A Comfy Luke Pillow

Last Sunday while Mom was out at the craft show I was home taking care of the kids.  Watching two kids can be tiring work, for both Jake and myself.  Coming from the kitchen I round the corner to see Jake taking a breather using Luke as a pillow.

Jake seemed to be enjoying the pets from Baby Luke.

Crawling Coming Soon

Over the past few days Luke has moved towards crawling.  He has been getting up on his hands and knees and trying to move.  By trying to move he has three different ways of making some progress.  The first way is when Luke pushes off on his knees and his arms collapse.  This yields forward progress of two inches.  With the second method Luke pushes off of his hands and slides his knees backwards.  Backward progress of about two inches (when on a slick floor).  The third and final mode of motervation has Luke on his hands and knees again but this time he just rocks back and forth.  Total progress zero inches.

If you take the three types of movement and put them together Luke is on the cusp of crawling.  I think that he will be crawling on his hands and knees by Christmas if not before.

Solid Food: Part 3

In the last installment in the solid food chronicles I would like to report that Luke is figured out food.  Tonight after dinner I mixed up another batch of oatmeal and formula.  Upon sitting back at the table Luke knew exactly what was in store.  He was looking directly at me with his mouth wide open.  I put a spoonful of goo on the spoon and went in for a deposit.  Luke with mouth open waited for me and closed his lips around the spoon.  Pulling the spoon out it was empty and so was Luke's mouth; he had already swallowed.

Dinner for him continued much easier than any other before it.  Luke was totally into eating and was looking forward to each bite.  He was almost too interested in the food because he kept grabbing at the spoon and was getting more oatmeal on his hands than in his mouth.  I ended up having to pin down his arms for every spoonful.

First Tooth

Luke got his first tooth on Sunday.  I found it after I gave him his pre nap bottle Sunday morning.  For the past few days he has been a bit fussy and has been gnawing on things with extra fervor.  The tooth is a lower front tooth on the left side. There isn't really much there, just a tip of the tooth is exposed.  He has others coming in soon.  Feeling around his mouth he has some soft bumps next to his new tooth and one up top in the middle.

Solid Food: Part 2

A while ago back in September Luke had his first experience with solid food.  While he took a few bites of rice cereal mixed in with formula you could tell by the look on his fact that he wasn't enjoying what we just put in his mouth.  In the end he ended up only eating a few bites and proceeded to close up shop.

Thinking he wasn't ready for solids we took a break for a few weeks with the same result.  Recently in the last few weeks Luke has taken an interest in what we are doing while eating dinner.  While playing in his Exersaucer he would watch as I put each fork full of food into my mouth and when we would make eye contact he would greet me with a big smile.

Last night I decided to give solids another go around.  As we were sitting down to dinner I deposited Luke in his feeding table and made a batch of oatmeal mixed in with some formula, yummy.  Like before as I took a bit of dinner he would watch me intently.  As I was chewing my food I put some food on a spoon and surprisingly enough he opened his mouth for deposit.  Once the oatmeal was in his mouth Luke gave me this look of "what do I do now?".  Eventually he got the idea as I could see his jaw moving and eventually he swallowed what was inside or he was storing it in some unknown location.  After the first bite there was another, and another; our little guy was eating!  After 10 minutes he must have gotten bored or excited because he started kicking his legs and having a great time in his high chair.  The corresponding movement in his upper body made feeding all but impossible.  I gave it my best and half of  the subsequent spoonfuls of food made it in his mouth.  The other half was plastered in his hair, on his nose, lips, chin, and he even tried getting some in his eye.

The experience was a positive even though he needed a bath afterward.  It is nice to see Luke advancing toward toddler-hood.  At 7 1/2 months he is probably late to the party with solid food but now that we know he is interested in the idea of food I think we will catch up pretty quick to the full menu of pureed foods, yum.

Teeth

I think Luke is starting to get some teeth.  Today and the past few days Luke has been borderline inconsolable.  Once he wakes up he is in a good mood for about an hour after we feed him and then he gets really needy and will cry if we aren't interacting with him or picking him up.  It can be real frustrating when you have a lot of things on your plate and can't devote 100% of your time to him.  When I put him to bed tonight I think I've found what has been bothering him.  As I was rubbing his belly after laying him in his crib he grabs my finger and puts it in his mouth then proceeds to chomp down on it.  Feeling his gums I noticed a little bump where his bottom left middle tooth would be.  I think his first tooth is erupting and causing him a bit of pain.  I guess it is time to put the teething toys in the freezer and time to give him some Tylenol.  That also means we'll have to start brushing his teeth.

Halloween

This was Luke's first Halloween but he was more of a spectator than a participant.  Lack of teeth and a ban on all things peanutty really puts a damper on free candy.  While I was out with Alyce making the rounds Mom and our neighbors Jeff and Liz where taking care of Luke.  Other than needing a bottle he didn't have too many complaints because there was a constant stream of women wanting to pick him up and hold him.  Mom was even able to eat dinner without interruption.

Luke's costume is a hand me down from Alyce, a Tigger costume.  I'm thinking this will be the only hand me down costume Luke will have to endure.  As a testament to Luke's size he fit into the costume pretty good at just under 7 months where Alyce was wearing it at a year. The costume was soft and furry and did a good job of keeping Luke warm even if it did cover his eyes on occasion.