Life Lately/Luke Update

Holy cow! It has been forever since I have written, I miss it!  

We have been really busy lately with so many things.  Luke is loving summer, he loves being outside so much and absolutely has a meltdown when it is time to go in for pesky things like bathing and sleeping.  We have been spending lots of time at the park, in the yard, and going on bike rides and going through a TON of sunscreen.  

Zack is working hard but tries to get off work early when he can so we can take Luke to do something fun.  Luke loves to hang in the shop with Zack and "help," go for bike rides, and stay up late for music in the park.  I have been busy with Rodan + Fields, working in my parents office, and finding new things to do with Luke.

Luke is 18 months old! Yes. You read that right, 18 months. OMG! WHY!?  

So what is up with Luke?  He hates eating, loves Rowdy, hates diaper changes, loves rides on anything motorized.  He is a typical boy, dirt, dogs, trucks, and outside and he is a happy kid.
He is an absolute tornado!  He runs everywhere he goes, has split his lip open more times than I can count, and always has scrapes and bruises on his legs, but he sleeps like a rock when bedtime rolls around.  Speaking of bedtime, he's still in bed with Zack and I most of the time, because...whatever,  we all like to sleep, so theres that... We did have him sleep trained, but then he got really sick so I started bringing him into bed so I could keep a closer eye on him, aaaaand now were screwed.

As far as milestones go, Luke hasn't hit many lately, except for talking.  It took him forever to start talking, but once he said his first word, (which was "bubbles" by the way, how freaking cute is that?!) he took off.  Words he says regularly are:

Bubbles

Mama

Dada

Papa (My dad)

Nana (My mom)

RaRa (Rowdy)

Mil (Milk)

BaBa (Bottle)

No

Papa is his favorite person for sure, every time Papa walks into the room, drives in the driveway, or he hears a big truck drive by, he drops whatever he is doing and runs around saying "Papa? Papa? Papa?"  I may be just the slightest bit jealous...

This has been such a fun summer! The weather has been amazing and Luke is at such a fun age to take him and do fun stuff.  He just loves to go go go!

A Day In Our Life

When you become a stay at home mom, you inevitably start to get the questions and comments that suggest we just lay around and watch tv all day. "What do you do all day?" "It must be nice to be able to take a nap during the day." "I wish I could lay on the floor and play with a baby all day."  To these questions and comments, I say, HA!  Okay... so for the first few months, when all your baby wants to do is sleep, yes, you do kind of lay around and do lots of snuggling, but it's because the baby thinks night is day and day is night, and it's necessary.  But after the baby starts becoming more aware, it's game on!

A week or so ago Zack asked what we do during the day, so I figured I would write down our typical day right now, with a one year old.

5:30-6:30 - Luke is a pretty early riser, I will usually bring him into bed with us and give him a bottle of water and have a family snuggle for a half hour or so.

7:00-8:00 - We come downstairs and eat breakfast, have a little dance party before Zack heads to work then send him off, and clean up the kitchen.

8:00-10:00 - Upstairs we go to get ready for the day, Luke usually ransacks my closet while I get dressed, do my makeup, and do a little but of Rodan + Fields work (Best job ever, BTW).  I also work in my parents office, so I go put in a couple hours in the morning a few days a week, it is (obviously) pretty flexible.

10:00-12:00 - Luke starts to get tired around 10:00 - 10:30 so we will go lay on the couch and he sleeps and I catch up on e-mails/Facebook messages and pick up the house a little bit.

12:00-1:00 - Lunch time! I hate lunch time, It is the hardest meal of the day.  Luke is usually starving as soon as he wakes up from his nap and wants something to eat right the eff now so he usually has a pouch while I get something more substantial for him to eat, which right now is either bread, noodles, or bread...

1:00-5:30 - It is finally starting to warm up here, so after lunch we usually try to get outside to play and get some fresh air, play inside with some toys, go see an auntie or two, dance it off, and tread water until Zack gets home from work.  This is also the chunk of time where I try to get some house work done, laundry, dishes, vacuuming, picking up toys as Luke walks behind me and throws new ones on the floor, etc.

5:30-7:30 - When Zack gets home he will usually play with Luke while I get dinner ready, we eat, then we play and have some family time before Luke goes to bed.

7:30-8:00 - We all head upstairs to give Luke a bath, read a few stories, say a little prayer, tell Luke we love him 100 times and give him 50 kisses then off to bed he goes!

8:00-10:00 - Zack and I head back downstairs to watch a couple of shows, talk, and unwind then head up to bed.

Still rocking the Christmas jammies...

Luke's 14 Month Update

After Luke turned one I wasn't planning on doing monthly updates, but I recently went back and read through some of the old updates I did when Luke was tiny and I loved them!  There are already so many things that I have forgotten from those early months and I am so happy that I have them documented.  

It seems like Luke has changed a ton since he turned one, he just acts so much older.  He still just says "mama" and "dada" for the most part but I have noticed that he says what sounds like "no" and pushes the spoon away when he wants to be done eating.  We have also been working on learning body parts, so far he can point to his belly, his lips, and we are working on his nose.

Over the past month, Luke has turned into a really picky eater, I'm not sure why, and I am having a really hard time coming up with things to feed him.  It's weird because he started refusing things that he used to love.  We really rely on our old standbys; bananas, oatmeal, fruit and veggie pouches, yogurt, any carbs, graham crackers, and goldfish.  He loves to eat and will sit on the kitchen floor when I tell him it's snack time, pretty cute!

 Some of Luke's favorite things to do:

 -Give Rowdy hugs, and he can climb on the couch by himself now, so the dog is totally screwed.

 -Bath time, so much splashing!

-Tractor rides with Papa.

 -Dancing, kid can bust a serious move to Backstreet Boys radio.

-Being tickled, especially his feet, tummy, and armpits.

-Sharing his food with us and Rowdy, sometimes we get soggy bites, sometimes they are new, you never know!

-The vacuum, I don't know why, he always has.  Now that he is walking I will give him the sweeper attachment and he will push it around while I vacuum and he thinks it's the greatest thing in the world.

-Play outside and watch Rowdy run around.  When we ask him where Rowdy is, he will look around then point toward him, so smart!

One has been such a fun age, there are wonderful things about every age, but I think one is my favorite at the moment.  We have been blessed with such a funny, energetic, happy boy. We just love watching his little personality develop!

My Kid Is The Class Clown

Oh, this little boy.  Seriously, Luke is the most hilarious kid ever, I know every parent in the world thinks their kid is the funniest, and I am now understanding where those parents are coming from.  I remember sitting and listening to people tell "hilarious" stories about their kids and in my mind I'm thinking, "greeeeeaaaat, that's sooo funny."  Well... Now I am that parent, and I realize it, yet I can't stop myself.  I have come full circle, and I have accepted it.

Moving on.  The reason I say all of this is because Luke flat entertains me all day like he is performing for an audience. He does the same when we are around other people.  We go to story time for 0-2 year olds at our library every week, and while all of the other kids are sitting sweetly and quietly in their mom's laps, my kid is running around like a banshee getting everyone all riled up.  To clarify, I don't just let him run wild while all of the other moms are giving me the side eye and shooting me the "control your child" looks,  at this story time it is very laid back, in a closed conference room and they encourage the kids to play, it just seems that most of the time, Luke is the only one that does so.. and I kind of love it.

My amazing wine barrel has turned into a really fancy jungle gym.

 Bustin' a move.  He loves our family dance parties.

Luke's 12 Month Update

What a crazy wonderful year!  Our Lucas Eli has brought us so much happiness.  It amazes me every day how much he has changed over the year.  Luke had his one year well child check-up on the 7th, he weighs 19 pounds 15 ounces and is 29 inches long, he has gained 13 pounds 10 ounces and grown 9.5 inches since he was born! He has 6 teeth and freaking runs everywhere.

Luke still isn't saying much, he's still sticking with mama and dada along with pretty much constant babbling.  Over the past month Luke has started dancing to music, all by himself, super cute!  He also randomly started hugging me and it is the best, he says "awe" and wraps his little arms around my neck.  So far I am the only one he will hug consistently but everyone is working on him.

One thing that I haven't really mentioned for a while is Luke's torticollis.  We honestly have not done much for it, a while back we quit trying to do the stretches because they completely stressed Luke out, he did not tolerate them well at all and I was just too worried about hurting him because he tensed up so much.  Instead of the stretches we take him to the chiropractor and the rolfer periodically and he does really well with both.  We also have my sister Haley, who is a massage therapist, do little mini massages on his neck every once in a while.  At his one year appointment our Dr. said his neck is looking pretty good and will continue to improve especially since he is such an active little boy.

Some of Luke's favorite things:
Going for tractor rides with his Papa
Story time at the library
Rowdy
Being outside
His little ride-on motorcycle
Bananas

Luke's Birthday

Oh my goodness, my baby boy is ONE!! This has been the fastest, most wonderful year of my life!

Luke turned one on December 30th.  I was planning on having a real party for him, but since we had just gotten home from Hawaii and then Christmas, I just ran out of time to plan it.  So we just had a small party for him with just family and a couple friends.  Big party or not, I knew I wanted a smash cake for Luke.  I was so excited, Luke is such a tornado that I was sure he was going to absolutely destroy this cake, but it turns out he is more of a cautious cake eater, one fingerfull of frosting at a time.  I finally took one of his hands and slapped it on the top of the cake because he was just being far too clean for my taste.  He loved the cake (obviously...) and cried when I finally took it away.

Happy First Birthday to our sweet little boy.  Words can't describe how much we love you Lucas Eli, you are the best thing that has ever happened to us.

Hawaiian Vacation

Oh Hawaii... How I miss you.

To say we had a wonderful vacation would be a huge understatement.  So much happened and we had such an amazing time.  

The day we left, December 12th, was my sister Charley's birthday so of course we made her wear a crown and sash to party on the plane, the rest of us had fun little party hats.  We ended up having the BEST flight attendants ever!  They brought our crew free drinks and food and gave Charley a free plane tablet for the flight and sang happy birthday over the intercom, so we definitely got a good start to the vacation.  Traveling with 8 people is a total circus, especially our family, but it is always the best time!  Luke did absolutely fantastic on the plane, I totally had myself prepared for the worst, but he was a total champ.  I didn't take any toys for him, just tons of food, which is his favorite thing, so he was perfectly happy.

We have all been to Maui a bunch of times so we all have our favorite places to eat and things to do.  We spent a lot of time on the beach and at the pool at our condo.  Luke loved the beach, and being out in the water.  I can't even imagine how much sand he must have eaten.  It seems like every time we went to the beach he would play for a little bit in the sand, then I would take him out in the water and he would fall asleep while we stood in the waves.  Luke was a trooper, he played so hard every day and got really good at walking while we were there, probably from walking in the sand.

Other than spending time at the beach, we ate a ton of yummy food, rode mopeds, made a day trip to Lahina to go shopping at an outlet mall, and made a couple trips out to the beach where Zack and I got married.  I was really hoping to get some nice pictures there, but when we got dressed up and went, there were two weddings going on, so we went down the street to another beach and got a few pictures there.

On one of the last days we were in Hawaii, my sister Haley and her boyfriend Josiah got engaged!  It is so exciting, they have been together for close to 6 years.  He picked the prefect time and place to propose, on a beautiful beach at sunset.  

It is always so sad when vacation ends, it goes by so quickly but we had the best time.  I love that Maui was Luke's first vacation, it is my favorite place in the world, if I could convince Zack to move there I would be on the next flight out.

This is the beach Zack and I got married on, we just randomly stopped there one day and took a few pictures but planned on going back when we were dressed up.