Explorer

Our guy, he's an explorer. Most of my days consist of running around chasing him all over the house, yard, park, etc. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Note, blurry pic. He's *almost* running.

Grand Tour of the South

So, we've been out of commission for two weeks....

Memphis for THE wedding!

My cousins, Jamie (left) and Amber (right).

Atlanta for time with Rebekah, Hudson and Harrison (sans husbands)!

Watchin' the garbage truck in our pj's.

meal time craziness.

Crusin' three deep!

Petting zoo at Zoo Atlanta

Luke's favorite.

Look, a Panda!

Knoxville for the Auburn/UT game!

Auburn victory, War Eagle!

Finally, here's some pure cuteness, thanks to my mother-in-laws amazing photo skills.

We're back in Durham....tired from the travels, but loved seeing everyone.

Passing 17 months and moving onto 18

It's really hard to believe that these months are just flying by. In the newborn stage, the months seem to just take forever and now they just go and go.

He's all boy! Climbing, jumping, throwing, wrestling... all his favorites. He's talking, but unless you're around him a lot you won't know what exactly he's saying. His recent words include: Ella, pumpkin, fan, dog, cat, Mama, Dada, apple, balloon, ball.

The ones he knows but doesn't say: cow, horse, lion, pig, monkey, alligator, dinosaur, lamb, bunny, elephant, airplane, car, truck, drum, tree, Noah, puzzle, block(s), book, hair, all the facial features (ear, nose, eyes, etc), toes, shoes, open, close, on and off, night-night, amen, bye-bye/hello (he'll wave for both), sit down, put your head down, stand up, bath time.

I'm just waiting for all the words to become clearer and for him to pick on more and more. It's happening on a week to week basis and I know it will all come.

He is a super happy and content little guy.

This weekend we went to a pumpkin farm and Luke had a ball.

So much for having the cute picture of him sitting in the middle of the pumpkins, he wouldn't have it! :)

Love him!

He LOVED the hay tunnel.

 Finally, we saw all of the farm animals he's been reading about. He LOVES animals!

So much action wore him out. Eric and I didn't even know he was asleep until we got home.

To end out this post, some incredibly exciting news..... my brother, Thomas, gets married THIS weekend! YAYA! Looking forward to sharing more in the next post.

Big Spoon Roasters

My lunch today was amazing.

I'm not one to give a plug on my blog for products, but this nut butter is by far the best thing I've ever put in my mouth. The company has been featured in Southern Living (therefore credible), The Wall St Journal, Garden & Gun, Bon Appetit, Food & Wine.....best part of all it's a homegrown local Durham company. Even better??? The owner is from East Tennessee.

10 things on this Friday.

I've seen on other blogs folks posting consistently "5 things on Friday"... since I'm so behind, I'll make it 10.

1. Morning nap= dropped. Yes, I've mourned this day.

2. Full blown walker, non-stop, into everything.

3. We've been to Memphis and Mississippi since our last post. Luke got to meet all the Griffin family! Before the trip even started, we missed our flight and we're rerouted through DC. We made the most of it and saw some old friends and met their precious baby girl.

How we felt about missing our flight. Luke was not impressed.

Why, hello, DCA!

We love the Palmers!

It was an insane getting to Memphis, missing a flight with a toddler is a nightmare. Thankfully, Luke napped in the Ergo.

I love the smushed lips.

We finally got there and Luke got to see (and stay with) Uncle Thomas!

Made it to Mississippi and Luke ate a TON of cajun food!

Lovin' the white beans and jambalaya

4. While we were there, I noticed some bumps on his face, feet and arms. I actually thought he was having an allergic reaction and was having hives, but something just didn't seem to add up. We got home and went straight to the Pediatrician the next morning. Diagnosis= hand, foot and mouth disease and a "bad" case according to Luke's Dr. Let's just say that this has been the worst thing he's had thus far. Do not wish it on your worst enemy. It took 10 days to get over and he was one sad little dude.


5. We finally decided on a living room paint color. We had about 50 shades of grey going on and we finally found THE ONE! I'll post pics soon.


6. Last weekend, the Hawkins came in town and we went to a Duke game to celebrate Ken's birthday. We thought we'd enjoy some ACC fun and see good ole David Cutcliffe. This picture is 15 minutes prior to kick-off. I mean come on folks, this is PATHETIC!

7. Luke is still not quite talking yet, I'm waiting for language explosion. :)


8. I failed to mention in between the last two posts that we went on our first real vacation in two years to the beach! It was seriously amazing. On the ride back, we stopped in Auburn. It was surreal to be back on campus with our son.

9. Luke is really, really, really into dogs. I've taught him sign language for dog and threw in a little panting. Now every time he sees a dog he does it. Soooo precious.

Post-nap in his car jammies, pointing at the dog and panting.

10. Luke loves playing with our neighbor, Eliza. She's 8 and super sweet to Luke. She has a truck that she'll ride around in on their drive-way.  Luke's been watching her ride around out of our living room window for weeks.  I finally took him over the other day, let's just say.... I couldn't get Luke out of it. He had so much fun.

These are precious times.... and I mean, seriously, it's a mini-Escalade.

Have a great weekend!

15 month check-up and HUGE news!

Here's Luke's stats:

Height: 31.25 inches (50%)
Weight: 23lbs 2oz (50%)
Head Circumference: 49cm (95%) whoop whoop!

Love that belly.

Ripping paper while waiting for the nurse.

Annnnnd, here's our HUGE news! We got a walking boy on our hands. He's not super speedy, but he's doing a great job!

1 5

This precious boy is 15 months old (well, yesterday... but that's ok).  Luke is so much fun to be around these days. Besides having his 5 teeth coming in at the same time and a recent wonder week, he's still precious. His fun little personality is showing up more and more each day. He's extremely independent and doesn't really want any help at all. He's started to consistently wave 'hi" and "bye" to people and objects and it is sooooo cute. He does it on his own timing and definitely not on command.  :)

He takes naps with his favorite stuffed animals, see above. The bunny from when I was a little girl, the blue elephant and a sheep (which is stuffed at the top of the crib). He spends most naps and evenings wrestling, organizing and talking to them until he falls asleep.

His really long morning nap is starting to interfere with his afternoon naps, so I've had to start waking him up every morning at an hour (see sweet sleepy face above). He's not quite ready to drop this morning nap, so I'm going to hang onto it for as long as possible.

He's still babbling non-stop and now he's pointing and babbling, really, really, cute I tell you. He's points at all kinds of things, but his favorite right now is the ceiling fan. No words yet, he's in no hurry to talk (or walk).

He's started shaking his head to things, sometimes it does mean 'no' and sometimes it doesn't. I'm still trying to figure out the consistency.

He's not walking yet, but oh so close. He'll go about 3 steps consistently before falling down.

His left lateral incisor is in and his top two primary molars have broken through... his bottom primary molars have two large bumps that are tender, hopefully those will break through soon.

He has his 15 month appointment at the end of August, so I'll have a stats update then. Check back soon!

Luke's 1st hair cut

So on more than one occasion recently, I've had people ask me if Luke was a girl. I mean, seriously people!? He had blue on and I was calling him Luke. So, I decided to schedule his first hair cut. Not only because the comments, but I could tell that the long hair was making him really hot.

On Saturday we went to Mr. Bryon's barber shop to get Luke's hair cut. He was recommended by some moms at the church we've been attending and he definitely didn't let down.

Here's before, Beatles hair and all...

He's showing you his favorite thing to do these days...

Proof that Mommy is around.

Here's Mr. Bryon and the back of Luke's hair.

Here we go, another shot of the long hair. Mr. Bryon had a monster truck for him to play with and cartoons!

Mr. Bryon goes to work.

More toys.....

Yay!

Hi Mr. Bryon!

Luke did amazing well, though we did have to give him cheddar bunnies mid way through.

Thank you, Mr. Bryon for the haircut and the awesome car!

Inside Mr. Bryon's shop.

Pensive Luke, with his new trim!