Wednesday, May 29, 2013

My Two Year Old

My tiny little baby turned two at the end of April. I really am in denial about him being two. Since he is still an only child I am sure that we baby him a bit. We still swaddled him right up until his birthday and he loved it! We have since stopped, but I miss wrapping him up on the bed every night. Now we just let him jump on the bed before he goes to sleep! Here are his stats from his two year check up.
Weight: 30 lbs (75th percentile)
Height: 36 inches (90th percentile)
Head: don't remember the inches but he is 95th percentile

Luke has always been a great sleeper! Whenever I hear about other babies who are over one and still don't sleep through the night I am so sad for those Mommies. Luke has been sleeping through the night (with the occasional wake up of course!) since about 4 or 5 months old. (Yes, I know that I am very lucky and that my next baby will be terrible!) He goes to bed at 8 pm and wakes up around 7:30 or 8am. He has never gone a day without napping in his entire life and I intend to keep it that way until he is 4!! He naps from about 1-2:30/3:00 every day. It is a bit of a hindrance if we want to go do something all day, but somehow we have managed to let him nap everyday for the past two years!

Luke has great motor skills! He runs, jumps, runs some more, climbs stairs and ladders and then he keeps running! He is also good with his hands. He can put beads on a string, feed himself fairly well with spoon or fork, he loves to paint with watercolors and push any button he can get his hands on.

His speech is still a work in progress. I can understand him quite a bit, but that is because I have learned to speak Lukese. He does have quite a few words and the Dr. says there is no need to be concerned and I know that his articulation will develop with time. The words he says the most are:
Buzz
Woody
Mama
Dada
No, No (which translates to his sippy cup! He has been calling it his "no,no" for months!)
Nack (snack)
Dinna (dinner)
Bye, Bye
Night, Night
Mom's car
Dad's car
There it is
Peas (please)
Geez (Jesus)
Baby (that is what he calls his friend Seth who is a few months younger than him)
oooo (smoothie)
Dat way, dat way (that way, that way)
Det's go Dad/Mom (Let's go Dad/Mom)
Elmo (that is what he calls Nemo)
Choc (chocolate)
Ma (marci)
Dan
Key (Kelsey)
Daw (Dawson)
Jenna
Na (Nana)
Pa (Poppy)
There are a lot more, but these are some of the fun ones!

He has been pretty good as far as tantrums/melt downs go. We have one occasionally when he wants to walk in a store instead of ride in the cart or if I won't let him watch a show or if he sees chocolate and can't have it! He doesn't hit or do anything vicious. One day he threw a toy at my face, but he was doing it to play and not with the intent to hurt. It did hurt me a lot so he did get a time out for that one! He has probably only had a few time outs in his life, but it helps that he is an only child! He shares well when we play with other kids. He loves being around other kids! We have some neighbor friends that we play with frequently and we try to see family and go to the park often.

He is a terrible eater (according to me!). He used to eat everything and anything and now he eats very few items. I have had a hard time trying to decide how to deal with it. Do I just give him the foods he eats or do I offer him what we are eating and if he doesn't eat it he goes hungry? I don't like doing the hungry method because then there is a lot of whining and complaining and I don't like that! He does eat cheese, yogurt, quesadilla, pizza, bread, grapes, lots and lots of smoothies (we sneak his veggies into the smoothies and protein powder!) banana, cereal, waffles, pancakes, black beans, pork and beans, apples, and of course all the snacky crackers and any chocolate! He will occasionally try something and I am super surprised! Eating is my one hard thing with him so I guess I should be grateful!

Luke loves to play with his car ramp, all of his toy story characters, blocks, musical instruments, dancing, bubbles, any jar with a lid that screws on and off, books, balloons, balls, doing anything outside and wrestling with Daddy!

He is my everything, this little person. He brings me joy, love, completeness, happiness, frustration, peace, worry, laughter, amazement, fulfillment and every other good or bad things us parents feel! I love him so much I can't even describe it!

Tulips

One of the reasons I live in Oregon....The Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival. Words cannot describe the beauty! It is amazing to see so many tulips in one place. The weather was great the week before but we went on a cooler day and it was a bit muddy but there were no crowds and that was worth it! Enjoy the beautiful pictures. 















Hunting for Eggs

We suited up for an Egg Hunt the day before Easter. We went to a great hunt down in Newberg and they had lots of eggs and lots of space. We waited for about 10 minutes for the fun to begin. 
We passed the time by playing with the sunglasses and gazing out at the colorfully dotted field!
and getting some tickles from Daddy!

Then the countdown came...3, 2, 1...run! I actually cheated a bit and picked up Luke and ran him out farther into the field. I know that I am terrible! He only collected about 10 eggs so I didn't feel too bad.

Here we are checking out the loot.


After his nap we had an Easter Egg hunt at our house. 

Disney Day 4

Dan and I actually went on one ride alone! We went on Soarin' and the Daley's played with Luke at Redwood Creek Challenge Trail! This is such a great part of DCA because the kids can just run and play and go crazy. Luke was having lots of fun with his Kelsey. 

Then we headed over to Playhouse Disney Jr. Live on Stage! I was sad that they don't have Little Einsteins anymore because Luke would have loved that, but he loved the bubbles and the dancing so we had a blast as you can see from the smile below!


Luke was fascinated by the Toy Story Zoetrope in the Animation Pavilion at DCA. We spent a lot of time in there. 


In Beast's library. 

There were these cool swirly lights on the floor and Luke decided he just needed to lay down on them. It was pretty cute! 


Here we are waiting for the Pixar Play Parade! Luke is just enjoying his smoothie. 

He did a little dancing to pass the time. 

Then he helped pass out some cotton candy. He actually did not like it which was surprising, but he liked giving it to everyone else. 

Finally time for the parade! This is my favorite parade at Disneyland right now. (ever since they got rid of The Parade of Dreams)


Nemo and Marlin or as Luke calls them, "Elmo and Elmo"

"Hi Elmo"

Pointing at Buzz and Woody who are coming down the street!

Here we all are on our last entry into Disneyland! It was such a fun trip and as I go back through all the memories I miss it SO much! We had such an amazing time and I wish we lived closer and could go several times a year. 


Disney Day 3

The classic shot in front of the castle! Makes me so happy to see this! 

Luke was trying to pay the white rabbit a visit in Fantasyland.


Another one of Luke's favorite rides was Casey Jr. train. We sat in the caboose each time and I love that you can see the very intricate Storybook Land Canal Boats at the same time!

I liked this shot of the Matterhorn ride with the mountainous village from Storybook Land Canal boats in the foreground!

Luke loves Brave! I was actually surprised that he likes it, but he loves himself some Merida! He wants to watch it all the time. So, we waited in line for 45 minutes to meet Merida! (well, I waited while Luke and Dan wandered) 

When it was finally time Luke was scared of her because she was a real person! He liked the characters wearing the giant costumes and heads, but not the person! Oh well! She was really cute! 


We went to meet Minnie in her back yard. Kelsey and Luke are checking out the cake baking in Minnie's oven. 

We loved meeting Minnie! I love to hear Luke say Minnie in his cute little voice. When we walked away he said, "bye, bye Minnie". 


We met Goofy again so we could get his autograph!


We met Woody again so we could get his autograph! Luke walked right up to him all by himself with his autograph book! He loves to look through his book with the pictures! 


We were waiting to meet Buzz and Luke was laughing his head off. We thought he was super excited to meet Buzz, but then we realized that he was laughing at the roller coaster that went whizzing by every few minutes!

He got to push Buzz's buttons!

Got our 3-D glasses for Toy Story Mania. I thought for sure he would instantly take them off on the ride, but he left them on the entire time! He loved the ride and loved seeing his Toy Story friends.