Happy 7th Months!

Dear Monkey,

Today you're 7 months old. It's very hard for me to believe another month went by so quickly again. You've accomplished quite a lot in such a small amount of time.

Right after your 6-month check up at the doctor you started to sit by yourself without tipping backward when you were distracted. You sit like a Pro now. You can even get things out of your reach by putting one hand down for support as you reach to grab your toy with the other.

While rolling around endlessly on the floor all day, you've just started to figure out that some how you can move your arms and legs in order to move around. It took you a few weeks to figure out what needed to move where, but as of a few days before your 7 month B-day, you figured out how to army crawl. We think that in another week or so you'll be crawling on your knees. It's fun to see you mobile, but I'll miss being able to put you down, knowing you won't go anywhere, so I can run into the other room really quick. But I'm excited for you to be able to move on your own to get whatever it is you want. You get frustrated very easily if you cannot reach what you want and can't figure out how to get to it.

One afternoon, Grandma sat you in your pack n play (which still had the infant raiser in it) to go into the other room to grab something. When she came back to you, you had figured out how to pull yourself up. So the raiser had to come off so you didn't tip over the edge. Daddy was very worried that night after he put you to bed, that the next day we lowered the crib mattress down to the next level so you can't climb out of the crib either. You think Mommy is your personal jungle gym for climbing. Whenever I'm sitting and holding you, you decide it's time to crawl up my stomach and chest, or climb over my lap to the other side, or try to get yourself to stand up by pulling on my legs.

In celebration of your new-found skills, we decided to put away your activity gym mat. You haven't been playing with it much and the hanging toys are no challenge for you anymore. When you're on the mat, you usually get stuck on the poles because you want to roll around. It was a little bittersweet to put away your first "toy". We went out to Babies R Us and got you a transitional vtech toy. The board teaches animals, colors, and numbers, etc. It can be used on it's own when you're sitting, go on a stand so you can stand in front of it and play with it, and then converts into a walker. Walking is all you want to do now. Sitting and rolling aren't fun anymore. Mommy and Daddy's backs are killing them from bending over to hold your hands so we can walk with you around the house. When you get a little stronger, you'll be able to walk around the house with this toy by yourself and save our backs a lot of pain.

You also love to turn the light switches off. Every time we leave your room you reach for the light switch. With practice, you're now able to turn the switch off with only missing it once. You tend to hit the switch first and then you slowly reach your hand out over the switch and slowly pull it down. You're a great help when Mommy's hand are full, especially when leaving the kitchen holding you and your food. All I have to do is stop in front of the switch and say "light" and you turn it off for me.You're so smart.

You've also discovered finger foods. You weren't eating a lot of baby food when it was offered to you, so one day I decided to try a little on top of a graham cracker and hand feed it to you. You loved it! Now you love to have little pieces of graham crackers or those puff snacks. And lately, when you won't finish your bottle before bed, we put it in a glass and feed it you that way. Yes, about half dribbles down your face, but at least you eat a little more that way.

We finally changed your schedule to put you to bed around 7:30-8pm and no longer wake you up for a feeding at 10:30pm. You had no problems leaving out that feeding. The problem remains getting you take a little nap around 5pm. You fight it, and then I have a major cranky baby on my hands while I'm trying to fix dinner. But we'll keep working on it.
Otherwise, you're still such a happy baby. Every time you wake up from a nap, I'm greeted with a big smile. Every time Daddy comes home from work, your face lights up. -You open your mouth as wide as it'll go and then bury your head into my shoulder, laughing.

When the world gets stressful and gloomy all I need to do is see your smile to make my day better again.
What would we do without you,
Mommy

Father's Day

Happy 1st Father's Day!

Luc and Mommy woke Daddy up Sunday morning with warm croissants with Nutella and a cup of hot coffee. Daddy got to eat breakfast in bed, but Luc tried to get a hold of it the whole time. He knows what's good.
We had a leisurely morning, went for a walk on the trails, then headed to my parent's for a BBQ. Frederic slow cooked ribs for dinner and relaxed with the family.
While at the dinner table before having dinner, Luc started to get fussy. I got up to go into the kitchen to make him a bottle. As I left the room, he screamed after me "MoMma!" It was a good Father's Day for me too.

Luc Luc and DaDa

Half a Year

I can't tell you where this half of a year has gone already. Feels like just a few days ago we were celebrating Christmas. But at the same time, it seems like forever ago since I was pregnant, and I have already forgotten what it's like to carry a basketball around in front of me.

Luc is 6 months old! 6 months from now we'll be having his 1st Birthday party. Whoa.

Weight: 15 lbs
Height: 26 inches
-Skinny & Tall, just like his Daddy!

Luc can sit on his own now. But when he gets distracted he sometimes falls back.
He rolls around like crazy and does circles on his stomach to get around. He's trying to figure out how to crawl and is dying to be able to move around more. We already bought the baby gates.
He still loves to stand more than sit, and sit more than lay down.
Luc is still in love with carrots, but sweet potatoes are becoming his new favorite. He does not like the sour/tart taste of apples/applesauce. Nor is he a fan of peas. Though I can't blame him. I tried them and they are pretty strong.

Luc's eye lids get a pink color when he's really tired- just like his dad. And he still gets frustrated easily.
When he eats solids, Luc still makes that yummm mmm sound with every bite. And I wondered where he got that from...until Frederic and I were eating dinner the other night and Frederic made the same sounds with a few bites of the meal. Genetics are a funny thing.
Luc loves to be outside and go for walks. We're making good use of the trails around us.
He's doing a good job drinking out of the sippy cup...when he's not allowed to drink water from our glasses.
Luc is now falling asleep at night on his side. I've never seen a baby fall asleep, or even sleep, on their side. But this is his preference.

Just in time for his 6-month appointment and shots, Luc started running a fever the day before. It got up to 101.7. Poor thing. But the next day it was a lot lower, but the doctor could tell he was fighting something. At the same time, I started to feel a cold coming on. Luc was fine within a few days without developing any cold symptoms. He handled not feeling well just better than me, but then again I don't have my mom and grandma holding and snuggling me all day.

1st Mother's Day

Okay, so if you really want to get technical, my first Mother's Day was last year while I was pregnant. This is the first official Mother's Day with Luc out of my belly.

When Frederic asked me what I wanted for Mother's Day, I simply said one thing- you get up in the morning when Luc wakes up, feed him, play with him, put him down for a nap, etc. so I can sleep in until ~9am.
I haven't slept-in in forever. Even when I was pregnant, most mornings I was up by 6 getting sick.

That was my first gift. I nudged Frederic twice when Luc woke up at 5:40am. He fed him and then took him on a long walk on the trails to keep the house quiet so I could sleep. Even a woman Frederic passed on the trail asked, "Giving Mommy a break?"

By 8:45am I was awake and went downstairs where Frederic was making me breakfast and Luc was next to him playing in his high chair. Frederic suggested we eat on the deck since it was so nice out, and when I went outside there was a lounge chair (the kind that shaped like an 's', you can tilt back, and has a overhead shade cover). Woot! Now I can chill out on the deck comfortably. While I was eating, I got my other presents (a baby and Momma elephant statues like the others I'm collecting).

In the afternoon we had a lunch with all my family (grandmother, parents, brother, aunts, uncles, cousins) at Harryman's House in Reistertown. Afterward, we went to Frederic's parents house for dinner. Luc didn't sleep much on this day, so by the time it was his usual bedtime, he was super cranky and tired. We got home around 8pm to put Luc to bed, and I was asleep on the couch at 9:45.

It was a very long day, but very special.

Dear Monkey

Dear Monkey,

It seems you hit the 5 month marker and started to try out everything at once.

That sleep regression phase quickly passed. All I have to say is, Thank you! You still wake up around 5:15 most mornings, but you're pretty quiet and most of the times you fall back asleep, eventually. The last few days I've come in to get you in the morning and you've rolled over to your stomach. Starting this past weekend, that's all you do. You've known how to roll over for a few months now, but all of the sudden you've realized you can get things out of reach and go places (though not far) if you flip around. But unless you're occupied by something, you realize you don't really like being on your stomach (you never have) and start to fuss because you can't remember how to flip back.

Begin to fuss... now you are turning into your father. Your little personality is coming through more and more everyday. And we've seen that if something doesn't go right at first or you can't hang onto a toy or reach it, you get frustrated very easily and start to fuss or cry. Sigh. I'll have two of you in the house now.

You've also started a few weeks ago having stranger anxiety. If it's not someone you see everyday, you start to cry the second they step too close or try to take you from our arms. Eventually you warm up to them, like with Uncle Dave, and start to play with them. Which coincides with the Mommy Mommy phase. The second I walk out of view, you do a crunch and lift your head to see where I went. And if I'm not there, you start to cry. I'm flattered, Baby. But sometimes I have things to get done, and you're starting to get a little heavy to carry on my hip all the time. By the end of every weekend now, my lower back is in quite a lot of pain. But you're too cute, so I deal with it.

You are in LOVE with carrots, boy! You're getting half a jar twice a day. And we can't feed it to you fast enough. Before I can get the spoon back into the bowl to scoop out more, you're asking for it. And the second the spoon comes to your mouth you lean forward with your mouth open. And then when you're eating it, you say, "mmMMmmm, ummm ummm."

You think you're such a big boy and are insisting on growing up way too fast. I thought it would be funny to let you drink some water from my glass last week while I was holding you. You loved it and kept reaching for more. Now every time someone has a glass of whatever, you reach and grunt to have some. I guess we won't have any problems transitioning you off the bottle.

You've also discovered how to move an object from one hand to the other. Sometimes you do it so often you get excited and then throw the object across the room. Oh, and you love to drop stuff so we pick it up, but if we're sitting on the couch or floor and you drop something, you love to bend over and try to pick it up yourself. And if you can't reach or grab it--see the section above about getting frustrated.

You're tons of fun, Monkey! You're starting to sit on your own a little bit when playing with stuff on the floor. I'm sure in a few weeks you won't need any help at all or someone to act as a bumper behind you to bounce off of to sit right back up.

Thanks for always keeping us entertained. We love you!

*Mommy

5 months

As I type this Luc is going through a little sleep regression phase. Which means I get woken up at 4 and 5 am every morning to try to put him back to sleep. I'm hoping this phase doesn't last long. I'm exhausted.
Everyone says how hard it is to be a parent. I get it now. For me, working 40 hours a week, driving an hour a day commuting to get Luc from my mom's house, coming home and entertaining him while trying to cook, clean, pay bills, do laundry, clean up, etc., get Luc to bed and shower- I'm exhausted every day of the week. And weekends are no time for rest. I can't remember the last time I slept in. The latest I've "slept in" since Luc was born was 6:45am. Yes, parenting and caring for Luc sometimes calls for prayers for patience, but the hardest part of this job as a mother is the pure feeling of exhaustion every single day with no sight of the light at the end of this tunnel.


Luc is still rolling over spontaneously. I think he does it more when he has less clothes on. Whenever I'm going to give him a bath, I leave him on the mat on the floor in his diaper. I check the water temperature one more time, and when I turn back around he's flipped over, silently, onto his tummy and is just looking around.

Luc grabs everything. EVERYTHING! It's going to be insane when he's more mobile and starts to grab everything. And of course, everything goes into his mouth.

He still loves to stand more than sit, and sit more than lay down. He's getting more control when he sits on the floor, so I'm thinking soon he'll be able to sit by himself.

We've gone from sweet cooing and ahhing to screeches and screams, with some babbling. Oh, and the raspberries are great too. Makes for extra dribbles of spit all over his face.

Even though Luc's Pediatrician recommends starting solids at 6 months, since Luc stares you down whenever you eat something, I've started to give him a little rice cereal mixed with formula left over from the bottle he just ate. He's got a hang of the spoon and actually now opens his mouth when he sees it coming. I'm not sure he's such a fan of the taste of rice cereal, but he manages a few spoonfuls. This month I'm going to try carrots. Then, when he's 6 months, I'll start trying other foods.

Trying to play by sitting with help from Mom

                                    

4 Months

These months are passing way too quick!

4-Month check up
Weight: 13 lbs, 8 oz.
Height: 24.5 inches

We had taken out the high chair because Luc was getting annoyed when he was too low and couldn't look around. Well now, he's starting to stand for a few minutes at a time when you hold him up. So now instead of whining when he's laying down, he's whining when he's sitting, and now wants to stand. This becomes quite a work out for us when he'd rather play standing than laying. I kinda can't wait til he can sit on his own.
Luc is still rolling over from front to back and back to front- but it's sporadic. I guess when the mood suits him.

He is also starting to reach for his toes and finds them fascinating.
Best of all- he gives a big belly laugh when you tickle him or make funny sounds and faces. It's the best sound in the world!

We took Luc to New York with us this past weekend and spent two days in the city. He got to see the Statue of Liberty from Battery Park, Times Square, Wall St., and ride the subway. He couldn't stand staying in his carseat in the stroller, so we had to carry him the whole day. Unfortunately, the weather was rainy and cold, and that with his crying to be held, he lost his voice by Sunday night. I miss his coos and ahhs so much.
This pic is on St. Patty's Day when we took him with us on a walk.