Our little Lukey has most of his basic toddler skills down now- blowing kisses, waving, giving hugs and kisses, using a fork and spoon, pointing to his nose, ears, hair, and belly button. Luke will clap for himself when he does something he thinks is particularly impressive. He can follow simple commands, like go get a diaper and put that away. His pointer finger gets a good workout showing us what he wants or what is interesting to him. He recently started folding his arms, and tries to kneel during prayer time. That lasts about 5 seconds, but it's pretty cute. He can now open doors, but thankfully hasn't been as interested in the bathroom lately. We just have to be careful to keep the deadbolts locked so he doesn't escape.
Luke loves being outside, and one of his life's greatest injustices is that the girls can go outside without me, but he can't. When we are in the garage, he'll walk to his stroller or trike and let us know in a loud way that he'd rather be on a walk! He is a very busy boy, always running around and playing.
Luke certainly pays attention to what we are doing and is a great mimic. He can cuddle, soothe, and feed a dolly just like Cora and Violet. If they start doing their gymnastics tricks, he'll attempt a forward roll. He requires his own Wii remote (usually with the battery taken out so he doesn't turn off the game) when we play. He wipes down many surfaces with a dry sponge, dusts, and pretends to vacuum just like me. (In fact, most of his tantrums are centered around a great desire to use the hand or floor dusters or vacuum attachments when I'm using them.) He follows Kevin around the house shouting 'Da, Da', plays on his pretend laptop, and wants to water the flowers and do whatever his dad is doing. He always wants a bite of whatever we're eating, and takes breaks to run back to have a bite of Kevin's cereal baby bird style while he's playing.
Luke's ears are finely tuned to hear any motorized vehicle or appliance-- he'll come running when he hears them to check it out. He love to play with his trucks and cars, and was delighted when I got some Cars dive toys for the bathtub. Needless to say, they don't get played with only in the bathtub! He loves animals, playing with our toys animals, showing us animals he finds in pictures and books, and seeing animals at the zoo. He is both apprehensive and thrilled by animals close to him. He is pretty used to Shad and Jen's dogs now, and was very interested in but a little shy around Deb's and TaRhea's dogs at the family reunion.
Luke loves to eat oatmeal, chicken nuggets and all kinds of fruit, especially mangoes. He loves pretzels and popsicles, string cheese is his favorite snack. He doesn't like the texture of rice or scrambled eggs, but will eat pretty much anything else, unless something more exciting is going on somewhere else. Luke is a very appreciative eater and says many hearty "mmm's" while eating something he enjoys. He's got most of his teeth now, except his two year molars.
Luke hates being left behind. Whenever he sees that someone is getting ready to go somewhere, he hangs out by the garage door hoping that he can go too. If he hears me call "Shoe Time!" he echos "doo ime!" and runs for the shoe basket.
For the longest time, the only word Luke was saying consistently was 'Da'. The girls, especially Violet, were speaking more words much earlier than this. But all kids are different I guess. A few weeks ago we recognized that Luke is saying "I want this" when he points to an object. So apparently he is saying what is most important to him to get what he wants! He can say 'yes', 'look', 'banana', and 'that', but 'I want this' is definitely his most repeated phrase.
He's our little lovey Lukey, and we're so happy to have him in our family!
At 18 months, Luke weighs 22.6 pounds (10th percentile) and is 31.69 inches tall (31st percentile)
