Zoo Lights & other fun times

The busy holiday season is upon us, which means lots more stuff to get done on a daily basis!  I'll try to recap the highlights of the last couple weeks.  Here is Part 1:

Donna's 65th birthday was on December 1st!  We celebrated with her and Emil by going to the Brookfield Zoo (in Brookfield, IL).  We were so excited to see the zoo lights - tons and tons of holiday decorations and lights.  We had a wonderful time at the zoo with Lukers, then went out for Chinese after.  We took pictures on Donna's camera, so once I get them I'll post a few.

Matt, Luke and I picked the perfect Christmas tree and decorated our house a couple weekends ago. It is so festive! We love our new kitchen layout even more now that we can enjoy our twinkling Christmas tree 24/7:) Luke has been pretty good about not breaking the ornaments (knock on wood), and he seems to enjoy all the other decorations we have all over the house too.

Little helper

Luke has an interesting habit of putting everything around his neck

Done!

My friend from work, Erica Goode, is a budding photographer. She offered to take some pictures of Lukers, which we happily took her up on.  Despite Luke's initial resistance to smiling - I think she got some great ones!  I love how she plays with the colors to make things pop.

We have to give a shout out to Ben, our generous & genius brother, as he just went down to Haiti as part of an Engineers Without Borders trip.  He helped create a water pump system to help local towns have fresh water.  He just got back and says it was a great experience.  We can't wait to see him this weekend at the Eichinger/Davis wedding!

Luke went to the doctor for his 15 month well visit.  We're happy to report that he is as healthy as ever.  Here are the stats, long and lean with an average head size!
Weight: 23.5 lbs (25-50%)
Length: 32.5 inches (75-90%)
Head Circumference: 18.5 (50%)

Huh?

Little man in his big boy pajamas

Giving Thanks

We have SO MUCH to be thankful for.  Matt and I have each other, we have our beautiful baby boy and our sweet pup, we have good jobs and a nice house.  We have families who love us and wonderful friends.  Sometimes I wish I could freeze time, because I'm not sure it could get any better:)

We spent Thanksgiving this year with my parents in WI.  They hosted a beautiful and delicious Thanksgiving dinner with all of the traditional fixings.  It was so great to catch up with Aunt Kathy and Uncle Bob, in town for the week from Maryland.  We also got to visit with Great Aunt Bea, Uncle Maury and Aunt Barbara.

During Thanksgiving prep, Grandma gave him the lettuce container to play with - big mess!

Luke ate a TON of Thanksgiving dinner, and then laid back in his chair with food coma exhaustion.  He 's already gotten the hang of this holiday!

Bonfire in the backyard

Aunt Kathy and Luke

With Luke getting so much more interactive, he is able to keep up a little better with his bigger cousin.  They had lots of time to play with each other over the holiday weekend.  It warms my heart every time I see them together.

Exercising your children = good night's sleep!  Just kidding. 

PJ and Kristin came down to our house on Sunday - this is PJ with her "snowman soup" aka hot chocolate

We got to visit with the rest of the Mackus side of the family at Jason's bd party on Friday.

Here are some other cute Lukers shots from the week:

Climbing up the stairs playing peek a boo through the spindles

He is starting to copy everything we do - he sees us point the remote at the TV, and now he tries to do it!

Captain Destructo

Dukers has begun a new day of toddler-dom, he is now CAPTAIN DESTRUCTO!  He is happy as can be when he can turn his toys upside down, force chairs and toys over, throw balls across the room, you name it. He is exceedingly proud of himself when climbing on top of the aforementioned tipped over items.  Speaking of climbing, he also tries to climb Spumoni.  Sweet Spumoni is such a good sport, he just calmly lets Luke do whatever.  When he's had enough he just goes into another room.  

Spumoni and Luke - best buddies in the making

We had a fun weekend.  On Saturday morning we had a play date with the Conklin family.  Tonya, Justin and little 22 month old Drew came over for breakfast.  This is the first time the boys have been old enough to actually play with each other (vs it being more of a playdate for the Mommies!).  They were so cute, laughing and shrieking at each other while playing.

Drew Conklin and Lukers played so well together!

Saturday night Donna and Emil watched Luke while Matt and I had a date night.  We hit the city for an awesome tapas dinner, then went to our friend Dana's house for a fun party with several of Matt's coworkers.  It was a great night!

Sunday we went to visit Matt's cousin Justin and his family.  Sara and Justin just welcomed their second child, Lila Oak, last week.  She joins cutie big brother Orrin.  Lila is gorgeous and it was so nice to hold a tiny baby again.  Jenae was in town for CO to meet her little niece, so it was fun to see her too.

Sara, Justin and baby Lila

Finally, thanks to Donna and Emil for watching Luke all day Monday and Tuesday while Isolene was on vacation.  Luke loves his time with Grandma and Grandpa, and we loved the home cooked meals too!

Luke LOVES playing in the laundry basket

Bunny ears!

Every time you put Luke's shoes on, he runs to the door and tries to open it to go outside, then waits patiently.

Grandpa Emil making chicken paprikash for us

Business Trip

Most of this past week I was in Indianapolis for work, so unfortunately I don't have a lot of Lukers news to report.  Matt held down the fort and did a great job being a single Daddy for a few days.  They had some quality father-son bonding time:) Thanks to Donna and Emil for coming over one night to help out so Matt could get to work on time.

New favorite thing - climbing everything, including coffee tables

Hanging out with second-cousin Jackson Warner at his 1st bd party

Birthday Fundays

Last week was Grandpa Emil's birthday, but since he and Donna were out of town our celebration was a few days later.  They came up for a nice dinner out and some celebratory pumpkin bread cake afterwards.  Happy Birthday!

Saturday was the day Kristin and I took Grandma Della out for her birthday present - a dinner and show in Chicago.  We had a nice visit at our house with the Lukers before heading down to Chicago to see Mary Poppins the musical.  Afterwards we had a yummy steak dinner at nearby Petterino's.  We had such a fun time!  The hours flew by.  We were talking and talking, we didn't want it to end!   Grandma is such a fun lady, we love you!!

In Luke development news, he went through this phase where he didn't want to get a bath.  He would cry every time and we didn't know why.  Thankfully that passed after a week or so.  Then more recently he went through a phase where he didn't want to go to sleep at night.  He would cry as if he was in physical pain - just horrible sounds coming out of his mouth like he was being stabbed or something - when we set him in his crib.  After the first couple times that we went in there to check on him and saw he was totally fine, we realized he was "testing" us and we were failing.  So after that we let him have his little tantrum cry and then he'd pass out.  I'm happy to report that as of yesterday that little phase also seems to be over.  Knock on wood, he's been going straight to sleep again after his bath and milk.  We're so lucky:)  Other than that, he is slowly migrating to one nap a day.  He has sort of regressed on talking, he barely says the words he already knows much less saying new ones.  Don't worry, he's still a mobility rock star.  He runs all around, and yes, sometimes falls.  Finally, he officially is no longer drinking milk from a bottle, even at night.  The baby book says, "No more baby bottles.  You have a toddler now, if you want bottles in the house, have another baby."  Hmmm, harsh. 

Here are some cute Luke shots from the week.     

Dog park

Halloween - Monster Sighting!

Halloween weekend was really fun!  Luke turned into a little blue dinosaur/monster and was cited by all who saw him to be "just adorable!".  He didn't quite know what to think about all the trick or treating, but by the end he was getting the hang of it.  Climb step, stare at door until it opens, see stranger, get talked at, take candy from bowl (that part was optional for him), climb back down step.  Sunday we went up to WI to go trick or treating with Paige and Kristin, Cory was on a business trip.  Mom and Dad came over, too.  We had such a great time watching the two cousins trick or treat.  PJ was Super Girl and was so cute, she is at such a great age for trick or treating.

We made caramel apples too!

Luke had a few bites too, he liked it!

Festive Grandma

The morning after - playing with candy (since we don't let him eat it)

Nice warm day today!  Isolene and Luke played outside most of the day.