J family 365?

We will see if I can take a picture every day this year!

From 1/1: chili parlor shenanigans.

7 Months Old!

 

This little guy is 7 months old! I can't believe it!

At 7 months, Nathan:
Has 2 teeth
Crawls
Pulls up
Is starting to cruise
Laughs
Loves climbing on his brother
Can be very serious and solemn
Is working on eating big people food. As he refuses to eat baby food and has never taken a bottle. He likes bread to gnaw on, too.
Is blond, blond, blond.
Has bright blue eyes
Likes being held up in the air.
Likes us singing
Enjoys playing with the school bus, the farm pusher thing, and the train
Loves Layla and Luke

He was 27.25 inches and just a tad under 19 lbs at his 6 month appointment. I am sure he is bigger now. He seems tall to me. He seems to be long-torso-ed.

We think he looks like my brother/me and my paternal grandfather. 

He is a joy. It's a joy to see him and Luke together.

Halloween!

So I never posted a picture of Nathan's costume!



Nathan was a penguin!



He did not want to smile for any pictures on Halloween. Like, ANY. This seems to be his new thing. :)



He says, "For real, mom? Penguins and owls don't even live in the same climate."



Because it was chilly and rainy, the solemn penguin helped me hand out candy while Hal took Luke around. Then we switched.



Luke was SUPER excited. We didn't know how he was going to do, but he walked from house to house, said "Trick or Treat!" and "Thank you!" and insisted on carrying his pumpkin himself. People would say, "There's a rocket ship!" And he would say, "Rocket ship go to SPACE STATION!" It was hilarious.



(I took a paparazzi picture of Luke and Hal trick or treating across the street.)

Rocket Man!

OK, OK, I know it's not Halloween yet. But I had to share Luke's costume.

Luke has been obsessed lately with watching rocket ships. We watch the shuttle launches on YouTube constantly. I think he watched the shuttle Discovery launch about 50 times the other day.

When the topic of Halloween came up, Hal said, "Wouldn't it be great if we could make him a rocket ship?"

I had no idea if there was a rocket ship costume. I had no urge to make one (I have other things going on, after all!). I thought maybe we could find an astronaut costume, which wasn't ideal because Luke didn't quite know what an astronaut was.

But we found this costume. It's a Target costume, and was (even on sale!) more expensive than I would normally spend on a costume -- $25 on sale. But he was SO EXCITED about it. And it was the only thing we saw. And I didn't want to think about it anymore.

So we bought it. And he LOVES it.

In fact, he wouldn't take it off the day we brought it home. Even to play.



(I guess we'll take heart in the fact that Nathan's costume came from Once Upon a Child and was like $2.)

Luke Sings!

Luke is a rock star this week! Yesterday he had a silly hat and a guitar hero guitar at my mom's, and was singing "My Old Kentucky Home." The day before he jumped up on our fireplace, sang a bunch of Alleluias, and finished off with a rousing rendition of "Jesus Loves Me." 

 

Today, I was playing on the computer and randomly sang, "Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy." To my complete surprise, Luke chimed in, "Here number. Call me maybe."

First Day of School (kind of)

Luke starts his 2 days per week preschool/Mother's Day Out tomorrow. We practiced tonight with his backpack and lunch box. If you are offended by character clothes/stuff, I apologize in advance! ;)

First: The "Teeth Smile" This picture cracks me up. :)


Luke's totally pumped and excited face!


I am so happy we found a place to send him to school here. I really was sad to leave his program in Bloomington. This new program is more structured and fewer hours, and I think he'll learn a lot.

Luke is TWO!

Luke's birthday is TODAY. He is a smart, silly, hilarious, and busy little guy. We are so happy to have him in our family.
Last night, we had his party at my parents' house. My mom's side of the family and Hal's dad come to celebrate with us. We had a lasagna dinner and cake and ice cream. Luke got tons of presents. He was a little unsure about everyone singing to him, and when his super cool bulldozer (which was battery powered) took off across the table, making everyone yell, he didn't like that too much (he told my mom later to put it in the trash, lol). He spent a lot of time saying "smile" when I asked him to smile -- instead of actually smiling! What a silly.
This weekend has capped off a very busy week of moving and Hal's "vacation" we went to the zoo twice. We bought a family pass to the zoo for Luke's birthday present (we also got him the movie Cars). Today we went to the aquarium and did the penguin encounter. The penguin encounter was my grandmother's mother's day present -- so it was all the girls on my mom's side of the family, and Luke and Nathan. There are plenty of photos under the cut!




Luke loved that his cake had toy cars on it.


Cheesing. This is his response to "Can you give me a teeth smile?"


He loves his new slide!


And he is pumped about his soccer goal!




Feeding the giraffe at the zoo was a huge hit.


Nathan is a little stunned at the zoo. It was very warm the first time we went.


At the penguins! Luke had to go in that carrier for the penguin experience (it was the aquarium's carrier -- Nathan is in my ergo). He wasn't too thrilled, but he was very good!





Touching the penguin!