Lukey b-day #2!

Holy schmoley. Little Lukey is now 2. Can you believe it!? He turned the big 0-2 on December 12th... but we did the majority of celebrating over the weekend, so we could celebrate with Nick and Talysha who came into town for the weekend. 

On his actual birthday, we laid low. Just the four of us. It was a mixture of still trying to unpack and get our second wind after the cruise, while still trying to make Luke feel special. Jeremy came home from work and the boys spent the evening playing football. Seth HAD to get his gear on.... soccer gear, that is. It didn't include any further clothes besides the shoes and shin guards.

Luke had a blast. Playing with the guys is his favorite thing to do. I am still trying to let them play rough. It's SOO hard for me. Mainly because it means that someone will end up in tears and I will then be the one who has to comfort them. But... in the moment, they always have a blast.

 We let Luke open Mom-mom and Grandad's gift to him: A GIANT tiger and GIANT crocodile. Luke looooves animals, especially tigers, so he was in heaven! The sound effects he makes for both of them is so freakin tender.... tiger is the usual growl but the crocodile apparently says "tick tock tick tock" like in Peter Pan. I love the things they catch on to!

Luke loved the animals, and Seth loved the velvet bag it came in! win win!

A few days later, Nick and Talysha came into town to stay with is and to go see Louis CK, who was performing in Denver. T and I spent an afternoon (it seemed like) trying to find a place that sells ice cream cakes. Meanwhile, Jeremy and Nick spent ALL DAY playing video games. Those boys were in heaven! It was dorky-cute. So much for spending the day in Boulder. Next time!

Cake time was so much fun! We found a nice oreo ice cream cake! Apparently, TCBY makes ice cream cakes so I kind of got in trouble for buying one from 31 Flavors. Aiding the enemy, he called it. 

I love how excited Nick is in these!

success!!

Luke got help from big brother Seth... actually, we relit the candles about 3 times so we could all take a turn blowing them out

Now, for a little bit about Luke in this moment in time.

Favorite food: not really sure on this. he doesn't discriminate much.  he adores salsa!! he could eat it plain, and usually does. He also loves him some bacon! he always gets very excited for pizza and chicken, though. he'll pound through an apple.... seeds and all. 

Favorite drink: again, doesn't discriminate much on this, either. He does water in the bottle, but if he has the choice of water or something else, it will always be something else: milk, choco milk, sprite, OJ

Random goofy/two-year-old thingies: 
-if he gets upset, feels slighted, etc he folds his arms, furrows his eyebrows and goes "humph!"
-i have to watch him carefully now. if he poops, he will take off his own diaper and throw the diaper in the toilet. that's fun.
-sometimes, he just licks his food. 
-he frequently kisses my belly
-he still sometimes likes to take naps in his carseat. he will pull it out, sit in it and shout until you come and buckle him in.mind you, he is WAAAY too big for it.
-he becomes obsessed when things have stains on them
-he could take a bath for well over an hour.
-sometimes when i an sleeping he likes to pull my eyelashes to wake me up
-his favorite song to sing is from Madagascar 3: afro circus
-he likes everyone to have their shoes on. he will kindly try to put them on for you, too
-most determined kid i know. we are getting into less altercations because now we can finally start to understand what the words are he is trying to say

i can tell there is a language barrier issue going on... not uncommon for those who don't speak Lukease. 

-he LOVES to clean! sweep, pick up, dust.... he loves it all

seth took this one. i found it on my phone. it appears lukey is multi-tasking

MULTIPLE people have told me that he is the most expressive child they have ever seen. I will not disagree. He can go from smiling, to pouting, to squealing with joy, to his "sympathy face", to being scared, to making goofy noises, to screaming at you with anger in the blink of an eye. He is all over the place with his emotions. It's a bit of a roller coaster, but they are all so funny and fun to watch

just woke up from a nap prematurely and hungry face

i wish you could hear him here... he is screaming at the top of his lungs!

loves him some guys

this is his concerned face. i don't have many pictures of this face, though he does it ALL the time!

this is the closest picture i have to his "ghost" face. If you say ghost, he gets this face then comes to run into your lap

pure excitement face. this is also usually the face he gives when he gets a present. any present.

goofy face. 

punchy face. we get this face a lot around 930 at night. it is followed by him licking you, jumping on you, and generally acting insane. jeremy's favorite.

truly sad/angry. 

 Hats. Luke loves hats. He'll wear them any time... inside, outside, cold, warm; it doesn't matter.

He ADORES his brother. He's always concerned about him, wants to play with him, and generally loves his company. 

they like to take Daddy's office chair into the living room and play "spin"

Talking. As of his birthday, I could understand Luke, and so could Seth, but that was about it. My favorite thing about his language is the pitches in it. If he is asking a question, he gets this REALLY high pitch for the whole sentence. When he's playing alone, I can hear him ask and answer his own questions. first the high pitched question, followed by an answer. over and over again. "DA DA?! owe(no) DEE DA?!! owe. EEEY YA?!! owe." Adorable. 

Of course, as I mentioned, he's very keen to making animal sounds. Some are very interesting, like the crocodile "tick tick tick tock" or the dying dinosaur sound the giraffe makes. Also, just about everything has a sound effect. I need to record these. 

As I mentioned, Luke's emotions are all over the place, but one thing in consistent: if someone is sad, it makes him sad. He realizes that there is distress and he feels really affected. Sometimes he shows it in the form of a fake cry, with his hands over his eyes. Sometimes he just says "Seth sad" with furrowed eyebrows. He also gets very upset and concerned if a toy animal he is playing with has a perceived illness or owie. This can get him really upset... see above for his concerned face. He's really such a love bug!!

Jer and I have said this over and over, but he is the best person to give something to. He gets SO excited! It really could be anything.... toothbush, clothes, milk in his bottle. If he perceives it as a gift, he gets so excited. And the best part about it, is that he hugs it shakes it like you would a stuffed animal. He does this with just about everything. I need to get video of this. see above for pure excitement face.

Luke has been such a riot. He is so full of personality! Every day I can see him learn so many things. We are doing colors and shapes right now and he picks up on things so quickly! He is just a little ball of love and goofy packaged up in a really loud box. That pretty much sums up little Lukey. Seeing how this year goes and how he interacts with the new baby will be so interesting! I'll keep you updated!