A Friend's Birthday Party

We went to Elias' birthday party today. His mom is a good friend of mine (and Peter too). He was turning one. It was really fun to watch Luke run around and play with all the other kids. He had a ball, chasing the ball. And there was a little puppy in the yard behind which would come up to the fence wagging his tail wildly and then run away when Luke got close. Luke thought it was hilarious. He said "sunny!" which is how he says "funny." I think it's so cute when he says that, I guess just because he's being more abstract than simply pointing out and naming an object. Another funny thing he says: every time I say something about "Uncle Peter," Luke says "Janet." I guess we know who HE thinks is worth mentioning.

When we stopped on our way home and I went to get Luke out of the car, he had a little rubber snake on his chest, which freaked me out, because I didn't know he had one! When I first saw it I thought immediately it was a toy, but then I thought, "where did he get a toy snake?!?! Is it real!?!?!? OHhhh, it came out of his goody bag from the party.

Also, today Luke figured out how to put all the pieces into one of those wooden puzzles with the animal cutouts all by himself. Then he wanted to try another one when we were picking one out for Elias and he did that one all by himself too. He wanted to carry it around all day, but kept dropping the pieces out and getting upset. He was later able to put all the pieces in the correct place in the shape sorter at another friend's house and kept emptying it out and putting them back in again and again. It was almost like something "clicked" in his brain today, which was fun to see.