6-month stats

Here are Noah's official stats from his check-up yesterday:

-length: 27 1/2 inches (90th %)
-weight: 15 lbs., 9 oz. (20th %)
-head: 17 inches (49th %)

He is a string bean! I took him to the doctor for a sick visit about 3 weeks ago, and we were there again last Thursday. In that amount of time he gained a whopping 2 ounces. From last Thursday to yesterday, he gained almost 5 ounces! The doctor wasn't at all concerned with his weight; he's meeting all his developmental milestones and is a good eater. He just happens to be built like me (or like I used to be built.)

When we got home from the doctor, I had to look at Luke's baby book to see what he weighed at 6 months. The difference is unbelievable! Luke was 27 1/4 inches long and weighed 19 lbs., 4 oz. His head was 18 inches. I'm sure that extra inch of head circumference must have added some weight, but he weighed almost 4 pounds more when he was this age. It's really amazing to see how two people's genes can mix so differently!

Smooches

Noah's latest trick is to grab my face and press his mouth either on my nose or my mouth. He's done it to Gary a couple of times, but he does it to me all the time. I'm not sure exactly what he's doing, but I like to think he's loving on me. I end up covered in slobber, but it's absolutely worth it!

I spy

Another funny sleeping picture of Luke. This is his new favorite book, a Spiderman I Spy book. I guess he got so exhausted looking for something that he decided to lay his head down to take a rest and ended up falling fast asleep. We found him like this about 10:00.

Roly poly

Noah has discovered he can get around by rolling. He started off on his mat with his head pointing the direction his feet are pointing in the picture. He kept rolling to his right, turning the corner at the mat, until he ended up here. Doesn't he seem pleased with himself? After I took the picture, he kept rolling another couple of feet till he got to the tile near the kitchen. He's already a mover and a shaker!

A few new Luke stories

Yesterday during one of my MANY conversations with Luke, he told me his finger hurt and that he had prayed to God to make it better but God hadn't done it yet. I then had the challenging task of explaining the idea of God's time versus our time (a concept I still struggle with). I'm not sure he quite got it, but I still think it's sweet that Luke prayed for God to make his finger feel better.

This evening while he was in the bath, Luke asked me to say a special prayer for him so that God would make his cough go away. I thought he meant right there on the spot, but he meant after we said our prayers before bed. So we said a special prayer for him and for Noah, both of whom have a cold or allergies or something that's making them cough and sneeze and just in general be gunky.

Luke has recently started telling me about his dreams. I guess he's actually dreaming and remembering them, because the stories he tells me are really crazy. He had a dream with the Backyardigans (a TV show he likes), and he also had a dream with his friend Landon in it.

6 months

Today Noah is six months old. How hard it is for me to believe that six months ago today we had just met our sweet baby for the first time. Boy am I so very glad it's today and not six months ago! Here are a few more fun facts about Noah:

--He is now sleeping for 10-11 hours at night. After taking a bottle around 7:00, he's usually asleep by 8:00 and doesn't eat again until 7 or 8 the next morning. How wonderful!

--Not only does he still want something in his mouth all the time, he likes to hold something in his hands all the time, too. Many times when I go to check on him when he's sleeping he has either an extra pacy in his hands or he has grabbed hold of his clothes or PJ's. When he's awake he's constantly grabbing and trying to hold whatever he can.

--His legs are starting to get chunky, but he's still a long, skinny baby.

--He is a good eater. He has liked everything I've fed him so far, but his favorites are carrots and pears. I'm often surprised by how much he eats. He still doesn't like water and makes a funny face when he happens to get some out of the sippy cup.

--Noah is a happy, agreeable baby. If he's fussing or crying, you know there's something wrong. He smiles all the time and is such a sweetie. We all are quite in love with him!

A wild ride through God's word!

We did indeed have a wild time last week at VBC! Close to 550 children attended, and we had more than 200 adult and youth volunteers. This is the third year I've been involved with VBC at our church, and I still get goosebumps when everyone is singing and praising God. The theme this year was Avalanche Ranch, and the kids learned that God is real; God is with us; God is strong; God is awesome; and God is in charge. Wah-hoo! Luke was in an actual class this year, and he had a great time. I asked him a couple of times what his favorite part was, and both times he said, "Snack." Oh well, he did learn the songs and the motions and even sang in church this morning. Here are some pictures from the week.

Happy Father's Day!

A few pictures from before church this morning . . .

The mug is one of Gary's presents - the bluebonnets are made from Luke's thumbprints on this side and Noah's footprint on the other side. It's so cute! (Needless to say, I didn't paint the mug. We went to a pottery party, and one of the gals who did the party painted it.)

Open mouth, insert foot

This orange foot is Noah's favorite toy, and he looks like a puppy when he holds it in his mouth, sans hands.

Ewwww!

For anyone who's never had a spitter-upper, here's what it's like in the house of reflux.

Eight years

Today is our eight-year anniversary. It's hard to believe we've been married that long! Here are a few reasons I love my honey . . .

-He's funny. When all else fails, we can still laugh and have a good time together.
-He's very supportive of me and all that I do. I've been consumed for the past few weeks with VBC, and now that the week's here, I've asked him to do several things to help me out, and he's done them all willingly. Thanks, honey!
-He's a great Daddy. He loves our boys and loves spending time with them. He lights up when Noah smiles at him and thinks they're both the greatest things ever.
-He loves me a lot and puts up with me. I guess this goes without saying, but he loves me even though I'm not always that nice or loving to him. Thank goodness for unconditional love.
-He's a good man. He is ultimately concerned with doing the good or right thing for everyone, and I like that about him.

It's been a good eight years, and I'm looking forward to the next eight years (and those after that.) I love you, honey!

Sleeper

I know I'm totally jinxing myself by writing about this, but Noah has been quite the sleeper the past two days. Yesterday he took three naps - the first was two hours, and the other two were an hour and a half. Keep in mind that at this age Luke never napped for more than 30 minutes at a stretch. Noah was pretty much doing the same thing with a longer nap thrown in every now and again. After 30 minutes I don't get involved in much because I just assume he's going to wake up at any moment. So imagine my surprise when he kept sleeping! He took another two-hour nap again today. I'm sure he'll never do it again, but it was nice to have a bit of a break (although Luke was wide awake during most of those times, so "break" is stretching it a bit.)

While I'm on the subject of Noah and sleeping, here are a couple of funny little stories. 1)We keep several pacifiers in the bed so we can grab one if we need to in the middle of the night. Yesterday during one of Noah's marathon naps, he went to sleep with a blue & white pacy in his mouth and woke up sucking on a Gamecock pacy. I guess he felt the need to pull for the baseball team even in his sleep. He switched pacifiers again when I went to check on him last night, and Gary and I had a good chuckle over it. 2)Late this afternoon when I was trying to get him to take a nap, he was really fussing in his crib. When I went to check on him, he was on his tummy and didn't quite know what to do. He's been sleeping on his side but hadn't flipped to his tummy in the crib. I flipped him over, but he did it again and fussed some more. After I flipped him the second time, he started laughing and smiling, so I gave up on the idea of a nap. I can just imagine him lying in the bed and thinking, "Hmmm . . . I think I'd be much more comfortable on my tummy with my Gamecock pacy in my mouth. Can't wait to see the look on Mommy's face when she comes in!"

Huh?

I have no idea where this came from, but I heard Luke say on the way home from lunch today, "Just worry about your biscuits while you're eating them." I wrote it down so I'd be sure to remember it exactly as he said it.

My boys

Aren't they cute?!? It's a little hard to tell, but their outfits coordinate.

Playing catch-up

I've been a little remiss lately on keeping my 2 or 3 loyal readers up to date on all the exciting things that go on around here. So, here's a brief update. We started Noah on rice cereal a couple of weeks ago, and like most things in his life, he was quite agreeable to it. Since then he's had carrots, avacado, and green beans. He liked all of them, although the green beans seemed to upset his tummy (there was poop galore after his two dinners of green beans.) I've also been giving him a sippy cup of water with his dinner, and, oddly enough, he really doesn't like it. I thought at first it might be that it was cold, so I let the water come to room temperature, but that didn't seem to help. Go figure . . . he loves plain, mashed-up avacado but won't drink water!

Here's a funny Luke story. When Luke can't rember a word, he'll substitue a word that sounds similar. For example, he went to a gymnastics party a couple of weeks ago, and he told everyone he bounced on a tambourine (instead of a trampoline.) The day after Noah had avacado, Luke asked if he could help me feed him his matata (I assume from the song "Hakuna Matata" from The Lion King). So, that was the big joke while my mom was here. Noah sure loved his matata! Here are a few pictures of Luke & Mimi feeding Noah the infamous matata.

A funny new Lukeism . . . this morning during one of my MANY conversations with Luke, he looked at me and said, "Are you serious?" He asked Gary the same thing later in the day, and at dinner after I told him he could have dessert, he said, "Is it a joke, or are you serious?" Too funny!

I just wanted to include this picture of Mimi with her boys.