Luke is 2-Months!

Okay, Luke was 2-months 5 days ago.  Still pretty timely, in my opinion at least.  So, here is another blog dedicated to the youngest member of the Wilson family.

FAQs:

Q1 How is he sleeping?

Luke sleeps great!  I generally give him his last feeding around 8, lay him down by 9 (sometimes that last feed takes awhile) and then he sleeps until somewhere between 1:30-4.  Usually, he wakes around 2, eats again and then gets up for the day at 5:15.

Q2  Speaking of eating, how is he eating?

Like a champion!  We have gone from the agonizingly long nursing sessions of the early days, to quick and efficient.  He generally takes less then 10 minutes to eat.  However, he does eat about every 90 minutes during the day.

Q3  Does he still hate those baths?

I have no idea, we are strictly showering him, which he absolutely loves.  He will just stare up at Thomas and coo like the happiest baby in the world.  Sometimes, we will bring his bathtub into the shower and keep a light stream on him.  He will tolerate that, but mostly he likes to be held as the water cascades him.

Q4  How much does he weigh?

At his 2-month check-up (9 weeks) he weighed 12#6oz, which put him in the 65th percentile.  He was 23.2 inches, the 74th percentile and his head was a measly 15.4 inches, the 57th percentile.

Q5  Who does he look like?

He looks like a mixture of his siblings.  Anna is Thomas' mini-me, so I supposed you could say he favors Thomas.  Although, really he just favors the kids.

Q6 Speaking of the kids, how do they all get along?

Luke absolutely adores Jack, Anna and Kara.  Fortunately, the feeling is mutual. They fight over who gets to sit next to him in the car, whose turn it is to play with him, who he likes the most, etc.  Luke smiles much more readily for his brother and sisters than he does for his parents!

Q7 So, he's finally smiling.  Does that mean his disposition has changed from serious to happy?

No.  He is still a very serious baby.  He appears to be constantly studying the world around him.  He does smile, but not much.  The other day he was smiling at something and I walked over and his smile quickly changed into his serious expression.  Whatever joke he had his in mind, I was not a part of.  This should not be read as he is a cranky or unhappy baby, because he is not.  He is just not super smiley.  He does have his moments and they melt all of our hearts!

Q8 What else should we know?

He is very strong.  He lifts his head with ease and moves it around to every angle; he doesn't want to miss a thing.  He likes a musical toy we have in the car and enjoys watching things that spin (a fan, mobile, etc.).  He really likes his bouncy chair, which we usually move to wherever the family is sitting.  He also loves to be held.  His favorite thing is being outside. He is a super sweet baby and a very welcome addition to our family.

Q9 Enough talk, where are the pictures?

Here you go, from oldest to newest:

Such a strong little guy!

Anna enjoys Luke's tummy time much more than Luke does.

He likes to sleep on the couch.

And, sleep in the boppy

And sleep on Daddy

Big smiles for Jack!

Oh, and sleep like he is under arrest

His favorite expression

When Mommy got bored... (it was washable, came right off !)

He isn't a fan of the car seat

He is a fan of his bouncy chair!

Not so sure on the Japanese restaurant

He sat for 40 minutes in his sit-me up seat (when we had it outside)

With his favorite folks!

Mother's Day and Miscellaneous

If you will recall, the day before Mother's Day was the big yard sale where the kids were so excited they were up an hour earlier than usual.  I was convinced they would sleep in on Mother's Day after such a long, busy day.  I was wrong.

I was downstairs with Luke around 6:15 when I first heard them.  All three of them were up and ready to go. Thomas was heading out the door for a run, so I thought I would try and stave them off for an hour by asking them to play in their rooms, a pretty common weekend request.  They like Sunday mornings because we let them watch cartoons and we usually have something special for breakfast (muffins or french toast).  But, they reported that the reason they were so excited was because it was Mother's Day and they absolutely, positively could not wait a minute longer to give me their gifts.  So, down they came, with a bevy of school-made presents.

Jack went first, he made an awesome book of flowers, drew a picture of me and wrote some information about me.  Then, he sang me a song he made up.  It was sung to the tune of You Are My Sunshine, but it was called "You Are my Mommy."  It was very sweet and I wish I had thought to film it.

Jack said he thought my eyes were blue.

Anna gave me a little teapot she colored and a hand print flower.

Kara also gave me a hand print flower, along with the reasons she loves me.

Luke gave me 5.5 hours of straight sleep.  Here's his most recent picture (taken less then 5 minutes ago).

I was thrilled with all my wonderful gifts.  The kids also tried their hardest to behave all day. For the most part, they succeeded; there was very little fighting or tattling.  Over breakfast, Jack had remarked to Thomas that he was going to do his best to be really good all day.  He was "going to use his manners, eat all his food, and not fight with anybody for the whole day."  Then, he paused and said, "oh, who am I kidding??  I'll just draw her a picture."  He did actually did make me another picture--it was of the Great Wall of China with an ancient battle taking place.  It was pretty awesome.  

Mother's Day is always bittersweet for me.  I still miss my own mother so much.  But, everyone worked hard to make the day special and it was. Thomas did all the cooking and cleaning, he let me choose a special dinner and we went to Rita's for treats and then a drive through Solomon's. I have a great family!

The rest of the week was uneventful.  Jack is having some trouble at school again.  His teacher told me that in her 25+ years of teaching, she has never had a kid like him.  He is very smart and very caring, but sometimes he just can't control his impulses.  She told me that despite all this she will miss him next year.  It was a relief to learn that his teachers and peers still like him, despite the issues.  The problems continually weigh on my and Thomas' mind and we wish we knew what to do to help him.  He is much (MUCH) better than he was when Thomas was deployed, so I still have hope that he will simply outgrow it.  He is such a sweet, empathetic child who is helpful, loving and kind 95% of the time; but I worry that the other 5% is going to be what defines him by others if we can't figure this stuff out.

One last story.  Thomas was out of town for work and I had all 4 kids on my own for the first time.  We decided to make cookies for some friends in the neighborhood.  I was lacking one ingredient, so I piled everyone in the car and we went to Dollar General (the closest store).  As we were walking in, Kara realized she had brought her blankie with her (the rule is to leave it in the car).  She draped it over Luke and we quickly got our stuff and left.  When we got home, I took Luke out of his car seat and noticed the blanket wasn't there.  It wasn't in the car either.  Kara said she hadn't brought it in the house.  I called Dollar General and a nice employee looked all over with no luck.  By now, Kara was crying in a somewhat hysterical manner.  So, I loaded everyone back in the car so we could check the parking lot.  As we were driving, Jack told Kara he would give her Monkey Monk if we couldn't find Chickie (Monkey Monk is his favorite stuffed animal--see what I mean about being empathetic and kind).  I started quizzing Kara again and it suddenly came out that she had taken the blanket from Luke while we were still in the store and she may have brought it home after all. Since we were in the parking lot anyway, we did a quick drive by our parking spot (not there) and I pulled in front of the store and told Jack to go in and double-check the aisles we had been on (by now, I was pretty confident that Chickie was at home, but I wanted to do all I could in case I was wrong, so that Kara would know we had really tried).  Jack quickly ran through the store and back to the car.  Of course, he didn't have the blanket, but he was followed by a store employee.  I can only imagine what she was thinking!  We went home and found Chickie in the basement.  Quite the adventure!

Also regarding Thomas being out of town, before he left, he told Jack that Jack was the man of the house while he was gone and Jack had to do a good job helping me.  Jack took this responsibility very seriously and spent his days following me around with a note pad taking notes on things that needed to be done or remembered.  Below is one of his reminder lists:

In Kindergarten they teach them to write phonetically, saying they will learn to spell in first grade.  If you can't read it, the translation is: Tomorrows chores and errands.  Clean up.  Make cookies.  Deliver cookies.  and maybe go to Ritas.

Luke did turn 2-months yesterday, but I am going to wait until after his doctor's appointment tomorrow to do his dedicated blog post.

Yard Sale, Jack's Lost Tooth & Fort Washington

No big exciting adventures to report, but isn't every day with four kids something of an adventure?  I am going to work my way backwards and see how far I get on writing about what we've been up to recently.

Today, we had our first ever yard sale.  My family had a few when I was a kid, and I enjoyed going to yard sales with my mother, but Thomas and I have pretty much relied on Craigslist or Freecycle to get rid of unwanted belongings.  However, a few weeks ago we received an e-mail that the neighborhood was going to host a yard sale.  We had a bed and a few other things to clear out so we decided to participate.  The kids were VERY excited.  They all woke up at 6:30 this morning and quickly got dressed, so they could come downstairs to see what they could do to help.  They set up a table outside and ate breakfast among the stuff for sale.  Anna enjoyed talking to customers and liked being a salesman. The sale started at 7, we started bringing stuff out at 6:45 (we had it ready to go in the garage, just needed to move the tables outside).  The bed was sold by 7:05.  The person who bought it didn't have a truck, which was probably a good thing because the bed drew people in.  I would say about 25 people asked about it (even though it was marked with a sold sign). I think without the bed sitting there, things would not have gone nearly so well.

Some things were hard to say goodbye to, but we were always happy when items found a good home.  We even gave things away (like some old bikes) to people who seemed like they could use a good deal.  At the end of the day, it was nice to clear some stuff out and to spend the morning sitting on the front porch chatting with folks.

For dinner tonight, we had some good friends over.  It had been awhile since we had all gotten together and it was wonderful to sit and talk.  So, today was a great day!

Luke is growing so fast.  It is hard to believe that he is almost two months.  I will definitely do a post when he reaches that milestone, complete with lots of pictures.  The kids absolutely adore their baby brother.  I was worried that Kara would be jealous, but it is the opposite.  In fact, at the bus stop on Friday, one of my neighbors was holding Luke when the kids got off the bus.  Kara ran up to me, asking what she was doing with Luke.  I said, "oh, she's going to borrow him for the night."  Kara burst into hysterical tears and said no one could take her brother.  I was touched by how much she loves Luke, and of course, I told her I was just kidding and that Luke would come home with us.  He is an awesome baby--super cute and sweet. He is not very smiley yet, and usually spends his time looking around with a very serious expression.

A rare smile from Luke

His more common expression

Friday was teacher appreciation day and we made treats for the kids' teachers.  We also gave them some Sharpie and dry erase markers.  The kids spent over an hour making cards, which I thought was really sweet. They all adore their teachers and were genuinely excited about an opportunity to tell them why they appreciate them, and to give them something to show it.  We did a treat that they could make (pretzels with melted chocolate and m&m's) and everyone worked nicely together.  I was very pleased with their attitude and it was a fun evening for everyone.

Jack (finally) lost his first tooth, literally.  It happened at school last week and he took the tooth out to show to someone on the bus and dropped it.  We left a note for the tooth fairy, telling her where she could find it and apparently she did because she left him lots of good treats.  He now talks with a slight lisp, which Thomas and I love.

Hmm, that only covers the past 3 or so days.  The kids had International Day at their school, which was a huge event.  I volunteered in Anna's class.  Thomas was off that day, so he and Luke came up for an hour or so, checking in with each kid, and then he took Luke home.  It was an awesome event and the kids learned a lot.  I love seeing how they behave in other environments.  I learned that Anna has a friend she isn't allowed to stand next to in line because they talk too much.  For some reason, that struck me as very funny.

Anna making something in "Mexico" (with the help of one of our neighbors, also named Anna)

Last weekend we took the kids to Fort Washington.  It has been on our list of things to do for quite some time.  The weather was beautiful and we all had a great time.  We love that there are so many interesting things to do here.  The kids, especially Jack, love to learn about the early history of our country (especially when battles are involved).  He's actually become pretty knowledgeable.  Here's some pictures from around the Fort.

Jack is saluting

Across the water is Mount Vernon.  Too bad there is no ferry service.

That covers the past week, which is about as far as my memory will take me.