Luke is 15 months!

I know it's out of order, but I have to skip ahead to this post. I'll go back and cover January soon.

Luke is 15 months old now. He is a healthy and very happy toddler. He engages strangers everywhere we go--so long as they don't get too close or touch him. He is very attached to me, but he has gotten better about letting me out of his sight. Now, he will crawl or walk into another room away from me, especially if one of his brothers is playing there.

Over the last month, he has really been practicing walking. Every day he would take just a few more unassisted steps. Now, he walks almost everywhere in the house. He rarely crawls to go anywhere.

Luke says several words now. His first, and favorite is: Momma! He says it all day long, but I hear the most panicked "Momma! Momma! Momma!" when he has climbed something and can't get back down. He also says "Da" for Daddy and "Bubba" for all three brothers. He meows at the cats and says "woof woof" at any dog he sees. He also says "my" for "mine" and "yucky," which he just learned two days ago. He also says "bye bye" when someone is leaving or we have to put the toothbrush away at night. (Seriously, that is the only way we can get it back in the drawer without a meltdown.)

 

Luke loves to climb. He will try to climb anything available. I have had to teach him how to climb off of the couch and beds feet first. He climbs up our step stools but hasn't yet figured out how to get back down. He has climbed our playset in the backyard (see video) and has even climbed the very tall enclosed play set at our church.

Luke loves water. We have to keep the cat water up high right now because of the splashing he likes to do. When he's fussy in the evenings, one mention of the word "bath" perks him right up. He knows exactly where the bath is and he loves to splash with Joshua.

One small consequence of the stranger anxiety I mentioned above is that he isn't ready to visit our church nursery on Sunday mornings. But, it isn't very helpful to the other worshipers when Luke is trying to hear his echo in the sanctuary during the sermon. So, Luke and I spend most sermons out in the lobby. Luke frequently entertains those waiting for the second service to start and last week our friend, Pam, got several pictures of Luke. He thought the flash on her camera was so funny!

He really is a happy, easy kid--so far--just as he looks in these pictures. He is definitely curious and brave, but knows his limits and readily calls me for help. He likes to stay close to me, but isn't clingy. He seems to handle some change in the routine well, although I try hard to protect his schedule as I have for everyone else. Luke sleeps well during the day (one 2.5-3 hour nap), but still wakes at least once every night--not for anything in particular, just a few cuddles and then back to sleep. Luke makes parenting look easy and for that we are very, very thankful.