Luke is T-W-O!!!!!

I wanted to do a post with some fun facts about Luke turning TWO before I did his birthday party post!  He is just the cutest little man in the world and makes us giggle all of the time.   He had his 2yr check up on Wednesday and is 26lbs and 2ft 8in tall (he's about an inch shorter than the girls were at 2...hoping he hits a big growth spurt one day but as of now he's projected to be pretty short!)

 

I remembered to keep his tie out from the move for his 2yr old tie photo...I guess I'll keep doing this yearly until he rolls his eyes at me! :)  Below is birth, 6 months, 12 months, 18 months and 2 yrs

 

The Italy trip blog posts are like a black cloud above my head.  I'll eventually get to it, but I had to include his birthday in Rome at the Colosseum...we celebrated with gelato!!!

We couldn't keep the candles lit, but I was proud of myself for remembering to pack them!!

Our main birthday gift to Luke was a grill like Daddy's!  It didn't arrive in time for his birthday party, so we ended up just holding off on giving it to him until after the movers packed out the house.  It's the perfect size for him and of course the girls love it too!

I had a hard time getting a good photo of him for his birthday party invites...the sun was too bright the day I attempted, but these are still cute.  I tried a few more times inside, but he just won't sit still! :) 

And below are just some random fun pictures.  He is still soooo clean and will put things back where they belong 90% of the time!  His favorite phrases are, "Where'd it go?" and "What's that?"  He definitely doesn't talk as much as the girls did at 2, but we've seen a huge improvement over the past few months and he's still in the "green" on the milestone chart for speech at the doctors, so we aren't worried.  His heart absolutely breaks when he gets left behind at home...if one of us takes the girls somewhere, he's crushed; if Leevi takes the trash out without him, he's crushed; whenever he sees someone getting ready to go, he'll run to the closet and grab his shoes and his coat (even if he's only in a diaper)  Thankfully, he's easy to distract after he gets left! :)  We aren't even going to attempt potty training until we are settled into our new house...he will wake up on occasion with a dry diaper (even overnight sometimes) so we know the bladder control is developing, but he hasn't once peed on the potty!  We'll see what the next few months bring.  And the same goes for the pacifier...there is no way I want to attempt a pacifier-less 8hr plane ride, sleeping in hotels, and a 16hr cross country drive without a pacifier!!!   And two more tidbits...he plays a mean air-guitar when he dances and he whistles all of the time...it's crazy!!!  He can't do it if you ask him to, but just randomly he'll do it a few times a day! :)

He LOVES to swim...he saw these lifejackets out one morning when Leevi was going to take the kids for the day to an indoor swim park so I could start prepping the house for the move and he just HAD to put them on immediately (along with his swimsuit over his jammies and part of Kai's swimsuit!)

"Ready, set, go" is another favorite phrase he uses when playing cars or just running around the house!

Luke's version of the Rainbow loom...this actually keeps him busy for quite awhile!

I can't remember if I've blogged about our ice cream man recently, but we are really going to miss Angelo!  I keep telling the girls that you can't get this kind of ice cream from the ice cream men in the States!!  He has real gelato and the kid's scoop is only a dollar.  It's definitely a fun treat every now and then and we seem to be getting it more often since we know our days are numbered! :)  I used to be able to share a cone with Luke but he wants his own now!  Luke screams, "Ice Cream!!!" whenever he hears his bell! 

Who needs a tool belt when you have a diaper?!

He absolutely loves to be outside!!!

He makes the most pitiful faces when he's sent to time out!  I always have to tell the girls not to look at him and just ignore him!  I usually have to turn my back so I don't smile at that face!!!



His imagination is in full swing...I gave him this bowl of frozen blueberries and he pointed to the frost and said, "ho, ho, ho"  It cracked me up because we hadn't talked about Santa in 3 months!

Logan and Luke play together while their siblings are at gymnastics...Logan (3.5) was hot running around playing soccer and wanted his shirt off, so of course Luke needed to take his off also!

And a few random videos....

We love you, Luke!!!!  We can't believe the amount of joy you've brought to this family!!!  Happy birthday!!!