Obsessions

I have known for a while now that Luke has a bit of an obsessive personality. When he loves something, he REALLY loves it, and wants to read, learn, play, and wear ANYTHING and EVERYTHING pertaining to that particular thing. When I was thinking about this the other day, I realized that this began when he was about 10 months old.

I remember being at my parents house when Luke began to play with a ball. We didn't have any yet, but he was totally hooked. He learned that day how to throw it with both hands. We quickly bought a few, and so it began. I don't think anyone can really understand the extent of this obsession.

"Ball" of course was his first word.

When I would go get him in the morning, the first thing he would say is "ball. . . ball. . . ball".

Everything, from balloons, to the very round belly of a teddy bear was a ball. He spotted them EVERYWHERE!

ALL he wanted to do was play with balls all day long! A family that we visited in Philly when he was 11 months old babysat for us and were amazed at how well he could throw a ball. He would take turns, without them prompting him, throwing it to the husband, then the wife, then their daughter.

We had to have a ball with us everywhere we went. We knew this would always keep him happy.

He actually took a long time to learn to walk, until finally we put a soccer ball in front of him, and stood him up in front of it. He wanted to kick it, so this was how he took his first step.

By 16 months, he could identify and name every type of ball. Around this same age, he also had to wear a baseball hat at all times (this lasted for at LEAST one year).

Then Thomas the train came along. We had one of the free hardback books you get when you have your first child. We didn't really know anything about Thomas, but after reading this book to him he was hooked.

He soon even had the book memorized. He had just turned 2 and was reading the book to Caleb, turning the pages at the right times, and LITERALLY reading each page word for word. We were amazed!

We slowly accumulated a train here or there, but when he got James for his 3rd birthday, it was definitely his favorite. He was sure to tell everyone that DADDY gave him James for his birthday ( I think because it was from Daddy it was EXTRA special). It seemed for quite some time that this was all he wanted to play with or watch. (I must confess that sometimes I would hide his Thomas shirt at the bottom of his drawer, afraid that he would insist on wearing it AGAIN.)

When Andrew got big enough to play with his trains, Luke was always sure to give Emily and Salty to him. . . which definitely means they were his LEAST favorite-- he has never been one to share his favorite things with others.

Luke's love of Darth Vader first began as a tremendous FEAR. When I started to teach the Behrendt's piano, Luke was almost 2. They had TONS of Darth Vader masks, capes, figures, etc. Luke was absolutely PETRIFIED when he saw one of them wearing a mask. Of course, this was probably one of Max's WORST nightmares- that his kids might not like Star Wars!

Time after time we would go to their house, and every time, someone would inevitably put on that dreadful mask! He would start screaming his head off until they took it off. We would try to explain that it is just a mask, yada, yada.

Well, who would've thought that just a year later, Luke would INSIST on being Darth Vader for Halloween! I guess the gradual exposure to his fear eventually paid off. (also Max showed him some of Star Wars at age 2 1/2 and this somehow helped turn his fears into an intense love).

This obsession was EXTREME! He would literally march around the house dressed up like Darth Vader for close to 2 hours EVERY DAY!! seriously! He would want the "imperial march" on repeat, and then he would march and march!! Before we got a real cape, he used his bath towel, black glove on one hand, and his red lightsaber to dress up.




The most SURPRISING obsession was a Larry Boy STICKER!. Luke once saw a Veggie Tales video that had "Larry Boy" in it. Shortly after that, he discovered that we had a veggie tales
book with stickers in the back of it. Sure enough, Larry Boy was one of the stickers.

He took that sticker and first wore it, but eventually it fell off, so he CARRIED it around with him for WEEKS!! He would SLEEP with it at night, keep it in his pocket or carry it around ALL day!! I specifically remember him waking up one morning when I was downstairs exercising, and he talked to me about his STICKER for one hour!!!! (we didn't have much space in our townhouse for toys, so I'm convinced that this led to an immense appreciation of ANY toy/thing that he DID have).

The GI JOE OBSESSION began when Luke and Joey spent LOTS of time together at the '09 cabin trip "hunting for Cobras". This is kind of an ongoing phase, however when it first began it was an OBSESSION.

We ALL were characters from GI JOE. (Luke - Duke, Andrew - Roadblock (or sometimes flash), Mommy - Scarlet, Daddy - Gung Ho, Nana - Cover Girl, Ange - Lady Jay). For several weeks, if we dared to call them by their real names, they would say, "NO NO, I'm Duke", or "No, I'm Woadbock"

This also began his love for Camouflage, which can get a little annoying when this is ALL he EVER wants to wear!! (Its especially the worst when he wants to wear the hunting camo shirt with the army camo pants, with an even different shade of camo coat).

this is the only all camo photo I could find


Out of the many animals Luke has loved (farm animals, eagles, elephants, crocodiles, cheetahs, leopards, and turtles) turtles have been his favorite for a while, although followed closely by leopards. (Nana gave him an Easter egg last year with a turtle in it that grows when you put it in water. It is a tiny little thing, but this was also carried around and protected for many MONTHS. We had to glue gun the turtle's head back on many times!)

So when he was given a Ninja Turtles movie and cup by Chup pop, it makes sense that he would easily be obsessed since it combined ninjas and turtles, two of his favorite things! This is his most current phase and I will be sure to add a picture of the boys with their homemade masks. Luke was Rafael, but is now Donatello. Andrew was Michaelangelo, but is now Leonardo (I love how he says this with his lazy "R")


some other obsessions that I don't want to forget are Super Why, wearing a suit EVERY Sunday (beginning at about age 3 1/2), "baby loves Jazz" (he would put the dreadful "monkey song" on repeat until we couldn't stand it anymore!), his snoopy spoon, the "orangish-red" spoon, "freezing bread", army PJs, Dinosaur PJs, transformers, "baby dop", anything red, Lego Star Wars.
Mondays are when they can play "lego star wars"



It is always a bit sad to see one phase end, but he typically will revisit it again down the road (at least while he is still young). I sometimes wonder how this personality will manifest itself as he gets older. Only time will tell. Meanwhile, we will be praying for the shaping of his personality, and that God will use these traits for good.