Luke speak

Well, its been over a week since I last posted, and I was doing so well at the beginning of March catching up! I'm breaking from the Christmas catch-up to do a quick edition of Luke speak. Luke, who many of you know, usually is pretty articulate for his age so it just tickles us that there are a few words he consitently says incorrectly, but soo cutely :)
Here are some that come to mind:
1) "seer-y-up" = syrup
2) "pwillow" = pillow (although he has now corrected this after much coaching!)
3) "lemolade" = lemonade (my personal favorite and now what I say too!)
4) "commote" = remote (controller)

Happy St. Patrick's Day

A rare occurrence, Luke actually smiled for the camera, and big! Couldn't get the little guy to smile no matter how silly I was :)

Dinner with friends

One evening while we were in Florida, we were able to get together with some good friends! We always try to see them while we are in town for the Holidays, but this year was even more joyous as all of us had children born in 2010!

We had a great evening with wonderful food and delicious dessert, and best of all lots of newborn talk.

Here is a picture of all the dads and their new little ones.
Linc and Leah (born 7/2010), Josh and Brad, Jon and Zoey (born 9/2010)



And I took this picture of the recipe for the dessert we has so I can make it again :)

FL trip home for Christmas- Part 2 Busch Gardens

Josh's brother Matt and Matt's wife Jayce invited us to go to Busch Gardens with them while we were in Florida. As it turned out, Josh and me had passes to Busch Gardens from our April trip that were still good until Dec 31st so we were able to go for free :) Matt and Jayce have a friend who runs the Jungala (I think that is the right one) animal section. He invited a group of people including us to a behind the scenes look at the tigers!

Luke and Josh looking at tigers



Sitting on Uncle Matt's shoulders



As it turned out, Luke was too young to go (you had to be 5, Brad was home with Grammy and Papa) so Josh took Luke to see the monkeys while Matt, Jayce and me headed behind the scenes. It was pretty neat to see what they do with the tigers and how close you can get to them. Don't worry, even though we had to sign releases, we never were even close to being in danger. Even behind the scenes the tigers are behind fences and gates.

Gate to go into the Tiger Den





How close we were able to get to the tigers



Video, with a warning to stay away from the spray!



After the tiger den, we moved on to the rest of the park, including stopping for lots of kiddie rides for Luke. He flew planes (well he never lifted off actually, but he went around in a plane)



I finally got to ride Shiekra! Since I was pregnant in April, I didn't get to ride it then. It was AWESOME!

Josh and Luke riding a ride.



We had a great time at Busch Gardens and with our family. Luke still talks about the bird that ate Josh's food! A pigeon flew down and actually tried to grab Josh's slice of pizza from him as he walked to the table! Josh was not to happy about it. Good thing we were eating at the buffet so he could just go grab another piece!

Florida Christmas Trip 2010-Part 1

Yes, part 1, because as usual we crammed everything we could into a trip home to FL so there will be several parts to this trip :)

Part one chronicles our first few days in St. Pete. There was countless baby holding and reading. Luke's grammy keeps a supply of books and toys at her house for Luke (and now Brad). One of Luke's favorites is this book, which I think is called No James. Luke will ask for it to be read over and over again. He thought it was hilarious to change the name to No Lukie and made us read it that way. It is about a boy who does everything wrong and gets told no very often...wonder if that was familiar to him in some way...hmmm.



Brad, who had so many santa/Christmas related clothes I had to start with him wearing outfits early in the week!



We had a playdate at the park with my friend Jennifer and her two sons, Charlie (age 4) and James (born 5 days after Brad!). It was so nice to see them and to exchange stories on how life is going with two boys and making it through the newborn phase! I wish we lived closer so we could get the boys together all the time!

Also at the park was my fourth grade teacher Mrs. Fultz! It was great to get the chance to visit while we were in FL :) Both Jennifer and Mrs. Fultz taught school at the same school my Dad taught at in St. Pete.



Luke and Charlie playing



Jennifer and James, Me and Brad



Luke took over the camera, he's not a bad shot, you just have to squat to get in his pictures :)

2 month comparison

Do the similarities between Luke and Brad continue at the 2-month mark?
You be the judge (but I'll give you a hint, people-and I mean people I don't know but that see us out and about-still tell me now at over 4 months that Brad looks just like Luke).

Luke at 2 months (22.5 inches and 11.6 pounds)



Brad at 2 months (~23 inches and 11.11 pounds)



Minus Luke's hemangioma, they are still looking a lot alike. Luke continues to have more hair :)

Trains!

This fall and winter have been birthday party season for Luke's class at preschool and other friends in Atlanta. I counted that he has been to 7 birthday parties, including his own since October :) Just before we left to go to Florida for Christmas, we were able to go to Luke's buddy Oliver's birthday party at the Train Museum. The party was really neat, it was held on a old train car and we all got to take a ride around on a real train. Had it not been 30 degrees or so out, it would have been just that much nicer, but we all had a good time. Brad was great hanging out in the baby bjorn the whole time and bundled inside my jacket when we went outside. It is great to experience new things in Atlanta, if it weren't for these birthday parties, we'd never get out!

Luke painting a train ornament



Luke with his buddies Ben and birthday boy Oliver looking out the train car window



Pinatas are big with this age group, but always require an adult to actually get the candy out :)



Riding the real train (mommy and Brad stayed inside the covered car)

Pre-Christmas Christmas

Thanks to a couple of great aunts (actual great aunts to Luke and they are actually great too), Luke had some gifts to open before Christmas at our house. Plus, they did wonders to make our Christmas tree not look so empty underneath!

Luke by the tree with the presents



Luke with his new pillow pal



Luke is a pro opening presents this year!

12-15-10

just 'cause it is cute :)

Brad smiling in his sleep