Some Excerpts

These are some excerpts from my journal this week, and my favorite pics from this month. Yesterday Luke had his third round of shots and he handled those needles like an old pro. He was also weighed and measured: 21lb, 12 oz, 29 inches! Eight months, baby!

I am so excited at each new development Luke makes. Yesterday he was making the spinny toy on the exersaucer spin by pushing it with the knobby, bead toy. He was using one toy to work the other! I was pretty impressed. Most of his toys are in his bedroom now because Sookie can’t distinguish her toys from his. It goes both ways really. This afternoon when I took Sookie outside to pee I came inside to find Luke chewing on Sookie’s rope toy. They take turns. Sookie especially loves Luke’s exersaucer. She loves that his legs are so chewably convenient, but she also likes to jump up on the edge and make the toys jingle and lick Luke’s face or fingers.

I want to hug him close when I carry him, but he always wants to look out so he props one arm on my shoulder and pushes the shoulder closest to my chin out and turns around to see where we’re going. It makes it difficult to carry him with two arms (which is the most comfortable since he’s SO heavy). I need to invest in a chiropractor. I remember the first time I took Luke for his shots I carried him into the hospital in my jelly bean carrier with him facing me. He was so incredibly tiny and trusting. He had eyes only for me. Tomorrow he will face out, sitting on my hip and he will want to grab things and shove them into his mouth. He will want to stand and hold onto my hands. He will sit forward in my lap instead of leaning back against my belly. He will yammer on about, “Dadadada, and Bababa, and Mamamama” and he may even burst into his song about, “Cooo, Coooo” in his adorable little girl-y voice when he holds something close in front of his face and turns it slowly from side to side. My funny little man.

Luke's feet are getting flatter now that he’s standing so much. He wants to pull himself up on everything and gets grumpy when he can’t, but he can’t hold himself up steadily for very long and he ends up falling over, so I’ve got to be beside him practically all day long just catching him when he falls. It’s tiring, and I’d rather snuggle, but he wants to stand. His legs are getting so strong, and he’s grown so tall now! He’s really stretching out these last few weeks. I’ve noticed the neck in several of his sleepers is stretched when he puts his feet in. Those sleepers were still too big for him at Christmas. They were still too big for him at the beginning of this month. And now he’s too tall!

We’re so proud of him crawling, but soon he’ll be zipping around and I’m already sad to say good-bye to my lap-baby. Such independence! Who needs Mom anyway? At least we still have nursing. I love nursing him. And this week while he’s been sick he’s been nursing more than usual. It’s such a close time. We are staring at each other and holding each other.

Luke’s been sick with a cold these last few days and he’s been very snuggly. He even sat on my lap while I read him a book the other day. That’s very unusual. Normally he’s far too interested in sucking on the book to spend much time looking at the pages or leaning back against my shoulder while I read. I feel so sorry for him, that he’s wiped out and coughing his lungs up, but I really cherish these times when I get to cuddle my sweet baby boy. The cuddling went by too fast. Now he’s on the move.

He smells so sweet. I took him out of the car this afternoon and he’d been sleeping. He was a little sweaty and his neck smelled like shampoo and…like him. Like Luke. It’s a beautiful, soft smell. Of course sometimes Luke smells like poop, and then I do not want to nuzzle him and breathe in deeply. But this afternoon when he was all warm and sleepy I just wanted to hold him forever so small.