Finally - Luke's one year pics!

Warning: there are a lot of pictures here. I loved them all and had to share.

I also wanted to make a note of his stats at one year:

He is 32 1/2 inches tall (above the 95th percentile).

He is 28 pounds 7 ounces (above the 95th percentile).

And for what it's worth his head is 50 cm.

One more thing...He is awesome! He is a beautiful, beautiful little boy :)

More sweet baby pics

Night time activities

Chris and I must be heavier sleepers than we think. This is twice now that we've woken up in the morning and thought that the other helped one of the kids with something during the night. It's strange because both of these nights Chris and I have both been up and down at different times during the night. It's hard to believe that we missed something.

The first time, Chris woke up in the morning and found the kitchen chair over at the counter in front of the dishwasher. He thought that was weird. Why would the chair be over there? Then, when he turned around he noticed the soda bottle on the kitchen table and some spilled all over the table, chair, and floor. "Ahhh"....he thought, "someone was thirsty and decided to help themselves".

So, we got a little nervous and installed alarms on the doors just in case the night wanderer got an urge to explore out of doors.

This morning when I woke up Chris and Jaden were in the kitchen eating breakfast and talking about eating pizza. Since Jaden fell asleep really early last night and missed supper I figured he woke up during the night and he and Chris ate some pizza. (I had fallen asleep in Anna's room after reading some books - we were a tired group!)

It came up again when I spoke to Chris on the phone. I was wondering what time Jaden actually woke up to eat. Chris told me he thought I had given Jaden pizza and was a little annoyed that I let him eat it in bed with him because he woke up with sausage in his hair!

I didn't give him pizza! Luke woke up during the night and when I went in to calm him down I feel asleep in there. He's got a noise maker and humidifier running so I didn't hear anything.

Apparently, the little guy went into the kitchen and got Anna's plate off of the table from dinner and helped himself to some leftover pizza that was sitting on the stove and took it back to eat in bed with Chris. I don't know whether to be proud of him for being so self-sufficient or scared to death that he is up doing these things and we haven't even noticed!

I swear all of the nights that we wake up for some reason (to use the restroom, get a drink of water, which is often) and we check on him he is knocked out. He and Anna are ususally cuddled up to each other.

Maybe we need to set up some booby-traps as a back up.

The progression of a sugar high (in pictures)

I didn't manage to get any Easter pictures but I was in the mood to play around with the camera while they were stuffing their faces with chocolate. It's funny how happy they seem while they are eating it and then how fast they turn in to raging monsters or a heaping pile of tears after. Huh? So, why do I keep buying it??? Note to self: quit buying so much candy. Next year I think I'll tell the Easter bunny to bring books and crafts.

There was even sharing...

Life is good...

Want some?

There it is! The meltdown. Didn't take too long did it?

What?

Chris working on his retirement plan

These pictures were actually taken 2-8-09. It surprised me how different Luke looks. He seems to have gotten a lot more hair in just two months!
Chris is a sports guy. Kelli once said she thought Chris would have all girls. I sort of thought the same thing. It just works like that sometimes. At the time, Kelli had all boys and wanted a girl and Chris had a girl and wanted a boy. Then, Jaden came...and Luke came. Boys all over the place! Fortunately (for Chris), they both seem to enjoy sports as well. Of course, if we had all girls he would teach them how to play sports too! Anna's already had a round of soccer with Dad as the coach ;) She seems more interested in dancing and singing but she's not bad at golf and she was good at soccer the moment or two that she actually was interested.
Chris likes to joke that the boys are his retirement package. That might not be a bad idea with the way the economy is looking right now...
He's spent a lot of time with Jaden and Jaden actually does pretty good. Today was Luke's turn. He had a lot of fun!
As I was watching them I couldn't help but wonder who is going to break the first window?????

Swingin'

What a sweet little guy!

Lunch

Lunch is a time when we can ususally sit down and relax a little. The rest of the day they usually don't stop. Someone is always on the move.

Despite his little fat body you might be surprised to know that Luke doesn't really eat that well. For some reason, he's been on a yogurt kick. Yogurt is a fun food - good to eat and smear all over your body, the table, the dog!

He's also very into using utensils. He does pretty well. I'm surprised. Not so long ago, I distinctly remeber talking to the doctor about my frustration with him because he would not eat anything that was presented on a fork or spoon. I would have to take it off and give it to him with my fingers and sometimes he would take it. One day Luke will have to explain himself to me. I can't figure him out.

Since they are sitting at the table it's also a good time for me to play around with the camera. Here are some pictures I took one day of our lunch :)

I love the faces Jaden makes! He is such an expressive little guy. He really seems to be enjoying a simple peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Who knew?

Baby Ava

I am lucky enough to have a friend willing to let me get my baby fix and practice my photography skills with her sweet, brand new baby girl! For any one who doesn't know, I love, love, love babies! I didn't have this camera until Luke was about 2 months old so, I didn't get to use it for these kinds pictures. I needed to try it out. I still need lots of practice so anyone who has a baby and is close by give me a call!

One week old

Oh so tired!
I love little baby parts. How sweet is this little hand?

Two weeks old

I just love the little wrinkles on her shoulder.

I got her the head band she is wearing and diaper cover that has her name embroidered on it but she didn't want to look at me when she was on her belly. She was in charge so we just went with it!

More baby parts. I can't get enough of little baby feet either!
Don't you wish you looked as cute in a pink tutu?

To sum up my life these days...

This is me. Look at that woman. Now imagine her with dark brown hair. I've even got that double stroller with two ornary little boys! LOL.
I know this is a topic many people don't like to discuss but I can't help it. This comic is sooooo how I would feel if I actually had a reason to see a Psychologist (which I probably actually do) and take a Rorschach test (that is the inkblot test for anyone I might have lost).
I don't know what is wrong with them but my boys do #2 all the time. I actually asked the doctor about it at Luke's check up recently. I know it must have sounded strange from someone with 3 kids but it just doesn't seem normal. I swear most days I'm lucky if I have at least one diaper that is just #1. I'm not even joking. I know you don't believe me but it's true. I'd love for you to spend the day at my house changing them so you can see for yourself. I promise you will be scratching your head saying "No! I don't believe there's another one".
So, the other day when I went into the dry cleaners to drop off a few things I noticed this comic. I immediately started laughing and asked the girl if I could have it. She was a little surprised by request but said it was fine. She asked what it was about and when I tried to explain why I thought it was so funny she gave me the "Ah...o-k crazy lady" look. But she let me have it so I don't care! Maybe she doesn't have kids. Or maybe her kids don't have dirty diapers all day long...

Luke in the very early stages of "dancing"

I finally downloaded this off of my camera. It is from 11-24-08. My! How things have changed! He used to sort of bounce up and down whenever we sang the ABC song. He still likes to dance and he still sort of bounces but it's less "gyrating" and more bouncing. I think he would really like to be able to jump and that's probably what he's trying to do :).

Also, within a day or two of this video he was able to climb up the stairs. You can see him in this one working to get his knee up the first step. It didn't take him long at all to figure it out. Once it got one up the rest was history!

Jaden update

I just wanted to make a note of how wonderful Jaden has been doing talking. I feel like it's important to sort of keep track on how he's doing because it can be easy to forget in the midst of all that goes on during the day.
He has made leaps and bounds since just the beginning of the year. It is sooo nice! I can't even tell you how wonderful it feels to notice how "normal" his talking is becoming. When your child develops normally you might not even notice these sorts of things. I'll try to explain what I mean - before we had to really look and really listen for each word that he was able to say. We've gotten used to really tuning into every approximation and praising the heck out of each little bit he gets closer to the actual word and really enunciating our words with him. Kinda like our everyday language turned up a notch. Eventually, he began to say more and more individual words. Then, he started saying maybe two words together. One might have been a little clearer than the other but it was better. Then, we started to hear more endings on words. A big step in and of itself. Now, things are coming together so well that he is able to express thoughts (tell us when his sister does something to him!) and ask questions about things he wants to know with sentences instead of just using the words that got him something that he wanted (food or toys). He also will self-correct if he says something and it doesn't come out sounding right or if he notices that it sounds a little different from what he said when we respond back to him. He's using sentences now!
I think we still have a way to go but today I am so much more hopeful.
Just an example of his progress: Today the battery on my car was dead. I left a light on apparently. Chris came home to fix it. Jaden was asking "What daddy doing?" It wasn't a question that I asked for him to repeat. It was something that he just wanted to know. It was so good to hear. He also said, "I go help Daddy".

Sea World

We have certainly traveled but this is the first time Chris and I have gone away for a couple of days with the kids by ourselves. It was an adventure! We didn't really know just how much energy it would take to manage 3 kids especially when two of them are Jaden and Luke!
We were so excited to go to Sea World (Jaden has gotten very good at saying "Shamu") that we were able to brush off quite a bit of whiny-ness and crankiness from little ones who don't do well on long trips. They did fairly well on the way out to San Antonio while they were fresh. The problem is that Jaden and Luke like to be on the move so, they don't take very well to being strapped into a car seat for extended periods of time and they don't really nap in the car much. Children need to sleep! Luke didn't at all on the way up and only did for about 30-45 minutes at a time on the way back. So, by the end of the trip he was a mess. He didn't eat hardly anything the entire time. He just drank milk - and let us tell you it is not easy to come by in Sea World. We know where to look now!

The boys had a lot of fun playing in the hotel. They were all so excited to sleep some place new.

Next time we are thinking about staying some place cheaper and just pay for two rooms so they can have their own space!

Anna did awesome. She was the best little girl! We told her over and over how wonderful she was :) She was definitely rewarded.
There aren't any pictures of Shamu, unfortunately. We sat in the soak zone and so I didn't take the camera out of the bag. I actually wrapped it up in diapers (clean) - it worked. We got pretty wet but the camera stayed nice and dry!

Feeding the sea lions

Feeding the dolphins!

Just look at that ornery smile. He knows he's doing something he shouldn't. He thought it was so funny to run farther and farther away. When he couldn't go any farther that way he decided to go up!

Penguins in Texas. Jaden really enjoyed seeing them.

All in all we had a really nice time. It was really neat to watch their little faces light up at all of the new sights they got to see. We bought a pass and will definitely be back before the year is out - just not during the summer! We'll wait for a nice fall day off-season when it is not as crowded. I think we'll be more prepared next time as well.