Mad Moves

The video speaks for itself.  The boy loves to dance.

Only a Mom...

...would blog in one week about leaking breastmilk AND pee.  And be SUPER EXCITED about the peeing.  I really don't know myself anymore.  But yes, I'm about to blog about pee.  You are forewarned.

This morning I was rudely interrupted in the middle of my hot shower by Mr. Cob instructing me to turn the water off.  He had a very serious look on his face, so I did as I was told.  He was holding Lukas, who was dressed in just a diaper and they were both BEAMING with joy.  Mr. Cob looked so proud.  I had no idea what they were about to tell me.

Mr. Cob then proceeded to tell me this story:

After I got in the shower the boys went downstairs to let the dog out.  Afterwards Mr. Cob needed to pee himself, so he asked Lukas if he wanted to go sit on the potty (we have a green frog toddler potty that stays in our downstairs bathroom that Lukas occasionally likes to sit on, usually totally naked).  Lukas yelled POTTY and off they went.  Mr. Cob made some comment about making water in the potty and Lukas yelled "wa wa", looked down as he was sitting on the potty and STARTED PEEING.  I am totally shocked.  I'd like to think this means we're on the way to potty training, but I'm not an idiot.  It was probably a fluke, but it was a reassurance that one day sometime in the future, diapers will be a thing of the past!  Thank heavens.

I know that this is a Lukas milestone that no one else cares about except for me and Mr. Cob, but I'm sharing anyway since this blog is also Lukas' baby book.  So, another first!  At 19 months and 6 days old my big boy pee-pee-ed in the potty!!!

Oh, and I'm still slowly losing my mind thanks to the weaning, but I'm now convinced that it's not serious depression because I mean, really, I wouldn't be this excited about pee if I was deeply depressed.  Right? So that's good.  I think.

Everybody DOES Wean

This time 19 months ago I was exhausted in bed at the hospital wishing my little dude would hurry up and arrive.  Eventually, after many many hours, he did. My life changed in more ways than I can count the day that Lukas was born, but there has been one constant in my life since his arrival, until exactly one week ago.  Aside from about 5 days when I was away on various trips alone, every day for the last 18 months and three weeks I have breastfed Lukas.  And a week ago it ended.  I've been hesitant to write this post as I was unsure of the finality of my decision to stop, but at this point I think it is safe to say we are done. 

I have very mixed emotions about this particular change in my mom life. 

First and foremost, I am sad.  Our nursing time was our bonding time.  I could tune out the rest of my world and just sit with my baby and focus on him.  It was how I started every day.  And it was our way of reconnecting after spending each workday apart.  It was my way of comforting him when he was upset or scared.  It was my way of feeding him and helping him grow.  It was our time to snuggle before putting him down to sleep each night. It was one of the ways we said I love you. But mainly, it was our time to be together.  And for the loss of all those things, I am so, sincerely, depressingly sad.  I have tears growing as I write this. I'm mourning what feels like a loss. I'm questioning my decision.

I'm also harboring a lot of guilt.  (You knew there would be mom-guilt.)  There's always mom-guilt, it seems.  So yes, another emotion I'm feeling, is guilt.  I didn't expect to feel such strong guilt for stopping breastfeeding after nursing well beyond the "recommended" minimum time (6 months to a year).  I've nursed longer than most moms in the United States (57% of moms have stopped by 6 months and 78% have stopped by a year), yet I still feel guilt for stopping.  I know I've been in the minority "extended breastfeeding" group for the last 6 months and my brain tells me that I've done so much good for Lukas for nursing him as long as I have.  But my heart feels the guilt at stopping.  The guilt I feel isn't because I think I haven't nursed him long enough.  Yet I feel guilt.  I feel guilty that I didn't follow "child-led weaning".  I didn't let Lukas fully decide when our nursing relationship would end. I noticed his cues (some mornings he would rather read than nurse and some nights he'd go in the crib without wanting to rock and he didn't ask to nurse if my mom or Mr. Cob put him to bed), and I interpreted these cues as the push I needed to make the decision to stop.  But I feel guilty because while I know that Lukas isn't nutritionally dependent on nursing, I fear I'm stopping him from something he enjoys and wants to continue doing.  I did not wait for him to completely stop asking to nurse or to lose interest.  When it comes down to it, I decided to stop.  I mother-led our nursing relationship to its end.  And for that I feel extreme guilt.  Especially this morning when he asked me to nurse and I chose to say no.  For a second, before I could distract him with cheese in the kitchen, he looked confused about my telling him no.  He didn't look sad, just confused.  But quickly he forgot and went about devouring his cheese.  But in keeping it real, I feel that I have to tell you about the guilt.  Because it is so there.

So why did I stop?  If I feel such sadness and guilt, why the decision to stop?  I'm sure I'll get judgement from pro-extended nursing moms for this, but the answer is that I was done. It was time.  I wanted my body back.  And it was getting a bit painful to nurse.  I think my milk supply had dropped dramatically due to my few days here and there of no nursing when Lukas just wasn't interested, so when he would nurse he wasn't getting much milk and I guess he was sucking harder in an attempt to get the milk flowing.  This was simply causing me discomfort and I stopped looking forward to our nursing sessions.  I wanted to snuggle with my boy, but not necessarily nurse him.  And I want to have some time where my body is just mine again before giving it over to another baby.  I was pregnant for 9 months and then nursed for almost 19, so if my math skills are right, my body hasn't been just "mine" for over 2 years.  And I wanted it back.  I also feared that the longer I kept nursing Lukas the harder it would be to stop.  With each day he is learning new words and maybe this is cowardly, but I didn't want to wait until he could clearly articulate his desire for milk and his displeasure with not receiving it.  I also do think Lukas was more or less ready to stop.  He hasn't asked for milk most morning this week - instead he asks me to read to him or to "eat".  He's growing up and that means our relationship is changing.  He doesn't need me in the way he did for that first year.  My baby is becoming a little boy.  This is hard for me to accept.  I'm crying now writing that.  My heart is heavy.  But I think this is the right decision for me and for Lukas.

I will always cherish my days of nursing him.  I'm so happy that I got over my initial negative thoughts on the subject and was willing to try it.  I'm lucky that we had such a long nursing relationship and that it worked for us.  And I know there will be days that I will miss it.  I will miss rocking with him in his room at 3 in the morning nursing him.  But it is time to move forward, and as the saying goes "Everybody weans."

I'm Still His #1

When I picked up Lukas at school on Friday his class was outside on the playground.  His teacher got to me before Lukas saw me, and told me he had a new girlfriend.  My reaction was something along these lines: WHAT?  Who?  No way.  Genevieve, (who makes Lukas giggle at the mere mention of her name) had already left for the day, so I had no idea who the girlfriend could be.  I quickly learned when I spotted the two of them together.  And she's an older woman.

And you know what?

THEY WERE HOLDING HANDS! 

My 18 month old likes a girl and was walking around the playground HOLDING HER HAND!  The next thing you know he's going to be kissing some girl below the bleachers.  I need time to SLOW DOWN! (Ok, so I might be overreacting.  But just maybe.)

Thankfully I had my phone and recorded the whole hand holding thing.  No "first" is unworthy of this momma's documentation for the virtual babybook, if for no other reason than to replay it at his rehearsal dinner one day.

(Just note I watched them for about a minute before starting my video - so this was no fluke hand holding).

At least I know I'm his favorite girl....

for now.

All Boy

I knew it would happen, I just wasn't sure when.  Well, just shy of 18 months old and Lukas had his first visit to the Emergency Room.  I doubt it will be his last.  The child just does not slow down.  He RUNS everywhere.  All. The. Time.

And he falls down.  A. Lot.

Sooner or later he was going to fall and bonk his head.  Friday was that day. 

He was running too fast and his feet got out from under him and his forehead met the edge of a table.

Thankfully Children's Healthcare at Emory was wonderful and got him all squared away. 

The doctor took one look at him and immediately offered that they had some "calming" medicine and did I think L would need it in order to lie still for the stitches.  I'm pretty sure I laughed before saying yes, of course.   And then I asked if there were any 18 month olds who would lie still for stitches.  Apparently, there are.  Lukas is definitely not one of them.  It's a wrestling match to change his diaper most days!

So he got some chill out meds that turned him into a noodle.  I couldn't help but snap this quick video.  So funny.

Sweet thing!

Three stitches later and he was good to go!




Right after his stitches - he was still pretty out of it.



We had a rough afternoon.  He was just cranky and didn't nap until late in the afternoon.  I think it was a combination of the pain meds, calming meds and "boo boo" on his head.

But by the end of the day he was back to his happy self.  Running and dancing like a fool.

So check that off our list of firsts. 

How's that for a milestone?!

17 months

The little dude is just shy of 17 months.  This is an AWESOME age.  I think I've said that every month since he was born.  But for real.  This age is fun.  So what is he doing now -

New words:

Elmo - But he thinks its a a two syllable word.  As in El-mo.  With the mo sounding deeper than the El.  It's really cute.  He's also obsessed with El-mo.  He has two books and an El-mo airplane.  And as he reminds me every time we brush his teeth, his toothpaste is El-mo branded too.

Nana & Pop pop - he knows who they are and gets very excited to see them on Skype

Stu - he loves finding pictures of Stu and is silly excited when we Skype with Stu

Milk - he's actually saying the word now and asks me for milk!

Water/Wa wa - self explanatory

Bike - We're going to have to purchase a little bike for him soon.  He now points out EVERY bike we pass on the road and ever bike sign posted on the roads.  Look around you the next time you're driving.  There are a LOT of bike signs.  Share the Road.  Our car rides are now VERY loud.

Ba-bye.  This is accompanied with his kingly wave and followed by whatever he's waving to.  As in "ba bye wa wa" (in the tub) - "ba bye bike"(at the park) - "ba bye up" (to my dad).  Does this qualify as a sentence?  I think it does.

New Animal noises:
Monkey
Gorilla (while simultaneously pounding on his chest)

New signs:
PLEASE (we thought this was hungry, but no, turns out he's been politely asking us for things.  usually food, so hungry wasn't too far off)
More please!  He puts the two signs together!!!
Squirrel (because this was a useful sign for us to teach him)
Bird
Butterfly
Dog
Thank you (we're working on this)
Gentle (as in stop hitting the dog.  Or mama)

He hugs now too.  My friend just emailed me with this: "Did Mr. Cob (she used his real name...) tell you what the boys did this morning? We were waiting for the elevator, I put Rome down and Lukas came running up to him and they hugged! Cutest thing ever!"

My little man is a hugger! 

And he gives kisses and blows kisses.

This is an awesome age.

Big Boy Cup

We are home from vacation.  I'm sad.  More on that later.

Last night when we got home I realized Lukas hadn't had a proper dinner yet.  So I scrambled him an egg at 9:30pm.  (And yes, an egg can be a proper dinner.  But thanks for asking.)  And I was tired so I poured him some milk in a cup and set it down on the ground for him.  This wouldn't be strange except for the fact that Lukas doesn't drink from a non-sippy cup type cup (i.e. a cup).  But like I said, I was tired and wasn't thinking.  He was happily eating his dinner and the next thing I knew he was drinking milk from that cup as if he'd been doing it forever without making a huge mess.  No spilled milk.  What?!

Seriously, when does he learn to do these things????

And being the good iphone wielding momma that I am, I caught it on video.

Now if you'll please excuse me, I am going to go cry about the fact that he's growing up.  Too. Fast.

Otherwise I'll Forget

A short post to help me remember to fill in Lukas' baby book. We had a "milestone" today. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, we had a few.
After woofing down two jumbo Fig Newtons for a snack he looked at Mr. Cob, raised his hands in the air and did the sign for all done (which he learned a while ago at school) and then clear as say said "all done"! It was his first two word sentence/statement! He has also recently learned to say elephant and "baa" for sheep!
And arguably less exciting, but still noteworthy for his momma, he drank milk from a straw at dinner. And then he drank milkshake from a straw. I have no idea when the little dude learned to drink from a straw but apparently he's an old pro!
I'm sure there are other firsts I'm forgetting, but those were pretty cool for this momma today!

Why Mom, Why?

Do you think it was the white beard, the red suit, or the who the f*&K is this complete stranger aspect of Santa that made Lukas a little weary?

Is it bad that I was kind of hoping he'd full on freak out and we'd get that amazing "child screaming and crying the first time he meets santa picture"?

Probably.

This is still pretty cute.

Lukas' First Birthday Letter

Today is my baby boy's FIRST BIRTHDAY!  I can't believe it.  Here he is a year ago - the day he was born:

 And here he is today:

(and one family photo from this past weekend)...

This year has gone by so fast and so slow at the same time.  I've cried more in the past two days than I anticipated - I'm very emotional about my little baby growing up.  It's true what they say, it goes so fast!

And in what I hope to make a yearly tradition to Lukas and all my future kiddos, here is my birthday letter to my son on his first birthday:

My dearest Lukas,

Today you turned one year old!  I can hardly believe that a year has passed since I first laid eyes on you.  At 2:50pm on Monday, November 8, 2010 you, my sweet son, entered this world.  And you stole my heart that very same minute.  The instant love and joy that I felt upon meeting you was the happiest moment of my life.  And without a doubt, the past year has been the happiest of my life.

I remember being so nervous riding in the car home from the hospital with you.  Daddy was driving and I was sitting in the backseat staring at you the entire ride.  We got you home and I was so happy and so scared at the same time.  You were just this tiny little guy, but you were our guy and we loved you more than we imagined possible.  Grandma Kae and Grandpa Paul were home waiting for us to arrive and they stayed a week helping us learn how to become parents.  Grandma Sip Sip and Grandpa Up lived only 35 minutes away, so they came by often in those first weeks to help mommy and daddy care for you.

You nursed from day one and are still nursing today, 365 days later.   In the first month or two, you ate ever 2-3 hours and we spent most of our days sitting on the couch while you nursed.  I credit nursing as a huge factor in our bonding.  You loved skin-to-skin contact and sleeping on mommy or daddy's chest.  As you've grown over the past year, you slowly dropped the amount of milk you needed, but you still enjoy nursing and it is the one thing that can soothe you immediately if you're ever upset.  You sleep in your own room all night long and then when you wake up in the morning, daddy goes downstairs to get you and brings you to our room and we begin every morning laying in mommy and daddy's bed cuddling and nursing.  We end every day rocking in the glider as you drowsily nurse to sleep.  It gives me so much joy to share this special time with you buddy.  I'll be sad when the day comes that you decide to wean.  But I have precious memories, especially from the middle of the night when the whole rest of the house is silent and its just you and me.  It makes me smile just thinking about our bonding time.

You have been a happy baby from the get-go.  You rarely cried as a little infant and your smile and dimples are infectious!  Everyone we meet comments on how smiley and happy you are.  We picked your name, Lukas, because it means "brings light" and you have lived up to that name and then some.  You bring so much light to everyone's life, especially mommy and daddy's life.  Your eight teeth shine through when you smile these days and your laugh is so sweet.  You laugh with your whole body and without embarrassment.  You love music and begin dancing, or shaking your head or pumping your arms in the air whenever you hear music being played.  Some of your favorites right now are "Little Puppy", Mumford & Sons (thanks to daddy), "When Ducks Wake up in the Morning" and Renee & Jeremy for nighttime.  I sing to you every night before bed - usually the Night Mantra: I will be your home, I will be your guide, I will be your friend, always on your side.  Sleep now in your room, quiet of the night, surrounded by the moon, until you see the light.  I sing this over and over again and you seem to relax when you hear it, even despite mommy's bad singing voice.  You just light up when a song comes on the radio and if you're upset in the car, all I have to do is play your favorite Primrose Music class CD and you start clapping your hands and kicking the seat.  I keep joking that you're going to be a professional dancer when you grow up!

You discovered your voice a few months ago and you love hearing yourself talk!  You are always babbling about something.  Right now you can say: Dada, Momma, Dog, Cat, Duck, Look/Book and your favorite "UP" as you raise your hands in the air, or stand up.  You know that a dog barks and can mimic his sound.  Grandpa Paul taught you that cats hiss, so you hiss when I ask you what a cat says.  You LOVE your puppy Wrigley and you're growing to really like your kitty Bailey.  Surprisingly, she seems to like you, even though she doesn't like most people.  You know where your nose is and can point to other people's noses, you know where your hair is and we're learning about our ears.  You love fans and get very excited whenever you see one and start hooting like an owl!  You clap your hands and if you hear the word "clap" in a song you start clapping your hands.  You're a smart little guy!  You started walking around 10 months old and are now running around - momma's having a hard time keeping up with you!  You like to climb up the stairs and we're working on teaching you to go down the stairs backwards with our "knees please!"  You're getting the hang of it.  You have NO fear and like to climb on the couch and have taught yourself how to get down from the couch.  You love the water and ran straight for the ocean and the big waves a few weeks ago at your first big beach vacation.  You love being tossed high in the air and laugh loudly when daddy plays with you.  You have a great appetite and eat just about anything you're offered.  Your favorite foods are macaroni & cheese (you eat it and loudly say "Mmmmm"), yogurt, sweet potatoes and cheerios. You eat often, but you're so busy that you are a skinny little thing!

It is a true joy being your momma.  I love you more than I ever knew was possible and I love watching you grow and learn every day.  Thank you for the happiness that you have brought to our lives.

I love you sweet boy.  Happy First Birthday, buddy!

Love, 

Momma

Boy's Best Friend

Another Lukas post.  Because I haven't written in the baby book in, eh, 2-3 months.  Oops.

So words.  The little dude can definitely understand more than he can say, but he's starting to say, or attempt to say more words.  His vocabulary includes the following:

Dada
Mama
DOG
Night-Night (aka "nigh nigh")

He can clap when he hears the word clap, even if he doesn't see you clapping.  If you ask him to point to the fan he looks up for the fan.  It's fun stuff.

But without a doubt, his biggest obsession is the dog.  (And the cat, which I believe he thinks is a dog.  Ok, so he thinks anything furry with legs is a dog.  What can I say - he's a baby.)  Well his Grandma Kae bought him his first stuffed animal dog and he l.o.v.e.s. it.  Like for real.  It's come in handy in convincing him to walk more and get the walking on tape.

So maybe he's a cat man after all?!?

Here I Am...

Life has been happening lately.  So blogging has not.  Not that anyone has probably missed me.  Anyone even out there?  Hello???

So what have we been up to?  In a nutshell:

Lukas started walking.  Like for real walking.  As in, he can walk clear across a room without falling.  Does this mean I have a toddler?  Toddle is a good description of the way in which he walks.  I need to get a good video, but in the mean time, picture a miniature drunk sailor wobbling along half running taking lots of mini shuffle-esque steps with his hands raised in the air.  Usually with a big grin.  Onlookers tend to smile after seeing this silliness.  It's infectious.

Mr. Cob turned 30 and I managed to plan and execute a surprise 30th birthday trip to Chicago for him (and me and Lukas).  His brother from Miami flew in, his sister and her boyfriend spent the weekend with us, his two childhood best friends helped us celebrate (one driving in from Iowa and the other secretly helped me plan the whole thing along with his sis) and his parents babysat - it was amazing! We even fit in a playdate with two of Mr. Cob's college buddies and their kids.  We had a quick trip, but it was so fun.  I love Chicago and feel like I'm supposed to live there one day.  Probably not any day soon because I would want to live in the city, and I think we've missed that window for the time being.  I told Mr. Cob that when our kiddos are grown and we have more money than we do today, maybe we can rent a condo in downtown Chicago and live there for a year.  It just makes me so happy to be outside walking down Michigan Avenue.  I think I'm a city girl at heart.


We have a busy fall ahead of us full of family and friend visits, a wedding, two trips to the beach, Lukas' baptism and then his first birthday.  Life is busy, but good.

TEN Months Old

The Little Dude is 10 MONTHS OLD today!  In honor of his "10 month birthday" here's a video of him taking a few steps this week (the unassisted steps occur around the 38 second marker).

And here's another one of "my little monkey"...

What Do I Say After That?

I've sat down to write a few posts in the past week since my last one, but nothing seemed "right". Every topic seemed cavalier compared to what my two friends were going through. It seemed almost rude to follow up a post about two babies in the hospital with a post about what my silly baby is doing. My heart goes out to these two families and I’ve also felt a tinge of guilt for having a healthy child myself. Which, I know, is silly. But I love these friends dearly and keep praying that both kiddos will be ok. Seeing these parents deal with what they have been has made me reevaluate what is important in life and spend as much time as possible with my loved ones.

Speaking of my loved ones – look at these two sweet guys:

The taller one and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary last week.  Well, we had it.  We're celebrating this week.  Our usual babysitters were in California visiting my brother so we postponed our dinner out and gift-giving a few days.  We stick with the traditional wedding gifts, so we'll see what leather gifts we each come up with this year...
 
Oh and we broke our anniversary tradition.  (Can you call it a tradition if you've only done it two years?)  We've watched our wedding video every year on our anniversary.  But neither one of us remembered this year.  At all.  Until two days later, at which point it was too late.  The tradition was broken.  I think we'll pick it up again next year.  Or not.
 
As for the shorter little dude.  He will be TEN months old in a few days.  Two days to be exact.  (Where did the time go?)  He decided he'd start walking this weekend!  At first he'd just walk from the ottoman to the couch (2 steps).  And by walk, I mean teeter.  And then last night he definitely took 4 steps to give me a hug!  I love my little man.  And I love my big man.  I'm a lucky girl having these two guys in my life.  They make me smile.

Baby's First Braves Game

Weigh-In

Baby L (as my dad fondly calls Lukas) turned 9 months old this week, which means we had our 9 month well doctor's appointment.  If he were a teenage girl or heck, any female for that matter, he'd be excited to learn he's "skinny".  But he's not a lady.  He's a boy.  A very skinny boy!

He weighs 17.75 pounds which brings him in at around the 10th percentile.  But he measured about 50-75th % for height (I think he's 28.5 inches) and 50th % for head circumference.  And generally speaking he's in great health.  At 9 months babies are given their first developmental test and he passed all the questions, so that's positive too. 

The doctor said he's free to eat anything we are eating and to just try different foods.  This was good to hear since the baby food is starting to lose its appeal to Lukas.  He'll take a spoonful and then put his hand in his mouth and take the food out (gross, yes).  So I think we are done with baby food.  I now have even more reasons to cook at home and eat more fruits and veggies.  It's funny how I care greatly about making sure Lukas gets organic food and very little crappy processed food, but don't follow this advice myself all the time.  Also, according to the doc, apparently if you offer a baby a food atleast 10 times, they'll eventually acquire a taste for it.  So she said not to give up if there was a food he didn't like at first.  So far the kid hasn't met a food he doesn't like.  Which is ironic given how skinny he is.  He's just so full of energy that I think he burns it all off quickly.

As the doc was leaving the room, she stopped and said to me "You know you could just add cheese to all his meals to try to fatten him up."  If only my doctor would say that to me! HA.

Lukas is crawling everywhere and standing on his own but not walking yet.  I took my first steps at 9 months, 2 weeks, so we'll see if he follows suit.  He's "talking" more and more every day and says "dada", "mama", "Aahhh" (for Auntie Allison, we think) and "Bup" for puppy.  He's a ham and I love him more than I ever could have imagined.

Little Dude Update

Lukas turned 8 months old last week.  (At what point do we stop getting excited about him turning another month older?  Oh, you've already lost excitement, you say?  Well he's not your kid, so yea, I can see that.  But it's a big deal to me as his momma.  But I see the silliness of it all.  You'd look at me as if I were an alien if I said that I turned 362 months old last week.  But I digress.)

So what's the little dude up to at 8 months?  Here are some (mostly) unconventional notes for the baby book.

- He did his first pull up yesterday.  Yes, you read that right.  He was in his crib at school, reached up to top of the crib and PULLED UP so that his feet were dangling and he was pulled up.  We do indeed have a climber on our hands.  A mini Hulk, if you will.  I'm now taking bets on how much longer before he climbs right on out of his crib.  I think 10 months will be the magic age.  Pray that I'm wrong.

- He has SIX teeth.  I think he gets this from my side.  I was an early teether.  He has two bottom teeth and four upper teeth.  They're big honkers.  Yes, I refer to them as "honkers" on a regular basis.  I can't explain it. 

- He's for real crawling.  I know, I know I proclaimed a while ago that he was "for real" crawling, and he was, or so I thought.  His belly was still sort of on the ground until a week ago.  He now is on all fours crawling.  Or actually, he's on all threes with one of his feet on the ground. It's odd.  I admit.  But it works and he's fast.  You really cannot take your eyes off him, or he'll be gone.

- He's been on a sort of bottle strike lately and not drinking his entire bottle at school.  He's averaging 3 four ounce bottles again (he was at 6 ounces in each bottle).  I suppose this is because he's eating more and more.  And we bumped him up to the stage 3/chunky baby food.  He's now even eaten chicken (baby food chicken bytheway: gross, gag, yuck) and more fruits and veggies than I can keep track of.  He loves yo-baby yogurt and cheerios.  And we're still happily nursing, so my year long goal is looking attainable for now.  And yes, he has bitten me with those teeth.  It hurts.  Enough said.

- He's still a generally really happy baby but will certainly let you know if he's upset or wants something.  The kid has a great set of lungs.

- We're in the middle of sleep training, and it's going pretty good.  The first night he cried for 47 minutes, then 40, then 20 and then Sunday night he decided to throw a big protest party.  I sat on the screen porch, beer in hand, watching him scream on the monitor for over an hour.  64 minutes to be exact.  It's like he was testing me.  But I didn't give in.  He eventually wore himself out and fell asleep and didn't wake up until 6am Monday morning when he was all smiles.  (Yes, a huge part of me feared that he would hate me, but he didn't. Thank God.)  And you know what happened next?  Monday night he cried for a minute, Tuesday night he cried for 2 minutes and last night he cried on and off, but not very enthusiastically for 20 minutes before he was out for the next 11 hours.  So while I totally resisted this, I'm happy that my little guy is learning to soothe himself to sleep and that we're all getting some shut eye.  The key for anyone trying the "your baby won't hate you" sleep method ("cry it out" sounds so bad, I like my name much better) is to have the video monitor near you but turn the sound completely off and go somewhere in your house where you can't hear the baby.  It's the only reason we made it through.  Beer helps too.  And wine.

- The little dude is happy at day care, loves his teachers and friends and even waves to me and blows kisses when we leave.  Ain't he cute?!

Baby Book Moments Galore

This weekend marked another baby book moment for the little man.  He pulled himself up all by himself for the very first time!  And since I'm an obsessed mother, I had the phone out and video recorded the whole thing!! (Sidenote: What did I ever do before the iphone?  Seriously.  It's amazing. If you are pregnant, you need an iphone.  You just do.  Trust me, its worth the money.)

Also, please disregard my voice.  I hope I don't sound like that in person.  It's kind of creepy.

He Crawls

This one's for the baby book.

On Saturday, May 21, 2011 Lukas started crawling.  Like for real.  My kid is Crawling!  I have a kid who crawls.  This is insane.  I'm not sure where the past 6 months have gone.  Before I know it he'll be borrowing the car to go on his first date.  I need time to slow down.  N.O.W. 

And I didn't even really see the first "crawl".  Mr. Cob did, so at least we didn't both miss it! 

Let me take you back to Saturday morning....

I woke up at 6:30, since this is Lukas' new wakeup time as Mr. Cob recently mentioned.  I rolled over and looked at Mr. Cob and declared "We're still alive.  I was honestly a little worried we'd be raptured during the night.  Or not raptured, but killed somehow, you know in the whole aftermath of those not being saved thing."  Mr. Cob: "Seriously, you were worried?  You're joking, right."  Me:  "I'm 100% serious.  I was a little scared."  Mr. Cob: Laughs and rolls eyes at me.

Fast-forward like an hour...

Mr. Cob was sitting on our leather couch and had Lukas on his belly laying next to him.  They were probably watching soccer.  I was in the kitchen doing something.  Eating probably.  That's not really important though.  Mr. Cob had the remote.  Lukas wanted said remote.  Lukas got up on all fours and got the remote.  Mr. Cob started hollering at me.  I didn't really believe him.  He lies often.  Little white lies.  Just because I'm gullible.  But lies.  But not this time.  Sure enough, Lukas repeated his new "trick" for mommy.  And he repeated the crawling later that day for grandma and grandpa Swan over Skype.  And my parents drove over the next morning under the pretense of going to brunch, but really they wanted to see it for themselves. 

He now can't be stopped.  This kid is on the move! 

I've tried to get a good video, but he's camera shy and tends to stop the minute I get out the camera.  This is as good as I can get for now.  And oh, yeah, about 10 seconds in I moved the camera to film horizontally, but the video doesn't flip, so you have to watch it with your head tilted...yeah, sorry.

Five Months Old

My little man is 5 months old today!  Time sure is flying.  We don't go back to the doctor until the end of this month, so I don't have "proper" stats on him, but here's a brief highlight of what's going on with him:

L-U-K-A-S@5monthsold

Weight: roughly 15.5 pounds (he was at 15.2 like a week ago, so I'd guess he's at least gained 3/10 of a pound in a week, maybe? who knows)

Height: comes up to about his daddy's knee if "standing"- I don't know what this equates to in inches, but he seems tall for his age...

Head size: round and cute - everyone comments on how spherical his head is.  I'll take this is a a good sign.  Again, no clue how many inches it is

Drinks: maybe 30-40 ounces of breastmilk a day (we're averaging 3 5 ounce bottles at daycare  school and then I nurse him 3-5 more times a day and so I can only guess how many ounces he gets per nursing), oh and he can hold his own bottle!

Eats: Yummy brown rice cereal mixed with breastmilk 2-3 times per day...and LOVING it.

Sleeps: 2-3 naps a day (he's a great napper, but is all over the place as far as time or lenght of nap, the only consistency is that he'll go down for a nap usually within an hour and a half of waking up); at night he's now sleeping GREAT (as of the past three days...three days is enough to create a pattern/trend, right?!?  I may jinx myself here) - he goes down around 8pm and can now go until 3am - 5am without needing to eat again.  If he wakes up in the middle of the night he eventually just dozes back to sleep.  Last night I caught him staring at his ceiling around 3:30am - not crying or fussing, just staring - I think he sees dead people. )

Other stuf that only family will find interesting: He rolls from front to back and back to front.  He loves tummy time and pretty much always rolls onto his stomach immediately if you lay him on his back.  He loves to stand up either in his exersaucer, doorway jumper or just on mommy or daddy.  He can lift himself up onto all fours and is good at scooting backwards, but not so much forwards.  He seems very interested in the cat and dog - grabing the dog's hair petting Wrigley when she's close by and staring at the cat in awe.  He's a very smiley guy and has a generally happy disposition. 

Talks: We have a babbler on our hands and I swear that he said mama last night.  I really think he did, although I fully admit he just muttered the sounds and had no clue that it had any significant meaning.  So yea, I don't think that counts.

Teeth: two bottom middle teeth have popped through

Hair: not really existent - he does have a little fuzz, but we still can't tell what color it will be - my guess is light brown

Clothes: He's wearing size 6 months - he doesn't fill them out width wise, but he's almost busting through the seams lenght wise.  He must follow after Mr. Cob's height!!!

So that's our little man right now.  He is amazing and so lovable!  Happy 5 month bday buddy!!!