Luke - Three and a half!

So many of my posts have been about Lacey lately since I try to do them monthly in the first year, but Luke recently hit the three and half mark, so time to share his updates!

Quick stats:

• Weighs 36-37 lbs, 38 inches tall
• Wears size 4T shirt, 3T pants, size 10.5 shoe
• Still naps 1.5-2 hours/day. Bedtime is 8 pm and wakes at 7:30 (6:30 on school days)
• Picky eater! Favorite food is strawberries.
• Favorite color is red.

He is a crazy boy, always full of energy. Age three has been harder on Mom and Dad than age two as Luke has been working his independence and strong will. He often has a hard time giving up his fun to obey. We are working on shaping his will while trying not to squelch his spirit but, oh, that spirit! He almost always has a smile on his face and is still quite social. I definitely see him growing up to be quite like his daddy in personality. 

Taking a picture of himself!

He loves to pretend and engage us in his play. One of his favorite things to do is to "trap" himself in certain positions and then call for us to rescue him with the jaws of life. This game never gets old to him!

Another game he loves is "garbage pile". He basically finds just about every toy he owns and makes one large "garbage pile". He used a large car seat box as his garbage can in this case, but there had been smaller piles previously. Mommy has since outlawed this game.

This would be Luke sitting on top of his pile inside the box.

And this would be the pile all dumped out.

Here's a quick video of Luke playing with his new pirate ship. He's not great about playing by himself, he prefers someone play with him, but a new toy can lead to hours of solo play. :)

We potty trained back in March. He would pee in the bathtub, realize Mommy had said he wasn't supposed to do that in the water, and so stop mid-stream. The fact that he had that much control said to me that he was definitely ready; this was more of a will war. It only took a 3-4 days and he was good to go. He wore "Diego Pants" (aka Pampers Easy Ups with Diego on them) at night for months (only night, never at nap time) and then told me he wanted to wear underwear, so no more Diego Pants.  We rarely had any accidents, until recently. Lately he has been having more accidents and we're back to our Diego pants at night. 

This pic cracks me up. Luke, on his little frog potty as he was just learning, sitting in there with some books and toys to occupy himself until he successfully went potty.

He loves to go to the zoo, the park, the Children's Museum, Target, Kroger, Toys R Us, Chuck E Cheese or just about any place that leads to kid fun. Yes, Kroger was included. He loves to drive the cars attached to the carts! Surely I am not the only mom whose kid has screamed, "Faster, Mom, faster!" as we roll down the aisle....

We took the kids to Disneyland for the first time when we visited CA in May. Luke was a little overwhelmed, partly because there is a lot to take in, and partly because we did Disney at the end of a week off our time zone and mostly without good naps. He was overtired. Probably the wrong way to do it. There were still some fun times, though...

With Grandpa Jim

And here Luke is recounting some of our Disney time with Daddy.

I wish the heat wasn't so awful here in the summer. He does love to be outside. I don't let him go out unsupervised and Mommy cannot handle the heat, so we only go out for short times between July-September! Looking forward to a lot more outdoor fun this Fall.

This video is old, was taken in early March. He has grown and changed even since then!

He does seem to have some athletic ability though has not really learned much about any sports yet. He enjoys soccer and basketball and will play a little T-Ball. I put him in Little Gym classes again this summer to help motor development and coordination. Having been a gymnast and a coach, I am a strong proponent of putting both boys and girls in gymnastics as little ones specifically to work on these skills. Hopefully we can start soccer and T-Ball next spring. 

We also did another summer of swim lessons with Splash Class and Miss Shelley. This year he was by himself whereas last summer we did Parent/Tot classes. He definitely had much more apprehension this year. He loves to swim according to his rules, but when asked to do certain tasks within his lessons, he was pushed out of his comfort zone and we had some tears. We'll keep at it, though! It is so important to learn to become a strong swimmer for safety sake!

We have been working on our numbers. He could count, but not recognize numbers very well. Luke learns best through play and also through TV watching (like it or not). I had heard good things about the Leap Frog DVDs and so ordered several. After a couple days of watching "Numbers Ahoy" and "Numberland", he had such a better grasp on numbers! We also used posterboard to make garages for numbers 1-10 and drive his cars from number to number unsequentially to assist in recognition. Up our stairs are numbers 1-15 and we often stop to talk about the number we're on. I have to credit my friend, Amy, with those last 2 awesome ideas! We'll work on letters next. 

He's also been doing really well with puzzles. He had no interest in puzzles even just a couple months ago. But we got our his giant floor puzzle again recently and he has done that thing over and over and over. My mom bought him several new floor and table puzzles and after assembling them a few times with help, he can do them all on his own, faster and faster!

We also wrapped up our time in Parents' Day Out at Highland Day School. We love that school and Lacey will attend there in a few more months, but decided it was time to put Luke in Harding Academy. He's in the Forest Room, one of the Pre-K classes (3 year olds) where his teachers are Ms Suzanne and Ms Stephanie. A third generation Lion, we were sure to get some good pictures of his first day to capture the occasion! He loved his little friends at HDS and everyone was so good to him, I pray that he enjoys Harding just as much.

His new classroom!

Luke has been a good big brother, though as Lacey gets older and has more interest in his toys, we are encountering a few more teachable moments around sharing and being kind. He probably has more positive moments than negative with her most days, but there are those days...

Our boy is growing and changing each day. We pray God's blessings over him for health and protection. We pray that he learns to be a leader and a good friend, that he be passionate and compassionate. We love you, Lukers!