Writer's block. Just pictures this time.

(Pictures are the fun part anyway.)


A current fetish of Luke's is to don glasses. It's our ticket to an instant Lukeysmile. "Ahh, I can finally see!"


Talk about living in the shadows of Luke's birthday--poor Poppy has his birthday after Luke's AND Richie's. Luke made sure he had a jolly time, though, and faithfully diverted the attention to himself. Luke had a giggle fit when Poppy made the Russian nesting dolls pop out of his mouth. He thought it was hilarious and laughed harder than we've ever heard him laugh before.






Just an ordinary day, hangin' out on a whale vertebra. (The vertebra is from Uncle Edgar and Aunt Mies, from Alaska. Isn't it amazing?!)


Pushing his baby in his baby carriage.


Luke has made it VERY clear that he adores his Poppy. He will wander to the back of the house to find him, and then pester him ceaselessly while he is trying to get work done.














Luke helped Poppy and Grammy do their yard work last week, and they gave him free wheelbarrow rides to repay him for his assistance.




Whenever Bethany's dad and Richie start to play Backgammon, Luke recognizes the sound of the dice and promptly assaults them. He usually helps roll the dice for a while; this time, he decided just to sit right on the board.


Luke has been really enjoying dancing lately. He no longer just bops his head around, but now has also learned to stomp his feet and swish his hands. He also enjoys when we pick him up to dance with him, but always maintains a very sober demeanor the whole time, as shown here. (Grammy looks sober too. Maybe they were dancing to a tragic song?)


"Giggles with Daddy are always a treat. Giggles are silly, giggles are sweet..."


"Giggling up, and giggling down, we like to giggle all over town!" (Even in the Orchard Park dumpster area.)


Our little reader.


Wow, what cool fingers. (And what droopy cheeks.)


We finally found the solution to Luke's squirming and running away during diaper changes: At the end of a successful diaper swap, as a treat he gets to poke into the box of baby powder (it's actually just corn starch). Dad lets him pinch a lot more out of the box than Mom does. (They actually went out on errands like this.)


Davis, California weather forecast: rain for 10 days. Finally, after being cooped inside all day, Bethany decided to make the best of it and indulged in Luke's begging to go outside (he literally bangs on the front door and pleads). It was pouring rain, but Luke was on cloud nine. He stomped in puddles, sat in the puddles, picked up handfuls of mud, and toddled across the soaked grass until Bethany feared CPS might remove Luke from the Armstrong home because of child endangerment. Wet and freezing through and through, he still threw a tantrum when she dragged him inside.


Last (but not least). OK, so imagine this face, tilted a bit to the side, with Luke's arms jutted out (one much higher than the other) as he toddles toward you to fall on you and give you a hug. It gets us every time.