Milestone Minutiae

Luke's new favorite phrase is "Why mom?" In case you were wondering, Emmett has not outgrown this phase yet, so now David and I get to answer at least twice as many questions in a day. And you know that every answer is greeted with another "why." David has realized that single-word, technically correct answers tend to curb the strings of whys. Here's an example from earlier today: M: Luke, stop standing on my foot. L: Why mom? M: It hurts. L: Why mom? M: Biology. When I'm feeling like it, I do go on and on about nerves, chemical signals, and the importance of knowing when your body is being damaged so you can avoid it. But if I'm not, the one-word answers have been working. Here's another example from last weekend when we were at Costco: E: Mom, where are the high tables for standing at when you eat? M: Oh, they're in the other Costco. This isn't the same Costco that we saw them in. E: Why? M: Well, that Costco is near your school, a

I know you're probably sick of "Luke said it" posts by now, but this one is great. Riding in the car, Luke said, "Turn on Jamie, please mom!" He has a sweet halting manner to his speech right now, and that was a clear and correct sentence! (He wanted to listen to the CD of Uncle Jamie's music.) Another good one: Luke: "Emmett squirt me!" Mom: "And did you squirt Emmett?" Luke: "No." Mom: "Really? You didn't squirt Emmett?" Luke: "Emmett run away!" His singing is improving, too. Today, David heard Luke singing (with pretty good intonation): In the tiki room In the tiki room birds sing words flowers croon In tiki room Not bad for a not-yet-two-year-old.

It's lovely to have two boys. Here's what I've been overhearing lately. The only background you need is that Luke has started saying "Guess what!" You say "What?" but he never replies. Luke: "Guess what!" Emmett: "What?" Luke: "Guess what!" Luke: "Guess what!" Emmett: "Chicken butt!" (giggles and laughter from both of them) Emmett has also taught him "Guess why... chicken thigh." Then Emmett made up this one: "Guess cook!" "Chicken cook!" I don't get it, but it is apparently hilarious. This evening, Luke made up one: "Guess what!" "Ride giraffe!" These exchanges can go on for a loooooooong time.

When Emmett was a baby, he slept on my chest most nights until he was heavy enough that it was no longer comfortable (20 pounds?). It was really nice, but Luke never liked it. Now that he's not nursing at night, he's willing to sleep in my chest. In fact when he wakes up, putting him on my chest is one of the best ways to get him back to sleep. Have I mentioned that he weighs 24 pounds? After a long busy day today, Luke was having trouble falling asleep. So I pulled him up onto my chest and started singing lullabies. I cycled through a few, but he kept popping his head up and saying "No!" Then he said, "Tiki Room!" So I started singing the Tiki Room song, and he put his head back down. But then at the end of each line, he picked his head back up. His nose was less than an inch from mine and he was grinning, so of course I laughed. He laughed too and put his head back down. Fortunately, it only went on for a minute or so. I'd love to end this

Here's what Luke loves to talk about in the car each day. To get a realistic experience, put the emphasis on "Where's" in each question. "Where's Daddy?" At work. "Where's Gaba ?" California. "Where's Gapa ?" California. "Where's Lucy?" California. "Where's Zoe?" California. "Where's Wiley?" California. "Where's Oma ?" California. "Where's Opa ?" California. "Where's Jake?" At home. "Where's Jenny?" At home. "Where's Emmett?" In the car. "Where's mom?" In the car. "Where's me?" In the car! Repeat ad infinitum . David swears that when I'm gone, Luke asks "Where's mom?" hundreds of times.

Emmett has been watching Stomp Out Loud on DVD for a couple of years now, and he loves it. So when I found out that Stomp! was coming to Salt Lake, I immediately bought tickets. I was a little worried about the nearly 2 hour run time (with no intermission!), but Emmett really likes the DVD, so I figured we'd be ok. We had a great time getting dressed up and going to the show together. It was a great performance! There was much more humor than I was expecting, and Emmett laughed right along. He was a little tired in the middle during some of the quieter parts, but when they brought out the big noise for the final few numbers, he was on the edge of his seat bopping and laughing again. Which reminds me - when I looked around a couple of times during the performance, no one in the audience was moving. At all. People! It's STOMP! Rhythm! Noise! How can you sit still through this? Emmett and I sure didn't. We were having way too much fun.

After going to the zoo, Luke was talking about the animals. Conversations with Luke are a little tough right now - he only strings 1-3 words together, but if you pay attention you can figure it out. He said "ride... giraffe." After confirming with him that he wants to ride the giraffe, he said "neck" so I knew he wanted to ride on the giraffe's neck. When you repeat what he's saying back to him filling in some blanks, he lets you know if you've got it right or not. Then we were talking about the tiger. Luke wanted to ride him, too. David and I joked that the tiger would like to hold Luke by the neck. Today when I was putting Luke to sleep, we talked about the zoo again. He said "tiger... neck... hold me." Thankfully, I'm pretty sure he doesn't know that tigers are suffocation killers, so this shouldn't be causing any nightmares.

It's quite light at bedtime these days, so often Luke finishes nursing before falling asleep. He'll crawl out into the co-sleeper and lie down with his head on his pillow. He'll arrange his blanket, snuggle with his stuffed giraffe or teddy, and we sing some songs. His favorite song is "Hop Old Squirrel," which just runs through a bunch of things the squirrel is doing - hopping, wiggling, jumping, etc. Luke suggests other verses, too. While moving around the teddy bear, he'll say "wiggle bear" and smile when I add in that verse. He also likes to include dad, Emmett, Jay and Jacob (two boys in the neighborhood), and all the dogs he knows, Jake, Jenny, Wiley, Lucy, and Zoe. In the end, he usually asks to nurse again to fall asleep. But a couple of times, he's fallen asleep while holding my hand. Which is also very sweet.

Emmett made me another drawing the other day. This time it had hearts in it! And a hand in the shape of the sign for "I love you." I think he said he traced his hand, but he knows how to draw hearts!

Luke has learned to give kisses. But when you ask for one, you have a 25% chance of getting kiss. The other 75% of the time he says, "No, lick it!" and licks your face. It's my fault, I can't help laughing when he does it.

At Disneyland, we went to see Billy Hill and the Hillbillies in the Golden Horseshoe. It's a group of musicians who, all named Billy, who play music and tell corny jokes. One of the jokes went like this: Q: Why don't jets land at Peter Pan's house? A: Because there's a sign that says, "Never Never Land!" While reminiscing about Disneyland in the car, Emmett remembered their performance and told the joke this way: Q: Why don't jets land at Peter Pan's house? A: Because there's a sign that says, "Jets don't land here!" (this still cracks David and me up, but I'm not sure it's actually funny)

The long drives from Utah to California and back were, shall we say, challenging. On the first leg, we left Utah around 6pm, hoping for lots of sleeping kids during the overnight drive. They foiled that plan, sleeping roughly from 10pm-midnight, then staying awake from about midnight until 2am, then sleeping again from 2-3:30am, and finally going to sleep around 4am and staying asleep until we arrived around 5:30am (Utah time). In the middle of the night when Luke is tired but awake and mad, you'd be surprised how well you can distract him from yelling by counting big rigs on the highway. It worked every time I tried it on this trip! Imagine it - Luke is yelling in his carseat, and you say, "Look, Luke! A truck! Do you think we'll pass it?" He not only stops yelling, but he starts looking at the trucks and laughing! And then he starts yelling "Empty truck!" at each one, because the very first truck we saw when I first tried this trick was empty. On th