Menacing motorboat?

Minor hunger pangs strike, scooching across the floor isn't going fast enough, or sleepiness starts to set in, and... what is that I hear??? B-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-uhhhhh!!!! The motorboat noise!

Luke has somehow gravitated to the blowing-through-your-lips motorboat noise in moments of frustration. The context tells us that he's trying to communicate. "Hey! I'm not happy. Come fix this now!!" But it's hard to take demands seriously when they sound like a little motorboat. Fortunately, his use of this noise for whining doesn't detract from his delight when we make the sound. He smiles and laughs gleefully when we do it, and especially when Uncle Travis does his version. For Luke though, eventually the motorboat frustration crescendoes into real cries and yells, which are much more effective at prompting the service he desires!

Another favorite Luke-ism is his second game. In the first game that Luke latched onto, he repeatedly looks at you and then hides his face when you smile at him. In his second game, he sits on the floor and leans back toward you until he falls on your leg. Then he smiles as you make a funny face at him and sit him back up. Once seated he immediately falls back again and loves to have the sequence repeated. I don't know who enjoys his games more, him or me!

Finally, I want to give an update on his teething progress for all of you who have feared for his well-being with a little piranha-tooth in his mouth. It has now been joined by a second bottom tooth and we think the top ones aren't too far behind. The razor edges don't seem to cause Luke pain, but the other night it was cute to see him sucking on the edge of his high chair, as if his pureed squash hadn't been quite enough for dinner. Later when I was wiping the chair down I noticed what looked like caked-on baby cereal in that spot -- aha! I thought, he must have been sucking on food there after all. But when it didn't come off, I looked closer and saw that it wasn't food. The marks were gouged bite marks! I wonder what other furniture our little puppy will be chewing on next.

Speaking of our home, we are thankful that the end of this stage of re-flooring is in sight. Today we moved our appliances back in from the garage, after two weeks without laundry, dishwashing, oven, or even kitchen sink capabilities! We just have a little flooring left and need to finish the edges. We don't know how we could have accomplished the job without the help of our dream team of flooring and baby charming pros, Grandma and Grandpa Nielsen and Uncle Travis! Here's a pic of Luke giving them a smile of approval and appreciation for their instrumental help in installing the lovely new floors for him to play on.

Buckaroo with bite!

Luke's first tooth arrived this morning! Of course I knew it was coming -- his drool deluges and nonstop gnawing never let teething slip too far from mind. But nonetheless it astonished me to look in and find a scraggly white protrusion from his cute little gums. Once the shock settled, it was interesting to check out this new development and even inspired pride in the little guy for hurdling a difficult milestone. But I miss the total little baby gummyness; the scraggly tooth just looks so out of place. And what a sharp ridge it is! I hear that this helps it to cut to the surface and that use will dull it. In the meantime it must be uncomfortable on his tongue and upper gums. Maybe if he keeps up the gnawing he can speed up the dulling process!

At the moment, the babe is sleeping off this latest accomplishment against all odds. Erik is using a demolition hammer to remove mortar that previously held tiles to the entryway floor -- just a few feet from Luke's bedroom! We turned up his shushing machine and placed pillows at the base of his door, and somehow Luke is snoozing away. We are almost finished with renovation stage 1, removing the flooring in our entire house except for the bedrooms and bathrooms. The result is that the whole place feels like a garage, with concrete floors and empty space. Meanwhile our garage is looking like a storage unit, filled with our furniture and kitchen appliances. As the re-flooring project looms larger and larger in the scope of work it requires, we're thankful for the reinforcements that are on the way. Erik's parents and brother arrive tomorrow, and plan to help us move forward with installing tile and laminate wood. We can't wait to see how it turns out and to have our storage unit back to a garage and our garage back to a home!