Luke's 12 - 14 Month Update

In all the excitement of Luke's first birthday party I forgot to do a 12-month update! So here we are, almost 2 months later, with an update on the last couple months.

Luke is in the best stage right now! He's the same chill, easygoing guy, but now he sleeps all night, takes two naps a day, and just wants to hang out, explore, put random things in his mouth, play outside, and drink milk. He's a wonderful, pleasant influence in our family and we love him!

• He loves his baba. It took a while to wean him off of formula. He just loved it. When he turned one we tried to switch him right over to whole milk, but it didn't fill him up as well and he didn't sleep as well without it, so we put him back on it and slowly eased off. Now he's completely off formula, but it was a process. One thing that helped was starting to give him a PB and banana smoothie every morning, which he now loves and has every day (the same breakfast Lydia has been having since about his age!)

• He eats lots of different solids every day. His favorites are fruit (especially berries), chocolate, and veggie straws. We've been getting Lydia a little bag of veggie straws every time we go to Target, and now he can recognize the bag and always wants me to open it immediately so he can have some, ha! So I've started buying them each their own little bag every time we go. 

• He also wants to try whatever I'm eating, and even if he doesn't like it he usually comes back for another try. 

• He knows baby sign language for 'more' and signs it all the time.

• He says 'baba?' in the sweetest, most gentle, little questioning voice whenever he wants a bottle. Which is a lot of the time. It's his most-used word.

• He also says mama, dada, woof woof, makes kissing noises, and occasionally other words. We've heard him say 'baby' (when he met another baby at the park) and 'cheese' when I'm giving him cheese!

• He's a really good mimic and can even mimic tunes and singing!

• He sings every day.

• He never crawls any more. He walks and runs and gets up and down the stairs super fast (scary for me!)

• He's really strong! He carries my 2-lb weights around and picked up this big heavy log at the park and carted it around.

• He recently started pointing and saying 'ooooh!' at things that interest him. Today we walked around our street to look at Christmas lights and he kept pointing to the lights and saying 'mmmugh!'

• If he's in the mood to wave, he'll wave at everyone, even on FaceTime. 

• He loves getting into drawers and cabinets and exploring new things. His favorite things to play with are things he's never seen before. He loves novelty.

• I love when he backs up and plops down into my lap. Ha! 

• He enjoys bath time and when he sees the water running he tries to crawl into the tub immediately before I can even get his clothes off, ha. Usually he and Lyd take a bath together and Lyd loves pouring water on his head. He doesn't really like that.

• He has so many teeth! At least 10. He's getting molars on the top and bottom too. 

• He loves putting things on his head and then pulling them off again. Hats, towels, boxes and clothes are all fair game. 

• He's still happiest outside. 

• He's pretty big. He's busting out of his 18-24 mo clothes and usually wears size 2T now. He also has big feet and wears size 5! He had a major growth spurt recently and sometimes looks like a little boy instead of a baby. 

• But then there are times that remind me he's still a tiny baby, like last week when he fell asleep on my shoulder waiting for an oil change. It was super sweet. 

• Matt's been rocking him to sleep at night recently and it's the most special bonding experience for them. Luke expects it now and will cry if we put him down for the night without their routine (he doesn't need it at nap time though!)

• He still naps twice a day and sleeps about 12 hours a night. We love him so much!