How BIG is Luke???
SO BIG!!!!
We can't believe that our little punkin is 11 months old! He'll be a whole year old in about 2 more seconds. Where has my baby gone?? I am seriously sad that my little baby boy is turning into a big guy. I've been trying to really enjoy every single day lately, knowing that they are flying by. He's just getting bigger by the minute. He's constantly learning and doing new things and is walking on his own more and more every day. Here are some things that the Big Man has been up to lately...besides getting older:
~ Becoming completely OBSESSED with our ceiling fans. We have four of them in our house. The two in the kitchen are low enough that we can reach up and touch them. Any time we are in or near the kitchen, Luke goes nuts until we stand under one of the fans and reach up and spin it. Then he immediately looks over at the other one and practically leaps out of our arms, wanting to get to it. So we have to go to the other one and spin that one. Then he wants to go right back to the first one and spin it again. It's exhausting...thank God we have vaulted ceilings in our living room and bedroom.
~ Trying to make us laugh. Luke loves to be silly and make us laugh. The problem is that he has a very dry presentation, so we don't always know that he's trying to be funny. We had a civil war going on in the Tatum household for most of February. Luke was spitting with food in his mouth at every meal. We tried everything to get him to stop: telling him no, telling him no LOUDER, popping his hand, etc. It turns out that all we had to do was acknowledge that he was so silly, laugh with him about it, and then move on. Who knew? He now loves to lean over to the side while we are feeding him. This is what it looks like:
At first we had no clue what he was doing, so we didn't laugh. Finally we figured out that this was his way of being silly, so we laugh and tell him how silly he is, then he laughs at himself and resumes eating. Weird, huh? All I can think of is that he's got his daddy's funny genes. Phil loves to be funny and make people laugh. It seems as though Luke does, too!
Another silly face to make us laugh.
~ Splashing. Luke has discovered how much fun splashing can be in the bathtub. He's always splashed a little, but now he's gotten really serious about it. He loves what it does to his bath toys (makes them bounce and bob all over the place), to the bathroom (makes it a huge, wet mess), and to his parents (makes them jump all over the place trying to dodge the water and stay dry). We now need to wear rain ponchos just to give him a bath.
Seriously, Dad? You're letting her in here with a camera??
Big time splashing. So fun!
One-armed, sleepy boy splashing.
~ Improving his sippy cup skills. Luke has always loved to have a sippy cup, but he's just never been able to drink more than he spills. Well, he's finally gotten much better at it. He can now drink out of it really well. He just sometimes has a hard time tipping it up, and when he can't get much out of it, he starts chewing on the bottom. He's starting to get the hang of it, though, and will be a pro before long!
~ Finding noses. He's learned where our noses are and more-or-less where his nose is. When we ask him, "Where's Mommy's/Daddy's nose?" he gets it right every time. He points right to it with his chubby little finger. When we say, "Where's Lukie's nose?" he points to his own face, but sometimes has a hard time finding his actual nose. He really likes to point to his ear, so we are now working on ears.
Where's Daddy's nose? There it is!
Where's Lukie's nose? Well....good try, bud.
~ Being a wrecking ball. Luke loves to make messes. He considers it tons of fun to pull everything out of baskets, cabinets, or drawers and absolutely strip the refrigerator of all his magnets, hurling them to the floor. He also thinks it's awesome to pull the air conditioning vents up out of the floor. Yes. You read that right. Most people would never even notice an AC vent, let alone think to pull it up out of the floor for fun. Not Luke. He does it like it's his job. He is so strong that he can do things we'd never think he could do. For instance, when we have him in the golden corral and he wants to go somewhere outside of the corral, he just stands up and pushes it wherever he wants to go....and he gets there! He moves the whole darn thing...and it's on the carpet, not even on hard wood. Baby Hulk strikes again.
What mess?
Bye-bye AC vent. Hello gaping hole.
What do you want? Can't you see I'm busy?
Now that that darn towel is out of the way, I can see my beautiful self. Muuuuuch better...
~ CLIMBING!! It is official. Luke is a climber. He tries to climb on everything. In his crib, he steps all over the bumper pads, just trying to get up a little higher. Whenever he is on the couch with us, he will not sit still. He climbs on top of all the pillows, tries to climb up the back of the couch, and tries to climb up over the arms of the couch. When he's in the corral, he'll stick his little toes in the holes on the sides and pull himself up so that he's literally climbing the walls of the corral...We're talking 6-8 inches off the ground, clinging to the top of the gate for dear life. It's amazing. He even tries to climb up us when we hold him. Once he starts walking, he's gonna be out of control.
...and speaking of walking...
~Walking! Luke is walking on his own these days, but not exclusively. He spends most of his time standing up, holding on to things and walking around, but he's been letting go and walking from one thing to another a lot lately. He's up to about 10 steps in a row and is even able to take a few steps, stop, bend down, pick something up, stand up again, and keep on walking. He still relies on crawling when he wants to get down to business, but he loves to show off his new skillz. It's so fun and exciting to watch him learn to walk, but we're in no hurry to have a walker on our hands. Life is going to be completely crazy when he gives up crawling!
~ Being a smarty pants. I know every parent says this, but Luke is so smart. He has figured out how to get out of the corral in every set-up except the full circle, locked set-up. We have rigged it many ways, and every time he figures out how to get out, even if it means using brute force. The stinker...He also likes to imitate things that we say, even words we don't try to teach him, like "apple". He has finally started signing "more" just today (we've been working on it for a while...he could do it before now, but wouldn't) and has been signing "all done" for a while. He has figured out how all of his toys work and can even attach some lego-like blocks to the boat that they go on, then pull them off and do it all again. He has started to understand a lot of what we say to him or ask him. If I ask him where Doggy is, he goes right to Doggy. If I ask him where Yellow Man is, he reaches for Yellow Man. If I say that we need to change his diaper, he looks up at the changing table, etc....He even understands "No!", but chooses when he wants to obey. Once again. Such a stinker.
Current Stats:
- Weight: A whole stinkin' lot!! We won't know till our 1 year check-up.
- Length: Again, we'll see at the check-up. He's actually too tall for some of his pants... First time ever for the short-legged man!
- Clothes: 24 months/2T. Some 3T's because of his big ol' shoulders.
- Shoes: He's got such FAT feet that it's impossible to find him shoes that fit. Right now he's in 5's. They're a little long, but barely wide enough.
- Diapers: 5's.
Chubbers.
Who you callin' chubby?
Now how can I undo this annoying buckle thingy?
(No, I didn't dress him in man-pris. His pants just got hiked up when he sat down.)
Visiting Dakota.
So tickled that Dakota rolled over.
Not quite sure about Mommy rubbing Dakota's tummy.
Family pic in front of Dakota's house. No. It wasn't taken by Dakota's mystery owners. A nice lady riding by on her bike offered to take it. Luke, the neighborhood watchman, was skeptical of said lady, having never seen her in the neighborhood before.
All business on our walk. No leisurely reclining for him.
Mesmerized by bubbles. You can't really see them in the picture, but they were there floating around. Luke LOVED his first encounter with bubbles.
Smiling for Mommy.
Laughing at Mommy.
Trying to look tough for Mommy.
Exhausted after all that hard work!
Luke is such a joy, and we are more in love with him than ever. Was there life before him??
We love, love, love you Stinker Man!! You are our little treasure, our precious gift from God.
