Things Luke knows about Santa

1) Santa drinks Coke.

-We live in Atlanta, there are billboards of Santa drinking Coke all around and all of the Coke cans have Santa drinking a Coke on them. There will be no milk set out for Santa at our house.

2) Santa is scary.

-Luke is fascinated with anyone or anything dressed up as Santa. Loves to see him on TV (even Snoopy dressed as Santa draws his attention). However, try to get him within reach of a real-life Santa (or any inanimate object large enough to pose a threat dressed up like Santa) and his death-grip and screaming "NO, NO, NO" are triggered instantly.

-A few additional points to this, we tried to take him to see the mall Santa before Thanksgiving (we were so smart, we beat the crowds, there was zero waiting time!). Maybe we were too early, he hadn't been inundated with Santa's image really yet. So when he saw the big guy he freaked (think back to his experience with the horse in May and the Cow at Chick-Fil-A). Wouldn't even get close enough for the photographer to snap a crying on Santa's lap picture to tease him with years from now.

-Sometime in the beginning of December, Shrek the Halls was playing on TV. Luke loves the Shrek 2 DVD (a staple of car rides out of town) we have so I DVR'd this for him (and we watch it at least once a day now). Little did I know, but there is a scene where the gingerbread cookie is telling his experience with Santa. He's a COOKIE mind you. So just picture us watching this fun family holiday show, and here is the gingerbread cookie on a date with his gingerbread girlfriend on Christmas Eve when who shows up? A huge stalking Santa Claus that picks up his girlfriend, widely opens up his mouth bearing his teeth, and well you know, crumbs fall down. Luke's face was in pure disbelief and shock. What could I do but quickly say, "Luke, Santa loves cookies, don't we all like cookies, Yummy!" So now when that scene comes on, we all say "Santa eats cookies."

3) Santa eats cookies.

4) Santa says "Ho, Ho, Ho."

Perhaps all the Shrek watching, Christmas book reading, and Christmas decoration perusing has warmed Luke up to real-life Santas. Just a little bit. Santa came to Luke's school last week. I warned his teachers he may not go for it. They told me if they can get one brave soul in the class to do it, the others will usually follow. I asked Luke later that day if he sat on Santa's lap and he said "uhhhh" (which is Luke speak for either Yes, I'm not sure, or I'm not really paying attention to what you are asking me...those of you who have heard it know what I am talking about). So I assumed it meant Yes in this instance and asked him what Santa said to him and Luke said "Ho, Ho Ho." So I thought maybe he actually did sit on the big guys lap!

When I asked his teachers the next morning how it went they told me that at first Luke was scared and crying, but then he did sit on Santa's lap after seeing his best buddy Alec do it. They followed that with "Don't expect a smile in the picture though."

Here is that photo:

Classic.

Josh 2.0

The common impression is that Luke is Josh's clone.

Luke now.                    Josh (left) with brother Matt, probably a little older than Luke is now.

What do you think?

November catch up in pictures

Cowboy Luke!

He did this to himself!

Attempts at a Christmas card photo...and why you haven't received a card yet!

But unless I get something better you might be seeing one of these again :)

Some shots from Thanksgiving in Brevard, NC with Josh's parents and grandparents.  We had a nice relaxing trip...that is after the nearly 2 hours it took to get out of Atlanta!

Luke donned great-grandpa's Duke hat (that shot is for you Carrie!) and we cheered on the Gators vs FSU.  Luke was fascinated with the Christmas tree and said it was "Awesome!"

What's new?

*Originally written 12/2 (was going to add pictures but never got around to it)*

So what is new with the Elliotts? Not too much with me or Josh, although stay tuned for our announcement of where we'll be employed come next July.  We are getting close to making a decision but nothing to announce just yet. 
Really, all that is new is with Luke!  He has definitely become MR. INDEPENDENT.  He desperately wants to do everything himself, his favorite new phrase is "NO, my do it." Here is a little example.  Yesterday I picked him up from school, and as usual the first thing he wanted was his snack.  No "HI Mommy!" he just looks at me and says "SNACK!"  Usually they have a snack to take in the car hanging from his hook outside the classroom, but there wasn't one there yesterday.  I told Luke this and he immediately marched over to the door, tried to open it himself and when he couldn't said to me "Mommy, open this."  I did, and he went right to his hook and looked for himself!  Guess he didn't believe me :)  So typically, then since his classroom is downstairs, I carry him up the steps (he has been known to occasionally walk up them holding my hand) and out to the car.  Yesterday, nope, he had to walk up them by himself.  He even got upset with me when he noticed I had my hands hovering behind him and promptly told me "No, Mommy, No, my do it."  He did climb up all the stairs like a big boy, only near-falling once to which he said "Whoa!" and walked out to the car on his own.  He has also started to try climbing in and out of the car by himself, but I think this has more to do with his fascination of sitting in the driver's seat to play with all the of car knobs and buttons and he thinks if he climbs in unassisted he can outsmart me and get to the driver's seat before I grab him to get into the carseat. 
Seriously, he is so darn cute exerting his independence.  I hope I still think he is this cute when he goes through this again as a teenager :)
Josh and I have been trying to get him to use his pacifier only at night-time, but lately he has been a lot more attached to it.  Not sure what that is about but it is hard to understand him when he talks with it in his mouth.  This led to what I thought was the best moment of my mommy-hood so far this morning, only to realize that I had misinterpreted paci-speak.  Luke had his paci in and blankie in his hand this morning when we pulled into daycare.  I was unbuckling him and what I heard was "Mommy, I going to miss you." My heart melted (since he isn't quite to the point where he will say he loves us without being prompted) and I replied "I'm going to miss you too Luke."  He looked at me weird and then said his phrase again, then I realized he had actually said "Mommy, I bring these two" meaning the paci and the blankie which he knows he is supposed to leave in the car and he wanted to take into daycare.  Got to admit, I was disappointed. 
You can imagine what happened from there...removal of the blankie and paci...Luke screaming on the way into daycare...other parents giving me that knowing look while they are thinking I'm glad it is you not me this morning.

Super Halloween

Luke, being a full-time day care kid, had two Halloween parties at school.  They do two so that part-time kids get to have a party.  Luke dressed up as a cowboy at one party (no pictures because he wouldn't put the outfit on for me at home) and the other day as Superman.  He did fine with Superman, but refused to wear the cape for me.  They did tell me at school that he wore it for trick-or-treating.  Luke was also Superman for the real Halloween, but the weather was awful here.  We went to our friends house to watch the Gators vs Georgia game and to trick-or-treat.  We kept waiting for the rain to stop but it never did, so Josh and I took Luke on a quick trick-or-treat trip to 4 houses.  A man at one of the houses answered the door wearing a big head (looked like the old men from the muppets).  It really wasn't scary, but when he got down and close to Luke, Luke backed up to get away from him.  Then when he got off of the porch, he kept repeating "I scared, I scared."  Here are a couple of pictures from that evening.

No Cape!

Snuck it on him

Nice try mommy

snuck it on him again and he either never noticed or gave up :)

Lets go!

Bath time

One night recently, I discovered I had left Luke's bath wash in the bath tub with the lid open from the previous night. That made for some huge bubbles in the bath tub for him to play with. (Normally I just use a little bit of bath bubbles because our hang down shower head is broken so I really don't have a good way to rinse him off at the end of the bath). Luke was really excited about the BIG BUBBLES. However, as soon as I got the video out, he tried to play it cool :)

Hmm, changed my blogging template recently and can't figure out how to post video.  Will try to figure that out :)

Luke Speak

I've decided to try a semi-regular installment of the funny/cute things Luke says. Tonight's post stems from cheese.  Josh made us salads and Luke wanted a piece of cheese off of mine.  He took it, at it, and then said "I like cheese...I like it."  He repeated this several times, eating another piece of cheese each time.  It was cute.  Later he wanted to slide down our legs (we lay on the ground with our knees bent and he slides down).  However, he wouldn't get on unless we laid all the way back on the ground.  He came over to us, put his hand on our chest and said "Lay back" while pushing us down :) Then he would slide.  Too funny.

In sad news, Luke has been bitten twice this week. Once on Monday that went unnoticed at daycare and I discovered when I took his shirt off for bath time and again today.  Both bites were on his left arm and actually overlap each other.  Poor Luke!  I asked him who bit him on Monday and today and got two different names, wonder what the reliability is for a 2-year old?