Dancing, Kicking, & Talking

Happy Beautiful Sunday! I can't wait for Luke to wake up from his nap so we can go to the park - we have to take advantage of this warmer weather. :)

Last week, I wrote about a few things - Luke's night time fits and Luke's new ability to kick a ball and dance by lifting his feet. I have two great updates! First of all, Luke is sleeping beautifully! Since last Sunday, he has had one rough night and it was caused by a middle of the night belly-ache and stinky. Other than that, he is sleeping from 8:00pm to somewhere between 6 and 7am. I am so thankful! And rested!!! :)

As far as the dancing and kicking, I promised I would try to post some video and I did just that - check out the two videos at the bottom of the blog.

Luke is beginning to say a few words that I can understand: he says "do" for dog, "a-by" for peek-a-boo (I only realized what he was saying after he started poking his head around a door while saying this sound), and he calls his paci a "numi" or something very close to that. When he wants his paci, he points to the drawer that we keep them in and says that "numi" word. He will say "bye-bye" occasionally. He says "da-da" all the time but not necessarily when daddy is around. I think this is the easiest word for him so it's what comes out when he jabbers. Unfortunately, he rarely says "ma-ma" even though I repeat it for him all the time. :)

I'm learning how important it is to pay attention to Luke's cues and his sounds so that I can better understand him. I believe that children his age communicate so much better than what we give them credit for - we just have to pay attention to their signals.

A few other random developments:
-he can now put two mega lego blocks together - it takes him a few tries, but most of the time he can do it
-on several occasions, he has started this head banging thing - I have read about how this is a common occurrence with children his age but I never thought Luke would do it. He will all of a sudden start shaking his head and then bump his head on the floor several times - not enough to hurt himself but hard enough to make a sound. It's very strange. :) Anyone else have a toddler do this peculiar move???
-Luke is terrified of the vacuum cleaner. I am trying to work on this fear. Just this morning, I got the vacuum cleaner out of the closet and just let it sit in the living room for awhile. At first, he whined, then, he ignored it, and then later, he started touching it a little. I showed him how the button worked and how the wheels worked. He's still a little shy around it, but I'm hoping he will begin to not worry so much. A big thank you to my neighbor, Caren, for these suggestions.
-Luke's favorite color right now is yellow. How do you know that, you say? Well, every toy that he wants to carry around is always yellow. He carries around a yellow horse, he will choose a yellow block every time, when playing with this bath letters, he always chooses the yellow ones to play with - I'm not quite sure why this is, but, oh well, whatever floats your boat.

I have included some pictures from this week below. Enjoy them!

Let me explain this picture - in this picture you see the back end of my big boxer, Max. Our dogs are not allowed in the living room, kitchen, or Luke's bedroom. They are confined behind the gate that you see in their own bedroom most of the time. However, when it's time for them to go outside or to eat, Luke loves to help us "let them out." The dogs do so well at walking by him easily as he chases them out the door. This is Luke getting ready to make sure that Max gets outside quickly. As you can see, Max doesn't bother Luke at all. These dogs are so great with him - they are very gentle to be so big! If they didn't shed so bad, I would let them out more.

Playing hide and seek around the table...

and in the cabinet...

The next few pictures show Luke's new favorite toys - I call the activity "jars and lids". I have saved containers and lids of all different sizes and shapes. Luke loves to match the lids with the correct container and then take the lids on and off. It's a great problem solving and gross motor activity and it doesn't cost a thing!!! :)

Here is a slightly better picture of me and Luke playing with the camera again..

Luke is #1 (at least in mommy's eyes) :) Notice the yellow????

Dumping his bath letters!!

Yellow again....

See the yellow horse??? :)

There's my future soccer player...

In the next few pictures, you will see Luke pushing around a storage container that the dogs' food normally goes in. It was empty so he decided to make his own game out of it...

Strong man!!!

Luke loves to read in Daddy's chair. :)

And, the video that I promised!

Before I go - big THANK YOU to Caren, Heather, & Lindsey for sharing some stories with me about your babies' struggles at night. You all helped me realize that this is just a normal phase that all babies go through and encouraged me to keep my head up. Thank you, thank you! I look forward to our playdate next weekend! :)