Easter Weekend Part 2

After our fun time at the church Easter egg hunt, we headed to Dallas to see my parents. They had just gotten a new countertop and asked Nate to reinstall the kitchen sink. They seriously lucked out having a plumber son-in-law! Anyway, Luke loved it at Grammie & Big Papi's, especially since all the cabinets were empty so he could play in them! At one point, he got down and "helped" Nate under the sink. It was too cute - like father, like son!

Okay, Dad, let me take a look at what you've been doing so far...

Daisy had to check things out for herself...

Daddy's Little Helper!

Easter Weekend - Part 1

Luke's 1st Easter weekend was so much fun! On Saturday we went to Ridge Hunt at our church. There was an Easter egg hunt (even for the babies!), a petting zoo, a firetruck from the Mansfield Fire Department, bounce houses, crafts, and face painting. He was able to enjoy the egg hunt, petting zoo and firetruck.

The petting zoo was Luke's favorite! He loved watching all the animals from outside the cage. He got to see ponies, sheep, and goats!

It was the BEST when his dad took him in to see the ducks, geese, baby goats, bunny rabbits, and baby pig! The baby pig was by far his favorite - it was the only animal that stood still so Luke could pet him!

After the petting zoo, it was time for the Easter egg hunt! Luke had a great time "finding" some eggs...with a little help from Daddy!

Luke was trying desperately to pick up that green egg!

Yummy Easter egg!

Here we are with the firetruck from MFD!

He wasn't a fan of the fire hat that the firefighters gave him!

Busy, busy!

Easter weekend was a very busy weekend for the Stroder family! I have lots of pictures to share from Luke's 1st Easter...but it will have to wait. The past two days have been crazy between getting our house put back together (it had spiraled out of control!) and chasing around a psycho 9 month old. Luke has become Mr. Mischevious practically overnight! He's crawling all over the place, pulling up on anything he can get his hands on, and cruising between the furniture. His favorite things to do right now are :

1)pull up on the grandmother clock, the secretary (both of which are antiques passed down from my grandmother!), and the fireplace - all no-no's for Luke!
2)crawl away from me as fast as he can, laughing like a mad man.

Needless to say I am exhausted! Adorable pictures are coming, though; I promise!!

Give the Dog a...Waffle?

Luke tries to earn Daisy's love by giving her some of his breakfast...

The Rediscovery of Old Toys...

When Luke outgrows or gets bored with an item, it goes in our guest bedroom. We have so much stuff in there that needs to be boxed up and put in the attic. Anyway, the other night Nate and I were in there and Luke found his bouncy seat. When he was a little baby, he loooooooved the bouncy seat. It was the best. It was so cute to watch him play with it again. What a difference a few months make...

And now for a blast from the past...the first time Luke sat in the bouncy seat at almost 3 weeks old!

Peek a boo!

Where's Luke?

There he is!

Can I tell you how much I love Texas?

The weather this afternoon was nothing short of perfection. Luke was so happy to get to go outside! He truly is an outdoor-loving child. He gets very excited when you walk towards the backdoor because he knows what is on the other side! I guess it comes from when he was a colicky newborn we spent every afternoon and evening outside (thank goodness he was born in June!) because it was the only way he would stop crying. I'm so glad the weather is starting to cooperate where we can go out and not have to bundle him up!

Here are some pics from our afternoon. Our neighbors are letting us borrow this little car to push Luke around in. He loves it...

And doesn't he look just adorable in his little baseball cap?!

I also let him explore the grass, which was an adventure for Mr. Luke...

Luke meets the Rangers Captain

The opening of Big League Dreams was today. Nate was supposed to play in a softball game to commemorate the opening, but all games were cancelled because the fields were too wet. We had fun anyway, except it was very cold and windy! It's a pretty cool establishment, though; it has eight fields that are replicas of major league ballparks - Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Polo Grounds, Fenway Park, Yankee Stadium, Wrigley Field, Sportsman's Park, Crosley Field & Ebbets Field - a pavilion for indoor soccer or football, batting cages, and two restaurants. Luke was a sport all bundled up in his stroller, taking everything in.


Part of the festivities included former Rangers signing autographs. We got signatures from Scott Sheldon, Steve Bueschele, Curtis Wilkerson, Bill Russell, Claude Osteen, and Ellis Valentine.

Luke meets the Rangers Captain:

I was very excited to find Pudge in one of the restaurants:(we're pretending he's in a Rangers uniform!)

I'm happy to report that...

Luke Thomas has no food allergies! WHOO-HOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The pediatrician's office just called and everything looked great on his bloodwork. They checked for the 12 common food allergies including milk, egg whites, peanuts, walnuts, shellfish, etc, and he's not allergic to anything! I'm very relieved and excited. Hopefully this new cream will clear up the eczema and we'll be good to go!

I'm also extremely happy to get the results before the weekend. Now I don't have to worry!

Luke's 1st Snow (sort of!)

Surprise, surprise! There was snow on the ground when we woke up this morning. Not very much by any means, but it was there. Luke and I rushed outside to get some pictures of his almost 1st snow. It's the 1st snow we've had at the house since he was born, but his first experience with snow was in Breckenridge back in December. Poor thing didn't have a clue was a Texas snowstorm is like until this morning!

You call this snow?

Maybe there is enough here to get a bite...

Mom! My bottom is cold!!

Luke's 9 Month Stats

Luke's 9 month well baby check up was today. He weighed a whooping 21 pounds 12 ounces and was 28 3/4 inches long! So in 9 months he has gained exactly 13 pounds and grown 7 1/2 inches! What a big boy!

Unfortunately, I experienced (so far) my worst mommy-moment. I had to take Luke to get bloodwork done. It was so awful holding him while his blood was drawn. He was crying so hard, and I just wanted to cry along with him. I've never heard him cry like that. Nothing calmed him down until they finally had all the blood they needed and the needle was removed from his little arm. I'm getting upset just thinking about it!

We are testing Luke for the 12 most common food allergies. The past month Luke has had a major flare up with his eczema. It's all over his body, especially on his back. We went to the doctor a few weeks ago because it wasn't clearing up, so Dr. Daniels gave us a prescription for NuZone, a 2% hydrocortisone cream. Our other instructions included water bath every night (which Luke loves), using Cetaphil cleanser 2-3 times per week, apply the NuZone twice a day, and apply Cetaphil moisturizer over the NuZone. Since that hasn't helped, and eczema is usually caused by food allergy, Dr. Daniels felt we should get Luke tested.

The real kicker is that he is most likely allergic to dairy products. He had eczema issues back as a newborn, but it cleared up when I eliminated dairy products from my diet. Once I eliminated diary, not only did the eczema clear up but Luke stopped having problems with colic. So he was definitely sensitive to dairy back then. I realized that this most recent bout with eczema started after I started giving Luke cheese. :(

We'll see what happens...hopefully Little Man just has sensitive skin. They said we should have results by Monday.

9 Months old!

Another month has flown by and now I have a 9 month old! Isn't that crazy? It's such a joy to be Luke's mother. He is such a wonderful baby! This month was pretty exciting for Luke...he started crawling on all fours (after doing the inchworm crawl for 3 months!), and he's become so much more mobile. Nate and I noticed a few days ago that he just moves with such ease, going from sitting, to standing (holding on to something, of course), to crawling in the blink of an eye. He's started to walk holding onto our hands, and it is just the cutest thing ever. He marches along, and then he'll look up at you and just grin because he's so proud of himself. He's also started clapping and waving. Yesterday we were walking outside and he was just waving away. I joked that Prince Luke was waving at his loyal subjects!

Anyway, I learned from last month and took his picture first thing this morning. What a difference!

Wait...I'm HOW old?!

Yay for me!

Spaz!

Videos Galore!

So my new thing is to post videos of Little Man. The next two were uploaded into photobucket, so it just made sense to use photobucket to post the videos rather than upload them to blogger, too. Well when I do that I can't explain about the video! So here's my explanation...


Spaz - The latest word that makes Luke giggle. Previous words that have made him belly laugh include up, quick, quack, beep, and wiggle. Well today Luke's been unusually spastic, and when I called him a spaz he just burst into a fit of giggles. And I was lucky enough to capture this moment! Careful, though...his laugh is contagious!


Luke Loves to Read - Luke's favorite book is called Peek-A-Moo. This video is of Nate reading it to Luke. He's wild over this book!

Luke Loves to Read!