Luke is extremely active these days, to say the least.
He was having a blast running around outside while I worked on our truck. He’s 18 months old in this video, and he’s typically a very rambunctious little guy, but this was definitely one of his more interesting bursts of energy.
Remember when I wrote, “I’m interested to see what he (Luke) thinks up next?” Well, after moving on from climbing on the windowsill, this is what he thought up next! We’ve walked in on him perched atop his changing table several times now.
He’s 18 months old and he loves to climb everything! How do we toddler-proof that?!
It all started with a simple stomach bug. This stomach bug made Luke vomit a dozen times over the course of five days. While recovering from the bug, he got a cold.
Great.
That turned into bronchiolitis, which turned into an ear infection.
The first round of antibiotics didn’t work and his fever kept spiking, so the urgent care doctor put him on a broader range of antibiotics, thinking that would nip it in the bud. Turns out, Luke is allergic to this second type of antibiotics – he has a rash all over his leg and cheek (just on one side). Now he’s back to his first antibiotic. The doctor thinks the infection is weak enough that the first type of antibiotics will finish it off, without causing further rashes.
It’s been a tough past 3 weeks for Luke. We’ll see how this all turns out.
UPDATE: As one would hope, Luke got better pretty quickly. However, our recent trip to Ireland resulted in each one of us getting sick with a head cold (even bronchitis!). All is well, though – some of us are still fighting off hacking coughs, but we’re each well on our way to complete recovery, just in time for summer to officially start!
Luke is 17 months old in this video. He loves climbing and balancing on the windowsill. I’m interested to see what he thinks up next!
I came home from work today and Luke immediately decided show off his feats of strength. Here he is pulling our 15 pound cat in one of our baskets. (You can barely see the cat’s head sticking out the top, but he’s in there.)
It’s clear that he didn’t get very far, but I love to see his triumph, even just a little bit, with all the effort he put into it! 
Luke is such a fun little guy. He is a baby no more. Nor an infant. He’s now obviously a full-fledged toddler, and somehow, even with all of his running around and pulling cats in baskets, he has energy to spare! I can’t thank God enough for the gifts He’s given me through a wonderful son and an amazing wife. I look forward to many more Feats of Strength!
The day after Christmas we went to the Disney Live! Rockin’ Roadshow at the Frank Erwin Center. In short: it was far different than I was expecting. I was thinking it was going to be like the nice little Disney shows that you typically see on tv (think “quaint”). In reality, it was more like the kid’s show version of the craziest Cirque du Soleil show you’ve ever seen (or heard about).
This was at the beginning of the Tigger Bounce song. Luke loved it – he bounced and danced all around.
I was surprised because Luke was able to stay awake during most of the show, which was right in the middle of the afternoon – during his typical nap time. And considering the busy week full of Christmas and family events, it was an accomplishment that we even made it out. Anyway, all of the bright colors, exciting songs, loud voices, and fast dancing kept Luke extremely interested… but in the end, left him extremely tired.
We were on the 5th or 6th row, music blasting right at us, and I looked over to see Luke passed out. That was a little over halfway through the show, and he stayed asleep for the rest of the time. I’ve never seen a baby sleep through more commotion than that.
Regardless, it was a fun experience overall. Luke had a great time, and the adults made the most of it. Thanks to Luke’s Grandma for the Christmas gifts (tickets)!
These two videos were taken on the same day, a couple days after Luke’s first birthday. This is a pretty typical morning for Luke these days!
Here he’s doing some of his favorite things: chasing the cats, climbing through chairs, destroying paper, and running through the house.
(You can see how we have to keep the shoes up high, otherwise they’ll end up thrown about the house, as Luke goes on his cat-hunt rampage.)
The next video shows one of his birthday gifts that he received from the Best family. It has to be one of the simplest toys ever created, but Luke obviously loves it! (You can hear Bess holding back her giggles, because Luke’s a silly kid.)
It’s 7AM, still a little dark outside, and Luke is waking up from a long night’s sleep.
I stumble upstairs to get him out of bed, still tired because I don’t want to fully wake up. (I can usually grab a few more minutes of sleep after handing him off to Bess.) And actually, I bang into the wall a couple of times on my way up.
Stepping into his room, I can see him start to walk towards me in his crib. He reaches up for me and I gladly pick him up. He wraps his little arms around my neck and lays his head on my shoulder. This is a rare occurrence. Usually he’s very awake and alert, and can’t stop looking at all there is to see: the sunlight peeking in through the windows, the wedding photos on the wall, and the house in general – even though he’s been down this hallway and these stairs for the past 300+ days of his life.
Trying to appreciate the moment, even half-asleep, I start to walk down the stairs.
Realizing that I’m falling asleep as I walk, I have to stop and make sure I’ve reached the intermediate landing at the 7th stair.
I’m there, good.
I turn and walk down the second set of steps, where I kiss my son on his cheek and tell him that he’s a good boy.
For just a moment I zone out. That’s when my foot slips off the second to last step. My body goes parallel to the stairs. I grab hold of my son tightly and fall straight down. There’s a line across my lower back that takes the whole hit on the edge of that damn stair.
I yell, Luke cries, and Bess jumps out of bed.
After Bess takes Luke from my arms, she walks backwards, where my leg, my stupid leg, trips her. S*&%! That adds insult to injury.
The pain is horrible. I lay there on the ground, at the bottom of the stairs, for a good 5-10 minutes. Luke, who’s now walking around, comes to console me and pat me on the head. (Thanks buddy.)
I finally get up and find a good position to lay on the couch, where Bess brings me some ice.
In the end, I seriously bruised my coccyx and the other meaty areas on the lowest part of my back. The fall was so bad because I wasn’t able to catch myself, trying to make sure Luke didn’t get injured, as well.
Thank God that Luke is fine throughout that whole ordeal. Thank God that, even though Bess was a little emotionally traumatized from the abrupt noises, yells, and crying, she also seems fine. Thank God that my injury wasn’t something worse.
I won’t do that again. I can’t do that again.
No amount of extra sleep is worth that.
A few weeks ago, Luke started to make the silliest expressions. He’s such a fun little guy, he already laughs so much, and he makes us laugh all the time. But these faces and expressions that he’s now making are hilarious. That’s Bess in the background egging him on. I can’t help but (literally) laugh out loud whenever I see this video. Hopefully you’ll get a kick out of his funny faces, as well.
He’s walking all over the place now, he climbs up AND down the stairs (with parent supervision, of course), and he’s making a lot more sounds and noises. He loves to chase the cats, loves going to the swimming pool, and playing with his cousins and friends.
He’s over 9 months old and his separation anxiety has fully kicked in. Our pediatrician tells us that’s a good thing, which will pass with time, but it means that he’s formed some good bonds with us. It’s strange because when we’re away, as long as he’s distracted or engaged, he doesn’t really think about us being gone. But once either one of us returns, he starts to fuss as if he’d been missing us the whole time – kinda like he realized that he forgot we were gone and had to make up for lost ‘separation anxiety’ time by crying out for us that much more. Funny guy.
Anyway, we learn new ways to appreciate our little guy with each new day. God is – truly – so good.
Luke is insanely active these days. He’s eight months old and he recently started crawling up the stairs. (Up the stairs!) I let him climb as high as he could, and he’s successfully climbed six stairs before falling back (and I caught him in my arms, of course).* With that in mind, we finally baby-proofed the house (for the most part), but he surprises us everyday with what he can get into. We got the baby gate, the outlet covers, the corner pads, and on and on. I’m sure there will be a daily evaluation of what we need to upgrade for the next six months or so.
A few weeks ago, Luke really started to pull himself up all the time. Whenever he wakes up from a nap, or in the morning, he’s sure to be looking over the edge of his crib, trying to see who’s gonna come in and rescue him. Some of his favorite places to stand up are the coffee table, the side of his crib, the front door, the front window… actually, I don’t know any place he doesn’t like to stand up.
Anyway, recently he received a walking toy (it allows him to stand up against it and even push it around). As of about a week or two ago, he would stand up against it, and then fall to the ground pretty quickly. He would never really hurt himself, but because the toy has wheels, it would roll out from under him (because he wasn’t able to balance properly against a mobile object). Well, as of a day ago, he is able to walk it around – so we decided to try and catch it on video. This video is the result. Enjoy!
*UPDATE: Just today, Bess let him climb up all the stairs without any assistance.