Grandpap's Big Night

Saturday was Grandpap's retirement celebration. Luke hadn't ever been out to dinner. We decided to start him out right and take him to the celebration at the Tower Club. Not too many babies can say they had their first dinner there. Grandpap was one of the few to start OTC . He just retired as Vice President of Student Services. We were all so very proud of him!

There were several who spoke at the party. That is about the time Luke decided to get vocal. We made a dash out the side door. It opened to a balcony above a dance floor where a beautiful wedding reception was being held. Luke and I swayed to the music and looked at the lights for about an hour. All of the ladies from the wedding party thought Luke was pretty handsome. He enjoyed the attention.

The top picture is of Grandpap and Luke the night before the celebration and the rest came from the fun party...

Uncle T and Great Grandma

Just when Luke thought he had met the whole family, a few more show up to inspect him. Uncle Tony came in from Canada for a big family weekend. Great grandma also came up to check out the little man. This is the first night at our house. I think they found Luke to be pretty cool.

GOTCHA!

My camera is s-l-o-w and Luke's smiles are super fast. It has been nearly impossible to capture any of his smiles. He finally gave me a few winners on Mother's Day. I got these grins and a day at the spa. How lucky can one mama be?

Waking Up Is Hard To Do

Luke isn't a big fan of waking up. I think he gets this from his mommy. He likes to rise and shine gradually. I caught a few of his cute stretches, grunts, and a toot...thought I would share.

Month Two

What a fun month is has been! We recently discovered white noise. We watched a video on how to calm babies (for some reason it just doesn’t come automatically to everyone) and one of the suggestions was to use static to quiet a baby. I have to admit I was very skeptical but it really does work. Daddy watched an entire Master’s tournament listening to static blaring on the radio while you slept. Each time you would wiggle and wake, he would turn it back between stations and you would go out like a light. I’m not sure how much daddy enjoyed the tournament but he really got a kick out of this new white noise phenomenon.

This month I started to get paranoid that hundreds of dollars were spent on bedroom furniture that you would never use so we laid you in the crib at bedtime. It made us both incredibly nervous to have you so far out of sight. You didn’t seem to mind at all. In fact, you started out sleeping four hour stretches almost right away. The first night I got four hours in a row, I woke up in a panic. I hadn’t slept that long since you had arrived home. I woke up to your cries disoriented and walked directly into a wall. I have since acclimated to the four hour stretches of sleep and have come to love them! On April 17th you gave me a huge thrill and slept for 6 hours and 45 minutes (not that I’m obsessively counting or anything). As you slept peacefully, I wore a path to your crib. I was totally paranoid about how long you were sleeping and constantly checking on you. You have had a few nights of 6 hours of consecutive sleep. Each morning I sprint to your crib and shut off all the noise so I can hear you breathing. This of course wakes you up. I have no idea how long you would really sleep because I keep sabotaging your previous record.

My birthday was this month. We had our first lunch out together. I took you to the mall and we ate pizza on the patio. I didn’t have the stroller with me that day so I kept you in the sling around my neck. You slept the entire time. I can’t remember a better piece of pizza or a better lunch date. Everyone kept stopping by to see who was snuggled up in my sling. They went on and on about how devastatingly handsome you are. I couldn’t have agreed more. I couldn’t have been more proud!

You now have a fierce grip. You love to grab my hair and hold on for dear life. You finally are enjoying walks in the stroller. They tend to put you right to sleep. Loud noises scare you and I’m constantly shushing daddy with his loud voice and Roscoe with his jingles. You are becoming more fascinated with your surroundings. This month you are in awe of the curtain. It is really dark with just a little light coming through. You have spent many mornings staring at it. You smile a few times a day. Sometimes you will smile at us. Sometimes you smile a lot more at the curtain. Sometimes I wish I was wearing the curtain so I could get your attention! Daddy claims he got the first smile ever this month. I am still in complete denial about that.

Someone told me while I was pregnant that being a parent makes you think a lot less about yourself. That is so true. I love how little I worry about things that don’t matter now. I love how much you consume my daily thoughts. You are wonderful. These eight weeks off with you have been the most amazing of my life. Thank you for changing everything for the better.

Love,
Mama



Month One...

Month two...

Working Hard

Luke hates tummy time. It is, however, a necessary evil. This week he has finally started spending a little more time on his mat. I have to stay right by him and cheer him on (which I love). He is learning very early that hard work pays off as he gets to peek around the room a little more each time.

Not So Little

Although his shirt says "little boy", I can't help thinking what a big boy he is! Luke just passed the seven week mark. He is growing like a weed! I think he put on 2 pounds in the last two days. I already packed away his newborn clothes. He has started wearing some onesies that are in the six month range already! I think one day this guy might ring up a very big grocery bill!

Stay Cool!

It looks like spring has sprung around here. The only thing I'm going to miss about the cooler weather is decking Luke out in some hats. Something tells me he isn't going to miss it so much. We can't keep a hat on this guy. We sure have fun trying, though.

Misremembering?

When talking with other parents about newborns, everyone said the same thing. I kept hearing, "all they do is eat, sleep, poop, eat, sleep, poop!" Hmmm...I'm not sure if everyone lied or maybe they pulled a Hillary and misremembered but nobody mentioned this...





He is still the best looking crying baby I have ever seen!

Sounds From Delivery Room 9

Matt was so excited after the delivery that he put the camera in his pocket while it was still running. Unfortunately he didn't capture much video footage but he got quite a bit of audio. I cut it down from the original size. There are about 6 minutes of crying and chaos below. You can really hear the wails that kept me up for the first few nights. I thought it would be fun to post this since some family members weren't able to be there listening on the other side of the door.

Month One

Dear Luke,

Happy one month birthday little boy! It is hard to believe a month has passed already. We have come a long way in a short time. The day we brought you home from the hospital was a very scary one. I remember standing in your room, minutes after you came home with tears running down my face. I didn’t have a clue how to be a mommy. Each of your cries struck me like a blow to the stomach!

As the days have passed, I’ve learned more and more about what you like and how to make you happy. You love to be rocked in the rocking chair. You want to be swaddled and held tightly and rocked just as quickly as possible. Your favorite sound is a strong “shhhhh” in the ear. You think tummy time really stinks. You usually “squawk” (as daddy calls it) quite a bit. I have managed to get you to do some tummy time in your boppy or while hanging out on my belly. With some effort, you can turn your head from side to side. You have a real strong interest in pictures around the house and the ceiling fan. The only way I could get any make-up on for two weeks, was to get your tummy full, put you in front of the ceiling fan, and make a mad dash to the eye shadow. You hang out with me mostly at night. You spend some time in the swing sleeping and rack out with me quite a bit too. You have your days and nights straightened out now. Some nights you will sleep up to 10 hours, just waking every couple to eat and then go right back to sleep. There are also nights where I have to rock you for a very long time before I can put you down. Just when I think you are asleep, I creep over to the swing or pack & play. When I try to put you down, your eyes usually spring open and you look at me with eyes that say, “you weren’t REALLY going to put me down were you?” Our favorite thing to do is to pick you up after you have been sleeping for a long time. You stretch your little body out and make about 46 different hilarious faces before you start to really open your eyes. Sometimes you are a gassy little guy. You had a particularly bad night this last week and screamed for about 6 hours. Daddy said that one of your “poots” was longer than “Stairway To Heaven”. Thank goodness you felt better by bedtime. It was a very long day.

I’ve been off with you for a little over four weeks now. I wish it could go on forever. I love watching you do new things every single day. I love you more than you will ever know. Happy one month of being here.

Love,
Mama





The top photo is a picture taken just a few hours after birth. I thought I would take his picture next to this monkey every month to see how he has grown. He is almost the same size as that monkey right now.

Finished Room

I realized I never posted pictures of the finished room. Is a room ever really finished? I constantly feel like I am tweaking his room. Right now it is flooded with wonderful gifts I'm still trying to organize. For now though, this is just about as done as it is going to get. I can't wait until he gets a full night of sleep in here! I hope he doesn't wake up with nightmares...thinking those big guys are going to get him.