Luke's first visit to the zoo

Last Saturday Cory, Luke and I went to the Zoo with my mom, dad, and sister. It was Luke's first visit to the Zoo, and he really enjoyed it! I thought he would like it because he has a little baby einstein video called "Baby Noah" he has been watching and it has all sorts of animals in it, pictures of cartoon ones and real ones, and he loves it. Sure enough, he loved the zoo too. I kept telling him we were going to the Zoo to see real animals all day...I'm not sure if he understood or not but I think he realized something exciting was going to happen because once we got to the zoo and loaded him in his stroller he was bouncing up and down and all excited as we were walking through the entrance and to the animals. Of all the animals, he probably liked the lama and the giraffe the best. The lama came up really close to us through the fence and he thought that was pretty neat, he was smiling and excited. When we got to the giraffes he was pretty interested, but when we went inside the building that gets you on level with the giraffe's heads eating there hay he really liked that. He stood there for forever looking at them and trying to climb up the fence to get a closer look. It was a good day!

Handsome guy

My sister took these pictures for us about 2 months ago. They have been on my parent's computer and I finally just got around to getting them off. There are so many great pictures, it's hard to choose favorites! Here are some but there are so many more, we took a bunch and I still need to go through them all. I might end up adding more on here once I get a good look at all of them.

We got this tux for Luke from Cory's dad's store and thought it would be really cute to take some pictures in it. They turned out so fun! This was actually the second attempt at the pictures, the first time we tried he wouldn't hold still and didn't smile once...so we ended up with a lot of blurry pictures with scowling looks on his face! So luckily we tried another day and he was in a good mood and we were able to get some great shots of him and his cute smile, and even a few with him sitting AND holding still!

Doggy road

Luke with our neighbor's puppy...

Luke loves dogs. He still does his funny little "ruff ruff ruff" when we ask him what the doggy says...the one that sounds like either "moo moo moo" or "woo woo woo" or "mah mah mah" and he scrunches up his face really funny when he does it. He gets really excited when we see dogs and always wants to pet them. Once he warms up to them he usually tries to give them a kiss on the nose (he can do this to Cory's family's dog Sophie because she is SO mellow...somehow I need to teach him not all dogs are this friendly!)

Anyway, about two weeks ago Luke and I were driving up the road we always do to get home. We made a turn to go up the stretch that goes by Oak Hills Elementary and there was a cute fluffly shitzu-type dog just kind of trotting along the side of the road. It looked like it had probably gotten out of its yard and was just walking along having fun being out. I was the only car on the road so I slowed down and pointed out the dog to Luke. He of course got all excited and started doing his "moo moo moo" ruff at the dog. I drove as slow as I could until the dog was out of sight so he could fully enjoy the experience.

The next day we were driving up the same road and right before we made the turn to go on the stretch that we saw the dog on, Luke starting doing his "ruff ruff" and proceeded to bark until we passed the elementary school. I was amazed he remembered we had saw a dog there the day before! I said, "yes Luke, this is where we saw the doggy yesterday. Too bad it's not here today." The next day, same thing. Next day, same thing, and everytime we have driven on that street since, now two weeks later! I don't know if he thinks there's a chance we'll see the dog everytime or if he just remembers and likes to do the bark, but it catches me off guard almost everytime and I have to laugh. Tonight Cory and I were driving back from the store and Luke did it again and we both couldn't believe he is still doing it (I told Cory the story a few days ago when Luke started barking as we were going up the hill and Cory wanted to know why). So, I decided this one is worth writting down. That little guy has a good memory! Of course it might not pertain to when I ask him to not hit or bite or climb on dangerous objects, but with dogs, his memory is all there!

Say cheese!

The last couple days I have taught Luke to smile a big cheesy smile when I say... "say cheese!" He pulls a huge funny smile, his mouth is stretched so wide it almost looks like a scared look! It cracks me up every time and I laugh, and he laughs back, so I think he thinks this is a fun game. He even has tried to say "cheese" back... it comes out more like "eese". So, here he is, with his cheesey smile!

On another note...look how good his face looks! You would have no idea he had that horrible fall only a week ago yesterday! I can't believe how fast he healed. People kept telling me how resilient kids are when they are young, and it is so true! The goose egg is all gone and the scabs have already fallen off of his face. You can tell his skin is a little lighter in those areas if you look close, hopefully it doesn't scar, but I think it will be okay. Amazing!