Luke Now Likes School

Over a month ago when we left Luke at school he'd shed a lot of tears as we left. Since then Luke's attitude towards school has changed. This week at school when Mom was dropping him off Luke was already playing with toys. As Mom was leaving Luke came up to Mom asked for and received a hug and kiss then went right back to playing with his toys. After school back at the house Luke said to Mom "I like school". It took a little bit but I knew Luke would like school. He just needed to spread his wings and leave the nest.

Siblings and Friends

Luke is growing up.  No longer is he a blank slate just learning the world.  He is now his own person with his own personality and it is a good one.  One neat aspect of him growing up is that he is now able to play with Alyce.  At first it started off with Alyce and Luke fighting over the toy the other person had at the time.  Then it advanced to Luke taking whatever Alyce was focused on and running through the house keeping it away and giggling.  Recently we pulled out an old toy of Alyce's that has gotten the two of them to play together, the cardboard bricks.

We gave them to Alyce for her 1st birthday and they were very helpful teaching her gross motor skills like picking up and stacking things.  Luke is quickly learning the same.  What is neat is that at times they work together to build up a tower, that they then knock down, and having a great time in the process.

A few weeks ago while we were out at Sam's Wholesale getting cases of green beans and discount pizza Alyce and Luke showed me siblings don't always have to be at each others throats.  While eating pizza and hot dogs Alyce and Luke shared a set of cute sibling hugs.  In the pictures we took it looks more like Alyce is strangling Luke but he was definitely giving her some "lovies" too.

Seeing the initial glimpses of what brother and sister life looks like gives me hope that Alyce and Luke will be friends as well as siblings.

It's Fun Coming Home

As Luke ages he is starting to develop a little vocabulary.  Words we know he knows for sure are Da da, Daadee, Ma ma.  He says all three lots of the time usually when he wants us to pick him up.  However I can always depend on one time during the day that he will say Daadee and be excited about it; when I get home from work.

Any day I come home from work and Luke is up from his nap right as I walk in the door from the garage I hear a "daadee" from the other room and then the pitter patter of little feet as Luke comes running towards me.  He wraps his arms around my leg and then leans into me.  After the hug he looks up at me, flashes a big grin, and raises his arms up towards me signaling that he wants to be picked up.

At about this time time Alyce has pulled herself away from whatever she was doing to come and greet me plus give me a hug.  One thing that both kids love is when I pick both of them up, one in each arm and spin them around.  With Luke weighing 28 lbs and Alyce at 32 it isn't an easy task holding them both up.  Once I am done spinning in one direction I switch it up and go the other way.  After the spins I do the "wisher washer" where I twist at the waist changing directions very quickly like a washing machine.  And finally after all of that I do a few jumps and jiggle the two kids all over the place.  By the end of all of that my arms are usually spent and I have to put the both of them down.  Naturally they are unhappy about this but they get distracted quick enough that I can sneak in a kiss to Mom.

Alyce used to meet me at the door like Luke does now.  Now that she has moved on and Luke is the only one to greet me foreshadows the day when I come home and neither kid will be there waiting for me thinking I'm the best dad in the world.  It saddens me now but I'm sure the transition will be gradual and I won't even notice it has happened until years later and I read this blog about it.  So is the way time works.

Luke Growing at an Astonishing Rate

Coming up this week Luke has another checkup with the doctor. While I think his weight gain might be slowing I know his growing has not. Luke is growing faster than Alyce ever did. Just a few weeks ago Luke celebrated 4 months and he is now wearing 9 - 12 months clothing. At times we can jam him into 6 - 9 months but it is stretch. Surprisingly his ample girth isn't what is tight it is his length. His torso is simply too big for his outlets.


His accelerated growth presents a real problem for Mom. With baby clothes going in the same cycle as adult clothes you have to buy one season in advance. Well when your baby is 8 months ahead of schedule what do buy? Do you assume that he will stay ahead of the curve or perhaps slow down and let the other kids catch up?

Another area that has me concerned is car seats. Luke is fast outpacing his car seat and I think he will be out of his pumpkin seat long before Alyce was. With his sister there was about a two week period where Alyce couldn't sit up and also couldn't sit in a pumpkin seat. This made eating in a restaurant quite interesting. With Luke, he isn't rolling over yet let alone sitting up on his own power (Mom is helping on this picture). Before I jump to conclusions I guess I should wait for his numbers from the doctor. Perhaps we are just imagining his rampant growth and in reality all his clothes are shrinking in the dryer.

If That's Moving Up, Than I'm Moving Out

Last night Luke took his first steps out of the nest. He didn't take steps as much as I pushed him out. For the past 5 1/2 weeks he has been sleeping in a crib at the foot of our bed. It was nice having him near us so we could check on him with little effort. Not having to go to far for feedings was also nice. However, after a time having a screaming newborn in your bedroom gets old and the baby loses its welcome. So Mom and I are moving Luke into his own room. This room used to be Alyce's until we moved her into her big girl room. The first step to getting Luke into his room was to get the crib set up. It had been sitting in the basement for the past few months while Alyce grew attached to get new room. So far Luke seems pretty content with his new surroundings.

Mommy and I have a decent system for taking care of Luke at night. I work the shift from midnight to 3:00 a.m. and mom takes everything after 3:00 a.m. Luke gets up once during both shifts so both Mommy and I have one feeding a night. The downfall to a system like this is that once during the night you are wakened by Luke even though it isn't your turn to take him. This sleep interruption guarantees that you are only going to get at best three hours of continuous sleep a night. By tossing Luke into his new room and out of ours we still hear Luke twice a night through the monitor. Once either of us gets up for our shift we can turn off the monitor letting the other fall back asleep.

After the first night I can tell that my energy has improved from my better quality of sleep. I'm hoping that Luke's sleep habits will improve as he doesn't have to hear us moving around getting ready for bed while he is trying to get some sleep.