Happy birthday, sweet Luke!

A year! How did that happen? It went by so fast!

Life is certainly different than it was a year ago, and so much richer! Luke is now:

- drinking from a sippy cup. About 3/4 of it makes it in the tummy.

- drinking whole milk. He hasn't seemed to notice the change from formula to milk.

- eating solid foods well. He's not really showing much interest in letting me feed him anymore at all. He wants to do it!

- sleeping through the night -- 8:30p-7:00a. Waking up once in the night is few and far between at this point.

- using a pacifier, but it's going to disappear soon. We're going to lose it cold turkey!

- saying "dada" when looking at or hearing Adam; "baba" when looking at a bottle, but I have to prompt him; "fogfog" when playing with his favorite toy of all time, the green frog from daycare (we had to borrow it for our trip to Seattle); "buuhh" when pointing at a bird or light (he loves lights by the way). He'll say "mama" but I don't think he associates it with me yet.

- crawling, bear crawling and creeping. He'll stand on his own for several seconds, but it's not usually on purpose, rather he's let go of the side of the table or chair and hasn't realized it. He'll walk if we hold his fingers, but he gets frustrated and sits down.

His favorites are:

- food: mangoes, waffles, yogurt, cheese. I really think he could consist on bread products for the rest of his life if we'd let him.

- song: Itsy Bitsy Spider. It usually calms him down when he's fussy, tired, cranky, etc. I think the hand motions help ... or maybe he just thinks Mom looks crazy making it rain in the car, store, mall ...

- toy at daycare: green frog. They were nice enough to let us use it for the trip to Seattle, and I'm tempted to offer to pay them for it. He loves Frog! Apparently, he bogarts it at daycare and gets really irritated when the other babies try to play with it.

- toy at home: truck. He'll push it around forever. But, he doesn't like stuff in the back of it, so don't fill it up! He'll take it right back out.

- toy that's not a toy: stroller. Again, he'll push it around forever. He's throwing little temper tantrums now and did so at Baby Gap the other day. All because he saw the wheels on the stroller and wanted to get out to push it around. Oh -- he was furious when we had to leave. Stares from everyone! "What?! Your baby's never thrown a fit because he wanted to push his umbrella stroller back and forth?!"

- activity: walks and bathtime. We take a walk every evening, mostly so Max will chill out, but also because Luke really enjoys them. We just walk and walk and look and look. He's so quiet during the walks, taking it all in. For baths, right now he really likes to play with his little sponge letters and numbers that stick on the wall when wet. And, the drain is really interesting!

Luke is definitely our sweet baby boy. If it's this much fun now, I can't imagine how much fun it's going to be! I love you forever, sweet LukeyBear!