Luke is ONE!

Our little Luke-a-poo is ONE!  How did this happen?  For me, much of the past year has been a blur.  As it was with James, the first six months were kinda rough.  Luke wasn't colicky or anything, but he wasn't the most content.  He'd take short naps during the day and then only be awake and happy for a short time before he got cranky and needed to go to sleep again.  But everything got much better when he turned six months old and started taking two nice naps in his crib each day.  That's pretty much life changing for me. I love naps.  So for the second half of his first year, he's been an absolute joy!  He's happy.  He plays on his own.  He moves around on his own (he started crawling at 8 months).  He loves his brother even though his brother likes to be way too rough with him.  He is just wonderful in every way.  So specifically... what's he doing these days?

- He's a speed crawler.  The kid can fly.  He does a traditional crawl most of the time, but if he has a short distance to cover or if he's carrying a toy, he will sometimes break out a three-legged crawl.  If he's outside, he doesn't like for his knees to touch the grass or mulch, so he crawls on his feet rather than his knees.  But the kid gets around.  He also has amazing balance - he never falls over (unless his brother pushes him).

- He pulls up and stands a lot.  He's getting a lot better about standing for longer periods of time.  He hasn't taken any steps though.  When we tell him to come to us when he's standing, he immediately drops to the ground and goes in speed crawl mode.

- He can sleep through the night.  Does he always do this?  No.  But he can.  He sometimes wakes up once to nurse. 

- He nurses when he wakes up (7:00am), before his morning nap (9:00am), before his afternoon nap (1:00pm), after his afternoon nap (4:00pm), and before bed (7:00pm) and sometimes in the middle of the night.  I am so so thankful that he has been breastfed this entire year with my milk.  Breastfeeding Luke was very easy and didn't have challenges that I had to overcome (unlike James). 

- He loves to eat.  He eats eggs, cheese, and fruit for breakfast every morning.  On the weekends we add pancakes to the mix and he happily eats those too.  For lunch, he eats whatever I'm eating (leftovers often times) and veggies and fruit.  For dinner, he eats whatever we eat.  He usually at least tries everything.  He has started drinking water and enjoys playing with his cup.

- He has eight teeth.  Just like with James, I've never noticed any teething pain.   

- He weighs 23 pounds 14 ounces

- About a month ago he started waving "bye."  It's the cutest thing.  It was completely unexpected when he did it the first time when his Pop was telling him bye as he left.  He also waves "hello" and we are working with him on some basic signs (especially at meal time). 

He is a second child.  I don't have many great pictures of him. But here are some!

He played with these bags of sugar for a long time today.  He loved climbing up on them and off of them.

Enjoying the Children's Museum.

Learning how to wrestle with Dada and James -

Eating Thai for the first time-

Sweet selfies-

He still likes to be worn (when I'm walking or shopping).  Our favorite carrier right now is this toddler Lenny Lamb.  But if I'm standing still, he wants to get down and explore.

Bath time fun!

Backyard fun!

Luke has the best personality.  He's sweet, yet tough.  He is very easy at this point.  We are truly enjoying every moment with him!