Mommy and Daddy were having fresh strawberry cobbler for dessert, and Daddy decided Lukie could handle some whipped cream. He didn't mind it one bit.
He's also recently gotten REALLY good at getting cereal puffs into his mouth, started playing with a sippy cup (though he still prefers just drinking out of my cup at the dinner table. Weirdo), and got ground up chicken and noodles in his lunch at daycare, which he LOVED (thank goodness for the food grinder my mom got me for Christmas). I think cooking for this kid has, so far, been one of my absolute favorite things about motherhood. I absolutely love putting his food together and watching him get excited when he likes something. I cannot wait until I know what his favorite foods are and he gets excited on homemade pizza night!
Lukie learned to clap his hands and give Mommy kisses (big, open-mouthed, wet, sloppy kisses) while we were in Cincinnati last weekend. He hasn't quite realized he can give kisses to Daddy, too. He'll get there, though. He's in a Daddy period right now-- Mommy is necessary for comforting in all situations, but he wants to watch Daddy all the time because apparently Daddy is hysterically funny.
Here's a pic from the hotel to finish up. Look at those rolls and that happy, happy grin!
Basically, the story in our house the last few weeks has been Lukie gets sick. Mommy gets sick. Daddy has to take care of everybody. Everybody gets better. Repeat.
The night we had Lukie's last pie party, we had lots of friends over to play Cards Against Humanity (so fun!) and eat pie. We took this awesome picture:
Everybody looks happy and healthy, right? WRONG. What you can't tell is that my stomach was starting to feel upset. By 9 p.m. I was shivering in bed with awful chills. By 9:30 I was...throwing up. This continued about every 45 minutes for the next 36 hours. I couldn't keep anything down, and even had to pull Lukas off nursing at least once. Pete slept on couch cushions next to the bed so he wouldn't get it from me, but could still be near if I needed help with Lukas, which I did...it was awful. I was out of work for four days with this terrible thing. I had NEVER been so sick in my entire life, and hoped it was a once-ever thing.
After I got well, Tennessee got about the biggest batch of snow I had ever seen fall here. We had something like 7 inches overnight, so we dressed Lukie up in what a friend called his "Jedi outfit" and plopped his fat little rear end in the snow!
This is what a person who has thrown up for 36 hours straight looks like after it is all over.
Happy, happy snow dog!
The next weekend, Pete and Lukie and I all went down to Asheville, NC. Lukie spent the day with Pete's friend Robyn, who played with him all day! It was 70 degrees out, so they went on a walk and Robyn put Lukie in a swing for the first time. Apparently, he was a little confused and freaked out. He had lots of fun, though, and slept the whole way home, so she must have worn him out!
Pete and I went to the Arts and Crafts conference at the Grove Park Inn. It's an annual meeting of people who are interested in the Arts and Crafts/Craftsman period of American and English art, textiles, furniture, architecture, you name it. It was pretty incredible and somebody could spend a LOT of money in the show rooms! We, however, only spent $65 on a print of the tortoise and the hare that we had loved for quite a while. Pete, when he gets the time, will make a frame for it and it's going to go in our bedroom.
We had a good week, and then on Thursday night, all hell broke loose. Lukas had a fever, and then he started puking every time I tried to feed him. He went to the doctor, who gave him a breathing treatment/nebulizer, since he also developed a wicked cough that was making him wheeze. He started feeling better...and then...Saturday night...my stomach got upset...
Long story short, it was Stomach Virus II: Revenge of the Bug, and I was sick for another 36 hours or so. I missed a play that two of my dearest friends were in, lunch with Pete's grandmother and grandfather, and work on Monday, all to lay around feeling miserable, not able to eat, not able to lift my 23-pound baby, who was teething so badly he wouldn't nurse and just cried, and trying to push fluids so that I didn't dehydrate (breastfeeding does NOT help when you're sick like this).
So here we are. We've survived some total crap in the last few weeks. If there's a silver lining to it all, it's that it all happened BEFORE this weekend, since we're going to Cincinnati for a museums conference (Lukie's first conference! Yay for nerdy parenting!). We'll see my mom for one day, and we'll have a great time!
Lukas learned last night that water is maddeningly liquid-y.
I think the serious side-eye Lukas throws Pete after he squirts him in the face is a precursor to this kid's attitude. It was almost a grown-up-level reaction. "Dude, seriously?" is written all over his face.
Lukie is starting lumpy foods and finger foods! I bought some sweet potato puffs for him at the store (not loving the added sugar and salt, but I can't make everything), so last night he spent some time playing with them. Notice I didn't say eating them; that's a step he hasn't really figured out. I can put them in his mouth, and he'll make a face and eventually eat them down, but he hasn't quite figured out that he can actually transfer food from his high chair tray to his mouth and eat it. All things in good time.
Buddy tried some of my vegetable curry rice last night. Pete and I really love Indian food, so I'm experimenting with curries lately. This one wasn't my favorite, but it was really healthy; tomatoes, cauliflower, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and green beans with a tomato/curry/yogurt sauce. In general, the curry flavor probably wasn't strong enough for either of us. That's why you keep trying, I guess!
So...not really. I don't think it was the taste that caused the "face." It's still texture. He makes an, 'ew, that's lumpy' face every time I try to put real solids in his mouth. We'll get there! At least he didn't gag this time...that was what he did forever!
And somebody was chatty during bath time last night....
Here are a couple awesome pictures, too...
Miss Sara took this picture of him at daycare yesterday. He's crawling all over everything, but still not crawling. If you give him something to hold onto, he'll pull himself up onto it or over it (specifically, he likes to use my legs to launch himself up into my face and then chew on my shoulder). He's trying!
And this photo I took this morning. Lukie lives in a house divided- Peter is a Cubs fan and I am a Cardinals fan. Knowing this, and being a Cardinals fan herself, my friend Jodi sent the little guy a Cardinals onesie (made for a 12-month-old, oy). I think he looks good in Fredbird Red. I'm sure Pete would beg to differ.
I've said before that Lukie is the least picky eater of just about any baby I've ever met. I'm hoping he stays that way...it's awesome! We're kind of a food-loving household-- my favorite thing is trying out new recipes, and Pete's favorite thing is eating, so we're a good match when it comes to food. I was kind of worried we would have a picky kid (though I know some of that is of parents' making...but there are also kids who are just inherently picky eaters and have textural issues, etc.). Not so, apparently...which is why I'm starting this segment on the blog: Will He Eat It?
I have a goal with Lukas' food adventures, and it is that he never thinks one thing is a "kid food" and another thing is a "grown-up food." I have a problem with that kind of thinking because I think it predisposes kids to dislike "grown-up foods" as soon as they hear that term. AND so much of the usually-accepted "kid foods" are almost devoid of nutritional value: macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, things made exclusively of ground beef and tomato sauce. Don't get me wrong...I like mac'n'cheese as much as the next person...like I SERIOUSLY LOVE mac'n'cheese...but I don't want Lukas to think that he can have a hot dog for every meal when I'm working hard to make sure we eat healthy foods.
Now, the general rules for teaching a baby to eat solids are that you give them a new food, repeat that food every day, and wait for four days before introducing anything else that's new (though you can also feed them anything they've had without reaction up to that point). You do this so that you can pinpoint what it is your child is allergic to if he or she has a reaction. We did this for about 2.5 months...and then I just started giving him bits of whatever we were eating. Lukas has shown no tendency toward food issues; if you have a baby who does, you might be a little more careful introducing things that have multiple ingredients.
Anyway, Will He Eat It?
Yes, He Will!!! This one surprised me, since Kalamatas are really briney olives, and hummus is really garlic-heavy. Kiddo has a tendency toward liking strong flavors, apparently.
I love my adventurous little eater!
Oh, and here's a picture from Sunday. It was 50 degrees outside, so we went for a walk and then sat on the porch for a while...which Lukie loved as much as he did when he was a newborn!
I'll update with more pictures later, including snow-day pictures from last Thursday, but mostly I wanted to put a picture in here so that the little thumb-size photo will be of him when I share this post on Facebook...otherwise it's just me. Who wants that when they could have a picture of Lukas?
I haven't done a real update where I, you know, talk about Lukas at length since the middle of January, I don't think. It's been a nutty few weeks and while in some ways, it's easier to get things done during the day because Lukie will now play on a quilt or something for a little while, in other ways, it's harder. For one, NOTHING is safe from this kid (case in point: this is our second attempt at a blog post. Somebody closed my browser...). He wants all. the. things. But that's okay. He's just curious.
I have been able to set him up with a bunch of toys lately and <gasp> make dinner or vacuum. If you read my blog early on, you would know that Lukas was NOT the kind of newborn you could put down for any stretch of time. He was simply NOT having it. This feels like sweet, sweet freedom!
In terms of eating, I've been really pleasantly surprised at all the things Lukas has liked. He is just not a picky eater at all! He often has some of our table food, if it's mashable or puree-able, or I warm something up for him at dinner time. I'm making a point to give him something to eat with us in the evening. I want it to be just the way things are; Mommy and Daddy come home from work and we sit down and have a family meal. I'm so grateful to my mom and dad for making sure that we sat down with them every night and ate together, as a family, and it's something we want to instill in Lukas. I know my relationships with my parents and brother are stronger because of it.
We're moving on to slightly chunkier food, and he's having a little bit of a hard time with it. He gags a lot if he senses a chunk of something...but we'll get there. I'm not worried about him not learning to eat. He's his daddy's son. :)
Bath time was fun last night. Baths have been kind of an evolving event since Lukas was born. He hated them, despised them, really, when he was a newborn...until we stumbled on me actually getting into the water and holding him. He was willing to do that, and didn't mind it a bit, but I got sick of getting wet EVERY night, and the ever-present danger of a giant baby poop in the water (which happened on more than one occasion). Somewhere around 5 months, about the same time he started working on sitting on his own, Lukie decided baths were okay in the kitchen sink. I much preferred this arrangement. Much less to Clorox in the event of a disaster.
Last night was the first time we've really set him up in the tub with a bunch of toys and just let him play. We have a giant, triangle-shaped bathtub, which is awesome for adults but not so much for little guys who are still a little rocky on their rear ends...so I put a laundry basket in the tub and put all of his toys in there. It let the water in, but gave him edges to hold onto so he didn't take a tumble. It was SO. MUCH. FUN!!
I think my favorite thing about this little guy's budding personality is how fearless he is. There are other babies his age at his daycare who have serious "stranger danger" reactions when they see new people or a new person tries to hold them. Not so with Lukas, at least not yet. He loves new people, new places, and exciting activities. For instance, he spent the entire afternoon with my friend Rebecca when I worked last Sunday. Rebecca's two daughters were there, and Lukas spent the entire time going from one of them to the other, having tons of fun and generally being the little charmer that he is with strangers.
He's also incredibly curious. We stopped by rehearsals for Tusculum College's spring production this week, and he was asleep when we got there. About 15 minutes in, he woke up, and he spent the next 20 minutes at least watching my friends Chris, Brian, and Parker run around the stage. I told them after their rehearsal that they have an awesome energy level in this show, as evidenced by the fact that my 7-month-old was fascinated the entire time they were moving!
Lukas has been talking a lot more lately, too...he says "dada," but he doesn't quite know who Dada is yet. He'll say other consonants, too...can't wait until he knows who is who around here! Here he is squealing at me in his Exersaucer...and I'm squealing back...you know, have to keep the conversation going!
Anyway, here is Lukie's 7-months-old picture. He's getting to be such a big boy! Daddy barely had to stand guard while he was sitting in the chair! We're having his pie party tonight, so I'll post some comparison photos next time I'm on here...hopefully later this week!
