9 months - pt. 2

luke...I feel like your last blog didn't do your 9th month of life the justice it deserved. chris, sandy and tyler all came over while i was in the midst of typing it so i got distracted.

a few things I forgot:

dancing - while amb and i were in st george dad taught you how to dance. it is so cute. you sit on the floor and just rock back and forth. if we say "dance dance" and you are standing, you sit down and start rocking back and forth.

screaming - you have found your high pitched voice. it's like the sissiest girly scream ever.

sharing - you now share everything. whatever you eat, you show the people around you and hold it in their face until they say "numnumnum" like they are eating it. haha. you are so funny.

the best part of all of this, is you do it on command. we say "shake it" and you shake whatever toy is in your hand. we say "dance dance" and you start dancing. it is so awesome.

and last but not least...teething. you have gotten all 4 of your top front teeth and i'm pretty sure you are getting your canine's now too. let me tell you, it has made for some seriously rough nights. you still only have the two front ones on the bottom. your smile is getting pretty cute with all those teeth though!

9 Months

Dear Lukey...

Well, you have been here with us now as long as it took to make you inside me....(minus one week but we won't go there). Let me tell you, 9 months of you went by way faster than 9 months of pregnancy!

When I look back at what our lives were like 9 months ago, it was so entirely different. The freedom...the late nights...the independence. I wouldn't trade you back for any of it!

You have gotten to be SO much fun. I swear in the last month you have just come into your own and are so your own person.

Here are a few things you learned this month....

growling. it is so funny - you just sit in the back of the car talking away to yourself and you throw in a growl every once in a while.

clapping. this one took you forever to learn!

you totally know who mom and dad are. whenever one of us is not around you don't stop saying the other person's name (when mom is gone you just say "mamamamamamama" and if dad is gone you say "dadadadadadadadada")

you LOVE your ball. and i mean LOVE. that's your other word - bahbahbahbah - that's how we know you want your ball

you love to drink out of water bottles and don't really care for your sippy cup

you still love amber probably at least as much as you love me and dad.

you force laugh. oh my gosh this might be my favorite thing. we start laughing (or amber walks in the room) and you force out this "ha. ha. ha." and then look back and forth between everyone in the room just to make sure we are all still laughing. it usually just makes us laugh harder, so it is a downward spiral.

We moved to a new apartment this month too. Our new place is about twice the size - you love having so much more space to crawl around and play. Moving with you around was quite the experience. I never realized how much STUFF you have! man alive. and you think you are so helpful...trying to pull everything out of the boxes I put them in. I really appreciated it....

I also left you for the first time this month. Well, for more than a few hours at least. Amber and I went to St. George for the weekend and I didn't see you for 3 whole days! Ok, well two half days and one whole day, but still. It was so long! I missed you like crazy...and slept until 10am every day. Which I loved.

As you can tell by the fact that we have only two pictures of the last month of your life, you can probably understand how busy we have been!

This picture I took of you makes me remind you of your dad. You are definitely just like him!

We love you lots and just love watching you learn and grow!

Love, Mom & Dad

out of touch

Ok it is somewhat amazing how out of touch I have begun to feel without having my daily dose of television and the internet!

We have been in our new place for just over a week, and I L O V E it. Seriously. We have about twice the space we used to have....and (no offense amber) but a built in babysitter too!!

Although I try not to take complete advantage of that, it is difficult not to.

I am lucky to have such a great sister who is willing to help out in whatever way she can.

Thanks sis!

Now...on to more important things.

First of all, I am totally the worst friend ever. Cotter...Happy Birthday a few days ago. I know, I fail miserably! I am going to call you today. For real.

Second of all, Mom - Happy Birthday a few days ago! I know, I haven't devoted an entire blog to you. However, Amber said everything I would have said. And she did it with her usual wit and charm. Way to steal my thunder Amb. Thanks a lot.

I will post pictures (mainly for my mom since she's one of the very few people who haven't seen it already) on Wednesday or Thursday. After a few angry phone calls and Cory being great for handling them all, we are (FINALLY) getting the internet on Wednesday. Thank goodness!

Anyway, hope all is well in the blogging world - I have missed you dearly.

anxiety

Do you ever have those days when all of life suddenly hits you and you spend your day debating whether you would rather use the curl-up-in-bed-until-it-all-goes-away approach or the make-a-list-and-conquer-the-world approach?

Today I am having that debate.

We move next week and basically nothing is ready. Granted, I'm not really a pack-and-move kind of person. Especially because we are moving about 15 minutes away from where we live now. It's much easier to just throw the clothes in the car and go put them in the new closet (walk-in, if I might add) rather than take them off the hangers, put them in a box, take them to the new place, un-box them and re-hanger them. Such a waste.

Does anyone else ever feel like they can't get a single thing accomplished when there are other people inside their house?

It is a weird phenomenon.

And don't get me wrong, Cory is great - and generally a good helper........if I give him a detailed list of instructions. And tell him the bathroom needs to be "megan clean" not "cory clean" because seriously, they are different.

Anyway, that's not the point. The point is, I feel like a bad mom/wife for thinking I want to kick my husband and son out of the house for a day so I can get something accomplished. When it is Cory's only day off during the week and we could spend it having fun-happy-family time.

So which is better?

Spend time with your husband and son for the day while I have the chance but then have to pack everything on Monday after a 6 hour day at work, with Luke there to "help" me, and Cory at work?

OR

Have your husband spend some quality time with his son while his anxiety-clad wife accomplishes something with her day and eases the anxiety - therefore being able to have some fun-happy-family time tomorrow?

Tough decisions really.

Happy Place

This is what my happy place looks like...

messy hair = lots of good naps = happy baby

dirty shirt = lots of good food = happy baby

perfect weather = time outside = happy place

8 months

Dear Luke

Another month has come and gone...it's amazing the things you can discover in only 30 days! You learned to crawl this month - therefore you think you are invincible. You climb up EVERYTHING and think it is SO AWESOME that you can stand up! (holding on to furniture of course...but still. it's cool to you) Everytime you pull yourself up, you look around for recognition like you just accomplished the coolest trick ever.

You have learned to love to play with a ball. It's so weird how you are just attracted to all of them. For a few weeks you had a little rubber basketball that you carried with you EVERYWHERE. You now have a purple mini-kick ball with a bat on it...so ugly, but whatever. You actually took it to bed with you last night. You tend to have meltdowns when we take it away.



You don't seem too interested in many of your real toys anymore. You LOVE LOVE LOVE dad's xbox controller. and the remote. and the blow dryer. and the straightener. Basically anything that isn't a legitimate toy. Oh, and power cords! Oh my goodness do you love power cords! You sit and chew on them for as long as I'll let you. (I usually let you get away with that more than Dad does....he loves his electronics)

We have started giving you more and more "people" food. You had spaghetti for the first time this month. I'm not sure if you actually ate any of it or just made an incredible mess....




You have this really weird love of wipes. It is so funny. I left you unattended for not even 5 minutes, only to find you had done this.....oh man you were proud of yourself.





You love to eat them. After the "snail incident" I made/let you chew on one. just because i was SO incredibly grossed out. You look like a little puppy because you'll shove a wipe in your mouth and then crawl around the floor with it hanging out! It is so funny.



Oh and just in case you ever wonder about that "snail incident" here's a picture of the actual snail....I really hope to never see another one of those in my life. Ever.




Ambie and I went out for dessert the other day, and some of our friends were there so we ended up having you and Dad come and join us. You played with Chris/critter/kristakunte for quite a while and thought the window was like the greatest thing ever. You love to drum on things and the window made such a great sound! You also blew some wonderful raspberries on it - I'm sure whoever had to clean up after you really appreciated it...




You have started to say "momomomomom" and "dadadadadad" A LOT. We still haven't decided if you know what they actually mean, but you sure say it alot. You have become quite the little shadow for me...I start to worry if I am walking around the house and don't hear you behind me saying "momomomomomomom" and following me around. I still can't decide if I love it or not - I was secretly hoping you'd learn to say Dad's name first...then I wouldn't always have to be the one to get you in the morning!


Lukey, we love you very much. This is probably your shortest month-long post. It was kind of a boring month (besides the snail and crawling...). Me, Ambie and you are going to Canada tomorrow for a week and once we get back we are moving to a new apartment - so next month should be more exciting for you!

We have love watching you grow and turn into your own little self lately. I think you have more personality inside you than you know what to do with. It's amazing how quickly you can make me switch from being so entirely annoyed, to so happy that I have you in my life. Thank you for teaching me all that you have so far - patience mostly - and for loving me unconditionally. I think the tables have finally turned and you might love me more than Dad. But just might.



Love,

Mom & Dad

My Dad.

My dad, believe it or not, is the man I most look up to.

He is the person I know I can talk to about anything.

He handles my sarcasm (usually) with a smile on his face.

He handled my teenage/early twenties tears with love and concern.

He is the rock I know I can rely on.

He is the example of a righteous priesthood holder.

He is the example of a selfless, caring person.

He is always willing to laugh with me and at me.

He follows the Gospel diligently.

He is my example of hard work.

He is my example of how to have good clean fun.

I love him more than I could ever express.

He is my rock. The one I know I can rely on through thick and thin.

I love you Dad.
Thank you for loving me through all of life's disasters. As well as all of lifes treasures.
You have taught me more than you will ever know.



One of my Dad's famous quotes....life is not a party. life is work. sometimes in life we have parties, but life is not a party. (please know that I was about 8 when we were given this speech).



I love you Dad.
Thanks for everything.
You are the man.
Seriously.