Hi my little Lucas Walter!

Life has been so hectic lately, I’m getting behind on your posts!  We recently went on your very first vacation, and it was wonderful (more on the vacation in a different post).  Due to vacation, and Mommy (Mama according to you) being promoted to Supervisor earlier this year, it’s been a lot just trying to keep our household running.

Anyways, you are growing into a little man right before our eyes.  You can literally run now, and have such a personality.  Your favorite activity is probably playing outside, you love love love to be outside and dig in the dirt, and pick up leaves, and run in the grass to your swingset.  You also love to play with balls, and water and your play kitchen.  And of course you love your girlfriend, Rylie, and your BFF, Elyse, Graham is still a bit too little to play so he’s not much fun for you yet.   You love to dance and play music- drumming on stuff, or strumming on your guitar.  You love attention, and you will repeat something if you see that it is making us smile and laugh. You don’t like to be in a different room from us, and will follow us and get into mischief in whatever room we are in.

We have started timeouts with you, where we put you in your travel crib for 1 minute after we’ve given you a warning to stop doing it.  It works pretty well, and you are always so sweet when we come back to “save” you from it.  We’re working on making sure you are a well-mannered little boy!  Right now your Poppy and Grammy are both out of town, so we Skype with them several times a week.  You love to see their faces on the screen!  Whenever you see your Poppy on the screen you say PopPop! PopPop!  And whenever you see Grammy you blow raspberries at her, since that’s what she does to you!

We finished up your 3rd round of allergy testing and of the items we tested for (we can’t test everything, just the common ones), the final list is: allergic to apple, avocado, barley, bass, carrots, chocolate, crab, green beans, milk (all dairy and cheeses), onion, pea, peanut, strawberry, and watermelon.    It’s a lot!  We’ve also been to see a pediatric nutritionist to ensure that you are getting all the nutrients you need in your eating since we have to avoid so many items.    It’s a lot of work, especially because I also like to feed you stuff that is preservative, hormone, and chemicals/pesticide free.  So the search for healthy, organic/natural fresh foods that you are not allergic to has been exhausting, not to mention expensive!  We just want the best for our baby boy, and are willing to go to any length to get it.  There’s a light at the end of the tunnel though, I have found items that you love to eat, plus are healthy.  Also, they hope you will grow out of the allergies in the next couple of years.  They say that the only ones people don’t typically grow out of are peanut and shell fish.  Compared to what we’re avoiding right now, that’d be a piece of cake!

You’ve also had a busy month during September, you got to meet 2 brand new babies.  Baby Eli Johnson (long time family friends!) and Baby Charlotte “Charlie” Coates.  Charlie is the daughter of Mommy’s college roommate.  Her Mommy and I used to talk about the day that we would get married and have kids, and now we have children only 1 year apart, now if we can just get everyone to move to Lexington it’d all be great!      You also went on your first camping trip in TN.  We got to hang out with Aunt Jera, Uncle Kevin, Cousin Camron and Cousin Nathan, and Grandaddy, and also Uncle BJ, Aunt Mischele, and your other cousins Dylan, Tyler, Chase and Dakota.  More friends stopped to say hi too, so you got loved on by plenty of people!  Grandaddy gave you your first fishing pole.  It had just the plastic bobber on the end (no hook) and when Grandaddy would cast it, you would go and chase the bobber.  It was hilarious!   You also loved digging in the dirt and gravel with your cousins Tyler, Chase and Dakota.  You were filthy dirty from playing in the dirt all day, but you had so much fun!   Your Daddy, and Grandaddy, and Uncles caught us some fish and we had a fish fry complete with homemade fries.  It’s a lot more work taking you camping, but it was worth it

You went to the Kentucky State Fair for the very first time.  You loved it.  Aunt Katie went with us and we had a blast baa-ing at the sheep, and oinking at the pigs, and moo-ing at the cows.   Your favorite was definitely the sheep.  You LOVE animals, and you would just crack up laughing at the sheep, and then try to baaaa back at them.  It was everything and more that I had always imagined taking my child to the fair would be.  It made us so happy to see how much you enjoyed it.

I did a little photo comparison on the start of the U of L football season last year, and the start of it this year and the difference is astounding!  You were sooo tiny, and now you are this big toddler with curly blonde hair and huge beautiful blue eyes.     You are really such a cool kid.  You love to please us.  If you’re tired then you get moody, but as long as you’re well rested you’re a pleasure to be around.   We love you so so so much.  I’ll write about more of our adventures soon!
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Love, your Mom  “Mama”