Luke is 11 months! (And a bunch of pictures)

"We want to be just like our Daddy!"
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DADDY!
This picture was taken several months ago for a card we made for Stephen. They had a fun Father's Day with their Daddy yesterday. Stephen and Elijah went to see Elijah's first big movie, Toy Story 3 yesterday and they had so much fun! They both equally ate an entire thing of popcorn (Elijah just asked, "may I please have some popcorn mommy?") and enjoyed their Daddy Date.

We had so much fun at cousin Taylor's 3rd Bday party - This is one of the only shots of Taylor and Elijah together - they were always on the go! And in the background is cousin Riley!

Elijah and Luke had a blast at Summerquest, Hunter Street Baptist Church's Vacation Bible School. They did so many crafts! The sweet ladies from Hunter Street even made Luke a precious scrapbook with pictures and Bible verses. Too precious!

We had fun at the this month's playgroup! We were at our friends, the Watson's, house, but the kids felt like they were at a water park! In the picture above, Elijah is climbing up the right slide. (go figure!)

Luke is now 11 months old! At 11 months, Luke...

-is walking everywhere, while holding onto something. He has taken a few steps on his own, but would rather push a toy to get to another toy, than let go and try to walk to it. In the pool, however, he is bold and thinks he can walk. He has taken about 7 or so steps in the 1 ft pool.
-has grown attached to his cuddle and paci at nighttime and naptime. He does not let go of his cuddle (a little stuffed animal head w/ a tiny blanket attached) from the time he lies down until we pick him up.
-isn't much of a talker. He will say syllables a lot (mostly nana, mama, and dada), but hasn't picked up any words yet besides mama and dada.
- loves to wave hello and bye bye, clap his hands, and put his hands up for "touch down bama"
-can go from crying to giggling up a storm just by walking up to the radio to turn it on. The boy loves to dance! He laughs and laughs when you turn on music and dance with him.
-has a unique whine that sounds like an ambulance. We hear this when we're not giving him enough attention or if he's frustrated with something.
-gasps in his air in excitement whenever he sees Stephen pull in the driveway. He reaches his hands out to him, kicks his feet, and giggles for his daddy.
-is fearless in the water. He could care less if kids nearby splash or pour water on him. And it doesn't phase him one bit when he walks in the pool and falls down under the water.
-is still wearing his helmet. I know a lot of pictures show him w/o it, but he can't wear it in the pool and we tend to take it off for a few minutes when we want to take some pictures. He's still wearing it 23 hours a day. We go back on Thursday for them to tell us whether or not he's done wearing it. Most likely, his head will have grown the amt needed to take it off, but it will be up to use whether or not to continue the use for a little bit longer to make his head more symmetrical. He still has a little flat spot in the back, but at this point, it's hard to tell if that's just a normal baby's head or if it's something to continue to correct. Most likely, we will keep it on another month just for added correction.

FYI - As of a month and a half ago, we only have one in diapers!!! Elijah still wears them at naptime and bedtime, but the moment he pops out of bed, his underwear goes on. He has been doing AWESOME! He's only had about a handful of accidents, the last one being the first weekend in June. We're so proud of him!!!

Luke finally said Mama!!!! (and some other fun updates...)

I'm going to start off by boasting that my son finally said Mama!!!! It was Elijah's first word, at 6 months, but Luke was 10 months and never said it... But finally, last Monday, May 24th, while I was video taping the boys during dinner, Luke said it!! Elijah got a big smile on his face and he said "He just said Mama!!!" He was as overjoyed as I was - and it's all on tape! Woo hoo!!!

So since I mentioned potty training in my last post, I figured I would follow up a bit... Elijah's doing great!!! He gets a gold star on his calendar for every day he doesn't tinkle in his underwear and his calendar is filled up with stars! And if he "poo poos" in the potty, he gets a dollar bill and a big sticker for his calendar. He likes to save those for during naptime when he's wearing his diaper, but he's still filling up his piggy bank pretty well! Last week, I started sending him in his underwear to childcare at church (while I teach aerobics) and we had no accidents. This Sunday, however, was his first time at church from 8 until nearly 11 (during the week it's 8:45ish to 11) and he almost made it. They said he tinkled a lot and did so great, but just before everyone was getting ready to leave, they were tending to the other kids and happened to look back at Elijah and see he had had an accident. That was the first accident he had in nearly 2 weeks (and even before that it was just a tiny bit). But they said to still send him in his underwear next week b/c he did great. We have summer quest (VBS) at church all next week from 8 until 12, so I'm really wanting to make sure he can wear underwear to that. But it's really been rather easy potty training him. (I know I'm going to regret writing that!) Praise the Lord for allowing Elijah to be ready for this!

We went to the zoo last week and had so much fun! We went with friends in the playgroup from our Sunday school class. It was Luke's first trip to the zoo. He seemed to have fun looking at all of the animals, but the water park was by far his favorite part! They have a squirt pad that the kids can run around where water randomly squirts out of it. When we took Elijah at 10 mo, he hated it! We have a picture of him crawling around on it and the look on his face was "I am so mad...I can't believe you let me get wet!!!!!" Luke, at the same age, on the other hand, loved the water! He would just crawl right up to the water and wait for it to come up and splash all over him. He absolutely had a blast! The animals were fun to look at - a lot were sleeping though. When we were over in the barn area, Elijah saw a llamma and kept calling it "Llamma llamma red pajama" (great book if you've never read it!). It was funny.

On Monday we finally took both of the boys to the pool. The weather had been awful all weekend, but once we saw a glimmer of sunshine on Monday, we rushed down there. Elijah apparently forgot all about how to play in a pool - he got in the 1ft baby pool and immediately started running! He fell over, which startled himself, but as soon as we got him on his feet, he tried to run again! That happened several times to the point where he got a little afraid of falling. So we decided to have him kneel and show him how easily he can stand back up. But as soon as he (reluctantly) knelt down, he started to pray, "Our Father, who art in heaven,..." We were cracking up! Then about 20 min later, we tried to get him to kneel again, and he started "Dear Lord. Thank you for this day..." Too sweet!!! Meanwhile, Luke was having a blast walking around the pool and splashing up a storm. I got the courage to take the boys to the pool myself today and we had a great time. Elijah was a little cautious, but never fell. Luke, on the other hand, was fearless - trying to reach for the diving sticks at the bottom, letting go of the side and standing up by himself in the water, falling numerous times without a single cry! Elijah looked at me while we were at the pool and he yelled "This is so fun!!!" It really was. I'm looking forward to a super fun summer with my guys!

Oh and a note to all you couponers out there - We went shopping on Monday and bought 10 packs of Huggies jumbo pack diapers, 2 Olay face washes, Nivea body wash, and 2 Physician's Formula bronzer/blush/eye shadow combo... Originally, that would cost about 140 or so. But with all of the good deals and coupons, we got it all for 36! God has really blessed us with good deals and wise spending!