Thanksgiving in Seattle

Picture of Luke from daycare. "Oh yeah, you know I'm cute!"

This year we had Thanksgiving in Seattle instead of going to Cleveland because Amit's family had plans to go to India. It was our first holiday with just our family unit, and we were somewhat at a loss of what to do. On Thursday morning we let Luke watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade on TV (a rare treat for him). He was completely engrossed the entire time and had fun dancing along with the people on TV. In the afternoon we went to the a Thanksgiving dinner at church. It was semi-potluck, and we brought stuffing. We had invited one of our neighbors to come with us, but they weren't able to make it (sick kid) so we ended up sitting with a couple that was on their honeymoon! They had just gotten married 6 days before and were touring the great Pacific Northwest because, well, Seattle is awesome. They came to church the Sunday before and heard about the dinner, and doing what every newly married couple would do, decided to eat free food.  We had fun meeting them and it was certainly not something we would have experienced had we gone somewhere else for Thanksgiving!

Amit and Luke at the Stake Thanksgiving Dinner at the stake center.
Look at how much fun Luke is having! His laughing may be influenced by Amit tickling him...

On a more touching note, the prayer that was said over the food really touched Marinda.  In it he gave thanks that we could live in a time and a place where we could have so many blessings and that we acknowledge that we are a rare exception compared to most everyone else who has lived on the Earth.  "I always knew that we were special and unique with all of our blessings compared to everyone else in the world, but when he mentioned everyone throughout history it became overwhelming.  It made me wonder if all the things we think are important and worth raising our voices about would be looked at by the 99.99% of other people who have lived on this Earth as petty and ridiculous.  We have food, family, a roof over our heads and won't be shot on site for our beliefs - we should really remember that everything is just extras."

Earlier in the week Marinda took Luke to the Arboretum for a walk. Luke got to explore nature, and he even found a tractor and a leaf blower. Nature is awesome! After circling the tractor for 10 minutes, the guy even let him sit on it!

Luke points to literally every airplane he sees. And even some he doesn't (the ones above the clouds he hears)

"Look mommy, I found a leaf!"

Luke finds the bulldozer and a leafblower

Luke has to keep his career options open
in case being a Olympic Gold Medalist, Astronaut, and/or President doesn't work out

Dramatic shot of Luke on his expedition

Luke enjoying nature

On Friday we were at a bit of a loss of what to do so we decided to go the zoo. The last time we went to the zoo Luke was only about a year old, so it was interesting seeing the huge difference in how he reacted to the animals. He had a great time. At first he was more interested in the ropes and plants than in following mommy and daddy to go see animals, but eventually he got into it. Our first stop was the baby lion cubs. Whenever the lion cubs would do something unexpected, like clean themselves, he would point, turn and look at us and then smile. By far the biggest hit at the zoo was the giraffe family with a three month old baby giraffe. The giraffes would walk into their barn and back out again so it was like they were playing peak-a-boo with Luke. Luke would get upset whenever the giraffes went back in the barn and he couldn't see them, but as soon as they came back out he'd smile and be happy. We also saw a hippo at the zoo. We didn't get as much time with the hippo, but Luke had a huge smile on his face when he first saw it. It's great seeing Luke change so much since his last zoo visit!

A giraffe! Luke's new favorite zoo friend!

Luke riding the metal hippo

Yesterday we officially started decorating for Christmas! We bought the tree, but first we needed to make room for it in the living room. We moved our armchair out of the living room into the bedroom, and Luke decided that he really needed to climb it en route and read a book with Amit.

"Thank you for reading to me daddy!"
*heart. melt*

"I want THIS one"

Luke now knows what it's like to be tickled by a Christmas tree

Last night Luke had a laugh attack like we haven't seen in a long time. He was playing with his popper/vacuum cleaner in his nursery right before bedtime. He ran it into Amit's foot, who pushed it back towards Luke a little. Apparently Luke thought this was soooooooo funny and just did it over and over again with Amit for at least 5 minutes laughing hysterically the entire time.  A few times he even fell over he was laughing so hard! Apparently this is what happens when you get a little boy who's so tired from molars coming in!

On the "word" front, Luke is finally saying two words consistently!  Amit was talking to Jejema on the phone when Luke came running up, grabbed the phone from Amit's hand and said right into the speaker "HHHhhhhhhiiiiiiiiIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!"  If you didn't get that, he is saying "hi" now all the time.  He also is saying "no" a lot too.  Though it isn't really a single "no," it more of a "no, no, no, no, no, no, no......" that just sounds so sad and pathetic that maybe we really don't need to change his diaper this time...

Luke had his first day in Nursery at church today! Nursery is the 'class' for 18 mo - 3 yr olds. Luke gets to go this month to get used to it before starting for real once he reaches 18 months. Needless to say, both of us are very ready for Luke to be in nursery. And Luke did really great on his first day. He played with toys, ate his snack, and only spilled his water cup once. He didn't really get the idea of singing time or the lesson but he'll get used to it.  Here's a funny joke:  How do you know if a couple is Mormon?  When 18 months is a much bigger birthday than 21 years.  :)

Have a great week!