Luke's Second Birthday- for real this time

Today was Luke's real birthday, although it was a pretty low-key affair. We spent the morning taking our usual family walk and wandering around some stores. After nap time, we went out for tacos and tried desperately to find dairy-free ice cream substitute that Luke could eat. The first store only had lemonade ice tea and daiquiri flavors, so it took more than one stop to complete the feat. Inspite of the non-celebration, Luke was in a great mood, and I would like to think he enjoyed his special day.

We are so blessed to have our wonderful Lukey-Lou in our family. He is such a sweet, mellow, low-key kind of guy, which is something we desperately need in this family! Luke has such a thoughtful disposition, and he's one of the kindest little kids I've ever met. His favorite activity lately is giving Jack-Jack kisses, in typical Luke fashion. Now that he can hear, he's also been speaking more and more lately. It's been fun hearing a small part of what's going on in his head, and I'm looking forward to his language skills blossoming even more in the next few months. His most annoying habit right now is screeching at the top of his little lungs every time Max bugs him, so I'm really, really looking forward to him using more words! I'm fairly certain his first full sentence will be something along the lines of, "Max, knock it off!"

Right now his favorite toy is anything stuffed. He loves cuddling stuffed animals and giving them hugs. So cute! His favorite food is Cookie Crisp cereal with his coconut milk, but he's also pretty fond of grapes. Luke also has a strong sweet tooth, and he'll do just about anything for candy. Since he can't have chocolate, his favorites are gummies. His favorite thing to do during the day is go to the park, but he's also pretty content to look at the world from his stroller during our daily walks. In fact, he begs to go outside all day, every day. He stands at the sliding glass door, pointing and whining until we let him go out and play in the backyard. It's super cute when it's not completely annoying timing.

Since he's so quiet, I still think of Luke as my baby, and I often think he's younger than he really is. However, it's become more apparent in the last month that he really is growing up quickly, especially compared to Jack. I can't believe it's been two years already since his birth, and I truly feel blessed to be his mother. He's been through so many health issues in his short little life, and he's handled everything with a great attitude and huge smile. He's taught me so much about positivity and kindness. Luke's soft, gentle nature is such a great example to me, and I hope I can be more like him.

First Cloth Diaper

Darreck and I had to compromise when it came to diapering Jack. I wanted to buy newborn sized cloth diapers, and he wanted to use disposables for the newborn period. We came to the agreement that we'd buy one box of diapers and switch to the cloth once we used them up. However, disposable diapers leak and have blow-outs so much! They drive me nuts! After having to change Jack's pajamas and swaddle blanket a couple times each night, Darreck actually made the suggestion of breaking out the cloth. Last night was Jack's first night in cloth and his first night staying dry all the way through. Of course, I wanted a picture of the first cloth diaper, but Jack was not cooperating. Poor guy just wanted fed and to go to bed. Can't say I blame him!

Luke's Big Birthday Party

This year we were faced with horribly conflicting schedules on Luke's birthday, so we decided to hold his party today, a few days early. And still, not everyone could make it! Such is life sometimes. We had a Sesame Street theme, mostly because he loves Elmo, even though he's never watched Sesame Street once in his entire little life. But, it made for some cute balloons.

Even though I usually love doing cute cakes, it was a little harder with Luke's multitude of allergies, so I settled on making a "crazy cake" with marshmallow fluff frosting. I figured he'd appreciate the chocolate since he gets it so rarely. The cake turned out... um... interesting. It was the consistency of fudge brownies and almost no one liked the marshmallow topping on a cake. Not to mention that it was pretty much ugly. We'll have to keep brainstorming for next year.

The party itself was also on the interesting side. Darreck's mom thought it was next week, and Max didn't get along very well with the three kids Hales are fostering right now. I didn't want to spend Luke's entire party refereeing Max, but Max usually does find a way to make himself the center of attention. Between all the craziness, I found myself wanting to tell everyone to be quiet and focus on Luke for awhile. Poor birthday boy; we even lost track of him for a short time. I know they say that nice guys finish last, but it also seems that, at least in this house, nice guys get ignored. I'm already trying to think of something to do just me and him on his actual birthday Tuesday. With a new baby, I think he could use some Luke and mommy time.

After cutting the cake and letting the kids play for awhile, he opened some presents. We got him a blow-up, ride-on dog that he's been eyeing at the toy store for some time now. When we're able to keep Max from stealing it, Luke has been in little Lukey heaven. He loves that thing! He also got some clothes, a book, some ninja turtle toys, and a very cute train bank. I was glad that we kept it to a reasonable level and that he's enjoying playing with his new things. He was a perfect gentleman opening them, and he even got to practice using his new phrase a lot- Thank You! I think, above everything else, that Luke enjoyed himself, even if I was disappointed in the day. Hopefully next year things will be a little calmer and we can make his day even more special.

Jack's First Bath and a Special Delivery

While we were at family dinner yesterday, Jack lost his umbilicle cord stump, so today he was ready for his first real bath. The first bath takes almost no time at all, but I always feel it's such a neat milestone. We've also got it down to a science. We placed a towel in the bottom of the tub, put a washcloth on his belly, and turned the sink on full blast so he could listen to the soothing sound of water. Jack never even made a peep the entire time; he loved it.

We also got a special package today from Darreck's Granny Celeste who is serving a mission at the London temple. She sent baseball hats for the two bigger boys and some cute clothes for Jack. It was so thoughtful, and we were grateful she thought of all the boys. Max and Luke were thrilled with their presents.

A Change in Ward Boundaries

Our entire family of five braved church yesterday for a special, four unit sacrament meeting at the stake center. I normally would have kept Jack home for another week, but the whole thing was very hush-hush and the curiosity was killing me. So, we took the troops and found out that the ward boundaries had been changed. We got the best of all scenarios- we're keeping everyone in our current ward plus adding my family and some friends from the former first ward. The new ward name is the Roe River Ward.

I know that lots of people are upset about the changes, but I'm looking forward to starting with a semi-fresh slate. Everyone will have new callings and assignments, and we'll still get to meet some new people. Our former ward (and we do still have the same people) was very challenging for us because of the high military population. Our boundaries include the entire base, and having people coming and going constantly is hard on both Darreck and myself. We don't warm up to people quickly, so the ward environment makes it hard for us to make friends. It's also difficult to not have base access in a ward where over half the members live on base. Now, however, having my family around as well as some more stable families should make a big difference. We're extremely excited.

No one is more excited than Max, though. Once he figured out that he gets to attend church with Grandma and Papa, he was over the moon. It will be nice to have an extra set of hands each Sunday. No friends could ever make up for the blessing of having grandparents at church with you. It's a very unique and special blessing for the boys. We truly are blessed, indeed.

First Week Home in Review

We survived our first week with newborn Jack, and it was pretty much successful. Well, at least no one died! It was definitely a struggle with Darreck gone a lot of the time, but we muddled through. Jack was great, but that isn't a surprise given that he sleeps 20+ hours each day. The bigger boys decided it was a great week to test the boundaries and my patience. Playing referee is a full-time job in itself, forget taking care of the baby and managing the household. Luke kept sneaking food while I was feeding Jack, including downing half a pack of gum in one sitting. Max was being his usual bossy self, trying to dictate to Luke how to play, where to be, and when he could speak. There was lots of screaming and hitting, but like I said, we muddled through.

So far, Jack has been a great baby. He has his nights and days straight, which has been a huge blessing to me. I may not be getting much uninterrupted sleep, but at least I'm getting sleep. He's still not quite sure how to be awake and happy at the same time, but that will come with time. He's certainly more vocal than Luke was, but nothing even close to how loud Max was. It's really funny how different they all have been as newborns.

As for me, I'm enjoying the things that I take for granted most of my life, such as the ability to roll over in bed and see my feet. I'm not missing being pregnant one bit, and now my attention has turned to erasing all effects of pregnancy on my body. I'm more than ready to feel like myself again.

With Darreck home this week, I'm anticipating a smoother week. We shall see. Sometimes having daddy around is just exciting enough to get Max and Luke completely riled up. It really could go either way. In the meantime, here are even more pictures. We may have a thumb sucker on our hands!

A Few Family Outings

Darreck is still working camp for part of each day, so I've come to really cherish any time we get out of the house as a family. I was not built to sit around the house all day! Yesterday we went to Giant Springs to feed the fish and take a walk along the river. We also went to get Jack some sun and hopefully mitigate his burgeoning jaundice (which wasn't a problem at the doctor's office today!). It was a beautiful morning, and the park was packed.

Yesterday evening, while Darreck was working, the boys and I went to a little barbecue to catch up with some friends from church who moved down south awhile back. It was fun to let the boys run free for awhile and sneak in some great adult conversation. I miss these particular friends so much, but that's the price you pay for living in a predominately military ward.

This morning I got brave enough to cut the big boys' hair, which Max screamed through. Then we went to Gibson park to take some brother pictures, which Max also screamed through. Apparently, the sun was in his eyes, despite the fact that we were in the shade the entire time. After getting thoroughly worn out by my morning, Grandma-Great came over to watch Max and Luke while I took Jack to see his doctor. He passed his exam with flying colors, weighing in at a respectable 7 pounds 10 ounces, nearly back to his birth weight. Here are the very few decent pictures we got. I think it's very clear to see that Luke deserves the good poser award today!

This was the result of this morning's misadventures.

Last, but certainly not least, both my grandma's sent me flowers following the birth. So sweet! If I had more money, I would love to send all my new mom friends flowers that first week. It's such a sweet gesture. The top ones are from Grandma Necia (Grandma-Great) and the bottom from Grandma Hess.