Easter 2011

we had a wonderful easter this year. we spent saturday evening coloring easter eggs and then on easter sunday luke woke up to his first ever real easter egg hunt! he had so much fun and he especially liked eating all the raisins and bunny crackers that the easter bunny left for him. in fact, he actually wouldn't go look for another egg until he had eaten all the snacks from the egg he just found. then he spent the following week wanting to eat his crackers and raisins from the eggs. and why not? it made snack time so much more fun!

luke takes a little bicycle break while he polishes off the goodies he found in an egg.

we had easter brunch out at grandpa frank and grandma kathy's house and then easter dinner at aunt christine and tio's house with grandma linda and grandpa tony. luke dressed up in his easter best.

and luke made sure he spent some quality time with his aunt christine and cousin collin (who is getting so big!).

it was a great day spent with family and celebrating jesus. he is risen!

luke found the toilet paper roll...again.

row, row, row your boat

luke's traded in his baby bath tub for a row boat that he can paddle around with all his favorite toys.

naked as a jaybird just watching for actual jaybirds out the window.

hey baby, what's your sign?

so, after luke's 18 month appointment when doctor t and i discussed luke's language development, it got me thinking. luke really does have a lot of words, he just shows them in sign language versus actually speaking them or speaking them clearly.

here are the words he signs:

please

thank you

more

help

hi

bye

apple

banana

open

bird

baby

book

drink

milk

all done

sleep

fish

airplane

flower

hat

phone

and here are the words he says that we can interpret or distinguish based on context:

dadda

momma (most of the time it comes out as "boppa")

ball

on

off

dog (woof woof)

flag (zaza)

balloon

bubbles

fish

cheese

down

door

raisins

cracker

bicycle (sounds more like he's clearing his throat!)

bowl

tractor

eyes

jayhawk (eric's favorite :))

at the playground, ya know?

chicago had it's first really warm day here this past weekend. we're talking 80 degree weather, people! so we hit the park in the morning and luke spent time climbing stairs, sliding down slides, and shooting hoops. this is just a preview of all the park action we'll see this summer, i'm sure!

luke is 18 months old! 4.6.11

is it really possible that luke is a one-and-a-half-year-old!?!

here are his stats from his 18 month check-up:

weight - 25 lbs, 4 oz

height - 33 1/8 inches

also, luke had his 18 month visit with his neurologist a few weeks ago and we are so happy to report that the doctor discharged him from his care! we couldn't be happier with that news and just how well luke is doing! we are so unbelievably overjoyed and praise God!

and we'll finish out this post with a video that was taken on luke's 18 month birthday. standing in our window on the 4th floor and looking out on everything going on in the city is his favorite thing to do these days. he sees all kinds of city life and points and tries to name everything. the three things he loves the most these days are flags (what he calls "zazas"), bicycles, and airplanes. oh, and he also likes the balloons outside of the H&R Block just across the street but i'm sure they'll be gone as soon as tax season is over. luke's vocabulary is still minimal, but it is growing and if he can't say it, well, he makes it up! i feel like it's kind of like how my own father tries to repeat a word in a foreign language and totally botches it but tries to make it sound like the real word (sorry to call you out, dad!). :)

go cubs go!

luke gets festive for cubs opening day! too bad he doesn't like wearing baseball hats as much as he likes wearing winter hats. let's hope that tide changes soon. summer is hopefully just around the corner!