19 Months

Luke just turned 20 months old, but I wrote this list just after he turned 19 months old. I wasn't planning on doing another list about him until he was two, but I'm starting to think I will have to do more than one update between now and then! This boy just keeps growing, changing, and learning! I can hardly keep up!

So here are a few things Luke started doing between 18 and 19 months that I didn't want to forget ...

• Luke started giving kisses again (he hasn't done it since before he turned one), but now a kiss is just gently and silently touching his closed lips to your cheek, and sometimes it includes blowing a quick puff of air on your face.
• One night, about a week after Luke turned 19 months, he did the cutest thing: he noticed me collecting a couple of dishes from the kitchen counters and bringing them to the sink, so without a sound, he walked over to the kitchen table, grabbed the small glass with a spoon in it (I had used it to eat cereal) that was sitting there, carefully carried it with both hands into the kitchen, opened the dishwasher, and tried to gently set the glass, with the spoon still in it, on the bottom rack. My boy is the sweetest! A few minutes later, Luke grabbed one of the (relatively heavy) chairs from the table and pushed it all the way across the kitchen floor to the sink and climbed up on it so he could help me do the dishes.
• Luke has a very limited vocabulary, but he understands A LOT, so when he is trying to get Jeff or myself (or anyone else) to do something, it often takes a couple of guesses for us to figure out what it is he wants or what he's trying to tell us. Luke keeps pointing and babbling, all the while looking at us as if he is trying to communicate telepathically, and when we do guess right, he always claps for us.
• Luke loves to "run fast!" I don't remember if I mentioned it, but for a while, one of his favorite things to do was to walk on our treadmill and then, without warning, sit down and ride it until he had to step off the end, over and over. But now his favorite thing to do on the treadmill is to start walking and then very emphatically tell whoever is with him to increase the speed so he can run fast! He usually does this with Jeff and with Jeff only holding Luke's right upper arm for safety, Luke can run at a 3.5 mph for several seconds! I am amazed at how fast those little legs get going! And if Luke had his way, we would keep increasing the speed long after 3.5. I'm pretty sure he thinks he's Superman.
• One night, not long after Luke turned 19 months, we were reading My Little Word Book - one of Luke's favorites - and Luke started doing something really weird. He started pinching and swiping at the glasses on a picture of a middle-aged man's face! He was trying to get them off! I don't know what made Luke think he could reach into the book and remove the man's glasses, but he didn't stop there, as we continued to flip pages, Luke tried especially hard to grab candy, cookies, strawberries, a toy train, and a colorful rattle that a baby was holding in one picture. He actually got really frustrated when he couldn't get his hands on that rattle after several attempts. The whole thing was so strange and hilarious. Luke hasn't tried it again since then.
• One of Luke's most requested movies has become Gnomeo and Juliet. He laughs so hard at the very beginning when the little gnome reading the prologue falls through the trap door and then continues to laugh (sometimes it's a little forced - hilarious) at all of the gnomes' antics in the gardens during the opening sequence. He also loves the music during the lawn mower race that comes next, but it is soon after that that Gnomeo and Juliet meet for the first time and the Elton John love ballad starts to play. Luke will have none of that! He immediately jumps up, grabs the remote and hands it me, pointing at the TV screen moaning, shaking his head, and saying "no, no, no!" That's when I have to start it over for him. Such a BOY!
• Luke makes the funniest face lately. For the longest time, I couldn't catch it on camera because Luke gets camera shy, but this morning, bribing Luke with Nerds finally did the trick. It seriously cracks Jeff and I up!  He randomly started doing it one day when I was standing over him cutting up food on his high chair tray. I looked down at him this is what I saw...

 Not the best picture, but he keeps his head low, raises his eyebrows and gives the best you've got to be kidding me look! It's usually more exaggerated than this, with his face turned even more downwards, but Luke was just going to do the bare minimum to get those Nerds!

The first time I asked him, this is the look Luke gave me. haha! Don't ask me where this came from!

Now, at 20 months Luke is possibly cuter than ever saying more and more new words every day - most of them not very clearly, but he's trying! And he is so proud of his progress! His shy smile every time we tell him good job after he says a word is the sweetest!

He also is constantly saying "hi" and "bye" to strangers. He is pretty shy one-on-one with a stranger in our house or theirs (until he warms up to them - then he's very friendly), but out in public, he waves and says "bye!" to every car that drives by and often to people that walk by, as well as dogs, cats, birds, ants, you name it! 

My favorite though, has got to be the way he reacts when he gets hurt: he turns to whatever hurt him (e.g. grass he tripped on, stairs he bumped his shins on, a toy he stepped on, etc.)  and in the cutest clearest little voice, he says, "No, no. No, no." and waves his hand at it in a go away! motion. This happens multiple times a day and I still can't get enough of it. It's adorable. Sure, Luke is also throwing bigger fits lately when he doesn't get his way, but as long as things are going his way, he is just the cutest, sweetest, funniest, and funnest little guy!