It's official!

Luke is EVERYWHERE! He has now gained the confidence to let go of his toy house, the couch or dog kennel to WALK to the next piece of furniture he wants or just into the open space! I love it! It is so cute to see his wobbly, wide-stance walk. I think it's also cute he keeps his arms up like he's boom running like his daddy.

Here's Luke walking back and forth last week between Jamie and me. I had to put the camera on the table to record it that way because otherwise he just wants to play with the lens cap. You'll notice he sees the camera too.

Since he is napping now, I will take a few more later of him walking.

So onto me....I got my new MacBook Pro! And I am in love. It is so sleek, comfortable (well maybe that's because I am no longer sitting in an uncomfortable chair at the table but instead on the couch with a blanket and a dog on my lap), and fun. I am very comfortable with computers but I can now say that is true for PCs, but not Macs. I am learning though and enjoying figuring it out. The biggest thing was not hitting Ctrl C or A or V to do my usual tasks, but now I am learning to use "command". I know, big deal right. I do have to say though that I already had to call Apple Support because I imported all of my photos and videos into iPhoto on Friday and when I went to open it on Saturday, it said it could not open  the library. After troubleshooting for a while and reading for help, I called. We fixed the issue but when I asked him to explain why it would not open, his response was, "Well often when you import files from a PC, they are corrupt and bad files." Haha And I thought PC people were just mean towards Apple people, I guess Apple is the same. The files can't be that 'corrupt' or 'bad' because it works still. I got a kick out of that.

Showing off his bottom 3 teeth while sporting Uncle Steve's old Mickey Mouse sweatshirt. 

If this were a screenplay:
Dino (in background): Be happy that Luke is not paying attention to you and enjoy the bone.
Luke: Sit nicely with your favorite puppies, steal their ball, and squeeze it constantly-but don't throw it or drop it for them.
Jack: Even though you don't want to do this, be patient, look like you actually care about this new short person in your house, and maybe, just maybe, he will eventually get distracted and will drop your ball.

It is fun to see Luke interacting and watching for the dogs. When we come downstairs from napping, we always say, "Where are the puppies? Where is Jack and Dino?" And he looks for them and grins. The dogs do like Luke too, but I think they try to avoid him often, and that's okay. :)

Walking and Talking

I was finally able to catch a quick video of Luke walking on his own. Unfortunately he just wants to play with the camera lens cap when I try to take a video (i.e. second video) so it's real short and shorter than he normally walks, but it's something! He's been standing much more on his own and walked from his high chair to the dog kennel today which is about ten feet all on his own, we weren't even coaxing him!

Here is Luke playing with the lens cap on the camera and telling a story.

Happy Monday!

Busy Not Doing Anything

That is the story of my life. Anytime someone asks me, "What have you been up to lately?" My typical response is usually, "Not much. Nothing I can really think of." But I feel like I am always busy. Today we finally went and actually DID something but otherwise, it's been pretty low-key for us. Jamie is done traveling for lumberjack shows, I'm just working at the Tara and we're enjoying little Luke.

Luke and I still have our Early Childhood Family Education classes every Wednesday and have swimming lessons at the Courage Center on Saturday mornings with my friend Michelle and he daughter, Taylor (20 months). Luke LOVES swimming and each week is doing better and better. Last Saturday, he actually went off the diving board on his own! Just kidding :) We splash around, sing The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round, put a basketball in the hoop, jump off of a mat into the water and just enjoy the really warm water. Since he had an ear and sinus infection a couple of weeks ago, I didn't put him underwater but this past Saturday I did real quick and he was totally fine. Well I suppose he got some water in his nose because he coughed a little but he didn't cry or freak out from it, so that's good! I'm hoping Jamie or my mom will come to the class soon to get a few pictures for us.

Tonight, we went the Mall of America to do a little shopping, go on a few rides and go to Underwater World. Luke loves the fish in our fish tank so we were excited for him to see the big fish in the big tanks! And of course, he loved it. He "talked" and jumped up and down when I would put him up to the glass. Since Jamie is a teacher (8 hours a week), we bought a year-long membership for the same price as one admission, so we will be back soon.

Luke is still getting into everything and exploring his new world. He loves climbing on things - stairs, legs, up on his toy house, or whatever he can find. He has taken a few steps on his own but he's just getting comfortable with it. He's finding ways to get to where he wants to go and I think he has discovered walking is the way to go. I'll work on getting a video of him taking some steps but it might be a while.

We had to buy a pumpkin big enough to put our Pumpkin in it. Getting him to sit down was like pulling teeth, so we settled with standing photos.

Not happy from being forced to sit in a pumpkin. Haha!

Luke is really good at crying and laughing at the same time.

Our Goofy (turned cyclops/face fell apart & is supported by tooth picks), Mickey and Minnie Mouse pumpkins. For the record, Jamie scooped the insides out, I spent 4 hours carving.

Our monkey!

Halloween was really cold, but we made it out for a little bit. He eventually fell asleep; can you blame him all wrapped up like that??

Coming to see Mum Mum Mum Mum. Luke may be British...

He LOVES to crawl in the kennel, Dino on the other hand, gets trapped often.

Mischievous little guy.

If he was a girl, I would be in BIG trouble with a face like that with that attitude!

There's his cute smile!

His third bottom tooth has popped through! His top two teeth have also popped through, but I would have to hang him upside down to get a photo of those and that just seems cruel. 

Going back in.

Content just sitting in there watching the fish in the tank.

He loves being tickled and getting raspberries on his belly!

Fish watching at Underwater World.

Glad at least he looks cute! Yikes

On our train ride at Nickelodeon Universe.

Going on the Balloon Ride with Dad.

We couldn't hold him in our laps on the rides so he was sitting alone next to us strapped in. Notice his little hand clinging onto Jamie's shirt :) I guess he was a little nervous.

After the Balloons.

He liked the carousel the best! This photo doesn't show it because it was taken before we started but he was talking and smiling the whole time!