Date night

Gary and I took our first outing sans Noah last night. We went to see Jimmy Buffett in concert, and we had a great night. My BFF Adriane babysat the kiddos for us. Her younger son Ben came with her, and he & Luke had a great time. Noah was a little fussy because he never took an afternoon nap, but she was able to handle it (I guess her 15 years experience as a mother and about as many as a NICU nurse came in handy calming a grumpy, over-tired bambino.) Gary and I marveled at the fact that we didn't leave Luke except in the nursery at church until he was almost a year old. Once again the second baby gets the ol' shaft as we abandoned him for close to six hours when he was just a mere 4 months old. I guess he'll have to discuss that with his therapist later on. Anyway, Gary and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves even though it ended up being a late night (by my standards at least.) Adriane survived relatively unscathed because she even offered to do it again. We'll definitely be taking her up on her offer.

Beach bound

Although we don't leave for Edisto for 2 1/2 long months, Noah is ready to go!

Another new friend

Last night Luke was playing in the rain when he found another new friend – a snail. The farther the snail came out of his shell, the more excited Luke got. He was petting him and talking to him and truly enjoying his company. Needless to say, I was completely grossed out. Even Gary was grossed out and said he never liked to touch snails as a kid. He must take after my dad, our resident “bug man” growing up (he taught Entymology at Clemson) because he sure didn’t get this from me!

How big is Noah?

Noah had his 4 month check-up today, and he's progressing just as he should be. Here are his official stats:

14 lbs., 14.5 oz - 45%
26 inches - 90%
16 1/2 inch head - 49%

Just to give you an idea of the differences between Luke & Noah, at 4 months Luke weighed 16 lbs, 12.5 oz and was 27 inches long. His head was 17 1/2 inches (big surprise.) #1 was a chunky monkey, and #2 is a little ol' peanut!

Bluebonnets

I've been wanting to get pictures of Luke in the blubonnets since we moved here, and we finally did it today.

Resigned

Many of you know that our dog Molly has never been Luke's biggest fan. She basically refuses to acknowledge him unless he has food. Recently, though, she's been a little more patient with him. She'll let him pet her and kiss her, and when he chases her around, she seems to enjoy it (well, sort of.) Obviously, she has grown more tolerant of him, as you can see by the picture. I'm not sure if it's old age or that she has simply resigned herself to the fact that he's here to stay.

Luke's new best friend

Luke becomes very attached to things rather quickly (recall, if you will, Switz the puppy dog.) I try to walk to school to pick Luke up once or twice a week, and on our way home yesterday we found a caterpillar on the sidewalk. Luke picked it up and wanted to take it home. When we got home I told him to put it in the backyard (he wanted to bring it in the house but I had to draw the line on that one.) He put him on the patio and got up about every 10 minutes to go check on his "new best friend". I even caught him kissing him a couple of times. He got a cup of water for him and tried to feed him a leaf. The poor caterpillar stayed rolled up in a ball most of the time, afraid for its life. At one point I heard sobs coming from the backyard, and Luke came in to tell me that his new best friend had "disappeared." It was quite traumatic, so Gary & I helped him search for it but to no avail. As we were looking, Luke saw a roly poly and wanted to adopt it to replace his "pet"; I again had to draw the line and told him he already had a pet. He's so tenderhearted and has a real affinity for animals. I sure wish we could have found that caterpillar, but maybe one day we'll spy him after he's turned into a beautiful butterfly.

The pet

Luke tries to feed a leaf to the caterpiller.

My dad would be proud!

Handy Noah

Noah loves to touch his own hair, so it's no wonder that yesterday morning he latched on to Luke's hair and wouldn't let go!

Desserts with Dad

Last night was "Desserts with Dad" at Luke's school. The kids got to wear their PJ's. First the dads went to their children's classrooms and saw all that they've been working on recently. Then they headed to another room for story time. Gary volunteered to read a story, and as far as I know, it went pretty well. Then they had cookies & milk. Luke made several things for Gary including a fill-in-the-blank story called "All About My Daddy". It's quite funny -

My Daddy's name is Gary. He is 5 feet tall and weighs 30 pounds. His hair color is black and his eyes are brown. Even though he is 35 years old, he still looks good! When I am at school he works a lot. What my Daddy does at work he calls people to come and work. Daddy and I like to take a bubble bath. I love my Daddy because I like to take bubble baths.

I've shared my son's affinity for bubble baths, but why he chose that as the thing he and Gary do is beyond me (Gary has never actually taken a bath with him!) Anyway, it's pretty cute. They also took pictures in a man's shirt and tie and made a picture frame for it and painted a change holder for them. The kids had drawn a picture that the dads had to pick out as being their child's. Gary had no problem doing this since Luke draws about 147 pictures for us every day.

As I was reading the story last night and looking at all the things Luke made, I got a little teary because it was so sweet. I asked Gary if he liked it all and if he cried. He said, "Yeah, it's neat. But I didn't cry. None of the dads cried." Figures!

4 months

It's hard for me to believe, but Noah is 4 months old today. Time has really flown! I've heard it said that when you're raising children, the days are really long but the years are short. If the first 4 months are any indication of how quickly this year will fly by, Noah will be 1 before I know it. Here are some more fun facts about my darling little man:

-The hair on the backs of his ears is just about gone. I guess he has evolutionized himself out of his monkey phase.

-He loves, loves, loves his pacy. It's great during the day, but it's getting a little old to have to get up in the middle of the night to plug him up when it comes out of his mouth.

-When he's not sucking on his pacy, he has either his whole fist or a few fingers in his mouth. He loves to chew on them. Sometimes he tries to get his fingers in his mouth with his pacy.

-He still takes a bottle. We had all but given up on Luke taking a bottle when he was this age, so it's nice for me to know that I can actually leave him for more than an hour at a time.

-Noah is on a pretty good schedule. He takes a bottle around 7:00 in the evening and then is down for the night by 8:00. He typically doesn't wake up to eat till about 5:00 or so, and if I'm lucky, he'll make it till 6:00. We're definitely making progress.

-I still swaddle him at night because he just sleeps better that way. He looks like a baby burrito.

-He is on the whole a content baby. He typically cries or fusses only when he's really tired or really hungry. He does tend to cry when his big brother accidentally drops something on his head or sits on him, but that's to be expected.

-He has gotten very vocal recently. He talks to anyone who will listen and loves to laugh. He especially loves to laugh at Luke.

-He is a snuggly, cuddly baby which is good for me since my 3 1/2-year-old child often refuses to kiss me, let alone cuddle with me. I'm glad I still have someone I can lavish with kisses and hugs.

-Another of Noah's favorite activities is bringing his hands together. People say he looks like he's praying because his hands are always together. He also likes to touch his face and head while he's nursing.

-Last week he started reaching for toys that are hanging above him. He also reached out for my face last night (which really wasn't a big deal at all to me - I only told about 12 people this morning at church.)

Well, I guess that's enough for now. I know I'm his mother and am expected to say things like this, but he is absolutely adorable and he fills my heart with love.

The baby burrito

Luke had to get in on the act this morning.

Sweet, sweet baby!

Our days together

It's been chilly this week, so we've had a lot of indoor time. Luckily Luke loves his new art supplies he got for Easter, so we get them all out every day and he draws lots of pictures. Noah & I just hang out.

Rub-a-dub-dub . . .

. . . two boys in a tub!

Bubble, bubble, bubble

Happy Easter!

Despite the chilly temperatures, we had a really nice Easter. Luke was up and ready to hunt for eggs at 7:00, and he was very excited with all the loot the Easter bunny brought him. Besides way too much candy, he got a basket filled with art supplies - markers, stamps, hole punches, paper, stickers, and a splat mat so we can make beautiful creations on the floor.

Luke was the only one who actually got to wear his Easter outfit. Noah's and mine were really better suited for warmer weather, so we'll wear them to church next week. But we all looked nice anyway. After church we went to my friend Adriane's parents' house for lunch. Her 3 brothers and their wives/girlfriends were there, and it was lots of fun. The kids did another egg hunt and got more goodies. Lunch was yummy, and the company was stellar. We were pretty worn out by the time we got home, but the day was very enjoyable.

My boys

Dapper Dan in his Easter duds.

More eggs!

Cookies & eggs

We were busy yesterday! In the morning Luke & I made bunny cookies which we frosted in the afternoon. Shortly after that, we dyed our Easter eggs. After seeing the pictures my mom noted that when it comes to frosting cookies, Luke goes with the "more is better" theory (does he ever!)

I found these neat egg holders that allowed Luke to put the eggs in the dye and get them out basically by himself.

Easter party

Can anyone believe Luke wore these bunny ears at his school party?

Conversations with Luke

Here are some snippits of conversations recently heard around our house . . .

LUKE: "When I close my eyes to sleep, sometimes the stories come."

LUKE: "When I grow up, I'm going to work in that building."
GARY: "You are? What are you going to do?"
LUKE: "Sell cups. But I'm going to sell bigger cups than you sell. Or maybe small ones, too. It depends on what they want."

LUKE: "Oh, man, I can't believe I have diarrhea!" (TMI, I know, but it's funny!!)

LUKE: "I'm my Daddy's boy."
ME: "You are?"
LUKE: "Yes, because I toot a lot."

Bragging rights

I know I've talked way too much about how smart Luke is, but it's true! He continues to amaze Gary and me. Here's the latest example.

Last week the children in Luke's class had to trace the hands of everyone in their family to put on a big paper cross because they were learning that Jesus died for everyone. We traced our hands and Luke wanted to write our names on them. He wrote "Mommy" on mine, and I said we should probably put my name on it since everyone's would say "Mommy"; he was clever enough to figure out that we could put "Luke's Mommy" and that would clear up the confusion. So he labeled the hands "Luke's Mommy", "Luke's Daddy", "Luke", and "Noah" (Noah's looked pretty funny, but we got it done.) Anyway, all this to say that tonight he was drawing a picture for Gary, and he wrote "Luke's Daddy" on it because the drawing was indeed for Luke's Daddy. He remembered how to write "Luke's" and how to spell Daddy. He also knows how to spell Mommy, Erin, Noah, Price, Ella, and Luke Chumley.

After I showed Gary the apostrophe "s" Luke had written, he labeled him a future English major; I reminded him, however, that this is the same child who still says things like "much more easier", "goodest", and, of all things, "correctest". Gary then said, "Well, he is half mine!"

Thanks for tolerating yet another report on my son's smarts!

Easter egg hunt

Yesterday we went to our church's Easter egg hunt. Luke has been practicing for the event by hiding eggs around the house and hunting for them. (We even had to put things in the eggs, so there's pennies in a few, some bouncy balls in others, and Diego Rescue Center animals in the bigger eggs.) It was a beautiful day, just perfect for an Easter egg hunt. There was candy involved, so needless to say, Luke had a great time (he is so my child!)

All aboard!

On Saturday we made our annual trek to go see Thomas the Tank Engine. For those of you who don't know about this event, there's a life-sized replica of Thomas that's attached to a vintage train, and you get to take a ride on the train. This year Bob the Builder was there, too. He did a show every couple of hours, and we caught part of it after our ride on Thomas. Luke enjoyed the train ride, although it wasn't as much of a "wow!!" experience for him this year because we did it last year. The novelty had worn off, but he still had fun.

We're ready to go!

Luke gives his ticket to the conductor.

Enjoying the view from the train.

Bob entertains the crowd.