For the love of reading . . .

As we are a family of readers, we hope to instill that same love in Luke. The majority of his book choices focus on cars, trucks, boats, etc. Usually, he picks a book, then settles down with either one of us to read. This morning he just picked up a book, sat in his little chair and started looking through it. We were astounded and quite frankly, pretty proud parents. And he said "cheese" when he was asked to.


On that note, Luke kisses the cars and trucks in his books because he loves them so much.

I You.

Luke has become much more affectionate as of late, which is so thrilling for me. While pregnant with Luke, I dreamed of having a cuddly baby who wanted to snuggle with me during the winter (as he was a January baby). Of course with children, whenever you plan anything, it is destined to go in the opposite direction. Luke was not a cuddler. Ever. But now he's been giving sweet little kisses (on his terms only) and hugs.


Now when we say "I love you" he responds with "I you!" It just melts me. I you too, Luke.

Visit to Windsor

While Todd was out of town, Luke and I drove up to Windsor to celebrate Great Grandma's birthday with whole family. The Wine Country is so beautiful - we had never been to Windsor before. All of the family loved to be around Luke - he is so much fun, just a big ol' ball of energy. Great Grandma and Auntie Nancy offered to watch Luke for a bit while I went to a winery to at least have a taste. The winery, Russian River Hill, had the most gorgeous views - I could have stayed there all afternoon.



Luke did very well for Auntie and Great Grandma - he entertains himself so well, he didn't even miss me. Unfortunately, we were unable to spend the night, but I was so glad that we did have a little time to visit everyone, sing happy birthday and have Great Grandma open her gifts.

And as always, Luke just loves pushing a walker. Note: a walker is the toddler gift for this holiday season.

Great Grandma and Great Grandpa

We invited Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa over for lunch to visit with Luke. It had been far too long since they had seen him and he changes and grows every day.

After lunch, they really wanted pictures with Luke, which is always a challenge. Luke did really well, smiling and sitting. Well, mostly sitting. We attempted to crawl away a few times - he's not much of a sitter.

But at the end of the day, their "Grandparents" picture frames were filled and they had the opportunity to watch him run around and play.

Beach Trip!

San Diego was a trip of firsts, not only did Luke go to the zoo for the first time, but we also went to the beach for the first time.



Luke has a love/hate relationship with water - he loves it loves it loves it . . . until the water hits his eyes. He would point to the water receding, but the second the water started coming in again, he was grabbing at Grammie's hands. He loved watching the water, keeping his feet in the water and running around. The beach was such a huge part of Grammie's life that we want to have it be a part of Luke's life as well. That being said, having Grammie live in San Diego helps a lot!

San Diego Zoo

After arriving in San Diego on Saturday, we decided that Sunday would be a great day for all of us to go to the San Diego Zoo. Grammie Linda and Auntie G are both members and they had tickets for us. And of course, Luke is still young, so he's free! (Gotta love that)

This was Luke's first trip to the zoo, and we were unsure as to what he would think of it all. Mostly he wasn't interested if animals weren't moving quickly. And most animals weren't moving quickly at all. He still enjoyed rolling around - it was a beautiful day.



We enjoyed lunch at our favorite place, "Albert's" which is a lovely sit down restaurant set in the trees, with a beautiful view of a waterfall. It's so relaxing.

(You can see Luke's charming forehead bruise from the fall the day before)



We planned to go to the Petting Zoo so Luke would have an opportunity to run around a little. We knew that if we did that in the beginning he'd throw a fit going back into the stroller which meant that the Petting Zoo would have to be the very last thing before going home.


Luke loved the petting zoo - he would go up to one goat, pet just one time, then leave. Only one pet per animal, apparently.

He was done by the end of the day, but we all enjoyed the SD Zoo.

Visiting Kacie

At the end of August, we drove down to San Diego to visit Grammie Linda. On our way down, we stopped off in LA to visit the Karchem clan and see their new addition Calvin, and of course, Luke's friend Kacie. He loved pushing her around in her little car, not so much driving it, he's more of a 'pusher.'

And when we told Luke to give Kacie a hug and a kiss, she would have nothing to do with that. But it was SO cute!

Of course, to end any visit anywhere, Luke was running (shocking), tripped on nothing and fell. Right on his head. Right on the cement. Oh the screaming. Oh the bruising. Those pictures to follow. But it was all very 'Luke' in all of his 'Luke-ness.'

Trains

We were thrilled with how much Luke enjoyed the train set that Tia Katie had for the kids. He sat so quietly, so focused for so long, we weren't really sure what it was all about. Needless to say, we see a train set in his near-future.

Hike to the "M"

View of Hellgate


On a hill overlooking "Hell Gate" the team decided to hike to the big giant "M" on the side of the hill. Todd went with a chunk of the family, while I stayed behind with Luke. (Quite frankly, after the Avalanche Lake hike, I was done.) From the pictures, the view was amazing and I was jealous about that.

From the top, they could see Hellgate, the valley where the Native American tribes would ambush each other. Most of the schools in the area are named Hellgate, which I find . . . strange.

Notice: especially endearing about the hike, Em (Emily) was on the "M." Yup, Em on the M. We're dorky. It is what it is.(lft to rt) Tia Katie, Ellen, Em, Aunt Bigie

(lft to rt) Uncle Jan, Aunt Bigie, Tia Katie, Em and Todd

Is it fun?

Apparently, we think the best way to have fun with our child is to put him on the world's fastest, most terrifying carousel. Little did we know, carousels can in fact be terrifying. Lesson learned. Yes, they are blurry, awful pictures, but Luke was scared out of his mind the first round, so we promptly put him back on the carousel. (note: Mommy had enough after Round 1. Daddy took over for Round 2. Luke had to go on twice! We're mean!)


Here is Grandma Harvana and Tia Katie enjoying Dragon Hallow Park. (note: I totally fell and busted my butt on the playground as it had rained that morning. I'm such a klutz.)


I really enjoyed the "backstory" of both the carousel and the adjacent park and love supporting good causes. The short story: both the carousel and the park were built by volunteers from the community. Read about the story here: http://www.carrousel.com (yes, I know carousel is spelled wrong, that's just the website.)