Luke: 2 years

Height: 3 ft. (86%)

Weight: 24 lbs. (10%)

Favorite Books: Noah's Ark, Charlie, Yummy Yucky, Go Dog Go (He's really obsessed with books right now.)

Favorite Food: He's the messiest eater I've ever seen! His favorites are cereal, applesauce, crackers, and oranges. 

Favorite Game: Hide and Seek 

Favorite Color: I don't think he knows any colors. Oops...second child.

 Favorite Songs: Hay/Oats (from Storybots)

Favorite TV Show: Storybots & Paw Patrol

Favorite Question: "Ahh you Mommy?" (Where are you Mommy?)

Favorite Animal: All doggies, but especially Sky

 

Best Friends: Tzeitel and Baby Chase are the two he talks about ALL the time

Typical Sleep Schedule: 8:00 p.m. - 8:00 a.m.

My Favorite Words of His: Bitanins (vitamins),  etants (elephants), and peeeeease (please, with head tilt, stomach rub and a sweet look in his eyes)

Favorite Toys: Paw Trol (Paw Patrol trucks and dogs), any kind of ball, and books

Kory frequently says that 2 is his favorite age and I'm remembering why. This is SUCH a fun age! Luke is sweet and funny and a bit mischievous. Peter is a rule follower, but I feel like Luke is going to be a bit more...independent. :) 

Peter: 4 years

Height: 3'5" (85%)

Weight: 36.5 lbs. (56%)

Typical Sleep Schedule: 8:00 p.m. - 7:30 a.m.

Clothing: 4T (though most of his pants fall off his skinny waist)

What is your favorite animal? Dinosaurs
What is your favorite movie? Next Gen
What is your favorite TV show? Paw Patrol and PJ Masks
What is your favorite food? Pizza
What is your favorite thing to do outside? Ride bikes 
What is your favorite snack? Candy

What is your favorite drink? Smoothies
What is your favorite color? All of them
What is your favorite song? Jesus Loves Me
Who is your best friend? Zuna and Atticus
What is your favorite game? I Spy
What is your favorite toy? Remote Controlled Truck
What is your favorite book? Bang! Boom! Roar!
What is your favorite meal that Mommy makes? Carrot soup

What is your favorite outfit? Bear Jacket, Smart Shirt, Cozy Pants, Cowboy Boots
What do you want to be when you grow up? Airplane Pilot
Where is your favorite place to go? Park
What did you get for your birthday?  Blocks and Remote Control
What did we do for your birthday? Get presents and eat cake 
What do you love about Luke?  That he's my brother
What's your favorite thing to do with Mommy? Everything
What's your favorite thing to do with Daddy? Eat cereal and wrestling 

Four is the first age that is a little bit painful for me. It's less toddler and more big kid. Peter is becoming much more independent in getting dressed and doing chores, but is still a Mama's boy and wants multiple hugs/holds/cuddles every day.

He is a rule follower (until he has a better idea) and wants everyone else to be following the rules too. He's pretty cautious and is concerned when I'm not watching Luke as closely as he would like.

It is hilarious to me that I ever worried about whether he would love his little brother. He's absolutely obsessed with Luke and spends every afternoon asking me if he can wake Luke up from his nap yet. He told me the other day "I just really miss him and need to kiss him so bad!" This, of course, doesn't mean that they're playing together happily all the time...but even their toy-stealing usually ends in wrestling with both of them giggling.

I am so excited to see Peter as a big brother to this new baby! He was pretty helpful as a 2-year-old, but I know he'll be so much more capable and willing now.

Quotable #11

A few of my current favorites:

Bacamole 

Help sure (Make sure)

Sockies for my feetsies

Moana Club (Awana Club)

Peter came into my bedroom and said, "Look at my tongue. It's Barry White!" I was pretty confused until I realized he says "very" with a 'b' and he'd been drinking milk so his tongue was very white. 

What should we have for dinner tonight, Peter? 

"I was thinking...strawberry muffin 

carnivores chicken nugget dinosaur pie."

Peter tried to hug me and my growing belly was in the way. We were talking about how my belly will get bigger and bigger but after the baby comes out, it will start to get smaller again. He said, "Oh yeah! Where does the baby come out?" I paused and thought for a minute about how exactly I wanted to explain this. When I was just about ready to speak, he said, "I'm just kiddin. I know where." I was very intrigued and asked him to tell me. 

"It comes out in your pants!" I thought that was a fine explanation 

and since he was satisfied with that answer, so was I. 

Speaking of the baby, Peter thinks that if it's a girl, we should name it Zuna (name of the 4 year old girl I watch weekly) and if it's a boy, we should name it Peter. Zuna suggested naming him/her "Relax" or maybe "Frozen".

Luke is finally talking enough to get some funny quotes from him too! He's always been a climber and often gets in trouble for climbing on things he shouldn't. One day he came into my bathroom and found me with my foot up in the sink as I was shaving my leg. 

He yelled, "Det down Mommy. Det down wight NOW!"

Quotable #10

After begging to go play outside, Peter often wants to come back in after a few minutes. I've been making he and Luke both stay outside for a while instead of going in and out all day. Peter gets pretty creative (like most kids) when he's trying to come up with a reason I should let him in. Lately, his favorite one to say, in a voice of desperation, is: "Mommy, I neeeeeed to come inside. I'm hot AND cold!!!"

Peter was asking a LOT of questions one day and I finally reached my limit and told him I wouldn't answer any more questions that day. Later that evening, he asked me, “Do you have your voice back in your head or do I have to keep waiting?” 

• Swipers (windshield wipers)
• Applicator (map app on my iPhone)
• Tuna makaka (Hakuna matata)
• Happy’s Mother Day!
• Dock-a-doodle-doo

We rented an Air-Bnb in Bend a while back. When we arrived, Peter wondered, “Does this house have an armpit to put a fire in?”  (Fire pit)

“It was Easter and it was starting to rain. I wonder why God did that?!?”

Looking at a globe for the first time. “Wow! It looks like a planet!!” 

 

After I bumped into Peter, I said, “Oh sorry! Was that your head?” 

“Yeah. Actually, no, it was my noggin.” 

“Oh. What’s the difference in your head and your noggin?” 

“Hurting it.”

Pregnancy brain is in full swing around here. I often start a sentence and can't think of the word I need to finish it. Peter's always such an encourager. “Your brain is not good. It’s a good thing you have me to teach you words.”

Peter was supposed to be napping in his room while I took a nap in my bed. He woke me up with this good news. 

“Mommy, I need to tell you something I didn’t do.” 

“What? What happened?” 

“Well, I looked in the fridge and I thoughted about it but I didn’t eat all the pizza because then you would be mad at me.” 

"Can you stop kissing me?"

"No, I'll never stop kissing you as long as you're alive."

"Ok, I'm dead!"

When he wants me to fix his hair he asks, “Can we get my hair dressed?”

Quotable #9

Zuna: "I don't like when you take toys from me that I was playing with first."
Peter: "Tell me more."   (Has he been in therapy we don't know about?!)
Z: "More about what?"
P: "Toys"
Z: "What toys?"
P: "The ones I took from you."
Z: "What about them?"
P: "Which ones are you saying you are going to give me?"
Z: "I didn't say that! Ughhhh!!!"
P: "Thank you for the toys!"

• Airplane yogurt (plain yogurt)
• Yes man (Yes ma'am)
• Tortellino sauce (pesto, which we put on tortellini)
• Swapper fly (fly swatter)
• Carmonico (harmonica)
• David and Toliaf (Goliath)

"Look at! Jesus is dying on the cross again!!" (anytime he sees a cross)

"What time is it, Peter?"

(consults his watch, which is Luke's pacifier leash wrapped around his wrist)

"It's eleventeen fiveteen nineteen!"

"I don't fink I want to grown up."

"How come?"

"Because Daddy says my armpits will be stinky."

Peter begins all his prayers with "Dear God", but one night he got mixed up and said:
"Dear Dog..."

Quotable #8

"Peter, what's wrong?"

"My face isn't working!" 

(This Star Wars mask won't stay on.)

"Daddy, how was your ride bike? Did you had a great time?"

If I'm singing a song with the wrong lyrics or playing with a toy in a way that Peter doesn't deem appropriate, he says, "Dat's how it don't goes." 

"It's a truck man!! It's a truck man coming to get our trash!"

(Peter gleefully jumps up on the toy box to watch the garbage truck out the window. Then, the truck drives away.)

"Peter, what's wrong? Why are you sad now?"

"Because he took our trash. I wish he didn't take our trash because it was ours and he took it and I didn't want him to took it and he did and now I don't have any."

"We'll have more trash this week. Do you want to go see if we have any in the kitchen right now?"

"No thanks. I don't like trash. I want the truck man to take all of it away forever."

"My toots smell like flowers because you are Lemonade Girl."

Some of my favorite words/phrases right now:

*Nativiny Scene

*Gave (pronounced gauve: rhymes with mauve) "I gave Luke that toy"

*Dresus (Jesus)

*Trace (Chase, from Paw Patrol)

*Old McDonald's (McDonald's restaurant)

When we were putting our Christmas tree up, Peter asked if he could name each of the ornaments. He named a teddy bear "Beezy" and a snowman with a soccer ball "Hoop Dog". He quit naming them after that because I was laughing at his names and "Beezy and Hoop Dog do NOT like laughing!"

"I want to be a digger (backhoe) now. I don't want to be a boy anymore."

"When I get to be a big Mommy girl can I eat a lot a lot a lot of chocolate too?" 

(No clue why he'd think that is what a Mommy would do...)

Luke: 1 Year

Height: 31 in. (87%)

Weight: 19.2 lbs. (16%)

Head Circ: 18.8 in. (88%)

At 1 year, Luke has 8 teeth (with a couple canines and at least one molar coming in). He wears size 3 diapers and 12 month clothing. His first word was "bye". One morning before Kory left for work, Luke just walked up to him and said "bye" while waving to him. 

He also regularly says: Mama, Daddy, Bye, and Hi. "Daddy" is by far the clearest word he says and it's pretty cute to see his face light up when Daddy walks in the door. He babbles a lot and it feels like he's picking up new words almost every day.

I remember describing Peter as a great napper and a crummy night time sleeper and I'd say the same is true for Luke right now. He got a cold recently and now has molars coming in so he's up 2-5 times most nights. I can nurse him back to sleep quickly, which I'm thankful for, but I need to bite the bullet soon and night wean him again. I'm not quite ready to wean completely, but I'd be happy with just nursing him in the morning and right before bedtime.

An "average" day looks something like this:

• 8:00 a.m. wake up and nurse/eat breakfast
• Play with Peter & Mommy
• 11:00-1:00 nurse and nap
• Eat lunch/nurse, run errands or play while Mommy works around the house
• 4:00-6:00 nurse and nap
• Dinner, play until bath time 
• 8:00-8:30 nurse and then go to bed 

Luke is a really good eater. His favorite things are bananas, Cheerios, raisins, and Veggie Straws. He loves to eat anything from a pouch and will eat as much meat as we will give him. So far, he hasn't really liked tomatoes or avocados, but has eaten everything else he's tried. He doesn't want to be spoon fed at all now and prefers to do it all himself. 

Luke started walking shortly after he turned 11 months. I LOVE this toddling stage where they look a bit drunk while they stumble around into everything. He still crawls occasionally but much prefers walking now. As I hoped, he's become much more independent since he started walking. He was in a stage where he'd hold onto my legs and fuss for me to hold him and it was not my favorite. Now that he can walk on his own, he spends a good portion of his day chasing Peter from room to room. 

As you can see, he LOVED his birthday cake. He started smashing his pacifier into the icing and then sucking the icing off. It was a slow, but effective (and funny) way to eat it. He has his typical baby/toddler moments, but he really is a happy guy most of the time. He often fights being buckled into his car seat or having his diaper changed, but he's getting better at both situations, thankfully.  

I honestly think going from 0-1 kid was harder for me than going from 1-2 kids, but 1-2 was more exhausting. I often longed for the days of napping when the baby napped and not having anyone else to depend on me. I think I've finally reached the point where 2 kids is easier than 1 most of the time, though. Peter LOVES to share food with Luke or get him a toy/pacifier/drink or tickle him to cheer him up. In fact, if Luke is crying in the bedroom, Peter often yells to me, "I'll check on Lukey...don't check on him too! You stay here. I got him!"  

It feels like such an accomplishment to reach 1 year! The baby stage is HARD for me. It's fun and sweet and I love so many parts of it, but it's also just stinking hard. I feel such a relief that Luke is able to do more on his own (walking, playing with Peter, feeding himself) and I can have a small bit of my freedom back. It's truly a joy to watch Luke's personality develop more every day. It feels silly to think back to the time when I was so nervous to add another kid to our family. Luke Rainier, we are SO happy you're ours! Happy 1st Birthday!!