Christmas Time is (was) Here . . .

Happiness and cheer
Fun for all,
that children call
their favorite time of year . . .



Luke loved his first Christmas. I really enjoyed that Luke was almost a year old by the time Christmas rolled around. He was totally into having all the family around, though not necessarily the gifts. He placated me for about 5 minutes before he was off and running to do something else. Of course, Luke is always off and running to do something else.


Except Grammie Linda's rocking horse (Ted). As Luke is now too big for the swing, too heavy for the doorway jumper and way over the Excersaucer, containment was getting difficult. Along comes Ted to save the day. And now, Ted has become a verb. "Can you Ted him for me?" "We should clean - Ted him." or "I'll be right back, I'm Ted-ding Luke." Thanks Grammie!




Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa gave Luke a pair of PJ's with a personalized butt-flap. I'll admit it, it's absolutely adorable. And that is completely bias-free. Luke running around with "Luke" emblazened on his tooshie was about the cutest thing I could imagine.


We were able to spend Christmas Eve with the Bickel clan and Christmas Day with the Rosbrugh clan. It was wonderful not to have to rush around on Christmas, but really have the chance to spend time relaxing. And really, traveling with a baby is a pain.

Musical genius . . . ?

Okay, maybe not, but we certainly encourage him! Luke spent a great deal of time this year trying to make everything into a drum. A parent in my class bought Luke a "guitar" and Great-Aunt Nancy bought him his very own set of bongos. He likes to play them most when no one is looking. Luke gets SO excited when he gets his little groove going.

But no beatnik stuff, please.

Fangs!

It was hard to get a good photo of his "fangs," but thanks to Great-Aunt Nancy, we did! Hurray! Luke, always having to go his own way, opted out of growing in his front two teeth like normal kids and grow fangs. I have to admit, it was about the cutest thing I had ever seen. I miss them now, a front tooth is catching up and he no longer has fangs, but he's still a cutie!

Thanks Santa! (aka Grandma L)

Luke just loves his new rocking horse, Ted. We learned quickly not to let him bounce too soon after eating. He loves to get Ted moving!

Beeline

Ahhh Luke. Of course the one place you want to go is the kitchen. It is where you can get into the most trouble and it is where you are consistently locked out of. So it is no surprise that when the door is unintentionally left open, you make a beeline for it.

Playing with Kacie

Grandma Linda had an old video of Luke and Kacie playing last August in San Francisco. Kacie ran circles around Luke, of course. It was the "golden time" for Luke - when he could sit, play with toys and be entertained, but not crawl and get into trouble. I think it lasted about two weeks. Those were the days . . .

Clearly, all Luke wanted to do was chew on tissue paper. No noisy toys for this boy!

Reminiscing . . .

 

As we are approaching the end of year, I've been flipping back through old pictures of Luke. It's hard to remember this stage of him, compared to where he is now. Granted, I was working on no sleep, so that does play a part. But there is little Luke, with his dark hair and patented "ooh!" look. And now he's running around like a crazy man and turning one next month. How time flies!