67 Days

But who is counting...War Eagle!

The things he says...

Lately James is non-stop talking. He is really taking in the world around him and his logic provides so much entertainment for us. It seems everyday he is saying something new that is completely hilarious. I wanted to jot down a few of my favorite examples.

1) One day I was assisting James after he went potty.
James: Don't flush it. I want to flush it. Don't flush me.
Me: I am not going to flush you.
James: If you flushed me that would be a DISASTER!

2) I was in the kitchen getting our things together for the day while James ate breakfast. We had the TV on in the background and sometimes one of us is singing along with a commercial we have heard numerous times. This time I happened to be the one singing. James smiled at me and then said, "Momma you crack me up"

3) Lately we have really been working on the differences between he and she. James usually refers to everyone as "he". So we explain boys are "he's" and girls are "she's". So we are dining at our usual Mexican spot one night. There is a large group of Harley riders at the table next to us. A guy at the end of the table is wearing the typical "Harley rider" attire and has long gray/black hair that is braided in a pony tail. James very loudly says, "Momma that he is a she!" Thankfully the restaurant is loud so I don't think he heard him.

4) James still sleeps with a sound machine. The other night the power flickered and turned the sound machine off. James was upset and called for his daddy to turn it back on. The next morning he gave his daddy the recap of the night.
James: Last night my sound machine turned off while I was sleeping and I was like "I give up" then I cried for you and you turned it back on!

5) The other morning I knelt down with Luke in my arms to help James button his shorts. James wrapped his arms around both of us and said "I love you guys" He looked at me "I love you and I love you" looking at Luke.

No words

James decided Mr. Potato Head needed to wear his play safety goggles. However since they are made to fit a child size head James had to improvise.

James is still waiting for the day Luke wants to play with Sheriff Woody...maybe if Luke stares at him long enough from his play yard he will grab one. There are plenty to choose from.

Luke - 3 Months

From May 3rd to June 3rd has only been a month but SO much has happened/changed in this month it is amazing. In order to condense this post I will give bullet points...

• Spent first night away from Luke - not really by choice (had to attend a wedding out of town where no children were allowed on Mother's day weekend) wasn't thrilled about it at first but ended up really enjoying the break and full night's rest.
• He has began showing signs that he may be a thumb sucker. I am trying to make him prefer the paci by removing his thumb and replacing it with a paci but not sure if my efforts will deter.
• He sat in his bumbo seat for the first time and didn't seem to mind it.
• He is grabbing for toys and hanging on to them for a short period of time. 
• He is holding his head up really well and has great control of it.
• At 10 weeks Luke began sleeping in his crib (in his room upstairs...) - We slept in the guest room upstairs for the first week one so I wouldn't have to make too many trips upstairs during the night and two because I really wasn't ready to be that far away from him during the night.
• At 11 weeks Luke began sleeping through the night!! I think the combination of his own space and increasing ounces for night time bottle did the trick. Now to clarify my sleeping through the night is 9pm- 5:30 am. At 5:30am I retrieve him from his bed and put him in ours and he continues to sleep for another hour or hour 1/2 .
• At 11 weeks we heard his first out loud giggles. It is the cutest most precious little sound. The giggles are still sparse and he sometimes startles himself by the sounds but I am sure they will come more often.
• At 11 weeks he went to the beach for the first time and it was our first family of 4 mini vacation (reference previous post) I will say I forgot how much you have to pack for a baby no matter how many days you are staying. Our car looked like we were staying for weeks but it was really a short 2 day trip.
• Luke is gradually losing his newborn hair and poor thing has small patches left in the back. New hair is starting to come in and it is definitely blond just like big brother.
• At 13 weeks just shy of his 3 month birthday he started day care and I returned to work. It has been an emotional week for me to say the least. I am physically at work but mentally not there yet. I miss him like crazy during the day but picking both babies up in the afternoon is the best. He is in great hands and seems to be doing really well according to Mrs. Heather. I know he is charming her with his smiles. We still have some work to do to figure out the most efficient way to get all of us out the door without it seeming so chaotic but I am sure that will come with time.
• At 3 months Luke weighs approximately 16 lbs. He is drinking 6 bottles a day and hates to take a break to burp. He has the best demeanor and is so happy all of the time. Chad had a weekend deep sea fishing tournament over Memorial day weekend and Anna and I took both children to Orange Beach on Sunday to wait for him to return. James was so excited about seeing his daddy return we just couldn't leave even though it was late. It was way past Luke's bedtime and I had no bed time bottle and it was only 95 degrees. He never made a peep!

Pictures from the last month.

Nana and Papa B came for a visit!

Sweet brothers

 Luke's official 3 month photos. This is usual smile so big and loving those dimples.

Beach!

Luke's first beach trip was spent at Kiva Dunes for our annual trip with the Rodgers and the McGarrahs. Drew's parents have a house in Kiva Dunes and they are so nice to invite us every year to stay with them for part of their vacation. We started this little tradition 4 years ago and the first year Corey and I were pregnant with James and Tommy and Kristen and Chandler were only engaged. Every year there have been major changes with each family. And this year we definitely multiplied. 6 adults and 6 kids. I am not going to lie I was a little worried how enjoyable it would be with that many kids but it actually was really fun and not as chaotic and you would imagine. The ages are as follows: Tommy 3 1/2, James 3, Sarah Jane 21 months, Jackson 20 months, Embry 4 months, and Luke 3 months and Corey is expecting their 3rd baby due in August. The girls really need one more but we will have to wait until August to find out who will be joining us. And if you can believe it we actually all made it out to dinner one night and it went really well! 

Tommy, Sarah Jane, and James eating breakfast...I think Jackson was also sitting at the table but he escaped for a moment

James really enjoyed playing on the steps of the pool. A little background, a few weeks ago James jumped in the big pool just as he did all last summer but this time he was traumatized by going under water and he wouldn't leave the steps. By the end of the trip he had worked his way to the last step and swam to the other side of the steps. Of course Chad wasn't with us when he was traumatized so naturally it is all my fault :)

Sweet Sarah Jane

Tommy and James had a blast on the beach building sandcastles and running from the waves.

Luke and Embry chilling in the stroller. To be so young they were perfect little angels and dreamed of the days they too could keep with the big kids. Poor things they probably got a little ignored on this trip but they didn't seem to mind as long as they could see the action.

Luke did make it down to the beach one time and slept most of his first experience so I am guessing he enjoyed it. I was too paranoid about the bright sun so his experience didn't last too long.

He really seemed to love being at the pool with his Daddy.

We thoroughly enjoyed our mini vacation and we look forward to next summer and meeting the new baby Rodgers. The adults will officially be outnumbered :) 

Happy Mother's Day

I am a little late posting about Mother's Day but we were out of town. We spent this Mother's Day weekend in Atlanta celebrating a wedding for some of our good friends without our children :). We lived it up for sure and even though we missed them like crazy it was kind of nice to act like we are not parents for a weekend. Thanks so much to KK and Pop for watching after our little ones. I think they needed a day to recover too. 

As James gets older I get to enjoy homemade Mother's Day gifts he makes at school. This year I got an apron made from a pillow case with his hand prints on it and this framed Mother's Day quiz...

I laughed for several minutes after reading it. Salad is not my favorite food by the way I try to get him to eat it all the time by telling him how much I like it. And the green store is Publix. Kids get a free cookie while you are shopping and I made the mistake of letting him get one one time and now we have to have one every time to avoid a scene. 

I had a wonderful mother's day celebrating with KK and Meme and with my precious babies. Without my 2 little boys I would not have a reason to celebrate. 

Luke 2 months

I have a feeling I am going to be saying this alot but oh my goodness time is flying by and this little baby is growing up. I seriously cannot believe it has been 2 months since we met this precious and I cannot believe I have been away from work for 9 weeks and only have 3 more weeks until I have to go back. It always seems that just when you really start to enjoy life with a new baby it is time to go back. 

So alot has happened in this past month. I will be honest and say that 2/3 of this month was not fun. We went through some very emotional times. I made a big decision to begin adding more formula bottles and start pumping less. It was a hard one because I struggled knowing breast milk is best but also thinking that the days we were having with my stress level and lack of sleep something needed to change. Luke also digressed on his sleeping patterns and began to only sleep for 2 hours at at time...whew those were some tough nights/weeks. He wouldn't scream or anything he just wouldn't sleep for a long period of time. I spent the days scouring the Internet for tips, sample baby schedules, read blogs, read articles...I was desperate! I felt like we were doing everything the books and internet said to do. And it is so hard not to compare to your first child but I have learned that James spoiled us with his sleeping. He may have had some colic issues but he was a good sleeper. I read in his baby book he started sleeping through the night at 7 weeks and we were at 7 weeks at the time and not even close! Then right at 8 weeks Chad and I made a change in his night time bottle time and bumped it up to 9 instead of 10 and bumped him up to 6 and then 7 oz for that bottle and whola! For the past week he has been consistently sleeping 4-5 hours straight and then I give him his paci and he will sleep another hour and half. I feed him at 4 then he goes back to sleep until 7:30 or 8. I think a combination of what we did plus him turning 8 weeks helped tremendously. I read sometimes around 8 weeks things just start to click. It is amazing how much better everyone is with a little more sleep! 

For more of the positives he is just the happiest baby. He smiles non-stop during the day. It doesn't take much to see that big toothless grin and it makes you just want to squeeze him. I can be talking on my cell phone and just look at him and he thinks I am talking to him and gives me the biggest grin. It really just makes your day so much better. And he really smiles at anyone who will talk to him even total strangers. The funniest thing he does is I will get him all swaddled for a nap and he will fall sound asleep in my arms and the minute I lay him down he opens his eyes and gives me the biggest smile. It is like he is saying "yeah right mom I am so not asleep". We went to his 2 month check up today. He is weighing 13 lbs. 14 oz and is 24 1/2 in long. He is the 90th percentile for both height and weight. He is such a chunky thing! He did have to get his first round of shots and it was just awful. I think it way worse on the mom then it is the baby but we cried through it together. And not to leave out brother but every day I enjoy watching James interact with "Lukie" as he calls him and he just LOVES his little brother so much. He constantly wants to kiss his forehead and he is always letting me know when he cries because he knows I need to pick him up. We are so fortunate he is not jealous! He are some pics from this past month...

He is beginning to enjoy his bath especially since it has become a nightly thing...

His official 2 month pictures...