Little chef

Judging by how much Luke enjoys hanging on the stove and the microwave, and trying to get into the pots, pans and utensils... coupled with the fact that he hasn't turned away any food yet, I'm thinking maybe he'll be into cooking some day.

Here's a peek at the little guy at his usual spot in the kitchen.

Gray area

Yesterday we took Luke to Kits beach and went on the swings and the slide. He loved it, which means that we loved it too.
I also turned 35 yesterday, and it was the first time that I actually felt like I'm getting old. That might be because I also found --and promptly plucked-- four or five gray hairs. My salty-headed husband didn't have any sympathy whatsoever, and even muttered something about noticing the gray ones a while ago. But for me, it was an unwelcome discovery on my 35th.

Even with the gray discovery we had a really nice day until 5:50 pm when our babysitter called in sick 45 minutes before the dinner reservation that Keith had planned with a lot of thought and effort. We were REALLY looking forward to going out to dinner alone and were, as you might imagine, very disappointed when she called. It also opened a can of worms about whether or not the sitter is reliable enough to leave our son with (she's the one who watches Luke two afternoons a week and we've only known her for two weeks). I was giving her the benefit of the doubt... Keith thought we should fire her right away.

So, I pouted for a while. And Keith --still fuming-- got right to the work of finding some decent takeout.
In the meantime, he wouldn't tell me where we were planning to go because he didn't want to fuel the disappointment. We really enjoy going out for a nice meal on special occasions (a very rare treat since June 7th), so I'm sure it would have been an excellent time.

In the midst of it all, I was reflecting on my birthday last year when I was halfway through my pregnancy and nervous...so, so hoping everything would go ok.
That's why I quickly stopped pouting about a few gray hairs and a missed dinner date and decided to enjoy being a healthy, lucky, happy mid-30s gal eating pretty good takeout with my guys.

The laughing menace

Every parent talks about it and it has come true: We can't take our eyes off Luke for even a minute! He has become quite a speedy crawler and he's into EVERYTHING. And I mean, like, beyond "isn't it great that he's curious and strong and busy"... it's more like "Get away from that... NO!...Mommy said No!.. When is Keith getting home?!"

I've tried to caution him calmly, i.e. "Mommy prefers that you don't put that in your mouth"... But I actually laugh to myself a little when I say that, because OF COURSE he's not going to understand!

I have observed, however, that he seems to understand a stern voice. When he tried to climb up on the door of the hot oven and I said "No Luke, that's hot!" with a loud and authoritative voice, he gave me a concerned look, followed by his award-winning pout and got down. I guess he recognized my voice and facial expression as ones he hadn't seen before.

I referred to him as a menace a week or two ago and Keith thought that was a terrible thing to say about our son.

He has since come around and agrees with my analysis.

I'm also working a bit more now and really need a bit of uninterrupted work time... especially since Luke's naps only last 30 minutes!

That's why we found a nice college senior in our neighborhood to watch Luke two afternoons per week.

She has come three times already and it's going well, which means: Luke is adjusting to spending time with someone other than Mommy and Daddy... I get some time to work, go to the gym or whatever... and I get a little break from menacing activity patrol.

All in all, we ARE happy that he's curious and active, even though it's exhausting to spend all day chasing him, removing things from his vice grip and struggling to change his diaper as he tries to wiggle free and crawl away. (Really, how is this child not tired enough to take long naps?!)

And we are very happy that he is filled with so much joy. Here's a quick video of our favorite new thing he's doing a lot -- giggling.

Visitors

Some of our favorite people visited for the MLK Jr. holiday weekend (though it was not a holiday in Canada). Tom, Hege and Sofie Sarpa came from Southern California. Almost 9-year old "grammy" Sofie had Luke laughing non-stop with funny sounds and faces.

And Luke finally met his Aunt/ Godmother Kim for the first time! She also kept him entertained all weekend.

We spent a little bit of time in Vancouver (amazingly the two week rainy streak broke right when they all arrived!) and went skiing at Whistler on Saturday and Sunday.

Luke enjoyed all of the attention!

Here's a pic of Luke and Kim enjoying the fireplace at our Whistler hotel.

Don't look now, but...

Everytime I turn around Luke is trying to climb, eat or dismantle something new. His latest moves are opening the file cabinet and shuffling through the files (see photo), opening (and swinging on) the door of the microwave, climbing up and trying to turn on the TV, pulling large heavy medical books off Keith's bookcase, trying to climb out of his car seat trying to crawl after the dirty diaper while you try to put on the new one, and on and on...

So I bought him a Leapfrog Learning Table, hoping he'd stick to climbing and banging on that rather than on everything else in the apartment. He seems to like it so far.

Yum

First of all, I think if you have any video of your baby you must have a video of your baby eating. So this is the prerequisite baby eating video.

But in addition to that, we are starting to try new foods out on Luke, and are taking cues from people around us about age appropriate fare.

For instance, Luke's 10-month old friend Max is loving hummus and gnawing on small pieces of wheat toast. Seems about right for a 10-month old.

And then there's the 5-month old girl whose Dad we met this weekend at Whistler.

While admiring Luke's smile he spoke enthusiastically--and without prompting--about the mesh feeding bag with a handle (it IS great; Luke eats mango and banana in the mesh bag). But anyway, this guy was proud to tell us that his 5-month old baby girl eats moose and deer in the mesh bag.

This is the same guy that, just hours later at a gas station, parked so close to our driver's side door that Keith had to climb in through the passenger side. After taking his time to pull in just right, mesh bag guy laughed with his friends, pointed to the line with his tongue wagging and a "ha ha you're a sucker" look on his face. I guess he didn't recognize us. In fairness, we WERE parked very close to his line, but that's just because the guy on the other side of us was over his line, so we didn't do it on purpose, unlike mesh bag guy.

Anyway, I can assure you that Luke will NEVER eat gamey meat from a mesh bag at 5 months old (or probably ever), but he is definitely enjoying his carrots, quinoa... and squash!

7 Months

Luke is 7 months today and it's amazing for me to think about how much he--and I... and Keith--have changed since he arrived (all for the best of course!).

Three new things about Luke:

1. His two top teeth are coming in (that's late-breaking news today, which might explain the horrific crying fits over the past two days).

2. He's eating all sorts of fruits, veggies and grains. New intros this week include avocado, mango and quinoa. Oh, and formula... I'm weening him (hmm, that might be part of the crying fits too?). As long as he's hungry he hasn't turned anything away.

3. He can crawl quietly (compared with his previous hand-slapping-on-floor technique, which I appreciated as a Luke GPS). Case in point: today I went to empty the dishwasher while he as playing in his room. I returned about 2 minutes later and he wasn't there! I shouted his name twice (freaking out slightly... how far could he have gone?!), turned and found that he'd crawled (quietly) into the bathroom across from his room. He was standing up at the toilet, holding onto the rim and trying to touch the bowl-water. Luckily I'm a fierce toilet cleaner!

But my favorite new thing Luke does is this... He crawls to where I'm standing and reaches up with the cutest "please pick me up Mama" look on his face. I'm a sucker for that. Unfortunately, he's such a busy-body that he usually gets bored a few moments after I pick him up. I can almost analyze his reaction each time - "huh, this is all that's going on up here? I think I'd rather climb something"... but he keeps doing it and I'll pick him up every time.

Oh, and here's a video of the little guy today, on his 7-month birthday.

Magazine lover

It figures I'd have a child that loves magazines a much as I do. I LOVE magazines, all kinds, and sadly it's very difficult for me to actually sit down and read one these days. At least, not without having a feisty 7-month old grab for it, drool on it or rip a page out before I even know what's happening.

I've tried distracting him with toys and books but he always wants the one I'm trying to read.

So, I decided to let him go nuts with a few that are still on my waiting list and he was in heaven. They were in shreds in about 10 minutes, then he was on to his new trick -- opening drawers... kitchen drawers, dresser drawers, file cabinet drawers. No drawer is safe. I should let him stick with magazines.

Happy New Year

We're just back from a week in Salt Lake City where we were so busy that I didn't have a chance to post anything.

We had a few great ski days at Alta, our favorite ski resort on Earth, taking turns watching Luke in the lodge. It was actually like a day care in there over the weekend, with other determined ski-parents doing the same thing. And Luke enjoyed having some new terrain to climb (he's getting pretty agile for a little guy).

It was nice to be back in our old town. We saw some friends, visited a few of our favorite restaurants, and Luke spent time playing with his new friend, Max, the 9.5-month old son of our good friends Ben & Meredith.

Luke and Max spent one day with Max's nanny --a new experience for all of us-- and we discovered the boys are quite competitive for attention (it was a challenging day for the poor nanny ;-)

Keith turned 35 while we were there and we spent the day skiing and having a nice adult dinner with some friends.

The pictures show the boys at Alta on Keith's birthday, as well as Keith and I enjoying one of our favorite hike-in ski trails. Also, Keith will now share his birthday (January 2nd-- the worst day of the year for a birthday) with Abby Kolesar, the brand new daughter of our very dear friends Matt & Carla.

It was a great week and a perfect way to end 2009, which was such an exciting year for us.