Santa

We (Sandy, Dennis, Jeff and me) took Lucas to see Santa today. While waiting in line he treated the other customers to his high-pitched squeal. We think that he kept doing it because he liked the way his voice sounded in the mall with it's high ceilings. When he finally got to sit in Santa's lap he admired his beard for a few minutes and then started squirming to get down. They did manage to catch something resembling a smile...

Carousel

The mall where Santa was at today also had a carousel. Lucas liked it. Every time he and Jeff would circle around Sandy, Denny and I would wave to him and yell his name. He giggled at this over and over again...

In the kitchen...

Here are some cute pictures of Lucas playing in SaSa and Grandpa's kitchen. The first thing he goes for, of course, are the dog bowls of water and dog food. Yesterday I found a piece of dog food in his mouth...guess it won't hurt him. I think these pictures are so cute...sometimes I just want to eat him up!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who reads this blog! We are of course very thankful this year for a healthy and happy Lucas. We are also thankful to be in Memphis for a few days. As you can see from the picture below (notice Tyson in the bottom of the stroller), it was kind of a stressful trip, but now that we are here it is very relaxing. The stuff in the picture is only what we carried onto the plane. We were that couple at the security line. We couldn't break down all of this crap fast enough...but everyone seemed to be in a festive mood and it wasn't a big deal. Once we arrived in Memphis Sandy had a wonderful turkey dinner ready for us. We're looking forward to sleeping in and taking naps for the next couple of days!

Little Cuties

Here are some pics of Blane and Lucas from when Blane was over while his parents went out on a date. Blane is so easy for us to watch. Lucas, on the other hand, screamed for an hour last week when we left him with Rob and Carol! Jeff and I went to dinner last night and laughed about how Rob and Carol were probably going to decide that their date night wasn't worth it if they had to watch high-needs Lucas in return. We were all happy, however, that Lucas was a little angel for them last night. I guess he just needed to get used to being left with someone else. Good job Lucas!!

"Hey Blane, smile while my Dad takes a picture of us!"

"Blane, let's crawl all over my dad....I do it all the time and it's really fun."

Tyson sitting in his bed trying to stay away from the crawling babies...

Slideshows

I should be sleeping when Lucas sleeps, but instead I'm playing around with this new slideshow software that I treated myself to. I haven't figured anything out but the basics, so this first one is nothing fancy. We hadn't had any professional pics taken of Lucas, so a few weeks ago we had a lady come and take pics of him. Jeff, Tyson and I are also in a few. We weren't thrilled with the results, but pictures always look better when put to music, so it's kind of fun to watch. Click on the link below to see. Unfortunately you have to install a viewer the first time, but it doesn't take long. Also, if you want to see the show on your whole screen you can right click on the slideshow to see that option. Make sure your sound is on. Enjoy....

Our first slideshow

Pulling Up

Lucas is so much fun now that he can move around and get to things that he wants to see. Everyone says it will be harder now that he can crawl, but so far it's easier because he keeps himself entertained for longer. Jeff and I were making lunch today and looked over to see the little guy standing up and watching t.v. at the same time...

"Hey Dad, look at me!"

Catchin' Up

I hate it that a whole week has gone by and I haven't blogged that much. I think the 7 months of being a mommy caught up with me last week...I couldn't seem to accomplish anything more than was necessary. Lucas was a lot of fun because everyday he got closer to crawling, so I did a lot of hanging out on the play mat with him. Anyway, there are some fun videos below to make up for the lack of posts last week...

Oh yeah, my sister is now a blogger. I added a link to her blog...see the "Ty Tingle" link to the right...

3-Legged Dog Crawler

Lucas is crawling! He officially began to move forward towards an object that he wanted on Friday, and everyday he gets faster and better at it. He hasn't completely mastered it yet, as you can see in the video, because he doesn't use his left leg...he just drags it along. It's the cutest thing.

With this fun new stage comes new worries, as I've learned this weekend. Lucas wants to see everything and when he gets to it he puts it in his mouth. Paper seems to be his favorite thing right now, which is going to motivate us to finally do some filing in our office. He went for the outlet tonight, so I'll be going to Target tomorrow for outlet covers.

Check out our crawler....



(I'm trying out YouTube because it allows longer videos and seems to be faster. Maybe Lucas will be as popular as the "laughing baby"..Kelly, thanks for the idea...)

Little Jumper

This video sums up Lucas's personality and his temperament...

Playgroup Thanksgiving

We had dinner last night with all of our friend from our birth class. All of us mommies are still trying to get together once a week, and then we try to get together with the dads once a month. This month we had a Thanksgiving theme, so we had a yummy turkey dinner. In a few weeks we are going to have a Christmas lunch and let the babies open their gift from their "Secret Santa".

All of the babies, except for barely 6 month old Wyatt, are either army crawling or crawling. They crawl up to each other, knock each other over, steal toys, pull hair, bump heads, grab noses...it's all very cute, but we have to keep an eye on them.

It is impossible to line up 6 moving babies for a picture, so the mommies may be included in more pictures from here on out...

Just a few more vacation pics...

Mommy and Lucas on a hike...

Lucas pulling up on the coffee table of the condo...

"Hey Mom!"

Lucas and Mommy by the falls...

Whitewater Falls Hike

Today we went out to lunch and then on a hike to see some waterfalls. At lunch Lucas sat in a restaurant highchair for the first time - he enjoyed it and left almost all of the cherrios that I gave him on the floor when we left. Our friends let us borrow this back carrier...Lucas got a kick of it. Many times I would turn to look at him and he'd be grinning at me with his goofy two-toothed grin. Here are some pics...

Lucas in the carrier...getting ready for the hike...

Our family in front of the falls....

Jeff and me...

Lucas with Daddy...

Lucas peering over the side of the carrier....

Goofy Lucas with Mom and Dad...

Sapphire Valley

We're taking a long weekend with our friends, Stephen and Lori, in the mountains of western NC. It was a 5 hour drive for us today, but it was much easier now that Lucas can eat baby food and snack on cherrios. The weather here is a lot cooler than in Raleigh. Here is a picture of Lucas in front of his first fire. Tomorrow we are going to hike to a couple of waterfalls...

7 Month Dr. Visit

We took Lucas to the doctor this week to have him check out his cough that won't go away. He said that Lucas is fine and that it will go away soon. It was neat to get a weigh in on our little 7 month old. He was 18lbs and 4oz, which is up over a pound and a half from his 6 month visit. He moved from the 40% to 50% group. The first thing I thought of was that he must have been in a growth spurt and that's why he doesn't sleep well (wishful thinking)...

Here's the little turkey gumming a piece of bread. He hardly makes a dent and then Tyson gets the leftovers....

Mr. Blane

Blane only lives a few miles away, so we've decided that we're going to try and have a "date night" once a week. We took Lucas to Blane's house last night and Carol and Rob brought Blane over here tonight. Blane is about a week older than Lucas, so they are just about the same size and are doing similar things. It's fun for Lucas to have a friend over to play and Blane is so cute and easy that it's fun for us too. We thought it was cute that they were both in yellow and denim tonight...




 

So Close

Lucas becomes a little more mobile everyday. Right now he can only really move in reverse, but you can see from this video that he falls on his belly and sits back up facing another direction, so he just ends up in different places around the room.


Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

We learned last week that we now have to watch his every move...no more leaving him alone for 5 min. This is a picture of our family room from the top of the stairs. I left Lucas in the middle of the white blanket playing with toys while I ran upstairs to do laundry. I wasn't even gone 5 min, but when I came down to check on him it took me a second to find him. Can you find Lucas in this picture? Notice that he got there by moving backwards...

7 Months Old

Wow, Lucas turned 7 months old today! I know everyone says this, but it really does seem like just yesterday that we were at the hospital with our newborn baby. This past month has been fun. With each month Lucas is showing us more and more of his personality. As far as physical development, I thought I was going to say that Lucas took a break this month, but just this past week he has changed so much. He can now crawl/scoot backwards, roll to get to something, and go from laying down to sitting. As a matter of fact, I just went into his room to get him up from a nap and he was sitting up in his crib - first time that has happened.

Here are some of the things that Lucas is doing now...laughing at Tyson a lot; plays peek-a-boo when Jeff or me are holding him and the other one of us hides and peeks out; eats Gerber-like Cherrios that dissolve in his mouth; eats (gums) pieces of bread; eats rice cereal, oatmeal, bananas, apples, pears, squash and sweet potatoes; has 2 bottom teeth; climbs on us when we're sitting down on the floor with him.

Lucas still likes taking baths, but hates getting dressed (he screams). He likes going on jogs in the stroller, but hates it when the sun gets in his eyes. He likes sitting in his high chair, but gets angry when he eats the last bite of food off his tray.

Sleep. When Lucas was an infant a friend told me that her 6 month old was still getting up once a night. I must admit that at the time I felt sorry for her that she couldn't get her baby to sleep better. MY 7 month old, however, still gets up 2-3 times a night...on a good night. On a good night he'll go down at 8, up at 11:30, up at 1:30 and up at 4:30. On a bad night he wakes up every time he turns over and realizes that he's alone in his crib. That's okay - we're working on it.

Here he is showing some GT spirit and eating a Triscuit (I got one for myself and he whined to tell me that he also wanted one). The other picture is him attempting to climb on his rocking horse. It's much harder to take pics now because he moves so much.

Why Charles and Lucas both have colds...

Charles grabbing Lucas's paci and Lucas with Charles's paci in his mouth..

Charles with both pacis...

Play group last week...

Happy Halloween

From the Monkey....

...and the Pimp

More Halloween Pics....

Getting ready to go trick-or-treating...
(which means show off their costumes to the neighbors)

First house...
The Monkey watching cartoons after his first Halloween...

The monkey from behind...