For the Sake of Remembering

I decided to start writing this post after I picked Luke up from Mother's Day Out. We'll see how far I get. I have needed to record something, somewhere, about cute little things he's doing, but I just cannot make myself do it.

Anyway, since his first birthday, his vocabulary has really exploded. My favorite word that he says is 'pizza,' which sounds like 'tee-tah' spoken really quickly and high pitched. It started out meaning pizza and evolved into the word for cheese. Or bread. Both of which are components of pizza. Wow! Do you think he figured that out?? What a genius!! Totally kidding, of course.

He still loves, loves, loves to be outside. To the point that I think we are going to sell the house and just live in a tent. It would be more peaceful for me that way because now, if he is not bringing me various shoes saying 'shis' and 'ah ssssss,' he's rolling around on the floor kicking, screaming and crying huge tears until I say 'shoes' and 'outside!' Sheesh.

He loves to play in the little car Granmama and Grandaddy gave him for Christmas. He has a word for it that doesn't sound at all like 'car.' I can't remember what it sounds like, so I'll try to get him to say it for me later when we go o-u-t-s-i-d-e to play with it...

He gives a little grunt that sounds like 'ruh' for 'truck' and I think he is starting to pick up on the word 'light.' For 'hat' he says 'at' and he has been seeing a lot of those on mommy lately who doesn't usually have time to fix her hair. 'Nuh' means something to him--he points and says it all the time--we haven't figured that one out yet. You know how, whenever you finish doing something, like changing a diaper or putting on their shoes, you'll say "Now!" or "Now, then"? He always repeats that in a deep little voice and it sounds like "Naaah!" He will even say it on his own when he finishes something! It's so funny to hear him use that one appropriately. He'll repeat lots of things, but these are most of the things he knows and will say on his own.

Bathtime is his new favorite and he seems to love water, in general, which is a nice change from his early infant days. Playing in the toilet is double fun because when you get done with that you get to wash your hands.

The mimicking stage really is cute, as well as, should I say, enlightening? It's like having a mirror at times when you usually don't, like meal time. Apparently, we make the refreshing "Ah" sound after drinking a lot because he does that constantly. We didn't intentionally teach him, so we figured he just learned it from watching us. I started paying attention and I do find myself doing that a lot more than I am comfortable with. He now uses that sound to let you know he's thirsty if saying 'juice' doesn't produce the goods fast enough. You'll never get by with smacking around here either. He points that out right away.

About a month ago, we decided it was time to stop the 'uh oh' game. That didn't go so well. I can imagine it was confusing, since everytime in the past he would 'drop' something from his highchair we would happily say "Uh-Oh!" When I suddenly began to give him a stern "no no," it became a fun game of 'Get a reaction out of Mommy." He would pick up a piece of food and hold it up over the side of the chair and just look at me. When I would say "no, no" he would simply open his hand and let it fall to the floor. Of course, that was hilarious, so our reaction to that only encouraged it. After a couple of weeks we just started to ignore it. Now, when he is finished eating, he just throws the food wildly as hard as he can, so that is much better.

Probably the cutest thing he is doing right now is, when we go o-u-t-s-i-d-e and walk around, when he gets to a spot that he thinks he can't walk through (like the gravel driveway) he will stop very suddenly and stick one hand straight up in the air. He doesn't take his eyes off the ground, just stands there with that hand up in the air until you take it and help him walk across. It is hilarious! I have got to, got to, got to try to record that or take a picture this weekend.

So, there it is. The high points written down to be remembered forever. I hope you are somewhat able to imagine the way he is saying these things. I have got to try to get some video! Sorry for no pictures. Maybe I'll add some next month!