A (Mostly) Finished Bathroom

Despite my coming down with a case of the flu, Mike managed to finish the bathroom, right on time! It looks tremendously brighter than in did, and for our first really involved DIY project, we're very pleased, we're still speaking to one another, we finished it on time and within a 10% variance of our budget, and we managed to still watch Luke at the same time!

Before:
After:

My Little Gypsy

Luke loves to try and load up his arms with as much stuff as he can possibly handle, whether it's a drink cup and a snack cup, or several water bottles, or all of the toiletry bottles from underneath Daddy's sink, he loves to carry stuff around. So, every single morning when Luke is ready to be freed of his crib, he insists on collecting EVERYTHING in his crib - pillow, blanket(s), stuffed animals - in his own arms and carrying downstairs. And, no, Mommy cannot assist, so every morning, Mommy carries Luke and a huge wadful of crib peripherals all the way downstairs where it all gets deposited and quickly forgotten about.

More is definitely better for nearly 21-month-olds. One jacket is definitely not enough when you could wear three! Even though you can only see two in this picture....the third is under there.


Weekend before last, I got the wonderful treat of the 3rd annual Niehaus/Lukens girl weekend! This year, we went downtown for a night and toured around various museums and eateries. Lucky for me, I had the camera at the 3D Dinosaur movie at the Field Museum...hee, hee:

And, what women wouldn't go crazy to have their photo taken with the plastic pirate? (BTW - Luke is perfecting his pirate, "Argh!")

And, yes, I took this from atop the John Hancock tower, which Laura and I did while waiting for Aunt Marlo and Mom to arrive from Midway.

Child Proof, But Not Luke Proof

It Must Be a Record

Two in a row! Thanks for the wonderful comments about the blog yesterday. It's wonderful to know that I haven't lost all of my readers (Marcia - I promise to call very soon!).

I was tickled to death to pick up Luke tonight for a little Mommy and Luke time. I talked Mike into going out to dinner with work friends, so I was geared up. I tried to cook with Luke, but clearly, there is just something about doing that with Daddy because he decided to have a tantrum. Oh well. At least I tried! He may have just been hungry judging from the amount of pasta he wolfed down!

I was very excited to hear some new words on the way home from day care today. You see, my son has a complete love affair with towers...still. For a long time, it came out "paw" whenever he saw one. And, he can pretty much find one wherever you are - it's amazing! Mind you, there is one that he insists upon driving by on the way to and from school. The good ole' Bartlett water tower. Today, as it came into view, he said, "tower" - plain as day! Then, we I told him we would be cooking pasta together, he said "cook" and tried really hard to get "pasta" out. Ah, what fun!

Excuses, Excuses

Yes, I probably have a million since it's been OVER a month since my last blog! It's pretty bad when even an almost three-year-old avid reader is reminding you to blog more. (Hi, Millan!) As a token of my appreciation, I promised him a picture of Pinochle. For now, here's a picture on the blog for you:


And, hopefully, all of my other faithful readers haven't given up on me yet!. My goodness, where on earth does the time go. Somewhere in the midst of an ear infection, work, a visit with Grandma and Paw Paw, work, a visit with Grandma Bucciero, work, a bathroom remodel..(and did I mention work?), time has just slipped away again! Luke has been doing just awesome these days. Somehow, he's managed to turn 20-months....it's going so fast! The words are coming more readily these days and he's less frustrated when we don't understand what he wants, so that's a good thing. He loves his new therapist, getting all excited when he sees her standing at the front door and then rushing to sit on the family room floor to see what toys she's brought with her. He's an eager learner with her, and in 4 sessions, we've already seen a great deal of progress. He's still doing really well in day care, and the weather has cooperated for some great outdoor play.

So yes, with all we have going on, why not add DIY home improvement? Well, our powder room was in major need of a facelift, so we've taken everything out except the floor. The demo and painting have gone very well thus far (except for the thick layer of dust on everything in my house from the drywall sanding), and then next weekend, we hope to have enough time during naps and after bedtime to install the new toilet and sink. We'll see how that goes! Here's Luke getting in on the action:

Some other cute pictures of the Lukeman...he's in a phase of trying to put his own socks and pants on. Today, since neither was available for play, I guess his foam letters were the next best thing. And yes, he walked around like this for a while.
One of my recent favorites. Mike's already training the sous chef. Luke won't stay still for much, but give him a box to stand on cooking with Daddy, and he's happy for an hour.

This Silly English Language is SO Confusing!

It's been a while! My lack of blogging this time is due to vacation and things being completely out of control at work! Luckily, I'm through with that and don't plan on it being an issue in the future. Let's just say that I've learned a few lessons.

We had a fantastic vacation over in western Michigan with the Lukens. Aunt Laura flew in albeit a bit later than planned, but we had a great time visiting with Grandma, Paw Paw and Aunt Laura. There are some very cute adventures to share, but first I must relate a terribly funny story that can only happen with a toddler who is still learning this crazy language of ours!

There were ducks on the lake we stayed at...lots and lots of ducks. And, they quickly learned that Grandma was a very easy mark (just ask her how many loaves of bread we went through :-). So, she taught Luke how to feed the ducks. It took quite a while to understand that he was supposed to toss the bread to them rather than stuff it in his own mouth. Very, very cute. By the 3rd or 4th day, he had it, and some of the ducks even ate out of his hand.

While we were on vacation, we celebrated Mom and Dad's 36th wedding anniversary with a surprise dinner out in St. Joseph. Mike ordered duck confit, and since Luke was tasting everyone's meals, Mike offered him a piece of duck. He immediately took the piece and tossed it on the ground. We adults are just so confusing...one minute we train him to feed the ducks and the next minute he's supposed to be eating some? Very funny moment...even for those sitting around us hearing the story.

Luke has now become a bonafide boat captain, thanks to Paw Paw's excellent instruction.

During our boat outings, Luke decided that he need to wear Paw Paw's sunglasses for the ultimate cool experience. He sat there for a long time just enjoying the ride and wearing his cool shades.

The Trip to Brookfield Zoo

Several weeks ago, we ventured out to the Brookfield Zoo - a rather awesome family outing place, for sure! This was Luke's first live encounter with wild animals, or at least the large ones you can only encounter at a zoo. We didn't start out the morning too well, as with all these really cool animals to look at, the storm drains were much to fascinating at first. We quickly got over that, when we got to see them letting out the giraffes.
He was mesmerized.

They have a really neat Dinosaurs Live exhibit going on right now. There is this huge brontosaurus in the middle of the zoo, and it moves and spits water. Very cool.
We tried out the petting zoo. Luke wanted none of it at first, refusing to let Daddy put him down. He slowly warmed up and even decided that the longer haired goat was worth a pet, especially after the younger little girl showed him up.
Luke got to ride the carousel, which turned out to be a huge hit.


The unfortunate thing he learned was that the ride does eventually stop. Had so much fun....just....couldn't...keep...his...eyes...open. Zonked out before we even made it out of the parking lot.