Luke's Birthday Party

We had a great time. Luke enjoyed his cake, but preferred eating it with a spoon. He wore this little Birthday Boy t-shirt, compliments of Mom-Mom. His birthday party was the Pooh Bear Baby's 1st Birthday theme. He had four cakes, an amazing start in life for his first birthday (due to a bakery mix-up). His favorite toys included two push toys (one Mickey Mouse Airplane and one Pooh Bear train) and the start of his Little People collection. His friends Aidan and Nadia joined us for the joyous event along with all of his grandparents (Grandpa, Grandma, Pop-Pop, Nan and Mom-Mom).
For his birthday we learned to clap on que, stand up, play peek-a-boo, drink from a cup, etc.

More pictures available at: http://emilyandlukesingleton.shutterfly.com

Luke's 1st Birthday!!!

Luke is officially 1 year old now!!! Say Happy Birthday to our Birthday Boy!

Luke at his Birthday Dinner... with Grandma and Grandpa, Mom-Mom, and Pop-Pop and Nan. He loved the cooking show put on by our personal chef at the Yamato Japanese Steakhouse. Emily and Luke pose for a picture. We had a little song and dance following dinner.


So, what's Luke up to these days...
Well, he can:
1. Move his head from side to side while saying, "no, no."
2. Wave his hand(s) while saying, "hiya."
3. Turn his head away to tell you he doesn't want something.
4. Point in the direction that he wants to go while making a loud firm noise to get your attention.
5. Point to objects that he wants.
5. Call for big sissy to come and play with him.
6. Effectively crawl around the house and disappear on us if we fail to close all of the doors.
7. Open the coffee table drawer, pull out some crayons and paper and start drawing a picture.
8. Climb part way out of the tub.
9. Throw tantrums and bite.
10. Pinch his sister while riding in the car (so Emily claims).
11. Pull up on most everything in site.
12. Make nearly successful attempts of climbing into big Sissie's bath while impatiently waiting for Mommy to make his.
13. Feed himself with a fork or spoon (preferred method of eating).
14. Clap... and often applauds himself for doing a good job.
15. Eat most table foods, still refusing pureed food. (Loves pizza, bread, cake/frosting, pasta, peas and corn, etc.)
16. Make diaper changing impossible by arching his back or attempting to lunge himself off of the table.
17. Drink from a sippy cup or a bottle with nipple. (He mostly wants his sister's sippy versus one we make for him.)
18. Eat, point and color with his right hand. (It's pretty clear he's going to be right handed.)

Get the picture? We have a little man on our hands. He's busy and into everything. There's no stopping him now!

We have a new nick name for Luke... it's SWIPER!!!

Luke has mastered the art of swiping things from people. If you're eating a cupcake, talking on the phone or enjoying a slice of pizza, watch out. He will be headed your way and will do his best to swipe your dessert, pizza or phone. :-)

Emily and her prince charming...

A couple of months ago, Emily and her friend Anna found a toad/frog on the front porch. They had fun touching him, looking at him and contemplating about whether or not he was their prince charming. For weeks Emily has sang songs to him, calling for him to return to her front door because she missed him so much. She has even asked me over and over if I would be willing to kiss her prince charming for her since she was afraid to right now. Well... today was her big day. She found another toad/frog hanging out on our back porch. She was so excited, but quickly asked if I would kiss him for her. Then she asked me if he was wearing a crown. When I told her I didn't see one she said that he wasn't prince charming because he didn't have a crown on his head. She still wanted to catch him and place him in a glass jar so she would never lose him again (and could wait until she was ready to actually kiss him). So, she went about finding a jar for him and when she made her way out to see him, he was gone. She looked for a while, but never found him. :-( I told her he will return again when God is ready for them to meet. And so she is patiently waiting.

Ohhhh Luke!!!

Well, it's all over... those wonderful days of Luke quietly playing in one spot totally content. Yep, it's OVER!!! He has mastered this whole crawling thing his little friends have been sporting for months and is now busy checking everything out. Who needs toys when the whole house is a new playground?!?! Someone needs to tell daddy to get out the screw driver and the safety locks because we have several cabinets that needs some TLC to prevent our new little crawler from checking out what's inside!!!

I've got it!! That's what we can do at his birthday party. Yep, anyone who stays past 3:30p on Saturday will be put to work. Keith will demonstrate the first installation and everyone left will equally divide the remaining cabinets! Ahhh haaa! :-) We love you that much!

So, what does he seem to enjoy the most??? Well, bathrooms seem to be lots of fun to him. He loves the tub and wants to pull up on it and check out what's on the other side of the tub wall. He also really likes the toilet paper roll (but only if no one else is looking). Then there is (was) the toilet bowl cleaning brush. (It's hidden in the garage now.) And lastly, there are big sissy's hair ties in the drawer of her step stool. They will need to find a new home too. Outside of the bathroom there is big sissy's room (lots of fun stuff in there... and chokeables that will soon be going bye bye for good), the kitchen with the brooms/mops (which will also be finding a new home), and the front entry area where he loves to try on mommy's shoes/sandals, lick the bottom of souls, toss big sissy's shoes around, and simply slide his little butt back and forth.

And by the way... if anyone is eating something around him, he will insist on having some himself so be prepared. His best food retrieval skill... swiping cup cakes from you! Today while at the playgroup birthday party, mommy was helping Emily and others get their cup cakes. As soon as Luke saw them he started fighting mommy to get one for himself. As soon as he was successful, he had the biggest grin on his face. HE WON!!! What's the funniest part, he doesn't even want the cake. He just wants to eat the paper. He will smash it, toss the cake out and then satisfyingly begin to eat the paper very slowly. If you try to take it from him or say, "no" he will get really mad at you and then hide it from you.

Life is loads of fun around here. There's never a dull moment. Luke loves to explore and then gets upset (understandably) when mommy says, "no, no" or big sissy takes something away.

On the upside... he's a little social bug. He loves to talk on the phone now and seems to be able to figure out for himself when I'm talking to daddy or grandma. He insists on having a turn to talk and loves it. Tonight Emily and Luke enjoyed talking to daddy for about 15 minutes, taking turns of course. Luke would breath heavy or say, "hi." He would even crawl over to Emily and sit on his feet waiting for his turn to talk. It was very cute! So don't be surprised if you call the house and Emily asks you if you would like to talk to Luke. She's serious... she doesn't want him to be excluded from the fun and odds are he's sitting next to her trying to swipe the phone out of her hands. :-)

Emily's comments while watching The Cosby Show

Emily has had the funniest things to say while watching The Cosby Show on TV this afternoon. She said it was a very silly and funny show, that it's just pretend, that Mr. Cosby is kidding his son and being very silly, that she thinks he is a silly daddy, etc. She's laughing out loud a lot. Her final comment is that it's cute.

Luke and his new moves...

Luke is finally crawling on all fours!! Now that he's strong enough to hold himself up to move around, the comando style of crawling is only used when he simply is not moving fast enough on all fours. We now find him under tables and chairs, exploring inside of and around cabinets and furniture, etc. He's a regulary explorer of our home. He loves to stick his hand into our speakers... and soon will be successful in finding things small enough to fit inside of them. :-) He hears the words, "no, no," a lot. :-)

Luke is now sampling a little bit of everything from the dinner table. His recent breakfasts have included: cheerios, banana and french toast. His recent lunches have included: whole wheat bread, carrots, shredded cheese, turkey and crackers. His recent dinners have included: potatoes, dinner rolls, tortilla chips, cheese, carrots, green beans and pasta.

Now that he's more mobile, he will take off and hurry over to anything Emily leaves unattended (especially when it's food related). She's learning to take care of her things quicker or deal with the consequence of little brother taking/eating them. Things are getting pretty interesting around here.