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.