Exciting times!

It has been far, far too long since I've posted an update here. Life has been very full and blessed in recent months, and blogging hasn't been my top priority. But I do want to share two bits of exciting news with anyone who may still be following this blog.

First of all, we bought a home in October! The whole process, from starting the search to moving in, took only about 7 weeks. After living in apartments for the first 4 years of marriage, it is amazing to have a home all our own, with a garage and yard! We have felt at home from the very first day here, and are so grateful for the way God led us to this place: His fingerprints were unmistakable every step of the way. Oh, and we now have a dedicated guest room, with plenty of room for visitors - so please let us know if you are ever in the area!

About a month after moving in, we got the happy surprise of seeing two lines on a pregnancy test! We are absolutely thrilled, and so grateful for this precious wee one. So far this pregnancy has been easy and uneventful, and we're going with a new midwifery clinic that seems to be a great fit for us. The due date is the end of July, and it's hard to believe we're already nearly at the halfway point. :) We'll find out next week, Lord willing, if this baby is a boy or a girl!

Lukas is 27 months old now, and so much fun! He has been saying lots of words the last few months, and likes to copy everything we say or do. His personality continues to be quite a bit like both of ours: fairly easy-going, with a wacky sense of humor and a usually-hidden stubborn streak a mile-wide. :) His favorite things right now are trucks, cars, and tractors, as well as buttons, knobs, switches, and electronics of any kind. Typical boy? ;) We are thankful for all the joy he brings to our home, and we can't wait to see him as a big brother!

18 Months With Our Favorite Little Guy

See the mischievousness in that grin? :)

Our little man is now 18 months old, and we definitely have a full-fledged toddler on our hands! Many times over the past six months I've intended to post an update here, but daily life with this little guy is so full and so fun that I haven't gotten around to it. 

Here are some of the new things Lukas has been doing:

~ Communicating! Not so much verbally, though he babbles a fair bit and will usually repeat after us if we ask him to say "Ma-ma," "Da-da," "Truck," or "Hot." But he thoroughly enjoys "talking" to us with sign language. We've taught him a few basic signs - airplane, more, food, night-night, help, and milk - and it is pretty special to watch his eyes light up when he realizes we understand what he's telling us. :) We've found the signs to be really useful in church (since they're silent), and they were so handy on our recent road trip. Instead of just fussing and screaming, he was usually able to tell us what he wanted. Made the trip a lot more fun for all of us! We're planning on gradually teaching him more signs, while also continuing to work on practicing talking.

~ Exploring! In typical toddler fashion, Lukas is Mr. Independent these days. He has no fears of running away from us, or climbing up/down stairs, or poking his fingers into things. It's so fun to watch him discovering new things, but it sure keeps us on our toes! I have resorted to using a backpack leash in busy public settings a couple times - one of those things I always said I'd never do to my child, but hey, safety comes first. :) We are still working on learning how to "come" when Mama or Daddy calls, and on always holding hands when we're walking in public areas. Overall, though, he does pretty good and it is a delight to see our ordinary world through his unjaded eyes.

Happy little man!

~ Experimenting and playing! Buttons, levers, doors, switches - anything that moves is fascinating, especially if it produces some sort of reaction like noise or lights. He tries to figure out buckles and straps, tape measures and flashlights, door knobs and drawers. And of course any kind of technology is the absolute most amazing thing! :) We have to be sure to keep our cameras and phones out of his reach, and he's learned pretty well that the computer keyboards are off limits. He's been able to unlock my iPod for months now - scary! We did get a couple simple toy telephones for him to play with, and they see near-constant use. He's always wandering around with one in his hand, frequently holding it up to his ear and engaging in very serious "conversation," complete with fake laughter and lots of emotional grunting. ;) 

He also thoroughly enjoys any kind of repetitive activity, like bouncing balls across the room, popping bubble wrap, pushing pom-poms through a paper towel tube, taking lids on and off containers, playing peek-a-boo games, and so on. He's getting pretty good at imitating, whether it be laying on the floor to do exercises with mama, helping daddy put his shoes on, or waving his arms like the song director at church. It's so much fun to see his goofy sense of humor developing (wonder where he got that from?!), and he sure brings a lot of laughter to our home!

~ New experiences! We've taken a couple trips in recent months, and Lukas has gotten to meet lots of new people, including many relatives at Joe's Grandma's funeral. He tends to be shy for the first little bit, but warms up to people pretty quickly - especially if they get down on his level and play with him. He doesn't sleep the best away from home, which isn't surprising, but overall has been surprisingly well-behaved and adaptable. We're thankful he's such an easy-going guy most of the time! 

Other new experiences recently have been playing in a hotel swimming pool (a huge hit!), going to the zoo (running around was more interesting than the animals), interacting with a puppy (not as intimidated as I expected), checking out a real playground (the slide is his favorite), and playing with bubbles (he mostly wanted to sit and admire them as I kept blowing, continually signing "more!"). Fun times. :)

Mother's Day 2014

~ Eating and sleeping! He's been going through picky phases in recent months, and it's hard to guess from one day to the next what foods he will choose to deem acceptable. I'm really hoping he gets through this stage soon, as finding something he'll eat can be difficult. Breads and sweets are always a favorite, but we don't want him eating only those. :) Thankfully he does like avocado most of the time, along with eggs, bananas, and pears. Some days running around is just a lot more fun than sitting still to eat, and then he tries to fill up on milk at naptime and through the night. Oh, well - we'll keep working on keeping that tummy full. :) He has plenty of toothies now: all the incisors and canines, plus the first set of molars. It's been nice to have a break from teething the last several months.

As far as sleeping, he's adapted really well to our new day-shift schedule. We were on evenings until mid-March, and he'd almost never gone to bed earlier than 11-12:00 in his whole life. But now we generally get him in bed by 9-9:30, and - with one or two brief wakings for a bottle - he will sleep until 8-9:00 a.m., sometimes until closer to 10. With the longer night and his 2+ hour nap most days, I am feeling much more rested. It's been great to squeeze in more design work and other projects again, while still being able to focus on Lukas when he is awake.

We're so thankful Lukas has been such a healthy little guy! After enjoying perfect health for his first 15 months, he had his first minor cold in February and we watched a lot of the Olympics while snuggling. He caught another case of the sniffles in April, followed by a week dealing with thrush and then a one-day stomach bug. I enjoyed the extra snuggle time, but it was no fun to see him feeling poorly. After all that we're sure grateful he's back to normal and feeling great again. 

Those eyes!

We love you so much, little man, and can still hardly believe God has chosen to entrust us with the privilege of caring for and raising you. Each day with you is a fun new adventure, and we wouldn't trade this journey for anything. <3

Our little monkey's first birthday party

Well, we made through our first year as a family of three! What an incredible year it has been - so many sleepless nights, frustrating moments, learning experiences, hilarious memories...and so much joy. Definitely something worth celebrating. :D

Because Lukas' birthday, November 27, was the day before Thanksgiving this year, we decided to postpone his birthday celebration until that weekend, fitting in a small "party" between other family activities. We kept it low-key, with just my parents and immediate family there, not knowing how Lukas would respond to having too much attention. He did pretty good though - smashed the cupcake in his own cautious, methodical way, then asked to be washed off. Hmmm...we may have something of a neat nick on our hands. ;)

Lukas has had some sugar before, but only in small quantities. Call me an overly paranoid first-time mom, but I didn't want him to get too much sugar at once. I found a relatively healthy cupcake recipe on this blog, and made some adaptations. Then I tweaked an old family favorite for the frosting recipe. The cupcakes turned out surprisingly good, and everyone seemed to enjoy them. Here's what I ended up doing:

Healthified First Birthday Cupcakes 

5 ripe bananas (mine were frozen)
3/4 c. applesauce (I didn't have any sugar-free or plain on hand, so used some with cinnamon added)
3 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
3/4 c. butterscotch baking chips (could use chocolate, carob, or raisins) 

Mash bananas in mixer, then add remaining ingredients in the order listed, mixing each one in well. Pour into cupcake liners placed in a muffin pan, dividing into 12. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.

Healthified Banana Frosting 

1 stick butter, softened
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 ripe banana (don't use a frozen one for this!)
Powdered sugar to taste (normally I'd use honey, but that's not supposed to be good for little ones either, so... :P The banana adds quite a bit of sweetening so less is needed than normal frostings.)
Carob powder (optional - I mostly used it because I wanted brown-colored frosting) 

Beat first 3 ingredients together well, then add sugar to taste, followed by carob powder. Don't over-mix it like I did! It won't fluff up, so just mix until ingredients are thoroughly combined and the mixture is smooth and creamy. 

Note: This makes a LOT of frosting, so if you are only doing the dozen cupcakes you may want to halve the frosting recipe. We ended up making a banana sheet cake, too, and putting the extra frosting on that.

I found some decorating ideas on Pinterest and had a lot of fun turning the cupcakes into little monkeys. :D A cheap cookie decorating kit from Big Lots supplied the eyeball candies and the red frosting, and generic vanilla wafers from Aldi made the muzzles and ears. It all tied in perfectly with some matching birthday hats, blow-thingys, and banner I found at Dollar Tree last summer. Just perfect for our little monkey. :D

More snapshots from the party:

Enjoying the singing!

"Am I really allowed to touch this, Mama?"

Isn't his shirt perfect? I was tickled to find it at the thrift store this summer, for half off $0.60. Couldn't pass that up. ;)

So solemn, almost guilty-looking...

There's a smile! Must taste yummy. :)

Ready to be cleaned up - no fun being this sticky!

One of Lukas' gifts was a little bubble wand. He had a lot of fun watching and "catching" the bubbles.

A chair his own size! Happy birthday, little man!

Lukas Paul Valour: one year old!

A cute but fake little smile for the camera. ;)

Twelve whole months! I can't believe our little man is already a year old. Our easy-going baby has morphed into a wiggly, emotional toddler with a stubborn streak clearly inherited from his parent (which parent that is depends on who you ask, lol).

This past month has been so exciting in terms of locomotion. Around the first week of November he (finally!) learned how to crawl properly, and he was a real pro right off the bat. This means we must be sure to go through the baby gate quickly, keep the bathroom door closed, and grab things out of the fridge in a matter of seconds - otherwise a little shadow is suddenly beside us, not wanting to miss out on any of the fun. :)

This is what most of our photo shoot looked like...no sitting still here!

Even more exciting than crawling has been the progress made towards walking. Though not quite to the point of walking by himself, Lukas cruises around furniture at amazing speeds, has a grand time pushing his little push-cart around the living room, and is delighted whenever anyone holds both his hands and lets him run wherever he pleases. He can almost walk with just one hand being held, but after a few steps he gets nervous. I'm just glad he hasn't yet figured out how to climb up on the furniture, haha! Soon enough...

All this activity obviously wears Lukas out every day, and he has been napping longer than ever in his life - sometimes as much as 2-3 hours a day. I know that's not much compared to some children, but after him napping only 20-30 minutes most days for months, I'm finding it amazing to have a little longer margin of quiet time for getting computer work done. It's a good thing, too, since he needs a lot more attention when he is awake. He has an unending fascination for my computer keyboard (I can't blame him, really, since he sees me giving it so much attention while I'm working), and we're still learning the meaning of "No." Ah, toddlerhood....so many lessons in patience! :)

Mr. Solemn. He wasn't in a very smiley mood the day we took these pictures.

Speaking of sleeping, Lukas has been in his own room for almost a month now. The transition has been surprisingly easy, and he went from waking 3-5 times most nights to only once, sometimes not at all. Generally he sleeps from around midnight to 8, has a bottle and diaper change, then sleeps another hour or two. Joe and I usually manage to snag 7-8 hours in there somewhere, which has been lovely. Joe has been the one to most often get up and help Lukas if he wakes up in the night - after wrestling a 20-pound boy all day in addition to all the usual housework, cooking, and my design jobs, I sleep pretty hard. ;)

Our little man has quite the voracious appetite these days, usually eating two large meals of solid food plus snacks and bottles of milk and diluted juice through the day. Oatmeal, cheerios, pears, and avocado (no, not mixed together, ha) are his favorite foods, but he usually eats pretty much anything we give him. He's a pro at feeding himself now and can really gobble food up by the handful. He's usually pretty good about not throwing food on the floor, which we're very thankful for - our dining area is carpeted and our linoleum-floored kitchen is too tiny to hold his chair.

With Daddy's help we got some genuine grins and giggles. And look at that wild hair!

With all the focus on movement this month communication hasn't been a top priority. But he has definitely become more emotional and vocally expressive, and it's usually pretty easy to tell if his cry is caused by hunger, fear, pain, tiredness, or frustration. He has a shockingly loud scream that makes an appearance too often on grumpy days, especially if he's teething at the time. Often he'll make soft little whimpering sounds, like he's trying to tell a sad story or make us feel sorry for him - it's adorable! The most fun thing, though, is that he sometimes imitates various sounds we make. If we use a growly voice or a sing-song tone or a whisper, he'll often try to copy us. And if we repeat back the sounds he is making, we can have a little "conversation", usually ending in giggles. Apparently he knows what we're "talking" about, at least. ;)

Lukas' birthday was the day before Thanksgiving, so we had a small celebration with my family while we were together for the weekend. I'll write a separate post with details and photos of our little party. It was really special to have our first Thanksgiving with him, and to introduce him to all the out-of-state relatives who gathered for the holiday. We have so, so much to be thankful for, and right up at the top of the list is this precious little person that God has entrusted to us. What a treasure and privilege!

Lukas: the 11th month

 

It's hard to believe that our little man has already been with us almost a year! His ready smile and giggle, his sweet snuggles and silly games - all have brought so much joy to our formerly quiet home, and we are unspeakably blessed and grateful. Even in the middle of teething, when it seems he only communicates by ear-splitting screaming. And yes, even when it comes to explosive, nasty diapers. ;)

October has been a full month for us. We took a road trip out to the Cincinnati area for a week, spending time with friends and doing some sight-seeing. We tried to limit most days to no more than 5-6 hours on the road, and Lukas did really well for the most part. I will say that we definitely learned the value of a snack-catcher full of cheerios! ;) He was a trooper the days we carried him around the Creation Museum and other sites, and he especially had fun meeting a new little friend, Drew, there at the Museum.

Four teeth are easily seen now, and the other two on top will be showing soon!

Coming back home was a bit of an adjustment for all of us. Lukas had a week or so of fussiness, likely brought on in part by teething. He had his 5th tooth pop through the last day of our trip, and his 6th one made its appearance last week (both on top, beside his front two). They're sharp little toofies, and he sure likes to use them to chomp down on anything he can stick in his mouth (watch your fingers!).

The latest and greatest thing around here is that Lukas is now pulling himself up to standing on pretty much anything that holds still long enough (and he's fast now!). It's a scary thing for this mama to watch, seeing his shaky legs and knowing how easily he could tumble - and often does. But he's finally learning that he needs to keep hanging on to things instead of trying to jump around in his excitement...and he's also getting a lot better at catching himself when he loses his balance. Cruising around the furniture has started happening just in the past week, and he's one excited little man!

Most of our photo session consisted of him "talking and/or moving towards me, LOL.
The ball provided a bit of distraction to keep him in one place.

Scooting around the floor still happens, especially in the kitchen where there's nothing he can really hang on to for standing up. Sometimes he sits down and hitches himself along with his arms, other times he does a funny sort of three-legged crawl, like a lame puppy. :) I know he'll learn to crawl for real at some point, and I'm curious to see if it happens before or after he takes off walking. So much fun to see him learning new things!

Oh, and his absolute favorite game right now is "peek-a-boo". He's started grabbing at any kind of cloth - clothing, a blanket, a diaper, my skirt - and holding it over his face, just quietly waiting for us to notice and say, "Where's Lukas?" Then he pops out with a grin and a giggle, only to repeat it a dozen times. So fun! :D

Emptying cupboards and shelves is another favorite activity. Most of the lower cupboards in the kitchen are fine for him to play in, and he has a grand time pulling out all the pans and banging them around while I'm cooking. Makes for a little bit of work cleaning up after him, but it won't be too much longer before he can start learning how to put them back, too.

Our sweet little man. <3

Several of our friends, including a couple at church, have little boys around Lukas' age. We've seen them several times in the past month, and it's amusing to see how excited Lukas gets when he sees someone close to his size. He starts up a happy, friendly babble, wants to feel their clothes and faces and fingers, and has no qualms about sharing toys or even his beloved Cheerio container. Definitely no shyness here! We're thankful for these little "friends" God has provided already, and it'll be fun to see how he continues to interact as they get older.

Lukas: Our little man at 10 months

"Little man" does seem to be the perfect name for Lukas these days, as he has grown up so much in the past month. Not only has he had a physical growth spurt, gaining 1 lb. 4 oz. and growing an inch taller, but he's acting a lot more grown up in other ways, too. Suddenly our cuddly baby has been replaced by a wiggly almost-toddler who must look and feel and taste everything in sight, until he drops from exhaustion. :)

Lukas is very gradually making strides (almost literally) in mobility. He's not very fast at it yet, but he's figured out how to scoot around on his bottom. Once in a while he'll try scooting on his tummy, usually backwards, but generally he prefers the sitting position. This has allowed him to check out all the kitchen cupboards, explore under the dining table and under Mommy's desk, and find all kinds of fun things to play with. :) It's exciting to see him checking out our home in new ways, and we are gradually baby-proofing so he can explore more freely. We feel spoiled to have gone 10 months without doing any baby-proofing at all!

 

Standing up is the latest and greatest when it comes to excitement. Oh-so-thrilling! He still needs a lot of support, but enjoys walking around the house while we hold his hands. Lately he's been pulling himself up to his knees on any available objects (Mommy's legs, a footstool, the toilet...), so it likely won't be that much longer before he makes it all the way to his feet and starts cruising in earnest. The days of pretty stuff on the coffee table are numbered! :)

All this increased activity has made naptimes more essential. The last couple weeks I've been making a point to lay him in his bed with a bottle around the same time each afternoon. Though that never satisfied him before, now he will usually go to sleep very quickly and easily, often sleeping 60-90 minutes at a time. Since he has never napped regularly before, and rarely napped more than 30 minutes at a stretch even when little, this is amazing! I've been really grateful for the chance to get a few more things done around the house in that window of time. He's still waking 2-3+ times a night for food, but as long as it's not every hour or more as it has been a few nights we can live with that. For now. :)

Communication has been an exciting area of development again. In last month's update I wrote about Lukas' fascination with the neighborhood dogs and imitating their barking. We can now ask him, "What does the puppy say?" and 90% of the time he promptly answers with his soft little "Woof-woof". So adorable! He still hasn't made the visual-audio connection yet, but we recently got several board books with lots of puppy illustrations and I'm sure he'll be enjoying them.

 

Toys continue to be a lot of fun. His favorites are a tractor and a truck - spinning the wheels occupies a lot of time! He also enjoys flipping through board books, and rolling/throwing avocado pits (clean, large ones) across the kitchen floor. :) Pretty much anything new is interesting and must be examined closely. Sure would be fascinating to know what's going on in his little mind! Oh, and he now clearly recognizes himself and both Joe and I in photos or video, which is a lot of fun. I suspect the photo books I put together for him on Shutterfly are going to be very popular reading material. :)

Lukas is enjoying his solid food a lot more these days. Oatmeal is a new favorite, along with peaches, pears, and avocado. He's especially been enjoying the miniature peaches and pears from Grandpa and Grandma's farm! We try to give him two meals most days, and he's getting more consistent about eating a fair amount each time. He's very clear when he's done, though: the lips are locked shut and he shakes his head in a definite "no". ;) Nursing is gradually tapering off as my supply continues to dwindle...an emotional thing for me, but I'm thankful we had as many months as we did.

 

This month's challenge was a couple weeks or so when Lukas was apparently testing out his lungs, subjecting us to large amounts of ear-splitting SCREAMING at the tiniest frustration or for no reason at all. This wore Mama out pretty quickly! To our relief, this past week has been much better in this regard, the turning point being...

...two new teeth popped through! He now has 2 on top and 2 on bottom, so much chomping is in order. ;) We hadn't realized they were so close to coming through, but it does definitely provide an explanation for those extra difficult two weeks! Since then he has been practically angelic, the sweet little easy-going fellow we've come to love so much. We're hoping this continues for our upcoming road trip early next month!

Lukas at 9 months

Nine months?! It's hard to believe that three-quarters of a year has already passed since this special little guy came into our home. We love him more every day, and can't imagine life without him. The other day he happened to be taking a longer-than-usual nap over suppertime, and it seemed so quiet and lonely to have only Joe and I at the table. So thankful for this priceless treasure God has entrusted to us!

This month Lukas' new achievements have centered around communication. He is so interactive now - both with body language (like lifting his arms when he wants to be picked up), and verbally (he likes to greet us with a loud, cheery "HA" - his version of "Hi"). I wish we were more consistent with teaching him sign language as I think he'd be catching on to it by now. "Airplane" is the only one he seems to recognize at this point, and no wonder since we have so many planes going overhead every day.

Another sound Lukas listens for is the neighborhood dogs barking. He always perks up and looks around to see where the noise is coming from, then starts making soft "Woof, woof" sounds himself. If we respond in kind, we can have a little puppy-convo. ;) He has only seen a dog a few times in person, and though I have showed him pictures and video clips I don't think he's quite made the connection yet between the audio and the visual. Probably won't be long, though!

Lukas enjoys copying and exchanging other sounds, too - especially sniffing and fake coughing. It's pretty hilarious sometimes, and a lot of fun to feel like we are having a "conversation" of sorts. Makes him seem so much more like his own little person.

Lukas also enjoys games of repetition, like peek-a-boo, or having a lightweight blanket tossed over his head, or being fanned with a pillow, or bonked on the head with a fabric block. And he is extremely ticklish in certain spots. His little giggle is so infectious!

Another major achievement this month is that his first two teeth finally popped through, after being in progress since early April. :whew: Those little shiny things are sharp, too! We've had a few rough weeks of nursing as he had to learn not to bite mama, but I'm hopeful that things will improve soon.

He's having fun using those new teeth to eat all kinds of things. Peaches continue to be the top, all-time favorite, but he's also enjoyed banana (in very limited quantities, as it still tends to make him constipated), applesauce, pears, cucumber spears, quinoa, and avocado. Oh, and of course he really likes the little puffed grain treats we purchased in desperation to keep him happy on our road trip in early August. They are sweet and fun to pick up, and he'd eat them all day if we let him. Somebody has a sweet tooth just like Daddy! ;) So they are saved as treats for staying quiet in church, or for long car rides, and always eagerly welcomed.

Sleeping through the night seems to be a thing of the past, as he now wakes at least twice (and usually countless times) every night. We are both able to get right back to sleep, thankfully, but I'm hoping to see improvements in this area soon. :yawn:

Crawling still hasn't happened - kinda hard for him to learn, when he refuses to spend any time on his back or tummy these days! But he is ever so slowly figuring out how to maneuver himself around while sitting and has fabulous balance that way, so it wouldn't surprise me if one of these days he just takes off scooting that way. I know I'll have my hands full keeping up with him, then, but it's good to see him finally growing increasingly frustrated with being "stuck" in one spot. It'll be fun to see what the next month holds!

Slightly blurry...he doesn't sit still that well these days! :)

Lukas Paul Valour: 8 months old

Lukas' 7th month was a little bumpy in some ways. After going to visit my family for a long Independence Day weekend, he spent a week on a nursing strike as well as dealing with extra teething pain and some constipation. Not a fun time for our poor little Bubby - or for Mama or Daddy! We were all super thankful when he finally started feeling better and wanted to nurse normally again. We missed our normally-smiley, easy-going little guy!

Lukas is now a full-fledged "sitter", to the point where he does not like to lay down. Don't you know that's for babies? :) He's doing really good about reaching for toys and then pushing himself back up into a sitting position, so we're able to let him sit pretty much anywhere on the floor - no need of pillows to catch him in case he tips over.

 

Toys have become a very important part of life in the past couple months. Amongst his favorites are a large tractor and dump truck that used to belong to Daddy and Uncle Kyle, a toy accordion that actually plays music (this was scary at first, but he likes it now), and a screen-mesh strainer from Mommy's kitchen. He also likes playing with Mommy's water bottle and her necklaces - special privileges that are usually reserved for church. With such distractions he does pretty good, and more often than not will stay quiet enough to sit through the entire service. We'll see how long that continues... ;)

Other new experiences this month include getting to sit in a high chair at a restaurant, and sitting in the seat of a grocery store cart. So thrilling to our big boy! Several warm days have found us out on the deck with a cake pan and some water - a great way to get soaked and cool off a bit! He also has great fun jumping wildly in his jump-a-roo, eagerly showing off to anyone who will cheer him on and applaud. And yes, his legs are quite muscular from all that activity. :D

 

Solid foods are on the menu pretty much every day now, and most of the time it's a lot of fun for all of us. Bananas, green beans, and peaches are his top favorites so far, with yellow squash, apple, and sweet potato at the bottom of the list. Peas, carrots, and cucumbers are so-so. It's interesting to see his likes and dislikes already taking shape, though we hope he'll grow up wanting to eat pretty much everything, like Daddy. :)

We live just a couple miles from an airport so many planes go overhead each day. Lukas has taken to looking around each time, trying to discover the source of the noise. We're teaching him the sign language for "airplane" and don't think it'll be too long before he makes the connection. :) He's also all boy in his interest in car and trucks that go by outside, and one of his favorite things to do each day is sit at the window and watch Daddy get in the car and drive away to work.

At his 8-month checkup July 29, our little man weighed 17 lb. 11 oz. and measured 28" - slightly above 50th percentile for height, and a bit below 25th percentile for weight. Mommy is glad he isn't growing any faster, since he's heavy enough as it is. Why don't childbirth classes include a weight-lifting regime? Seems like it'd be even more useful than Kegels and squats in the long run...anyone agree? ;)

Lukas turns seven months old!

This seventh month has been a big one for Lukas. He has learned and done so many new things, and thinks he's quite the big boy any more. ;) Here's some of what he's been up to:

This is the first of Lukas' birthday pictures taken sitting up all by himself - big boy!
Joe was standing above the camera and coaxed out this irresistible grin. :D
You can see his baltic amber teething necklace here; it seems to help with his teething pain.
No teeth through yet, though!

 

~ Rolling over. The evening of his six-month birthday, Lukas celebrated by rolling over (tummy to back) for the first time. He sure was proud of himself! Within the next week, he quickly perfected the art and figured out how to roll over within a matter of seconds of being laid down on his tummy. Goodbye, tummy time! :D Since then he has managed to roll from back to tummy one time as well. He could do that more often but since he prefers laying on his back he doesn't have much motivation for going onto his tummy. Oh, and he's also discovered how much fun his feet are - to hang on to, as well as to chew on. Pretty hilarious. ;)

~ Beginning to maneuver around the house. It's slow going yet, but the other day he managed to make it several feet into the kitchen, rotating around several times in the process. Another day he got one of the kitchen cupboards open for the first time while laying on his back in front of it. Soon it will be time to start locking things up, methinks!

~ Sitting up. I'm not sure what technically counts as being able to sit up, but Lukas sure has been doing pretty good in that department this month. He doesn't pull himself into a sitting position yet, but if I set him down he is able to hold himself pretty steady and (usually) to pull himself back upright if he tips over. I usually let him practice on the bed while I'm there pumping - he's a safe distance from the edge and surrounded by a few pillows to give him a little leverage in pulling back up. He thinks it's pretty much the greatest thing to play with his toys that way - and to grab at everything in sight, especially Mommy's laptop, lol! For a guy that's normally very easy-going and unmotivated, he's shown a real stubborn streak sometimes if he decides he really wants to check something out, lol.

~ Eating food. We gave Lukas his first taste of solid food about a week after his 6-month birthday. Banana was the item of choice, and his reaction - a decidedly "yucky" face - was hilarious! He's gotten a chance to try several other foods since then, including sweet potato, apple, cucumber, and cantaloup. He even got to try a pickle (not Mommy's idea!), and shocked us all by how excited he was over it. Definitely takes after his daddy! The more he gets used to new flavors, the more he seems to enjoy food, and it's fun to see him sucking and chomping away at his mesh feeder. It's all just for fun now, as I hope to continue nursing him at least through his first birthday, but we're enjoying it. :)

I had him lay down for a few shots, too. This was taken mid-squeal, thus the concentrated expression.
He sure can get loud sometimes, usually when he's all excited and happy, or hyper. :)

~ Noticing pretty much everything. It's fun to watch Lukas tuning in to more and more of his surroundings. He'll notice tiny little specks on a shirt or on his booster seat tray, and each one has to be thoroughly investigated. Patterns in fabric, jewelry, buttons...everything is fascinating. Airplanes flying over our house are a new source of interest. We can't see them very well, even when out on our deck, but they can be quite loud. Sometimes they scare Lukas, but lately he's found the noise more exciting than anything and we're trying to teach him the ASL sign for "airplane" (as well as a few others).

Our adventures this month included a long weekend in Wisconsin, visiting quite a few relatives and friends of Joe's. Lukas got spoiled from the constant attention, but did pretty good on the whole trip. A few days later, we took him to a local amusement park for a day - and again, he behaved wonderfully, just hanging out in the stroller watching everything that went on. He's such a good baby almost all the time...he makes us look good as parents, lol. Guess God knew we couldn't handle anything more. ;) We're unspeakably grateful for the gift of this delightfully sweet-natured little boy!

Lukas: The first half year

It's so hard to believe that our little man has already been with us for 6 months! A year ago at this time we had just made our pregnancy news public (on Mother's Day weekend), and I was still in the thick of morning all day sickness. So much has happened since then, and our lives are fuller and happier than ever.

This month has been a quiet one at home. I came down with a very bad cold the first of the month and thought perhaps Lukas would experience his first sickness, but he remained completely healthy - thank God! He has been growing by leaps and bounds, and learning lots of fun things. Here's some of what he's been up to:

~ Learning how to sit up. Well, not completely unsupported, at least not for more than a few seconds at a time. But he's quite excited to sit up like a big boy in our laps, and has lots of fun spending time in his Bumbo or booster chair. The latter is especially fun since it has a tray. He'll spend an hour or more chasing an orange around the tray, or carefully picking up a teething toy, putting it in his mouth, and changing it from hand to hand.

~ Spending time outside. Several of our neighbors have moved away recently as the apartment complex instituted a new rule to not allow any smoking out of doors. This has allowed us to make much more use of our tiny balcony, unbothered by secondhand smoke. What a blessing! Lukas and I have spent quite a few afternoons out there when the weather has been nice. I bring along my book or a journal, and he plays happily on a blanket beside me, so glad to be outside. Soon I think he'll start noticing the birds, cars driving by, and things like that.

~ Teething. His two lower teeth are still working on coming in, but haven't quite popped through yet. He's had a few not-so-happy days when they've obviously been bothering him more, but overall he's been handling it pretty well. He sure enjoys his frozen teething toys, and will spend hours playing with and chewing on his ribbon-tagged blankie. He also sucks on his lower lip fairly often - I think it must feel good to those sore gums, but it gives him a sort of goofy, thoughtful appearance. :)

~ Grabbing everything. Lukas is no longer content to merely observe the world: everything must be touched. It's so cute the way he wants to feel our faces (Joe's fuzzy goatee is particularly fascinating to him)! He likes to touch my iPod screen, and the other day managed to take a self-portrait when I had the camera app open. The Jumparoo is a source of wild excitement - SO many things to grab and play with all at once! And of course we have to be extra careful to make sure he's not grabbing for things he shouldn't play with. Just wait until he starts crawling around, haha!

~ Playing little games. Peek-a-boo is a big favorite now, eliciting lots of giggles if he's in the right mood. He's also starting to have a lot of fun "flying" as Joe lifts him high, bouncing on our knees, or being kissed/tickled on his neck. He always smiles real big when we give him a hug and say "Squeeze!" :) And what a sense of humor he has! The other day he was fake coughing/laughing, making a "heh, heh, heh" sound that he knew sounded really silly. Recently he's begun wrinkling his nose a bit when he grins sometimes, which gives him such a mischievous look. We're really enjoying watching his personality develop!

~ Reading books. We've read several board books to Lukas this month, and he's getting to the point of wanting to help turn the pages, to feel the pictures, and so on. Of course if we let him hold the books himself, they go immediately into his mouth...so his level of literary appreciation is rather suspect at this point. ;) We do look forward to continuing to teach him how to love good books as he grows older.

I can't imagine life without this precious little man! We look forward to seeing what God has in store for the next 6 months.

Lukas: our little man at 5 months

 

 

Oh, dear! I was certain that I had posted a 4-month update for Lukas, but apparently that happened only in my head. So sorry about that! And here I am over a week late for his 5-month update already. Crazy how fast the time goes.

But yes, our little fellow is now a grand 5 months old. He has grown up so very much in the past two months, and continues to bring much joy to our home every day!

 

New things he's doing:

 

~ Almost full head-control now allows Lukas to sit up with some support - most often in our arms, but sometimes in the Bumbo or propped up with pillows. He finds this great fun, and I think it makes him feel like a big boy. :) He has yet to roll over completely by himself (though he's getting closer!), and I am wondering if he will actually sit up first. Guess we'll see!

 

~ Hand-eye coordination is also improving quickly, and he is now able to quickly grab a toy from us when we hold it within his reach. So he's been putting our small toy collection to good use every day, and we're grateful to those who picked these out as gifts. Another favorite is his special blankie, with ribbon "tags" all around the sides. That keeps him occupied for hours at a time.

 

~ Over the past month, his sweet little baby coos have changed into more of a baby-babble: lots of "ma-ma-ma-ma" and other similar sounds. I like to pretend he's trying to call me, but I know he hasn't made that connection yet. :)

 

~ Giggles! That's another sound we've been hearing a lot more often over the past month. He's becoming increasingly ticklish and is beginning to enjoy other little games. So much fun!

 

~ Almost exactly on his 4-month birthday, Lukas decided he was old enough to start the laborious process of teething. We've had quite a few fussy days since then, but the amber teething necklace I got for him does seem to be helping. No teeth have popped through yet, but they're getting closer! Thankfully it has only seemed to make it difficult for him to nap in the daytime, but nights are still uninterrupted.

 

~ And yes, you read that right: he has been sleeping through the night (at least 6-7 hours, usually 8 or occasionally 9) for most of his fourth and fifth months. I feel really blessed, knowing that most babies don't do this good at his age. And even when he wakes up in the morning, it is almost always a slow, happy process - giving me enough time to slowly wake up myself and sometimes grab a bit of breakfast to eat before I nurse him. So thankful, especially with the weird schedule we've had to keep since early March (Joe on night shift, Lukas and I on evening shift).

~ Nursing is about the same, with SNS usage required pretty much full time (or bottles when in public). We're now taking him for cranial-sacral therapy only once a month and his palate seems to not be dropping much further: still higher than normal, but a lot better than it was! A couple midwife friends checked him out when we were down in MO last month and we ended up opting for a frenotomy (clipping of a tongue tie). His case was very mild, though, and we have seen few changes since the clipping. We aren't sure if he just needs to re-learn his ways of sucking, or if normal nursing will never be an option for him. Ah, well - we are just thankful he is healthy and continuing to grow!

 

~ And continuing to grow he is! Weighing in at 16 lbs. 6 oz. a few days after his 5-month birthday, he is one chunky little man. I'm not sure what to do with the rolls on his thighs, hehe, since none of my siblings had them - never had to wash them out before. ;) Yep, we definitely don't have to worry about whether or not he's getting enough food!

So that's what he's up to these days! I'll check back in around the end of May with another update, Lord willing.

Lukas: Three Months Old

  
Our little man is three months old today - growing up so very quickly! It's amazing how much older he looks in pictures compared to even just a couple weeks ago. I'm thankful for digital photography and the ability to take so many pictures of him at each stage of development. The unfolding of new life is an absolutely amazing thing to observe and participate in!

A major highlight of this past month was Lukas' second out-of-state trip: down to visit Joseph, Ami, and cousin Ruby in Arkansas for a few days. At three years old, Ruby was curious about Lukas but not quite sure how to respond to him. When asked if she would like to hold her baby cousin, she said, "I'd better wait until I'm a little bigger." Gave us all a good chuckle. :D It'll be a lot of fun to see how these two interact more and more as time passes.

While down in Arkansas we also attended the wedding of a good friend, Mary, to her Knight, Ben. Mary is a midwife so a large percentage of the 750-some guests were babies and young children. :) We felt in good company hanging out towards the back of the church surrounded by plenty of other youngins. Lukas was awake and squirmy for most of the wedding but thankfully not too noisy. Of course, then he fell sound asleep as soon as we got to the noisy, crowded reception room! :) It was a lot of fun introducing him to the many friends who were also there.

Lukas continues to bring an infinite measure of joy to our lives every day - more and more all the time, really, as he is increasingly interactive. He likes to lay on bed and just "talk" away cheerfully, giving me the biggest grins whenever I give him attention. When I'm making lunch I often set him in his bouncy seat where he can watch me working, and he'll "cheer" me on with an unending serenade of coos and grunts. Many times I catch him holding both hands in fists as if holding a steering wheel, while making noises that could pass for imitating a car engine. Obviously he's not consciously pretending to drive a car, but it cracks me up to see him doing it so often! He's definitely noticing his surroundings a lot more and a few times has begun to consciously hang on to a toy or a blanket. Not too much longer and everything will start going into his mouth, hehe. Just in the last week he's also been showing a lot more motivation to starting holding his head up while laying on his tummy, so I suspect it won't be that many more weeks before he's rolling over, too. My days of being able to leave him on the bed unattended are numbered!

Nursing has been going a little better, as the cranio-sacral adjustments have brought down his palate to a not-quite-so-high position. He has a much stronger suck now, but is still not able to nurse adequately without the SNS (Supplemental Nursing System). We are thankful for even the smallest of improvements, though, and pray he continues to progress to the point where the SNS is no longer needed. We were able to buy a nice double electric pump from my cousin this month, and finally able to return the rental pump to the hospital. Very thankful we can afford items like this which make our daily life so much easier!

After only one day of more than 5 hours sleep in his first 2.5 months of life, Lukas has graciously granted me 6 hours about 5 different nights in the last few weeks. So lovely! Feeding, changing diapers, and pumping generally takes around 90 minutes, but I'm usually able to get back to bed at that point and catch another hour or two of sleep. It's been absolutely wonderful to face most days feeling quite rested after several months of near-constant sleepiness, and I've been able to finally catch up on some projects around the house.

One new thing I've done with this newfound time is to begin cloth diapering. I'd intended to start after only a few weeks, but all the nursing challenges and my own difficult recovery made us decide to postpone the additional time-commitment of cloth diapers (thankful for friends and relatives who generously gave us plenty of diapers to cover the first few months!). So it was exciting to finally be able to pull out the cute cloth diapers and put them to use. I've been delighted at how well they are working for us! We're using a mix of pockets, prefolds, covers, and fitteds right now (a few received as gifts, and the rest I picked up second hand), and all have been working great. At the risk of sounding ultra-cruchy, I've really been having a lot of fun diapering with cloth and am so glad Joe is completely on board with it, too. He's a huge help.

We are so thankful for our happy little buddy, and looking forward to seeing what the next month holds!

Lukas: The First Two Months

We have been terribly lax in updating our blog here...something about the weariness of late pregnancy, and then the craziness of adjusting to life with a newborn. :) Joe has been posting a few times over on his personal blog, though, so if you haven't seen our baby news you'll want to check out these posts:

He's Here, He's Here!
Where Does the Time Go? (one-month update)

Now that I'm sort of getting this whole motherhood thing figured out (ha - I suspect I'll be eating those words!), I'm hoping to write up monthly update on how our little guy is doing, as well as posting a few favorite pictures for the benefit of friends and relatives who aren't on Facebook. Lukas turned 2 months old on January 27 and I wrote this not too long afterwards - I'm just late in getting it posted, but hopefully I can keep up with this better for future months. (Begging and pleading in the comments would be good motivation...just sayin'. ;) ) 

Our little Buddy, January 27, age two months (see the two fingers?).

 At two months of age, Lukas is becoming more and more fun all the time. He's been smiling responsively for a week or two now, occasionally throwing in what almost sounds like a little giggle now and then, and liking to hold "conversations" of coos and grunts and squeals. So adorable! As selfish as it sounds, I've found it very gratifying to feel like he enjoys me as a person (maybe even thinks I'm "fun"?), and I'm not just an on-demand milk machine. ;) He is a very laid-back, calm little fellow, liking to be held but not demanding it constantly. Such a sweetie! Joe and I are typical first-time parents and spend plenty of time just staring at him or trying to catch smiles on camera. :)

At his two-month midwife checkup, Lukas weighed 11 lbs 7 oz, up about 4 pounds from his birthweight. Not bad at all, considering that he was only a little over 8 pounds at one month! He's been wearing 0-3 month clothes for a few weeks, and it's been a lot of fun to have more clothing options after getting by with half a dozen newborn-sized items for the first 5-6 weeks (we hadn't gotten many of the newborn size, thinking he'd only need them for a week or so). He holds his head up really well when we support him in a sitting position, but doesn't have a lot of motivation yet to hold his head up during tummy time. He seems to be so comfy on his tummy that he generally falls asleep instead of wanting to look around. ;) But I'm sure he'll start doing it pretty soon. It's amazing to look back on his newborn pictures and see just how much he has already grown up and changed. I get really sentimental about it all if I let myself think about it long. :sniff:

This month marked a lot of new experiences for Lukas. We took him to church for the first time in mid-January and had fun introducing him to everyone there. He did great through the service, and I didn't even have to take him down to the nursery. Lukas also made his first visit out to Grandpa and Grandma Paul's farm (an hour's drive) in mid-January. It was cold and snowy so he didn't get any real farm exposure, hehe, but we know that someday he will be excited to go there!

Another big "first" was our road trip up to WI, to visit Grandma Kristi, Grandpa Westbrook and Grandma Roni, and to meet Uncle Kyle, Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma W., and a bunch of friends in the area. It was a very full (and cold!) weekend, but Lukas did great and didn't seem much fazed by all the doting attention. He likes his car seat, and the hardest part of the 4.5 hour drive was getting him to eat enough because he kept falling asleep. ;)

Lukas has been sleeping in his little Co-Sleeper bed ever since he was 6 weeks old. We're all sleeping better than we were when trying to all squeeze into our full-size bed! He's usually still awake after his late-night feeding (around 2:00 a.m., since we're on an evening shift for Joe's work), but I'm able to lay him in bed and he'll happily talk/sing/grunt himself to sleep. Most often he'll sleep for 4-5 hours before waking me up for a meal; that takes about an hour, and then he goes right back to sleep for another 3 hours or so. This leaves me with about 6 hours of sleep most nights, so I'm thankful for the days when I'm able to squeeze in an evening nap. But overall the interrupted sleep has been a lot easier for me to handle than I anticipated, thank God! I feel a lot more rested than I did when we were on night shift, even though I was generally sleep more hours then.

We have been on our own (without any of my sisters here) for most of this month, and have worked out a decent routine to get the basics done. I have been able to fix lunch most days, but when Lukas is extra hungry and really MUST be fed during the time when lunch needs to be made Joe willingly steps in and does a great job getting food on the table. Other necessities, like laundry, dishes, and bathroom cleaning, get squeezed in at odd moments and the rest...doesn't really happen, heh. I want to truly enjoy these quickly-passing baby days, and try not to get too stressed out by the jobs that aren't getting done. They can wait, and my baby will only be this age once. :)