Thanksgiving!

We were able to go to both the Bartel and the Regier Thanksgivings this year, amazing! First was the Bartel gathering, all day and almost everyone was there!

Luke had a lot of fun with my cousins and my aunts and uncles, and Annette was able to get him to go play outside with her all by himself, no mommy attached. (-:

Greg got some game playing in at both gatherings, but I only got pics of this one.

Unfortunately I only got one good picture from the Regier get together. It was a really fun afternoon, wonderful food and all the traditions. At the Regier gatherings my grandma always gets out her beautiful plates and goblets (I'll have to take pics at Christmas). Each person gets a verse at their place with their name on it and after we are all sitting we go around and read our verses. Then we sing a hymn that has become the Regier anthem, "Thank the Lord".

Again Luke really enjoyed playing with my cousins. There are a lot of them on the Regier side and they had fun running around with him.It was another no nap day but he made it with out any melt downs either! We went home around 5pm and he fell asleep in the car.

Fun at the park!

Today Luke and I went to the play ground at our church, about two blocks from our house. Luke really loves being outside, walking, watching the cars and truck go by, etc. He is also big enough now that he can at least attempt most of the things at the playground so he really loves going there. Today was perfect, beautiful weather and lots of friendly people. On our way over there two semi trucks honked for Luke! Then just across the street from the church there were some construction workers digging and Luke was fascinated by what they were doing so he and I sat down and watched for several minutes.

I think the construction workers enjoyed having a little audience and they smiled and waved at Luke.

After a while Luke was ready to go on to the playground. As you can see below he played on just about everything.

I really had fun watching him play. A few weeks ago I chopped my hair of and I recently realized that I haven't taken any pics of my now much shorter hair, so here are a few I took this afternoon. It wasn't the best hair day, but it wasn't too bad either. I am considering going a little shorter yet, but for now this is nice because it is long enough that I can still tie it back if I want to.

After a long time playing Luke and I headed home, Luke still had energy to run!

Dance baby!

Just a bit of fun... about a week ago this happened. I'm not sure how it started, maybe Greg was singing to himself and Luke thought it would be great dance music, I don't know. Anyway, I thought it was pretty funny. Luke was really tired and wouldn't let us stop!

Sweet nothings...

Luke has been waking me up lately with kisses! He had done this in the past and stopped, but he is up to it again in a slightly more little boy fashion and less little baby. When he used to wake me up with kisses he was still in the open mouth phase and he would usually land a big slobbery wet kiss on my nose or chin to wake me up. Now he gives closed mouth kisses and when he wakes up he sits up and positions himself right in front of my face and then leans over and gives me a peck somewhere on my face and then sits back and smiles at me while I crack one eye open at him and smile back. Usually one kiss isn't enough to wake this sleeping beauty up all the way so he repeats this several times until I keep my eyes open and ask if he wants to get up to which he very happily replies, "lyeah!" I am guilty of dragging it out a bit, but who could resist the chance to get one more sweet kiss from such a sweet little boy! The other day I think I got about 15 kisses!

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Yesterday Ben and Andrea invited us over spontaneously and we had a very nice lunch with them! They made grilled cheese sandwiches and two kinds of soup, a curry soup by Ben and a Chicken taco soup Andrea made, I think from the Regier cookbook. Both were delicious! Luke didn't eat much but spent the majority of his time entertaining, I guess that is his job description at this age, being the only grandchild in my family. I was amazed at how much he remembers between visits. We haven't been to their house in quite a while, I think the last time we were there it was still summer? but he remembered their fish and where the fish food was and where Andrea's little pig figurine collection is and everything.

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He is getting better and better at throwing and catching a ball and we spent a lot of time sitting in a circle on the floor around him tossing a tennis ball back and forth with him. We didn't stay supper long because he was about to crash and burn, but we had a lot of fun and he actually gave both of them kisses before we left.

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Some other things that are changing.... He wants to read longer books with me and he wants to read them over and over again, especially the One Fish, Two Fish book. Tonight Greg was reading to him and he was fine with Greg reading the dinosaur book to him but he only let Greg read a few pages of the One Fish, Two Fish book before taking it and giving it to me to read. Greg tried to stop him and get him to let Greg finish reading it but Luke burst into tears and was so sad that Greg gave in and so we switched, Greg held Luke while I read.

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Luke is suddenly really good at puzzles. He doesn't have them memorized or anything and he still has to try out a couple of different options sometimes before he gets it right, but he has the patience to work at it and the understanding to figure out how to turn pieces and move them around to get them in the right spot. Tonight he was doing one that has different colored shapes, each color is repeated once but the shapes are all different, and I noticed him try shapes that were similar in each other's spots as well as trying a pieces that were the same color in each other's spots before going back to the spot that they were intended for. It was interesting, like watching him figure out that even though they were similar in one aspect or another they were not the same. Before I saw him work on that puzzle I couldn't have told you if he understood that sort of thing at all or not yet, but he definitely is getting it. He worked on that puzzle for about ten minutes at a time a couple of different times today, taking the pieces all out and putting them back again!

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Luke is able to sit through the majority of Church now and play quietly, though usually he goes out for the sermon. He is also going up to the front for the Children's Feature now with an adult. He likes sitting with the other kids and doing what they do. This is sometimes interesting if the person leading the Children's Feature asks one or two kids to do something on the stage because he wants to go up and stand with them while they do it too! He is so far really quiet whenever he goes up for Children's Feature, his eyes get big and serious and you can just see him taking it all in and trying to figure it out. This Sunday when he needed to go out he followed a little girl into Children's Church instead of to the nursery and he wanted to stay there and play. They said it was fine and he was totally ok with me leaving so I did and he did great and was not ready to leave when I came to get him. (-:

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We have a half way finished coat closet under the stairs that Luke really likes to play in. He goes in and shuts the door behind him and then after a while he comes out to check on us and then goes back in again. Today he started whining to get our attention and when we looked at him he waved bye-bye at us until we said bye-bye to him and then he went in and closed the door! He did that over and over again, so funny! I wish I would have caught that on video!

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Being Luke's Mom is so much fun for me, I hope I don't screw up too badly! There are things I know I could do better sometimes, but I love him so intensely and I hope that no matter what happens he will always know that. He is getting so big so fast, I can hardly believe that he is already 20 months old. Some parts of his early days are so clear and other parts have become blurry already, even though it seems like only yesterday that I could feel him move inside me and wondered what on earth he could possibly be doing in there! Motherhood is such a precious and awesome gift, I hope I can carry as many of these moments with me as possible through life.

Fun with the Bartels

Last Sunday we had a small family gathering over at my Aunt and Uncle's house, Larry and Alyce and their boys Sam and Wil. We recently decided that we didn't see enough of each other so we are going to try to have a Sunday lunch once a month at different people's houses and all bring food. This was the first one and it happened to coincide pretty closely with my Bartel Grandparent's anniversary. I think it was a great idea and I am looking forward to the next one!

Larry and Alyce have a nice big back yard and plenty of toys that are lots of fun for young boys, so they had a good time getting their energy run off after lunch. Greg pushed Luke around quite a bit and Luke did the steering for the most part and loved every minute of it until the steering column came out of it's spot and stuck in the ground and we got this nice little video!

We had three kinds of desert and ice cream to boot! These are the brownies that Andrea made with my Grandparent's initials on them!


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Last Wednesday we headed out to Grandma and Grandpa Bartel's house for another visit and has a lot of fun. Luke mostly wanted to run around outside, and he ran up and down the hills in their back yard too many times to count! Every once in a while he would want to go back in the house for a second, but he almost always was ready to go back out after just a few minutes.

Finally after we had been there for quite a while already he came inside and noticed that Grandpa has some kindling in a metal tub by the fire place and that there was plenty of room in the wood box so he decided to do something about it. He was terribly focused and spent probably 20 minutes or more moving wood back and forth between the tub and wood box! It was terribly cute!

After all that it was getting late and I wanted to stop at home before going to church for the Youth Group's Turkey Dinner, but lately every time I got to my Grandparent's house something goes wrong with the car and this time was no exception. The last two times one of my tires was low (different tires each time), so Grandpa filled them up for me with his air compressor. This time the car wouldn't start even though the battery was well charged and we had just replaced the starter! Unfortunately Grandpa couldn't fix that for me so we all went to church together in their car and left mine in their driveway.

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Luke had used up so much energy at their house I think he ate more food at one sitting than I have ever seen him do before! He also did it all by himself with his spoon and didn't spill much at all, I was very impressed! He ate way faster than I did, plus I was busy watching him eat so I wasn't paying as much attention to my own plate, but luckily Grammy and Grampa Regier (my parents) got there just after he finished and they came to sit with us. Luke saw them and really wanted Grampa to sit with him so we moved his stuff out of the way but Grampa didn't see that and started to sit on the other side next to Grammy! Luke just burst into big tears, he was so sad! My mom showed my dad that he was needed by Luke so he started to come over and Luke immediately tried stop crying and started gulping back his tears! We made it through the rest of dinner very well and Luke fell asleep early that night, so much exercise!

Great Gramdparents!

Over the last several weeks we have made an attempt to see my grandparents a little more often and let them get to see Luke a little more often too. I try to go to alternate weeks, so sometimes we are at my Bartel Grandparent's house and sometimes at my Regier Grandparent's house. Unfortunately I always forget my camera!!! My Grandma Bartel has a pretty good camera that she let me borrow the last two times we came over and today I brought it home and uploaded the pics to my computer so that I could share them with all of you! These first pics are from probably about three weeks ago??? My Grandpa took Luke out to play on the swing set that has been there as logn as I can remember. The swings have wooden seats and I think Grandpa has replaced them several times already. In the beginning Grandpa got on the glider with Luke, but I didn't have the camera out yet then so I missed it.

Today (10-28-09) at Grandma and Grandpa Bartel's we played in the leaves and spent time running, throwing balls, and rolling down the hills!

Here is a quick video of Luke enjoying the leaves. He was squealing a lot, but as soon as I turned on the video he stopped squealing so much. Still cute!

Luke knows where all the toys are at Grandma Bartel's house and as soon as we got to their house he ran straight down stairs to get them out. These pics are from after we had gone outside a bit, hence the order. He also knows which drawer in the kitchen has toys!

Grandpa took him outside for a quick wheel barrow ride....

I think in the end he was tired and ready to go because the wheel barrow ride didn't last long.

We weren't able to visit my Regier Grandparents this week because my grandma isn't feeling great, and I think it will be a while before she is feeling well enough for little visitors, so today we just talked to her on the phone. Luke showed her his Veggie Tales video by holding it up to the phone and gave her two or three kisses to help her feel better!

Lions and Eeyore's and Witches, oh my!

Last Friday, the 23rd, Greg and I took Luke and met Amy, Derrick and their son Glen at the zoo for Night of the Living Zoo, an event they hold every year around Halloween. Luke was a lion (for a $1 from Etc. Shop) and Glen was Eeyore (also from a second hand shop!).

Luke wouldn't wear the lion mask so we pained his face and I wore it, at least for a little while anyway.

Cute kiddos!



I think they both had fun running around but in general it was definitely a little beyond them. Luke was really excited about the candy but he was too little to understand that you were not supposed to eat all the candy as soon as you got it. He knew he was supposed to ask for candy and that the were giving it to him but why didn't he get to eat it?!? We didn't stay too late and headed over to Amy and Derricks house for apple cider and a little play time for the boys.

(Luke is pushing Glen in he stroller with Amy)

Somehow I never got Derrick in a picture, but I did catch Greg relaxing on a KU bean bag!

Boys are still little enough to think kissing is cool! I love it!

On the way to their house Luke was drinking some water and when he wasn't thirsty anymore he decided that it would be fun to spit it all over himself. By the time we got to Amy and Derrick's he was soaked so we had to take his shirt off. (-:

Luke loves Veggie Tales and Glen loves Baby Einstein.

On Saturday the 24th my mom and I went to see the musical Wicked on tour here in Wichita at Century II. I knew most of the story from my mom and from hearing the soundtrack but I hadn't had a chance to read it yet so I didn't know exactly how everything happened or how it ends. I know the tickets were expensive, but it was soooo worth it!!!

Row R was right about the middle and our seats were just a little to the left of center, not bad at all!

It was incredible! I was blown away by it all, the costumes the performers and the performances they gave! I was on the verge of tears most of the way through, just so overwhelmed by it all, and I bawled at the end! I wish I could see it again, but I don't think I can afford that!

Afterwards I took my Mom to one of my favorite restaurants, Bone Fish Grill! I am not a seafood kind of girl, but I always love whatever I get there and I always get something different because I always order off the specials menu and we don't go very often.

Mom and I both got the same thing from the specials menu, Reah's Mahi Mahi! It was excellent. I also got a pomegranate martini which I love and we shared a creme brulee for dessert, scrumptious with whip cream and blue berries on top!

The pictures don't do it justice. I just wish my sister could have been there to share the afternoon with us! I know she would have enjoyed the whole thing and I miss her. It seems like so long since she was here this summer and we don't get to see her again until January! The other day Luke and I were looking at pics on my camera and I still have several of my favorites from when we went to Colorado with her, pics of her holding Luke and playing with him! I miss you sister!!!!

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When I got home Luke was being supper sweet and giving me lots of kisses so I took a few more pics. He is such a loving little boy, I hope he stays that way. We spent the evening snuggled up together on the couch, reading books and watching a movie while we ate Kettle Corn (from the microwave). Maybe I am turning him into a couch potato, but I guess that is part of why it is sooo good for him to go out to Grammy and Grandpa's to play on the farm a few times a week!

I love him so!!!

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Today, the 27th, he and I walked down town for lunch and we had so much fun together! Every time we walked through a bunch of leaves he would squeal and laugh as though he were being tickled or something! Also the first semi truck to pass us honked at us so I taught him how to do that sign that all kids and truckers know means to pull the horn and the whole rest of our outing anytime he saw a semi truck he would do that and they ALL honked for him! It was so cool!

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We had a really good lunch together too! We ate at a place called Prairie harvest, which is mostly a small local/organic/whole foods grocery, but it also has a nice little deli with really good, interesting, and tasty food to choose from. We got the Borscht, a slice of whole grain bread, an orange cream soda, and a little square of chocolate for dessert! Luke really ate very well and sat down for most of the meal! (something I have a hard time teaching him since we don't eat at the table due to ongoing construction in our house and a little laziness on my part).

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Just so you know he can throw a pretty good fit too. The other day when I took him to my mom's he was hungry when we got there and couldn't handle much of anything well. I don't remember what the fuss was all about but suddenly he was very upset with me and he threw himself on the ground several times in a row while screaming right in front of Grammy! We both laughed, he is so dramatic, and he did better once we got something in him.

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Tonight he didn't have a long enough nap and woke up hungry to boot so I got another really good fit out of him, but this time with no Grammy to watch it went on quite a bit longer. He was trying to play with something dangerous and kept moving his stool around the kitchen so that he could get to wherever I had moved it away from him. I was trying to warm up some lentil soup for a quick supper since I didn't think he could last, and sure enough he only made it about two minutes before he'd had enough of me pushing him around. (-; He started screaming at me and I finally picked him up and took him into the living room away from whatever it was. He was so angry, nothing could distract him, if I left him be he tried to go back to the kitchen and I had to stop him. Finally I told him that I thought he needed a nap, I had tried to feed him and he wouldn't take a bite, so I picked him up and carried him up stairs kicking and screaming the whole way and lay down with him and offered to nurse, nothing worked. Suddenly through his tears he started signing that he wanted to eat. I asked him if he really wanted to eat and he nodded so I took him down stairs again and tried to feed him but again he tried to go to the kitchen! I picked him up and gently said, "Sweetie I think you are tired and hungry so you can either eat or I am taking you upstairs to sleep." After a couple more sobs he quieted down and sat down next to me at the coffee table, I tried to help him sit on my lap but he wasn't going to go that far for me so he sat next to me. He sat and ate a large amount of soup while sniffling and watching Veggie Tales, which I had turned on earlier in an attempt to distract him, and after that he was a new boy, happy and willing! Unfortunately not too much longer after that I got called into work so he went to Grammy and Grandpa's and I headed in. One of these days I'm going to get a fit on tape for posterity!