1/20/09

It just seemed right...

"Yes" Man

In a refreshing turn of events around Casa de hurricane Luke, our son has recently developed the ability to answer questions in the affirmative. It seemed that for ages around here, every question posed was answered with a definitive no. Or, often enough, "No, no, noo...Noooo!"

But now it seems my boy can understand many of our posed questions sufficiently enough to ascertain when we are asking him about something that he may actually want. Like "Lukas, would you like to go outside?" Or "Lukas, do you want to read a book?" To which, he will now answer with an enthusiastic "Yeaaahh!" or sometimes "Yeth!".

(Lukas, are you excited about Tuesday? "Yeaaahhh!")

Ahhh, the sweet sounds of agreement. Who would have thought it would be so profoundly satisfying to hear?

Not me. I knew that verbal agreement from a toddler would be a good thing, but to me right at this very moment, it sounds similar to what I would envision a chorus of Angels would sound like on Christmas morning.

Or, perhaps even a certain impending 'Oath of Office', heralding a new beginning. Happy MLK Day and Inaguration Eve!

Regarding Versaries

Today is an exciting day for me. Partly because it's Friday preceding a three day weekend, but primarily because it's my Blogaversary! It was one year ago today that I got intrigued enough at home during my paternity leave, poking aimlessly around cyberspace reading other blogs, that I decided to find the easiest and least expensive blogging platform available (You can't beat $Free.99) to start my own blog. Thus Luke, I am Your Father was born.

(My inaugural post spoke to the difficulties
of talking about a good nights sleep)-

Blogging about my experience as a new father has been amazingly rewarding. It certainly helps to have such a terrific subject. Lukas is an endless source happiness, joy, pride, fun, and blog fodder as well. At the time, I had no concept that I would actually still be doing this a year later, but as they say "When the ride is good, why get off?". Yes, I did just make that up. But that is the great thing about having your own blog (That you have control, not that you can make stuff up - Everything I publish is 100% true, of course).

Special thanks goes out to Mrs. LIAYF, who has been my editor, my compass, and my strongest supporter during the past year. I couldn't have kept this up without her. Thanks also to all of you who have stopped by to introduce yourself, leave an encouraging comment during tough times, or to provide regular feedback. You are all terrific!

Another reason today is special is because it is also the 44th Anniversary of my two most strident Lurkers. You could even say they are the King and Queen of the LIAYF Lurkers. They love every aspect of this simple little blog. Ok, truthfully, they always want more content that is specifically about Lukas but still, they loyally read every word, no matter what I post.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad. Your example over the years has taught me so much about how to be a good husband and parent. And, I am still taking notes.

By the way, a comment every now and then wouldn't kill ya, would it??

You Know Who You Are

Happy Thursday everyone. I wasn't aware of it at the time, but this past Monday was National Delurking Day. The idea is that if you are a Lurker (Stop by and read posts, but never comment), Delurking day would be the day where you would finally be motivated (read: guilted) to take the time to leave a comment. I'm sure that, like me, most of you didn't get the day off work which made it a real bummer of a holiday.

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It's amazing how people can just make up a special day. Just like that!

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In the spirit of it all, I am going to make up my own special holiday on the spot. Put it on your calendars. Since I am a procrastinator by nature, I hereby proclaim today, January 15th, as National Procrastinators DeLurking Day.

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If you are a procrastinator just like me, and also a Lurker, and you didn't get around to delurking yourself this past Monday, now is your perfect opportunity. Celebrate with me right here, right now. "You know you want to".

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I will probably be sorry that I ever brought this up. I don't have high expectations, but would be happy with at least one bite. Are you that person?

Wordless Wednesday: Bull Headed

When Museums are Fun

(Lukas at the Hands On Children's Museum at 14 months old.)
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This past weekend was soggy and cool here in Seattle, and with the holiday's past us, we were searching for a fun indoor activity to occupy, interest, and properly wear out our little energizer boy. Luckily, through a group Mrs. LIAYF is associated with, we were invited to an event at a local Children's museum.
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Lukas had such a good time at the KidsQuest Children's Museum that I decided to post about Seattle area children's museums over at the Uptake.com Vacations blog.
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Check it out and let me know what you think. Cheers!

Ring...Ring...Ring

Elmo: (Gravely voice) Huuuh-Ro.

Me: Is this Elmo?

Elmo: Who's askin'?

Me: This is James

Elmo: James who?

Me: James from 'Luke, I am Your Father'.

Elmo: How'd you get this number??

Me: You'd be amazed at what you can find on the internet these days.

Elmo: Hmm, word. Anyway, what do you want?

Me: I was wondering, well....if you could come over and entertain my boy Lukas for a while. He has been calling for you all morning. Yes, he was a bit weirded out by that one time you stopped by and got all wiggy. Not sure what you were on that night, but we had a man to man about giving you a second chance. You know in the spirit of the holiday season and all.

Elmo: (silence)..............Dude, It's Sunday Morning and I kinda had a late night. Painting the town Elmo red...if ya know what I mean. Plus I am seriously low on Helium. So, I'm think'n Nada.

Me: Come on man, show some of that love you are always preachin'. My boy has some serious idol worship goin for you and it would really make his day. All I need is 20 minutes, tops!

Elmo: You say he idolizes me?

Me: Hell yah! Big time.

Elmo: ....Alright, alright. Just give me a half an hour to gather myself and grab a few ibuprophen.

Me: Sorry to ask for more, buuuut...while you're at it can you bring over some of your friends too?

Elmo: Gad! You have some serious nerve. Talk about givin' a guy an inch. Let me see...well, Kelly Rippa is in town...so I guess I could bring her over.

Me: Perfect! Elmo, you are one seriously cool dude. No wonder all the kids worship you. Thanks so much!

Elmo: You just need to do me a favor too.

Me: Sure. Shoot.

Elmo: I need you to double your promo of me with the kid. Maybe turn that tv back on for an episode of The Street every once in a while. The producers have been houndin' me all week about advertising and promotion. Can you do that?

Me: Aren't you on PBS?

Elmo: Do you want me to come over? Cause I could still be sleeping right now.

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Me: Yeah, sure. We'll try to watch more often. What the heck. But I'll have to wait 'til February when everything is switched to digital signals. No cable here.

Elmo: Wow, that sucks. But you're still hedgin'. I need a positive answer. Deal or no deal? Hmmph. God, now that's a lame show.

Me: Yes, we have a deal. See ya soon, and thanks again.

Come Again?

I stood there for a few seconds in silence while my otherwise slow brain cells processed what I had just heard. Ticking slowly, my brain evaluated with great care which neural pathway it would shoot the bewildering information my ears had received.
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Would the input be processed in such a way that it would strike me as funny? Or maybe it would it be interpreted altogether differently and sent down the "ignore and move on" pathway. Alternatively, it could be sent down a pathway which would subsequently raise my ire and ultimately result in anger (anyone who knows me knows how unlikely that scenario truly is).
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Lukas is in the Pre-toddler program at his daycare. The 12-20 months old group. Many of the little ones at this age are just beginning to exercise their vocal chords to form words. As would be expected, the end result often ends up an adorable variation on the intended word. It is one of the sweeter aspects of having a child this age. And, certain names can be especially vexing for the tots. So it has not been surprising to me to overhear a child or caregiver being given a nickname which the little ones can form more readily.
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In fact, I have heard several cute names used recently, including 'Bah-Bah' (Brandon), 'Lo-Lo' (Solomon), 'Roh-Roh' (Rosana), but was certainly not prepared for what I heard when Lukas and I arrived at daycare yesterday morning.
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"Look everyone, 'Lu-Lu' is here!!"
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Say what? LU-LU?. Are you kidding me?? My brain cells finally processed that thought, and it went straight down the indignation pathway. So, out of all the Nicknames we have for Lukas you would think that they have chosen one a bit less...how do I say it....FEMININE?
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I mean really, does this look like a Lu-Lu to you?

(Lukie Longshanks in the Visitors Clubhouse at Safeco Field)

I'm It

I've been tagged by DC Urban Dad and Zoe's Dad to participate in yet another Meme.

This one is easy. Oh, how I like easy. The rules are:

Go to your documents
Go to your 6th file. (I just went to 'My Pictures', cause I'm a cheater)
Go to your 6th picture.
Blog about it.
Tag 6 friends to do the same.

Surprise!! It's a picture of Lukas. Who'd of guessed that?? Anyway, this is a picture that I actually used in one of my earlier posts "A Real Stand-Up Guy". Lukas hadn't been standing on his own for very long when this picture was taken, however, the post is actually about his budding sense of humor.

A nice way for those newcomers to LIAYF to dip into the archives, which is timely since I am rapidly nearing a major milestone for the blog. Betcha can't guess what that is. Anyway, check out the old post, and let me know what you think.

Oh yeah, and here are my 6 victims. You are by no means obligated to do this.

Clare's Dad
Idaho Dad
NukeDad
Scary Mommy
Being Jake
Dad Stuff

On the (Up)Take

From the "Been meaning to write this for a couple of weeks now but there was the holiday's and the snow, and..." file, comes today's post finally announcing that I have joined the Uptake.com Vacations blog team.

Yes, I have joined Uptake Vacations blog lead editor Whit (who may soon be crowned King of the blogging world) and his band of merry men and women in their quest to bring cool vacation knowledge to the wired world, one simple blog post at a time.

My mission, now that I have chosen to accept it, is to blog about family vacation destinations, places of interest, and fun things to do in the Seattle area over at the Uptake.com vacations blog.

What exactly is Uptake.com? Here is how they describe themselves:

UpTake.com is a travel search and discovery site - the first step for travelers to decide where to go, where to stay or what to do. Founded in 2006 by Yen Lee, former general manager of Yahoo! Travel, UpTake was developed to be complementary to existing travel sites by providing relevant summaries to travelers and offering direct links to travel sites for complete results. In this way, UpTake is complementary to its partners—their products get discovered, while travelers can find vacation information more easily.

Using UpTake, travelers are able to make better decisions because it delivers personalized results relevant to their desired trip.UpTake helps users make informed decisions about what best fits their travel preferences. UpTake has indexed more than 5,000 sources and 20 million travelers’ opinions from across the web to help travelers make better decisions about where to go, where to stay and what to do. UpTake uses a travel ontology and natural language analysis to extract meta-tags from the collective intelligence of the Web and returns unbiased, personalized recommendations based on travelers’ facts and feelings about hotels, motels, camping, beaches, spas, golf courses, attractions and restaurants. The company is headquartered in Palo Alto. More information can be found at www.uptake.com.

Uptake has been so successful that in just a few short months after it went public it became the largest travel search engine on the web. Impressive. It certainly warrants a bookmark in your 'Travel' folder as the place to go, before you go.

I am familiar with most of the bloggers who are now writing for the Uptake Vacations Blog and I can honestly say that I am in awe that I could actually be included in such an impressive group of entertaining writers. Subscribe to the vacations blog feed and you will be introduced to numerous places of interest that you may have never known existed.

My latest post is about the heart and soul of Seattle, the Seattle Center. Check it out. I look forward to seeing you there.