Normal life resumes.

Ahh.

Richie is back at work on his research, still on track to finish this summer; Bethany is tackling her list of "All the Things I Reeeeeally Want to Do Before Baby Comes in Six Weeks" (yes, folks, just six more weeks!); New Baby is growing and grooving and doing just great; and Luke is up to his pre-anesthesia antics:

- Learning more words, and adding the S sound to make words plural. But plural words come out ending more like SH than S, and it gives us warm this-is-way-too-cute fuzzies every time: At In N Out he begs for FRIESH, and if he is prompted to use good manners, out comes FRIESH PEESH! And at Poppy and Grammy's he begs (and begs and begs) for someone to play toys with him so he calls out, TOYSH! TOYSH!

- Still really into one-on-one time (lest the adults talk to each other instead of giving him the full attention he believes he deserves). If he is playing with someone, everyone else gets a little wave of the hand and a sweet, but intense, "Bye-bye! BYE!!!"

- Painfully honest. Grammy put a dollop of food on his tray, and he pointed at it and declared, "Poo poo!" (In reality, her cooking is fabulous; but we do have a picky little man on our hands.)

- Getting very brief in his prayers. He used to pray for meals: "Da dod, da dum, la loo, MA MAN!" (Dear God, thank you, love you, AMEN!) Now it is just: "Da dod, MA MAN!" (Dear God, AMEN!) And yet he is still so, so very proud of his ability to pray. He recently heard a siren and started to pray for the people who were hurt. It warmed our hearts. He does seem to remember what happened to him on the ambulance last week and maintains a healthy fear. No more fun and games, those sirens!

- Full of songs. Anytime Luke sees a bus, or rides his own, he wants us to sing "The Wheels on the Bus," and he does all the motions along with us, while joining us in singing the last line. "All through the town" sounds like "Aaaa tooo tooown!" He sings "Row row row, your boat," but gets stuck after the first line, so it sounds like "Row row row row row row row..." And he readily sings "No, no, no" to the tune of "Hot Cross Buns" (we are trying to teach him ways to get the N-O word out of his system so he is not tempted to scream it in people's (usually Sarah's) faces). And everywhere we go, he is humming "Freres Jacques." Yesterday Mommy and Luke did errands, and there she waddled around downtown Davis, seven and a half months pregnant, hand in hand with the little white-haired toddler, who was singing "Freres Jacques" loudly with profound lyrics: "La la la la, la la la la, LA LA LAAAA! LA LA LAAAA!" Heads turned, spectators laughed, Bethany blushed, and secretly she was so proud to be walking hand in hand with the happy, singing little man.

- Fiercely loyal to those on his good list. (He still categorizes people as either Good, or Scary. There really is no in-between.) He will chant their names until they suddenly appear, or until Mom and Dad are driven crazy and finally succeed in distracting him. One of his current favorites is cousin Alexander, whom he affectionately calls AL. The other day Bethany told Luke how much she loved him and then asked him a question she often asks, "But who loves you even more than Mommy does?" Usually he replies happily, "Dod!" (God.) But this time, Luke had a different answer for her. "Who loves you even more than Mommy does?" He thought for a moment, looked up at her with delight, and declared:

"AL!!!"

The two cousin-buddies get to play for hours tomorrow for Thanksgiving, so we'll see how much AL really does love Mr. Luke.

And now on with the show.


Luke is particularly naughty around Sarah, recently caught bopping her on the head repeatedly with a cardboard roll. Yet at other times, he is sweeter to no one: so many spontaneous bear-hugs, hand-holds, play-times, exchanges of weird sounds that get them both laughing (no one else gets it), hiding under pillows... The two make quite the special pair.


Too clingy to Mama after the hospital drama, Luke got to spend some quality Daddy time last weekend. Daddy took him out to the fields and let him do whatever his little heart desired. Throw dirt clods? Sure.


Good hideout! Can't see you!


Posing near a sprinkler.


"Helloooooo..."


Post-nap fun with Mommy.




Last week we were sooo happy to get a visit from Nick! Though Nick couldn't bring Beth or Timothy, Luke was on Cloud Nine with his visitor, and chanted NIT NIT NIT! all throughout dinner. He was also on "DONE!" patrol: examining Nick's plate and shouting "DONE!" the moment the last bite was eaten, because "done eating" = "you can play with me now!" Nick was a great sport, and played in Luke's room with him for a while (one-on-one, of course; Mom and Dad both got very intense Bye-Byes from Luke). Then Nick needed to go, and we told Luke he could pick out one book for Nick to read him. What book did he pick? The longest book in his shelf, of course: his Baby Bible! We all got a good laugh out of that one. And the best part? Nick read him every page. Luke's dream come true.


The hiding duck.


Gracie is here!!! Ohio's loss, our gain. She gets to spend a month in California, and it only took Luke a day to warm up to his auntie before he sprinted down the hall at the very sight of her, arms open wide for a running hug. Now he calls for Dut-Dut (his nickname for her) constantly. Sweeeet. Loooove hearing "DUT-DUT" all day... (ALL day...) Anyway, she has taken some great photos, and these are just a few from her first Sunday with us all. In N Out, of course.


FRIESH!!!!


"And my, what a big hamburger you have, my son!"


A toddler only sits at a table for so long... Then Daddy must go chase him.


And Mommy must tend to his hydration needs. (He begged for people's sodas, but what a mean mommy, just water!) (NO MORE CAVITIES, PLEASE, YOUNG MAN!!!)


Playing it cool on Poppy's lap with Dut-Dut's sunglasses on.


And indulging in his wearing-gigantic-shoes fetish.

We thought about making this post more Thanksgivingish and all, but when we stopped to write a list of everything we were thankful for, we realized we'd exceed our blog storage space. Really, where can we even begin? Last week's Anesthesia Adventure was a good reminder of how precious even the little things are (like normal breathing! normal body temperature! no ambulance rides!), and we are infinitely grateful for our lives and all God's blessings to us.

And we're thankful for YOU! Thank you for being part of our lives, as impersonally Internet-based as the interaction may be...

(But thankful for the Internet, too.)

Happy Thanksgiving, one and all!

(And may we mention HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Bethany's mom and Aunt Pauline, whose birthdays happen to be ON Thanksgiving?! Happy Birthday!!!)