"How I Wonder What You Are" {Luke 2 Years}

Happy 2nd Birthday, Sweet Luke!

We love this boy! I hope someday he knows just how blessed I feel to be his Mama.  He captured my heart pretty early and may or may not have me wrapped around his precious little finger.

I can't even begin to describe the complexity of this boy's mind.  Brian and I look at each other in complete awe and utter confusion as to what is going on in that head of his.  He's pretty sharp these days...and we can't get much by him...but he seems to get a whole lot by us!  I think both of us would still describe him as "charming" but we may put "stinker" in there somewhere. ;)  Luke has some opinions! About everything.  Go-with-the-flow is not his favorite thing.  But do you know what is? Snuggling.  He's so affectionate.  He's so loving.  My favorite thing about Luke may be that we have this mutual agreement that if one of us needs a snuggle at any moment--the other one is always on board to give some love.  It's the perfect little arrangement.

All About Lukey-Boy:

1. Snuggles.  Please do this until you are a teenager.  Then just give me super great son hugs. ;)
2. Sleep.  Thank you, son, for giving me the gift of rest! When he's having a growth spurt (which is still like every 6 weeks) he will sleep until 9am.  It provides extra time for working out, drinking coffee, reading scripture & hanging with C.
3. He is always up for an adventure! Especially to the park or in the backyard. ;)
4. His sweet spirit is SO afraid of animals.  We can't quite figure out why his heart pounds outside of his body anytime we are near an animal, but it's endearing.
5. Food.  He enjoys eating...and will eat most things. Holding strong with a love for tuna & olives but his FAVORITE food is a nice NY Strip Steak.  Naturally, that's what we served him for his birthday meal.
6. Speaking of food, Luke is a little chef! We got the kids a hand-me-down kitchen for Christmas and put it in Luke's room.  He builds fabric sandwiches daily!
7. He loves to read.  Someday we will start bedtime early enough to actually get through all the books he requests.  He loves to choose random images on the page to point to and reading is very much helping his learning.  Now if it could just help his speech.
8. Luke loves trains.  It's so endearing to see him wheel his trains all over the house.  We asked family for trains this Christmas so he has a few different tracks to choose from and plays with all of them.  He has an incredibly long attention span.
9. Luke adoooores babies. He loves them so so much.  He is so nurturing to his baby doll, always points to babies in books, can say the word (one of the few)!  He will not leave baby Cameron's (currently the only baby friend he has) side during a play date.  
10. Thank you, Luke, for having such an interest in music.  This little guy sings all day long.  Can you guess what song he's got down based on the the title of this post?

I guess he's TWO...but STILL:

1. Why are we still pulling hair?  I thought we decided that's not cool.
2. Whining.  It's not great.  We hear it a bit too frequently.
3. I agree that it's fun to hide in cabinets, play in the toilet, turn on the tub, eat laundry detergent and color on your face...but you can't do those things.  
4. The carseat.  Every time we get in the car, that's where you have to sit.  Arching your back & making it a fight is not always ideal.
5. Discipline.  This kid requires so much discipline.  Brian & I get so weary of constantly having to spank or sit in time out, but he truly asks for it.  It's so cute that he runs away, but also fairly naughty.  We are actually taking a parenting class right now because we have a great desire to be intentional with this kiddo and ultimately want to "Grow Him God's Way." For some reason it's just so much harder to convince Luke to abide by the standard than it was to convince his big sister.  That's okay though, by the grace of God his strong willed nature will someday be a service to society rather than an annoyance. 

Did I mention Luke sings "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" on a regular basis (and hooray that he does it on key!)?  I thought this line went well with the post as we are still navigating being the parents of this loveable, charming, smart, precious little boy.