Late Spring/Summer 2011

Our Spring and Summer has been busy, but what's new, right?!  We've been in our new home for a good couple months, but this post starts at the old house. 

Luke LOVES to be outside, which has become increasingly tougher as the heat has intensified. The Spring was wonderful, though, and we took advantage of it.

Watching the frog we found. Can you find the jumping blur?

(Obviously not using the better camera on this day.)

Grammie bought him a lawn mower and he has mowed up and down, up and down, day after day...

 Hanging with Auntie in the hammock.

On the rainy days, we have to bring the activities indoors. A favorite pastime is racing around the kitchen/living room on his little plasmacar. Notice the cupholder he created. Smart boy!

Daddy bought a slip-n-slide for the new house and Luke had a blast playing in the water.

We also started him in swim lessons this summer.  He did a few Saturdays with Daddy in a parent/tot class at our YMCA.

Then Luke and Mommy did another parent-tot class through private group lessons.  Luke did very well and took to the water with little fear, much like everything else.  Between both classes, he learned to blow bubbles in the water, to go underwater, swim on a kickboard, swim on a noodle, kick his legs, use his "ice cream scoops" (arms) to paddle, jump off on the side, and climb out of the pool, among other things.  Can't wait for next summer's classes when he really starts to learn more!

And yes, there's a bit of a baby bump in the last pic. :)

The boy still LOVES to cook and uses his own little kitchen regularly.  

Helping Mommy make pancakes in the morning.

Back to playing outside.

I was going to get him a sandbox, but haven't gotten around to it. This is the makeshift one Grammie made for him.  It was great, just needs to be a bit bigger to keep the sand inside the box most of the time.

He did get a super cool pirate ship water table, though, with a cannon that he calls his "telescope".  He told my mom one day that he was using it to "see far".  Smart boy, good imagination!

Some serious bike riding.

We are still working on the concept of pedaling. He'll try it for a minute, then go back to moving his bike with his feet.  A big boy bike just might be on his Christmas list....

And, of course, life here in the South would not be complete for the Gillespie family if Luke was not a lover of Chick-fil-A.  Lucky for us, he is.  He told Grammie when they were out the other day that he needed some chicken-fil-a with chick fries and nemnade (lemonade).  

He has also become quite the little helper, obsessed with tools.

Helping Daddy put his water table together. He and his drill have been super helpers with all the little projects we've had moving into a new home, as you might imagine.  

The kid is totally taken with lawnmowers/weedeaters/leaf blowers. He watches them on YouTube, and flips when he sees them in real life. So obviously there is no chance of Daddy doing yard work alone.

Our latest little fun time has been at The Little Gym.  We have been going on Friday mornings when I could run over from work for an hour to do the parent-tot class with him.  Given his love of rough-and-tumble boy things and his lack of fear, it was a great choice.

As I said before, it's been a busy summer!  Between the move, the general settling-in with a new home, and preparations for a new baby, I'm looking forward to maternity leave and finally having some down time. And oh yeah, Allen and I celebrate our 10 year anniversary in a couple weeks!  What an adventure we've been on!