Counting

One thing that Luke is doing much better than his sister at this age is count. From being able to count to 11 to knowing a number by looking at it his skill with numbers is impressive.

He's learned his numbers from both Alyce and from tv. Lots of times on their kid shows we've caught Luke counting with Dora, Diego, or whomever is on the screen. From Alyce he's learned counting by playing hide and go seek. Alyce will count to some arbitrary number and start searching. Luke will mimic her by covering his eyes and counting. Of course he doesn't keep his fingers together so he does cheat. When he first started playing a few months ago he'd mumble his numbers. Now he can say each one clearly.

Luke also knows the proper symbol for each number. Just today while upstairs Alyce held up some numbers and Luke would correctly identify each one. Alyce would hold up a 9 and Luke would say "nine". Pretty advanced for a 2 year old.

I don't know if Luke knows how to count. I guess I should put out a few of something and see if he can tell me how many there are. What I do know is that I am very proud of Luke. He is a bright kid with a bright future.

Monkey Joe's

Recently we met up with our friend's Josh and Tammy and their kid's Gideon and Sylvia at Monkey Joe's.  We've been there in the past even with Luke in tow.  What makes this trip so awesome is that this is the first time that Luke went up the big slide!  Before this point he didn't have it in him to make the climb up.  Now that he is older and because there were so few kids at Monkey Joe's Luke was able to scale the Big Slide!

We started off simply enough with Alyce and Gideon running off to the big slides and Luke in the toddler area.  Luke did have fun in there but his only challenge was walking on a bouncy surface which he handled well.  After a bit we decided to give him a shot at the big slide. Alyce did this slide for the first time just a few months before turning 4 and didn't have any trouble.  We weren't sure Luke was up to the challenge but with nothing ventured nothing is gained.  At first when we put Luke on the path to the steps of the slide he wasn't very interested and got right back off. After watching Alyce and Gideon do it he knew what was up and wanted to try.  He took a few attempts to go up the steps each time trying a different means of ascension.  At first he tried to stay vertical like a normal stair case and holding onto the hand rail but couldn't keep his balance and slid back down.  He finally adopted a hands and knees approach that worked.

His climb to the top I'd describe as epic.  Well epic for a 2 year old.  For every few steps up he'd slip down one.  When he finally reached the top everyone cheered for him.  You'd think that this would be one of those life defining moments for him where he overcame something hard and could draw upon when he faces something hard.  But he's just 2 and probably wont even remember this in a few days.


Know this Luke, Mom and I are proud of you.

Moving to a Seated Position

This morning Luke moved to the seated position all by himself!  I was lucky enough to be there when it happened.  Luke woke up kind of early so while Mom was getting ready to for the day we had Luke on the bed with us.  There was a big bundle of sheets underneath him so he wasn't 100% on his back.  Right in front of both Mom and myself he sort of rolled onto one hip / did a sit up and to get 70% up.  He held that position by holding onto Mom's leg and with a second effort he picked up his arm and lunged up the last 30% to reach a seated position.  Mom and I were proud and we clapped and cheered for him.  Luke was also proud of himself because he was sporting an ear to ear grin.  Shortly thereafter he was on his back again and went through the maneuver one more time for practice.  If he were completely horizontal to the ground I don't know if he could repeat his accomplishment but in my opinion I think we can check off another milestone.