Luke is officially two and a half and more "boy" than ever these days. Seriously. Every day I either chuckle to myself or get totally grossed out by his ever-rising testosterone levels. Let me give you some examples and you can see for yourself what I am talking about. I don't have a lot of good recent pictures, so I am just going to throw in some random recent pictures from my phone...
1. Luke's most favorite thing to say/talk about right now is none other than poop. Yes, poop. Poopie, poop, doo-doo, or any other name for it that he can come up with. It is not cute. Not at all. He laughs hysterically every time he says it and thinks he is being so funny. I can't tell you how many times a day I remind him that we only talk about poop when he has a poopie diaper or needs to go poopie in the potty (yeah, right. more on that later...). Many times I finish said little speech only to see him turn away, put his hand up to his mouth, and whisper "poopie! poopie!" to himself. He can't help himself. It's just hilarious to him.
One thing's for sure. He gets his sense of humor from his father.
(Pictured: Luke and Daddy sharing Daddy's birthday cupcake at his office)
2. Along those same lines, he also thinks passing gas (which he calls "tooting") is totally awesome and just as hilarious. He figured out how to toot on command while we were in Tampa. I was helping him brush his teeth before bed and right as I touched him with the toothbrush, he tooted. I kind of laughed because the timing was funny and then said rhetorically, "What's gonna happen when I touch your mouth again? Are you going to toot again?" I didn't think for a second that he would, but sure enough, he did. Once he realized that he could do it on purpose, he couldn't stop. He kept on and on, absolutely guffawing until he couldn't do it anymore. Then he got upset and alarmed and said, almost crying, "Mommy, I can't find my toots! Where'd my toots go??" Let me just tell you that one whiff of him told me where they went--from gas form to solid form, right into his diaper. These days he prefers to do this tooting-on-command thing whenever I am in the middle of changing his diaper and he is bare bottomed. You can guess how much fun that is...
Although making his "cheese" face for the camera while listening to Mumford & Sons in this particular picture, this is pretty much what he looks like when stinking it up for Mommy.
3. Aaaaannndddd...wrapping up this lovely topic....Despite his recent interest in smelly bodily functions, Luke is proving the theory to be true that boys take longer to be potty trained. He has ZERO interest in doing his business on the potty. Months ago he kind of piddled a little bit into the potty at my friend Carli's house. He was highly motivated after seeing his friend Anthony be rewarded with an M&M for going potty. Ever since, though, I could promise him a dump truck full of M&M's and the most I could hope to get out of him would be an occasional 2 second squat on the pot. I am praying that he will at least be potty trained by the time he gets married. Otherwise, I can hear the vows now..."For richer or for poopier, in sickness or in diapers." Won't that be sweet.
Unfortunately he gets much more use out of the time out seat than he does the toilet seat. This is usually what he looks like when I go to get him out. I know it's hard to see him because he's hiding, but I promise you he's there.
4. This kid is soooo loud. Seriously. He talks loudly. He plays loudly. He laughs loudly. He is just loud. I think it's just fun for him. I really don't think it's his hearing (although I will mention it to the doctor) because he can hear whispers perfectly fine and he hears noises that we don't even notice, like dull motorcycle or airplane sounds in the distance or my parents' grandfather clock from upstairs. The other day we were at the grocery store standing in the loooongest line right behind another mom with her little 2.5 year old girl. We stood there waiting forever and a day and the whole time Luke was talking loudly, making sound effects, growling at the little girl (trying to be funny, not trying to be mean), laughing at himself, grabbing things off the shelves and asking to have them or just throwing them in the cart, and just wiggling all over the place. The little girl sat there staring at Luke like he was a freak. She never moved. She never made a peep. I'd love to know what she was thinking...
He has started
singing shouting his own songs to the tune of his battery-less guitar. Let me tell you, they are hilarious. Loud, but hilarious.
5. Speaking of sound effects... Luke can and does make a million different noises and sounds. My mom has always said the ability to imitate sounds like car and truck sounds is hard-written on the Y chromosome. It is so true. Have you ever known a little girl who can make all the appropriate sounds for all the different types of transportation? Luke can. My brother could when he was little. Most little boys I have known could. Phil could practically make a living imitating sounds to this day. It's a boy thing, for sure.
While packing for our trip to Tampa, Luke insisted on putting his bathing suit on over his pajamas. Then he started golfing his way around the upstairs. He makes a "thhhhwaaack!" sound almost every time he swings.
6. Luke loves to run. He constantly asks us to "race" with him around the house. We all must push things that either are or are pretending to be mowers, and we race each other around the loop in our house. Thankfully, he doesn't really get the whole competition part of it yet. He just wants us all to run together. Let me just say that this wears Phil and me out. Luke, not so much.
The other day Luke said he needed to go "running" like Mommy and Daddy, so he was adamant that he listen to our iPod, just like we do when we exercise. He then proceeded to run laps around the loop in our house. In this picture, he was taking a short break to check out an especially enrapturing scene on Dora.
7. He has discovered guns. How do boys always discover guns? And swords. He is capable of turning practically anything into a sword or a gun. And he always wants me to shoot or swat at something, too. Not my idea of fun.
After finding a huge fallen branch in the backyard, Luke decided to help Daddy out and go throw it in the stick pile in our back woods. For some reason he then thought better of it and decided to use the stick to "catch butterflies" by scraping the stick on the nearby vine-covered tree.
Does the usage of a big dirty tree branch cancel out the girly-ness of catching butterflies? Luke thinks so.
8. He continues to be totally OBSESSED with cars/trucks/tractors/diggers/motorcycles/anything with a motor and wheels. Other than tools and books, his toy vehicles are what he plays with 99% of the day. And most of the time when we are going somewhere in the car, he is either pointing out the different vehicles that he sees, asking to drive them ("Sorry, buddy, but you can't drive that excavator. Mommy doesn't have the keys," is my typical answer), or asking to see another one before that one is even out of sight. Lately he has been sooooo interested in the gas and brake pedals in our car. Yesterday he spent an ENTIRE car ride asking me how the pedals work. I must have told him 500 times that pushing the gas pedal makes the car go and pushing the brake pedal makes it slow down and stop. Several times I even narrated these actions as I did them, hoping that would help him understand. Every time he'd listen and ask me, "but how it works, Mom?". I was feeling equally exasperated and inadequate in my ability to explain the inner workings of an automobile to my two and a half year old and subsequently started planning a trip for Luke to Camp PopPop. I'm sure Phil's dad (a.k.a. Jack of All Trades) could teach Luke everything there is to know and more about cars. I, on the other hand, can't handle more than "gas means go, brake means stop."
Leave it to Luke to find the Harley Davidson store at the airport. The clerk was just thrilled to have a 2.5 year old with a full diaper and an attitude riding his motorcycle.
Luke has always loved to help Mommy and Daddy pull the car into the garage. Usually he is happy to just put his hands on the wheel and let us steer, but this day he would NOT let me put my hands on the wheel. I thought it would be interesting to see what he would do, so we drove in at a comatose caterpillar's pace and this is how we ended up. He was so confused and concerned as to why we weren't in Mommy's usual spot.
9. And that reminds me of another new development...Luke is calling me "Mom" these days. Ummm, WHAT???? I mean, I know it's normal for boys to kind of pull away from their moms and begin to establish themselves as boys/men and not their mama's little babies, but TWO AND A HALF??? Seriously. I thought "mommy" would last a little longer. I am not down with this change. I try not to make a big deal about it, knowing that that would just make him all the more set on calling me "mom", but come on, man. Even when he forgets to say please or thank you and I remind him, saying "Luke, you need to say 'thank you, Mommy', " he will respond with "thank you, Mom!" Ugh. I just wince and bite my tongue, and secretly cry a little bit inside. I'm not ready for my baby to be such a big guy!!
Jumping in his very first bounce house. Even though he is literally the size of many 4 year olds, he looks so little to me here for some reason...which is probably why I like this picture so much.
And speaking of big, this is what it looks like when Luke "cooks" in the kitchen--a darn big mess!
And for the GRAND FINALE:
No amount of testosterone can save you when Mommy forces you to go on a play date with a 4 year old girly girl.
And yes, that Dora suitcase is part of Luke's ensemble, not Morgan's.
