Toque hater

As mentioned in my last post, Luke dislikes wearing hats (or toques, as Canadians call them). But this morning we went for a walk and since it was cold, we tricked him into wearing one by putting the mittens on first, giving him a bagel, strapping him into the stroller, then sneaking the toque on his head.

Doesn't he look annoyed? Heehee.

Happy Halloween

For Luke's second Halloween we carved a jack-o-lantern and he was actually less excited than we thought he'd be. I envisioned him cackling as he reached into the pumpkin and grabbed fistfuls of the seeds and pulp... instead, he was trying to put the stuff back IN the pumpkin as Keith scooped it out!

What he seems most excited about is taking the candy out of the bowl piece by piece, and hiding it in different places around the house. As we speak the first trick-or-treaters just arrived at the door and Luke seemed amused/ confused.

He hasn't tried any Halloween candy yet (he's eating toast in the first photo), but maybe we'll let him have a bite of something. It's rainy and the Utes are on (football) so we may stay home and greet trick-or-treaters rather than going out. We were a little lazy about his costume... as you can see, he's wearing his skeleton pjs, but I think it looks pretty spooky. And there's no way the kiddo who hates wearing a hat would keep a real costume on him anyway.

By next year he'll (we'll) probably be Halloween pros.

3 Duffys... +1

As most of you already know, we are excitedly expecting our second baby in late March.

I'll be 19 weeks along on Sunday and am feeling great.

Last week we had the first ultrasound and loved seeing the little one moving around; here are a few snapshots. The two on the bottom show the baby's profile, which we think looks a lot like Luke did.

Oh, and I know that the name 3 Duffys won't make sense once the new baby arrives, so I already have a new blog name picked out and I'll introduce it in the Spring... when there are no longer just 3 Duffys in this household.

First snow

This morning we awoke to about 3 inches of snow on the ground. We're still finishing up some projects in the back yard and haven't put the furniture, etc. inside yet, so needless to say we weren't quite prepared for it.

But in typical Utah style, the sun is already coming out and melting it away.

Luke had an opportunity to try out his new boots and they don't slow down him down one bit!

Sounds

Like most 17 month olds (I'm guessing), Luke is quite adept at picking up sounds.

Since we read (or, rather, are begged to read) his various animal sound books several times a day, he knows--and shouts out--many of the animal sounds, including those for the horse, crow, owl and sheep. In fact, last evening he wandered around the house saying "baaaaa.... baaaaa" for about a half hour.

In addition to animals, he is also fascinated by the sound that Keith's motorcycle makes. Whenever we go in the garage he says "brrrrrrm... bbrrrrrrrroom" over and over and over. And he does the same thing when he sees a motorcycle on the street, on TV, or in a picture.

Here's a quick peek at him brrrmmm... brrrrmming the other night.

Unfortunately the video is only 12 seconds because apparently our video camera memory card was full. But I can assure you continued the motorcycle sound for quite a while.

Airplanes and helicopters

Luke loves it when airplanes or helicopters fly overhead. He gets very excited, points up to the sky, and watches for whatever it is to pass by.

Here he is sitting on our (newly, finally completed) back steps eating a roll when the University medical helicopter flies by. He is so excited that he stops eating for a minute.

In the fridge

Sometimes it's really difficult to get him out of there. He's pretty strong.

Man of a million faces

This little boy has a prize-winning pout.

But his smile is pretty cute too.

Double Board Certified

Great news! Keith was just notified via email that he passed his derm path boards! Yahoo!

That was the last gut-wrenching exam that he'll have to take for a long, long time.

And now he's officially double board certified in dermatology and dermatopathology.

Mohs surgery doesn't have a board exam (yet), so since he completed a Mohs fellowship he is actually triple specialized.

Sounds fancy, right? Are you wondering what a triple specialized doctor does all day?

Well, today he's sitting at a microscope in his darkened office reading slide after slide containing skin cancer biopsies (which I personally think all look exactly the same), while his elbows get sore and he probably gets a headache. Does it get any better than that?!

Jokes aside, Luke and I are very proud of him and thrilled that the hard core exam studying is over.

Here's the first paragraph of the letter. It went on and on for two pages, but honestly, didn't every exam-taker just get to the "pleased to inform you" part, take a deep sigh of relief and close the letter?

Hockey fan

Oh boy, are we those parents that dress our kid in team jammies to watch a game? In this case, it was Canucks pjs for the game last night. Are the (damn) Yankees back on tonight? If so, we know what Keith will be putting on Luke for bed.

Climber

This is what happens when you turn your attention from Luke for 3.5 seconds.

First tram ride

We took Luke up in the Snowbird tram on Saturday, intending to hike along the peaks between Snowbird and Alta. He loved the tram ride--especially when it swayed going over the support towers. He wanted to stand by himself for part of the ride and kept squatting for balance, which was cute. But when we arrived at the top all he wanted to do was sit on the ground and play with rocks. Big surprise. And though it was chilly at 11,000 feet, he refused to keep his hat on. Another huge surprise.

It was a nice, crisp fall day up on the hill, without a speck of snow in sight. In fact, it's so brown up there that we almost lost Luke in his camo fleece! Seeing all that rock and dirt makes it hard to believe that it will all soon be covered waist-high in snow and ready for skiing. Alta typically likes to open around Thanksgiving, so we'd better get some storms rolling this way!

Big boy

Tonight while I was making dinner Luke went to the cabinet, got out the Life cereal and a bowl, reached in and put some in the bowl. Then he went over to the couch, sat down with a book and ate his cereal while flipping through his Animal Sounds book. I couldn't believe it!

Of course he spilled half of the cereal on the couch and rug, but still, the rest of it was a pretty impressive big boy move.

Air time

Sometimes you need a little time to air it out.

New header photo

In an effort to keep things current around here, I updated the header photo for 3 Duffys. I love the old one, but since Luke was still bald and it shows us in Vancouver, it just wasn't a true picture of the 3 Duffys today.

The new shot is just about the only good photo resulting from a photo shoot we did with a professional photographer on Sunday. In most of the other shots Luke was crying and/or pouting. I guess he was overwhelmed by the photographer with his big camera and lights, because he spent the greater portion of the session acting very un-Luke-like. Keith and I were like "where's our smiley, happy toddler... and who's this guy?" And not to blame it all on Luke-- Keith and I were our usual photographically-challenged selves in many of the shots as well. But I fully expected that. And then some of the shots were a little too artsy for our liking.

There were a handful of nice shots, but since the photographer charges $87 for a digital copy of each photo, we won't be ordering many. I should get into the photography business!

So anyway, our first (and if Keith has his way, last) pro photo shoot was just OK. I had high hopes.

All of the shots were in vibrant color but I changed the above shot to black and white to continue the look of the blog. So you might see the color version--or a slight variation--on our Christmas card this year.

Otherwise, I guess we'll go back to using the tripod to take our own shots... like last year's card/ old blog header shot, which is still one of our very best family photos so far:

New shopping experience

Many thanks to my parents for introducing Luke to the kiddie car cart at our local super market. When I went in with Luke today for just a few items, he immediately spotted it and jumped in. Since I had to use a big cart, I bought way more than I went in for, because it would be an inefficient use of resources/ plain silly to have this huge cart for just three or four items. I'm not sure if everybody's mind works that way, but mine does. You'd think a marketing person would know better.

Anyway, there were a few plusses to having the kiddie car cart, and a few minuses:

Plus:

1, 2. Luke stayed in it and didn't try to swipe glass jars off the shelves. Nor did I have to chase him around the store (that one is worth two plus points)

3. I stocked up on a few sale items that I will be glad that I have on-hand down the road.

Minus:

1. They were doing major reorganization in the store so every aisle was an obstacle course of items to be moved, crates, and shelves in transition. That kiddie car thing is not exactly an agile vehicle.

2. I'll now have to use the kiddie car cart every time we go to that store... or any other that has them.

Fall

Fall arrives when you put a pumpkin on the front step and need to start wearing your puffy vest.

Look at the Bones!

Here are a few pics of Luke in his perfectly Halloween PJs, which were a gift from my cousin Margaret.

Whenever he wears them Keith exclaims (in a British accent) "look at the bones!" ...which I believe is a line from a Monty Python skit, but I don't have them memorized like he does.

The bones also glow-in-the-dark, which is cool.

The first two pics show Luke wearing Keith's motorcycle boots. Luke thought that was quite funny. And the last one shows Luke on his new Lightening McQueen riding toy, which was a gift from his Grammy and Grampa last week. At first he just piled dirt on it, but since we've moved it inside he has been enjoying riding it around the house and pressing all of the noise-producing buttons.

More Grandparents!

We have been so spoiled for the past two weeks, with visits from both sets of Grandparents! My Mom and Dad just left this morning after a weeklong visit, which was great. Unfortunately the Duffys took the sunny, warm weather with them when they left so the Millettes got to experience the first taste of fall in Utah.

While they were here Keith and I had a great (and peaceful) dinner out with Bill, and spent a night in Park City, where we had another great and peaceful dinner out (two in a row-- unheard of these days!) We also really, really enjoyed a good night's sleep without sharing the bed with a little Monkey during the early morning hours, as has been the trend lately.

Grammy and Grampa also cooked us some nice meals, fed, bathed, changed and chased Luke. Oh, and read him "Duck on a Bike" about a hundred times... at least. They also bumped into a yard sale near our house while out on a walk and picked up a toy diggie truck (is it a backhoe?), which has further fueled Luke's great love of digging in the dirt and moving rocks around our patio. I'd say it's the best 50 cents anyone has spent on him yet!

We look forward to seeing them again soon.

Visit from 3 Duffys

Speaking of 3 Duffys, we had three Duffys visit us this past week. Bill & Brigitte (aka. Grandma and Grandpa) were here for 10 days and Uncle Bill was here over the weekend and he's still around for work so we'll see him again.

Grandma and Grandpa spent some great quality time with Luke, especially at the local park, where they got to know more people in the neighborhood than I do, and spent lots of time in the sandbox.

We also took day trips to Sundance and Park City, and Keith took his Dad to a University of Utah football game.

Oh, they brought Luke to his gym class, which they said was quite a work out for them, just chasing him around the place!

And as a result of their dedication to Luke last week I enjoyed a bunch of free time to work, ride my bike, run errands sans child, get a hair cut, go out to dinner and to a concert with Keith, and just take a breather. Luke also got to try Grandma's lasagna for the first time--he loved it--and was spoiled with extra long tubs. His climbing prowess also seemed to accelerate last week. I wasn't with them at the park all that time, so I'm not quite sure what they were teaching him, but suddenly he can climb up on a bar stool, hoist himself up by the tray of his highchair, and I'll try not to find out what else!

It was a really nice week and we'll look forward to having them out to stay with us again.

Unfortunately I didn't take many photos, probably because Luke moves around so much now that it's tough to get a shot that's not blurry.

And since we only saw Bill for one whole day, we didn't get a photo of him and Luke yet. We'll try later in the week, though Luke is still a little timid around him. I think he may be confused by Bill's strong resemblance to his Dad, because so far he just stares at him!