Christmas is Coming...

That title is part of the lyrics of one of my favorite Muppets Christmas songs (well, I'm sure it was a Christmas song before the Muppets...but we live life according to Muppets standards in our house). I think we'll change goose to "baby", though:

Christmas is coming,
The baby's getting fat. 
Please to put a penny in the old man's hat.
If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do.
If you haven't go a ha'penny, 
Then God Bless You!

I always sing the lyrics in Miss Piggy's voice in my head. When we replace goose with baby, though, the whole thing doesn't make sense. Lukie's not GETTING fat. He IS fat. So fat. And has been for a while.

Spreading the Muppet love. Feel free to ignore.

Anyway, I didn't update over the weekend because it's pretty much been nose-to-the-grindstone around here to try to get through to the 28th when we can go home to Illinois, but yesterday, I had the day off! We took a family day, and even though I spend most days there anyway, we came to the Kingsport Public Library to meet Santa Claus and have lunch with Grandma Rebecca!

We got there early and got VIP treatment, I guess- Lukie got Santa all to himself for a few pictures before they opened the doors to the auditorium. A few people had told me that he might freak out, but he gets passed around to other people all the time (which I do on purpose, since I want him to be unafraid of meeting new people). And, I just don't think he's gotten to that "stranger-danger" stage where he acts a little shy or needs Mommy all the time.

Anyway, he did NOT freak out...he had fun!

And apparently, he felt comfortable enough with Santa to do exactly as he does to his Daddy on a relatively regular basis--- pull on his beard. This shot is from Pete's iPhone...but it's pretty priceless. He had to check and make sure his beard was real!

We also had my friend Kyndra take a family photo for us. My hair's all busted. Typical.

He just looks so. danged. fat. in this picture. 

We went out to lunch with Grandma Rebecca after meeting Santa and watching the kids' program. Rebecca is so wonderful to Lukie-- she bought him an outfit, 3 or 4 books (including one my favorites, the "Bear" books- Bear Stays Up for Christmas), a really awesome Christmas sock monkey (which he promptly attempted to eat), and a "Baby's First Christmas" ornament that I will now have to fill with a picture. Probably one of the ones up above.

We also bought Lukie a stocking (actually, that was quite a hunt-- Pete requires all of our stockings to actually look like they could be socks...I think it's a historical accuracy thing) and a toy. I don't overbuy toys for him, but I noticed he liked the light-up ones at daycare, so we got him a light-up toy that plays music when he pushes on the buttons. Hopefully he'll like it. Mostly we just wanted to open something with him on Christmas morning.

In other news, Lukie is the worst sleeper ever...but I'm blaming it on teething. I can feel the bump on his bottom gums and he's rubbing everything and anything on there to try to cut through. For the last 3 nights, he's been up every hour/hour and a half unless he has Tylenol, and even then we've only gotten 2-hour stretches out of him. He's not really coordinated enough to hold teethers to his mouth for very long without dropping them on the ground. We haven't tried Orajel yet, but I'm just not a huge fan of medicating him in the first place. I don't know. We'll see. Mommy's so tired, but I keep telling myself it's a phase and as soon as those teeth pop out, it'll hopefully get better. Good Lord, I hope it gets better!

It's a good thing he's cute in the morning.

Also, he's getting fun...It used to terrify him when Pete would swing him around, but now we have a baby who loves to be bounced, tossed (very gently--still a little young), danced with, spun...anything involving fast motions (but not too fast...that results in serious upchucking, even if he's happy while doing the upchucking).

Please excuse Pete's discussion of Lukie's baby chunk. It's a little indecorous.

Good Friends and Lukie's Mad New Skillz...

Hi, everybody! Truthfully, I can't remember what we've been doing in the two weeks since I last wrote a real update. I've posted a few videos...and the biggest news in them was that Lukie rolled over last weekend! I've been walking around showing everybody the video. Friends. Co-Workers. Complete Strangers. You know, like a weirdo totally normal and sane human being.

This weekend has been a busy one! Since we moved down here, I've been involved in Tusculum's theater program. I've done three shows with them, and they were really a lifeline for me when we got here. I didn't know anyone, I was depressed, I wasn't working, I was staying home all day while Pete was at the school...and then he sent me a picture of a flyer for a Tusculum show. Some of our best friends down here in Tennessee have come through the program, and I'm super thankful that I found them all.

Since doing the show this fall was kind of out of the question (ya think?), we needed to at least go see this fall's offering, A Christmas Carol. My good friend Brian played Ebeneezer Scrooge and, seriously, that kid NAILED it. The show was great-- it's a technical nightmare to pull off and I left really impressed with all the actors, the costumes, and the production's technical difficulty. It's amazing what this group pulls off.

Anyway, Miss Barbara, the costumer, told Pete earlier in the week that we should just bring Lukie to the theater and she'd babysit him while we went to the show. It was a great option-- we had been nervous about leaving him with anyone (though we do have some great friends who have wanted to watch him, but their son is in the show and we didn't want to impose), and I really didn't want to take him to the daycare for their Saturday night care. He spends enough time there during the week. He likes it, I think, but he doesn't need to spend weekend time there, too.

It went really well-- Lukie didn't sleep much, but apparently he just spent the whole time watching all the crazy activity that comes with a production with such a large cast (I'm guessing 80?). I got downstairs and he had finally fallen asleep, but then woke up mad that he was awake again. He perked up, though, long enough to get a picture with Mr. Scrooge himself!

I've just accepted that for a while, until I can put Lukie on my hip, I'm gonna look like I have a beer belly. Jutting out my hips to hold him up is the only way you can carry a 18 pound baby for very long.

Today, Lukie and I went to Kingsport to have lunch with my friends Rebecca and Pandy. Pete needed some Lukie-and-Audrey-free time to get some work done on his contract renewal binder.

 I'm so lucky to have these two.When I told them I was pregnant last year, they both said, "I'm gonna be the Tennessee Grandma!" So Lukie is a lucky man. He has two awesome grandmas in Illinois, and two awesome grandmas in Tennessee to help out since it's so far to the home state.

We don't have a whole lot more going on around here this week. I work Monday-Wednesday, have Thursday and Friday off, and then I work again Saturday. Pete has invited a friend over for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, and since it'll just be the three of us plus Lukie, we'll probably just do our traditional turkey and cranberry ravioli instead of a whole bird. Someday, I hope we can have family down here for either Thanksgiving or Christmas. I sure miss it. 

Here are some pics of Lukie at 4.5 months old!

He lost the vast majority of all that hair he was born with, but he's hung on to a tuft on the top of his head and a bunch on the back. Now it's all growing back, as well, but the new stuff is significantly lighter and like peach fuzz...so he has this goofy pouf of hair on top of his head that I can't help but play with. 

I hate that this picture is blurry!!

Dixie often supervises our photo shoots, and sometimes gets...a little in the way...

Dix sure is interested in him these days. The more vocal and mobile he gets, the more she wants in on the action.

It's getting cold outside...but we might have to wait a little while for the shark hat to fit.

Developmentally, besides rolling over, Lukie is really working on sitting up on his own. He can't GET there by himself, but if he's set up with his legs apart, he does an okay job of sitting up for 30 seconds to a minute.

He's starting to reach out for things in a much more coordinated way...

...he enjoys tummy time much more now that he can roll over...

...and he's recently discovered that I am, in fact, still behind him when he's playing.

Dixie isn't all that impressed with the new skills. She'd prefer to sit and look out the window while we play in Lukie's room.

Oh well. Can't please everybody.

Adventures!!

It's been kind of a week of firsts around here!

Lukie is now eating yogurt 1 or 2 times a day to help his belly a bit. He wasn't really sure about it at first (probably seemed a little sour compared to breastmilk), but he's getting the hang of it. Wish I could say the same for the pacifier we give him to serve the yogurt, but hey, baby steps, right?

We've switched to footie pajamas. We were having him sleep in a onesie with a swaddling blanket around him, but he'd inevitably kick it off and then get cold...and then wake up cranky about it. So not only do they keep him warm, but they are INSANELY cute.

 (Post bathtime freak-out exhaustion)

We also took our first big day away from the house yesterday. We went to Kingsport and test drove a car, then went to the library to see Grandma Rebecca and have lunch with her and another co-worker, Miss Karen, and then we went to Jonesborough to see one of Pete's students and the exhibit she did for the historical society there.

Grandma Rebecca finally got to hold Lukie!

The trip went well...mostly. We had one minor freak-out in a car between the dealership and the library, and a major one later when Mommy and Daddy stopped to get ice cream and the car wasn't moving anymore...for WAY TOO LONG apparently. Otherwise, he was a perfect gentleman at the library and at lunch. I'm hoping we're turning a corner on the crying. He barely cried at all yesterday afternoon and evening.

Finally, and I don't have any pictures of this for obvious reasons, we had our first freak-out free bath time. Luke has HATED baths since he was born. We're talking full-on meltdown hatred. I posted about it on Facebook, and a friend of mine suggested two things: if we use a baby tub, remove the hammock. If I was comfortable with it, take a bath with him. We did the latter last night, and man, what a difference. I filled the tub with 4-5 inches of warm water, and then I sat in there. Pete handed Luke to me, and when his feet hit the water, he made this wide-eyed shocked expression and then just MELTED into the water and became a super slippery water baby. He was a happy guy the entire time, eventually letting me lay him down in the water while I washed his hair with ZERO fussing. Now, I was a little worried the whole time that he would poop in the water, but we made sure he had pooped recently before we pulled this stunt, and it worked SO well. I'd have stayed in there playing with him for half an hour if it wasn't for my fear of an accident in the tub. Next time, we might try the baby bath without the hammock, since I don't know that I'll want to get wet every time he needs a bath, but if that doesn't work, it's nice to know that this does!

4 weeks old! (Yesterday.)

We've been getting out of the house a lot more lately. On Monday, Luke and I went on our walk at Tusculum and then I got adventurous and went to the grocery store. I took him in there in his Baby K'Tan wrap, and he spent the first 10-15 minutes just looking around while I talked to him about what we were buying for dinner. Then he fell asleep and was an angel the rest of the time.

Wednesday was my 4-week appointment. I left Lukie with Pete at the museum with a bottle, and it went okay until I was at the pharmacy getting medication and Lukie had a freak-out. Pete said he basically flipped out until he exhausted himself, and then fell asleep.

Today, Lukie and I felt brave, so we went to the Kingsport Public Library together without Daddy. Luke did so well-- he slept MOST of the way to the library, needed to eat when we got there, and then went in his K'tan wrap and slept the whole hour and a half we were there. We turned in the books I had checked out before I went on family medical leave a little early, and then we spent some time with another of Lukie's surrogate grandmas on her last day at the library. Luke slept the whole way home.


AND Lukie looked super cute at the library today. Thanks for the awesome duds, Amy Warters!!

Also, I just want to say thank you to all of the awesome ladies who have commented on the blog and on Facebook offering support during Lukie and my nursing troubles. It's been an emotional road, in a lot of ways wayy harder than pregnancy ever was, and it's been great hearing from so many ladies who either struggled, themselves, or wanted to encourage us to work through it. I'm really lucky to have so many cool women in my life, and so is Luke.

2 weeks old!

It's been a little while since I updated...and during that time, Lukie turned 2 weeks old!

On Monday, Lukas made what we hope was the first of a lifetime of trips to the library. We forgot to take many pictures, but I guess he slept the entire time, anyway. We did make sure to get a picture with Grandma Rebecca, though!

Wednesday was a trip to the Andrew Johnson Museum to meet Pete's co-workers and Joanne and Emily, the two ladies who volunteer at the museums. It was a nice visit. Again, Lukas slept the whole time. The car seat really puts this kid to sleep.

I'm considering Lukie and my first trip to the grocery store alone tomorrow. We'll see. I'm getting used to wearing a baby carrier around my chest, so if I feel comfortable enough using that, we might make the trip!

We close with some pictures of Lukie-- I think these were taken either Tuesday or Wednesday, so we'll call them his two-week photos!