Luke at 18 Months! (2/9/2013)

One and a half!!

I can not believe that my sweet little boy is already 1 1/2 years old!  You are such a joy and I can not believe how much you grow and change every single day!  You are so busy and into everything!  I just know you are going to be athletic because you climb, run and jump off everything you can find.   It scares me to death to watch you do it but your daddy keeps telling me that you are a little boy and that is what boys do!  ha! You love being outside and get so upset whenever it is time to come inside.  I honestly think you would live outdoors if I let you!  You are so adventurous and independent and love to explore everywhere.  You are also my sweet snuggle bug and love to give hugs and kisses to me and your dad!  You have really turned into our little buddy and we love taking you everywhere with us!  

This month we went to the doctor for your 18 month well baby check up and to no surprise, you are growing like a weed!

Here are your stats:

Weight: 28lbs 10 1/2 oz (85%)

Length: 2'9"in (70%)

Head Circumference: 20in (>95%)

Language skills and talking

You currently still talk mostly in your own language but here are a few of the words you do say in English! ha

Momma, Mommy, Daddy, doggies, Dales,Gracie, oh-no (you say this ALL THE TIME), No, Ba (ball), you moo like a cow (you pronounce it boo), airplane, ruff ruff, you make a monkey sound (owe owe), you make an elephant sound,  balloon (boooooobooooo), beep beep,  

You and Daddy!

 

Checking yourself out in the mirror! One of your favorite pastimes!  

 You still LOVE to put all tags in your ear!  You now also love to put the tags in your eyes but we are working on breaking that habit!

My favorite partner in crime!!

Food and Eating Habits

One thing you are not so adventurous on is your food.  You are kind of picky and definitely have opinions on what you do and do not like.  Here is a little break down of your acceptable foods that you will eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Breakfast: yogurt, fruit (banana, peaches, melon, blue berries, strawberries, pineapple) cereal, banana bread, hash brown bites and sometimes a waffle, pancake or muffin.

Lunch & Dinner: fruit (apples, applesauce, pears, banana, peaches, melon, blueberries, strawberries, pineapple, etc), peanut butter sandwich, mac n cheese, cheese toast/grilled cheese, hot dog, chicken nuggets, chicken noodle soup, chicken and rice soup, Gerber's Pasta and stars, Annie's organic spaghettos, Ravioli, pizza, sweet potato hash brown bites, french fries, and sometimes a baby food pouch.

As you can see, we still currently struggle getting you to eat vegetables and are looking for ways to get you to eat them and hopefully enjoy them!  You will eat them when they are in your chicken noodle soup or something like that so I think we just need to get sneaky and add them into some of your meals by sneaking them in there!

You still get 1-2 baba's a day which we have said we need to break you of for months now.  We said we were going to get rid of baba's  since the day you turned a year old, then it was 13 months, then 14 months and so on.  The only consistent baba you get is at night time.  You just love it so much and secretly so do I.  You run right to the fridge and wait for me to pour it every night and then we snuggle on the couch while I rub and kiss your head the whole time.  I think I am realizing these are our last few months of "just us" and I am not quite ready to let go of my first baby.  I know we will have to get rid of the baba before your sister comes but for now, its our sweet time together and I love it!

Learning how to use spoon!

How big is Luke??

You are currently wearing all 18-24 month clothes as well as 2T.  All your Pajamas are 2T and I bet you will outgrow those by the end of summer.  

You are still in a size 5 Pampers Diaper and have been for quite some time.

Your shoe size is between a 6 and a 7 depending on the brand.

Your sleep sack is a Large (Aden and Anais) and I think we are going to be upgrading to the XL this week in the light weight version for the warmer nights we are having.

 Hanging out with your cousin Hank!
Above at the park and below reading books in your matching PJ's!

This month you got your first real haircut! You did great! 
The lollypop kept you entertained the whole time and you were a perfect angel!

Sleep

You are still a creature of habit and have to go to bed at 8pm every night to function properly.  You sleep until at least 8 am every morning but sometimes wake in the middle of the night due teething or a cold.  The past two nights, you have been waking around 5am and having a full blown conversation with you stuffed animals for about 30 minutes and then will fall back to sleep and sleep till almost 9am.  You are such a silly boy!  You still sleep in a sleep sack, use a sound machine and must have all three of your favorite stuffed animals (Flopsy, monkey and Spot) in your crib to fall asleep.  You also still require 4+ bubbies in your crib or you can almost guarantee a middle of the night breakdown when you cant find one!  Overall, you are a wonderful sleeper and I cant complain.  

You are down to one nap a day that starts at 1pm and can range anywhere from an hour and a half to three hours.  You will get into a pattern for like a week or so and then all of a sudden switch it up on us.  Hopefully you will get back to sleeping closer to 3 hour stretches because I truly feel it helps you sleep better at night when you are well rested.

 One of your Best Buddies Will and you playing at the park.

You and Hank taking a bath.

Sick Days

For the past two months, it seems you cant catch a break in the sick department.  You catch anything and everything that you come into contact with.  I am so over the winter months (sick season) and I am sure you are too!  It all started around Christmas when you got a high fever and double ear infection and lasted until mid March.  You kept a runny nose, couch and got 2 double ear infections.  Poor buddy! I felt so bad for you! I honestly tried to keep you quarantined from everything but for some reason it still didn't work! ha! You got sick anyways!

You also got all 4 of your canine teeth this past month which lead to several painful days/nights.  It probably took a month for them to all the way break through but a good week of serious pain and for them to stop making you wake at night.  I feel like you went to bed every night for two weeks due to those teeth! 

Before and After our 18 month shots at the doctor!

Mr. Independent

This past month, you have become even more independent than ever!  You love to explore and not have boundaries which has led to a few several major melt downs!  You have a strong opinion and don't like when anyone or anything stands in your way!  You have learned how to open doors and will try and do so whenever you want to go outside.  This has led us to constantly lock the doors and turn on the beep sound on the alarm.  You also learned how to climb on top of the coffee table as well as on to the counter by climbing up the bar stools first!   While your independence sometimes scares me to death, I also love it about you.  I am so glad that you aren't clingy and timid and are able to stand on your own two feet.  With your little sister coming in a few months, I am especially glad that you are independent and don't need me for every little thing.  You are really turning into a big boy!

 You LOVE pushing the kids cart at Butler and Bailey!  You are surprisingly really good at it too!

Playing outside!

Luke, you truly are the best little boy ever and I thank God every day for letting me be your mommy!  You are such a joy and I have loved every moment of the past 18 months and can not wait to see what God has in store for us in the future.  I have no doubt that you are going to be an amazing big brother and love your sister to death! Always remember that your daddy and I love you to pieces and are here for you always!! 

Xoxo,

Mommy

Baby girl has a name!

For some reason , I have complete anxiety when it comes to picking out a name for my children and making it official.  We went through the same process with Luke and like this time around, it took us forever to make a final decision on both a first and middle name.  Luke's name was a little easier because we knew we wanted to name him after my father but still we definitely had name anxiety!  Im not sure if its the fact that it is the name that will be written on every document and piece of paper you ever touch or if it is just the sound of it all together but something about making a decision that is so permanent just scares me to death! ha! That is why just now at 28 weeks into my pregnancy have we settled on a name that your father and I both love and think sounds like the name of our first little girl!  We knew from very early on in this pregnancy that we wanted a name that sounded good with your brothers name and that was girly.  We already had our boy and we didn't want any names that could be mistaken for another boy. When we found out we were having a girl, we went back into our notes from choosing Luke's name to see if any of the girl names we liked then were still names that we still liked this time around.  A few names we threw out immediately but one in particular kept our attention.  We knew after a few weeks that your first name would be Ava.  We liked that it was simple yet elegant and also sounded good with Luke.  We immediately started calling you by your name and referred to your room as Ava's room whenever we walked past it with Luke. Next we needed to find a middle name.  We narrowed it down to three names (Kate, Elizabeth and Caroline) but once again, one name in particular kept popping up in both of our heads.  While we loved all three and truly contemplated all three, we finally decided on the middle name that we felt just fit.........

Ava Kate

We loved the way it sounded when you said Ava alone as well as when you said it paired with the middle name. It was simple yet girly and absolutely perfect for us! The meanings behind the names were also very sweet and added to why we loved it :Ava means Life & Kate means Pure.  Your father has been calling you AK for months so when we finally made the decision that it was in fact your name, I think he breathed a sigh of relief knowing he could continue calling you by your nickname.  I hope you like it is much as we do sweet girl and maybe one day we will see it in lights in Hollywood or even with an DR. in front of it.  Whatever you chose to do, just know that your dad and I will always support you and be your biggest fans!  We love you so much already sweet girl!  Cant wait to meet you!!

xoxo,

       Mom