We took the boys to the Alligator Farm while we were in Florida (I know, this was like a month ago, I’m behind, it’s okay).

We took a lot of pictures. Dave, Kurt, and I all had cameras out and ready.

Despite our camera preparedness, that is the best picture we have of the two boys together.

We got enough cute solo shots to make up for it though.

Luke was happy to have his own chauffeur, thanks Grandma!

Sadly, I think Adam was more excited about the playground than the alligators.

We had a tough time prying him away.

We had a great spot for the alligator feeding demonstration.

The Duke was more interested in the Luke feeding demonstration.

I may have tried to get a picture of Luke inside that gator’s mouth. Luke was not pleased.

Adam liked pointing out the different birds we saw on their corresponding signs.

He also liked feeding the birds with Grandpa.

Luke really got in to crawling all over that alligator right before we left.

Thankfully, he is pretty good about letting us take pictures – minus that time I asked Dave to stick him in the alligator’s mouth. He also prefers we let him keep that damn pacifier (man, I really don’t like that thing).

Can I just tell you that his doctor told us at his last checkup that we should switch to a different style pacifier. He doesn’t want us to take it away from him (yet), just to get him to use a different style (one geared toward older babies with teeth).

Yeah, good luck with that doc. We’ve being trying since we brought him home from the hospital. That stupid thing is the only type of pacifier approved by Luke. I even got a couple different ones made by the same company and he acts like we are giving him rotten peas (which I can only imagine would be much worse than regular peas – I really, really don’t like peas) and spits them out immediately.

The pediatrician insists that when forced to choose between no pacifier at all or a different style that Luke will go for a new pacifier. He underestimates just how stubborn (and loud) my children can be.

So for now, Luke is keeping that stupid plug.

The bunny was good to our boys.

Adam thought it was “so silly” that their baskets were in the bathtub.

I did try to get a nice picture of the two of them with their loot – but it was pretty much impossible.

Too much to look at, play with, and eat.

I think Adam’s favorite gift from the rabbit was his new kazoo.

Luke liked anything that made noise when he shook it.

All three boys seemed to enjoy the Old MacDonald hand puppets.

I have it on good authority that the Easter Bunny was unable to finish the last three puppets in time. So I guess Mommy will have to get going on those.

Adam was also a big fan of his new Batman pajamas. He loves that Luke has the same pair, “Mommy! Luke looks just like me!”

Luke was not thrilled that I kept trying to stuff him in his basket.

Sorry Luke.

Dave likes this picture best.

I like this one.

Neither of us can believe he’s already 10 months old.

Today while I was dressing The Duke, I explained to Adam that Luke was going to wear a baseball outfit because it was Opening Day for Major League Baseball (he had no idea what I was talking about, but he will someday).

He did seem to understand the need for baseball relating clothing though and ran upstairs before I had finished getting Luke ready.

He left wearing just a diaper and came back like this.

He is wearing: a too small engineer’s hat, pieces from two different pairs of sports themed pajamas (the shirt is on backwards) and his trusty fireman boots (on the wrong feet of course).

I think I am going to start letting him dress himself all the time – just so I can have more pictures like this.

Luke had his 9 month well child checkup today. It was just in time too, since in less than a week he’ll be 10 months old!

That nice bruise on his forehead is from when he dove off of my bed yesterday. In case you’re wondering, our hardwood floors are really hard. Other than the bump on his head, the doctor said everything looks great with The Duke.

I figured out approximately how much Adam weighed when he was Luke’s age – hold on to your hats because you’re not going to believe it – 19 pounds 2 ounces. I always feel like Luke is huge compared to how Adam was, and he’s really not. Luke is just 2 ounces heavier than Adam was. He is 2 inches taller though. Adam was about 27 inches when he was at this age.

Thank you Stacy for the video!

Yesterday was Dave’s birthday and, like always, he requested an eclair cake instead of a traditional birthday cake.

Adam helped me decorate the cake with teddy bear shaped graham crackers. I figured it would be less messy than sprinkles.

It didn’t take Adam long to start sampling the cake. After a fingerful of frosting he turned to me and said, “Mommy! This is delicious!”

In the end the cake looked like a sea of half-drowned teddy bears.

Dave didn’t seem to mind the fingerprints or missing frosting.

Despite its appearance, the cake still tasted really good.

Adam couldn’t wait to give Dave the gifts he picked out for him. The two of us went shopping and I let him decide what Dave would like most. In case you’re wondering Dave got a Disney nursery rhyme book, a penguin book, a bottle of Mickey Mouse bubbles, a CD of children’s music, and some chocolate peanut butter eggs.

Adam couldn’t wait to open all of his, I mean Dave’s, new things.

While we were out to dinner one night last week I gave Luke the lemon from my water.

I was expecting more of a reaction from him, but the taste didn’t seem to bother him too much.

Silly kid.

If you ask Adam what his favorite part of our trip to Florida was, he’ll tell you it was “rescuing animals in trouble” (like Diego, the main character in one of his favorite cartoons).

It was tough work, but thanks to a net and his starfish rescue-mobile he was able to save all the animals. It also helped that all the critters in distress were contained to Grandma and Grandpa’s pool.

Luke wasn’t too sure about the whole swimming pool thing at first. I sat on the edge with him for a while getting his toes (and very slowly the rest of him) wet so he could get used to it.

Then I passed him off to Dave and the two of them helped Adam with more rescue missions (it was a catch and release program, and those crazy animals needed a lot of rescuing).

Yesterday we took the boys to the mall to see the Easter Bunny. I was hoping to get a nice picture of the two of them on the bunny’s lap to send out as Easter cards this year. However, Adam respectfully declined to participate in the photo shoot.

And by “respectfully declined” I mean threw a tantrum any time we got him within four feet of the EB. Before we left Adam did wave at him a couple of times though (from a safe distance), so hopefully the Easter Bunny won’t take it personally and will still leave Adam a basket this year.

Luke didn’t have any issues with the rabbit. They even got a few shots of him smiling for the camera (not like Luke smiling is a rare event – he is such a happy little guy), unfortunately in each of those pictures he also has his hand in his mouth. So we ended up getting this picture, which is still adorable – even if the Duke isn’t smiling.