Happy Sumo

My sister sent Luke this Japanese yukata (summer kimono). Thanks Carol, it is so cute!

Luke is officially 9 months old. He is growing into quite a funny kid, but above all other qualities, he just radiates goodness. He brings so much joy into our lives. Some things about 9-month Luke:

• His first method of retaliation at bedtime is to throw his binky outside his crib. This is a major sacrifice...one he makes bravely yet with much trepidation as his binky is his constant companion all day long. But for some reason he deems it worth the sacrifice to entice his mother to come in the room and save him from his agony. I always give in (I'm a sucker). I know how much he loves it.

• Recently, Luke has gone on strike from baby food purees. Now, he prefers drinking green smoothies from Mom's cup and feeding himself cherrios. The only way I can get him to eat something else is if he can pick it up and put it in his own mouth. He's becoming quite sophisticated really. I keep trying to feed him purees and was even desperate enough to hand him the bowl of carrots and let him have his way with it. A picture is worth a thousand words:

I failed.

• Luke started crawling shortly after 8 months. Now he is a speed demon. His knees are becoming callused from crawling on the wood floor, but he is happy and excited for this little bit of freedom. He just crawls around and tries to pull himself up to stand next to anything that will hold his weight. This morning I discovered him scaling the side of his stroller. He was balancing himself on top of the wheel! We might have a climber on our hands. p.s. if anyone has advice about how to keep inedible crumbs off the floor 24/7, I'd appreciate it. He always finds the craziest stuff to put in his mouth.
  

• Luke is a lightweight. You may not be able to tell from the pictures, but here he is next to his friend Logan who is 5 months older than him. Now 5 months is a lot of time when it comes to babies, but still, he's a little tike. He is 9th percentile for weight and 75th for height. We are working on packing the pounds on this little guy. Our doctor told me that he thinks that Luke should be taller because both his parents are pretty tall...I just about hugged him for putting me in the "tall" category. Our doctor is a little loopy sometimes.

• Speaking of friends, Luke is beginning to learn about having friends. When Logan came to visit, Luke followed him around the whole time with a grin ear to ear. He was so happy to have another kid around. He just kept squealing with excitement. Logan played it cool though. He plays the "mentor" role quite well. Luke is pretty much infatuated with all kids. We love it when friends come to play.
  

• Luke is also beginning to learn that having friends requires some flexibility. Luke was all smiles until he and Logan disagreed on which way the page should be turned on the music table. It was a fight to the death (for Luke anyway, Logan still played it cool)...but in the end, Logan was stronger.
  

• Luke has some crazy curly hair (sorry, that's from Mom). The more humid is gets, the harder to control. But we like it.

• Finally, we appreciate Luke's good nature. He's pretty much always happy and always finds a way to smile at everyone (even the old ladies in the grocery store who want to play with him because they miss their own grandkids). He hardly ever cries when he hurts himself (he definitely gets that from Andrew...I'm a baby about pain). If he is having a rough day, it is usually quickly forgotten once Mom or Dad picks him up and tickles him a few times. We just love our little dude.

On my mission in Japan, my mission president would always compare my difficult experiences with not knowing the language and constantly making mistakes to being like a child. He would tell me that I should never forget what it feels like to be a child. I was often frustrated that I didn't understand what was going on and had to make SO many mistakes in order to learn. He told me that children are happy and since I was kind of like a child in that situation...I should learn to be happy too. I often think of that when I look at Luke. He still has to rely so much on his Mom and Dad. He falls over multiple times a day, it takes him 5 minutes to get a piece of banana in his mouth, he has to endure being put in his car seat without knowing if it will be a 5 minute trip or a 5 hour trip....but he's still as happy as can be. In fact, I think he's quite proud of how far he has come in the past 9 months. We could all probably learn a lot if we remembered what it is like to be a child.