First Cheerios

This little boy opened the knife drawer yesterday, then pushed his racecar over, climbed on top of it, and reached in. Thankfully I was there to witness this mischievousness and it didn't go further than that!

Yesterday Luke also had his first cheerios. Up until now I've been worried that they might be too hard and he wouldn't be able to chew them. But he got through them just fine!

Luke has discovered the magnets on the fridge. I have a few really big, really strong magnets that he can't pull off very easily and he just slides them around the bottom half of the fridge. This morning after breakfast I put him on the floor and the first thing he did was go for the magnets.

Derek reminded me last night that parenting really is a high calling. I just wonder who I'll be calling next...911?

On A Roll

Dare-devil!

Raise the roof.

Luke is walking behind his race car lots now. He can pull himself up on it and push it all around the house, which is quite a feat since this thing has wheels and can slip out from under him. Sometimes he gets stuck in a corner, or under the kitchen chairs, but we leave him there and eventually he maneuvers his way out again. At first I thought he wasn't bending his knees when he walked, and he looked so funny because of his stiff gait! Then I realized he was bending his knees - his legs are just incredibly short.

Yesterday Luke figured out how to open the kitchen cupboards. Today my task is to get my hands on some child-proofing equipment. Otherwise my life is going to be very scary, very soon. And can anybody tell me why at ten months my son woke up six times in the night, and was up at 6am!? He was such a good sleeper until three days ago!

Throw Him in the Clank

Our kid behind bars, watching the other children have fun in the sunshine. He thinks to himself, "I am a withering leaf, craving sunlight, and laughter! Why must I be so far removed from my peers?"

After two days of pulling my hair out, we have decided to throw Luke in jail. We set up the play pen and he is becoming a frequent visitor there so that Mommy can get some things done. Also to keep me sane, we are having conversations with Luke about what is and what is not safe for him to play with instead of just saying no and redirecting his attention.

I had a talk with my Mom yesterday morning, and a talk with Kathy in the evening both of which really enforced my feelings that Luke can understand and should be talked to as if he understands. So we are moving on from having a baby, who doesn't understand what we're saying and has no ability to assert his freewill, to having a child, who understands No and can decide to go ahead and do it anyway. I think fear is the appropriate response from the Mother.

Luke's newest screech, which I was trying to catch on the video above, captured a little more accurately, and annoyingly, here.

Here Comes Trouble

This morning the woman at the coffee shop was laughing and playing with Luke and she said, "What a happy baby! Is he always like this?" I wished I could say yes.

Yesterday, for the first time, there was some question as to whether or not we would keep Luke. He was such a pain in the rear that I actually looked for his original receipt to see if we could do an exchange. Where'd my happy, polite baby go? Suddenly I have this crazy thrashing deranged monkey instead of Luke!

Derek came home last night and lay down on the floor, exhausted after going to the gym. "I am tired too", I said in an understanding way. "Why are you tired?" he asked.

This was my entire day: Luke cried and smashed his face into the floor if I took something away from him that he shouldn't have. He went back over and over again to things that I told him not to play with. He stood at the kitchen counter and screamed when I put the TV remote up on the counter out of his reach. He stood at the corner of his crib and shouted for forty-five minutes at nap-time. He swatted a cup of water out of my hand onto Grandma's floor, and later he swatted the sweet potato out of my hand and across the room. He whined and complained and got into the dog's water bowl, and soaked his pants. He tried to grab the oven door when I put the casserole in for dinner, and when I put him in the living room and ran back to the kitchen to finish dinner he shouted and followed right on my heels and again tried to grab the hot oven door! When I tried to soothe him after his crying he arched his back and smashed his head into my sternum. When I tried to change his diaper he cried and arched his back and rolled over on the change table in his own poop. The only thing that seemed to help was when I walked outside into the brisk breeze. He quieted right down and looked around, peaceful for the first time all day. That was until I turned around to go back into the house. Then all hell broke loose...again.

Natural Selection

The reason we leapt out of bed and almost had a heart attack yesterday morning: Luke has decided he likes to play with our clock radio. He listens to country music and the weather at top volume almost every morning!

Just the other day I took Luke to the credit union with me to open a savings account for his post secondary education. He was all over our banker's office. Luke kept crawling under, I'll just call him Bob, Bob's desk and trying to pull out the computer cables. Bob even went to the trouble of dragging a rather large table, the one with those loopy wires and wooden beads, into the office for Luke to play with. But Luke knew which loopy wires he wanted to get his hands on, and stubbornly continued to crawl under the desk.

After a while I asked Bob about the children he had mentioned (mostly to direct attention away from my little trouble maker). Bob talked about his kids for a few minutes and then when Luke lunged under his desk again, Bob said, "You know, they say that children who are really curious and into everything are the most intelligent". "Gee that's too bad," I responded, "That means that the really intelligent ones are the ones that are more likely to die young. No wonder Luke is still trying to stick his fingers into light sockets. We just haven't evolved far enough for him to know better!"

Smart Boy

This is my kid, the smartest boy in the world. He learns things so fast, and is so coordinated and intelligent. I just can't get over how bright he is! Derek showed him three times how to drop the block into the giraffe, and then Luke went at it. He is now a pro at dropping the block into the giraffe, and he sits there for minutes on end dropping the block in again and again. I think it's funny that the block comes out the bottom, front of the giraffe, but I suppose they couldn't very well have made it come out the bottom, back!

First Swim

Luke went for the first swim of his life Friday night, at the Holiday Inn in Winnipeg. We stayed two nights in the hotel for WBS's Annual Meeting. Luke had a wonderful time splashing in the pool and would have loved for us to just let go of him so he could play with the other children. A few times he actually did manage to slip through our fingers and try to crawl away, but the water was just a little too deep for him and he ended up spluttering and blinking. Luke loved the pool as much as he loves his baths, maybe even more since there were lots of other kids to watch, laugh at, and play with!