What's Cookin'

We are struggling to get back into our routine after being sick. And by struggling I mean waking up two hours early! I am a tired Mom. But at this very moment baby is sleeping in his crib, dog is sleeping in her crate, Dad is at work...and I feel such a huge relief! I am still in my jammies, but things can actually get done when everyone's napping. For example, I could wash my pots.

Aren't they sweet playing together? I love watching them, which is good because they need to be watched. Luke is picking up speed and Sookie is getting bigger by the hour it seems. They are a disastrous duo. After Sookie and Luke knocked over the guitar, tried to chew on TV cables, whined and clambered at the gate at the top of the stairs and blew through my swept pile of dust I decided to give them something they couldn't destroy. While they were sucking and chomping and admiring their own reflections I actually got the floors cleaned!

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.

CRAWLING!!

Need I say more?



I accidentally uploaded this video too, so enjoy the double feature!

Ferile Cats

Well, you get another old picture today, because it is wearing taking care of two sick boys. Derek took the dog for a nice long walk last week, and this is them coming up the driveway. The new picture is of the sick boys laying on the couch watching Gilmore Girls yesterday.

As you can see the couch cushions don't match! That's because our couch cushions are at the upholstery guy having their velcro turned around. The velcro on the couch goes horizontally along the edge of the material, but the velcro on the cushion goes vertically; which means that only one square inch of velcro is ever touching; which means our cushions are continually sliding off the couch. And they're not just slipping out from under us anymore, the rough, hooked side of the velcro is actually beginning to rip the soft material on the couch as it slides back and forth. So the upholstery guy is turning our velcro, and in the meantime we have the cushions from the basement couch on the couch upstairs. Because what are sick boys going to do without a couch to lie on?

I don't actually have anything to say about ferile cats, but that phrase came to mind when I was trying to think of a title having to do with the females in the house being the only healthy ones...female, fertile, frisky, ferile. Where my mind goes no one can follow.

Comp Time

Everyone's home sick today except for me and Sookie - we're just home. So today I am taking some comp time, which means I am not going to post any new pictures. But I'll put a few pictures from last week up that you may not have seen. That's all for now, I'm just a little too ragged to do much else!

Pics: Mara and Luke hung out on Saturday night. Luke ate peas.

Sick Days

We are having sick days. Well, not "we", but Luke. I've never seen him quite so out of it. He sits in his exersaucer and stares around him with his eyelids half-closed, and his mouth hanging open since he can't breathe through his nose. Hardly any food goes in since he has such trouble breathing. And his cough is powerful enough to compete with a fog horn. His face gets all red when he coughs and there's so much mucus that he can't cough it all up and ends up gagging. So I guess we're both sick after all. Luke is sick with a cold, and I am sick over Luke being so sick.

Luke actually fell asleep while I read him a book yesterday. Normally he is too interested in grabbing the pages and chewing on the book to pay attention at all. Then in the evening when we were over at James and Jaime's, Luke was so grumpy and nothing seemed to help. So finally I layed him down on a blanket on the floor and shoved him away from me and then pulled the blanket back. He quieted down right away, but my arms got tired fast. Eventually I ended up just walking around their living room, dragging Luke around on the blanket on the floor, and he fell asleep! Poor kid.

Just Under the Wire

It is ten pm and I am just getting around to blogging! I almost missed it today! It's been a long day and I kept telling myself, "As soon as such and such is over I'll do the blog". But Luke has been really clingy today and sort of grumpy, and Sookie has decided to chew everything(including Luke), and we were in Winnipeg for the entire morning (left home at 7am, got home around 12:45).

Sookie has decided that Luke's exersaucer is the perfect hangout, and the perfect place to store her toys. She wiggles between Luke's legs, lays down beneath his feet, and jumps around in there when he's not sitting in it too. For some reason she is particularly fond of that exersaucer.

This afternoon I just sat and watched Luke roll around on the floor. Sookie was also rolling around on the floor and was pretty interested in whatever Luke was doing. She kept taking Luke's toys away - not playing with them herself, just carrying them away from him and coming back to sit next to him. Then she put her mouth on the radio cord (she knew not to chew it when I was looking), Luke followed suit and grabbed the radio cord. A few minutes later Luke was running his hands along the floor vent and before you know it Sookie was sitting practically on top of the floor vent chewing at the lever. Then Luke decided to grab the toy box handle, and of course Sookie helped. Interspersed in this strange four-legged play/learning activity were lots of friendly kisses from Sookie to Luke. It was a very interesting interaction to observe.