A few days of firsts.

1. First time Luke fell asleep in his bike trailer. Not even the most violent bumps roused him.

2. First time a pincher bug woke Bethany up. It was crawling up and down her arm.

3. First time Luke scared Shealyn. He chased her around emitting a deep roar.

4. First time Mother's Day did not involve Dad paying a huge restaurant bill or Mom and Aunt Robin doing all the cooking and cleaning. (Mother's Day tends to be a very ironic holiday.)

5. First time Luke shoved Timothy. Luke was riding his car, Timothy came over to hop on it or take it away, and Luke shoved him down to the asphalt. We were not proud of this feat.

6. First time Luke performed an unassisted somersault. He thinks they are so fun. We think they came easily since he was so good at banging his head on the ground from anger. That's how he first learned about it. Mad. Bang head. Flip! Whee!

7. First time, last time, only time, please-let-us-never-have-to-do-it-again-time that Luke was dedicated at church. Luke is not one to want to be contained in adults' arms, let's just say that. He wanted the microphone, and he wanted to be free. When neither of his requests was granted, he let the whole congregation know. The sober dedication ended up being more like a comedy show. Luke: frustrated. Parents: embarrassed. Everybody else: amused. (Unfortunately, amusement isn't the point of a child-dedication service.) (The last question we parents were asked: "Do you here today acknowledge your need for God's strength and guidance in bringing up your children?" Our answer of "We do!" seemed like a gross understatement.)

Now for some photos.


More pictures from Friday night, at Timothy's first-birthday party:


We love Luke's nose in this shot.


Doesn't he look like such a big boy???


Timothy seemed to enjoy his new toy that Luke bought him. Before riding on it, Timothy pushed it back and forth across his living room, crashing into the sliding door one way, then crashing into the kitchen table the other way. Back and forth, crashing.


Closely supervising our children. (You've got to seize that adult-talk-time when you can.)


Saturday afternoon fun in the sink:


"Luke, smile!"





More Saturday-afternoon fun. Practicing a new trick: climbing on a chair to flick the light off and on, off and on, off and on:




Sunday morning before the child dedication:


Delivering a chocolate old-fashioned donut to Bethany's mom. (After we indulged in an apple fritter for ourselves. Shhh.)


Two mommies on Mother's Day.


On our way to church.




Arrived at church, Luke wanted to bring along his lawn mower. Now if we had only let him "vroom vroom" it around the stage...


Waiting for the service to start. Luke loves this part of church.




The crew of families at the dedication service. We were so happy to see the Hafflys there too! Baby Steven was much better behaved (but he had a good excuse, we assured ourselves, being only a few weeks old). We wondered why we didn't do this earlier in Luke's life.


Noticing the ceiling fans.


After church, we tried to get a couple pictures of Luke with his Mama, seeing as it was Mother's Day and all. This was the best "smile" we got out of him.


This was what more of the pictures turned out to be. (Ever wonder what the world would be like if parents were as moody as their kids were?) The pastor after the ceremony told us he got a kick out of Luke and reported that Luke sure seems to have a mind of his own. Ya think?


Sunday afternoon Mother's Day picnic at Orchard Park:


The gang. (Well, some of us.)


The rest of the gang. (Minus Kristen and Dan and Alexander and Gracie and Patti and Tony and Chrissie and Mandie and so many more family members who we wished lived closer. :(


This shot was going to be perfect. Sarah was centered between Sam and Lisa. Then at the last second, she needed to be attached to a man. Typical. Hilarious. Poor Sam, left in the dust.


Luke knows where he belongs. He ain't no mama's boy.


But maybe he's an aunties' boy. Sandwiched between Auntie Sarah and Auntie Sam, he knew they would spoil him.




They let him eat lots of guacamole! Yessss!




On to grabbing Mom's entire chicken breast, smashing it, then offering it back. Happy Mother's Day, Bethany.


Lounging with Mom.


Loving the party. She lives for them.


Secretly, we think Daniel lives for family parties, too.


Hopefully all these pictures prove we all had a wonderful Mother's Day. It was so fun. So relaxing.


Escorting Luke back to civilization.


Grammy captured one of Luke's faux laughs on camera. The day was filled with his forcing out "Ha ha"s when everybody else would laugh. They were loud, and so clearly fake. Most of them came out when he followed us around as we played croquet. He had no idea what was going on. But when we would laugh at someone's (okay, Bethany's) horrible shot, or at Uncle Richard's amazing chip across the lawn, he would pretend like he knew exactly what was going on and would clap and force out those laughs.


This laugh was NOT fake. Luke plopped, naked, into Sarah's lap, and being the Sarah that she is, she tickled the daylights out of him.


Fun with the faucet. He now knows how to turn it off and on, and this is what we did for two hours this afternoon. Off. On. Off. On.


An impromptu game of keep-the-beach-ball-in-the-air.


Faceoff!


Helping Luke do somersaults.


Richie and Bethany tried to play a few rounds of smashball, but someone crashed the party after just one rally.


Tired boy at the end of the day with his Poppy. ("Papa.")




But wait: Who said the party's over?




(You know it's over when all the ice is dumped on the ground.) (But ah, that's when Luke's fun began.)


Monday fun with Shealyn:


Playing "jumping bean," "let's brush our teeth," and "let's exchange pacifiers" in the crib. Shealyn collected six pacifiers before she decided to share one with Luke. We were cracking up in the other room. She is in the "mine" stage. (Can't wait til Luke gets there.) Even Luke's mower is hers now, she says. Yes. Even his beloved mower.


What a good daddy.


What a good baby. Tuesday's belated Mother's Day present. After a trip to get his shot (yuck) and then to toddler storytime at the library (he opted to play basketball outside instead) (surprised?), Bethany took off his shoes, helmet, and hat, carried him up the stairs, plopped him in his crib, and without a peep he slept another hour and a half. Thatta boy!

I think we'll keep him.