A Couple of New Words

Some new words in Luke's vocabulary. "Sister, Alyce, and Papa".  Sister is pretty good.  Alyce and Papa are kind of rough.  He knows what a dog is too.  Tonight when we got home from dinner Mom put Luke in the house first.  While I was looking at him from the garage I asked Luke where the dog was.  He looked to his right, reached out, and patted Jake's back.  It was pretty cute.  And then as we walked in the door Jake knocked Luke over. There weren't any tears so no foul.

New Words, New Teeth, and New Behavior

I haven't been keeping very good track of Luke's vocabulary.  He doesn't have a few words he uses but he is a very good parrot.  Just today Mom showed me that Luke could say "diaper".  I've heard him say other words like "Fred Bird".  Most of the time he uses grunts, squeals, and points at things to get his point across.  It is surprisingly effective to boot.

One way he is using his grunting and finger pointing is at the dinner table.  As of late he has developed an opinion on what he wants to eat.  If we try to feed him something he doesn't want he will cover his eyes, mouth, and then turn his head away.  If it is something he likes he willingly opens his mouth and is quite adept and taking food off of a fork or spoon.  Sometimes it isn't the food he revolts against, instead he revolts with how we are giving it to him.  If he rejects food on a fork Mom and I will put the bit of food on the high chair and usually after a quick examination he'll pop that morsel in his mouth.

He can be a stinker at times.  If he is done eating and there is still food on his high chair he will drop bits of food over the side for Jake to eat.  Jake is pretty good about eating scraps off of the table.  He usually lays under the table and gobbles up whatever hits the floor.  After Luke is out of his high chair Jake will give it a good once over licking up any bits of food that made it into the cracks of the seat.  Sanitary? No.  Effective? Yes.

Last month Luke got tooth number 7.  Tooth number 6 showed up last January as part of a quick appearance of a lot of teeth.  Since then there has been a lot of gnawing but no teeth.  Number 8 is just about to pop out.  I figure it will be any day now.  This one seems to be giving him some trouble though.  He is really chomping on his fingers and sometimes he tries to stick his entire forearm in his mouth.  Poor guy.  Some nights and days when it is really bothering him Mom and I give him a "shot of the funk" before bedtime.  A "shot of the funk" is our term for giving him some children's Tylenol.  It is amazing how a dose of Tylenol can improve the mood of a fussy child.  It is too bad that young kids have to suffer just because they can't tell us they are in pain.

It's Fun Coming Home

As Luke ages he is starting to develop a little vocabulary.  Words we know he knows for sure are Da da, Daadee, Ma ma.  He says all three lots of the time usually when he wants us to pick him up.  However I can always depend on one time during the day that he will say Daadee and be excited about it; when I get home from work.

Any day I come home from work and Luke is up from his nap right as I walk in the door from the garage I hear a "daadee" from the other room and then the pitter patter of little feet as Luke comes running towards me.  He wraps his arms around my leg and then leans into me.  After the hug he looks up at me, flashes a big grin, and raises his arms up towards me signaling that he wants to be picked up.

At about this time time Alyce has pulled herself away from whatever she was doing to come and greet me plus give me a hug.  One thing that both kids love is when I pick both of them up, one in each arm and spin them around.  With Luke weighing 28 lbs and Alyce at 32 it isn't an easy task holding them both up.  Once I am done spinning in one direction I switch it up and go the other way.  After the spins I do the "wisher washer" where I twist at the waist changing directions very quickly like a washing machine.  And finally after all of that I do a few jumps and jiggle the two kids all over the place.  By the end of all of that my arms are usually spent and I have to put the both of them down.  Naturally they are unhappy about this but they get distracted quick enough that I can sneak in a kiss to Mom.

Alyce used to meet me at the door like Luke does now.  Now that she has moved on and Luke is the only one to greet me foreshadows the day when I come home and neither kid will be there waiting for me thinking I'm the best dad in the world.  It saddens me now but I'm sure the transition will be gradual and I won't even notice it has happened until years later and I read this blog about it.  So is the way time works.

Luke's First Ride

Last weekend the family took a trip with our friends Josh, Tammy, and Gideon to Six Flags.  While most of the trip centered around Alyce and Gideon Luke managed to have some fun and firsts.

In previous trips to Six Flags Luke has mostly tagged along.  He's been too small or unable to sit still long enough to ride attractions that didn't involve an adult holding on to him.  A good example of those sort of rides are the carousel, Ferris wheel, or steam train.  This past weekend we decided that Luke was old enough and big enough to try a ride.  The ride we chose to be Luke's first was the Elmer Fudd Weather Balloons.  This ride was great because Alyce, Luke, and myself could all ride together.  Josh and Gideon were in the balloon next to us.

When it was our turn to go I dropped Alyce in first, then Luke, strapped both of them in, then took a second to document the event.  Finally I got into our basket, strapped in, and off we went!  Truthfully I don't think Luke knew what to think about it.  His head was on a swivel as if he was trying to get a handle on why the world was moving around him.  One thing for sure was that he didn't complain or cry.  I figure if I tried putting him on it without me we wouldn't be so lucky.

We did ride another kid ride with Luke, the Marvin the Martian Rocket Ride.  For this one the entire family go onto the rocket.  Mom sat up front with Alyce and I was in back with Luke.  Once again Luke got his own seat rather than sitting on our lap.  This ride is pretty tame in comparison to the balloon ride but Luke seemed to enjoy himself as he looked out the window.

I have a feeling that Luke will be the child that likes coasters.  In previous trips to Six Flags and our last Luke has been enamored with roller coasters.  It doesn't matter which one it is Batman, Mr. Freeze, or the Mine Train; the second he hears them going he turns and looks and doesn't break his attention until the coaster train is out of sight.  Alyce on the other handle jumps and is scared of the noise a coaster makes.

Monkey Joe's

A while ago back in the beginning of July we along with Josh, Tammy, and Gideon went to a place called Monkey Joe's.  Monkey Joe's could best be described as an indoor playground.  What makes this place different from a playground at a mall is that at Joe's all the stuff you play on is blow up stuff.  Blow up stuff are things like bounce houses from when I was a kid but now it includes slides and obstacle courses.

The first thing that happens when you walk in the door is that you get a wristband for yourself and for your kid.  They won't let you out of the place without checking to make sure the numbers on the wristbands match.  There is so much chaos in this place that security measures like this really let you feel at ease.  On a few occasions I lost sight of Alyce for bit and I didn't really freak out.  Having Josh and Tammy there also helps.  Eight eyes catch a lot more action than four.

The first thing the kids played on was a little kids bounce house, slide, and obstacle course.  This area is probably perfectly sized for an 18 month old.  Alyce and Gideon were able to manage everything with ease and Luke had a bit of trouble.  That being said everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.


After a bit Josh and I walked Alyce and Gideon around the place to see if they would bite on any of the larger attractions.  Alyce has always been kind of shy with new people and new places so I wasn't sure if she would embrace the place.  The first big kid thing they saw was this big slide.  I'd say it is probably 1 1/2 - 2 stories tall.  You go up the balloon stairs in the middle and have the choice of two identical slides.  Both Alyce and Gideon seeing this slide made a mad dash for it (so much for my fears).  They both waited their turn on the slide and eventually their time came up.  I thought for sure Alyce would have misgivings once she saw how far the drop was.  I was preparing myself to coax her down.  I was completely wasting my time.  Alyce in one swift motion walked up to the slide, sat down, and pushed herself off.  As she got off the slide she was squealing with delight and racing to get back in line.  Gideon on his first run didn't have any trouble starting his slide but there was a bit of trouble at the end.  As he was coming in for a landing he turned sideways and the momentum flipped him head over heels.  It looked pretty brutal at the time (see the video below) but he didn't miss a beat and got back in line behind Alyce.  On a side note Alyce was a very considerate little girl.  She patiently waited in line for her turn even though a lot of other kids tried to butt in line.

Meanwhile Luke was hanging out in one of two kids bounce houses.  He did his best to keep his footing in such a bouncy environment but the best he could manage would be about 5 steps if he couldn't hold onto something.  He did end up going down the little kids slide but since he was too far away for adult help he ended up going down the slide head first on his stomach.  Aside from the occasional roll he did very well.  Later on he just leaned against a balloon pole and looked exhausted.  By the time we left 3:30 - 4:00 Luke was well past his nap time but was a trooper and didn't fuss much at all.

After Josh, Tammy, and Gideon left Alyce did one last thing, the obstacle course.  This obstacle is about 50 feet long and has walls to climb up and over, slides to go down, and areas to squeeze through.  I thought these seemed kind of technical and didn't even think Alyce would want to try.  For the third time that day I was wrong.  I was holding Luke and Mom grabs my attention to show me Alyce tearing her way through the course.  At the end of it she seemed very proud of herself and I was very proud of her as well.  Check out the video below of one of her runs.  Looking at her climb up that wall she looked like a little girl, kid, or whatever and gone was my little toddler who needed me to hold her so she wouldn't fall off a jungle gym.

By the time we left I think everyone was tired.  The kids were exhausted and Mom and I had enough of the constant droning of the fans.  I will say we will go back.  Monkey Joe's is a perfect place to take kids if it is either too hot, too cold, or too wet outside for kids to blow off energy at a park.  They do birthdays too so I figure we'll have one there at some point.

Luke Got a Haircut

Here is a picture of Luke post haircut. Judging by the fact that there isn't any stray hairs I would say the he isn't fighting the experience like in the past.

Also this picture does a great job of showing how much he's grown.