25 things about luke

1. Luke has a buddy: Sophia. They've known each other for about a year, from the local nanny group that gets together with the youngsters at library storytime. Then, wonderfully, Luke and Sophia ended up in the same preschool class. They've had a few one-on-one playdates, and are going to start sharing Jackie, Luke's nanny, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They are serious buddies, and Luke often remarks that he wants to put his sleeping bag next to Sophia at naptime.

2. Luke's hair and mine are exactly the same color and texture. Identical.

3. Luke is in a "try it" phase with food. Last night, he declared that the cauliflower was "just perfect," and he wanted to "try it."

4. Luke has mastered the skill of putting CDs on the CD player (thanks, Nana, for teaching him that, um, helpful trick). He changes songs frequently.

5. Speaking of music, Luke enjoys Bob Marley and Eric Clapton. Seriously. The boy can sing along to "No Woman, No Cry," and often won't go to bed until he hears it. His all time, number 1 favorite musican, though, is Charity and the Jam Band.

6. Lately, Luke loves giving train tattoos (i.e., branding you with a train stamp).

7. Le Chat (our cat) running across the yard will provoke seriously-contagious belly laughs in Luke. Yesterday, he was laughing so hard, a little bit of food came back up.

8. Luke really loves doing art projects. He especially likes using glue.

9. His favorite color is black. (Urban baby? Classic San Francisco? Or, the color of steam engines?)

10. Luke is a carbo-loader. He loves bread of any type: waffles, toast, crackers, muffins. Speaking of bread, Luke gets a madeleine every Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning from our favorite coffee shop, Cafe Bello.

11. Luke has an amazing ability to focus. He can (insert verb: play, learn a new puzzle, dance, read books, etc.) with total and utter concentration. Sometimes, I swear there's steam coming out of that boy's head, he's concentrating and working so hard.

12. Luke's favorite animal is a monkey, and the most favorite monkey of all is Momo.

13. Sometimes we like to count all the people that love Luke: Mama, Dada, Jackie, Pop-Pop, Nana, Auntie Karen, Auntie Kina, Mamie, Papie, Tatie Francoise, Tatie Sylvie, Ton-ton Cyril, Cousins Alex and Theo, Grammy, Sesa, Cousins Megan and Kevin.

14. About half of the time, Luke ends up in our bed in the early morning hours, despite my best intentions to be really strict about sleep habits.

15. Luke's favorite t-shirt is (surprise) a Thomas the Train t-shirt.

16. Luke only ever gets in trouble for one thing: terrorizing Le Chat (yelling, hitting, scaring, etc.). Unfortunately, this happens several times a day. It's very hard to keep a straight face when Luke is squealing, "No terrorize Le Chat!"

17. Luke has 2 speeds: high and stop. In other words, he's either running or laying on the floor.

18. When he's being too pokey, I call him "slow coach," coined from one of his Thomas books.

19. Luke has gorgeous manners. He remembers to say "thank you" and "please" with very little prompting, and he nearly always says "bless you" if someone in the house sneezes. One time, during his naptime, Jean-Max sneezed in the hallway, and out of Luke's room came, "Bless you, Dada!"

20. He doesn't jump yet (i.e., off the ground with two feet).

21. Luke will be obsessed by a particular book for a week or two, wanting to read it over and over and over and over again. Then, he'll move on to another one.

22. Luke loves chocolate.

23. Luke loves to help bake muffins. He's a great helper: he scoops, pours, mixes, and helps sweep the floor afterwards.

24. Luke is an expert at making a deal. Nearly everything involves some sort of deal-making. Mama: "We can read 4 books before bedtime." Luke: "No, 5 books." We always end our deals with the time-honored, "Deal?" "Deal" agreement.

25. Luke has always been an independent guy, but over the past few months, he's been super-snuggly, with 99% of these snuggles focused on Mama. I am kinda really loving it.