Luke is 8 Months Old!

Well another month went by and our little man is now 8 months old! I think he may have had a little growth spurt too because his clothes are getting a little snug {I literally had to keep his buttons undone on his pants while we were running errands}. We had lots of fun with Luke this month. We've decided that our little one will not be taking life seriously anytime soon, in fact maybe never. He laughs at the serious things, the little things and the big things. One day we were driving home in Dave's truck {yes, you guessed right, all three of us on a bench seat} and I looked at Luke to see him trying to fall asleep, head looking away from me and giggling with his eyes shut! Don't get me wrong though, Luke has his moments of fussiness and crying. (Those are usually in the evening:).

There is always so much to say with every month that goes by. We're trying our hardest to soak in every moment. We love watching him explore; his toys, the trees, the grass, Mommy's hair, Daddy's scruffles, the carpet, the ridges in the wood floor, everything! We love chasing him around saying "Mommy/Daddy's gonna get you!" as Luke squeals and jumps to his hands and knees, and starts hauling 'bootie' away from us. He also loves to play "peek-a-boo" or should I say, "where's is Luke?!"

What else is there, oh yes, we've weaned him off nursing. He's now strictly a bottle-fed formula baby. Mommy and Daddy are looking forward to some early evenings out together without the worry of coming home early to nurse. When I first started the weaning process I had no idea how hard it was going to be.  I was sad, emotional, and maybe even somewhat depressed at times. Let's just say my hormones were getting the best of me.

Some of the things we LOVE about Luke

• We call him sticky fingers.  He has such teeny tiny hands that some how pick up pretty big things. We swear they stick to his sweaty little hands and that's how he picks them up!
• Mommy LOVES his baby's breath. It's so sweet and yummy:) You know how you love puppy breath, well the same goes for babies:)
• He has stinky, smelly, sweaty feet! One time, Sharon (sister) and I were out shopping. I let Luke crawl around and play in the store. He pulled himself up on some furniture and was standing and bouncy up and down on his feet. He slipped and fell and when we picked him up we saw a puddle of sweat on the floor. He slipped on his sweaty feet!
• He is happy happy happy. One very content little baby.
• We've noticed he's a little sensitive. At first, most men are scary to him. I'm catching on and thinking it may be a facial hair thing. Also, when he's tired he doesn't like for you to stare at him. If you do, he'll pout and then start crying.
• He may have a little seperation anxiety or maybe he just wants to be held by Mommy and Daddy just a little bit longer during the evenings and after naps. If we put him down to play too soon, he wails!
• He is starting to slowly eat finger foods. I have to put them in his mouth in order for him to eat it. He hasn't quite mastered putting the food into his mouth yet. He likes to pick up the pieces and drop them in his chair.
• Mommy is teaching him how to hug, kiss and wave.
• He's learned how to climb up the stairs.
• He likes to crawl under the coffee table and pull off all the magazines to eat.
• He crawls FAST and with such determination! We love hearing him slap his hands on the floor and take deep breaths to get to his toys (and also to things he's not allowed to touch).
• It's cute to watch him play outside in the grass. (At first he wasn't quite sure what to think of the prickly green stuff:)
• He's starting to say the ma ma ma sounds alot more.
• He talks ALOT. It's so cute to hear him get certain sounds out.
• He plays in his crib. I keep a teething toy in his crib and usually when I put him down for naps or in the evening he'll play and talk until he gets tired enough to sleep.
• In the same sentence sometimes he will protest his sleep. This makes Mommy stressed. She wishes her sweet little one will realize he's tired and that's why he's crying.
• He likes to close his mouth and breath/blow through his nose.
• He likes to kick and tap his left foot. When we put him down for bed and his naps we can hear the thumping from downstairs.
• When he's happy and excited he twirls his hands and feet.
• He looks at things from the side (he'll cock his head), it's so cute. It's almost like he wants to look at things from a different perspective.
• He likes to cough and copy you when you cough.
• He likes to open drawers and cabinets.
• He likes to play with kitchen utensils. He keeps him nice and busy so Mommy likes this!
• When he pulls himself up to standing he'll pull away and stand by himself for a couple of seconds before he falls.

                                                                              





Fun at the Pumpkin Patch!

Luke saw his first pumpkins at The Yahoo Farm Pumpkin Patch. He spent most of his time smacking the pumpkins and playing with the stems. We think he liked feeling all the different textures. He was definitely getting lots of attention from onlookers. One lady even wanted to take pictures of him. He was as happy as could be having free reign of the pumpkin patch. While we were there Luke also got to see farm animals for the first time. He saw a pony, chickens, hens and goats!



Mrs. Susie Homemaker!

This past weekend I helped put together a baby shower alongside with some other girls for a good friend of mine. I realized how much I loved crafting:). The setting took place at an adorable restaurant in Inman Park call Pure Taqueria. The restaurant had a cute vintage/retro design. Since the "Father to Be" played baseball most of his life we decided to have baseball be our theme! Playing off the look of the restaurant (retro/vintage), I tried my first stab at sewing and made a cute little pennant banner that my friend could re-use for her front door when her baby arrives. I did however misspell "Welcome!" I think I'll be making one of these for each Holiday as well as for Luke's Birthday. It was so much fun! To tie in the theme again we made bags of peanuts and cracker jacks for the party favors! Here are some photos from the event!





Luke is 7 Months Old

Can you believe that Luke has past the half way point and is now closer to turning one?! I've already started scanning the web for birthday ideas:). I'm not wishing that day to come close though. We'll miss our sweet little infant who will soon be labeled toddler. I'm taking every second of the day to hold him and kiss him because I know he won't be little forever. We feel like it was just yesterday when we would sneak into Luke's bedroom in the morning and peer into his crib to see a little thing all bundled up smiling at us. Now we open the door to see him sitting up and peering through the crib slats with the bumper pulled down, talking and giggling. We have been truly blessed to have such an adorable, active and healthy baby. It is our faithful prayer that we will raise him up on a solid foundation with the teachings of our merciful God and that Luke will see God's love through us so that one day he will make the decision to follow after Him and accept His Son to be his Saviour.

Luke has been into EVERYTHING lately. It's funny, you spend so much money on all these toys and the things they are most interested in are door hinges and door stops. Luke could spend all day playing with them. The last two weeks our days have been spent watching Luke go from army crawl to full on crawl. He's pulled himself from sitting to standing position from Mommy/Daddy to furniture. He's received his first bumps and scrapes which is nearly impossible to see a day go by without one. Dave said he likes them, it makes him look like a tough little guy! It's been nice to be able to set him on the floor and he can play nicely by himself until his hearts content.

I also have been trying to begin the process of weaning Luke of nursing. I say "process" because it is in fact a process which I had know idea would be difficult. It took an entire week for Luke to take the bottle and thanks to sister-in-law advice I tried just a pinch of sugar to the formula and wah-la he took it! So now he takes the formula without the sugar and somewhat well. He takes two bottles a day most of the time and I only nurse in the morning and evenings. I chose to ween out of convenience but it hasn't been convenient yet. He's really slow at the bottle and hasn't been good about taking it in public. We'll see how this next month goes!

Nursing has been a bitter-sweet relationship. Below is my list of pros and cons as a reminder to me that the pros had outweighed the cons.

Pros:

• You don't have to mix or heat anything up.
• You don't have to clean bottles.
• You don't have to remember to pack your diaper bag with accessories for feeding.
• You provide something for your child that no one else can.
• Your baby will feel secure and protected.
• Your baby will look up at you with adoring eyes and give you a smile every now and then, sometimes even giggle:).
• You and only you have a special way to comfort your baby.
• Your baby has a rock solid immune system. He still hasn't been sick!
• You don't have to pay hundreds of dollars in formula!
• If your baby is crying and you've tried everything in your power to make him stop you can always nurse (this is last resort though and in desperate needs or else you can create a habit that will drive you crazy!)
• For his am feeding you can bring him in bed to nurse instead of preparing a bottle to feed.

Cons:

• He's pretty much your life-line every 4 hours so keeping your baby on a schedule is a must! When Dave watches Luke while I run errands my saying is, "Call me if he needs my "boob." :)
• They do become attached and bonded to you and when you wean beware, it's difficult! I thought all you do is give them a bottle and wah-la, you have yourself a bottle-fed baby! WRONG! It took a full week until he actually took the bottle.
• He would slurp and gulp which turned heads my direction when nursing in public even when he was under the hooter-hider (the cover). Kinda embarassing...
• Having to wear clothes that can easily be pulled up.
• You'll feel like a cow being milked sometimes.
• You'll feel like sometimes the only reason he wants you is for your milk supply.

I know I've missed several other pros and cons but these were the ones that popped into mind. All in all I'd say that pros outweigh the cons and I truly enjoyed nursing my little Luke.

Here is what Luke's been up too and what we love:

• His belly laughs. Mommy's okay at getting these out of him. Daddy is the master of this!
• He reaches up with his arms when he wants to be held
• His efforts to crawl to his toy to only push the toy further away
• His tickle spots
• His spitting up has lessened, woohoo!
• He has absolutely no more explosive diapers, woohoo!
• When he doesn't get enough sleep he's a grouchy little guy.
• He is a crib snob (I think I said this last week). He likes HIS crib and wants to be home at night to sleep in it. This has been a hard adjustment for Mommy and Daddy. We've had some stressful evenings out with him wailing because he just wanted to be home and in his crib.
• We had to lower the crib. I walked in after he was napping to find him standing and leaning over the crib to grab the bumper tie! My heart dropped. I guess I should brace myself for many more to come!
• He loves Rufus (our dog) and Beau (Grammy and Granpa's dog). He laughs uncontrollably when Beau walks past him.
• He likes to be sung to sleep. His favorite song is "I love you Lord." When we're out in evenings and can't get him to stop crying Dave and I sing this to him and he quiets instantly. Outsiders may think our singing is nails to a chalk board but our little one thinks it's music to his ears:).
• His jibberish. His favorite sounds are ahhhh and bahhh, occasionally he'll say mahh.
• He squeals!
• His crawl. He has mastered the army crawl. He crawls occasionally.
• He's gotten his first bump on the head. (He rocks back and forth on his hands and knees and rocked himself into a chair leg)
• He likes to sleep on his belly with his butt in the air.
• He likes his back rubbed.
• He likes to tap his foot when he's eating and playing on the floor on his belly.
• He eats solids 3x's a day. Morning: Oatmeal mixed with fruit, Afternoon: Fruit and veggie mix and Evening: Veggie and grain mix.
• He nurses/bottle 4x's a day.
• He naps 2-3x's a day.

~Luke's 7 Month Photo Shoot~







Growing, Growing, Growing

Luke had a successful 6 month doctor check-up. The older he gets the more squirmy he gets though. He was a tough one to hold down and keep still as the nurse and doctor scanned his little body. He's also more aware of what's going on and as soon as the nurse held him down for his shots he knew what was coming. Here are his ratings for this visit. He's a skinny little guy so maybe he'll have another growth spurt soon?

Side note: I accidently scheduled this visit on a day that Dave had to work and I was nervous to go by myself knowing that Luke was getting another set of shots. That morning Dave called to let me know his Chief was going to let him off for a couple of hours. I was so thankful, I was not ready to handle Luke getting those horrible shots by myself!
Height: 27" (50%)
Weight: 16lbs (25%)
Head: 44.6cm (75%)

Here are some photos from the event:)

Luke's First Beach Trip!

Luke had his first trip to Florida and my gosh was it packed full of fun. First, we went to Orlando and stayed at the nice Omni Resort where there were pools, lazy rivers and golf. We met Grammy, Pop-Pop, Aunt Heather, Uncle Nick and cousins Isabella, Olivia and Max. It was so much fun to hang out with everyone and absolutely adorable to see Luke interact with his cousins. He played so nicely with them! Second, Dave and I spent a night at Clearwater Beach. It was supposed to be two nights but a monsoon decided to come through and it was a little hard to keep a baby cooped up in a hotel room for an entire day let alone two days. Then of course the end of the trip in Tampa was beautiful  without a rain cloud in site so we decided to make day trips to the beach. We were excited and anxious to let Luke meet the ocean for the first time. The first day the waves were a little ruff and we thought it may scare Luke. Dave and I were prepared to take it slow because we didn't want Luke to have a bad experience. Well, Luke loved it! We decided to sit him in the sand right at the shore line. So what did Luke decide to do? He dug his little hands in the sand scooped a handful and shoved it into his mouth! To say he loved it would be an understatement. One of the waves knocked him down and giggles from Luke were the aftermath. We got a few glares from onlookers. They looked at us like we were crazy having an infant in the water. The rest of the day was spent surfing the waves. Later that evening Grammy and Pop-Pop had relatives over for a "Welcome to the World" party for Luke. He got to meet almost all of his relatives on the Gentile side.

Funny Story: We grabbed some food and headed to the beach one afternoon and as we were sitting enjoying our meal a HUGE and when I say huge I mean about (40) seagulls flocked our way and hovered above our heads. They were literally inches from hitting our heads. I have never in my life been scared of birds. In fact, I've made fun of those who are and thought, how could anyone be scared of such little, harmless creatures?? Well the joke was on me this time. I got so freaked out I started running with the only things in my arms being my diaper bag and drink. As I was running I look up to see the (40) seagulls followed me and were STILL hovering inches from my head I freaked out again dropped my diaper bag and drink and started running again. I got low to the ground and they FINALLY flew away. My heart was racing! I looked back at Dave and Luke to see Dave laughing uncontrollaby.

Here are some pictures from the trip. We can't wait for the next trip!



Luke is 6 Months Old

Luke is 6 Months Old! Well, actually he is almost 6 months old, we're a few days early:). He is half way to a year which is really hard to believe but after looking at these pictures you'd believe it. He's getting so big! We're about to head to Florida and we wanted to make sure we posted his 6 month status report before leaving. Luke has been up to alot this month and has reached quite a number of milestones. Here is our list of his milestones and things we love about our little boy.

• Dave is on a mission to teach Luke how to swim. I know he's only 6 months but it's fun to see him kick those little feet in the water. Luke LOVES to swim. He's almost floating by himself. Dave has got it to where he just holds his head for a little support.
• Luke is loving his solids. So far he has tried carrots, bananas, peas and rice cereal. I think we'll try avocados, sweet potatoes and pears next.
• Well so much for sweet smelling poops! With solid food comes solid and rancid poop. Agh, both Dave and I gag when we change him. Those poopy diapers go straight to the outside garbage can! One good thing that's come of the solid poop is maybe no more diaper blowouts??? We haven't seen one for a couple of weeks now!
• Luke still sleeps great, 10-12 hours.
• Luke still nurses well also. One time we went down to 4x's. Now it's 5x's and he's pretty much let go of the extra feeding that got it to 6x's. It's crazy to think back to that first month when he was feeding 12x's a day and then it went down to 8x's a day. I remember being so exhausted and feeling like a cow being milked. I may try and slowly ween Luke off the breastmilk soon. At least that's what I've told myself. I think it will be harder for me to give up then I realize.
• He now talks and has conversations with the fan.
• He loves to play with his wooden blocks.
• He inches and scoots so well now.
• He sits up on his own.
• He still giggle giggle giggles and squeals:)
• We found his first birth mark located on his top right foot.
• He loves to touch, feel and grab things.
• He's a little snorter.
• He likes to pick things up with his feet.
• He likes to put his feet in his mouth.
• He loves to play peek a boo and hide and seek with Mommy and Daddy.

Upcoming Events: We're excited to head to Florida for our roadtrip. Luke will be meeting his cousins, great grandmas, aunts and uncles on the Gentile side. When we get back from our trip we'll be visiting the doctor for another round of shots as well as a status report on his growth. We are looking forward to it all!

Luke's 6 Month Photo Shoot