13 Months

Luke may be getting too old for the need of monthly updates but it seems like he's growing and progressing now, more than ever!

At 13 Months:

• Luke is walking everywhere and standing up in the middle of the room like he's been doing it for years!
• Luke has 4 teeth with the 5 on its way!
  
• I'm afraid he's going to be a very picky eater...at the very least he does NOT like trying new things. We'll put something new in his mouth, he'll immediately try spitting it out and sometimes it will actually stay in his mouth long enough for him to realize "oh hey, this is pretty good!" On Sunday, he spit out the Sacrament bread even though he'd been taking it fine for a few weeks. *sigh* I'm sure Heavenly Father understands but seriously kid! Of all things, please just eat the bread without making a puke face. I think I've gotten past my own insecurities about feeding him solid foods and I'm at the point where I'm willing to give him anything if he'll just like it and eat it! He can't eat baby food the rest of his life...although right now, he seems intent upon it. He currently hates many foods that most toddlers love including Mac & Cheese, bread and even though he was eating Cheerios just fine a few weeks ago, now he just throws them on the floor. I just have to keep telling myself, "He won't starve" but at the same time he's already small for his age and we've made up a little ground on his weight with extra formula but now what?! I didn't want my children to be picky like me and I try to set a good example for him...it must be genetic and unfortunately I have to blame the Steele side of the family. (Sorry, Papa!)
  
• Luke got new books with some money from his Great Grandparents for his birthday. We bought him 3 new books and since then he LOVES to be read to! He'll go in his room, pick a book and bring it to whoever is closest and just watch and laugh as we read it! It's pretty stinkin' adorable...except when he wants to be read the same book over and over. It is hard to deny him reading but I'll admit that Ben and I have taken to hiding some of his favorite books after the 4th or 5th reading.
• He knows what an alligator says too! (FYI - an alligator chomps his teeth)
  
• It was the best Mother's Day gift I could have gotten. Luke has learned to fold his arms whenever we say prayers. When we kneel down at night to say family prayers, he folds his arms. It is awesome! And although he doesn't hold it for more than 10 seconds, he's learning! We're beginning to realize how much he learns just by watching the things we do. He "knows" how to put shoes on, brush his teeth, he follows commands like "take out your binky" and he hurries off to the kitchen when we ask him "Are you hungry?"

He destroyed a good chunk of plastic wrap!

He is growing fast! Some of his other favorite things are playing with his cousins, splashing (a lot) in the tub and the one thing he does love to eat is any of Mom or Dad's dessert!


(There's a lot of pictures on this post because we got new iPhones recently and we're having a lot of fun taking pictures!)

It's pretty blurry, but this is Luke and his cousin Callie, holding hands walking off to play together!

Luke brought me one of his shoes and wanted it on. He walked around the house for hours like this :)

Life is rough, sometimes :)

And since I probably won't get around to blogging about Easter, we had a great day! It was a nice day at Church and we read about the Atonement in the Scriptures when we got home. Luke loved picking up eggs, but didn't quite understand why he'd want to put the one he found in his basket. :)