Evel Knievel?

"And to the tiger at the zoo, Madeleine just said, 'pooh, pooh.'"

So Luke is beginning to remind me of the character, Madeleine, from the famous children's book. Put simply, he's fearless, and I find myself wondering, is this normal behavior for a baby? Or do I have a future bungee jumper on my hands?

For example, Luke has never been afraid of anyone he's met. No one is too loud, big, or strange for him. (That's not to say that he's been a fan of everyone he's met, but that it's clearly not fear that stands in his way.) Also, when swinging on a playground infant swing, he likes to be pushed extremely high. I'm pretty sure he wants that funny feeling in his tummy, or he's not entirely satisfied. Not convinced? A doberman pincher bounded up to him and licked him in the face. Luke's reaction? Completely nonplussed. (Obviously, I wasn't present for this little encounter, or Luke would not have been anywhere near a doberman pincher. Also, there would have been much more fainting/screaming involved.) For that matter, Luke's never shown fear of any dogs. Of the two of us, I was definitely the more hesitant one around Murphy in AL. And take the vacuum cleaner. I remember when I was little, my brother and I would pretend the vacuum cleaner was a monster and run from it while my mom was vacuuming. And I would think that for an 8 month old, the huge, noisy contraption would be somewhat intimidating. Well. If anyone should be intimidated in that relationship, it's the vacuum cleaner. Luke stalks it from room to room, like a predator tracking his prey. He wants it to bump him; he's dying to touch it/grab it/climb on it. I'm constantly having to move him out of the way. Just to see what he'd do, I zoomed it right toward him in all it's big, loud, lighted glory. His reaction? Unadulterated joy. I think he wanted it to run over him. At the very least, he was ready and willing to grab on for dear life. And don't get me started on all his backflip/dives/tosses into the air...[Sidenote: The one thing he cannot stand is sudden, loud applause. Like the kind that 50 kids crammed into a small room make at a Superbowl party. Or the kind 6,000 people make in a convention center. He flips out.]

The thing is, neither Greg nor I are thrill seekers. In many ways, I'm a downright scaredy cat, and Greg definitely considers himself to have been a cautious child (no jumping off the bridge and into the river for him. At least not until he saw it demonstrated repeatedly by his brothers). So I'm not sure where Luke's getting this daredevil nature. Like I said, maybe this is just typical baby behavior, and Luke will become more cautious as he begins to understand the concept of danger. But for now, I'm beginning to wonder whether this child is going to one day jump out of a helicopter on a snowboard...

On the road again...

Sunday, Feb. 25--Whew! Luke and I just got home from what is technically our longest trip ever. Last Friday morning, we went with Greg and his youth group to Gatlinburg, TN for Winterfest. I realized going in that maybe taking a baby to stay in a hotel and attend a youth rally with thousands of screaming teenagers in frigid, snowy weather wasn't the sanest thing I'd ever done...but Luke was a champ. Shockingly, he slept incredibly well the first night and napped well on Saturday (Saturday night was a different story, but mainly b/c he kept being woken up by excited teens running outside the hotel). Winterfest itself was pretty good. Not to be critical, but the actual program seemed a bit tired and uninspired. I'm not sure how much our kids got from it. They did, however, have a great time bonding with each other, which is something they've really needed. And two boys decided to get baptized, so that was great. My crowning accomplishment of the weekend was getting myself and Luke showered,bathed and ready, packing up all 37 bags we had brought, washing dishes, and loading the car in the snow with a baby in 1 1/2 hours--and this on less than 4 hours of sleep! (Greg was in a session with the kids, by the way. He wasn't just being a slacker:)).

After Winterfest, we headed to Alabama to see our new nephew, Jackson Robert Kirby. When we came to the door, Chris and Jill gasped--to them, Luke looked humongous! Then, when we saw Jack, it was our turn to gasp--he was tiny! It was so amazing to hold him. I couldn't believe that Luke had ever been that little (okay, well he hadn't), or even close to that little. Neither Jack or Luke seemed particularly taken with each other--Jack's not taken with much these days, and Luke quickly loses interest in things he can't grab and poke.

We left AL on Tuesday, and stopped by Atlanta to see Grandma, Uncle Joe, and Aunt Betty. For some reason, our trips always become marathon trips where we try to see everyone! Though Luke had been vigorously fighting a nap for an hour before we arrived, he was great at Uncle Joe and Aunt Betty's house, mostly b/c it was new, and he is REALLY nosy. He contentedly played on the floor with an old magazine for ten minutes, leading Aunt Betty to comment that he is really laid back. It's funny--we have never thought of Luke as a laid back baby, but we've been hearing that comment a lot lately. Maybe he's mellowing out...

Next, it was on to Macon, where Greg dropped me off for a few days and headed back to Summerville. Luke had a ball with his grandma, who just might be his favorite person in the world; she is by far the funniest to him. She keeps him in stitches! So for three days he was royally spoiled and showered with all kinds of attention from Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Mike, and several visitors. Grandpa even bought him a walker to scoot around in. It was funny, though: my dad accidentally put the wheels on backwards, so Luke had to use the back wheels to steer. He quickly realized this, and consequently spent the whole day walking backwards, with his neck craned around to navigate. Luckily, Granddad corrected the problem when he came home that evening. Now we are back in Summerville and are falling back into our old, comfortable routine. I love it.

Luke has also reached a few milestones. He perfected his crawling technique while at Chris and Jill's house, and got plenty of extra practice at his Grandma and Grandpa Sparrow's. He also slept through the night (as in, 8:00pm to 6:00am, with no waking up) three out of four nights in Macon. I guess that's not really a milestone--he's slept through the night before--but more of a reason to celebrate. I'm not holding my breath for night #4, however, as he is proudly standing beside me in his crib as I type this--having just pulled up to a standing position for the second time in his life. I'm not sure how to respond, whether to cheer or to encourage him to lay him down and tell him to go to sleep. I'm pretty sure the latter will not help at all, so I'm ignoring him for right now...

So it's been awhile...

In the world of academia, there is a phrase, publish or perish. Anyone who has ventured to our blog lately must have assumed then that we as a family have perished, as we have not published a blog in over two months. Especially considering that we are our own editors, it would only stand to reason. But never fear: we are not dead. You can insert most of the standard excuses of the absentee blogger (we've been busy, no electrifying news, we're lazy) as they mostly apply. Now I can't help but feel this pressure to have some sort of exciting proclamation as a glorious blogging resurrection. .... I have no such glorious proclamation.

Things are pretty much the same around here. The same is good, though. Kim and I are having a blast as parents. Luke is getting bigger and bigger it seems by the day. A month or so ago at his 6 month appointment, he received the dream diagnosis that every person on earth wishes to receive from the doctor: he needed to gain weight. Unfortunately, the doctor didn't size up his Dad as well and tell him the same. But we have been feeding Luke non-stop since that time. He's tried several different baby foods and has liked all of them. Kim is also still nursing and we are giving him formula as well. Two weeks later he had gained over 2 pounds, so now he's right back on track. We also have survived his first cold. I'm sure we would get little sympathy from Ken and Victoria with all the illnesses that have floated around their family this fall, but we did lose a good deal of sleep as his congestion made sleeping quite difficult for him.

Presently, he's right on the cusp of crawling. He can basically get wherever he wants though by rolling and "swimming" along the ground. He also has a great affinity for walking around holding Mom or Dad's hands. He is showing all the signs of teething - except the teeth. He's been running a low fever and chewing on everything, but so far no teeth have broken through.

This weekend Luke, Kim and I are headed to Gatlinburg for Winterfest with the youth group. Luke has gotten where he really likes the teens in the group, so it should be alot of fun for him. Hopefully it won't be too blisteringly cold in the mountains. After the youth group heads back to Summerville, we are heading to Athens, AL to meet our nephew, Jackson Robert, who was born last week. All of that means that in the next week or so, you should be able to expect a plethora of pictures to be added to the photosite. If you haven't checked it lately, there are several great pictures from the holidays with family.