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Showing posts from June, 2007

This Just In...

This week, we've learned that Luke likes tiny bits of french fries, and he also likes chocolate ice-cream cones. About the only "right" think I did with respect to these two foods is introduce them three days apart, and that wasn't even on purpose. Emmett didn't have chocolate until his first birthday cake. I'm certain he never had french fries until he was much older - we didn't even take him to get fast food until he was much older and able to go to the play places. I definitely thought the moms feeding fries to their babies were nuts. But what are you to do when you're at lunch without Cheerios for the baby? And if he's sitting in the sling mooching for some of your ice-cream cone, are you really supposed to keep it moving so he never catches it? That just seems mean!

Uh, thanks?

Today after nursing, Luke spit up a little so I wiped it with a rag. After I put the rag down, Luke grabbed it and wiped my mouth. He seemed pretty pleased with himself, too.

Raspberries

Luke's been blowing raspberries lately. Sometimes on my leg, sometimes in the air. It is possible, in fact, to have an entire raspberry conversation with Luke. He loves to take turns. We'll have to see if he ever tries Emmett's advanced raspberry maneuver, blowing a raspberry on a koosh ball. (Emmett did that at around this age.)

Arrrrrrrr!

No, it's not international talk like a pirate day , it's Luke initiating a wrestling match. With mouth wide open, Luke aims for your face while yelling "Arrr!" He'll proceed to chew on anything he can get his mouth on, particularly favoring noses and chins. He seems to like it if you roll him around a bit and yell "Arrr!" with him. Interestingly enough, Emmett did this too, and at a similar age.

Clever Monkey

Emmett bought (with his own money!) a noise-making toy. It's a tube with an insert that slides back and forth making sounds as it moves. Luke loves this toy. At first, he'd just shake it back and forth, delighting in whatever sounds he got out of it. Now he's mastered it - he'll carefully turn the tube to vertical, listen to the noise, and then flip it over and listen again. He'll happily do this over and over and over.

Luke loves Emmett

Luke really loves his brother, and this can be a double-edged sword. When I'm trying to get Luke down for a nap, if he hears Emmett's voice, it re-starts the whole process. And it's not so uncommon for Emmett to come down the hall and ask for something while I'm trying to get Luke to sleep. On the other hand, yesterday when Luke was sick and miserable, I was trying to get him to sleep in the evening. He wasn't having any of it, choosing instead to yell a lot. Emmett came in, made some funny faces, and Luke was happily playing with him in no time. And Emmett is great at entertaining Luke if I need a minute to do something (like, say, blog).

Emmett Loves Luke

We have a few teething rings that are filled with water. You keep them in the fridge so they're cold and extra soothing for the baby. I usually don't return them to the fridge, though. Emmett has taken it upon himself to do this! He loves to bring Luke a cold teether fresh from the fridge, and I've noticed that there is always one or two in there. He's a sweet, thoughtful brother.

Emmett-isms

I'm working on the photo album for 2006, reading through old blog posts. About a year ago, Emmett would always say "What would you like to talk about today?" His answer was usually Disneyland or Sea World. He asked this question lots. Some might say too much (but not his parents!). Emmett doesn't say it any more. But these days, he runs up to David and says "Dad, Dad! I have something to tell you! Um... (looking around)." David reports that he sometimes thinks of something to say, but it's perfectly obvious that he didn't at the start.

Sign update

At lunch today, I was trying to feed Luke two things he doesn't really like. After taking a bite of the first he yelled and made a face, and then signed "all done." After a bite of the second food, he did the same thing! I only tried a little bit to get him to eat more, which he really didn't.

Dada

I think we can officially call "Dada" Luke's first word. He says it preferrentially to David, and he's gone from babbling "dadadadada" (which he does still do sometimes) to just saying "Dada" to David.

Reading with Luke

Luke doesn't get much reading directed exclusively his way. I'm trying to encourage Emmett to read to Luke, but I still have to work in more just-for-Luke reading. He gets lots of reading, of course, just by being nearby when I read to Emmett. Anyway, all of this is to say that with Emmett, I read lift-the-flap books when he was way to young to even reach out to them. I recorded with detail when he started grabbing for the flaps, and when he was able to competently open them. Yesterday, I read Luke "Where Does Maisy Live," a very good flap-book for babies. I'd read it to him once a few weeks ago. He is able to competently open all of the flaps - he reaches correctly for the edge that opens and everything (the book has flaps that open left, right, up, and down). I may have to "lose" the info about some of Emmett's milestones so Luke doesn't get a complex...

Lankies

Emmett calls his Nike tennies "Lankies." Makes me smile. That's all.

Feeding Luke

Luke has developed a habit of seizing any spoon just as it reaches his lips. He grabs on tight with both hands, and is lightning quick. He'll pull it into his mouth and eat it, but not before splattering it here and there. I've started bringing about five spoons to each meal so I can let him keep a few and throw a few on the floor and still feed him. As you can imagine, this gets food everywhere. Luke had a bath after lunch today. After a meal, I soak a big wash cloth with warm water to clean him up. I try to do a good job - really I do! He squirms and isn't happy, but I perservere and wipe him down pretty well. Then, a few minutes later, I'll see the peaches in his ears, or the peas in the creases around his nose... It's a good thing Utah is so dry, or the boy would get moldy.

Ouch!

Sometimes when he's eating finger foods, Emmett will start to yell, and then he asks me to kiss his finger. Why? Because he bit it. This has happened more often, and more times than you'd think. When will he learn that his hand is attached?

Keeping Mommy Close

Have I mentioned before that Luke feels for me when he's falling asleep by throwing out his legs and trying to land them on my body? It's not so much that he's actually kicking me, he just wants to have his legs up on a part of me so he'll feel it if I'm trying to escape. He does it quite a lot when he's first falling asleep, and I know if I'm trying to leave and he's still kicking he's likely to wake himself up.

Jumping Bean

One of Luke's favorite "moves" is the one where he pulls his arms and his legs into his body before explosively throwing them out again. Sometimes he'll do this in anger, but usually it's when he's excited and happy. He's like those toys where you pull the string and it sends their arms and legs flailing.

Carpet!

We've almost completely recovered from the carpet installation. And there is less accumulated trash around than, well, probably since we moved in. David had to partially disassemble the bunk bed so they could carpet Emmett's room, so we got a look at all of the treasures Emmett's been stashing under his bed behind the drawer set. It wasn't so bad, really. When David was re-assembling the bed, Emmett had been playing and left some toys behind it, between the bed and the wall. I went to remove them, telling him that if we left them, they'd be under the bed when Dad moved it into place. Of course that was his plan all along, so I left them there (but I did retrieve his shoes!).

Catching Up

Last week, Luke had a bath that he actually seemed to enjoy. He spent a bunch of time playing with bath toys, and I took him out because it was getting cold, not because he was fussing! Emmett has learned to swing himself! He can get started, pump his legs, and swing as high as he's willing to go. It's suddenly made the swing-set a much more attractive place to play during the day. It's nice, because I can see how proud he is that he can do it himself. Luke is crawling all around the house, and fast! He can follow me around, and he can take off on an adventure, too. He spends some time on hands and knees, but is still primarily an army-man crawler. Luke's also pulling up on all kinds of things, including my legs! He really likes to pull up and play at the train table. When he first started doing it, after a while he'd get wobbly and start to fuss - I think he was getting tired and knew he'd fall soon. Now, he can stand there for much longer. And I thin