My little sponge... and the Wall O' Diapers

I thought I'd sit down and share a little bit about my sweet Luke! He's spending the morning with his Mimi and Grandaddy and the house is just not the same with him here! You hear all of the stories of the 'terrible twos' and I am beginning to understand that that means. Don't get me wrong, he is a sweet, precious little boy but I can see him attempting to assert himself and be independent. That desire to be independent usually comes out in tantrums and lots of, "No Ma'ams!" (and even the occasional attempt at hitting!!!) At the end of the day though he still loves for Mommy to rock him and I love it too! I know it will soon be a thing of the past!

He is like a little sponge... soaking everything and I mean everything up! One day last week The Hubby and I were riding into town with Luke. We were just driving along, listening to the radio. All of a sudden Luke starts saying, "phone ring, phone ring". I said, "No, the phone's not ringing." Well, he continued to do it and Hubby and I kind of looked at each other a few times, like "What is he talking about??" All of a sudden Hubs says, "Hey, didn't that song use to be your ring tone??" AHH, yes it did!!! Luke heard the song (Made to Love You, by Toby Mac) and knew that it was my phone's ring!! So he was trying to tell me that my phone was ringing! How funny!!!! He is very observant! He knew exactly what he was talking about and we were the ones who didn't have a clue!!

In the past I've talked a lot about our issues with food. Well, (and hopefully this won't jinx us!) here lately we have made leaps and bounds in that area. He has developed quite an appetite and has expanded some of his eating habits. He is now eating PB with jelly (all fruit preserves). Before, he would MAYBE eat a PB sandwich.. and at the most a few bites but just this week he had 2 halves of PB sandwiches, one which had strawberry preserves on it. He ate the crust and all!!! Monday night we had one of those skillet meals (Garlic Chicken, I think) and I added extra frozen broccoli and peas to it and Luke had 2 helpings! And he ate everything where before he might have picked out a piece of broccoli or two and a handful of peas. Also for the first time this week he ate a whole helping of corn (off the cob, when before he's only eaten it on the cobb). I think it helped that I told him it came from Granddaddy's garden! It has been really exciting to see him eat all of these new things and in such large amounts! It may seem strange for someone to think that this is all exciting to me, but if you ever have a picky toddler... you will understand! I really think that being consistent with him has helped. I was talking with a friend this week about that. I think it's very important that Luke knows that he has to eat what's on his plate because that's what Mommy cooked. If you don't want it, you don't have to eat it. But you don't get anything else either! (Don't worry, I don't starve my child, we always have something that he WILL eat, even if it's a roll or a piece of toast!) I've also been limiting his snacks to pretty much fruit or dairy (cheese and yogurt). I think keeping him away from carb type snacks have helped his appetite at meal times. Occasionally, he will get crackers of some kind but I keep it very small servings because I think he was filling up on snacks like that. I reserve snacks like goldfish or teddy grahams for when we are out and about since yogurt and fruit tend to be a little messy!!! One of his new favorites are baby carrots and ranch dressing. He pretty much has that every day at lunch with whatever else he's having! One day this week I baked him some french fries and at the end of the meal he ate every carrot and left about 3 or 4 fries on his plate!

One more little thing about him that just melts my heart... he's become very good at saying "thank you" when he's given something (especially if it's food). So when I serve him his meal or even a snack, he says, "Thank You, Mommy" in the sweetest little voice you've ever heard! Moments like those make all of those temper tantrums fade away!

I'm a very proud Mommy! :)

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This past Sunday, I had a Diaper and Wipes Shower at church. Let me just show you a picture....

What a HUGE blessing! Oh, and that's The Hubs on the floor. He thought laying in the floor was a good idea for the photo.. !? (You know I love you!)

Have a fantastic weekend... I've got to figure out how to fit all of these diapers in the closet!