Luke is 17 months old

Luke turned 17th months old a few days ago (I used to not understand why parents told me how many months their child was after they were a year old...as if I knew the difference anyway. But now I totally do it). Anyway, Luke is 17th months old and I've never been really good at giving his stats or anything, but I thought I'd give it a try.

Weight: I don't know...but its not enough. And Dad will probably never think it is enough until he can tackle kids bigger than him.

Height: I'm guessing about 32 inches (see why I'm not good at this stuff)

Words: Ummm, we're still working on that. He sure does babble a lot but I can't make sense of any of it. However, he does understand quite a lot. He understands ball, book, dog, head, nose, hair, mouth, tongue, ear, toes, belly button, bathtime, diaper, all done, more, no, yes.....the list really goes on and on. I think he understands more than we could ever know.

Acquired Nicknames: Lukey, Luca di beppo, Lucas Maximus Aurelias, Bubba, Buddy, Will (the name of one of his best friends...I always call him that accidentally), Curly, Cheeks, Mister, etc, etc. If you've ever watched one of our videos, you know that really embarrassing, gushy, nerdy things come out of our mouths when we interact with our son, so he has a number of random nicknames.

Favorite Pastimes: Number 1 is still electrical plugs and outlets, climbing on things, buckles, pretending to vacuum, looking at books (this warms my heart), dancing, hanging out with boys (he is really quite partial to boys, the ladies always get a little too close to his face), going to see animals at the pet store (birds are his favorite lately), going to any indoor kids' playground that Mom can find, having visitors, playing chase, peek a boo, ring around the rosie, being outside (even if it is freezing), etc, etc.

Things about Luke that crack me up:

• Seeing how much he hates shopping. It doesn't matter how fun I try to make it, he already knows that this is going to be something he despises forever. It makes me laugh. People probably stare at me in the grocery aisles wondering why I'm smiling and laughing at my child having a meltdown. His moans get especially loud when we are in any kind of craft store or fabric store. He must sense the estrogen.

• When Luke wakes up in the morning, 95% of the time he is jumping up and down in his crib laughing. As soon as I put him on the ground, he grabs his binkies that he has previously thrown over the edge of his crib and breaks into a run. He continues to run as fast as he can all around the second floor until I corner him for a diaper change.

• Luke loves nooks. I always find him hanging out behind his crib or inside the cabinets. He likes having his own little space. There is a little bookshelf on the side of our entertainment center and he always likes to go and stand in it or sit down and chill for a while. So funny.
  

• Luke reminds me so much of Andrew. He has definitely inherited Andrew's sweet tooth. I don't know how he knows, before tasting it, when something is going to be sweet. But he must have some sensor for it because if there is something sweet in the house, he finds it quickly and wants it bad. I always catch Andrew slipping him sweets too, which usually makes me mad, but it also kind of warms my heart that they have this little secret combination going on.
  



• I love when Luke is trying to get one of us to play with him. He will run around the corner and then peek at us. As soon as we make eye contact, he squeals and runs away, hoping that we will chase after him.
  



• He has watched me do my hair often enough to understand every step involved. When I get my blow dryer out, he grabs the hair straightener, drags it into our bedroom and tries to plug it in (okay he is usually successful at plugging it in before I'm able to stop him). Sometimes I catch him putting the cold hair straightener up to his hair and pretending to use it. Dad is really going to be mad at me for this one.
  



• One of Luke's favorite treats is yogurt covered raisins. I initially bought them because I was hoping that it might help him develop a taste for raisins. It hasn't really worked though. He just sucks off all the yogurt (okay lets be honest, its just sugar) and spits out the raisins. I am always finding raisins all over the house. Every once in a while, he forgets and swallows the raisin, but it is rare. The other day I was checking out at the grocery store and there was a situation where things weren't being scanned right so we were trying to figure it out. Luke was getting annoyed so without thinking, I grabbed some of the yogurt covered raisins and gave him a bunch to keep him quiet. A minute later, in the midst of all the register confusion, and a bunch of people around trying to help the checker, I look over and see Luke spitting out raisins everywhere....looking at me so nonchalantly like they were sunflower seeds at a baseball game. As embarrassed as I was, he still made me smile.
  



• I love how much Luke LOVES TO LAUGH. This kid laughs like it is his sole purpose for being alive. Now please don't think that he doesn't have his terrible cranky moments where he seems to despise the world, because he definitely does. But laughing is overly natural for this kid. It is not because of anything that we do (although Andrew is a pretty happy character...once a member of the Bishopric told him what a great smile he has). But I think Luke was just born with a high capacity for happiness. I'm really hoping I don't mess that up because it makes him immensely fun to be around.

Well, I could go on and on, but I feel much better after getting all that out. Luke had a rough day (Sundays are a little rough), and he kind of seemed like Satan's little helper there for a while. So it has been extremely therapeutic to remember what a fun kid he is and how UNBELIEVABLY GRATEFUL we are to have him in our home.