get there, that she is just going to give it to us. LOL.... So, that definitely made the 1 hour 15 minute drive worth it. I told her that when we were done needing the slide, I would be sure to give it to the next person for free too. It's all about paying it forward after all.
I think I'll get a fun picture of Luke playing outside on his new slide, and send it to her in a thank you card.

ONE STEP...TWO STEP

YAY, I am so ridiculously giddy with excitement... Luke decided to take his first steps this evening.

Firstly, I must just add, that I am really glad he decided to wait until his daddy was home. It's the one milestone I think we definitely BOTH wanted to be there for. Secondly, how awesome is it that we had the camera's out, and got the footage.

So here it is... "One small step for man...One giant leap for Baby Luke" lol

P.S I look like a giddy dork when he walks, and please excuse my messy house in the background... that would be courtesy of our little Luke who is like the Tazmanian Devil, rushing through our house like a tornado on a daily basis, ensuring that nothing remains in it's original place...

From Crawler...

...Too Walker

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In other news... not a whole lot has happened around here lately... we have been working on our vegetable garden, but that'll be a separate blog, and trying to get things organized for Luke's birthday party. We want to have a BBQ, but need to get our yard and pool sorted out, and clean the backroom which has access to the porch, and re paint the family bathroom, cos I don't want a gazillion people seeing my currently nasty bathroom (the people who lived here before us did REALLY bad paint and fix up jobs - it's been really frustrating to try and make rooms that they destroyed in their awful attempts at painting etc to look clean and neat)

Luke has started getting really affectionate lately... that's a totally new concept for us because he has always hated being held tightly, being cuddled and swaddled etc. Now, he occassionally, though just for a minute will rest his head on my shoulder and enjoy a brief back tickle, or sometimes he will stand by our legs while we are sitting on the couch, and rest his head on our knees. LOL.. it's so sweet.

We also discovered the other night, that Luke has more teeth than we thought. He has just cut his second tooth on the bottom, which we have seen coming for a couple weeks... but in addition to his 2 bottom teeth, we learned that he has 4 more cutting through on the top... in fact it feels like a couple of them might already have broken through. So in no time at all my gummy smile boy is going to have 6 teeth showing in his mouth. WOW!

Here are some recent photo's of our HANDSOME little man.

We are so proud of our little boy!