15-Month Check-up

Luke had his 15-month check-up today. He weighs 29 pounds 3 ounces and measures 34" tall. He dropped into the 80th percentile for weight but is still in the 99th percentile for height. Except for these mysterious hives that come and go on his chest and back, he is in perfect health.

Luke does this quirky thing where he likes to move things methodically from one place to another. The other night he moved a stack of magazines from under a desk to the couch. He went back and forth between desk and couch, carrying one magazine at a time, until the whole stack was moved. In the video below, he is moving kitchen utensils one by one from a kitchen drawer to -- the bathroom linen closet, of course!

He didn't stop until the whole kitchen drawer was empty.

Peninsula Park

Luke and I went to Peninsula Park on Sunday. Peninsula Park is a gorgeous park in North Portland with a huge rose garden and a great playground. Here is Luke in the rose garden. What a little poser!

I really was afraid I'd have to hold Luke back from going into the fountain. There were a few older kids splashing around in it. I could see he was considering it.

But I think he decided it was too intimidating.

Playground

On the weekends we like to walk up to the local elementary school and let Luke run loose on the playground.

The slides are his favorite.

He's a big guy and isn't scared to go down by himself.

After he gets tired of sliding, Luke likes to run in all the open space of the playground.

Here is a video of Luke running.

Yellow

Luke is learning about one or two words a day at this point. His first words at about 11 months were: ball, balloon, clock, dada, and mama. These days the words we hear most are: truck, bus, Elmo, more, all done, oh no, no, wow, uh oh, bird, squirrel, cracker, hat, computer, bye-bye, wa wa, on, up. Most recently he has started saying the names of his friends at day care (Lily, Renne, Henry) and recognizing colors.

Fun with Langston and Silas

Luke invited Silas and Langston over last weekend to hang out. The weather was beautiful and everyone had a great time. Langston and Luke shared a relaxing meal of mac and cheese under the pergola.

Luke introduced Silas to his sand and water table and demonstrated the proper way to splash.

Silas was very impressed.
Luke seems to be most happy when he is getting wet.

Here's a very short video of Luke splashing.

Luke's Game

Before

AfterLuke invented a game called "Stack All the Trucks on the Chair." After he stacks his fleet, he likes to climb on the chair and push all the trucks off.

Mother's Little Helper

Luke was in his room being a little too quiet so I went in to check on him.
He had taken all of the diapers and wipes out of his closet and crawled inside.

Then without any prompting, he started to put everything back.

He's a tidy boy! You can also see how he gets frustrated when things don't work out perfectly. Gee, who does he get that from?

Pet Monkey

Eee. Eee. I'm a monkey.

Already a fan.

Here is Luke out for breakfast with Mom and dad. We are still working on good restaurant behavior.