Been missin' me?

I see that I haven't posted since the 16th. Which really isn't that long ago, but I had been posting pretty frequently, so I'm sure some of you feel like you're needing a Luke fix.

Luke: Since the 16th, Luke has gotten another tooth...his top right. He also began crawling and pulling up. He's not so fast with the crawling, but he's getting better and better every day. He also enjoys pulling up on Kyle and me and on our end tables. It's pretty cute, and I have yet to take a picture of it, but you can be sure I'll post it when I do. It's not quite tall enough for him to hold on and stand straight up so he's bent over a little. He's very proud of himself until he wants down, but he doesn't know how to do that part yet, so he fusses until he gets rescued. He's been eating a LOT more food lately. That began when my parents were here for Memorial Day. Luke had big fun with his grandparents and did his best to spoil them while they were here. I enjoyed the visit as well. Nebraska is a LONG way from here.

Kyle: Kyle has been a busy boy. He works really hard on our yard and it looks great. It should for all his efforts! Luke and I helped a little bit today. We trimmed off the dead flowers. I trimmed, Luke tried to eat them. He also stays really busy on his two websites http://www.virtualfsbo.com/ and http://www.rentalads.com/ . He recently made RentalAds a world wide website. That took a lot of time coding and testing etc. etc. Kyle went to Dana's for Memorial Day/Dana's birthday. Bridget and Kaleb were there as well as Jeremy, Angie and Hayleigh. Kyle said Kaleb was tall, and Hayleigh was "huge! I can't believe she's not even two yet! and very cute. I'm sure he liked seeing Bridget, Jeremy and Dana, too, but he didn't say much about them. hahah

Me: I really don't get much exciting news about myself. My news is always Luke news, but this week I did get approved to be a Body and Soul aerobics instructor. I will need to go to a training in Sacramento in early August to complete the LONG process. Kyle and Luke are coming along and we're leaving early to spend a few days as a family in San Francisco. I'll start in the fall, so we'll see how I like it. I'm not making a much bigger committment to it than I've already made to working out, so I think I should be able to fit it into our schedules without too much upheaval. We'll see if I like it or am any good at. Pre-calling might turn out to be too much for me.

Take a picture and hang it on the wall.

This evening was perfect. Luke woke up from his nap, Kyle and I ate supper (grilled chicken and corn), and then like most evenings, we went for a paddle boat ride on 'Lil Red (though she's actually blue). Luke was snuggly and sat on my lap and sucked his thumb...no baby wrestling tonight like some nights. There was not a single cloud in the sky. It was the perfect temperature. A little cool with a warm sunshine. There was zero wind and no bugs. And I was with Kyle and Luke. If I could take a picture of this evening and hang it on my wall to see forever, I would. 100% content.

It was also a good evening for seeing things. We saw frogs, turtles, jumping fish, tons of squirrels, birds, and the beaver (he slapped his tail at us two times) and a large owl. We hooted at him for a long time, but he never talked back.

Right now Luke is in bed, asleep. He went down without crying. Yup. Tonight was a good night.

Video Mayhem

Been awhile since we've had a video. So I'm making it up to you. Bigtime.

April 3

April 21

May 10

May 8

May 11

Carrots!

Mom and dad with Luke. Yes, that is my dad. Some of you may not have recognized him with out a newspaper in front of his face to hide from the camera. Grandchildren are bringing out a whole new side to him =P

We have been having a bit of a difficult time getting Luke to eat solids. Maybe no more than is normal, but how would we know that?!? Anyway, we the doctor told us to go ahead and move on, even though Luke wasn't doing so hot in the cereal category. So we gave him green bean, which he liked. We gave him gren beans mixed with oatmeal, which he liked a little better. Then we gave him carrots mixed with oatmeal. Oh. My. Goodness. I couldn't shovel bites into his little mouth fast enough. To the point where he was having trouble breathing. I tried to get him to slow down but he would just look at me, lean forward and HANG HIS MOUTH OPEN for another bite. The first time he ate carrots I could tell he liked them really well. He would dive at the spoon a little bit, but wasn't opening his mouth very well. The second and third times he got his mouth opening figured out and the Great Carrot Race was on! His third try was amazing. I hear that when Solomon feeds himself, he's a bit of a speed racer manman. I've never seen this...but I wonder if Luke was trying to give him a run for his money. I don't have pictures of the carrot eating...no time! But I did include a picture from his first eating adventure. My how far he's come.

The one where I think Luke's died...multiple times

Here's a picture of Solomon and Luke playing their first round of "Chicken". Had we actually let them play, I have every confidence that Solomon would have kicked Luke's tail. The picture has nothing to do with this post. I didn't think Luke was in danger at all.

Luke had a bit of a crazy first part of this week. Sunday we went to the family reunion and saw Dana and Luke got not even an hour and a half of naps that day. He took his regular 45 min. naps Monday-Wednesday with along with a little trouble going down Tuesday and Wednesday night. Wednesday morning Luke woke up at 8:55 a new record for him. And yes, what woke him up was me checking to see if he was still breathing. Wednesday afternoon he took an hour and 20 min nap, where again, I feared for his life. He only takes naps like that if he has a fever! (Which means the next good nap day I'm planning on is on his one year well baby-visit, where he gets several immunizations.) Thursday morning he got up around 8:15, then took an hour first nap! and for his second nap he slept an hour. and. thirty minutes. At which point, I again, thought perhaps he had died in his sleep, so I checked on him and he woke up a few minutes later. Then he took another 45 minute nap! It was a day of sleep. I guess he really needed to catch up from his rough days at the start of the week. Yesterday (Friday) he was back to his old 45 min. naps and he missed his last one because we went and ate at On the Boarder. So, here it is 8:29 Saturday morning, and he's still asleep.

Teeth finally documented!

See! There they are! They are very cute and painful.

Saturday Kyle went and bought Luke the smallest life jacket he could find for our paddle boat. It's not to much of a safety issue yet, as Luke is content to sit on my lap and look since we're outside, but it won't be much longer and he'll be a handful. We took him on the paddle boat with his life jacket on and it was so big he couldn't sit. Hopefully he gets tall before he gets naughty!

Sunday we went to the Hays family reunion in Kremlin, OK. We saw my Pappaw and Grandma Key, Aunt Marjorie and my Great Uncle Pete and his wife Janelle. Luke, of course, was a hit. Afterward we went and saw Kyle's dad, Dana in Pond Creek. Dana had only seen him once, so was very excited to spend a few hours with him. Luke LOVED his Shelties. He kept laughing and laughing at them. Super cute. He hated his carseat, again. He cried the entire way there (minus 30 min. of naptime) and the entire way home. I told him to get happy, since he wasn't getting out of his seat until we got home, but he didn't listen. Let this be a lesson for him.

Nebraska

The best of the 50 nifty United States. Our trip went really well. We had a good time and Luke did better than I expected. We left Thursday night after I had fed him at 8pm and we drove to Concordia and spent the night. Luke slept the whole way there (as planned) and then went right back to sleep in the hotel when we arrived.

We got up and left the next morning after he ate. He took 2 poor naps in the car, and basically cried the rest of the time. He does NOT enjoy his carseat. His drive time limit is about 20 minutes. You can't really get anywhere in 20 minutes.

We got to mom and dad's at 2:30. Mom and I left Luke with Kyle to take a nap and we went to the grocery store. It had snowed earlier that morning but it was all gone by the time we arrived. Michael, Audra and Solomon arrived around 6-6:30. Solomon hadn't done any better than Luke in the car. We ate supper and the babies went to bed at 8 and then we played cards. Luke slept all night long! I thought a new location/traveling might throw him off, but he was terrific! My grandparents came Saturday for supper. It was their first time to meet Luke. I think he passed inspection. We went to church Sunday and visitied my grandparents again Tuesday. Kyle and I ...both of us...at the same time! left Luke with my mom and went to the gym Monday and Tuesday. It was a very romantic first two dates after Luke! hahaha.

This was the second time for Luke to meet his cousin Solomon. This time Solomon kept taking all of Luke's toys he was playing with and either he would take off with them as fast as he could go, or he'd throw them at Luke's head. Luke took it like a baby. haha

We left mom and dad's Tuesday night at 8 and Kyle drove all the way to Salina! So we only had 3 1/2 hrs left to drive yesterday. Luke slept 1 hr, cried 1 1/2 hrs and was happy for 30 minutes of that drive. We got home yesterday around 12:30.

It was great to see everyone. I was very excited to get to see Michael, Audra and Solomon. He has changed so much in the 5 months since I saw him last. And I was very excited for my dad to see Luke again (he hadn't seen him since Thanksgiving) and for Luke to meet my grandparents.

I think we'll try to go again this summer or fall. Luke needs his Grandma and Grandpa Olson! As well as Solomon!