peek!

hello there! it's me, luke. here's what we've been up to lately... nothing too exciting, just having some fun around the house...

and here i am even making myself useful outside some. i love sweeping!

i do not, however, love walking in the grass - can you believe that?? well, the grass here is really dry and crunchy, and it just doesn't feel good on little baby feet! take a look at this incident a few weeks ago... we love playing with the balls outside, and here was a typical reaction when my ball rolled into the grass (click on the picture to enlarge it and really get a good look at my face if you need to)...

i was so irritated that the ball had rolled out there but was determined to not actually step foot in the grass to retrieve it...

and i succeeded. yes!

truth be told, that was a few weeks ago and i actually am getting better and better about that now. i finally started sucking it up and will now get out there in the grass like a regular kid, most of the time. i do not like the fire ants that always manage to find my little feet though - rude!

anyway... just like ben, i really love pushing around anything i can get my hands on. i don't ride on things too much yet, but i sure can push them around to keep up with my big brother. here i am with the "train" we made a few weeks ago...

and here i am pushing around momma's vacuum. you might be able to tell from the look on my face that i realize i'm not allowed to push around this thing (too bad it looks like a toy but costs more than i did), but i just find it really tempting and tried to sneak in a quick tour around the downstairs. as usual, i was busted, but tried to make an escape (with the vacuum)...

here i am having to navigate around a childish push toy, oh bother...

and next thing i know, ben is after me with our toy vacuum. oh my, the hilarity...

vacuum wars. this could be a reality show...

eventually momma reached her limit and decided to put a stop to the show, right after i discovered the cord and realized it would be even more fun to pull it around by that! good times. too bad we don't have any good toys to play with around here to keep me out of trouble...

we have a lot more pictures and updates coming up again soon, but right now we have to go because the 90's called. they want daddy's doc martin's back...

see you again soon! :)

august in review...

hello again! well, while parts of magnolia and lots of texas are getting hit by wildfires, we are thankfully safe on the side of town where we live. but it's still a scary time with all this drought and we're just ready for some rain!

but alas, mostly we've just had heat, heat, and heat. but we still had lots of fun in august, so here are some pictures to fill you in.

first up, we took a visit to our local fire station, where a couple of the really nice firefighters showed me and luke around. i LOVED this. especially the lights on the trucks...

i also liked getting to try on a helmet, and gave momma my best dorky pose and smile during this picture...

but here i am playing it much more cool in the backseat of dad's new convertible (and by that, of course, i mean 4-door sedan with a sunroof - they're the same thing in case you didn't know that)...

back at home i've been having a lot of fun with momma's piano. i love to play it all the time, and so far i have mastered the five notes of "pop goes the weasle" (with the help of numbered washi tape) and am trying to build my skills from there...

we also continue to do the car wash regularly. last time we tried it out on the driveway and i used the slope to get a good zoom through it with my bike...

this one is just a random cute picture of luke calling someone on momma's phone. it was probably aunt aimee. he seems to call her every few days or so (really. without momma's permission or knowledge, until she finds out from aunt aimee via text message at some point later in the day...) i don't know what they talk about all the time...

also, we had another visitor here recently... see him near the bottom of the ladder in front of the playground?

yep. that's an armadillo. live and in person in our backyard. here he is right up by the back patio (which was taken during an afternoon when daddy was still at work, or there would have no longer been an armadillo to take pictures of, if you know what i mean...)

he came around on two different afternoons in a row, and we just followed him around the yard and he didn't seem too bothered by us. he was fun to watch, though (in this picture, he's just beyond the metal can in the yard)...

luke really liked watching him waddle around...

and then here's yet another shot of luke fussing for momma to pick him up. how old is he now? yeah, he still loves that momma... and he still likes her to hold him. a lot. :)

these next two are of me sharing an ice cream truck product (which momma would not allow me to call "ice cream" itself, since she says it was unlikely that this particular concoction was made of any real food... anyway, i was super nice and shared it with luke. i actually share my ice cream truck treat with him every time. momma lets me pick pretty much whatever i want, and then luke and i share. so cute...

and finally, some pictures of the AWESOME water play table that grandpa and daddy made a few weeks ago. luke and i play in this thing nearly every day - honestly. it has been so much fun, especially with the heat. we love it!!! :)

here i am doing something with a container of little peg people for the wooden boats we made (not pictured). i forget what was going on, but do you like my hat? sometimes it's a football helmet, sometimes it's a firefighter helmet. life is good. bye!

galveston 2011...

hello there! it's me, ben. our little family took a trip to galveston over the weekend, so we wanted to share some pictures of our fun there. we had been looking forward to this trip for a long time, and it did not disappoint. i had especially been looking forward to playing at the beach again. i remembered that last year i was in a sensory overload and wouldn't even go up to the water, but i knew i would be ready this year - and i sure was!

when we first got to the island, however, we started off with a surprise for me - we took a ferry ride! we drove our car onto a ferry boat and road it around out in the ocean (bay/gulf, to be technically correct), along with lots and lots of other cars and trucks. i was amazed. i was astounded. i wasn't exactly sure about it all at first. but i did think it was very, very cool. here's me and daddy looking out at the water from (near) the edge...

once back on land, we headed to the strand and got some super yummy taffy from the candy shop and did some walking around. luke just can't get enough of walking now that he can finally keep up. and he loves to walk up and down ramps and bumps, just like i did!! here's the boys on the strand...

after that we drove around a little more and headed to our hotel. here we are in the car...

once at the hotel, we took a swim in the pool and relaxed a bit before dinner. i really loved staying in the hotel and we actually all did a good job sleeping in the same room! i also used the hotel phone to call maggie dog about 75 or 80 times...

later that night we went to dinner at an awesome local seafood dive and then went to the rainforest cafe to look around. thankfully we didn't eat there because i was not a big fan of their thunderstorms inside. i don't like thunder in real life and i certainly don't like it inside of a restaurant, thank you very much. but i did like looking around and in the giftshop and i even rode my very first ride!! there is a little river ride inside the restaurant and we all did it together and it was so fun (and thunder-free, thankfully!).

the next morning, it was finally beach time!!! we went early before it was too hot and crowded, and i could have stayed there all day. i loved the water and the sand and the jetties and just everything!

luke had some mixed feelings but overall did like it too. at first he was his usual "no fear" self and wanted to walk right in without stopping! but he ended up getting over the whole thing pretty quickly and was just ready to go. we couldn't figure what that was about, because thankfully (and surprisingly) he didn't try to eat the sand or anything, so who knows. luckily momma got some pictures before the fussies set in...

later that day we went to moody gardens to check out the aquarium and the penguins!!!!! we stayed to watch them for a long time...

luke liked them a lot too, and a couple of the penguins (and seals, at another exhibit) were even coming right up to him at the glass and playing games! he was loving that, even though this picture shows him looking elsewhere, but he did really love those penguins...

we had a great weekend and i can't stop talking about all the fun things we saw and did. and we've also had some other fun times this month here at home, so check back again soon for an august update and otherwise we'll be playing around here, looking forward to some college football and a bit cooler weather - woohoo!! bye! :)