A visit with Mimi

My mom just left today after spending the past few days with us. We had a really good visit! Luke usually wants me to do everything for him, but he let Mimi do lots for him, and he loved playing with her. She and I went shopping for a few hours all by ourselves on Monday. We had the dreaded task of swimsuit shopping, but luckily we were successful so it wasn't too traumatic. We already miss her and are looking forward to seeing her next month. Here are a few pictures from the visit.

Luke's clothes got wet and he took them off. It became a clothing optional afternoon (for him anyway.)

The infamous "granola sling" (I call it this because I feel like a hippie-granola-treehugger when I wear it. Brad Pitt carries Shiloh in one, so I guess I'm actually pretty cool.)







What an outfit!

Take me out to the ballgame!

There's nothing better than clean babies (and big boys) in jammies!

Watch me grow

5 months

That's right, Noah is five months old today! Here are a few more fun facts about the littlest Mr. Chumley:

--He is extremely ticklish! Any tickling elicits lots of laughter.

--Noah loves his big brother. He smiles at him and watches him and is, in general, rather enthralled with him.

--He had his first rice cereal two nights ago. He really seemed to like it; I even had to make more because he ate all of it and was still acting hungry. He had more last night but wasn't as sure of it. The first time he was all smiles, but last night he made some pretty awful faces.

--The pacifier is still the number one thing in his life (besides me, of course!) He is a very oral baby. He wants to have something, anything, in his mouth all the time - his pacy, fingers, an entire hand, his burp cloth or lovey, a toy, someone's nose (yes, we've all done this). I really don't remember Luke being this way.

--He enjoys the Exersaucer more and more every day. He knows how to play with the toys and likes being upright. I think the Johnny Jump-up will make an appearance soon!

--He still smiles at everyone. It's such a wonderful thing to walk into his bedroom when he wakes up and see that big ol' grin.

--Noah has really become interested in toys lately. He likes to hold them and eventually jams all of them into his mouth.

--After checking off "roll over" on his to-do list, he hasn't done it again. On to bigger & better things, I guess.

--Noah is still a sweet, content, happy baby. I love, love, love him!

Yummy! Gimme that spoon!

Luke, of course, had to get in on the action.

The B-I-B-L-E

This is how Luke fell asleep tonight.

Happy Mother's Day!

My boys & me!

A milestone

Noah rolled over for the first time Tuesday! He was lying on a blanket outside, and the first time he did it he was going downhill, so I think he had the benefit of gravity working for him. But then I put him so he wasn't going downhill, and he did it two more times. He's obviously gifted since he's not even five months old! Luke was six months old before he rolled over, but he had a whole lot more girth to get over than Noah does, not to mention that big ol' head!

Happy Birthday, Nana!

Today is my Nana's 86th birthday. I know she'll cringe when she reads this post, but I think making it to 86 and still being in good physical and mental health is a feat worth celebrating! I wish we could be with her again this year, but we're thinking about her . Happy Birthday, Nana. We love you!

Muffins with Mom

Today was Muffins with Mom at Luke's school. They made us several really sweet little things, including a hand print that they painted, a flower made out of feet & hand prints, and a bag of sunflowers. We had muffins and juice, and they sang two songs for us. Luke sang both songs, wore a mask during one, and did all the motions - I was so proud of him! They also wrote a story about us like they did for the dads. Here's mine:

All About My Mommy
My Mommy's name is Erin Chumley. She is 4 feet tall and weighs 50 pounds. Her hair color is brown and her eyes are blue. Even though she is 24 years old, she still looks good! When I am at school she takes care of Noah. Mommy and I like to get dressed in the night. My Mommy makes the best things with cherries. I love my Mommy because I like to do things at nighttime with her.
Love, Luke

So very funny! According to Luke I'm taller and heavier than Gary, but I'm only 24 so that's OK! It's mornings like these that make all the fussing and whining worthwhile (well, almost!)

Lawn boy

This is why we had children! Let's hope he's this willing to help in 10 years!

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!