walking

Luke spent his first month of life doubling his weight and being awesome. He spent the last 2 weeks (how can I say this) "discovering his voice". He no longer wakes up quietly to (subtly) let us know that he's hungry. Instead, he wakes up screaming, so by the time we get down the hall to pick him up, his lip is quivering and he's practically shaking. Our routine is to change his pants and then feed him a bottle, but he HATES getting his pants changed. Like...seriously hates it (most likely because my hands are ice cold). So by the time we get a bottle in his mouth, his face is all red and he's crying like we've been jabbing him with hot pokers. And then he's fine.

As much as I love being home with Luke, there are days when I feel like I've exhausted all of my tricks to make him stop crying. He's been eating 3 oz at a time for several weeks, but lately he's been spitting up a lot. He likes to be swaddled, he likes to be rocked back and forth (left to right, not up and down...learned that one the hard way!) but my fool-proof trick is to put him in the stroller and go for a walk.

We've explored several routes in the last two weeks. All of my routes involve a quick stop at Starbucks, but the latest route was a complete accident. I didn't know exactly where we were going, but I knew the major intersections around me and I figured if the neighborhoods had sidewalks, we were in good shape. When I got home, I mapped it out on my favorite new website, walkjogrun.net. Turns out, we went 3.21 miles. Again, by accident.

Here's a quick little overview of our route:

By the time we got home, my feet had blisters and Luke was asleep. He slept for another two hours until it was time for a bottle. He woke up screaming (of course) but I'm hoping all of that fresh air means he will sleep well tonight. I know I will! 

cozy quarters

Luke's nursery has changed a lot, even since I took these photos, but we've been working on it a lot lately. Since we had to leave so quickly for Georgia, we didn't get to finish any of the little details until last weekend. There is still more artwork to hang on the walls and I have a different chair planned for the corner, but at least we've made some progress.

One night, I created these little bird pictures from craft paper. I cut them all out of coordinating patterns, glued them down and framed them to hang over Luke's crib:

I learned this trick from Martha Stewart. You just trace your frames with plain paper and position them on the wall exactly the way you want them. It's a good way to ensure you don't punch a bunch of holes in your wall:

Quick, cheap and super easy artwork:

Ryan installed a floating shelf over the changing table (that we purchased from IKEA):

Searched and searched for the perfect light fixture to replace that ceiling fan. Found a super-cute pendant light on CB2. Will install (and post new photos) as soon as it arrives:

Installed these two little bookshelves (from Land of Nod) and framed a collage of photos that my cousin (Shannon) took when she visited us in Georgia. We installed them like that so we could put a little wooden table and chairs where the bouncy seat is. I can already picture Luke doing puzzles and drawing pictures there some day:

All of the drilling and hammering in his room, sweet little Luke slept through the whole thing:

Rug is from Nebraska Furniture Mart. W pillow is by Jonathan Adler. Bird pillow is from Land of Nod. Crib is by Oeuf.

I made this little bird mobile from tiny, tin birds I found at Hobby Lobby and some sticks I found in the yard. The night-light is from Ikea and the elephant planter is an antique I bought 4 years ago on a trip to Omaha:

This side of the room already looks really different, but here's the direction it's going.

Two of the reasons I LOVE Land of Nod. This monkey and these blocks:

milestones

On October 1, 2005 - I married my best friend. We got married in the rain - an event that quickly sparked a trend, as every moment of any great consequence in our lives elicits a major thunderstorm. And while we are excited about celebrating 5 years together (what an incredible journey it's been so far) we are thrilled to simultaneously celebrate Luke's first month of life!

Luke is 4 weeks old today!

He had a routine check-up yesterday and Luke weighed 6 pounds, 5 ounces!!  That's after he peed all over the scale and before he took a huge dump in the doctor's office, so maybe he's more like 6 pounds, 3 ounces?  Luke was also immunized for Hepatitis B. I knew he would be getting this shot and I mentally prepared myself for the screaming and the crying (mostly me) but, just like every moment of this journey, it did not go the way I expected. The needle went in his leg and I watched his eyes open really wide. Luke opened his mouth like he was going to scream and I braced myself for the wailing. I quickly inserted the pacifier in to his mouth and it was like I'd given him a tranquilizer. He didn't make a sound. He just closed his mouth and relaxed like absolutely nothing had happened. The nurse looked at me and I looked at her and we just smiled. "Good job, mama!" she said. 

"I did nothing!  He's a rockstar!" 

And he totally is!  We had a couple of nights this week when he was up every 20 minutes or so...just restless and insatiable. But then we figured out he was freezing cold. He wanted to be swaddled and covered up. Once we figured that out, he returned to his usual "5-6 hours at a time" sleeping habits. (like I said..."rockstar"!) 

I'm actually sitting in Luke's room right now, listening to him grunt and squirm in his little cocoon. I anticipate some squeaks any time now to tell me he's ready for a bottle. I just love our feeding times together. I love picking him up and kissing his little face and watching him root around for a bottle. I love that he opens his eyes really big in the dim light - and for a good thirty-minutes, I feel like we "talk" to each other. Of course I'm completely exhausted and bleary-eyed the entire time, but there is nowhere else in the world I would rather be. It's exactly what I pictured when I dreamed about being a mommy.

Ryan and I planned to celebrate our big 5-year anniversary in Mexico with a bunch of friends, but we cancelled it when Luke was born. We're going to struggle enough as it is to leave the house for dinner and a movie tonight. I can't imagine leaving him for a whole week. I give it 20 minutes before one of us decides to call home and check in.  

There is so much to celebrate right now and it feels really good. We are one happy little family. Finally.