Sweet. Taft asked me to lay Luke by him when he was watching a movie.
Naughty. Taft asked for some yogurt one afternoon, which was obviously a decoy so he could draw on our chair with permanent marker. Ironically, just the night before I was looking for more kid-friendly wipe-able fabric to redo the chairs in.
Naughty (kinda but not really). We've started Operation No Mercy at the Herway household. Taft needs to learn to sleep on his own without us laying by him. We've had two successful nights of getting him to fall asleep on his own and go back to sleep on his own when he gets up after his regular 3 night time wake ups. Today I put him in his bed for nap/quiet time. He played, or made a giant mess, for about an hour and fell asleep on his own once all of his possession were sprawled about his floor. Hey, if that's what he needs to do to fall asleep on his own, I'm cool with it.
One more naughty. The other night we were eating at Le Cafe (the hospital cafeteria) and when we were finished we were walking back to the elevators. Taft was being a slow poke behind us and when we looked back to tell him to come along HE WAS GONE!! This was the first time we had lost him anywhere. I immediately started imagining that someone would take him. Luckily it was the weekend and evening so there weren't very many people there. Seth hurried and called security but by the time he called them, they said a nurse had just called from another level and said when the elevator doors opened, out walked a little 2 year old boy, wearing a Thomas shirt and green frog boots and a great big smile. We get in an elevator everyday at our apartment and we're at the hospital quite a bit so I guess Taft just thought he knew what to do, got on an elevator and went to check out what was happening a couple floors up. Stinker.
Three month olds on the other hand are just too cute and haven't learned to be naughty. Soon enough Luke, soon enough.
He doesn't live in his car seat even though both of the pictures are in his car seat.
March 16th marked the two year anniversary of Taft being born..a.k.a. his birthday. We had a full day of music class with friends, the park, Mickey D's for lunch (I know, it's really unhealthy but at least I got him apples instead of fries?), the park again, picked up Aunt Tates from the airport, had a pizza party with Dad, Luke, Tates, and Mom, Thomas Cake and ice cream, then finally presents while Skype-ing with Nana, Grandad, Lanx and Facetiming with Pete. (Whew.)
pizza and cupcakes with playgroup friends
party people
Birthday Boy with one of his firetrucks
Me and my two year old cutie pie
I can't believe how much Taft has changed in just one year. This is by far the most fun stage (also most challenging) and he keeps us laughing, makes us want to pull our hair out, and melts our heart all at the same time.
At two years old Taft:
-is talking A LOT.
-is a pretty good eater. He'll eat some vegetables, most any fruit, but looooves toast and jam, pb&j, yogurt, and any sweets.
-is in no way, shape, or form a good sleeper. We're talking up SEVERAL times in the night and up EXTREMELY early in the morning. (This is when we want to pull our hair out)
-is a super, super sweet big brother to Baby Wukie. (This is when he melts our heart)
-likes to play with other kids but takes a while to warm up to them. He'll usually want to watch them from a distance for a while before he decides to join in. He's probably just deciding if they're cool enough for him.
-Thinks his dad is the bomb dot com. Some of his most common phrases are "Daddy at work" and "Daddy is funny". It is absolutely the highlight of Taft's day when Seth comes home from work.
-Loves all vehicles but especially buses, firetrucks, and ambience trucks (ambulances)
-Loves to wear his frog boots and really likes all the comments he gets on them.
-Is getting more mischievous and likes to test boundaries about what he can get away with.
-Is good at playing by himself and his imagination is growing all the time.
-Likes to watch shows on his Cars couch. Favorites are: Thomas, Barney, and Sesame Street
-Likes to help me clean. Give him a cloth and he'll keep himself busy for a good 20 minutes wiping different surfaces. He's also great at picking up his toys if you sing the "Clean Up" song from Barney.
taking it easy
I just can't resist the bum shots
We love, love, love this boy. We're so glad he came into our lives 2 years ago and feel very grateful that he came to our family. He's already a good big brother and I'm sure his younger siblings will look up to him one day.
Luke is over 2 months old now. We had his two month appointment today and he's doing great. He weighs 11 lbs. 11 oz. and is in the 50th percentile. Height is in the 50th and head is in between the 50 and 75th percentiles. Luke is waking up about once a night to eat and sleeps well during the night otherwise. He's not really on much of a napping schedule which is totally something I need to get working on. He's smiling so much and it's absolutely the cutest thing you've ever seen. Oh and the cooing! I love the cooing. Taft is still into his younger brother and calls him Baby Wookie or the newest has been Buddy. I don't really know where he picked it up but he says "Oh hi Buddy!" several times a day. Now that everyone has recovered from the plagues that have struck our family we finally ventured outside our house and got back into our routine, it's been soooooo nice.
Now that I watched the video I realized I say "Hi Buddy" I never realized I said that. So that's where Taft gets it from. The video is long, I would have shortened it if I knew how.
*Short for L.W. which is short for Lukas Wilson. Interesting (or maybe not that interesting) Seth's grandfather's name is Loren Worrell and people sometimes would call him L Dub.
Seth and I are a little more white trash than we care to admit...but tonight I feel like admitting:
You feel a little white trash-ish when:
1. You're in McDonalds for breakfast, nursing a baby who is wearing a camo shirt, while your 2 year old runs around with no shoes on and has puffy eyes from a virus but looks like he's been punched in the eyes by abusive parents.
2. You're pregnant and all you crave are nachos and Doritos.
3. You eat at the cafeteria in your husband's place of employment A LOT because he gets an allowance there each month, so you use it up. You also have your husband bring home things from the cafeteria to complete dinner...like lettuce, tomatoes, maybe an orange. He also stocks up on gum, granola bars, soda, and candy so you don't have to buy that stuff at the store.
Taft may be one of the only children in the United States who does not have a DVD player in the car. (Although a little birdie told me that he is probably getting one for his bday) This is what we do to keep him entertained. It doesn't look like it's working until the end...you will catch a glimpse of a smile.
Taft actually does really well on long car rides thankfully. He has a few moments of insanity but as long as we have snacks and treats (like mother like son) and possibly some soda, toy cars, blankets, his beloved monkey, and of course a binky we are good to go. Right now Luke just needs a blanket and a binky and will sleep for three hours at a time until he needs to eat again. We can handle that.
p.s. Early in our marriage Seth wanted to know what the difference between snacks and treats were. If you're wondering snacks=salty/crunchy/munchy treats=sweet and yes I need both on car rides.
p.p.s. Seth thinks the song says "someone's in the kitchen with DinO" because it rhymes with banjo. Isn't it DinA? I say Dina.
Before deciding he HATED snowclothes and snowmobiles
Cutie Pie Scarlet
Gorgeous Daphne
Tough Guy Brauer
We were the beneficiaries of a week in Driggs, ID at a cozy cabin owned by my SIL's dad. We were there with the Dan/Lara Herways, a.k.a. Draper Herways(the ones with the hook up) and the Jake/Mel Herway a.k.a Manhattan Herways.
We had such a great time and there was talk of making it a tradition every Presidents Day week (I'm going to remind the Draper Herways of this next year). Seth was able to snowmobile a lot and I even made it out of couple of times and LOVED it. I didn't even get so-cold-I-could-cry like I usually do. We've learned that we have a 2 year old chicken for a child who's newest phrase came after us trying to get him to ride the snowmobile, "I don't wike it". We couldn't even get his snowclothes on without him saying repeatedly and with a lot of enthusiasm (read: freaking out) "I don't WIKE it! I don't WIKE it!" Ugh. Seth blames me for Taft's unadventurous personality. I don't blame him for blaming me, I really avoid anything that could possibly hurt me in any way. I do say though, Taft not even two yet and hopefully once this trip becomes a tradition (ahem, Draper Herways) we'll have to pry him off the snowmobile.
I didn't take many pictures, so few that I didn't get a single shot of the Manhattan Herways. I'll take some next year.
We really loved our week with Seth's brothers and their families. I loved our grown-up time when the kids went to bed, seeing the cousins play together, eating yummy food (Lara's meals kick the pants off my twice weekly spaghetti dinners) all in a cozy cabin.
Blessed Luke. My cousin's little girl, Claire, holding Luke.
Went Frog Surfing at the Aquarium
Nana and Lanx came too.
Had some Tummy Time
Played at Discovery Gateway
Taft got a job.
And picked up some groceries for us.
Luke met his competition for Cutest Baby of the Year, Cashus Miller.
Hung out with the Herway cousins.
Seth was with us for the first week and he enjoyed lots of skiing and a BYU b-ball game. The little boys and I had lots of plans with friends but EVERYONE got sick while we were there. Friends got sick, I got sick, my dad and sister got sick, then finally the boys got sick and that's when we went home. Bummer. I was able to catch up with some of my most favorite DCFS co-workers, an old friend I went to Russia with, and two of my best friends from elementary/middle/highschool, and of course lots of family time with my parents and sister.
About a week a half ago while in Utah, Taft started getting sick. He had a cough, a fever, and an ear infection. After two days and about ten coughs right in Luke's face (he can't help it, he just loves his little brother), Taft had passed along his sickness to is teeny tiny brother. Seth was already back in Spokane by this point and was nervous about Luke and flew the three of us home earlier than planned. It was a good thing too because Little Lukie got progressively worse over the past few days and last night we found ourselves in the ER with an RSV positive baby.
Earlier yesterday we took Luke in to the pediatrician and he sent us home with a nebulizer and some medicine. About an hour after the treatment Luke was still sounded bad, maybe even worse so we took him in.
He tested positive for RSV and was admitted to be monitored overnight. He got his very own hospital room with his own teeny tiny hospital bed. Luckily, he responded well to all the treatments he received and we were given the go-ahead to take him home this morning.
He's doing lots, lots better. It's absolutely awful to have sick babies, especially when they are still so brand new and tiny. We haven't gotten much sleep these past few days but we are so so so glad that our little Lukie Pookie is doing well.
Can I just say that the Children's Hospital is one of the saddest places on earth? It was so sad to hear little kids crying all through the night, asking for their moms, and just feeling awful. I feel so lucky that my boys have been relatively healthy and we've only had to go to the hospital once. I can't imagine how emotionally and physically draining it would be to have a chronically sick child.
I got a sneak peak at a couple of Luke's newborn pictures and I'll share them with you. (Aren't you lucky?) You should check out the girls website who took these. She hadn't done babies before but from these two shots I think she did great! Her stuff is really beautiful and I think she does really great stuff. She's in Spokane right now but is from Utah so she does come back occasionally and does shoots in Utah if you're interested.
Seth is not a fan of the globe picture. This led to a long debate on whether he was artistically creative or not. (Guess which side I was debating) :) He said, "It's not realistic. Babies don't sit in globes." True. However, I like it and this is how babies shoots are done now. Scrunch them up and put them in a basket. Put them on a suitcase. Put them in a net and hang them from a ceiling. Put them in a globe.
Background for the globe idea: The photographer asked what we liked to do because she likes to incorporate things about the family/people into the set up. I told her we liked to travel and voila! Globes. I really liked the picture when I first saw it but Seth's starting to ruin it for me. However, I love his eyes in the second picture. To die for. Luke is starting to smile and it is so so sweet.
(p.s. The photographer doesn't read our blog so if you by some really weird chance know her personally, please don't tell her Seth doesn't like the globe idea.)
(p.p.s. FACT: Ikea duvet covers (two separate ones) which were formerly on our bed were both used in Taft and Luke's baby pictures. Interesting? No? Just to me? Whatever.)
We were able to have Luke blessed in my parents' ward on Sunday. We thought it would be a good time to do it so we could have some family be apart of it. Seth gave Luke a really great blessing and Luke didn't let out a single peep. We had family over afterward for a little brunch. In addition to my dad and Seth's brother being in the circle, we were lucky to have my uncle, John, and his two sons-in-law Brady and Brandt.
Lukeulele is is now one month old. Right now Luke loves to be held and demands it during his awake hours and sleeps better if he's held. We've been getting a lot of use out of the Moby Wrap. I love how much of a snuggler he is. In fact, he's asleep in it while I'm writing this. Luke is a good eater and is most alert right after eating. He seems to be really interested in Taft even though Taft has started being a little more rough with him and is seeing what he can get away with (i.e. drive cars on Luke's head). We're in Utah and I forgot Luke's little stuffed animal that his growth will be measured against, so we had to use Taft's monkey (Don't tell Taft. He'll flip) This picture is the first time Luke wore jeans, isn't he handsome? Even though Taft is pushing limits right now he's still super sweet with Luke and "baby" is the first thing he says in the morning.
