Enjoying the nice weather!

Luke is still loving the bubbles!!!

This time I got to be in the pictures too!

Luke and I went to the Zoo on Thursday and had a really great time! We started off with the farm animals...

I really expected Luke to be terrified of the goats and sheep everywhere after our last visit to the Zoo, but he totally surprised me and absolutely loved it!!!


He went all over the place right in the middle of those crazy goats and sheep saying, "Pat, pat, pat!", and he didn't even care if I was close by or not!




I think this one was his favorite because it stayed still and let him pat him as long as he wanted too.

There were also a lot of really cute lambs.

A pig like Papa's!

Some curious funny looking cattle...

And a water fountain just the right height for Luke!!!

A few animals from the African farm...

We went to see the Penguins but they were taking a nap, and we had a great time walking through the Jungle which he was terrified of last time. This time we followed around a guy who was feeding the birds so that was pretty cool.

Luke took this picture of me!

On to North America and the Bears!!!

A grizzly kiss???

Luke thought that was pretty cool!!!

(this is the "bend over backwards because it is sooooo funny and I am soooo cute" move)

Black Bear

Otters

A funny duck...

Bald Eagles

Mexican Wolves

(usually we can't see them anywhere so it was pretty cool to find them out in the open!)

Sand Hill Cranes!!!

Luke was walking backwards all over the place, practicing I guess, it was pretty funny.

Then we made it to the Tigers and they were right up by the glass!

By that time I could have used a cat nap too but Luke was still full of energy!

On our way out we walked past the African animals that we saw a lot of on our last trip. Luke remembered going inside to see the elephants do tricks and dragged me inside again but was disappointed that no one was there except a rhino.

Luke did fall asleep by the time we got home though! Isn't he sweet!

Just a quick note... We spent a lot of time this weekend at the Regier great grandparent's house with all the aunts and girl cousins in town while the boys were at men's retreat and Luke had a blast playing with the kids. He dragged them all over the place and made us all laugh until our sides ached! He is talking so much and finally today figured out how to say "Gammy" for my mom instead of always calling her "Mom-mom" which is what he also calls me and all other grandma's, except for Mimi of course. In recent weeks he has also figured out how to do somersaults, gargle water and has gotten way more interested in things like coloring pictures and using scissors. We have to really watch because I think he has colored on several of our walls already! Crayon I can get off but does anyone have any tricks for pencil or should we just repaint?

He is still a little sad when going to Sunday School but he participates more than he used to and my aunt Ruth who is one of his teachers has gotten him to sing almost a whole song with her! I have never been able to get him to do that yet, he doesn't really do full sentences yet, but for her he was saying a lot of the words to one of the songs they sing at church. Unfortunately I don't know that song yet or I would work on it with him. He also usually sits through almost all of church on a regular basis now. I often have to take him out once during the sermon because he is getting too loud but then I talk to him and let him know that if he wants to he can play in children's church but that I will go back to church, or if he can be quiet he can come and sit with me in church. He almost always chooses to come back to church with me and he usually does fine the rest of the time. Today after church he wanted to play with me and he dragged me into his cardboard house and after we were sitting down I started to say something to him and he looked at me very sweetly and very seriously and said, "shhhhh". I laughed so hard. I guess he was getting tired of me saying shhhh to him in church and now it was his turn. It was a fun game for the next ten minutes or so and then he moved on to something else.

Outside!!!

Yesterday we did a little experiment. Luke has been going potty on his little potty chair fairly frequently lately, about three+ times a day, so I was curious to see how much he knew when we needed to go or if he could tell me or if he would be interested in potty training at all. I knew I had the whole day at home so aside from the time that we were on our walk outside Luke went without pants and we made sure that the potty chair was always close by.

(Luke watching Thomas while sitting on his potty chair)

Anyway, he did go potty in the potty chair about 5 times and on the floor about 4 times, then I put the diaper back on him. When he doesn't have a diaper on I can tell when he needs to go by the way he stands and the way he holds his mouth, but even though I could always tell he didn't always want to sit on the potty. I do think he can hold it a little bit though because when I tried to get him sit on the potty when he didn't want to he would wait until I had stopped trying to get him to sit down and then go! I didn't force the issue or anything, I wanted him to have fun with it and to keep it relaxed. I had also heard about a program of teaching a kid to go potty in the potty chair using a doll and having the child teach the doll to potty in the potty chair. I got out one of Luke's dolls and we talked about what happens, how after the baby drinks water his tummy gets all full and then he has to go potty on the potty chair, and Luke thought that was pretty funny and really got into giving the baby drinks and then making the baby sit on the potty. I think we will wait a little longer before we get serious on the potty training.

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Today we again had a lot of fun being out doors, but this time Daddy was home and that made it even better!

Bubbles!

(notice Luke's new hair cut!)


Me sitting by our front garden that needs a little help.


Luke and I "driving" in the car. He always asks to drive, I always say no because usually I need to get somewhere, but I guess Greg lets him pretty often.

Notice my new glasses! Mom and I both got two new pairs for very cheap at Eye Glass World.

We haven't had a family pic in ages, and while this isn't the best it is definitely the most current.

Grilling with Daddy!!!!

The Meat!

Very good burgers Daddy! In fact the first thing Luke did when we got home tonight at around 10pm was to eat another half a burger and he told me it was GOOD!

After lunch we went back outside and raked up some leaves. Luke got a little bucket and rake and shovel for his birthday from friends Amy, Derrick and Glen and he enjoyed using the rake and the bucket to help Daddy.

He actually did use his own tools for about the first half of the time but then he decided he wanted to use the real things.

Such a big helper!

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Tonight Ben and Andrea agreed to watch Luke for us so we could have a date night. (Thanks guys!!!) We went to see Avatar and then out for some supper. It was really nice to get away together and talk about all the things that get pushed to the side lines when you are busy with work, school and a 2 yr old. We really had a great evening together and I think Luke had a lot of fun with Ben and Andrea too!