a gentile family: Luke: Our little man

There is just so much to say about this little man, where do I begin. He's just over 2-1/2 years old. He is our little independent, energetic, strong-willed, stubborn, loving, caring, sweet, gentle, kind-hearted, rough, animated comedian with so many animated facial expressions that the average person can't even begin to try and do. We had his two year doctor's appointment back in April and they asked us if he was putting sentences together, could dress himself and color in the lines. We had to say no to all these milestones but literally within these last few months Luke is doing all those things {accept for maybe coloring in the lines}! It's crazy how fast he is developing. He says the funniest things sometimes. Dave and I laugh so hard. We're also finding out things we do or say by seeing Luke copy them. I never knew that I said phrases like, "Oh, yea, yea, yea," or "Nope," or "whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa" or "oh goodness," or "oh no!" or "hey, hey, hey."

Some of his coined phrases:

When he doesn't want me around he says things like, "Mommy, upstairs;" meaning Mommy I don't want you with me downstairs.
"Listen, listen, no do that" he likes to boss his toys around.
When he hears a song that says mercy he says, "Mommy, panking {spanking}, no panking, give mercy, give grace, give grace like Christmas."
"No, Luke do"
When he likes or wants something he'll make it sound like it was your idea by saying things like, "Mommy, pretzels." Then I in return say, "Pretzels, Luke, do you want pretzels?" and then he says, "Okay, yea pretzels."
He calls spider webs "pider mans." He'll say look Mommy, look, pider mans."
He saw a really tall, large man in public {thankfully far off in the distance} and said, "Daddy, Daddy, giant!" {We read him David and Goliath and he knows Goliath is a tall giant}
When visiting Nick, Heather and family he was playing with their puppy, Milo. Milo was biting at Luke's rain boots and Luke giggles and then gets to Milo's level, cups his hands around his mouth, and says, "Milo, listen. Look at me. Milo look at me. No biting, no do that." {you get a picture of how our discipline plays out in our household?}
If something looks broken and needs fixing he says, "Oh no, Wuke fix it, Wuke fix it"
When he wants to show off he says, "Mommy, Daddy watch this"
When Dave plays rough with Luke and he hasn't shaved in a while Luke says, "fafe ruff!!" {Face ruff}
One time I was giving Kate a bath at the sink and Luke decides to ride his car right into my ankles. I tell Luke that hurts Mommy and if he did it again he would get a spanking. So within seconds he does it again and I tell Dave to give him the spanking since I'm at the sink with Kate. Luke runs to Daddy crying and positioning himself for the spanking but begs for "little panking, little panking," Dave couldn't compose himself and burst into laughter and then gave him a "little" spanking:).

It makes our hearts happy to know that Luke is starting to learn and understand God and his love for us. We read Luke a children's bible at night time and his favorite stories are; Adam and Eve {He calls it "fruit" or "neaky nake"} and David and Goliath {he calls it "giant"}. This is the coolest thing of all; back in March, he was flipping through the bible looking at all the pictures and came across Jesus on the cross, he immediately stopped flipping and pointed saying "Oh no, hurt!" I was shocked that he noticed this and that it caught his attention. So I said, "yes Luke, that's Jesus. He died on the cross for our sins. But He's risen and alive!" So now every time he sees anything that remotely looks like the form of a cross he yells, "Cross, Jesus!" and then says, "Oh no!" It's just too cute. We pray with him and he's prayed on his own too. Luke's prayer goes, "Jesus, God, Amen." Some old bible songs he loves and sings with us are, The B-I-B-L-E , Jesus Loves Me, The Gospel Train, If You're Happy and You Know It. Dave is also a really good story teller and gives very animated somewhat scary old testament stories. Two of his favorites are Daniel and the Lions Den and David and Goliath. These stories are read at night when he's in bed and when it gets to the scary part Luke hides under the sheets. He has also memorized his first bible verse; Jeremiah 29:11.

Some of our favorite things:

Mommy LOVES when she can hear you sing along to songs in the car.
You are very much the pleasing type. When you think we are disappointed you start to cry.
You accidentally hurt Kate one time when you were hugging her and you got very upset.
You get embarrassed easily and don't like for us to watch you dance.
You are very very social. You light up when other kids are willing to play with you.
Your facial expressions. Every single one of them.
Daddy and I have become spelling champs because of you. We literally spell out almost everything so you can't understand us:).
You can count to 20.
You are very creative when playing and do very well making up scenes where there are good guys and bad guys
You understand opposites
You are very good at puzzles
You can sort and love sorting all your legos in piles by color especially the blue legos. I think that's your favorite color:).
You and Mommy have fun making different facial expressions. You make happy, mad, surprised and silly faces. You don't like sad faces and when I pretend cry it gets you all upset and you start crying.
You are very persistent and will call our name when you want our attention. You don't just want us to answer you but we have to look at you also.
When Daddy leaves for work, you sometimes will dress like you are going to work and get out your tools and say, "bye, go to work."
You watch shows that are educational and encourage interaction and response. I like watching you {without you knowing of course}play along.

Another cute story; Luke was playing in the play-room so nicely by himself and talking up a storm. I tip-toed in to see what he was up to and he had his lego boy in his car and lego girl talking to each other and the dialogue was about the man going to work and the girl kissed him good-bye. I asked who the two legos were and he said, "Mommy and Daddy, Daddy go to work." It just melts my heart to see what he observes play out during his playtime.

We just have so much fun with this guy. He really lights up every room he walks in. Here are our latest pictures of Luke.