quirks :)

got a good good rain... PTL. we're in ruidoso now, and we couldn't be happier!

so i don't have any cute pictures to post.. but lately, i've been realizing how many quirks luke has - and they're kinda funny/interesting (to me, at least!) so i thought i'd share.

- he hates for me to get hugs from anyone but him. if we pass someone we know in the store and they hug me, he screams. when heath hugs me, luke breathes in and out really fast and whines and the same time.

- he doesn't like male strangers, at all. when friendly guys at church stop to chat, if they give luke any attention, he grabs on to me for dear life and won't look in their direction.

- he loves our laptop. he can be completely distracted by his own toys, and when i open it up, he ditches his toys and gets here in no time. he'll whine if you don't let him have it.. and when i turn it to let him type, he squeals and grins.

- he never liked to be rocked until after he turned a year old. now, he loves it... and i do too! maybe it's because he's not nursing anymore, i don't know. but i soak it up every time because i've realized how soon the day will come when he's too big to be rocked.

- he has been signing more and more... and when he's flustered and doesn't know what to sign, he just pounds his chest like a gorilla.

- he has a weird obsession with having a clean area in front of him. like the coffee table we have on the back porch.. he has no desire for anything on it, but he has to clear off the table before he'll play.

- he doesn't like the way grass feels on his bare feet. if you try to stand him up in the grass, he holds his feet up and won't let you put him down. we have to put a rug in the yard for him to stand on if he's gonna play in his stand-up splash pool!

oh.. and we went for his 1 year check up a week or so ago. he's in the 25th percentile for his weight, the 50th for his height, and his head size was off the charts. haha :) if there was a number for it, it looked to be about 110%. so he has a biiiigg head.. i love it though!

happy birthday, luke!

i'm just getting around to writing about the party... we've been busy!

luke's birthday was HOT. 106 that day, i think. we'd have had a different venue had we known the conditions ahead of time... but we had fun anyway! luke got a ton of toys, ate some cake and ice cream, and played until he was exhausted.

this was the morning of his birthday... he loves strawberries :)

cupcakes! - sesame street is luke's fave.

fam - aunt rachel (w/ baby cousin!), aunt cindy, miley, aunt steph

great great grandparents nanny & granddad and great grandmother, brenda. - reading one of luke's gifts.. the book -I Love You This Much- (priceless.)

mimi and papa with the growing bunch - miley, emma, keeton, luke & jaxon

more great grandparents (luke is lucky!) - judy & daddy don

we broke out a toy to help fight the heat.. here's luke playing with friends ethan kauffman and avery & austin kleiner :)

we broke him in the day after his birthday with his first sucker... he loved it!

memorial weekend

who knew turning one-year-old would be such a big event?

we've ordered and sent out invitations, scheduled one-year shots and well-check, moved on to 12-18 month clothes, weaned successfully (hello, zyrtec!), bought presents and party goods, and scheduled pictures. now, if we could just get the boy to walk and grow some hair!

turns out, the forecast for luke's birthday predicts it to be 103 degrees that day.... bring on the ice cream :)

we stayed in town over the weekend and hung out with friends and family. luke swam and fed monkee his cheetos yesterday.

he's really pretty entertaining :) he's a pro at using the walker now and prefers it over crawling.

confession: luke LOVES "half-and-half" - a drink made of half lemonade, half tea. i started drinking it when i got pregnant to cut back on caffeine because i used to drink tea non-stop. when we'd go places, i'd ask the waiter to mix it for me, and heath always gave me a hard time about it. when we'd go to sonic, he'd ask me what i wanted, and when i'd just smile, he'd roll his eyes and sigh because he hated ordering "half unsweet tea, half lemonade". a few months ago, i discovered that lipton sells it by the gallon, and now heath is addicted, too! we now buy it 4 gallons at at time, and sometimes, i give luke a few ounces of it in a sippy cup. my excuse? "he's a southern boy.." :)