Luke is 2 ... and 4 months

Okay, here's the deal. I'm wayyy behind on this blog. Like almost 4 months behind. Yikes. It doesn't bother me all that much because I enjoy blogging, and reliving memories from a few months ago is fun when I actually find time to attempt to make a dent in all of the many many posts I have to catch up on. I know I'll get to it eventually because it's important to me and it doesn't feel like an obligation. Blogging is one of my favorite ways to spend my alone time and I just love having all of these pictures and memories in one place, so it's enjoyable and the end result is so very valuable to me (this takes the place of a journal for me). Win win, right?? And you would think that remembering the details of each event after all this time would be a problem, but honestly I take SO many pictures, that I have more than enough reminders to help me out.

However, after considering all of that, there's just one problem. My Mom. And all of my other loved ones that don't live close by and care to know what we are up to way over here in Texas. I know they would all prefer it if updates I post on my blog were actually current. And I'd like that too. So, here's what I'm going to do: starting today, I will post current stories and pictures, and when I have time, I will go back and fill in the last 3-4 months.

So, to start, here's a little about the adorable two-year-old that we love so much. If I were up to date on my blog, I would have written this when Luke turned two, but instead, here is a list about our little guy at 2 years, 4 months:

• Stats: When Luke turned two, he was 37 inches tall and weighed 34 pounds. So if the "double the height at two years old to get their adult height" formula is accurate, he will be 6'2" as an adult.
• He is talking up a storm these days! Seriously, it never stops. He amazes me every day with how much he is learning so quickly! He is at the point where he strings together several full sentences in a row to tell a story or explain what he wants. He is clear enough that Jeff and I almost always understand him on his first attempt to tell us something, and it has become pretty rare that we just give up on trying to understand what he is saying and pretend we got it.
• He counts to 3 perfectly every time and most of the time he can get to 5 without a problem, but for some reason, he hasn't tried to count higher than that, even though I think he knows more than he's letting on. The other day, I counted 11 peas in his book and he pointed to two more and said, "12, 13." WHAT? He hasn't repeated it since. UPDATE: 6 days after I posted this, Luke decided to count to 10 completely on his own! Yep, pretty sure he was holding out on us.
• His favorite colors are purple and pink (that's what two girl cousins will do to you). But if you ask him, he'll probably say blue. Or maybe green or orange. He's in denial. He also loves anything sparkly or glittery - also an effect of two very girly cousins. A couple of examples of this:
• We were walking through the mall a few weeks ago and Luke was holding my hand as we headed for the exit. All of the sudden, I felt my arm jerked to the right as Luke tried to drag me with him as he made a B-line for a very purple, pink and glittery window display at Limited Too. He had no idea what it was, but he wanted it!
• We were shoe shopping a couple of weeks later and Luke got his very first pair of light-up shoes. He loved them and was so excited to bring them home with him, but as I was putting them back in the box to go buy them, Luke noticed the girls' shoes across the aisle. He reached over and grabbed the girliest ones there: a pair of hot pink fuzzy flip-flop style slippers with a massive jewel in the middle. He asked, "What's this, Mommy?" I said, "Those are the girls' shoes, Luke." He put the slippers back on the rack and reached for an identical pair farther back on the rack and asked hopefully, "Mommy, this one for girls too?"
• He has a problem with plagiarism. He will not let you get away with it. Me (singing), "We did it, we did it, we did it! Hurray!" Luke: "No, that Dora say." Me: "YumYumYumYum Delicioso!" Luke: "No, that Backpack say."
• He loves music and dancing, but he is such a white boy (Jeff and I didn't have a whole lot of rhythm to pass on to the poor kid). About half of his "dancing" is just running around  in circles. If I let him, he'll turn the computer speakers up to full volume while he runs all around the room like a crazy person.
• He loves tunnels and is constantly asking us to find them when we are driving so we can go under them and he asks to build them out of just about everything for his toy cars to go through. It is one of his favorite things to ask me to draw too.
• He says "sure" all the time instead of "yeah" or "yes" and it is my favorite thing. It sounds like "sheeeer." "Do you want to go to the store with me?" "Sheeer, Mommy."
•  He LOVES his cousins. He gets SO excited every time he sees them. On several occasions, when he has heard them walk through our front door and he's in a different part of the house, he has jumped up yelling "YAY!! I'm coming, Bethany!!!" as he goes running to meet them. He also still calls Becca "Bubba" and I hope that never ends.
• He loves swimming A WHOLE LOT.
• He says, "thank you" so many times in a day, I can't even tell you! Even for the simplest things that I wouldn't expect him to say it for. It's so sweet! "Tank you, Mommy. Tank you!"
• Whenever something happens that he likes, he says, "I'm happy, Mommy!" and sometimes he'll just randomly say it throughout the day to keep me updated on his mood. haha If he's really upset, he'll sob, "That doesn't make me happy, Mommy!" Like when he fell and got hurt on the boat. He was crying really hard and told me he wanted to hug his Pooh Bear to feel better. I told him we didn't have Pooh Bear with us and he said through his tears, "That doesn't make me happy, Mommy!"
• Favorite movie: The Lion King (he now call all lions "lion kings" and his favorite character is Pumba), although he recently discovered The Rescuers Down Under. It has been the movie playing in our car for the past week. He just keeps asking to watch it over and over again!
• Favorite Show: Dora the Explorer, followed closely by Dinosaur Train.
• Favorite Book: He loves his kiddie I Spy book (Hide and Seek First Words), his truck book and his book of first words (basically all of the books that are not stories), but lately he's been asking for Harry the Dirty Dog just about every day. He calls it "Dirty Dog."
• Favorite foods: turkey and cheese sandwiches, PICKLES, pizza, chicken nuggets, carrots with ranch dressing, broccoli (last week, we were at a restaurant for my friend's birthday lunch and he chose to eat all of the broccoli off of my plate before he even gave the chicken strips and fries on his plate any attention. And it was just steamed broccoli - no butter!), strawberries, and anything sweet.
• Favorite toys: cars and trucks, particularly his Garbage truck, fire truck, and talking/light-up Lightening McQueen car (he accidentally broke his Lightening McQueen car by bringing it into the bathtub the other day and he was DEVASTATED. It was so sad! He begged me to help him put new batteries in it and was so hopeful when we took it apart to dry it out, but when we put it back together and it still didn't work, he was the most heartbroken I've ever seen him. We were both elated when it decided to magically come back to life a few hours later!); anything he can ride/drive (he's getting really fast on his tricycle); and stuffed animals, especially his Pooh Bears (he has a little one and a big one).
• He makes me laugh so hard every single day. I love his goofy little personality and silly playfulness. I especially love when he makes jokes and laughs at himself: Jeff: "What are YOU doing here, Dora?" (A la the SNL skit The Californians) [Luke laughs] Jeff: "What are YOU doing here, Swiper?" Luke laughs and barely gets out "What are YOU doing here, Boots?"before laughing hysterically at himself. (If you're not familiar with Dora the Explorer, Dora, Swiper, Boots are all characters from the show).
• Luke loves to be outside, but lately has become quite attached to the TV, so he has conflicting feelings sometimes and can't decide whether he's excited to go on a bike ride with me or he'd rather beg me to let him watch one more episode of Dora. He never regrets making the decision to play outside though, it he can tear himself away from his precious Dora!
•  He LOVES to ride on trains! Any where, any time, you mention riding a train and he's there!
• He went from being a terrible sleeper as a baby to a pretty great one as toddler. He goes to bed at 8 or 8:30pm and usually wakes up around 8:30 or 9am and he takes a 2-hour nap every afternoon.
• He is terrible at eating meals for the most part. Jeff and I often have to force just about every bite of his dinner or he won't eat anything and he'll start begging us to eat when he should already be in bed that night. It's a little frustrating!
• He has a TON of energy and can just run all over the place for hours.
• He is really good at remembering and following rules for the most part, and he is good about stopping doing something as soon as I tell him too. But doing something I want him to sometimes takes some convincing/threatening/bribing.
• Most nights, he insists on hugging and kissing both Jeff and I goodnight. I think it's mostly in an effort to delay bedtime, but it's still sweet. And if he is having a particularly hard time accepting that it's bedtime, we send him to bed with a glow stick. He LOVES them and the complaints/whining/crying stop immediately.
• He has impressive skills when it comes to jumping with both feet at the same time, both high and far. I guess he got his dad's genes after all! I'm pretty sure he can already jump higher than me.
• One of his favorite things to do is to work out with Daddy in our weight room. He walks on the treadmill and lifts the little weights, imitating what Jeff does.
• If you ask him who made him so funny, he'll say, "Mommy! Daddy made me cute!"
• If he notices someone crying, he will give them a hug to make them feel better.

I'm sure there is a lot more I can say about this cute boy, but this list is already SO LONG, so I'm going to end it there. Bottom line: this little guy is amazing! Seriously, he is such a sweet, happy, and fun little boy.  He is funny and smart, kind-hearted and forgiving. Jeff and I both feel so lucky to have him in our lives. The frustration he sometimes causes is SOO far outweighed by the joy he brings and Jeff and I frequently find ourselves asking each other if we're biased or if our son is really as awesome as we think he is. Either way, we're grateful he's ours.