Look who's talking...

Recently, Luke's vocabulary has really taken off. I have this theory that 18 months is this turning point for language for most kids (Kate's vocab increased amazingly the week she turned 18 months) so we have one more month and I'm just waiting for that day when he can actually really talk to us. His language has been slowly evolving over the last few months, he's got the basics down: Momma, Dada, No (a favorite), Nana, Bapa (Grampa), Pop-pop. And, even though I know every child develops at their own speed and that boys tend to take a bit longer than girls, I can't help but think, "C'mon, your sister was saying WAY more at this point." In the last few weeks he's begun to say a lot more so for documentation sake I thought I'd share some of my favorites from Luke's list of new words:

Wawa= water, up until recently he called water "dada" now it's "wawa" unless its in his cup then its still "dada"
Duuuu= dude
Yeah
Kiki or Tate= Kate
Baba= bottle/blanket
Puppy
Poopy= this is said anytime he is poopy or when we go into a public bathroom and once in the dressing room at Target. =) Then he says....
Phewww
Ma= more
Peeee= please
Cookie= Brooklyn (derived from Brookie-Cookie), or an actual cookie, cracker, chip, etc.
Dan do- Thank you
Ca= Car
Buttball= football
Tutda= touchdown
Gum
Lella= Cinderella (what can I say but he has a sister)
uh oh
Da!= done

I'm looking so forward to hearing what he comes up with next. My favorite thing about him learning to talk is watching his "conversations" with Kate and Brooklyn. So cute!

Finally fall...

Last night, John and I put the kids down early, made dinner, and ate by our first fire while listening to the rain. That is what fall is supposed to feel like as opposed to the 80-90* weather we've been experiencing. Just look at the beautiful fire my *Eagle scout created without any gas! What a guy! ;)
*Correction to the previously posted "former Eagle Scout", as John says, "Once an Eagle Scout, always an Eagle Scout." =)

MOMS playdate...

We had a pretty full house today hosting our church MOMS group for a play date. It was fun to have all of Kate's "church friends" over. We had eight moms, nine pre-schoolers, six 1-year-olds, and a baby. Thankfully, the weather was nice and we could play outside then go down to the park. All of the kids were so well-behaved and played really well.

Just some pics...

As usual, we've been busy with swim, dance, MOMS, church activities, play dates, Disneyland days, etc. Luke is still sleeping great and now loves bedtime. All I have to say is, "Lukey, are you ready for bed?" and he'll run in, turn on his air filter and climb up in the rocking chair. We rock, read, sing, have a bottle and he happily lays down in his crib and falls asleep. =) Kate's imagination is really taking off lately, as is her attitude. She is quite dramatic and loves to pretend and act out movies. The attitude I could do without but on her "good days" we have a lot of fun. Here are a few pictures we've taken over the last couple of weeks.

Silly faces

Kate got to help out at the Playhouse Disney show...yes, that is one of those backpack/leashes on Luke. I vowed never to get one and have been known to mock the use of them until I realized better to leash your child like a dog than lose them in a crowd.

Luke loves to ride around in Kate's doll stroller. =)

Yea for sleep!!

Well we've made it through the first week of sleeping training (AKA Operation Cry It Out) with flying colors. Luke has gone from maybe getting 12 hours to definitely getting 15 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period. I am praising the Lord for the ease of it all. Every night got better and better and now all we get is a small cry before Luke is off to dream land for about 11 or 11 1/2 hours of uninterrupted sleep. It really is a small miracle. Naps continued to be difficult until Friday when I got the bright idea that perhaps by his 1 pm nap he was just too tired. Many of you moms know what I mean when I say an overtired baby is not a sleepy baby. Every day he'd cry for almost 45 minutes and then sleep for only about a hour. Friday, I had my epiphany and put him down for a morning nap. Bingo! He went right to sleep for that nap and again for his 2 pm nap. Same thing yesterday and today. So we're back to 2 naps a day and all the more happy for it. At first I was dreading the fact that we'd have to do some schedule rearranging to make that morning nap happen but now I'm excited because I've decided that that will be a perfect hour for some alone time with Kate. I am one VERY happy mommy. I've already created an extensive list of things to do with all of the free time I suddenly have. =)

Night 2...

Last night Luke slept GREAT!! I was a little worried since yesterday's nap did not go very well. He cried off and on for more than a hour and only slept for about 1 hour 20 min. when he finally did fall asleep. I felt so sorry for him when I was giving him his bottle at bedtime because I could tell he knew what was coming. He knew that when he finished that thing, he was going in the crib. Poor little thing, he drank that bottle slower than ever before and was trying so hard to just fall asleep on my lap while drinking it (which he has never done). When he finally finished and I put him in his crib it was only a matter of a few minutes and he was out....until 5 am!! Hallelujah! But it doesn't end there. He put himself back to sleep at 5 and again at 5:45 am and stayed asleep until 7 am!! So we're 2 nights and one nap down, at this moment working on day 2 nap, and I couldn't be more thrilled with the outcome. We should have done this weeks ago!

Operation Cry It Out...

Many of you know we have struggled with sleep issues in our house. Kate was a pretty terrible sleeper until she was about 22 months and in a "big girl bed" and I didn't think anyone could be much worse...until we had Luke. At first he was a dream, I thought we'd hit the jackpot with a great little sleeper. As the months went on his sleeping habits became worse and worse. I rolled with it, though, thinking he'd follow in Kate's footsteps and start getting better after a year. Many of my friends had had great success with letting their babies "cry it out". I knew it worked but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. That is until I really stepped back and looked at our what our situation had evolved into. It was taking me, on average, an hour or more to get Luke to sleep at nap and bedtime and he was spending about 2-3 hours in his crib only to end up in our bed for the rest of the night. This was leaving him in a constant state of tired that was affecting his behavior and development. And it was leaving me without any patience leftover to deal with him or Kate during the day. It had to stop and thanks to some very supportive friends and MANY prayers we're well on our way to a much healthier, happier, sleeping household. I know this is a really long post but I'm writing this more for our own record of a pretty significant event in our lives.

Last night, we did our regular bedtime routine: bath, bottle, rock...only this time I rocked him for a couple of minutes, gave him a kiss, put him in his crib and left. We had a plan to endure what was sure to be a torturous night. To save Kate from getting upset over Luke screaming (and, boy, did he!), we borrowed "Sleeping Beauty" from my parents and made it a special movie and popcorn night. With his bedroom door and the hallway door closed and the movie turned up nice and loud we weren't able to hear him. We decided to allow 20 minutes to go by then we'd go in to let Luke know we hadn't abandoned him, lay him down and leave the room. We'd repeat this every 20 minutes until he was asleep. I was thrilled to find I didn't have to go in once! At 20 minutes I went to his door and could hear him whimpering, "Mama, mama..." (side note: I think that was more heart breaking than the screams) so I took a couple more minutes to change my clothes and by the time I came back to his door I couldn't hear anything. I waited another 20 minutes and went in to check on him- he'd taken his pants off and stripped the pillow of it's case but he was sound asleep. I had imagined hours of him screaming, myself in hysterics, and feelings of guilt like I'd never before experienced. But, God is good and He answered prayer in a big way. Even throughout the night 20 minutes was the magic number. Luke woke up a few times and only once did I have to go in to give him his paci and lay him down. The other times he settled himself down and went back to sleep in under 15 minutes, once in just 5 minutes. This morning I'm elated that we made it through the first night and everyone is in great spirits. Thanks to all for your prayers, words of encouragement, and support!

Trick-or-Treat...

Trick-or-treating was much more successful this year than last and both kids had a lot of fun. We made it to over a dozen houses, met a few more neighbors, and collected some yummy treats. Luke was really into knocking on the doors, yelling "ti-tee!", and taking candy from the bowls. He thought it was the greatest night ever. Every time we'd leave a house he'd hold up the candy and do his sign for more, meaning he wanted to eat it. When we didn't open it for him he'd just try to eat through the wrapper. We got home with a lot of soggy, smooshed candy that we had to throw away, which is just as well- to save my waistline. =) Kate was not shy at all this year and impressed everyone with her twinkling, light up wings and excellent manners- never forgetting to say thank you. Since we were the first ones out in our neighborhood, we got home early enough to catch the trick-or-treaters that came to our door. Kate was just as excited to pass out candy. It turned out to be a great first Halloween in our new house.