big brother, baby sister

so lately the green eyed monster has been showing a bit more lately with luke. he seems more aware of the fact that shannon steals people's attention from him and he'll ham it up more, raise his voice just a bit louder, repeat himself 100 times, or literally get into your face so you focus only on him. all the same, he's been so sweet to shannon. they sleep in the same bedroom every night now (finally that transition is complete) and sometimes before they fall asleep, luke looks out the little trap door justin put in his bed that opens right above shannon's bed and sings to her, or makes her laugh. i love hearing them crack each other up in their room at night, even when it keeps them up a little bit later than i'd like. it reminds me of when my brother and i shared a room and we'd make each other laugh before falling asleep. i'm so excited to see the way luke and shannon's relationship will blossom and grow apart from justin and me.

the other day, i finished feeding shannon, and luke asked if he could have the nearly empty jar of baby food. i expected him to eat it himself, since that's what he normally does, but instead he pulled up a chair and started feeding shannon himself. he even tried signing "more" to her and was talking to her in the same tone of voice i use when i feed her. it was so sweet!



by the way, anyone who thinks that boys get into "boy things" strictly because of nurture never had a child of their own. out of no where, luke has turned into such a little boy; he's really into pretending to burb and cracks up when anyone talks about bodily functions (his favorite thing to bring up is "poop soup." don't ask me, i have no idea). really, i don't know where this is coming from. it must be in his dna.

my little artist

what can i say, luke's a natural artist.

ok so there were lots of the ground and his nose too, but hey! he still got some good ones out of his photo shoot. any bids?









baby sister is figuring out how to sit up. she can pretty much do it on her own, but occasionally throws herself backwards, so pillows are still necessary.

twas the last day of playgroup...

and we had so much fun. luke has come leaps and bounds from his first day, he now participates in everything, plays with other kids, loves to sing and dance and do the crafts. we're signing up again as soon as its available. hopefully budget cuts don't completely eliminate these programs, they are priceless!!! these are a few videos from today, sorry the quality isn't great. i was using my phone.



luke rode in the car while his buddy emmett pushed.



here the kids are supposed to follow the teacher's direction and run back and forth. for some reason, luke always waits until everyone else is about half way across before he takes off. i guess he likes the extra challenge.



this was during singing time. he was really getting down today.



this final video is from a couple days ago. i was trying to show what a great eater shannon's become but it ended up being more about luke's agenda. on a side note- he's been really facinated with the whole baby food situation. he's started wanting me to spoon feed him his meals, than after shannon eats her jar of food, he likes to use her spoon to scrape out whatever's left. just a touch of jealousy perhaps? i don't mind if he eats it, its just pureed veggies and fruits, its just so funny that he's gotten so into it. he didn't care for baby food when i was trying to feed it to him as a baby, but as a 2 years old...?