Life on Pioneer Trail: Luke is 18 months

Where does the time go? Really. Where in the world does it go?

My sweet tiny-toed newborn baby has turned into a toddler overnight, or at least it seems that way. Luke turned 18 months a few weeks back and he continues to amaze Kevin and I day after day with all the new things he is learning and able to do. He has recently started to amaze us with his ability to act like a two-year old (in the terrible two kind of way). Here is what Luke has been up to lately:

Luke likes to jog around the house, especially when he is excited about something. His walking turned into jogging/running pretty quickly.
Luke's most favorite thing in the entire world: anything that has wheels. He loves tractors. He loves trucks. He loves cars. The bigger the better. We have spent many hours making circles around various vehicles checking out their wheels.
Peanut butter and jelly on wheat bread is his favorite meal. He also enjoys pizza, guacamole, banana muffins, yogurt with Cheerios, applesauce, bananas, and broccoli muffins. We have to sneak fruit and vegetables in whenever we can, as he isn't a fan of eating them on their own.
Luke has started to help 'pick up' whenever we are done playing with something. He likes to pick up his cars and books.
His current favorite toy: his garage sale John Deere tractor. He calls it his 'ga ga', even though we have been trying to get him to say 'tractor'. He rides on that thing every waking minute he is inside.
If all is quiet in the house, I usually find Luke with a stack of books in his playroom. He loves sitting there and looking through every. single. book. He will also get out the Bible and bedtime book from his room and turn every page.
Luke can identify his tummy, nose, and head. He uses the signs 'more', 'please', and 'all done' pretty consistently.
Luke loves his Daddy. When Kevin gets home at night, Luke is attached to his hip. He loves to sit on the bed as Kevin changes and play with his credit cards. This could potentially be a problem one day...
Luke is an outdoorsman. On nice days, Luke loves to wander around the farm checking out all the tractors, the truck, and the shed. He loves to get on/in them and work the steering wheels. He will sneak in a ride on the swing every now and then.
Luke has absolutely no fear of animals, even animals he doesn't know. He will stick his hand in any dog or cat's face trying to pet them or grab their tail. This works out well for him most of the time, except when he gets batted in the face trying to grab at a cat's tail. We are trying to work on 'nice touches'.
At meal time, we have to watch Luke carefully. He has been throwing food off of his tray lately, mainly when he doesn't like it. (This is part of the terrible twos thing, hopefully.)
Luke says the words 'Dada' and 'Men (Amen)' consistently with meaning. He will say 'Mama' and 'Papa' at times, but not on a regular basis. He also says 'gaga' for 'tractor', but I'm not sure that counts.
Luke loves to make piles of things. He will take canned food out of the pantry and make a pile. He almost always puts the items back where he found them. He will do this with items in the bathroom as well as his cars. This kid is a sorter!
Wednesday is one of Luke's favorite days of the week because it's swimming lesson day. He is able to hold his breath under water for 2-3 seconds and swim to me. He loves chasing balls in the water and getting water on his face. He is pretty good at climbing out of the pool from the wall. We are still working on getting him to use his 'kickers'! It will be fun to see what he does at the Quarry this summer!
Luke is down to one afternoon nap a day. He sleeps for about 3-4 hours in the afternoon. He likes his sleep. He still sleeps from 7-7 at night, which Kevin and I are so very thankful for!
Luke will be a big brother in November. He has NO IDEA what is in store for him, and neither do Kevin or I. We are so excited and know he will be an awesome big brother.