Happy Birthday Luke!

Yes, the months have passed by without me writing or checking in.


However, I couldn't let today go by without acknowledging this very special day.
Today, Luke is two years old!


I've had a video camera since the twins were born (wonderful incredibly thoughtful gift) that has caused me more headaches and problems than you could possibly imagine (contrary to what my mom believes, I am not terribly technology advanced and even the simplest of gadgets tends to leave me scratching my head in confusion.)


Shortly after Luke was born, I decided to upgrade my camera to a DSLR (you know, because when you get one of those you automatically feel like a professional photographer, regardless of your lack of skill. At least until you see what the pros can do.) Anyway, I loved my camera, and I took a lot of pictures.
But alas, technology evades me once again. My camera randomly stopped working one day in February, and that was that. (I can get it fixed, and will, one of these days. Yes... one of these days... )


Anyway, yesterday I realized that Luke's birthday was upon us, and I'd be completely without any way to document the day. So the kids and I headed off to the store, and I decided Luke's birthday + Mother's Day = great justification for buying myself a new video camera. A very simple-to-use, even-a-monkey-could-figure-this-out video camera.


This is what I got:

and because of that, I can now share this:

We had decided not to have a planned party this year. We learned our lesson with the twins, as the "terrible two's" came on fast and hard with them. We figured it'd be the same with Luke, so instead, many months ago, purchased tickets to see Sesame Street Live (performers on stage) in lieu of a party.


However, seeing that Easter was so late this year, we ended up doing a family celebration with both sides of my family at our Easter dinners. So he actually ended up with not just one party, but two. Today, we decided we couldn't go without celebrating, so we took the kids to Chuck E Cheese (first time for any of them. They loved it, of course.) Between the impromptu Easter/birthday parties, today's celebration, and next week's Sesame Street concert, this kid basically is getting a month long birthday celebration! His poor brothers keep asking me, "When is our birthday?" :)   I hope they aren't let down when they only get one celebration instead of four!


So, Luke is now two.
Here are some current happenings with him:
- He can count to 10. Easily. Sometimes he'll go to twelve just for the fun of it.
- He knows almost all letters by sight. I'm completely amazed by this. Maybe it's normal, I have no idea, but to me, he's a downright genius.
- He's in gymnastics. Soon I'll post videos, because it's really fun to watch. My sister got him lessons because we were worried he was a bit anti-social. This was in December. By February, he had turned into just about the friendliest little social guy around. Who knew? Anyway, he loves gymnastics, and today his brothers finally got to join their own class (after lamenting for weeks about missing all the fun.)
- He talks. A lot. We are working on tone of voice, because he's got two volumes: loud  and really loud.
- He thinks he is one of the big boys. Of course.
- Somehow he manages to stay awake really late every night. Then he gets up really early every morning. Sleep is to Luke as oil is to water.  We're workin' on it.
- He's fantastic. Just plain fantastic. God knew what he was doing when he surprised us with Luke, because he is just plain an amazing little boy. We love you, kiddo!!  Happy 2nd birthday to you!!!