Ella

So back in September when Luke was naming his friends from school to Aunt Robin and Pseudo Uncle Dana, we started prompting him with the names after the initial two (always "Kaki" and "Big Jack" in one order or the other).  When they got to Ella, he broke into a big smile and said "ELLLLLLLLAAAAAAA!"  So we've teased him about this once or twice but didn't really hear anything more about it until one day Kristina sent out an email to the class parents (K and B are co room representatives!) and got a response from Ella's mom.  Her email had a PS saying "By the way, I just have to let you know, whenever we ask Ella to name her friends from school she always says Luke's name first.  We'll ask her about her day at school and she'll respond with something like 'Fun Luke! Play Luke!'.  I talked to the teacher the other day who told me Ella had been helping feed Luke his lunch and had been chasing him through the tunnel outside!"

Now, we knew he was a womanizer when it comes to little old ladies (LOLs), as they just melt in his lap on a regular basis, but he is apparently the Dogwood Toddler class charmer as well.  The other day Ella was out and so he was "in the tree" (outside on the playground) with Olivia instead.  Apparently, we've got quite the ladies' man.  (Do you think he gets it from his Dad??)

The Hat (and our trip to NC)

What, did you think we were going to reference this blue hat with tassles and not give a picture?  Here are a few from our trip to Sapphire Valley, NC last weekend.  It was a bit chilly (notice the snow in the last photo) but we managed to do some hiking, shoot some hoops, and play mini golf.  Thanks to Grandpa and Cathy for letting us use the time share (and for leaving balloons!).

The BoyCow

For Halloween, Luke was a cowboy, or as he would pronouce it, a boy-cow.  Make that a hatless boycow, as unless the hat in question is blue fleece with tassles and a velcro chin strap, we aren't wearing it.  No sir, no way.  Luke did have fun though, and trick or treated at about 10 different houses.  He even said "trick or treat" at two of them.  Here are some photos.

Who wouldn't give this kid candy?

Still Choppin'

The Braves season ended long ago, but we kept doing the tomahawk chop right through the World Series and to today.  We break it out most frequently when there are sports, any sports, on TV, which does happen occasionally in this house.  Doesn't even matter whether we have our pants on.  

Sophisticated Speech

So Luke's list of words is growing (everything is no longer a "ball") and we thought you might be interested in knowing some of his favorite vocabulary -

cracker ("crack-a")
apple ("ap-pa")
banana ("na-na")
Grey girl ("gay gu")
Frank ("k")
Mickey (as in mouse) ("ickey")
Hop on Pop (as in the Dr. Seuss book title) ("Pop pop pop")
poopie (this one speaks for itself) ("poo-pee" with a point to the diaper)
blue ("booooo")
purple ("puh-pul")
yellow ("nell-ow")
dog ("goad" - he must be dyslexic)
big (as in big dog or big ball)
baseball
basketball (he knows lots of variations on ball)
balloon ("boooon")
Elmo, Abby, Ernie and Bert ("Beet") - think sesame street
ball pit (again, notice the ball theme)
goat ("go")
cow ("ca")
all done ("all daa")

what a fun little toddler-man!

OIB

For Labor Day, we met Aunt Robin and Pseudo Uncle Dana at Ocean Isle Beach, NC.  We had a great time beaching, swimming, golfing, outlet shopping and hanging out.  Here are some photos!

Luke would like to warn everyone that the last hole at the OIB mini golf course eats golf balls.  It doesn't matter how far you can stick your hand down the hole, you won't be able to recover it.  He tried.  This is very very upsetting.  It is really fortunate that there is an ice cream shop across the street to cheer one up after such a traumatic event.

The Big Camping Trip

Ben for his 30th birthday decided that the family should go camping.  So we loaded up the car, and drove up to a gorgeous campsite right on Lake Chatuge at the Georgia-North Carolina border.  The lake was literally 10 feet from the front door of the tent, which was a bit closer than desired given the lake's magnetic pull on young Luke.  But alas, it was not the magnet that did us in, it was the weather.  Hot and sticky when we arrived and pitched the tent, we got pelted with an intense thunderstorm that first evening.  The storm at first confined us to the car and then to McDonald's for dinner.  It rained a few more times during the night, but the next morning brought a fresh start.  Ben whipped up some pancakes and bacon, and we went out for a bike ride, at which time it started to rain again.  When that stopped, and when we saw we had a two hour window before the thunderstorms resumed, we decided to abort and return home.  The decision was clinched when a woman called out from the next site over "There's a snake in the water! There's a snake in the water!"

Ben and his helper

Luke and his mom in their camp chairs

"Hello Ducks!"

Yes, Mr. Brown and Mickey made the trip.

Before we got wind of the snake...

What you lookin' at?

In case the naked toddler butt is distracting you, please don't forget to notice the sandals.  As Luke will tell you, there is never a bad time for those sandals.

Can't wait to show this one to his future girlfriends!

Summer Fun!

Go Braves!  (Did you know they are leading the NL East?!)

Fourth of July Parade - The city of Decatur has a parade that all the kids/families can be in and it is sooo cute.  All the people waiting for fireworks sit on the side of the road and cheer for kids and Luke just loved it.  Then, we sat and watched the rest of the parade and he loved watching even more!  

HOME RUN!!!!                                  Walk around the block (look mom, no stroller!)

Florida Vacation

Way back in early May, we headed down to Florida for Joanna's wedding and stayed for a week, tacking on some time at the beach and a few days at Walt Disney World. Luke really enjoyed the beach, knocking down the sandcastles his father would build, scaring the bejesus out of his mom with a toy crab, and crawling around in all that sand. He wasn't quite as sure about the actual ocean. On the way to Disney, we stopped at the Clearwater Aquarium where we took in a Dolphin show and saw Winter, a dolphin with a prosthetic tail. And, then there was Disney. Luke really enjoyed the pools and water play areas at the resort, and he went to the Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Epcot. His least favorite part of the whole experience was meeting Mickey and Minnie. One of his parents thought they would be pretty impressed by him in his mouse ears hat, but he was not in favor of putting it on right then, and expressed that to everyone around. Oh, well. He did also have the chance to meet up with Rafiki and Jiminy Cricket, and a few friends stopped to say hello during the parade, and he enjoyed those greetings much more.

His favorite rides and attractions at Disney were:

8-10. Small World, Peter Pan, Tea Cups
7. the flower and plant show going on at Epcot which included tunnels and playgrounds for tikes like Luke.
6. the Buzz Lightyear ride. He really enjoyed this the first time, but then zonked out on it the second time, lowering its rating.
5. Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride (too bad they make you wait so long to take off though!)
4. the Lion King show at Animal Kingdom. Especially great was the big warthog who was located near our seats, Luke flashed him the peace sign several times during the performance.
3. Jungle Cruise at Animal Kingdom (this cruise really made him dance for some reason)
2. the Parade at Magic Kingdom. Luke sat in his stroller in the front row during the parade, and several characters greeted him personally on their way by, including Chip or Dale (the one with the brown nose), the genie from Aladdin, and Stitch (though Luke ignored him, so Kristina shook his hand instead).
1. The People Mover at Magic Kingdom (yes, this is basically a cart on a conveyer belt, not exactly death defying, but tons of fun nevertheless)

Photos!

with Owen

being a little silly

with Peter Pan and Captain Hook topiaries, Epcot

The People Mover!!!!

.

Parade..

Peace, Mickey!!

like we said, the parade was a highlight

Rafiki!

Blog Update

So... it has been a little while since our last post.  If we have any loyal followers left, we wanted to share a few updates.

Luke's first word was "Ball", except it sounds a little more like "Bul".  He's also quite talented at "uh oh" and "bye bye". 

Luke went to his second Braves game.  The Braves won in the bottom of the ninth on a walk-off hit by rookie Jason Heyward!  Of course, Luke and his parents were gone by then, but it was still quite a bit of fun.

Luke graduated at the end of May from the infant village at his school, and after a week of "summer vacation" started June 7th in the toddler one village.  You know he's a big kid when the school asks him to store in his cubby there a bathing suit and a toothbrush, and when his diaper changing room has a tot-sized pot, for practicing that transition.  The first day at school, he went over to the toy kitchen, picked up the toy vegetables, and threw those veggies on the ground.  Some things don't change quite as quickly.

Luke maybe has started to master the art of petting Frank gently.  We say maybe because Frank's not totally sure he's got it down, and Grey still won't let Luke anywhere near her. 

For those of you who watched Luke's epic "One Shining Moment", his basketball skills have continued to improve.  One day he stood in his tree house a good 4 feet away from his Duke hoop, and swished the shot from there.  His father whooped like it was a Brian Zoubek three-pointer.  Sadly, no video of the swish or the whooping.

Oh, and after thousands of miles pushing his train around, Luke started walking all by himself.  He began on Memorial Day.  He was intially a little camera shy in showing off his ability, but you can get the idea of some early steps from the clip below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1cuRVZVnds

And, here's a photo on his first day of toddler-one school. 

This sure beats Jennifer Hudson's version

This production was all Ben.  Another fairly long one, but worth it according to him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtHUTIlJUSs

The Masters

Guess what these two were doing last Sunday?

Happy Birthday Luke!

Luke's first taste of cake!  Warning: this is a long one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXrPKqPzywY

GO DUKE!

2010 National Champs!

Must have been the helmet...

Opening Day (+1)

So we visited Turner Field during their open house a couple weekends ago and Luke begged us to wear all his Braves gear for the occasion.  He got to run the bases with his Dad and we took a dugout tour as well.  Later, we saw the actual locker room where Chipper Jones goes after games and we literally peed our pants.  At least, one of us did.  And he leaked it all over his mom's shirt as well.  Good thing they had cheap t-shirts for sale...

The Tournament

Luke celebrated his first March Madness this year by submitting his picks to the Harrison Family pool.  We decided to use his stuffed animal collection to help with the making of the picks, though sadly we are heavy on elephants, hippos and monkeys, and light on Jayhawks, Demon Deacons, and Huskies (at least there's only one set of Huskies this year).  He seemed to especially favor the little lion we called the closest thing to a wildcat, as he has both Kentucky and Villanova in the Final Four.  Once they were both there, we allowed our two wild cats to play the part of the respective Wildcats.  Luke went with Frank and Kentucky.  As you can see from the below clip, Luke put a great deal of thought into each pick.  In an effort to help him complete the picks on time, we advanced the top 4 seeds in each region to the sweet 16 for him.  He picked all of the remaining first round games, and all of the games from the sweet 16 on.  After day 1, he's tied for the most correct in the pool, and he's beating his father by 3 games. 
Go Duke!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_oMrroB7hU

Too Bad Aunt Robin wasn't Here

So last week while his father was giving him a bath, Luke apparently decided he needed to go poopie right then and there.  He pulled himself up on the side of the tub and began grunting.  Neat. 

Ben started yelling for Kristina with some vigor, and by the time she made it into the bathroom she could barely contain her laughter at the situation.  Luke was not fazed and even tried to play with some of the new bath "toys" floating around!  Luke was therefore removed from the situation and after a brief fishing expedition on Kristina's part, they then started the bath all over with new bath water and a clean tub. 

Sorry, no pictures to share for this post.

Mr. Luke goes to Washington

Luke and his parents went to Washington a few weeks ago, and he saw the sights as well as his Aunt Robin and Pseudo-Uncle Dana (P. U. Dana).  Rather, he was present some of the sights - at others he was busy catching up on his sleep.  Here are some photos.

with PUD

perhaps not a future politician

Air & Space Museum

DINOSAURS!

Stripes

See if you can find Luke in the below shot!  Hint: he's wearing his camo.

Ready for the 500

As you can see below, Luke has been working on his car in preparation for the 500.  He's ready!

White Stuff

Along with every other state aside from Hawaii, Georgia got some snow yesterday.  Luke enjoyed taking his sled outside to the real snow, and we took a wagon ride through the already half-melted neighborhood today.