All Smiles Now!

Wow, has it really been over a week? My how time flew, thankfully. Luke's surgery went extremely well aside from the tremendous guilt I felt upon handing him over to the anesthesiologist that morning. Kids are so resilient and Luke was no exception. He slept through the night the very first night with limited pain medication. He did have some cranky times when the dressing came off, but Grandma Ellen quickly distracted him with many activities to keep him occupied. She was truly a godsend and a tremendous help!

Even in the midst of healing up, Luke has impressed us with several new tricks. The other day at lunch, I thought that something was wrong with his eyes because he kept squinting them. As I looked more closely at him with a worried mommy glance, I realized that he was in fact "winking" at me instead. That has started a number of more frequent imitations, including that sigh you make when you've just taken a nice refreshing sip of a cold drink to quench your thirst. Hearing that from a tot is very funny indeed. But, the imitations are much like an on/off switch which he chooses to turn off most of the time. So, only when he's in the mood do we get this wonderful back and forth.

At the moment, favorite activities include taking all of the books off the shelf and flipping through pages, being chased around the kitchen island, being chased up the stairs, dancing to the tunes of the Leap Frog Farm kitchen magnets, burying his face in anything furry (i.e. cats, Mommy's hair, teddy bear), and making all sorts of noises. He still doesn't seem to be interested in making words, but we have seen a definite uptick in the more repetitive noises, like ma-ma-ma. Much to my delight, he says that more than the da-da-da-da.

Correcting an Oversight

My dear aunt Marlo pointed out that I had neglected to share that Luke was walking! What kind of mother am I?? Well, I was a busy one, but no good excuse. Luke took his first independent steps on New Year's Day, and then it took until our trip to Richmond (which I still intend to blog about) for him to decide that walking was really the better way to get around. Much to Mike's surprise, when we got home, we truly had a walker! So, now he walks everywhere, and the balance is getting better every day. He's even learned how to push himself up without holding onto anything. It never ceases to amaze me how they figure that sort of stuff out.

Please say a little prayer for Luke, as his surgery is tomorrow morning. We are hoping for a speedy recovery!!

Strike a Pose, Vogue Boy!

From Baby So Big to Madonna's biggest fan. Suddenly, that's what you get when you ask Luke how big he is. A pose. I was literally rolling on the ground laughing last night before bedtime as we were frantically trying to get a picture of it. He'd walk around the island and then play the Baby So Big game while walking towards us. Given that I don't think he's been exposed to any Madonna-like behavior (we rarely watch television even!), it's a little frightening that something biologically triggers him to offer such a picture. Funny things these kids.

Who Knew Brushing Your Teeth Could Be So Fun?

Luke has graduated into many things with the sudden fact that he's now a year old, including attempting to brush his own teeth. So, we went into the bathroom and Mommy got out her toothbrush so that he could imitate me. He found this part entertaining enough and it actually worked remarkably well, but when I went to spit, he found it so hilarious that he threw his head back and giggled uncontrollably. So, there we all were (Daddy was holding Luke up) just giggling away at the amazement of a 12-month-old with spitting. At least we had fun until I took the toothbrush away.

Among other graduate items is the 2nd nap, or at least, so I thought. Luke has been fighting with me on naps for the last several weeks. This is no surprise since we had birthday fun and then visiting Richmond fun. So I took his cue and tried going to one nap, with the doctor's permission. She sort of looked at me funny and then asked me whether I thought I would win the battle. It's sort of worked. I intend to keep plugging away at it, but the funniest thing today was when over his lunch, he was fighting extremely hard to stay awake. Chew...chew....must....keep....eyes....open....so....heavy. Mid-bite, he dozed off. Was quite possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen. Tomorrow, I'll start lunch a wee bit earlier.