Barbarians at the Gate

Here is my little barbarian clamoring to get into the kitchen. I have learned that emptying the dishwasher is impossible with the little monkey trying to climb inside it, so now I toss him on the other side of the baby gate while I am filling or emptying it. As the dishwasher is such a thrill, he immediately climbs to standing in order to simply get a glance inside at all of the glorious wonders it holds within. He literally rattles the bars of the baby gate like a prisoner at his cell door. I expect him to start swaying and singing "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen" while running his drinking cup over the bars next.

Here is a quick list of things that are no longer easy. Just tossing these off from he top of my head.

*Anything that involves the filling or emptying of the dishwasher.
*Diaper changes. Luke is hell bent on crawling away. They become mini wrestling matches.
*Me taking a shower while the critter is awake. (there is simply no safe place to put him)
*Me getting dressed, putting on make up or doing any other sort of womanly beauty maintenance task while Luke is awake. Yesterday while I was trying to put on makeup he systematically pulled each and every shoe out of our closet. Every one! He has a dedication to task that is impressive.
*Eating dinner. Luke is now trying to "cruise" between the couches and the coffee table. He does this with varying levels of success. Dinner usually entails at least one fall/head bang/wail/consolation session.
*Feeding Luke. He wants to do it himself, and he has also perfected the art of spitting. He "blows raspberries" with a mouth full of peas, or carrots, or some other equally bright colored mush. I end up with it in my hair. Sexxxxxy.
*Being in any room with an outlet, at any time. Luke makes a beeline for outlets. Not kidding. He cannot resist the siren song of any shiny object. And one mounted a mere foot off of the wall? Fuggettabout it.
*Being in the office. Yesterday Luke reached up, grabbed hold of the drawer pull on Nate's desk, the drawer opened, and I looked down to see Luke suddenly and unexpectedly hanging by one arm from the then open drawer. His entire body had lifted off of the ground and he was supporting it all with just one hand on the drawer pull. To his credit, he neither let go nor cried, just looked up at me totally aghast. I rescued him. The office is simply a jungle of wonder, with wires, papers, drawers, and all sorts of shiny things.
* Eating with Luke on your lap. He is unbelievable in his ability to throw his entire body at, and connect with, whatever it is I am eating or drinking. Simply put, he want what I got. Whether it is coffee, vitamins, food WHATEVER. And he is really adept at trying to get it!
* Reading a book or magazine while nursing. No way, no how. Mr. Curiosity has to have it, who would want to NURSE when you can shove magazine pages in your mouth???
*Allowing the dog access to fresh water and food is a thing of the past. Perhaps the ONLY thing that Luke longs for more than the dishwasher is the dogs water bowl. Thus far he has shown no interest in eating the dogs food, but oh, the water bowl. Before I learned to put it up on the hutch Luke crawled over to it and tipped the whole thing over no less than 5 times (wow Mom, way to go, only 5 huge messy water incidents to teach you to put the bowl out of reach, can't say I am a quick learner:) Now Mully has special times to eat ~ meaning, whenever Luke is asleep or napping.

Anyway, there's the shortlist.

I could also make a list of things that are way more FUN these days, but this is already long and boring enough as it is. Luke is funny. He is just a funny little guy. He loves to laugh, and it makes our life more fun.

He went to his very FIRST football game last night. Garnet Valley vs. Penncrest at GV. Got to see Rich coach, and I am happy to say that GV thumped them. Luke seemed to enjoy the game and the partying ~ by partying I mean staying up a WHOLE 2 hours past when he usually goes to bed. He was a good sport about it. He woke up this morning with a COLD. Ugh. He hasn't had a cold in a long time. (Am I a sicko to confess that I get a surge of personal satisfaction akin to the joy I used to get from closing a large deal at work every time I get a big mother load out of the nose sucker???. How far I have fallen..............)