16 Months!

Our big guy is 16 months old, today!!  Oh, how we love him so much. He really is my little buddy with shopping trips, running errands, or meeting daddy for lunch.  You name it- he keeps me entertained! Life is so crazy with a boy his age running around.  So much so that we really can't remember what we did for entertainment before he came into our lives.

At his 15 month appt, he didnt change a whole lot since i took him at 14 months (for his 1 yr.).  He weighed 29 lbs and was 33.5 inches.

Luke is walking most of the time.  Between about 15 and 16 months he really started wanting to do it more. He definitely was letting that happen when HE wanted to, though.  There was no making this child do it.  So, we didn't pressure him, and he just has decided he wants to more often.  As a result, shoes are happening more often!  He kicks them off, but oh well.  We'll keep trying!

I've been able to teach him to point to his nose and ears.  That's all I've tried, so we'll keep working on those body part identifications.  Apparently doctors really care about this?  Who knew.  He can hold up his "1" finger when we ask how old he is.  He mocks most anything we say, in his language of course, but it's getting clearer by the day.  He says very clearly: cat, bubble, mama, dada, duck, uh oh, "nana" for banana, nite nite. Everything else are words that only we could understand.  :) He also loves to scribble and read books.

Lately he's turned into a cuddle bug!  He crawls in my lap and it absolutely melts my heart!!  Mind you, it lasts for about 3.5 seconds, but I'll take it!  He gives hugs and open mouth kisses to his stuffed animals.  Every now and then he will to us.  But we're working on it!

In september, we started mother's day out twice a week.  This has been awesome!  I can't say it was easy those first 2 weeks.  It was hard on both of us.  He would cry and cry when I left. That first week they called me to get him early because he was so upset.  I was glad, since I missed him so much.  The 2nd week it got a little easier for us both, and now we're both pro's!!  He hardly cries when drop him off. It's been good for me too, since I can mostly schedule any of my work days on a monday or wednesday night.  That gives me several hours of sleep while he's at MDO.  It's worked out really great, and he has such a good time.  This place really is awesome- he's always coming home with little artwork that is heavily decorating our fridge right now.  Super cute!

The Holidays are upon us! Yay!!!  I can't wait to involve Luke more this year, and to see his reaction to all the hoopla!  It will be much different, since last year he was 4-6 months old during the holidays. Gonna be fun!!

As soon as I can figure out how to get my phone to let me upload pics, I'll post some on these blogs I'm catching up with.

The big 3-0

30!! (yes I'm late on this post.. as well as 14 month post)
I can't believe it, but then again I really didn't care.
I turned 30 October 6.  It was just another birthday to me. I had a way more difficult time turning 29!!  29 was a huge mope fest around here for me, but 30 I could just see excitement!

I made up a list of exciting 30 happenings. So....

30 Means to me:

1. a new decade, and I love starting new times in life!
2. being able to look forward to experiencing life from a new perspective
3. goodbye to the 20's! They're so overrated!  I say this because your 20's are a fun time, but they're also full of uncertainty, major life decisions, and an overall sense of trying to figure your life direction.  There are lots of stupid decisions that can be made (unless you're perfect and don't make bad choices) and you're just overall more immature, obviously!
4. being seen as more mature!  People tend to take you a tad more serious when you don't have that 2 in the front of your age.  Maybe it's just my imagination. :)

I look forward to being in a different mindset for this new decade. Nate and I are both established with our careers, we've begun our family and hopefully are just a tad more mature??  hehehe.. maybe.  I look forward to being able to kind of enjoy where we are in this moment.  I know as soon as we feel comfortable, the Lord tends to move us off that ledge and refine us more, daily.  I don't mean I'm happy to be coasting along, but just glad to be more settled in life, not having the uncertainty that can be more prevalent in your 20s. I'm grateful for new experiences and can't wait to see what the next 10 hold!

Our sweet 14 month old!!

So, where did the last 2 months go, since Luke turned 1?! Gosh, I feel like his 2nd birthday is just around the corner!

I'm convinced I have the sweetest, most precious little boy on Earth.  He gives such sweet hugs and has really turned into a cuddle bug.  He's always been on the move and his crazy-boy self, so I'm absolutely loving his hugga-bunch stage!! He chatters up a storm all the time and does this crazy crawl that totally cracks us up where makes the giant, exaggerated moves and bounces his head back and forth. Completely on purpose.  We can tell him to do it and he does.. hilarious.  He loves his "cat-cat" (our cat, Candy), hugs his stuffed animals, plays with rolling toys all over the house, and knows how to place objects into things. He's tall enough that he grabs things off the counter, so we're having to watch how close objects are to the edge!  Crazy!! He's trying, SO HARD, to walk.  Well, i guess he's trying.  He goes through these bursts of walking and then just sits down to crawl the rest of the way.  hehe... he'll be getting it soon, i think.

Speaking of size, we just went to his 1 yr. appointment. Yes, 2 months late.. oops.

He weighs 28 1/2 lbs and is 33 inches long.

He eats most anything, except we have to watch acidic foods with him. He gets this weird rash around his mouth when he eats oranges, tomatoes, things of the like.  I don't know if this is an allergy or a sensitivity and whether he will grow out of it. I hope.. those things are so yummy!  He has milk with each meal and loves is peanut butter sandwiches.  Every so often I will put some whole fruit jam on it. ;)  We try to limit carbs and refined sugars and grains in our house as much as possible.  It's hard to fill up a toddler, though, on that type of diet.  So he gets sandwhiches, pasta, crackers n such and LOVES his bread products..lol.  Who doesn't, though?!

Last weekend we had the privilege of going to the Texas A&M season opener against the Florida Gators as their first game entrance into the SEC conference! Man it has been A&M fever in our house the last few months in anticipation of all the cool stuff going on there, so we thought we just HAD to go to the game.  SO glad we did- it was an absolute blast!  That school truly is amazing- it has so much tradition and unity among the school.  I'm glad and proud to have graduated from nursing school from there, and that my hubby is the Fightin' Texas Aggie class of 05!  Poor Luke doesn't even have a chance for other options..hehe.  J/K... he is being very well indoctrinated already, though.  We dressed him in his very own jersey for the occassion.

That's about it around here!  Both of our big 3-0's are coming up in the next few weeks.  I'm totally cool with it.. Nate on the other hand is not.  More about that in another post!