9 months today!

Luke is 9 months today, and he is in catch me if you can mode these days...

Last month was an exciting month filled with personality and so many smiles, laughs, and head bumps. Luke has mastered crawling and pulling up on everything, he is getting more courageous and goes after what he wants. He isn't happy with sitting in one spot anymore and likes to play with his jumper toys standing on the outside. He is learning so much! 

He LOVES all food and I taught him how to make a fish face, because its so cute...and to offset when he drools his food out. It was a success! He clicks his tongue too :) He will say num num num when he's eating and has his mouth open and ready for every bite! We played with spaghetti to experiment with touch and he decided to eat some and loved playing.

Luke can say mum mum when he wants something or he's mad, he says da! when I tell him no, and da da da about everything else. He just started saying na na na. I love hearing him squeal when he's playing and he plays peeka-boo all the time. I just put a mirror on the back seat so I can look at him and he looks up at me in it too, he will pull his blanket over his face and pull down real fast seeing if I'm watching him. 

Sleep....our nights have been long this past month, because we have been off schedule since his cold on Christmas. While it makes me zombie at work and exhausted by the time 7pm comes around, I truly cherish the moments of rocking him and when I have to get up at all hours of the night to go in his room to put him back to sleep..he lays his head on my shoulder right as I pick him up, and I love the feeling of him knowing that I am always there to comfort him.  After his 9mo checkup the doc told me that if I would try the "cry it out" for 3 nights that he would sleep through the night again because he is in the habit of me coming in to be with him as soon as he cries. So, daddy and I tried this out. It was real hard on both of us to listen to him cry :( On the 2nd night, I only went in his room once because I let him cry for 8min. The third night, I heard a whimper at 4am and then he slept until 6:30am. The last 3 nights he has slept until 6:30am...so, I guess the doc may have been right? I don't think I could've handled the cry it out method if it was any worse or more then 3 nights. I was extremely nervous about it and just praying that we keep up the good sleep!

Baths...Luke has so much fun in the bath now! Which, its time for me to go give him one now...

At 9 months, Luke weighs 19.4 pounds and 28in. long! I sometimes still can't believe I am a mom....how my life has changed and the meaning of it is so much more then I could ever imagined! My heart over flows with love and excitement every afternoon that I get him in my arms after work! 

Month 7 was has passed already?

I've been doing a pretty poor job at keeping up with writing...I must do better, because Luke is in so many phases of learning and growing, its hard to remember when he started doing things. I am so in love with my lil love bug and enjoying this blessing of being his mommy!

Ok, in Nov. he started out rolling over at daycare to snatch up his friends' toys. Then lurching for things and scooting on his tummy when he wanted to get somewhere fast when he was 6months, but after a week or two tops he was on to crawling pretty good. He Loved this because he could navigate to get things he wants, and that is one trait he certainly is perfecting...knowing what he wants! After 2 weeks of crawling and lowering his crib, daddy and I learned real quick we had to lower his crib all the way to the bottom because Luke is pulling up and wanting to stand at everything now. I guess this is the new phase of when babies fall and get bumps and bruises. I don't like the bumps and bruises at all.

We were at Nana's and Luke was sleeping on one of the beds that is close to the floor and he woke up and crawled off the bed. He bumped and scratched his head...daddy did NOT take this very well. He went and got him right away and as he was soothing Luke, he said "get his stuff, we are leaving now." With the look on my face, I calmed him down from crazy daddy status. I said "what, no we're not. he's okay daddy." I was only this calm because Luke hit his head at home on my watch early that day and had my first breakdown alone. That was the end of sleeping on beds at Nana's, we now use the pack and play. Luke gets to play in the pack and play now when I get ready for work now too, because he won't stay in his bouncer in the kitchen/living room alone long enough and I can't put him in his rocker by the bathroom with toys, because he would probably roll/crawl right out of it.

Luke wasn't really fussy but he was chewing on EVERYTHING, and when I took him for his 6month checkup the doctor said he thought that Luke's top teeth would come in first. Nope, his bottom teeth poked out and surprised me. He loves chewing on apple slices and cucumber feels nice and cold on his gums. His top two teeth are coming in now, which I noticed about a week ago. He is a bit more fussy with these two.

In exploring food, Luke is loving it all...with the exception of avocado. He smiled at the first bite but then was shaking his head no and making a yucky face. He makes me laugh when he shakes his head no. I'm sure this won't be so funny in a few more months, as he is learning the word no while he is crawling and into the no no areas.

I LOVE hearing Luke talk and jibber jabber. He learned to scream really, really loud this month too. He screams in excitement and also when he is showing his temper. So, I took him to the church daycare for the first time last week. They loved having him in there and the first thing they said when I went to pick him up was that he was a very happy boy and all over the place, how was I able to keep up with him? :)

Luke's 1st Christmas!!!!...Luke caught a cold  and so Christmas Eve was a rough night. I had to hold him alot so he could breathe and keep from coughing so much. Its a heartbreaking time when you're baby is sick and makes a sigh from coughing :( He ate at 6am and then I held him so he could sleep, then daddy held him and napped until 10am. So, we were a little late with opening gifts and getting to grannie's house to celebrate with grannie, john, and kaleb. Luke's favorite toys at home were his finding nemo movie that he kept wanting to chew on and then he LOVED the maracas that I bought for $1.00! He did real good at making music with them :) And the, he of course wanted to chew all the wrapping paper. After Grannie's we went back home so I could cook and get ready to go to nana and papa's house. Johnnie, John and Kaleb came over and it was a great family Christmas with all my nieces screaming and playing. We had a hillarious chinese gift exchange with the adults as usual and the food was so yummy! Luke's 1st Christmas was full of so much laughter, giving, and a special WHITE CHRISTMAS!

 I didn't get a sticker pic for his 7mo pic, but this was the day before his 7th month :)

Watching for Santa!

Bath time! While he still fits in the sink, its great for busy nights.

 Feeling his top teeth that are coming in.

 He LOVED his Nemo movie..for chewing. The second best gift of the morning were his maracas.

Ashlei and Harley on baby duty before family dinner at my house. 

 This was a game of how to make sleepy baby laugh...Olivia won! I just didn't get my pic timing right.

Playing with Uncle Ronnie

He loves his nana lovin!!!

Because its so much more fun playing under the rocking chair then playing with toys.

Luke's friend sharing his baby toys while we went to visit for the day. Milo took a little while warming up to Luke, but he was super cute when he would say baby Luke.

 Max is such a great brother! He loved entertaining Luke and kept saying "Luke is so cute, I could eat him up."

Maddie is also a great sibling and nurturer. She loved Luke's cheeks, saying "his chubby cheeks are so cute!"

Luke was so ready for nap time it was hard to get a lot of smiles at the park, but he loved swinging for the first time and taking in the park scenery with his friends.

 Last night of sleeping as a 7month old. He jibber jabbers and plays with his occtupus before falling asleep.

This was the day we lowered his bed all the way to the bottom because my little baby is growing so fast. I walked back to check on him at nap time, because he was just talking away and he was sitting there shaking his head no at me when I came to the corner :)

Lots of Changes..6months

This has been a super busy month, full of change! We finally moved over to the house we have been remodeling (daddy remodeling...mommy decorating and supervising). The house is so beautiful and full of our stuff in every shelf and closet.  The move went real easy..the adjusting took Luke a few weeks.  The first week he LOVED hearing himself echo off the hard wood floors, and I love hearing him jibber jabber :)  He has been keeping me up all hours of the night with about 2 hours of sleep, but I think we have found the fix, finally! :) We set up the humidifier and the noise is lulling Luke to stay asleep, like he did before we moved. I can handle him waking up once a night, but every 2 hours was making me a zombie at work and dreaming of sleep.

Luke started eating cereal and did so good at it. He is a natural and I did so much better then I thought I would do at getting food in his mouth and not so much up his nose, face, ears, and hair. All that you ask? Yes, when one of my nieces was a baby..that was how bad it went. ALL over her and hardly in her mouth. I wasn't ready for this stage yet, I wanted to have my plan all figured out for making homemade baby food....Luke sped me up. When I went to go buy the cereal it went kind of like this..
This is funny stuff! Baby cereal is not in the cereal isle..so i ask, where is baby cereal? In the formula isle..ok, thanks. Walk away...wait, ive never bought formula. Where is the formula isle??? oh, now i need baby bowl...baby bowls are not with the dinnerware. oh, i need baby spoons...spoons are not with flatware. Ma'am, where are the baby spoons? they are with the infant stuff, where the clothes and baby needs are..(don't ask me why i forgot this, could be my 2hrs of sleep?) ..so, what is next to the baby spoons? bibs..teething toys..oh yes, we need more of both of these. what is next to these? oh yes, next to real cute halloween onsie..must get one of these. Target...stay away! haha. 

So the veggies, we started with squash and the verdict was yummmO. Then, we had peas...he ate them, but not so excited about them. I told him, its ok...mommy doesn't like mashed up peas either. My goal is to make some food this next weekend for him and stock up. I bought my ninja machine to puree and a steamer that will steam 2 trays at once :)

Luke is almost ready to sit up on his own. He falls forward and holds himself up over his feet. I don't see how this can be comfy or possible. But, we are working on getting him ready to do it all the way...maybe in another week or two?  He is rolling ALL over the place and loves playing on the floor. He also loves playing in his jumper/saucer I got for him. He usually does this when I'm cooking or cleaning. 
His favorite books are the thingamajigs and the very hungry caterpillar. He would look at the caterpillar and then look back up at me, and do this a few more times. It makes my heart smile :)I enjoyed the thingamajigs and will even more when he gets older.

I had my annual pumpkin carving party with my nieces, family and friends, and it was a great night! I love doing this for them and getting to see everyone carving their pumpkins with such enthusiasm. I was so busy with visiting with Luke's lil buddies and snapping pics that I didn't carve Luke's pumpkin yet, or even decorate it...maybe I will get this done tomorrow, right before Halloween. I did get a cute pic of him with his pumpkin pre-carving.

Oh, I took Luke to his first football game to watch his cousin John, who is quarterback for 9th grade. He had alot of fun visiting with his aunt lisa, grannie, daddy, and of course watching John.

I gave him ice to chew on for soothing his gums and then started giving him apples. He loves this for teething. Mommy does too!

One night before bed, daddy was missing him while he was working so we sent him a sleepy baby pic.

Getting practice at crawling with papa!

Papa loves playing with his buddy Luke.

I took Makayla and Chloe to the park that puts a great display of Christmas lights up and it was a PERFECT night because it was pretty warm. I thought it was chilly and suited Luke up, then got outside and it said 70 degrees! This was the weekend after Thanksgiving!!

Luke was helping me with the Christmas lights, so I had to get a few real cute shots for our Christmas card. Mommy had to move real fast with these :)

Snuggling with mommy..I LOVE his big blue eyes!!!

This was the night I put him in his crib to sleep for the first whole night. I wanted to let him play before getting ready for bed. He was crawling, playing and talking away. I just wasn't fast enough to get the smile part. 

Luke and his buddies at Mrs. Kami's. Parker and Cooper share toys real good with Luke!

I couldn't get his pic fast enough He saw the tie as I put it on and he was fast at pulling it right off to inspect.

Our 1st Thanksgiving! He is the best blessing in my life!! I will treasure him always and forever, learning and sharing life together. 

 A chilly fussy day of being in the house prompted us to sit out back. He hates when I put hats on him..but he's so dang cute!

Drooling and Fingers

I can't call my babe a newborn anymore...I am used to calling him my newborn, but how is he 5 months already? My lil love bug has been growing, growing, growing and doing so good this past month. He had his first cold, and that was an awful feeling when he would cough all night and I couldn't make it better for him. I'm so glad it didn't last too long, even though it felt like forever, or turn into something worse. I learned that I do not like those nose bulbs and how to use saline drops with a nose frieda (sp?).

We had his 4mo check up and he is a healthy baby at 14.9 pounds and 25in long :) I learned that his birthmark is on the back of his head...I kept thinking it was a heat rash and checked with the doc.  His grandpa, Larry Sr., had a birthmark in the same spot and that made me smile thinking about something to tell him when he gets older :)

At 5 months now...Luke is all about drooling and eating his fingers. He doesn't use a pacifier, but when I go to pick him in the mornings, he is smiling at me and sucking on his swaddle.  He pulls his shirt and stretches it out so he can eat and suck on it. He is definitely at the drooling stage too, so I keep a bib handy when the drool starts flowing.  I'm wondering when he will start teething and hoping it holds off for a little longer, because I'm not ready for him to be in pain from it.

Luke still sucks his bottom lip in and it still makes me laugh! He talks like a frog when he is trying not to fall asleep in the car, or when I say rawrrrrr like a lion he will mimmic me back with the frog.  I LOVE these moments!
When he is nursing, he will stop and look up to smile at me and start talking.
He loves playing on the floor and this is when he talks the most or when I lay him on his changing pad for a clean bumm.
He quiets down when he is fussy if I sing "you are my sunshine." He doesn't know how bad of a singer I am yet. haha. (I stop when daddy walks in the door)
He attacks his toys and still loves his giraffe, bear and frog. He eats giraffe's ears, attacks bear, monkey and frog because they have the crinkle noise.
He giggles when you tickle.
He LOVES to stand and HATES when I put him in his car seat. He straightens his legs real tight and screams when I go to buckle him in. He calms down pretty quick though when I show him we are going somewhere. I also started winding up his giraffe and giving it to him right away, this seems to be helping calm him down too.

 All smiles when we go on our weekend jogs.

 This was Luke's 4mo checkup. He is doing great!

Another weekend jog and our first long sleeve outfit for the cooler weather day.

Sometimes its one finger, two fingers, whole hand, but he does prefer his thumb.

He kept wanting to pull the track off. He is so strong!

Watching mommy wash dishes, but I think Harley and daddy just came in when I took this pic.

 This is his favorite sport this month...sucking on his clothes. He doesn't use a pacifier, he will spit it out, so now I have to figure out how to break him of this habit. He does look cute, but not when we have to go somewhere.

i can't decide which finger i want..." 

 He kept wanting to break out of his bumbo. He looks so big!

When he won't nurse, he holds his bottle like a big baby. He has been doing this for awhile, but now he is so strong I have to use two hands to pry it away to slow him down. It makes me laugh.