You're Gonna Miss This

I'm sure every mother of a toddler can agree with me - it's a love/hate relationship right now. I love my little boy more than I can put into words, but there are times when I hate his little attitude! Luke is turning into a pistol. For the most part he's a pretty good kid, but there are times when the alter ego rears his ugly head and I wonder how I will make it through the day. It is so hard to have patience, especially for me. I find myself taking a deep breath and counting to ten very often! But mostly I find myself counting down the hours until naptime and bedtime - when I get a break from being a mom.

We were walking out of church today, Luke sandwiched in between us, each of us holding one of his hands as we headed out to the car. A family - a mom, dad, and two teenagers, walked past us and the mom just smiled and said, "I miss those days."

You're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days
Hadn't gone by so fast

These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this
~Trace Adkins

I am going to remind myself of these words every day. I will miss these days with Luke. I will look back at him in 10, 20, 30 years and wonder where the time has gone. And I hope that I won't look back at these days with regret. Regret that I got frustrated too often, or that I didn't show him how much I love him. Regret that I didn't get in the floor and play with him enough, or that I didn't expand his horizons and show him that he can be anything he sets his mind to. Regret that I spend the whole time waiting for him to go to sleep, instead of enjoying the time that he was awake.

I think it is so easy for us to belittle ourselves and assume we are horrible mothers. I find myself falling for that trap way too much. I think of all the things I'm not doing with Luke that I should be, and I wonder if he would be better off with someone other than me. But here's the thing...that is a LIE! As long as Luke knows that I love him unconditionally, and that I will be there for him no matter what, I am being a wonderful mom - the only mom Luke will need or want.

Just when I am at my weakest, when I'm sure that there's no way I can continue being a mom, God shows me that I CAN. He sends me little reminders that I need to stop taking everything so seriously and that I need to relax, trust in Him, and ENJOY MY TIME WITH LUKE.

The latest reminder came tonight at bedtime. Nate was holding him and they said "goodnight" to all Luke's stuffed animals and bobbleheads. Then they came to say goodnight to me, and Luke reached his arms out for me to hold him. I kissed his forehead and told him goodnight and that I loved him, and he just melted in my arms. This NEVER happens! Usually he's trying to get in the crib. Instead, he layed his head against my chest and just let me hold him. I don't think we've had a good snuggle like that since I stopped breastfeeding him when he turned a year old. I was not going to turn it down so I sat down in the rocker and held him until my arms fell asleep - the kid is heavy! All I could think was 'Enjoy this. Soak it all up. Who knows when it will happen again'.

I hope I never forget that moment where Luke reached out to me. I hope that I can take these difficult toddler years one day at a time and get the most out of them. Because Trace Adkins is right - these are some good times. And I'm going to miss them when they're gone.

Luke's Room

Anyone who knows me in real life can attest to the fact that I hate to clean. I love having a clean house, but I really don't like having to be the one to keep it clean. Luke's room is one of the most neglected rooms in our house. It's impossible to keep it straightened with a toddler coming behind me pulling everything back out again. The only time I have to work in it is when he's asleep - and I can't because he's sleeping in there! The result is a lot of piles everywhere that get so big that the task is to daunting for me so I just leave it and then the piles get bigger - it's a vicious cycle.

Today I got the urge to do a major overhaul in his room. Nate was home, Luke had already taken his nap; it was the perfect time. So I shut myself in there and went through the closet, the dresser, the floor and organized everything.

Here are the very scary BEFORE pictures: (because I have to document everything!)









And the AFTER: (quite an improvement if I do say so myself!)







And I hung Luke's license plate on his door (at least until he gets a bike or something!)

Apparently a cold doesn't slow this kid down...

Luke has been in rare form the last two days. He is cracking me up and wearing me out at the same time! Last night he was up playing until almost 9 pm - and he's usually in bed, asleep by 7:30 at the latest! He woke up with a cold on Wednesday and from the looks of things, all a cold does to him is make him crazy and hyper!

On Wednesday he dug one of my tank tops out of the laundry and had some fun:






He's checking himself out in the windows of the fireplace in this picture!

He also started to color in the new pad I bought for him:





On Thursday we had major progress with the whole going down the slide thing. This was the first day he got both of his legs in front of him to slide without having any help from me or his daddy!






Action shot!

He has also been practicing baseball with the new toy the Romberg's are letting us borrow! It's a little baseball tee and Luke loves it! Here he is hitting the ball:

Beee!

Luke is starting to learn names now, as most of you witness from the video I posted last week. This past weekend he started saying Beth's name, we were at my parent's house and she was on speaker phone and he started going "Beeh" over and over again.

Well I have a picture of the two of them from the wedding framed on the breakfast bar and Luke looked at it this morning and started saying "Beee". I asked him where Aunt Beth was and he pointed to her and said "Beee". So I guess she's Aunt Bee now!

Of course, I had to get it on video...see for yourself!

(And Justin, you can stop pouting - he tried to say your name, too!)

A Lesson in Blowing Luke's Nose

So Luke came down with a cold yesterday and I thought that this would be a perfect opportunity to begin teaching him to blow his nose. Especially since he runs and (attempts to) hide the second he sees me reach for the bulb syringe to suction his nose, which makes for fun times at the Stroder house. We have got to get this nose-blowing thing down fast!

He just woke up from his nap and when I went in his room, there was snot running out of his nose (how's that for a visual?) So I grab a Kleenex and hold it to his face. He actually leans his face into the Kleenex (a first for Luke, he likes having his nose wiped as much as he likes it being suctioned out.) I told him to blow, and I blew air out of my nose to show him. He responds by saying "booo". I showed him again, this time apparently scrunching my nose up while blowing. He then leans back into the Kleenex, scrunches up his nose, leans back from the Kleenex, looks very proudly at me and says "booo".

We'll keep working on it...

MAMA!!

Luke's first word was Dada. He said Dada ALL.THE.TIME. He even started associated Dada and Nate pretty early on. I wasn't sure if he would EVER say Mama. He would say it here and there, but usually when he was whining or upset and half the time I couldn't tell if it was even directed at me! However, he screams in delight when he sees Nate - all I hear is DADA at the top of his lungs.

It seems I'm starting to rank up there with Nate now, though. We have a sidewalk that runs behind our house, and an easement next to the driveway to walk back to it. This evening Nate and Luke were back there and Nate was pulling Luke in the wagon. I was standing at the end of the easement when they started back towards the house and the second Luke saw me, I heard, "MAMA!!!!!" and he started waving frantically.

Talk about melting a mommy's heart!!!

More Wedding Pictures!

I am so excited that the professional pictures from Beth & Justin's wedding are online now! I love seeing the moments the photographer captured, plus looking at how gorgeous everyone and everything looked!

If you want to check them out, click here and scroll down to Beth & Justin. The user name is beth and the password is jenkins.

Here's a sneak peek at some of my favorites, though! :)

Luke Shows Off His Vocab Skills...

...and makes major brownie points with the grandparents!

(Please excuse his appearance - he had just eaten ravioli for dinner and was finishing up with yogurt for dessert! And of course, he has to be a messy eater!)

Singing Along

We were in the car today listening to Sugarland's "All I Wanna Do" and Luke started singing along.

The chorus goes, "All I wanna do-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo is love you" and Luke started going "oo-oo-oo" along with the music. I was dying laughing. I guess I need to take the video camera with me wherever I go.

He's such a ham!

When signing "please" = DISASTER

Up until today, it's been really cute that Nate taught Luke to sign "please" by patting his head. I haven't minded one bit that he's not doing the correct sign because I know what he's saying so that's all that matters.

Well he's never had spaghetti-o's before!

Actually he has, but he's been content with me feeding him. Not today! He wanted to do it himself, so I put the bowl and spoon in front of him. Naturally, he just used his hands to eat, which was fine...until he asked for more fruit.

The result was tomato sauce EVERYWHERE and Luke went straight from the high chair to the bathtub to the crib for a nap!


Please!


Holy tomato sauce!


So proud of himself!


The aftermath...on the way to the tub!

Football Fun!

I just love the dollar section at Target. I find a lot of great stuff there - and it sure is cheap! I just love it.

Yesterday we were scoping it out and there were a bunch of squishy footballs. Of course, Luke saw a ball and starting saying "please" and "more" in sign language and I figured what the heck? It's a dollar! It's a good thing I coughed up that dollar because he LOVES playing with it. It's hilarious watching him! I don't know where he's getting it from, because it's not like we've been watching football lately, but he will bend down and grab it like he's the center getting ready to hike it to the quarterback. Then he'll look around like he's waiting to pass it to someone. I started saying "hut, hut" when I noticed him bent over like the center and now when he bends over with the ball he yells "huh huh". Then he'll take off running with it and "throw" it at one of us. Then he'll clap for himself, get the ball back, and start over!



HUT HUT!


Go long, Mom!


Maybe the next Emmitt Smith?


Can I spike this on Dad's head?


Having so much fun with the football!

Hollywood!

Luke's new obsession (at least one of them anyways) is with "eyes". He can show you where your eyes are - he hasn't quite mastered his own - but he also calls sunglasses "eyes". He looooves Nate's sunglasses, they have orange/yellow lenses and I think that's why he likes them so much. He will go up to Nate and say "eyes" and point to the sunglasses so Nate will put them on his face. He gets SO proud of himself when he's wearing Daddy's sunglasses!

This evening we were out in the garage and Nate had some fun with the sunglasses and our hats...

Mine:


Nate's:


Just Luke:

Lake Whitney

This past weekend was our annual Stroder campout at Lake Whitney. It was hotter than it's ever been, and lots of time was spent out on the lake. The conditions weren't the best - it was very windy - but everyone seemed to have a really good time. Major milestones were reached for the Anderson boys - Austin wakeboarded and Hayden went from not letting go of his dad in the water to swimming by himself and he even TUBED by himself on Sunday! Yay!!

Luke was better than I expected him to be, especially since he'd been sick all week. At first he wasn't too sure about the new situation, but he adjusted fairly well and I think he had fun. But he sure was happy when we got home! I think we've raised a homebody! :)

Here's Luke and Nate in the lake - Luke LOVES the water and the boat now - he'll be wakeboarding before we know it!


And Luke was in heaven because there were a ton of ducks around the boat slips. I wish I had gotten a picture of the smile on his face when he saw them for the first time. It was pure excitement. I thought his face was going to crack because he was smiling so big! But here's a pic of Luke and Nate feeding the ducks!

I can finally share this!

Nate's parents both have birthdays in July and August. His dad's is July 23rd and his mom's is August 13th. For one of their presents this year, we decided to get all of their grandchildren together for a picture. It turned out to be easier in theory rather than execution. Who knew how difficult it would be to get five children, all under the age of eight, to a) look at the camera at the same time, and b) smile at the camera at the same time. Well it never happened.

Here's what we got instead:



And let me tell you, my mother-in-law and father-in-law LOVED it. We celebrated their birthdays this past weekend at Lake Whitney, which is why I can now post these on here. I think it's pretty darn cute, too!

We also got some pictures of just Luke. It was the first time we'd had pro pics taken since he was two weeks old! I love these of my little man:

The Diagnosis

It turns out that Luke had roseola last week. His pediatrician was right! After four days of high fever, it finally broke on Thursday night and by Friday he was red and splotchy all over. He looked horrible and it made me sad. The rash was completely gone by Sunday, however, and today he was back to his normal, happy self!

I am so happy to have my Luke back! I have missed him so much! :)

Um...where does the time go?

I just realized that today is August 6th. That means that Luke is 14 months old today! I feel like I was just doing the countdown to his first birthday! The next time I blink he will be two!

No monthly picture of him this time, though; he still has fever and looks too pitiful to capture for posterity! I really don't want to remember this!

Poor Luke!

Luke is sick! He started running fever on Sunday night and it was 102.4 when he woke up yesterday. The poor thing was crying at 6:30am, which is very unlike him, and the cry clearly said "Something is wrong, Mommy, fix it!" Motrin seemed to help a little, but I took him into the doctor anyway to make sure it wasn't an ear infection or something I could be treating. Other than fever, there is nothing physically wrong with him so our pediatrician said to just treat the fever and see if any other symptoms develop. As of this morning he still does not have any symptoms other than the fever. It was up to 103.9 and 103.4 last night and this morning. Since getting Motrin this morning he seems to be a little better but he is already down for his second nap of the day and it's not even 11 am yet!

Our pediatrician thinks it is roseola - a virus that consists of high fever for three days and then the fever drops and a rash appears. So we'll see if he breaks out in a rash Wednesday night/Thursday morning. I just hope something happens to explain why he's running fever and is so miserable! Unfortunately since it is probably viral there is nothing we can do except treat the fever with Motrin/Tylenol and do our best to keep him comfortable. I want my happy baby boy back soon! I keep seeing glimpses of him here and there (like after he ate breakfast this morning he pointed to the pig's head from his Fridge Farm and started grunting like a pig - haha) but those glimpses are few and far between right now!

Long Day

I think we wore Luke out yesterday!

Don't you just want to squeeze those cheeks? Could they be any bigger?! :)

Reminiscing for a moment...

Beth & Justin just got home from their honeymoon. They went to the same resort we did - the Aventura Spa Palace on the Mayan Riviera in Mexico. Seeing all their pictures and hearing their stories made me dig up the pictures from my own honeymoon. Here are my favorites: