Happy 12th Year Lukey!

*Before I even start this post, please do not pay any attention to the unmade bed in the background of these two pictures.  My OCD tells me not to post them!  Are you crazy?  But then I really like the sweetness of Luke and Emma so I'm going to have to over ride my OCD.  Sorry Mom.  And Trin.  ")

I know I've been going on and on and on about my Lukey getting older but I just can't seem to wrap my mind around the fact that he's been a part of my life for over 12 years now.  It's scary to think how fast time can pass.  I hate it, but I should quit griping about it, accept it and move on.  Right?  Right.  So anyway, Luke's birthday actually fell on Thanksgiving this year.  He doesn't really like it when it is like that because all his friends are usually busy, but we made sure to celebrate a little early the Friday before.  We took about six extra boys (yeah, what the heck am I thinking?) bowling and out for pizza.  They seemed to have a good time and I know Luke was happy to get to spend some time with all of them.  We also celebrated the night before his birthday with the family.  If I were a good mom I would have had some pictures of those two nights to show you all, but I'm not.  Not when I seem to hide my camera from myself.  Something tells me I won't be doing that too much anymore (I'll fill ya in on those details a little later.)  For now I guess I better keep up my birthday posting theme here and throw out a few memories or silly facts about Luke that I love.  So here we go....

1.  Luke was four days overdue and I was in hard labor for twelve excruciating hours.  It was the day before Thanksgiving that year and all of our friends from school showed up and waited forever for Luke.  It was a very special day for me in more ways than one.  When he finally decided to make his debut, he weighed 8 lbs and 10 ounces.  He had a glimmer of red hair and funny feet like his dad!  I fell in love with another boy that day.  

2. Luke's middle name is Brody.  It was a name of a character in a popular movie at that time (I'll see if you guys can figure that one out on your own).  Ron's friends called him Brody Baby.

3. His first room was decorated with Paddington everything.  We still have every Paddington from his nursery and one huge Paddington we got at Sears when they marked it down.  The thing is seriously about 3 feet tall!

4. Luke loved Blues Clues and had several "Handy Dandy Notebooks" and "Thinking Chairs".  I can still sing every song from that show!

5. When he was about 2 or 3 he was having a hard time pronouncing his "L's" so I would try to get him to say la-la...and then whatever L word he was trying to say.  So I would say la-la-Luke for example.  One day he was messing around with a hanger and I told him to put it down.  He proceeded to tell me it wasn't a hanger it was a hammer.  I said no it is a hanger now put it away.  He said "No mom.  It's a la-la-hammer!"  I think that was the day he figured out if he made me laugh he didn't seem to get in as much trouble as he would otherwise.

6. Luke also had several funny sayings that we still say around our house to this day.  Some of which include:

"I judge you." Luke's first attempt at I love you.

"Kyle's on the down." This is what Luke told our friends when he was explaining the bunk bed situation.

"Ass cream."  Ice cream.

"I'm gonna wear my toes."  This was Luke going somewhere barefoot.

"Sorry doesn't work for me."  His daycare taught the kids to use their words and if someone did something that made you mad and they apologized it was ok to tell them this.  We still throw this one around a lot in our house.

7. He's very funny and loves making people laugh.  I do too so I can relate.

8. He's sensitive and caring and doesn't want to hurt any one's feelings. 

9. He has to have the last word.  Always.  (I know my mom is reading this right now and cracking up because Luke and I are so much alike.)

10. He's growing his hair out again.  I don't like it.  Does anyone know when this will be out of style?  Or if it is out of style can you help me convince him?

11. He's been taking guitar lessons for about seven months now and he is really good.  He knows how to read the music and all that jazz which I think is pretty impressive.  Especially since I went to his lessons for a while and I couldn't follow along with that stuff at all.

12. He's the best big brother/son anyone could ask for.  The night we had the family over for his birthday I wanted to put together a quick slide show for him (this is quickly becoming another hobby of mine).  The only problem was I didn't have enough time to scan in a bunch of pictures.  So I sat down and made a quick slide show with the pictures I had on the computer already.  It wasn't very long but enough for a couple of songs.  I picked two of his favorite songs and we played it for him and everyone else that night.  I was feeling kind of bad because I didn't get everything in there I wanted to and after it was over this is the conversation we had.

Luke:  Thanks for the slide show mom.

Me:  Well I'm sorry it wasn't longer.  I wanted to do more but ran out of time.

Luke:  It's ok.  I'm just happy you made one.

Oh the kid kills me.  I love him so much.  I'm really very sad that he has to grow up.  I will never be able to express in words what that child means to me.  I love you Luke!