Seeing Green

Happy extemely late St. Patricks day! Here is a quick snap I the boys in their green on that day. Lucas had more green on under the sweater too! Vicki sent a spectacular cookie basket that the kids just loved! Lucas really liked the cookies and was really mad when I took the cookie away because it was bed time (oooo mean mom!)

Enjoy!

Before:

After (mommy took the cookie away):

Fight the Virus in the Bath!

* disclaimer I wrote this earlier in the week and have had trouble publishing it but all looks good now. Info is just a little out of date. 

The boys have Hand Foot and Mouth disease which is a virus spread through saliva and feces usually contracted from day are and school settings. It's like the chicken pox in that you supposedly only get it once and it produces a rash that is sometimes itchy. The rash turns in to blisters which is the worst part. So far Licas has just had the rash but no blisters, thank god. Elijah, however, ha the blisters, in the folds of the underside of his toes and a little on his face , though they seem to have mostly stayed in rash form. After a VERY long night the night before last, being up with Elijah every two hours I decided to throw the boys in an oatmeal bath to try to help soothe their skin. Last night everyone slept through the night THANK THE LORD! Cuz this mama was exhausted yesterday. All that to say: here are some cute pictures of our bath time (and the cause of the merkey water). 

Lucas' "selfie"

Elijah's "selfie"

Mommy and Lucas' "selfie"

Mommy and Elijah's "selfie"

Rainy Day Quarentine

We have been getting more, much needed rain this past week and weekend. Needless to say it has made outdoor activities all hit extinct. On Saturday we recover word from a great friend of ours, who's son also goes to daycare with the boys, that her son had contracted hand, foot and mouth disease. It's a virus that wil run it's course in 7-10 days, has an incubation period of 3-6 days and is highly contagious via saliva and fecal matter (tho a later report out from their pediatrician stated that it is definitely more contagious via the latter than the former which we are hoping is good news since Lucas puts everything in his mouth!) since the boys had been exposed to it we had to cancel the family birthday party we had arranged for Lucas yesterday and stayed home from church as well. I must say I was bummed about the birthday party because we really have not had a chance to celebrate this little guy (definitely parently guilt hahah). But we will figure something out, maybe a combined party for the both of us, since we are only 1.5 weeks apart (could have been closer haha). But I digress. So with the kids under Quarentine I had to find an outlet for Elijah and tho it may not have been an active one, it was a creative one. I found a gingerbread house from Christmas that we never got around to building so we took it out and built it. I will say that the majority of the decorating was done by Elijah, My linear processor. So here's a little Christmas gift in March to you all! Happy Monday!

Lucas' 1 Year Check Up

Well, I started to write this post yesterday and got about 2/3 the way through only to have it all disappear on me.  I thought I was doing a pretty good job of all the things I was recollecting on and remembering to add, so here goes shot number two. Hopefully I will remember as much or more than I did yesterday.

The saying "time flies" is becoming all to common in my verbiage these days. As each day passes these boys get older and change, and sometimes it seems, by the minute. I was at lunch with my bosses on valentines day (just so happening to be one of my boss' birthdays too!) and we were reminiscing that on that day (day not date) one year prior I was furiously working away trying to wrap up all loose ends AND train a temp. to help run my position whilst I was out for 3.5 months on maternity leave. On Tuesday, I was home sick with a terrible cold that these germ infested darling kids gave me and around 1030 am I stopped and thought "at this time one year ago, I was in my hospital room with a darling new baby tucked safely in to my arms!"

What a joy Lucas has brought to our lives over this last year.  Even though he came out crying...for the first 20 minutes of his life, even to the humor of the Dr's who jokingly made comments in the operating room after he didn't stop crying. I think he really liked it in his cocoon and was not happy that we brought him out of there early. It shows even today, as this little boy loves to be held and snuggled with.

The first six weeks were hard as we were dealing with a colicky Lucas, but we figured out the root to the colic (dairy intolerance) and within in one week we had a happy baby...who still wanted to be held ALL THE TIME! By 8 weeks or so, we had a baby who was sleeping through the night...however we were so scared that he would wake up Elijah with his early morning feedings (5 am) we kept him in a pack n play (the one Gram had gotten us for Elijah when he was born) in our room for 8 months.  P.S. it was not Lucas waking up Elijah that we should have been worried about, it's Elijah waking up Lucas that we really should have been worried about.  Our little Lucas is a LIGHT sleeper. I swear to god that this kid sleeps with one ear open and wakes on a dime.  With Elijah I could walk in to his room put a way clothes, tuck him in, stare at him for a little bit and he would never wake, but Lucas is a whole different story.  There is lots of tip-toeing and even then he catches us!

As time has gone on things have gotten easier and easier with Lucas.  We have loved watching all his milestones, both big and small come to pass. Aaron especially has loved the last three months, as this was the time that he missed with Elijah, having work in Portland, OR for 3.5 months.  Our Lucas now has four teeth! His fourth tooth came on his birthday, on Tuesday. As you know, this kid hates baby food. We have never been able to get him to eat the baby cereal that they recommend you give your kids (Elijah ate it like a champ all the way up to 18 months!), he doesn't like eating/being fed from a spoon so we resorted to those pouches (I bought refillable ones because the pre-filled are twice as much money as the jars) and even then, he is not the biggest fan. This kid just wants to eat what we are eating, he wants finger foods. So we have had to find things like pancakes, steamed fruits and veggies, biscuits and most recently baked potatoes, to feed him. It makes it harder than I ever thought it would to feed him, mostly because up until about two or three weeks ago he had half of two teeth!

We are so close to having a walker on our hands it is not funny.  Lucas crawled around 8-9 months, pulled himself up shortly there after and recently has been able to balance on just his two feet, but has not had the courage to take that first step. Elijah walked at 13 months, so I think Lucas might just about match that time frame, if not beat it by a week or two.

He is also saying a few more words...ok not really.  I think we can get a "mama" (when he is frustrated and wants to eat) and more recently a "dada" sometimes it sounds like "daddy", but those are few and far between as well. I'll have to look back, but I feel like Elijah had a few more words by this time, but I am not entirely sure. So far we think that he is a pretty observant little fellow, that is laid back and just wants to take it all in.  I think he wants to be held so much because he wants to see everything that is going on. He loves to play with his brother and one of his favorite things to do is to find him. We say "Where's Elijah?!, Go get him! Go get him!" rather enthusiastically and off he goes, at a full crawls pace after Elijah.  Elijah is learning to share with Lucas, but let's just say it's not his strong suit. My feeling is, that was not my strong suit with Katie until I was in my 20's , so I guess we have a long road ahead of us. HAHAHA.

Here are some fun things that Lucas is doing now:
Claps, loves to dance bounce to music (maybe he will be musical!), plays peek-a-boo, waves hello and goodbye, gives high-five, motions to be picked up with two hands in the air and spirit fingers (if you get that reference I love you! haha), blabbers (everyone, including Elijah's favorite is "babababababa"), says mama and dada (I swear he says Elijah too, but I think its in my head). Stands and scoots along the furniture, loves the swing at the park (more so than Elijah ever did), wants to put everything in his mouth, loves to explore, loves to be held and I like to say cuddle, but its more of a liking to sit on your lap than a full cuddle.

Here are some of Lucas' favorite things:
Book: Zoo (I call it "Toothy Tiger") - Its a tiny board book and he always goes for that one.
Item: Pacifier (praying that we can break that habbit before he is three)
Outfit: just kidding!!!
Music: anything he can bounce to!

Here are some 1st 's for Lucas' 1st Year:
Road Trip (April 2013) - To Los Angeles
Plane Ride (August/Sept 2013) - To Oma & Opas
Word: Mama

Ok I think I have covered his first year pretty well!  We are excited for what this next year will bring- even more changes and more milestones.  Stay tuned for that first walk video, coming soon to a blog post near you (just have to wait for the event to actually happen).

Lastly, I can't forget to list his stats.  Our boy is long and lean with a big head, but you already knew that!
Height- 30.5 inches (74th %)
Weight - 20 lbs 15 oz (44th%)
Head- 48cm (91st %) - sheesh! what a brainy-ack!


To close it out, here is a video of Lucas opening up Gigi (Gram)'s gift to him...he LOVED it!