Tuesday, September 30, 2008

he's a mover...

Seeing as how Luke still requires to be swaddled to sleep, we don't figure he moves around very much during the night. I know that he's gotten himself out of his swaddler on way more than one occasion, but we typically find himself laying where we left him.

Apparently that stage is over and we moved on to a new situation. This is how Luke is put to bed each night:


This is how we found Luke this morning:

Opposite side of the crib totally unswaddled playing with his toys and keeping himself company. I like that he's able to keep himself entertained now!

a halloween sneaky peek from the zoo

The theme for this year's Halloweencostumes for the boys: the zoo!

a walk in the park

Keith gets one Saturday off a month and this past Saturday was it for September. I love getting these days off with him. He works so hard six days a week, so when we get that one Saturday off, its a bonus! Usually we try to jam-pack it with all the things we want to do together, or for the past few Saturdays he's had off, we've traveled somewhere. This time, we got to take it easy and it was wonderful.

We started the morning off with a walk around our neighborhood. Keith and Rosco had never had the chance to go on a walk with Luke and I so we showed them our typical path and took a break at the park. The original plan was to lay out the blanket in the grass, but we quickly realized as we were walking that the grass gets watered early in the morning so we sat on the sidewalk instead. Here are some of my favorite pictures:

After a few minutes, Keith and I realized that it really hasn't cooled off that much yet. 100 doesn't count as cooler enough. This will definitely be an activity to save for a few more weeks down the road when it really does cool off.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

gift from nonna

Keith's mom gave Luke this outfit today and I had to post it. I know he won't be able to wear it outside quite yet, but it was too dang cute to not at least try it on him yet. Here's our little man:


Thank you Nonna!

cousin time

Beth and Killian have been down (or over?) from New Mexico this past week and we were able to get the boys together for the first time where they were actually able to interact with each other. Its great to see them get excited about each other...Luke even got excited about chewing on Killian at one point. Beth thinks we might have a biter on our hands someday. I'm hoping its just that dang teething phase still!

Killian loves his bouncy gym thingee and Luke was mesmerized by Killian playing in it. Luke, on the other hand, doesn't quite get the bouncy thing. I tried to work with him on it and he keeps his legs board stiff and refuses to bounce. He loves it if I bounce it for him, but will not do it on his own.

Killian will stay in the bouncy thing for hours and was so nice to share the toys with Luke.

The boys were playing well together so we tried to get a good picture of the four of us while they were still in a good mood. What was I thinking? Luke began the picture taking festivities by trying to chew on Killian.

Then he tried to take Killian's bib.

After we convinced him to keep his hands to himself, he distracted Beth from Killian.

And finally refused to look at the camera.

He promises to play nice with Killian next time. I hope.

Monday, September 22, 2008

how to tame a wild jungle

I am not one to help with the maintenance of our yards in any part typically, so I don't remind Keith or really even mention the status of our yard to him. It's his baby, so I usually let him decide what's necessary for it. I had to take a stand this past week. Our yard has not been touched pretty much since Luke has been born. Actually, I am positive there has been no work on it since then. I finally said something about it, so the work was done on Sunday.

This is a picture taken of our yard before work began:

The grass was actually 11 inches tall. I measured and you can tell from Rosco standing in the grass. He didn't even want to go near it by this point, but Keith dragged him into the lawn.

Can you see my feet?

Even the trees were overgrown...With the exception of this one. I think it went in to protest mode and was jealous of the neighbors tree next it that was probably getting properly cared for. They should have looked fairly similar.
I like to think of this picture as a nod to Where's Waldo. I used to love those books!

Dog poo had to be handled as well.
Because the grass was so long, it had to be weed-eaten (weed-eated?) before he begin mowing. I love the path he was making as he was going.

Where have I been this whole time other than documenting it? Supervising. :)

Around this time I had to get Luke to feed him so I wasn't able to document the actual mowing, so instead I present you with the final product:

To me it looks dead, but what do I know? The jungle has been tamed, mutilated, removed, whatever and that's all that matters.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

notre dame and lowe's

Keith and I can't get over how much we enjoy being parents and how much we love this boy we created. After Keith conquered the jungle today (more on that in another post), Luke and I went to see his work. This is the baby that greeted us:

He was wearing his Notre Dame hat to support his godfather, Luke, in his final season of playing soccer there. This hat is actually supposed to be for a toddler, if that gives you any indication of how large his head is!

After Keith cleaned up, we headed off to Lowe's. We're thinking of putting a garden in the backyard to grow some fruits, vegetables, and various herbs. We're not quite sure where to start, so we headed off to Lowe's to get some ideas and price some things out. We definitely have plans to build one early in the spring, but we would be too rushed to get it all together right now to grow the appropriate things for the fall.

Anyways, this is the face Luke got as we approached a certain section at Lowe's:

Any guesses on what it could be? This crazy kid loves fans!

I think if we ever face another fussy day (and I'm sure there are many to come), we might just make a trip to the fan department at Lowe's. He was so happy!

Friday, September 19, 2008

upside down

My mom, my sister, and Killian drove down from New Mexico last night for a visit. Beth and Killian will be here for two weeks, but my mom was only able to be here for one night. On her way out of town today, she stopped by and spent some extra time with Luke and I. She attempted to help me feed Luke, but he had other ideas about the situation. This is what resulted:
He insisted on his head being upside down. When she lifted him up like this:
He laughed like a crazy guy. After awhile, we finally gave up feeding. I'm so glad she was able to visit.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

5 months!

Luke turned 5 months yesterday! Each month he shows so much growth and learns so many new things, while also trying to give us a run for our money. He has started to laugh a full big belly laugh this month which we find absolutely hilarious and heartwarming at the same time. Here is the newest monthly chair picture accompanied by his 1 month picture for growth comparison:

He's still working at sitting up on his own, although he can do it by propping himself up for a decent amount of time now.

He still tends to tilt for the first few tries each time.

He's (sort of) enjoying tummy time more. He still would rather be standing. My guess is that he might not be a crawling type of kid. He might just go straight to walking.

Those bottom two teeth still aren't in and I was very disheartened to learn it could take as much as a month for them to come in. This picture shows the slightly swollen gums and a lot of spit.

He loves to be around Rosco. We actually saw Rosco come over to him the other day to sniff him and give him some love, but I didn't make it to the camera fast enough to catch it. I'll post a picture of how Luke likes to play with Rosco...essentially just grabbing his fur. He learn some day.

I love this kid!

a new beginning

We laid Keith's grandma to rest yesterday. It was a beautiful service and it was so nice to see friends and family we hadn't seen in a long time, but it was sad to be there for those circumstances. I know she's in a better place without pain or worries, but she will definitely be missed.

We love you grandma.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

our first morning walk

I hope that I keep doing this. It was a beautiful morning, not too hot, so Luke and I decided to take a walk around the neighborhood as Keith was heading off to work this morning. I was worried how Luke would do because we left right around the beginning of his nap time, but he had a blast and behaved wonderfully. Of course, I had to chronicle it in pictures:


Monkey: check. Binky: check. Socks to keep feet warm: check. Here we are, ready to go!

A quick mid-walk check. It was weird not having him in the car seat so I could see him. This was the face that greeted me.

He kept checking back to see me. Notice the lack of socks. What was I thinking that his feet would be too cold?!? Haven't I lived here for 20ish years now?

All done and still smiling! I'm fairly certain this will become a daily ritual of ours. I think I might even take a blanket and a hat for him next time and make a pit stop at the park to practice sitting up outside. I love that the weather is sort-of getting cooler!

Friday, September 12, 2008

a paranoid momma

When we went in for Luke's two week check up after he was born, we were informed that he wasn't gaining weight as he should be and went on an intensive feeding of formula after nursing schedule. We still supplement every.single.feeding with formula after I'm finished nursing him. He's gained weight fairly regularly, but I still get worried that he's not getting enough.

Since he's started teething (and those two buggers still haven't come in) and really this happened before the teething started, it has been a struggle to get him to eat. He barely nurses and then we feel like its a battle to get him to eat any normal amount of food. Normal babies cry for food. Ours cries when we try to give him food. Go figure.

Anyway, I called the doctor today just to make sure everything is okay. They wanted me to bring him in today which kind of freaked me out that she was so insistent that he come today, so I did. Turns out that his weight is increasing steadily and that we need to keep doing what we are because he's progressing normally. He's a healthy 16 lbs. 5 oz. Fabulous! And then she measures how long he is because she was amazed at how he doesn't really fit on the baby scale anymore. 29 inches. Off the charts. Sweet. Healthy, happy, incredibly long baby...my fears are put to rest.

Proof of height:

This picture was taken one month shy of Emma's 2nd birthday. Luke is 4 and a half months old.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

a message from luke

for Grandma and Pop in New Mexico. He wanted to make sure you got the message...what ever that message might be in baby speak.


Love you guys and miss you!

swimming

I think that maybe that I'm slightly obsessed with Luke at bathtime. He's just too cute!

Monday, September 8, 2008

grandma waltemeyer


Keith's grandma passed away last night. I'm glad that Luke was able to meet his great grandma before she left us. We're praying for Keith and his family.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

teeth

For the past few days, Luke has been unusually cranky and fussy. My normally sweet and happy guy has been replaced with a baby who has issues eating, sleeping issues, drools constantly, and gets extremely impatient if his pacifier isn't in his mouth all the time. Today I think he had a very mild fever too. The only plus to this change in behavior is an abnormally snuggly baby. I *love* when he rests his head on my shoulder and snuggles his body into mine. I could deal with that part all day.

Keith and I have figured out that we think he's cutting his bottom two teeth. We see little white slits barely under the gums, so we're assuming this is a teething issue. We've tried baby oragel, baby tylenol, and all-natural teething tablets and its seems that a good combination of all three is helping at this point...well, as much help as he's going to get.

I'm ready for these teeth to just come in already.

Friday, September 5, 2008

sewing

A few years ago for Christmas, Keith got me a sewing machine. I've wanted to learn to sew since I was little, so I was very impressed that he remembered I'd mentioned it and remembered to get me one for Christmas. Since then, however, life has gotten fairly busy and I haven't really used it. I've also been very nervous (surprise, surprise) that I might learn how to sew and the results wouldn't turn out so well. Call me a bit of a perfectionist, but that's how it goes.

Since Luke has been born, I have become more courageous and I've started sewing. The idea really began when I went to this fancy kid's boutique next to my house and saw these super cute tag blankets. I wanted to get one for Luke but they were $60! Holy cow! There is no way that I would spend that kind of money on something that we only end up in my child's mouth anyway. My solution: I would make him one.

The first try didn't end up so great, but I really enjoyed making it. I've learned from my mistakes and I've been taught a few things from my mom and Jeannie to improve the technique and to make things easier. Here are some of the others I've made:

A girly one! The front has panels of flannel and polka dot minky fabric.

The back is white satin.

A close-up of some of the ribbons. I used eyelet, grosgrain, and satin ribbons.

A blanket for my nephew Killian. I used flannel panels for the front.


The back was done in black corduroy. The ribbons are a mix of grosgrain and satin.

I've really enjoyed learning to sew and I'm excited to do more so, I've decided to sell these blankets for way cheaper than they charge at the fancy-schmancy store. If you are interested, I can make one in any color or theme combination you want. Leave me a comment or e-mail me and we can figure something out!