Cousin Connection

I have 17 first cousins.  Tracy, Bradley, Kevin, Brian, Dana, Doug, Warren, Lisa, Michael, Greg, David, Erin, Katie, Melissa, Jessica, Jason and Ian.  Over the course of 24 hours I saw 15 of them, plus their spouses, significant others and babies!  Not bad for a day's work!  

On Saturday Uncle David and Anne hosted all of us Kurz cousins for a big send off for our cousin, Warren, who is being deployed to Afghanistan.  Warren has been based in California and is on leave before he is deployed.  Before heading home to Maryland he and his girlfriend Courtney stopped by Indiana to see all of us.  We're so glad he did!  Warren is such a special person.  He is the most caring, loving guy with an amazing sense of humor and deep dedication to our country.  We're so proud of him and we pray for a safe deployment!  

The party also provided a great venue to meet the two newest members of our family, Lisa & Mike's baby Nicole and Mike & Deb's baby Kaitlyn.  Adorable!

Lisa, Nicole & Mike Thatcher

Michael & Kaitlyn Kurz

Warren & cousin Dana

Warren & girlfriend Courtney

The Nerf gun was Warren's gift to Luke - fitting that his first gun comes from a Marine!

Lime suckers!  Warren, Erin, Kevin

Kristina and Claire

Watching home movies, especially the classic bike/big wheel collision of 1985.

PJ had a blast with all the cousins

So after Saturday night in Indiana, less than a day later we were heading up to Wisconsin for party #2 of the weekend.  Aunt Susan hosted our annual "March Birthdays" celebration.  It was strange not to be celebrating my parents' birthdays during March birthdays, or Jessica's - as we've done every year since I can remember.  With Mom and Dad in Florida we'll have to celebrate when they come back, and Jessica had to work so she's getting pushed back too.  You were missed Mom, Dad and Jessi!  The party was really fun with great home-made Chinese food and great company, as usual.  The highlight I think was getting to meet Aunt Allyson, Uncle Dan, Jessi, Jason & Ian's new puppy, Bucket.  The cutest little golden retriever puppy you ever saw.  So happy birthday to cousins Katie & Melissa, as well as the March birthday wannabe Matt:)

Bucket - 8 weeks old

Sean kindly preventing Luke from opening the basement door and falling down the stairs.

Birthday Kids (plus PJ)

Aunt Kristin and sleepyhead.  Time to go home, it has been an exciting weekend!

Luke had his 18 month checkup this week and he is still super healthy and progressing well.  No concerns is always nice to hear!  Luke managed to sneak in a couple more words into his vocabulary a week before his appointment ("milk" and "more") so we dodged a bullet on a potential language development concern raised by the doctor.  He had told me at 12 months that Luke should have 5 words by 18 months.  We got there, plus one!  Mama, Dada, All done, Milk, More.

Here are his stats, if I may summarize though - tall, skinny, giant head

Height:  33.25" (75%)
Weight:  24.8 lbs (25-50%)
Head Circumference: 19.25" (75-90%)  big head!  opposite of PJ who was affectionately dubbed "pinhead":)

Here are a couple Luke shots from the week.  He has been SOOO cute lately.  He knows all the hand motions to The Itsy Bitsy Spider song, some of the ones to the Wheels on the Bus song too.  He can wag his finger when Thomas the Train says "No, no no!" to the Troublesome Trucks.  He definitely understands so much of what we're saying.  We can actually ask him to get things or do things, and he will!  Quite a concept!  Our favorite is when you ask him for a hug or a kiss, and he'll give you one.  It is so sweet.  He also is sometimes asserting his independence and at times gets frustrated when he's not allowed to do things.  The books say that this is all very natural and is part of him being a toddler.  Phew!  I thought I had a stinkers on my hands for a moment.  Oh wait, I do!  Love you little stinkers.

Eating grapes

Reading books, he climbs up on the couch by himself carrying a book and spends a good 5 minutes looking at the pictures by himself

P.S.  Incidentally, Matt has a ton of first cousins too.  Twenty four of them, in fact, so it is quite strange to us that Luke will only have a couple cousins at the most.  If anyone is curious - here are the names of all of Matt's cousins.  I had to write them out for myself to count them!  Irene, Christine, Denise, Theresa, Lisa, Tony, Fritz, Jennifer, Susan, Mick, Jenna, Jessica, Stephen, Anna, Nick, Chris, Dan, Steve, Mike, Matty, Joey, Katie, Jenae, Justin