Phone Pictures

Just found a couple of cute pictures on my phone and decided to share.

This one is from Thursday.  On the way home from having Luke’s additional blood work done (we still haven’t heard anything), I swung into the park because the baby was crying and the car in front of my was doing 10 under the speed limit, and the combination of these two things caused me to swing into the park a few miles from our house for a little break. 

The swing is a little big for Baby Luke

And on Father’s Day Luke was SO exhausted that he sat in the chair with me while I fed him his bottle and then as soon as he was done with his bottle he kind of whimpered and rolled over on his stomach and immediately fell asleep on my chest.  It melted my heart.  I handed him over to my Dad while I packed us up to go home and here he is with his Grandpa on Father’s Day

Amanda’s Shower, Round 1

Yesterday was the first of many showers for my cousin Amanda.  Yesterday was a small shower with my Mom’s side of the family (our Mom’s are sisters.)  Next, I’m going to throw a really small and casual shower here.  Then, her best friend Megan is throwing her a small brunch at her house, and then I think her Mom is going to throw a small one for her other side of the family.  Amanda and I have grown up close because we are only four months apart and we are related on both sides of our family.  Our Moms are sisters, and our Dads are cousins.  It sounds weird, but it’s not.  My Mom brought her sister, Amanda’s Mom to a family function of my Dad’s, and she met Craig, who is my Dad’s cousin and the rest is history!  So, there is rarely a family event where we’re not together! 

The shower was held at my Aunt Eileen’s house and it was wonderful!  It was a great day with family and Amanda got some wonderful gifts.  Luke got to play with his cousin Winston, who is less than two weeks younger than him. 

Amanda, me, and Baby Andrea Jane (probable, not definite name)

Winston

this is Amanda’s brother Craig.  As soon as I took this he said “this better not go on the internet.”   Ha… fat chance Craig :)

Luke watching Amanda open her gifts over the top of the couch

quilt made by her Mom

the outfit Amanda wore home from the hospital!

Then Luke took a dip in Winston’s baby pool.  He was acting like a crazy man!

I’m so excited for Amanda, Kevin, and the rest of the showers!  I can’t wait for our kids to be friends for life like we are.  I’m so lucky to have Amanda in my life and I know Andrea is going to be an amazing little lady!

Luke has had injuries pretty much every day for the past four days.  Yesterday I was chasing him around the coffee table and he pulled himself up on the couch and got so excited from me “getting him” that he let go to flail his arms around and bumped his head.  Today he fell and busted his lip on his toy box.  He’s a tough little guy though, I guess this is the life of a little boy, right? 

Tonight Hunter is spending the night and Luke has had a fun day with his big cousin.

And Just Because…

My Dad got a special Father’s Day paragraph, and my Mom barely got a mention on Mother’s Day, I think she deserves a special post.  I clearly wasn’t in a bloggy mood when I gave our Mothers a brief shout out in my Mother’s Day post.  My Mom deserves way more than that.  She has taken care of Luke since before he was born by taking care of me while I was pregnant, especially while I was on bed rest.  She came over almost every day and cooked for me, cleaned for me, and ran errands for me.  Once Luke was born she was here all the time, keeping me sane when I was exhausted.  She was willing to do anything and still is.  When she goes out of her way to do something and I tell her that’s ridiculous, it’s too much, I feel bad she always says “Are you kidding me?  Patty, this is the joy of my life!”  Becoming a grandmother has made her so incredibly happy and she just can’t get enough of Luke. 

My Mom had a job that she loved, but didn’t have to have, and she left it to watch Luke.  She worked as a receptionist at the salon where I work now.  I know she misses the adult interaction, and she has been able to go back for a few hours a week now, but she dropped her job to watch Luke and I don’t know how I can ever thank her for that! 

I was a pain in the butt teenager and even though I would consider myself a “good kid” who kept my grades up and stayed out of trouble most of the time, I can remember times when I was so disrespectful to my Mom, I want to go back in time and slap me in the face like I know my Mom wanted to.  Being older, I understand the reason behind pretty much everything she ever did that made me angry.  I can see myself being the same way in the future when I’m trying to raise kids with values, respect, and manners. 

Okay, so to summarize, thanks to Mom for everything you’ve ever done.  I have you to thank for the person I am today, and I’m happy with that person.  I hope that I can use everything you taught me to raise happy kids myself.  I don’t know what we would do without you.  I know that it would be a much more stressful life!  We can never thank you enough or repay you for all the wonderful things you’ve done for our family.  We love you!

Father’s Day

We had such a great Father’s Day!  I know I enjoyed it, I hope Tommy did as much as me!  It was a very relaxing day and Luke was such a good boy.  We just played in the morning, and then picked up crabs and headed down to my Dad’s for crabs.  (p.s.- did anybody NOT eat crabs on Sunday? :))  I have an extremely close relationship with my Dad.  I’ve been working for him for five years now and although my patience is tested fairly often, I am so thankful to have so much time with him and the rest of my family.  I’m down to part time now, and at some point will stop working for him completely, and it makes me sad to think about.  I got my sense of humor from my Dad and he makes me absolutely crack up laughing every single day.  We are similar in many ways, and different in many, and it makes our relationship special and wonderful.  I think my Dad is one of the smartest business people I know and he built his business from absolutely nothing into something very successful by working hard and spending smart over the last twenty years.  He has provided a wonderful life for me, my sisters, and my Mom and taught me so much along the way.  I LOVE YOU DAD!!!!

Now, Luke has a wonderful Grandpa who he can love and learn from.  I can’t wait to see how their relationship develops. 

Now, on to the real star of the day!

Tommy’s first Father’s Day!  Tommy has absolutely exceeded every expectation I ever had of him as a father.  He is amazing in every way.  I worried so much before Luke was born because I was afraid I would be too “type a,” always trying to tell Tommy how to do everything.  At night when I couldn’t sleep I would wake Tommy up by loudly asking “are you awake?”  until he was.  Then I would tell him that I was worried that I would drive him crazy once the baby was born and he wouldn’t want to be around me.  He would tell me not to worry about it and that I was driving him crazy now :)  Once the baby was born all of those fears went right out the window.  Of course, I disagree with the way he does things sometimes.  Sometimes he gives things to Luke to play with without thinking about the possible disasters that could ensue… like a wrench (Tommy: it’s not sharp! Me: It’s heavy! *hits self on forehead with it* see!  ow!) or a lipstick (Tommy: what’s wrong with that? Me: *easily uncaps it* HELLO!  Lipstick everywhere!")  But, those are just very minor details and as a whole since the very beginning Tommy has been so supportive and willing to do anything and everything.  Because of my schedule, first with school and now with the salon, Tommy has taken care of Luke by himself many times since he was a tiny baby.  Bath time, bedtime, whatever time- he’s on it.  Just because we don’t always do things exactly the same doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with that…. maybe it’ll teach Luke flexibility :) 

I can’t say enough wonderful things about Tommy as a husband and father.  I can’t wait for him to be a Daddy again.  Well, I mean, I can wait, but I’ll be really happy when that time comes…

We love you so much and think you’re the best Daddy in the world!

10 Months (and 9 Months, too… Whoops)

Luke turned 10 months old on Saturday! I can't believe how time is flying! I know I've said this before, but other than the required "oh my gosh, he's getting SO big!" exclamation every once in a while, I really don't get caught up in sadness over him getting so big so fast. I get really excited every month watching him reach new milestones and don't really look back on when he was a teeny tiny baby with yearning. When he turns one, that might be a different story...
Okay, so over the past two months Luke's personality has gotten so big! He loves to chatter all day long. For some reason he has pretty much stopped saying "mama" and almost exclusively on "dada" now. He also pretty much ignores "mama" when "dada" is in the room. And squirms and cries until "mama" puts him down and lets him get to his "dada." I'm not going to lie, that hurts my feelings so bad! I'm not always chopped liver, but when Dad's around, Mom doesn't get much love. He loves when we "get him." Whether crawling behind him and grabbing his legs or running toward him and tickling him, he LOVES it. As soon as you start to say "I'm gonna get you..." he gets a huge grin on his face and gets so excited!
He has started clapping the past few days. He doesn't do it when you ask him, he just does it when it feels like it. He seems to do it most of the time when he knocks a stack of blocks over, which is one of his favorite things to do.

Last month at his nine month appointment he was 18 1/2 pounds. He still wears alot of his nine month clothes, but is mostly in 12 months. He wears a size three diaper. We just heard his lead levels are high and they want us to go back to the lab for additional testing. Did anybody else go through this? I am freaking out right now! I'm trying not to jump to any conclusions, but I of course immediately googled lead poisoning and freaked! I'm going to go Thursday morning to do the additional testing.

He’s just so much fun to play with now, and we enjoy watching him smile his way through the day. 

Here he is pushing his walker toy

Please excuse shirtless Tommy in this one.  He’s mad at me for putting his “hair sweater” on my blog :)  But, the video was just too cute to pass up.  You can see him clapping a little in this one. 

I’m starting to plan his first birthday party.  I keep changing my mind from tiny and intimate to huge blowout.  Not sure what to do because I want to have it at my house, but I don’t have the space.  As long as people can be outside and swim I think we’ll be okay, but if it happens to be a nasty day, being crammed in my house is not fun!

So Fast!

Here’s Luke crawling/bear crawling.  He gets around so fast.  It’s crazy how much mischief he can get into in a matter of seconds. 

Catching Up

It’s been a busy couple of weeks around here.  It’s taking some adjustment getting used to my new schedule.  For the moment I’m working about 20 hours at Hampton Electric for my Dad and about 30 hours at the salon.  I would really like to thank Tommy, my Mom, and Bonnie for being so helpful with everything that goes into taking care of a baby and working multiple jobs. 

Krystal had pink eye last weekend and it then made the rounds to Tommy and finally to me today.  I went to the doctor and got drops right away.  I haven’t seen any signs in Luke yet, thank God!  Even though I know it’s an easy fix, I feel so bad when babies have to deal with stuff like that and they don’t understand what’s going on.

Saturday night after work me, my Mom, Bonnie, and Sage went to see a show at Wolftrap.  It was a Cirque du Soleil type show, but it’s a different company.  It was called Cirque Dreams: Illuminations and was a great time.  It was my first time at Wolftrap, and that is a beautiful venue!  I highly suggest catching a show this summer if you can find one that appeals to you.  If you get lawn seats you can bring any food and drink in with you that you want!  There were lots of people having picnics and drinking wine. 

Sunday was a super lazy day.  I mean extremely lazy.  I napped BOTH times Luke napped and enjoyed every minute of it.  Well, I guess the second time I really just laid in bed and read and watched t.v.  Other than that we just played with the baby and had a great steak dinner on the grill. 

Okay, so on to Luke updates.  Lately at home he is a total Daddy’s boy.  I try not to let it get to me, but it really kind of hurts my feelings!  I’ll be holding him and playing with him and he’s squirming and crying and as soon as I hand him over to Tommy he gets a huge grin on his face and is a happy boy.  He now has eight teeth- four on top and four on the bottom.  The two new ones on the bottom have barely broken the surface, but all the rest are well developed.  With all these new teeth he has done MAJOR damage to the side of his crib!

He almost exclusively crawls on his hands and FEET- not knees-  now.  We call it a “bear crawl” because that’s what it’s called as a football drill.  This thrills Tommy.  He keeps saying “look at him!  It’s perfect form!  He’s going to do so good at football!”  I’ll get a video soon. 

silly face

his poor little nose!  He’s had a runny nose for about a week and it’s been pretty raw the past few days.  He HATES having his nose wiped and is so strong!  He pushes my hands away and is actually successful at keeping me away!

My Mom used to do “I’m a little mousey” all the time when we were kids.  Luke already loves it!

This weekend we have a couple of parties to go to when I get off work on Saturday and Sunday I think the plan is to go down to my Dad’s for crabs.  I’m excited for Tommy’s first Father’s Day!  I’m hoping my Dad’s boat will be in the water and he and Tommy can go for a spin. 

Luke in the Big Pool!

So we’ve had issues with our pool this year and it’s definitely still very, very far from pristine condition, but yesterday I realized that Luke’s feet don’t touch the bottom (one of our major problems is our vacuum), so I might as well put him in!  He didn’t mind it, but he also didn’t love it.  He splashed a little bit, and I pulled him around in his float and got a couple of smiles out of him, but it wasn’t a big deal to him at all.  I really hope we can get the pool cleared up soon so we can start taking some pride in it and enjoying it!

I know I’m behind on my blogging, but lately it just seems like work, dinner, playtime, baby bedtime, husband time, sleep, repeat and blogging just doesn’t really seem to fit in anywhere!  I’ve also realized that I never got Luke’s nine month post up, so at this point I think I’ll just combine it with 10 months since we’re less than two weeks away from 10 months… which is totally unbelievable to me.