"God , help me sleep"

Oh , Luke. Never a dull moment when he is around. What is really funny to me is that what I'm getting ready to write is so similar to a friend's blog that I just read. And her child is just a week or so younger than Luke. Well, our little guy has been pretty addicted to his pacifier as long as we can remember. We tried at least twice to get rid of it unsuccessfully . Basically because we are weak, we really enjoy our sleep, and because he seemed so miserable. But as his 3rd birthday is quickly approaching (please no judgement for my almost 3 year old with a pacifier) , we told him that he had to give it up. 3 year olds don't need paci's. Plus he was going to give it to our friend's baby .

Well, one day last week he decided he didn't want to take a nap because we had a little girl visiting and she wasn't napping. I said, "ok, but you have to take your pacifier and put it in the trash." He said, "Ok!" Oddly, he ran to the trash , threw it away, and then began to play with the little girl. That night , for some reason, he thought he could get his paci back. I overheard Forrest tell Luke, "God is better than any paci in the world. " Not sure he ever thought he would be saying that! He told him to pray and ask God to help him go to sleep. Later he walked by and heard Luke saying "God help me sleep" over and over. Sweet boy, he was sooooo addicted to that thing. Actually last summer when we were in the US, he was only allowed to have it in the bed. So if he got rebuked or upset about something, he would just run to his room and suck his pacifier for a while.

So the pacifier is gone for good this time. Going to bed isn't as fun as it used to be and he sure does come up with a bunch of stall tactics.

On the other side, his little sis is becoming VERY attached to her "pa" as she says. I told Forrest that if we have baby #3 , we gotta go paci-free. He said the paci and the giraffe blankets are part of who we are now. Oh dear.

Luke and Olivia with the little baby friend that he gave his other paci to.

Just to show how much Luke loves his sister.

Signs of Summer

Lots of watermelon have been consumed already at our house. I've decided that they should just go without clothes for this part. It's a mess for sure!
This is an example of how Olivia is determined to be just like her brother. She wants to eat like him, drink what he drinks, go where he goes, etc.

The neighbor kids come a million times a day to play. Honestly sometimes they drive me crazy with how wild and loud they are. But they really are super kind to Luke and try to speak English to him. And he is picking up more and more of the local language. For his birthday (which he would tell you is "sepppatembbbber 14") we are going to have a separate little party for the neighbor kids. I think they will be excited about that. Luke doesn't care, as long as there is cake and ice cream!

We left for a few days to go to the capital city for Olivia to get vaccinations - and we came back to a puppy! I wasn't so excited about this, and still am not. Especially since she completely destroyed my favorite Teva flip flop!!! Our neighbor gave us the puppy as a gift to Olivia and Luke. But Luke is absolutely in love with "my doggy" as he says and Olivia finally is excited about her. We named her "Blackie" in honor of our dog in Uzbekistan. Only a few of you will understand the significance of that dog, I know. But Luke wanted to name her Rainbow at first.???

Miss Olivia at the park in the capital city - what a smile!

Luke was thrilled to ride all the kid rides at the park in the capital city. He thought he was hot stuff and wasn't even scared a bit. His favorite is bumper cars by far.

It's August already?

I've been a bit absent for the last few weeks from the blog. This summer hasn't exactly been what we had expected, but that's ok. It's just hard to believe that after a few weeks, life is going to get super busy again. After Olivia's party , I think I was burned out on picture taking (and my Project 365 Album is hurting for it!) . But anyway, here are few random shots of the last few weeks that I did manage to capture.

Right before August, I managed to get a 12 month shot of Olivia. I absolutely LOVE this dress. We got it as a gift from a family member, but a friend of mine actually made it. She has a business making adorable monogrammed burp cloths, onesies, dresses, etc. Check it out: www.lil-dumpling.com



Olivia at 12 months - SO FUN. Sometimes acts like she's 16 or 18 months in what she understands. Says many words but here are a few : momma, dada, snack, outside, ya yow (water -she learned Luke's language for this one), eat, Aka and Opa (local language here), mo for Elmo , sit, and many more. The crazy thing is that a couple of weeks ago she started pointing to the couch saying "sit" and then pointing to herself. And she stopped, grunted a bit, looked at me and said "poo poo." I checked her diaper and YES she had pooped. I'm not joking. Please tell me this one will potty train early!! And one night Forrest told Luke "high five" and Olivia immediately held her hand up and said "high five." She basically follows Luke around and wants to do whatever he does. We may be in for some trouble one day with the 2 of them!

2 peas in a pod --fresh from a nap, with their giraffe lovies, watching Elmo.

Last weekend Forrest and Luke camped out in our yard. Luke was THRILLED and wanted to do it again and again. Poor Forrest , who is a incredibly light sleeper, hardly slept that night because of the dogs barking, the call to prayer at 4 am (earlier in the summer) , and then neighbors started playing music at 6 :30 AM. Forrest said next time they are going to the mountains where it will be quiet!

Luke and his girl Madi - they are quite the pair lately. Sure is fun now, that they will just run off and play together. They adore each other. And Olivia just follows them around and tries to be included. :)