Ho, Ho, Ho!!!

Favorite. Santa.
EVER.

Christmas, Numero Uno.

We went to Atlanta for the first part of Christmas to be with Phil's family. We had such a good time. We spent the first few days in Duluth at Phil's parents' house just hanging out and finishing up the last odds and ends of our Christmas shopping. Then on Saturday we went to Phil's grandfather's birthday lunch where we saw tons of the extended family that we don't get to see very often. Luke got to meet some of his relatives for the first time and was definitely a big hit!

Chillin' with Papa T. at the party.


Sitting with Nanny (Phil's grandmother) and getting a little overwhelmed by all the people.


Recovering with Daddy.


Uncle Reuben helps Luke open his present.


Mmmm...this is a tasty new toy!


Fully recovered and enjoying lunch.

After the party, we drove up to Phil's parents' mountain house in Sautee and celebrated an early Christmas. The whole family was there, and it was a blast. We had a yummy dinner and opened presents, then played games and watched movies until the wee hours. Luke was in bed for most of the festivities, but he still had a great time playing and running around in his walker during the day. He was loved on by everybody and was certainly the highlight of everyone's Christmas this year!



The whole Tatum clan in the mountains.
From left to right: Peggy (Phil's mom), Stanley (Phil's dad), Beth (Phil's youngest little sis), Brian (Joanna's fiance), Joanna (Phil's middle little sis), Brandon (Emma's husband), Emma (Phil's oldest little sis), me, Luke, and Phil.

Santa Baby with Aunt Jo Jo...

...and with Auntie Em and his best friend, Yellow Man.


Reading "Mirror Me" with Aunt B. and thinking that seeing himself in the mirror is the greatest thing.


Aunt B. is so funny!


Hanging out with Uncle Brandon. Luke was much more into it than Brandon was.


Luke loves Uncle Brian.


Playing with silly Papa T.


Christmas is so fun!


The love birds. Getting hitched in May!


Brandon and Emma playing our new game with us.


Joanna and Mama T. looking through cookbooks.


Phil with his new football and Tech sweatshirt, wishing he could be a quarterback when he grows up.


This walker was Luke's favorite thing all week. It had a mirror on the other side of Elmo, and he'd just look at himself and squeal with laughter. Then he discovered the long hall from the living room to the front door and he spent hours just running up and down the hall, chasing us and playing hide and seek. It was the most adorable thing.


Talking to Grammy on his way to the hall.

And he's off!


Go Lukie, go!!


Yes, we see you, big man.


Turned around and headed back, for the 67th time.


Making a lap through the kitchen.


Taking a minute to play peek-a-boo with Mommy through the window.


Peek-a-boo, Lukie Lu!!


Watching Bubba, the neighbor's dog.


Petting Bubba with Daddy.


After we got back from the mountains, we made a little trip to downtown Atlanta one day. We had lunch and went to the Georgia Tech bookstore to get a few things.


Luke was such a big boy and even ate his own lunch with us at the restaurant. He flirted with the ladies at the table next to us and had our waitress won over in no time. She was especially pleased when she saw that he didn't make a big mess for her to clean up!
(Notice Yellow Man joined us for lunch, too.)


Huh? Where am I?
Why, Luke, you are on the streets of Atlanta, surrounded by millions of big shiny buildings, tons of overpriced restaurants and bars, and more traffic than you have ever seen in your life. This is why we don't live here.


In the GT bookstore with Daddy. Go Jackets!!!

The day before we left, we went to visit Papa T. at work. He owns and runs a forklift tire company and works in a greasy shop that he shares with Hill Tire, a truck tire company. Sherry is a really sweet woman who works for Hill Tire and has a 15-month old little girl named Natalie, who she brings to work with her most days. Natalie and Mr. Stan (Phil's dad) are big buddies. She loves to play with him and especially loves to see the "baby" on the computer. She says "Baby?" in her sweet little voice, and Mr. Stan takes her to his computer to show her the latest pictures of Luke on our blog. She oohs and aahs over each picture, and it tickles Mr. Stan to death. He's told us about Natalie so much that we wanted to meet her and thought it would be fun for her to meet Luke. Well....it didn't go as well as we'd hoped. Natalie is a wee little thing. She is very petite and weighs about 21 lbs. Luke, as most of you know, is not the slightest bit petite, weighing in at 26 or 27 lbs. these days. He was bigger than little Natalie by far, and his constant loud noises scared her to pieces. He loves to hear himself talk and even yell out, and does so often. They are happy noises, but they are pretty loud...He is such a boy. Natalie is all girl and was not pleased to be subjected to such an enormous, loud, scary being. It was not long before she was crying and wouldn't get near Luke!


It started out ok. She saw him and said, "Baby!"


He got excited to see her and squealed in delight. She was not amused.


Her mom and dad tried hard to convince Natalie that Luke was just a sweet baby who was excited to see her, but she didn't buy it. She finally reached out for Mr. Stan and said, "Baby?" He said "Oh, alright," and took her to look at the quiet little baby on the computer!!


Papa T. let Luke drive the forklift.


This is so awesome!!


Daddy showed Luke how to use the tire press.


Luke was having a great time...


...and was thrilled to be posing with the Papa T., the greatest of all tire men, in front of the solid pneumatics.

Batten Down the Hatches.

Luke has been hard at work channeling his inner boy. It seems he's going full steam ahead towards toddlerhood (I think I made that word up). Just in these last few weeks, he has been changing right before our eyes, and he just keeps proving to us that he is ALL boy. These are some of his latest shenanigans:

• Luke started pulling up Thanksgiving weekend. Since then he's become a pro and is obsessed with it. When I put him in the Golden Corral to play, all he wants to do is pull himself up and stand at the couch. He'll stand for a good while, until he either loses his footing and falls over or sees a toy and goes down to get it. Sometimes he falls and smacks his head on the carpet, but he only cries if he hits REALLY hard. Usually he just bangs his head and rolls right over, moving on without even a whimper....Interestingly enough, he had yet to figure out that he could pull himself up in his crib. I made the mistake of thinking to myself, "Hmm...he hasn't had any problems getting down after pulling up. He just goes right down when he's ready. Maybe we'll skip that whole I'm-standing-up-and-now-I-don't-know-how-to-get-down stage..." Silly me. This weekend he discovered that he can pull himself up in his crib, too. Unfortunately, he has yet to realize that he can sit down in his crib the same way he sits down in the Golden Corral. He'll pull himself up at the end of his crib, facing the door, and just stand there talking to himself for a while. Eventually, he realizes that he is exhausted and STUCK. He'll start crying and then screaming. When I go up there to help him get down, he's sweating buckets because he's been working so hard to keep himself up for so long. When I lay him back down, he just crawls right back over to the railing and pulls right back up, screaming all the while. It's so frustrating. Luckily, I've been warned by a million moms that this would happen, so I know that it's just a right of passage and that this too shall pass....one of these days.

This is what I see when I open the door to his room. He has to stand on his tip toes to see over the railing.


Peek a boo.


So proud of himself.
(This was after a nap when I went to get him, so he was in a great mood.)

• Luke loves to walk in his walker these days, and he's getting really good at actually walking in it (rather than just scooting) and being able to go where he wants. I was sweeping the floor the other day while he was in his walker, and the whole time he was either chasing the broom or trying to roll right through my dirt pile. His favorite thing to do when he is in the walker is to pull over the stools at our kitchen counter. He grabs them by the middle rung and yanks them down, either sending them crashing to the floor or smashing right down on top of him. He did this the other day while I was making baby food. I saw the chair tipping and before I could get to it, it crashed to the floor. He thought this was awesome because he could then push the chair across the floor and smash it into the wall. At this point, I figured I'd just leave the chair on the floor so he could play with it, rather than stand it back up only to have him pull it down again.
  

Who knew a chair could be so much fun?

Right after I took the picture, he remembered that there was another chair still standing and ran over to try to pull that one down, too. I took a quick picture, then removed both chairs to the living room!


Going for chair # 2.

• The next day Luke was once again in his walker, but this time there were no stools in the kitchen. Being the smarty pants that he is, he found his way into the dining room where he spent at least 15 minutes trying to find a way to get up onto the table. He also tried pulling over some of the dining room chairs.
  

A new form of chin-ups. He was actually able to pull himself up slightly. The kid is Baby Hulk.

Once again, he's tickled with his new tricks.

• Luke has been a chatterbox for a long time now, but lately he loves to growl. He especially loves to growl with Phil, and they will just growl back and forth at each other like it's their own little language. Boys are weird. He also thought that the drill his daddy was using this weekend was so cool, and he'd laugh every time Phil would turn it on.
  

• Luke is getting into absolutely everything and has even started to try to open cabinets. We had to install our first batch of safety gadgets in the kitchen and in all the outlets this weekend.

• The little stinker has started biting me when he's nursing. IT'S AWFUL!!! He's done it twice now and both times I thought he'd drawn blood. The first time I was just so surprised and in pain that all I really did was scream "OW, OW, OW" a million times. The second time I was again surprised, but I tried popping his cheek (not too hard, don't worry) and firmly saying "NO, NO, NO." He looked up at me and laughed. The worst part is that he is getting 4 more teeth right now! All four are on the top, and in the spirit of Twilight, his canines have cut first. I'm a little worried we are going to have a vampire child on our hands for a while.

If you click on this picture and open it up nice and big in its own tab, you can probably see some of the teeth that are coming in. It makes me shudder just thinking about the damage those things can do to me!

• And the epitome of all things boy...Luke has discovered, well, his manhood...er, his boyhood. The minute the diaper comes off or if he can't reach a toy in the bathtub, he's always got a friend close at hand. Like I said before: BOYS ARE WEIRD.