Snow!

Luke the Climber

While out of town over Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa B's, Luke discovered that he could climb out of his pack n' play.

This was the first trip where all three kids had shared the same room, and after Erin had picked him up out of his pack n' play one morning, he thought he'd try it for himself the following morning.

So naturally, when we got back home, he climbed right out of his big crib. I waited a few days to see if he would repeat this, and he did continue to do it a few more times. So we knew the crib days were over.

He spent his first night out of his crib a couple of nights ago and he's doing great with it. He has such a solid bedtime and naptime routine that he knows it's time to sleep. He lays right down and stays put (well, for his two naps so far, he has gotten up once each time, but not again after I tell him to lay back down).

You never know how they are going to do with this new freedom, but his is making it so easy on us. Such a big boy.

Happy Birthday to you...

Happy Birthday Luke! 2 years out in the big world! What have you been up to?

Well, I'm talking in short sentences now. And here are a few of my pronunciations:

Erin: "ya ya"
Noah: "wa wa"
Lukie: "gookie"
Milk: "nowk"
Giraffe or Zebra: "bik-a-ba"

My favorite phrases are "No, me do it!" and "Tickle me now!!"

I'm quickly turning into the stereotypical two year old with my huge mood swings and melt-downs when I don't get what I want. But I'm also full of laughs and smiles and I love my family so much. I love making them laugh with my silliness.

I love copying my big brother and I'll do anything he tells me to, even if it gets me in trouble. And my big sister also loves playing with me and finds it amazing whenever I say something new (which is often).

My favorite toy is my piggie (Piglet) that I always have to sleep with. I love milk and having snacks. I also eat my dinners pretty well, too. I love playing outside, watching Disney's Mulan ("moo-yon"), seeing the "kitty cats" outside which belong to the neighbor, and reading lots of books.

I'm turning into a pretty cute kid and I think my parents have decided to keep me around.

Are they twins?

A couple of days ago, I was at Bi-Lo with just the boys. I had them in one of the carts that looks like a car (the two seats are up high in front of the mom). When I got to the register, the lady asked if they were twins. Since their height difference wasn't as apparent, I could understand the question. And this isn't the first time we've been asked that.

So I wanted to look back at their younger pictures to compare them at the same ages. It's just amazing how much they look alike (especially the first two sets of photos - could be the same baby if you didn't know):  

3 weeks 

Noah

Luke

3 months

Noah

Luke

1 year

Noah

Luke

18 months

Noah

Luke

2 years

 

Noah

Luke (almost two)

Luke's longest sentence so far

While chasing Noah: "I am the tickle monster"

It sounded like this: "I. Am. Da. Ti. Kle. Mon. Ter"

Talkin'

A nice evening to be out in the yard...

Our sweet potato plants got attacked by deer for the second time, so we harvested them a little earlier than we planned (the rest of our garden is safe in our fenced backyard).

Here's what we got from starting with just one original sweet potato:

After that, I spent some time trying to capture some good photos of the kids. Here's some of what I managed to get:

 

she was actually posing for this one

my sweet boy

trying to get all three together

feeding the cat some grass

then running from the tickle monster

is that trouble or what?

The Summer

I used to not want a full week to go by without blogging and now look how I've let this slip. A month and a half! Well, first I started my other blog which divided my blogging attention and then a semi-major shift happened at home.

Preschool (5 mornings a week) stopped for Erin and Noah and suddenly I had them all at home all the time. We went right into homeschooling back in June (sitting around with unstructured days would have driven us all mad) and most of my "free" time has been focused on what to do for homeschooling or just taking a moment to relax.

So what has been going on over the summer? Well, as I said, since June we have been homeschooling. The mornings are preschool time with all three, and then Erin gets Kindergarten time while the boys nap. I have been polishing up our routine (I viewed the summer as more of a practice time for me) and I think we've got a pretty good thing going. The kids seem to like it and I do too.

Prior to right now, I don't think I've mentioned on here that we decided to homeschool. At one point I drafted up a long post as to why we're doing it, but I never posted it. Basically, we have a long list as to why we feel we want to keep our kids out of public school and homeschooling seems to be a good fit for us. We will evaluate year by year if it's what we want to keep doing, but I can certainly see us doing this long term.

Aside from schooling, we took a trip to the beach (Topsail Island, just past Wilmington) in August. We stayed at a house that is owned on Sean's side of the family. Had Luke been a little older, I think it would have been a better trip. There were certain areas of the house we just couldn't child-proof and he was a major headache in the house. Also, he didn't much care for the ocean (water or sand). But we did have good times too, it was basically a mix of wonderful and horrible....

Another event over the summer was back in July when Luke had outpatient surgery to remove a cyst on his chest (actually, you can see the little red scar above his blue collar in the above photo). A few days after the surgery, it started to get infected and it ended up that he had a staph infection. It got pretty nasty, even giving him an actual 1/4 inch in diameter hole in his chest...but all ended well as the antibiotics did their job. That was a scary few days as we didn't know how bad it was going to get (the most common strand of staph infection is very resistant to antibiotics).

Other minor summer events...we just put a new roof on the house and we have committed plans for new windows (yay home ownership!) We went to the Atlanta aquarium back in June, Erin just started a Ballet class and Noah has outgrown his peanut allergy! (although not the tree nut) Oh, and my birthday was yesterday...welcome mid-thirties.

That's about it. Looking forward to a break in the heat as we get into Fall. I hope to pick the blogging back up, but no promises. I have gotten severely slack in taking photos of the kids. But maybe as we have nicer weather it will prompt me to snap a few.

Till then...

Big man at the table

Luke has made the switch to booster seat and now joins us at the table. I think he's happy about this....

Aquarium Trip

Last weekend we went to the aquarium in Atlanta. It was fun, but a bit overwhelming on a Saturday afternoon (last time we went was just before Noah was born and it was a weekday morning).

Next time we go, I want to be past the stroller stage. Somehow I had it in my head that Luke would sit quietly and be observant as we walked around. The kid was a wild man and did not want to be in that stroller.

But we survived and I think everyone had a good time.

"Ba-Ba Gee"

That was Luke's first two-word sentence a couple days ago.

We were in the backyard after dinner. Luke was sitting at the top of the slide. We heard the geese - who live in our neighborhood  - honking and flying around somewhere. As they were flying away, Luke waves and says "Ba-ba, Gee!"

Say Cheese (Part II)

Brought the camera out again after dinner to try and get my good 8x10 shots. Got some good ones:

 

 

Say Cheese

Tonight while the kids were playing in the backyard after dinner, I brought out the camera to try to get some good head shots of them. I want to replace our terribly outdated 8x10's on the wall.

I was trying to get either Noah or Luke, since Erin's hair was wet. I got one for Noah, but no luck with Luke (they mostly came out blurry or with half-closed eyes). But I did get a cute one of him clapping for himself after he successfully climbed to the top of the slide ladder.

 

  

It's about time, kid

Finally.....my 16 month old is saying "mama."

The Kids

 

 

 

Mama's getting kinda good at this hair cutting thing...

Right now, Luke's walking around the kitchen saying "Goo-goo. Ga-ga." I think Erin taught him that.

Words and Climbing

Luke's word list got a little longer over the past few days. I think we were up to 5 last time I wrote about it. Here are 4 more:

kitty
ear
boo
da-da (he has said it before, but now it's pretty obvious he's talking about Sean)

It looks like he's going to follow a similar patter to Noah. Noah had around 10 words at 17 months, and then it just exploded after that. Luke is only 15 months and has 9. And not to compare too much :) but Erin had around 150 words by 18 months. You go girl.

Also, he climbed right over the gate at the bottom of the stairs yesterday. He made a couple failed attempts today. This is not good.

Luke's new favorite place to climb

And there's no child-proofing gadget that can keep this from happening...except the word "no" which doesn't seem to have much effect.

***

Quote of the day

Erin to Noah:

"Yeah! We can play Ariel. I'll be Ariel and you can be the ugly squid."

Germs and Molars

Sorry for the absence. We've had a germy household for the past two weeks. Luke has a cold (which means I'm ready with a rag after every sneeze), I've had a cough for several days and Erin has also been sick with a cough, and added a fever to it last night. I took her in to see the doctor this morning and she's got a double ear infection. So at least the medicine can get her feeling better soon.

And in addition to sicknesses, Luke has a back tooth coming in, possibly a molar. So he's been extra cranky and super extra drooly.

But on a more positive note, he's learning new things. The other day I let him hold a spoon and try to feed himself. Now he's all about it and gets quite mad at me if I try to feed him without his help. He's okay at it, not great. But I'm glad he's learning, because soon I'll be able to put food in front of him and be free to do other things (like get food for the other two).

Also, he's creeping ever so slowly along with his words. Here's his 5 word (or phrase) vocabulary:

Uh-oh
Ba-ba (bye-bye)
Ticka-ticka-ticka (tickle, tickle, tickle)
Ahhhh-daaaaaaaa (all done, meaning his bowl is empty)

and now for word #5: pee-pee

Crazy kids

The new thing they like to do now is strip down to their underwear (or diaper) and run around yelling and smacking their bellies. They have included Luke in this and he finds it hilarious. As soon as Erin takes off his shirt, he starts walking and smacking his belly. He's such a copy cat :)

Just now, the added a new level. They made capes out of a blanket and one of Erin's dresses and now they are the Wonder Pets.