SUMMER TIME FUN

North Carolina has been hot and 'summery' for quite some time now. We have had temperatures well into the 90's (30's Celsius) just about every week for a while already.
Luke and I have been doing some fun summer activities when we can.
Last week, we went for a walk with Crystal and her son, Brent... Brent and Luke are becoming great buddies. Luke is getting very comfortable and familiar with Crystal and Brent, and their home, and Brent calls Luke, 'Uke'... I love it :) He is such a sweet boy!
When we went for our walk, we stopped at a little duck pond in Crystals neighbourhood. The boys had some bread to feed the ducks, but Luke just ate all of his...stale or not. LOL.
(All my 'on-the-go' photos aren't as great quality as usual, because I have a smaller camera that I keep in my diaper bag, which doesn't take pics as good as Jakes camera does)

Today is a scorcher... 96'F is the forecast (36'C)... though it worked out perfectly, because a few months ago I signed up for the 'spray park'... in Rocky Mount, there is a great park that has water 'features' all over a big concrete slab, that kids can play in.. it also has a train that goes around the park, and some fun rides... They have reserved the spray park for 1 hour, every monday morning from today, through August (for a fee), for little kids and their families, so we paid to do that so that Luke could enjoy it without fear of getting knocked down by teenagers playing rough etc. Many of the Crayola moms are signed up too, so Luke and I can enjoy it with friends, and Jake can join us on holidays like July 5th. Anyway, today was our first time there, and what fun it was! Luke really enjoyed the water for a while... then he got hungry and tired, and needed a snack, so we sat in the shade and rested a bit with a snack. 

After our snack, we enjoyed a train ride around the park before heading home. It was a fun fun morning for both of us!

So, summer is here, and we are trying to enjoy it as best we can with some time outdoors doing fun things. Now that Luke is walking, it's so much easier.. though he refuses to walk on the grass. LOL... only on hard ground! Some days though, it's just easier and more pleasant to stay indoors where it's air conditioned, because it's just soooo HOT outside.. but, hopefully we can have a few more fun outings in the sun this summer!

UP & DOWN, UP & DOWN...

A while ago I posted a blog about the slide that a very nice lady gave to us for free, for Luke! Well, at first, Luke showed very little interest in it. He was still a bit too young I think. Then, slowly he started showing an interest, and tried to climb up it. He has now been able to climb up the slide with fair ease for a while, however he hasn't been able to get down yet. He would kinda just step off the top, and hope that one of us would be there to catch him.
We have been trying to show Luke how to go down on his belly, feet first, like we have been teaching him to climb off the bed or couch.
Well, about a week ago, he finally attempted it on his own... he did it a couple times, but then when back to his 'I jump, you catch me' routine.
Today, Luke has his buddy Brent over to play... I think he decided it was time to act like the bigger boys...
He went up, and down, up and down the slide over and over again... and then he got smart, and decided that his Snuggle Monkey needed a turn too... I thought it was pretty cute... he would climb up the back with Mr Snuggle Monkey, and then when he reached the top, throw Snuggle Monkey down the slide, and then go down after him, only to go around the back again, and start over. LOL.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

It's so fun to watch him developing new skills, and changing into a little boy. He is definitely a very physical boy...he likes to climb, and rough and tough it all the time.

EVERYTHING WALKS

Luke has been walking for close to 8 weeks now... it was on and off and first, but it's been steady and frequent for a little over a month now. Funny thing about that though, is that it seems that since Luke started walking, everything else has started walking too. I seem to take twice as long in the morning to get ready, because my cosmetics, or my hair brush or one of my sandals just walk off! Last night it was time for bed, and I needed to take my contacts lenses out... but, it seemed that my contact lens holder had also walked off. I found it hiding under the slide in Lukes play room. This morning I found two other little walking culprits... they were hiding too...in my washing machine!

So it seems, that my home has come to life... everything walks, and hides and Luke is the leader of the pack...
I wouldn't so much mind all this walking, if only everything would learn to walk back too. LOL :P

LUKE LUKE LUKE

I have a few new pictures of our little pumpkin, so I decided to do a quick blog about his latest activities, events and milestones.
Well, Mr Luke is ON THE GO... nonstop! He is walking faster and faster, and just getting everywhere and that means he gets into everything.  I have lost all hope of having tidy, clean home, because we have a little tornado that lives in our house. So my once OCD ways, are slowly fading into the past and 'mom slob' is more what we have these days... sad, but true! Trying to keep up just seems like it's not worth the energy, when an hour later I will just have to do it again.

In other events, Luke has reached a few new milestones in the last month or so:

• He can now climb up his slide by himself... we are still working on showing him how to slide down safely.
• He can identify by pointing when you ask him to find, a ball, a dog and a banana, in his little alphabet book.... he is a master at showing you where the ball is, but we have just barely learned to point out the dog and banana, so although he knows those, they need a bit more practice. 
• He is finally learning to give himself a drink from his sippy cup - for the longest time he couldn't tip it enough to get a drink out.
• He can now stand up just straight off the floor, without having to pull himself up on furniture.
• He has 5 teeth - 3 on the top and 2 on the bottom... #6 is can be seen but hasn't yet cut through.
• He has moved over from formula onto cows milk, although just like his mommy, he will only drink it with a touch of flavouring, so we put a small teaspoon of vanilla Nesquik in it just to take that yucky milk taste off.
  
  I am sure there are more things that I am forgetting, but that's all I can think of right now. He is constantly learning new things, and we are always in awe at how fast he grows and changes... I really should be better at writing down all these new developments.
  
  Some recent photo's of Luke:
  
  This is the reason why you probably don't ever want to eat dinner at our house. LOL
  Luke loves to be naked, and most nights when he is done bathing, he will just about fight you to the death to not have you put a diaper and pj's on him, so because we have laminate/tiled flooring right through the house, which can handle accidents, we have started allowing him a few minutes of 'freedom', which is thoroughly LOVES... well, last night he made his way into the kitchen, where Jake was unloading the dishwasher.. before we new it, Luke was playing in the dishwasher, while peeing on the floor right next to it. Probably not the most hygenic situation, but we saw the humour in it. LOL :P
  
  Slightly difficult to see, but if you look where the arrow is pointing, you'll notice a rather sizely puddle of pee. LOL
  
  
  Luke LOVES his Tonka truck... his favourite thing is to go for rides in the back. I guess he won't be little enough forever, so we often push him around the house, which he really enjoys...last night we got a few pics of little naked boy riding his truck...
  
  
  
  His other new fascination is golf balls. Jake was playing with some golf balls the other day, and since then, Luke loves playing with them too, BUT, this is always the outcome of letting him have a ball.LOL
  

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