To Kansas for a week...

What better way to celebrate Thanksgiving than to spend a week in Kansas City with our friends and family! We spent 6 days in the "colder than we're used to" climate of Kansas. Luke kept wanting to go outside to play ... only to return within a mere 2 minutes with a red nose and chilly cheeks to report that it was "brr, brr" outside.

Here are a few highlights from our trip...
- Lots of playtime with the boys! Luke enjoyed checking out Cousin Sawyer's toys and playing in the basement with all the trucks and trains. We stayed with Juli, Paul, and Sawyer, so the playtime was maximized from sunrise to sunset. In fact, Luke wanted to extend his playtime a bit one day by not wanting to nap and scheming a way to crawl out of the Pak'N'Play where he was supposed to be sleeping. Mission accomplished unfortunately ... he escaped.
- An evening out at Power Play. This evening proved to be fun for all ages as we took the young (and young-at-heart) to this huge indoor arcade/entertainment mecca. The evening was complete with several go-kart races featuring a high-speed crash by Jami head-on into the barrier (she was fine but suffered some major embarrassment) and a heated race between the 3 Leahy brothers.
- A visit to Horton. We trekked up to Horton to visit Grandma Eleanor and meet up with Briana and Craig for dinner. We had a great time catching up with Jami's side of the family, and Great Grandma Eleanor just giggled at all of Luke's antics!
- Special celebrations with the Kearys. We enjoyed a delicious turkey dinner with all the fixins' at Margie and Ted's lovely new home. We even spotted a few deer in their wooded backyard. Luke loved exploring his grandparents' house and playing with the GI Joe guys that his dad and uncles treasured growing up! Margie and Ted also had a special vow ceremony that we were fortunate to attend.

It was a wonderful week-long vacation and time well spent with our family!

Pizza!

Scott and Luke share many special moments -- and meals -- when it comes to pizza! They both love to celebrate their Italian heritage by chowing down on pizza. Like father, like son ... just hold the anchovies and pile on the pepperoni!

Hoops and Bikes

HOOPS: Scott and Eric play in a city basketball league on Sunday nights. They've been playing for about a year. The team finished in 1st place in the least competitive division the city had to offer, then moved up to the most competitive league (meant for college and very good high school level players) where they were in over their heads. This season, they're playing in one of the intermediate leagues, which seems to be about the right pace. Scott had a 5 point play in their last game (fouled on a 3-pointer, made the first two free throws, missed the 3rd, but got the rebound and made a 3-pointer) in the final minute to put his team up by 3 to win the game.

BIKES: Jami has gotten back on her bicycle recently now that the weather has cooled down a bit here. She likes to hit the roads around the new neighborhood for some fast-paced cycling. We also recently purchased a bike trailer that Luke can ride in, so now we can also take rides as a family. Luke's cue that he's ready to roll is to hop in the trailer and say, "Need a ride!" So much fun!

Luke's first dentist visit.

For the last 3 days, Luke has had something stuck between his 2 front teeth. Every attempt was made to remove it, but with no luck. Actually, Luke took it on as his biggest challenge to keep us from looking in his mouth -- screaming, kicking, biting, etc. It was like wrestling with the tazmanian devil.

So today Jami decided to drop by her dentist's office to see if they could help. Upon first examining the tooth issue, the dental hygienist said, "It looks like a cavity." Gasp. Jami nearly fainted.

Then Amy, the hygienist, got out the "hook scraper" (there's probably a much better term for this but you know the tool). Luke sat perfectly still without a single peep while she checked out his front teeth. When she turned on the overhead light, he just looked up and gave her a big ol' grin. Great Luke ... why couldn't he have been more cooperative with his parents! With one attempt she slipped out the lodged food particle, which looked like part of an oat perhaps from a granola bar.

Luke's first visit to the dentist took less than 5 minutes, involved no tears, and was an all-around happy experience. Let's hope that future visits to the tooth doctor are just like this one! Yeah right...

Elmo's Adventures on Halloween

Luke really enjoyed the Halloween festivities tonight. Jami and Luke hit a few houses in the neighborhood for Luke to try out his newly expanded vocabulary: "Trick or Treat" and "I'm Elmo!" Dad stayed home and manned the candy distribution for the Leahy household.

All was well until we encountered a man with a scary mask and long black robe handing out candy at his house. Luke started wailing when he spotted the guy 10 ft. away. We quickly walked off, despite the man yelling behind us, "You sure you don't want any candy?" No thanks, buddy.

Then we drove over to see some friends who live nearby. Luke started taking the candy out of his bag and giving it to them ... reverse trick-or-treating!

Colorado Visitors

Grandma and Grandpa Nelson came to Arizona for a 5-day visit. Here's a glimpse of our fun itinerary while they were here.

Taking bike rides. We got a new trailer (AKA burley) to pull behind the bike. Luke loves to go for rides. He climbs in and matter-of-factly states "Need a ride!"
House projects. Jim and Dixie helped with some house projects like repairing a sink, hemming curtains, etc. All in a day's work!
Rest and relaxation. Luke (and his grandparents) had to take a little afternoon siesta each day. Perhaps Luke's youthful energy wore them out!
Pumpkin farm. We paid a visit to the pumpkin farm to check out the latest crop of pumpkins and see some farm animals.
Time outdoors. Now that the weather has cooled off, we are spending tons of time outdoors. We had a BBQ one afternoon ... nothing beats grilling salmon, playing badminton, and carving pumpkins!

From the trike to the bike...

Luke is movin' on up from the trike to the bike. The two-wheeler (oh yeah, plus the training wheels) is Luke's latest favorite mode of transportation. However, it wasn't until this week when he finally grasped the concept of pedaling. He's still got a long way to go before he'll be riding off into the sunset, but he pedaled a few times on his own! Grandpa Nelson has been conducting bike-riding lessons for Luke this week. Now if he can just teach Luke to pay attention so he doesn't veer off the sidewalk when he's gawking at something else!

Elmo

Some kids love to dress up for Halloween. Luke does not ... yet anyway. This year for Halloween he is sporting the costume of Elmo from Sesame Street. Today we had a Halloween party with Luke's playgroup friends. Although he did wear the costume for about 20 minutes, he maxed out soonafter -- probably from heat exhaustion in the furry little suit! We'll see how he does on the big official day of Halloween!

Down home on the farm

This week for our playgroup we went to a pumpkin patch for a little fall fun, complete with a hayrack ride and frolicking among the pumpkins. We took a moment to also photograph these farm animals. The sheep may look a little familiar!

Say what?!

Luke is really chatting up a storm these days. With the increase in vocab, he's also starting to say some pretty funny things.

"Not dirty." The other evening in preparation for bathtime, Scott asked Luke,"Ready for your bath?" Luke's reply ... "Not dirty." Scott pushed the issue a little more, "Not dirty, huh?" Luke very matter of factly replied, "Noooo."

"Green light go." Luke has a little phrase he likes to use to describe things in motion ... "green light go." It originated with waiting for the stop light to turn green, but now applies to anything transportation related ... or when Luke is running full speed ahead.

"Baa. Moo. Woof. Hoot. Meow. Grrr." One of Luke's new tricks is to make animal sounds. He has quite a repertoire of sounds ranging from man's best friend to fine feathered fowl.

"E." We've been trying to teach Luke names of friends and family members, whether in person or with photos. It was seeming a little difficult for Luke to say "Uncle Eric" so we shortened it just to "E" so now whenever we mention Uncle Eric or ask Luke about him, he starts saying "E! E!"

PLEASE!

A preface to this story: We've been working over the last several months to teach Luke some basic sign language to help in the phase when he wants to express his opinions but can't fully verbalize them yet. He has learned several signs, one of them being "please" (the sign is made by rubbing in a circular motion on the upper chest, like asking earnestly).

Scott was putting Luke to bed the other night, and Luke was a little resistant since he LOVES his time with Daddy! They had done the normal bed time ritual (bath, reading books, etc.) and were just rocking with the lights off. In the dark, Scott could see Luke moving his arms but couldn't figure out what he was doing. Then it registered ... he was making the sign for "please" as if to say, "PLEASE let me stay up and hang out more with you Dad!" It was so sweet. Scott got Luke a bit more to drink and let him stay up for a few minutes longer ... after all, Luke asked so nicely!

Here's a toast!

Scott has been involved with a Toastmaster public speaking group at Motorola for the past 2 years, as one of the founding members and serving as president at one time. This past week, Scott was selected from his chapter to attend an area competition. He competed as an evaluator ... meaning that he was being judged on how well he evaluated the other presenters! He ended up placing 2nd and taking home a trophy. So here's a toast ... to the Toastmaster!

Sport Clips

Luke had his first professional haircut this week. To this point, Luke and Scott had a 2-for-1 deal with the family barber (AKA Jami). However, Luke had been a little too squirmy the last few times to really achieve any decent amount of haircutting, so his hair was getting a little unruly and uneven.

Luke's first "real" haircut was at a place called Sport Clips. They specialize in haircuts for men with the added entertainment of non-stop sports on TV. Luke was doing fine until she put the cape on ... at which time Luke realized that it was limiting his arm movement and he couldn't flap around as much as he usually does. So being confined to the barber chair and wearing the cape were more than he could tolerate ... and the screaming and wailing began. This subsided briefly with a lollipop as a temporary cure and distraction, allowing a majority of the cut to be completed.

We were on the homestretch when she had to do the final trimming around his neckline and ears. Luke had some major issues with that portion of the process! He decided he'd really make her work for her money by dodging and swaying away from her every move. But in the end, the hair stylist was able to add her finishing touches (with a little help from mom) ... and Luke was able to add his final "comments!"

When it was all said and done, the finished masterpiece was nothing short of a miracle considering that the poor woman cutting his hair had a loud, moving target most of the time. But the final result was a little boy with a grown-up haircut ... see for yourself!

You say it's your birthday...

October is a big birthday month for our family. We celebrated 2 birthdays this past week with Eric's birthday on the 13th and Scott's on the 14th ... and what better way to party it up than with Maggie Moo's ice cream as seen above!

Scott celebrated his 29th birthday on Friday. His closet had a major overhaul with most of his gifts being new work clothes. He's sure to be voted "Best Dressed Engineer" at Motorola this season! Luke's treat was to take Dear Ol' Dad out for pizza.

A Mass to Remember

We usually go to Mass on Sunday morning because they provide a nursery at the 9:30 and 11 a.m. services. Luke enjoys the hour in the nursery playing with the other kids, and we are able to focus our full attention on the Mass (rather than on keeping Luke quiet and out of trouble).

We decided to go to Saturday evening Mass this week. We knew it might be a little challenging because Luke usually gets fidgety once the homily starts, but we decided to give it a try. We even decided to bypass the cry room and sit in the regular sanctuary. And as luck would have it, we ended up sitting in the middle of a long pew. So there we were ... sardined in ... with a ticking time bomb who we just knew might create a ruckus in the middle of Mass.

Much to our amazement, Luke was so well behaved. We made it past the homily with no loud outbursts. When it was time to receive the Eucharist, the row in front of us stood up to file out of the pew to go up front. With a hearty wave, Luke bid them farewell saying, "Bye, bye. Bye, bye." Snickers all around us. We got the flapping and waving and bye-byeing controlled, but yes, we too were chuckling at his innocent gesture.

After returning to our seats, we were kneeling and trying to keep Luke somewhat still. A man near us sneezed. In the midst of quiet prayer, a tiny little Luke voice rang out, "Ahhh-choo." Again, chuckling amidst the pews.

This is sure to be a Mass we will remember for a while, not only because Luke hung in there for the duration of the hour-long Mass, but he also cracked a few smiles in church.

The Great Pumpkin

We went to Dewey, Arizona, today to Young's Farm to enjoy a fall festival. It's a tradition of Eric's girlfriend Charity's family to go there every fall, so they invited us to go along this year ... and what a great time we had! Luke was a little afraid of the pony rides, but he did brave the big inflatable bouncy with his dad and Uncle Eric. We stocked up on some apple butter, sampled some cider, and picked out the biggest pumpkin we could! It's still in the 90s in Phoenix, but this spot about 1 1/2 hours north of Phoenix near Prescott was a nice breath of autumn air!

The Parrot

Our computer was recently in the shop for some major repairs ... which explains why it's been a while since we've blogged. So here we go.

Luke has been talking up a storm lately. He's getting really good at repeating words back to us ... just like a parrot! His latest favorites are -- up, down, ball, Thomas (for Thomas the Train), Dee Dee (our neighbors' dog), blue, bear, key, truck (actually he refers to all trucks as tow trucks), car, and the list goes on.

One of our favorite evening activities now that it's cooling off is to head to the park for a little soccer action with the Leahy team of 3. Luke is really good at running and kicking the ball, and he throws a great overhead pass, too. It's amazing how much he just likes to run around ... and chase after us!

Long-haired men scare Luke.

Luke is terrified of men with long hair! This phobia first surfaced when we were back in Kansas. Grandpa Jim has this funny Billy Bob hat with a wig attached that he likes to wear when he's in a crazy mood. As soon as Luke spotted Grandpa in that hat, he didn't want to get too close ... and then he even started to back away! We all thought it was rather funny at the time, but little did we know this was actually going to be a much bigger deal for Luke down the road.

Since then, we have noticed that Luke freaks out any time he sees a man with longer hair. He freezes in his tracks and won't budge an inch. And if you can even imagine the look he shoots the offender ... as if to say, "I'm not sure about you and that long hair! Just keep your distance."

Another related incident happened at the mall play area one day. Luke was having a wonderful time running around and climbing and jumping and expending a lot of energy, until he spotted a man with longer curly hair sitting on the side of the play area. Luke completely froze for about a minute ... long enough for other parents to point and comment and notice the look of sheer terror on his face ... and long enough for the poor man to realize that something he was doing (little did he know it was just his hair) was the cause of this poor child's fear. Luke just stared at him until rescued by good ol' Dad.

Tonight we went to a restaurant called Pita Jungle. It's sort of an artsy, ecletic crowd ... and yes, our server had long hair and was wearing a knitted hat. We were sitting inside, and immediately, we noticed that Luke was a little antsy about things. When we figured out why and saw that he kept a close watch on this waiter, we decided to move to an outside table where the waiter wouldn't be in such clear view. We couldn't help but chuckle about Luke's little quirk.

Poor Luke ... and all because of Grandpa's Billy Bob hat!

Our Animal Expert

Lately, Luke has been brushing up on his knowledge of recognizing various species of animals. He has a book that he loves to look at during storytime that has many colorful animal pictures. We started asking him to point to different animals. At first, he knew the basics ... dog, cat, duck, fish, etc. Now he's graduating to wildlife often found in the zoo ... elephant, rhino, turtle, giraffe, and more. He can't say all their names yet but soon! Overall, he can probably identify by picture about 10-12 different animals. Perhaps he's on the path of being a veterinarian like his Grandpa Nelson!

Choo, choo!

 

Luke LOVES trains! "Choo, choo" was one of his first words, and since then, he's always on the search for a train. In the morning when he's eating his breakfast, a train goes by about a mile away, and he stops to hear the faint whistle of the train in the distance.

Great Aunt Janette and Uncle Dick gave Luke a train set, and he runs that train around the track for hours. On a daily basis, Dad has to reconfigure the track so it can run a new "route."