Luke the worm!

So, last week I told you that Luke is "worming" himself all over the place. Tonight I have pictures of this new talent of Luke's.

We are so proud of Luke and his new ability. Evidently, so is he. As soon as you sit him down, which he fights something awful, he is gone. He is off to find something to chew on. Which is why have to watch him like a hawk. Everything goes straight to the mouth!
He can get up on his hands and knees, he just prefers to move on his belly using his arms and torso to move him along!
We aren't sure what this little move is, but Mike loves to watch him do it. It looks like he is doing yoga, but he does it when he is trying to move. It must help him focus on the task at hand!

2 1/2 is an amazing age

I am currently reading a book called "Shepherding a Child's Heart". It discusses at one point the amount of change that a child goes through between birth and the age 4. It is crazy how much change they go through in this short amount of time. This amount of change will not happen in this short amount of time in any other time of their life. That's mind-boggling! It also means that young children are taking everything they hear and see in and storing it all up whether they know how to use it or not.
I found this interesting, especially since we are in the middle of this change season with both of our boys. It has been fun, and trying, to watch Will go through this change.
This little boy is learning so much. He knows so many songs, he can count to 10 and is learning to count to 20. He knows his colors and many of his shapes. We have been working on letters and the other day he sang the ABC song word for word with me. I was shocked. We have sang that song so many times, but he never acted like he knew it and then one day it just clicked!

Some days I am just amazed at the amount of stuff he knows. I mean, I sit and read with him everyday and we talk about things, but he has never been in an official school setting. I am a certified teacher and am capable of teaching him things, but I am also learning just how absorbent the 2 year mind is and how much it can take in. I have tried to put limits on him thinking he is too young for this or that but I am now seeing that he can do it. Show Will how to do it and he will watch you and then do it himself. He is very observant.

One thing Mike and I are finding is that with this great capacity for knowledge that Will has comes a great responsibility on our part as his parents. We are doing our best to teach him God's word and truth and to protect him from too many outside influences that could harm him. We know that right now we have to be diligent in laying a solid foundation for him so that he can be strong in his faith when he is older. Its a scary thing to think of how huge a responsibility it is to be a parent. But, as we have seen, it is so worth it!

Luke on the move!

Luke is 6 months, almost 7 months old. We no longer have a baby that we can put down and expect to stay in that spot. Luke has no become mobile! He is not crawling on his hands and knees quite yet, but he is moving like a little worm across the floor. He gets to where he needs to go with such a look of concentration on his face. It is really quite cute! And even though, we have not quite mastered this skill, the other day I caught Luke trying to pull himself up on the side of our bed. He has also tried this in the bath tub a couple of times. He is growing so fast and doing things faster than Will did them. At least it seems that way, maybe I am just too busy to remember!


Things I want to remember about Luke at this age:
*He has the best smile and laugh!
*He eats three meals a day, not including nursing
*He does not care for applesauce, but I make him eat it anyway
*His arms seem to be 8 feet long sometimes, it is amazing what he can reach
*He sits up all the time, but he can't get himself in that position yet
*He likes to worm himself across the room to get what he needs
*EVERYTHING goes in his mouth!
*He likes nothing more than to be held and cuddled
*He weighs 19 pounds and is 23 inches long

Some pics of Luke

The hardest thing about having two kids is that you don't have enough time. You are always busy handling, feeding, changing, bathing or loving on one of the kids. This makes it really hard to take pictures. In the past 6 months I have not taken nearly enough pictures of either one of my boys. But, I want to change that. So, the other day I decided that I was going to devote some time to taking pictures of Luke. Here are some of my favorites:

Potty Training 101

Will and daddy minutes into the potty training experience.

Once we got back from going home for Christmas, I made up my mind that I was going to potty train Will. He had been showing interest before we left, but while we were at my parent's house he talked about the potty constantly. I don't know where the sudden fascination came from, but I took it and ran with it.
We didn't start right away, we actually took a couple of weeks once we got back. My friend Lauren graciously gave me a copy of the 3 day potty training system by Lora Jensen. It is a "boot camp" style system that has you throw away all the diapers and go to underwear cold turkey. You don't even use pull-ups. The system is designed for you to learn your child's signals when they need to go. You don't have the child "try" to go and you don't ask if they need to go. You have them tell you when they need to go. You give them the control and praise them after every accident and success.
After reading it I saw that I had a lot of preparation to do, especially mentally. We had to buy treats, potty seats, step stools and of course, big boy underwear. Will was thrilled at picking all of this out. He loved talking about it, even wanted to sit on his potty seat and play "potty". He was ready.
We started him last Thursday. He was a little apprehensive once he realized that we were not playing a game and that this was going to be his new normal. He didn't want to put on the underwear, he didn't want to sit on the potty and he wanted his diaper back. The first day was hard, I won't lie. He had 10 or 11 accidents. But we stayed positive and by the second day, he had gone in the potty once. He would tell me he needed to go, but it would be too late and so we had more accidents. By the third day, it started to click and he started to tell me when he had to go. We were making it on time and staying dry all day. Nights have been going well, with an occasional accident here or there.
Today has been a full week since we started. I don't think that we have mastered this new skill, but we have made huge strides and each day we make more progress. He is proud of himself each time he goes and enjoys all the praise. We are definitely proud of our big boy!

Luke at 5 months

Its true! Our little Lukie is 5 months old! Here are the things that I want to remember about him at this age:
*He is always smiling and loves to laugh.
*He rolls over as soon as you put him down.
*He is eating rice cereal, peas and applesauce.
*He is starting to sit up on his own.
*He loves to jump in his jumpy play thing.
*He loves bathtime.
*He is starting to sleep on his tummy.
*He loves to cuddle.
*He wears 6-12 months clothes and a size 3 diaper.
Oh, how we love this little guy!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Ok, I'm a little late on both of these greetings. We have been out of town for a week and when we got home, I was just too exhausted to even think about blogging.In fact I am finding that being a mommy of two little boys makes it hard to blog period. Oh, well. Better late than never. It just so happens that both boys are sound asleep in their little beds right now, so I don't have an excuse.
We had a wonderful Christmas, as I hope all of you did as well. We spent it in Charleston with our River Church family before heading home for a week to be with our families.
This was one of our best Christmases. I know that might sound weird, especially since we were away from family, but Christmas day was wonderful. This was the first year that Will understood what was going on. He knew that there were presents wrapped for him under the tree. And he couldn't wait to open them. Seeing Will's face as he walked down the stairs Christmas morning was priceless. He was so excited to see his new toys, especially the train table which we had set up with his trains on it. He got to play with his toys all day long. Luke had no idea what was going on, but that's ok. He had fun playing with all the wrapping paper!
The four of us spent the whole day in our pajamas. We ate when we wanted to and slept when we wanted to. Will had more cookies than he should have, but I didn't stress. It was a total family day. Which to me was the best present you can get.

Here are a few pics from our family Christmas 2010:
Some of the Christmas cookies that Will and I decorated. I hope to make this an annual tradition with the boys.
And here is Mike with his cookies. Ever the perfectionist, he won the cookie decorating contest.
Will enjoying his cookie.
Christmas morning, playing with his new train table. His new favorite thing to say is "Mommy/daddy, wanna play trains?"
the aftermath!
Playing in the snow at Mimi and Poppy's house.
Will with his new racetrack.
Will and Tate playing with Tate's new boat.
Will and Jake enjoying new toys.

We had a blessed 2010 and are so thankful for what the Lord has done in our lives. We look forward to what the Lord has in store for 2011!