Three and a Half

Luke is now officially 3.5 years old!  I wanted to stop and soak him up for just a moment :)

Luke weighs in at ~36 pounds and is about 41" tall which puts him in the 75th percentile for weight and 80th percentile for height by my calculations.  He wears 3T shorts, 4T shirt, and size 9 or 9.5 shoes. 

Luke is a thinker.  He is my solution man.  If he is presented with a problem he will come up with a plan.  He is a rule follower and sometimes wants to be the rule creator and enforcer, especially when it comes to his brother.

Luke loves Benjamin.  Recently Luke was sick and could not go to school.  His heart was broken when he realized that he would not be there to comfort Ben at drop off.  This melted my heart and I want to remember that sweet love forever.  Luke is also the instigator when it comes to his brother.  He knows Benji's buttons and I am pretty sure he enjoys pushing them :)

Luke really loves trains and superheroes right now.  We play with his Thomas the Train tracks and engines most days of the week.  If he isn't playing with trains he is asking to watch Thomas or Chuggington on TV.  As for superheroes, he likes Batman the most.  Jacob gave him some old Batman t-shirts and these are Luke's favorite things to wear to bed.  He is going to be Batman for Halloween and is wanting to have a Batman birthday party next year.

We are so thankful to have big brother Luke in our life.  He is smart, funny, and loving.

Luke, we love you to the moon and back!

18 Months Old

My baby is 18 months old and I want to cry.  He is so big and it just happened overnight.  I just blinked my eye and he is a big boy.  It can't be happening this fast....

Benjamin weighed in at 27lbs even and was 32.25 inches tall at his 18 month visit.  It was at this same visit that he gave Mommy and Daddy a scare.  Given he barely gained any weight from his 15 month visit, the doctor was a little concerned and checked his hemoglobin again.  In the  office the machine read 6.4mg/dL.  For you non-health care folk out there -- THAT IS LOW!  WAY TOO LOW FOR MY BABY!!  The doctor immediately sent Ben for some real labs and the repeat turned out to be 10.4mg/dL -- still a little low, but MUCH better.  The bad thing about it all was that we had to wait until the NEXT MORNING to get the results.  They really shouldn't do that to us worried mamas.  Anyhow, all is good and he is getting some iron to help bring his hemoglobin up a smidgen.

At 18 months Benji is exploding with words!  He is starting to string words together and I am understanding so much more.  Some of my favorite phrases are: Bess yoo Mama, Goofy wey ah yoo (Goofy where are you), I lahv oo (I love you), and ake up Mama (wake up Mama).  He recently started calling me Mom and I am not to fond of that, but everything else he says is just so darn cute! 

Benji is still pure boy.  He loves to run, climb, dig, be outside, and get DIRTY!  He unfortunately can be a tad bit mean at times and we are really working on the no hitting.  Sometimes I think he is just trying to fend for himself in this crazy world and he gets a little rough -- it is tough when you have a big brother!  Behind that rough and tough boy, though, is a sweet loving heart that loves to give kisses.

Benjamin, we love you to the moon and back!  Just stop growing please :)

Two and a Half

Luke is 2 & 1/2 years old!!  He weighs in at 31 pounds and is wearing 2T (or smaller) shorts and 2T-3T shirts. He is tall for his age, but I didn't actually measure him. He is wearing size 7.5 shoes.

Luke is such a sweet boy with a kind heart.  He loves his family and especially his little brother.  He is a daddy's boy to the core and is happy as long as he is by his daddy's side. Luke is a charmer and loves to talk to people.  He has no problem asking people their names or even ordering his food at a restaurant.  I love that about him!

Luke eats like a bird!  He is not picky, but he just doesn't eat much.  His favorite foods are peas, smoothies, spaghetti, yogurt, pancakes and GUMMIES!!  He favorite drink is milk and he will request to drink a juice box on most days.  As a special treat, he loves to drink orange juice over at Gigi's house.

Luke is a great talker.  He speaks in full sentences and uses some pretty big words for a 2 year old.  Sometime I actually forget that he is ONLY 2 because he speaks so well!!  In the last 3 months he has started off and on stuttering, especially with the letters w, p, and t.  We aren't worried too much about it and anticipate it is something he will grow out of.  In addition to talking so well, Luke knows all of his letters by sight and can sing the ABC's.  We are now starting to work more on the sounds of all the letters.  So far, he only has T down.  Luke has also recently started to show more interest in counting.  He so far can count to 11 and we are working on 12.

Luke really loves to read books and do puzzles.  In fact, we let him pick out a new toy at a recent toy store trip and out of everything he chose a new puzzle.  He has started to request more and more TV and some of his favorite shows are Arthur, Daniel the Tiger, and Elmo (Sesame Street).  Some of his other favorite toys are his trucks/cars, balls, stickers, and his animals.  Luke is still attached to Teddy, especially at bedtime, but he is okay to leave him at home during the day.

Luke, you are our gift from God and we love you to the moon and back!