A Date with Luke

Luke and I had a date last night. We went to our favorite place, Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. We both desperately needed some Mommy/Luke time. The game itself was horrible, but we both had a great time.

He is just so cute. And sweet. And friendly. And good. I really enjoyed our time together. Watching him and how grown up he is now makes my heart smile and ache at the same time.



Going out to center field is a requirement now. He loves it. He was disappointed that the pitching game he normally does wasn't there today, but was excited to get to hit in the wiffle ballpark.



While he was next in line, the Rangers Captain came out to hit. Luke cheered him on.


Waiting his turn. Have I mentioned that I just love him? How cute is he in the ready position.


Time to hit. He did great; he hit more than he missed.


This time he decided he wanted some tattoos. On his right cheek is Kinsler 5 and on his left cheek is the Rangers Captain.


The highlight of the night was the 7th inning stretch, when the Texas Legends danced to the "Cotton Eyed Joe". Our seats were on the second level in front of the pressbox. They usually dance out in center field, which is where we saw them at Luke's birthay, but tonight they danced in front of the pressbox. Luke saw them come down the steps and flipped. We ran up to meet them. He got to give them all high fives before it was time for them to dance.

He looked at me and asked, "Mom, can I dance with Davy Crockett?!" I told him sure! Go for it. So my little boy stood in between Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie and danced to the "Cotton Eyed Joe". I seriously wanted to cry. He was so, so, so excited. He practices dancing like the people at home all the time, and it's hilarious. The fact that he got to dance with the people?!?! It's amazing. I'm just so happy he got that opportunity.

Well...just kidding

In Caleb's three month post I mentioned it seemed like he was getting into a routine - taking nice long naps, and sleeping through the night.

Yeah.

That was a lie.

Next time I'm going to just keep my mouth shut.

Thankful

Today my wonderful friend/neighbor Jamie took Luke with her to the spray park at Uptown Village. Since I had some errands to do that direction, I met her and the kids there. Luke and I had a very interesting conversation in the car on the way home. Caleb had actually fallen asleep so we were really able to talk instead of trying to yell over a squawking baby. (which looking back now had to have been a God thing.)

Here's what Luke had to say...
"I wish we had a bigger car."

"I wish we had a bigger house. I want a house with stairs."

"I wish we could have three kids in our family."

Whoa! Who is this ungrateful child? Those are some pretty major wishes.

My responses...
"Why don't you be thankful for what we DO have instead of wishing for things we don't? God has blessed us with our house, with our car, with you, with Caleb. There are a lot of kids out there who don't have a mommy and a daddy to love them, don't have a nice car to ride around in, don't have food to eat at every meal. You have it pretty good, kid."

He was quiet after that. I wasn't sure if he was just tired, or if he was thinking about what I had to say. We got home, he ate lunch, and then it was time for his nap. Before I left the room he asked me if he could pray. I told him of course, so we held hands, closed our eyes, and bowed our heads.

His prayer went like this:

"Dear God, thank you for this day. Thank you for letting me go to the sprinklers with Reesie and Joshie. Thank you for letting us live in a small house and drive a small car. Amen."

It's a start. I'll take it. After all, I'm still learning this lesson at 28.

Best Friends

3 Months!

Little Caleb is three months old today! A quarter of his first year is gone, how crazy is that?!







This month has been one of adjustments for us. The biggest adjustment has been that Caleb is no longer breasfeeding. After almost a month of struggling, I finally realized that the issue was not a)reflux; b)milk supply; or c)what I was eating/drinking. The issue was that he was not efficient enough to take in the amount he needed after his 8 week growth spurt. He is just a lazy eater. So we are now giving him bottles. I am still pumping so he will at least get some breastmilk, but he also gets formula. And we are a happier household because of it. I'm way less stressed, Caleb is much happier, he is sleeping so much better...it's a good thing all around.

We seem to be getting our routine down now, which is nice. We still have off days, but who doesn't? Caleb wakes up between 5-6 AM, is usually awake about an hour before he goes back to sleep. He usually will sleep about 2-3 hours in the morning, be awake a couple hours, and then go back down for another 2-3 hour nap. From there he is pretty much awake (sometimes he'll take an early evening catnap) before he goes down for the night between 6-7 PM. Last week he was still waking up for a bottle at 2 AM, but the past three nights he has slept through to 5-6 AM so hopefully that is his new normal. :)

He is a love. I'm just crazy about him. He is the cutest thing. He looooves being talked to; he will just grin nonstop. I love watching his eyes light up when he "talks" to me and I make the sounds back at him. It's like he thinks we are having a real conversation. He also is all smiles when I put him in the bouncy seat. His tolerance for it is getting lower, but when he is first put down he gives the toys such a huge smile.

I spoke too soon last month about the errands. He just hates the carseat, plain and simple. He will tolerate being in the wrap or the Bjorn while we're actually out of the car, but it is very, very rare for him to be in the carseat and NOT be screaming. It has to get better eventually...right?

Random things about the past month:
-still in size 1 diapers, but will probably be switching to size 2 within the next month or so.
-finally starting to grow out of newborn clothes. In mainly 3M or 0-3M size right now.
-Two weeks ago he went to Hawaiian Falls with us for the first time. I had him in the wrap and he slept pretty much the whole time.
-He started staying in the nursery at church. They say he is sweet but that he is hungry all the time, which makes me laugh. On Sunday they gave him both bottles I sent within a 2.5 hour time period. I know that most of his fussing while there is that he's tired, but he just won't sleep. He ends up sleeping like four hours when we get home.
-Friday night (8/12) was the first time we tried him in the exersaucer. He loves to stand up so we figured why not...and he loved it!
-We finally decorated and arranged his room (cough, last week, cough). He loves to lay on the couch and look around. One of his favorite things to do is have naked time in the evenings before he gets ready for bed.

Family Rangers Game!

Last Monday (August 8th) we went to another Rangers game. We all had a great time. Luke got to experience most of his favorites...fireworks (thank you, Nelson Cruz), the Texas flags (thank you 9 Ranger runs), the "mean boy in the boots" (thank you, crappy Seattle pitcher), the Texas Legends race, games in center field, AND he got to see/have his picture taken with the Rangers Captain. Plus the Rangers won, so that made it even better!!

Caleb was a dream the entire time. Crazy baby loves being outside, and apparently the hotter the better. Temp at game time was 105, and it didn't reach below 100 until after 9 PM. But Caleb was totally content to be held by either Nate or me. He slept some, he ate some, he looked around some. It was perfect!

Snoozin' with Daddy before the game started.


This month we have challenged ourselves not to eat out, and concessions at the Ballpark falls into this category. So we planned on making sandwiches to eat on the way to the game. However, Luke did not like this idea. He was adamant that he wanted to have nachos for dinner. So we told him fine, you want nachos you have to take money out of your piggy bank and buy them yourself.

You know what? He did. I helped him count out $6 from his piggy bank and he bought his own nachos. Hindsight I wish we would have talked more about the value of money - $6 is a lot of money out of his bank to blow on something that he only ate half of (Nate and I helped out with the rest). Lesson learned on my part.

Proudly showing off his nachos.


After the second inning we headed out to center field so Luke could play some games. He is always begging us to do the Coca-Cola Wiffle Ball Park but the line is always super long so we never do it. This time the line was short so we figured what the heck? He was SO excited. He did pretty good, too; considering a)he's four and b)it's been at least two months since we've been outside playing any form of baseball with him.

Waiting his turn. Gameface on.


Ready to hit.


We even ran into the Rangers Captain out there!


Time for some family pictures...too bad all of these pics are with my phone so the quality is horrible! (Thank you, ballpark lighting.)




And finally, Luke had me take a picture of his "favorite part of the game" - watching the girls run the Texas flags whenever the Rangers score a run. This kid cracks me up.

Reading to Caleb

Bright Eyes

Tummy Time: New and Improved

Look what Caleb can do now...