Luke is 3 1/2 Years Old

 On July 13th, Luke turned 3 1/2 years old.  What can I say about this kid?  He is sooo hilarious and also sooooo frustrating.  I have learned that I don't handle the toddler stage very well.  So I have given myself a break and realize that a lot of his challenges are based on his age.  But here are some things about my crazy boy:

• Luke likes playing with his sisters and friends.  When Sophie and Aspen are gone, he is so bored being stuck with mom.  He always feels left out when his older sisters get to go places he doesn't.  And he has loved having so many little boys to play with on our street.  When he and Nate get together it's trouble.  I can't even begin to imagine the trouble they are going to cause as they get older.
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• Luke has given up napping, but he goes to bed great at night.  He used to wake up around 6am, but has thankfully been sleeping in until 7:30 or 8:00 most of this summer.
• Luke has an endless supply of energy.  I swear he sucks it out of me somehow.  He just runs around and climbs on everything and bounces off furniture all day.  Just watching him makes me want to take a nap.
  
• Luke LOVES candy.  From the second he wakes up to the second he goes to bed at night he is begging for candy.  It's enough to drive a person crazy.  It's a challenge to get him to eat healthy food, but he would gladly survive on candy.
  
• Luke is a professional whiner.  Boy can he whine.  My mom will babysit him and he will be a perfect little angel, but the second I walk in the door he will start whining.  It's supposed to be a good sign that he is comfortable with me, but I just keep waiting for this phase to pass.
  
  
  
  
• Luke is hilarious.  He just has such a funny personality (when he's not throwing a tantrum and whining).  It's hard to explain what about him is so funny, but he's just naturally hilarious.
  
• Luke still doesn't know many of his ABC's.  Teaching him is a lot like teaching Aspen.  He just doesn't have much interest and it's really hard to work with him.  So this summer I have assigned Sophie and Aspen to teach him "Lukey School" as part of their morning chores while I shower.  He loves it and performs much better for them than he does for me.  For the most part they just make him sing the ABC song a million times, so I'm not sure he's learned a lot, but he gets really excited for it every day.
  
• A few months ago Luke had surgery for an undescended testicle.  We told Luke that surgery meant "cutting him open and then sewing him shut again".  He had to stop eating solids by midnight the night before his surgery.  Then he could only drink clear fluids for a few hours.  And then couldn't have anything for a few hours right before.  The worst part was keeping him from eating.  I still had to feed Sophie and Aspen, and he just couldn't understand why he couldn't have any food.  He kept asking and finally said, "Can I have vitamins?" (I give them the gummy kind, but said no.)  And crying he said, "Can I have medicine?" (meaning children't Tylenol")  Poor boy.  But we went into the hospital and they let him choose he laughing gas flavor.  So they put him under with that before hooking him up to the IVs and anesthesia.  When he came out of surgery I heard him crying for me all the way down the hall.  I rushed to him, but he was obviously still delirious.  He looked down and saw that he didn't have any clothes on and started freaking out, "Where are my clothes!?!" over and over again.  I tried wrapping him in his blanket I brought, but he just wanted clothes.  So the nurses tried to unhook him from all the monitors as fast as possible so we could get him dressed.  Finally he settled down and cuddled in my arms.  But as I was buckling him into his carseat to go home he said, "They didn't cut me open".  I told him they did but he was asleep for it.  He started freaking out again insisting that they didn't cut him open.  It was kind-of hilarious and so sad at the same time.  But he recovered really well and is back to full health.
  

We love our wild and crazy Lukey boy.  He can drive you nuts, but be so sweet the next minute.  Lately I have been saying "I love you forever" to him.  And he started responding "I love you till Christmas" or "I love you to the end of the week".  He's such a silly boy, but he's still a mama's boy and instantly comes to me any time he is hurt or sad.  All I have to do is give him a hug and kiss and he's all better and on his way again.  I don't know what I would do without him.