Nothing about our 4th child Luke has ever been average. Luke Thomas was born on Friday the 13th of August, 2004. I was scheduled to have a c-section on the 23rd of August, but Luke decided he was ready a little early. I went into labor in the early morning and finally realized that my contractions were a bit more than Braxton-Hicks in the early afternoon. I headed over to Valley Hospital, only to be met with chaos in the maternity ward. Hurricane Charlie had made landfall in Florida and Valley Hospital in NJ had its own hurricane with 85 babies born that day. Women were giving birth behind doors of offices, in hallways, basically anywhere they could fit them. I was shown to an uncomfortable chair near the nurse's station and was told to wait there. About 40 minutes and lots of contractions later, a bed opened up in the admitting room and they hooked me up to a bunch of monitors. I still remember the skepticism on the faces of the nurses and my OB when I "claimed" to be in labor. "But Mrs. Van Goor, you're only 37 weeks along. It's been hot out, you're probably dehydrated." I knew what I was feeling, but I just nodded as I panted. Reading the various monitors, it was soon decided that I was in fact in labor. The only problem was that there were no operating rooms available, nor were there any anesthesiologists. They told my husband that I still had lots of time and since they couldn't perform the cesarean any time soon, he should run home and get our affairs in order. Big mistake.

My labor progressed rather quickly, and as my husband was given the green light to "take his time", that is what he did. It became apparent that I was going to give birth very soon and since there was risk involved, they found an anesthesiologist and cleared out an operating room. Almost scolding me, the nurse told me that I had better find my husband. Well, you did tell him to leave! Of course, he wasn't answering his cell phone, nor the home phone. (I later found out that he was taking a shower.) Bill made it in the nick of time. I'd like to say that they wheeled me to the operating room, but since there wasn't a single wheel chair left, I had to walk myself there between hard-labor contractions. I will never forget that first hard contraction, and looking at my husband I said, "That had to be a fluke, they can't really hurt that bad?". Well, they did. Very soon, I was on the table, thanking the anesthesiologist for taking away my pain (I think I promised lots of things to him, thankfully he never took me up on them) and Luke was born weighing 8 lbs. 7 oz.

I wish I could tell you lots of things about Luke's infancy, but I really don't remember too much. For one thing, I had 3 year-old twins at the time and a 7 year-old who was playing soccer. The other thing was that Luke was an amazing baby. He really was. Barely ever cried, learned to sleep through the night right away on his own, never fussed. God truly gave me what I could handle in Luke.

There are a few things I remember from his first year. I can clearly remember the time that Luke was sound asleep in his car seat carrier on the kitchen floor. Gwen was busy talking to me as I was cooking and she kept walking backwards. Yep, you guessed it, she walked back into the car seat and plopped right on top of a very newborn Luke. I held my breath and all Luke did was jump as if he had a little dream and fell back to sleep.

Another incident from his infancy that stands out was the time I was taking the kids out of the car in front of our house. I normally unloaded the car in my driveway and I don't know why that day I parked on the street, but I put Luke's car seat on the sidewalk as I unbuckled the twins. I then heard a loud crackling noise and a "POP!". Afraid that something happened with the electrical wires overheard, I looked up. I saw, absolutely nothing. I looked around, and once again, aside from the newspaper delivery car, there was nothing and no one on the street. Shrugging my shoulders I went to pick Luke's car seat up to bring him inside. That is when I saw it. There was Saturday's newspaper sitting in Luke's little lap. The newspaper delivery man saw what happened and shouted, "sorry!" as he floored it down the road. Thankfully, Luke never even flinched.

Luke came into his own, right around the time that Charlotte was going to be born. His usually easy demeanor gone, he turned into one of the whiniest kids around. As his vocabulary progressed, the whining and crying subsided a bit, but the negotiating began. Luke earned the nickname of "Yeah-butt" around his 3rd birthday. "Luke, it's time for dinner."...."Yeah-but, I'm watching my favorite show." "Luke, please help Mommy clean up this mess," "Yeah-but, Charlotte made it." You get the picture.

So why does Luke get an entire blog entry about himself today? It's something that we've coined as "Lukeisms". Little things that Luke has said or done that make us crack up. Here's just a few:

When Luke was potty-trained, it became apparent that, well, let's just say that he cut a hard left. Before his corrective surgery, we had a number of rather humorous moments. I remember a trip to the pediatrician where they handed Luke a plastic cup and told him that he was supposed to fill it. He just looked at me and I could just imagine what was going through his head. This was a kid who had to stand to the far right of the commode to try to hit bulls eye in something the diameter of a beach ball. Now they were asking him to aim into something the diameter of a tangerine. Wondering how it went? Let's just say, one day why don't you take a water hose. Kink the hose and turn the water on. Grab a Dixie cup and put it right by the nozzle of the hose. Un-kink the hose and.... see how that goes. As you can imagine, both Luke and I needed a change of clothes that day. Luke's best quote from that experience kind of summed it all up, "Welp, I never tasted pee before. Kinda tastes like stale pretzels." Yes Luke, it sure does.

While driving in the car one day, Luke commented on Bob Dylan saying this, "Mom, I like the "Lay, Lady Lay"- Bob Dylan better than the "Rainy Day Woman" - Bob Dylan." Me too Luke. This was the same car trip where upon leaving Tom's River where we saw our cousins Leann and Tommy Luke said, "They should've named it Leann's River." Leann has always adored Luke!

At Jason's Christmas show this year, my mother-in-law brought a bag of mints to keep the little ones quiet. Luke, who has a real affinity for all things sugar, was eating a few too many. My father in law whispered to him, that if he ate too many, his teeth would surely have problems. Luke popped another mint in his mouth and said, "That's OK, I have a really good dentist."

Luke is always coming out with things that I should write down as soon as he says them. Some of the more memorable ones stick out. Guacamole -" Rock-n-Roley"......"I'm too pretty to be a zombie mom." "When I grow up, can I be Chinese?" " I looove Yew Nork city!" One day, Luke heard the song "It's Raining Men" on the radio. He had a strange look on his face for a moment, then picked up a fork that was nearby and using it as a microphone he said, "Stay away from NJ, reporting live, men are falling from the sky....I repeat, men are falling from the sky....Ugh, one got me!" I can assure you, I never thought of that when I heard that song before, but now that's all I see when I hear that song!

Then there was the time when I heard a loud thud in the boys' room. I dashed upstairs only to find Jason laughing like crazy and Luke, looking quite dazed. When I asked what had happened, Luke said that he had a dream that he was a Power Ranger. Jason, between hysterical laughter said that Luke had perched himself on the edge of his bed and belly flopped onto the floor. Luke didn't find it as funny.

Luke's outlook on things in life are always quite interesting. The other day Luke asked what happened to our bodies when we died. I explained that they turn into dust or dirt and went back into the ground. He sat pondering this for a while and then said, "So I guess the ground gets a little higher each time someone dies..." Um, I guess so Luke...

Did I mention that Luke's favorite movie in the whole world is Star Wars? Any Star Wars. He has been known to use Star Wars to describe many things in life. I've been told that I resemble Yoda when I wake up in the morning.....Thanks Luke......He also wanted to know if God was a Jedi.......When asked how Jesus was able to perform miracles, Luke said, "I think He used the force."

Luke has an amazing grasp of the Bible and its many stories. His teacher has often told me that his understanding of Scripture is amazing for a boy his age. Aside from injecting a few elements of Star Wars into them, I have to agree. Bill and I often say how Luke is going to make an interesting preacher one day. More importantly, Luke's understanding of God's love is very mature, yet has that awesome innocence of a child. One day while we were riding the elevator at the Dr.'s office a couple of years ago, Luke was singing his ABC's. An older gentleman asked him how he got so smart.....a barely 3 year-old Luke answered, "Well, God made me this way." He sure did Luke.

I'm glad that God made Luke the way he is. Whether it's while driving in the car and Luke is asking for his favorite song, "Mr. Mo-Jo-Risin please!" (LA Woman by the Doors). Or we're at the library and Luke decides that the books he's checking out today will be, "Life as a Navy Seal," and "The Pledge of Allegience." Or he's outfishing his father and grandfather on Greenwood Lake. Most of all, I'm glad that God made Luke my little boy.