Not much new...

In thinking back to our week, I'm not sure what we did. The normal stuff, of course, but nothing out of the ordinary. Except that we didn't have school on Tuesday because of the election. Thank goodness for early voting. Without school on that day, there was no way I would have been able to stand in line with the boys to vote. It would have been too hard.

We are enjoying the wonderful Houston 'fall' while trying not to get sick. Between colds, flus, and a nasty stomach bug floating around, we may not stay healthy all season, but hopefully it won't be terrible.

Luke is still waking up 2 times a night to eat and is also having trouble staying focused while eating in general during the day. Too much going on, especially when big brother is in the room. We brought out the sippee cup this week to help familiarize him with it. Since he won't take a bottle, I am hoping that he will learn to use the sippee in the next couple of months and we can use that for feedings away from me. We have decided to try and hold off on starting solids until he is closer to 6 months, but we'll have to play it by ear. He isn't showing the signs that he is interested in our food yet, but with the regression in nighttime feeding/sleeping habits, the doctor says he may be nearing his time. He is fully into the 3-6 month / 6 month clothes now. Jacob was just starting to wear the 3-6 month clothes at this point, whereas Luke may outgrown them before Christmas. We'll see. He is nearly 1 pound heavier than Jacob was at the same age. Poor kid - he gets compared to Jacob often in many ways. I'll just have to curb that urge to compare when it comes to the "important" things in life later on.

Jacob is doing great. He is now off his antibiotic and is full of energy. He is waking up before 6am everyday, but he is going down for naps and bed pretty well, so I guess I can't really complain. He's now singing more and more songs and asks me to sing with him often. Good thing he doesn't know I can't really sing! If you look through the pictures you will see a few of Jacob "reading on the potty." Those are pictures that were staged by David. Quite adorable, but not reality, unfortunately. We have the little potty in our bathroom, but there has been no potty training progress. He hasn't really shown the signs that he is ready yet, so we haven't pushed it. I know he won't go off to kindergarten in diapers, so I'm trying not to stress about it. In good time...

Go here for the rest of this week's pictures.

4 months old

Luke was 4 months old last Friday, and in celebration of the event had his 4 month checkup including shots. Lucky boy...

Anyways...he is doing great and met all of the milestone markers. He is 15lbs 13oz (75%), 24 3/4 inches tall (40%) and his head is 16.9cm (75%). For those of you who are like me and like to make comparisons, Jacob was 14lbs 14oz, 25 1/4 inches tall and his head was 16.6cm at 4 months. The percentages are what my doctor told me - if you look online at the different growth calculators, they all say something different. Things may even have changed at our doctor's office as far as what chart they use because Jacob has always had a 95-97% range for his head size. Luke's head is now bigger than Jacob's was at 4 months, but she said Luke is in the 75% range. Who knows....they are what they are.

New Cars

Jacob loves getting packages from Mia and Papa.

Luke's Baptism

As I mentioned before, Luke was baptized on Sunday at our church. The ceremony was performed by Father Sean Horrigan. The same priest who baptized Jacob 2 years ago and married David and me 5 years ago. I think it is really neat that we were able to have that connection in our sacraments.

We had nearly 30 people join us for the blessed occasion. Two of my aunts from New England, Kathy and Janet, came for the weekend. We really appreciated them taking the time to come as it was so nice to see them. We also were very happy to have several dear friends, and my aunt and cousin who live nearby, with us. Of course, my parents, siblings, neices, and nephew were here too.

After a simple, but beautiful ceremony, everyone came back to the house for a reception. David went above and beyond, once again, with the food preparation for the party. Everything looked great and tasted even better. To make the day even better - the weather was fantastic, so we were able to sit outside and visit for hours.

Thanks to my best friend, Margaret, for taking such fabulous pictures of the baptismal ceremony. Those pictures and the ones from the reception afterwards are here. For more pictures of the weekend (including dinner out on Saturday, the baptism, and reception), here are ones taken by my dad, and here are ones taken by Aunt Janet. Thank you to all of the photographers. Someday, Luke will also appreciate having such great documentation of the event.

Halloween

Though last year was Jacob's first time trick or treating, this year was really when he 'got it.' I talked about 'trick or treat' with Jacob for weeks leading up to Halloween night. So whenever I asked him what he was going to be for Halloween, he said "Trick or Treat!" He was very excited. We practiced what would transpire that night so he would be ready. And boy was he ready. He didn't know anything about treats last year (which is what we call any sweet thing around our house), so when he got any in his pumpkin, it wasn't much of a thrill. This year, however, he was ecstatic with each treat placed in his pumpkin. He had to show me the goodies at each house. After about 5 houses, he really understood about walking up to each house on the street. We would be walking down the sidewalk from one house and he'd look up at me and say "More houses, Mommy?" How could I say no to that? We ended up at about a dozen houses and he was ready to head home to see Daddy and have a treat. We kept him to only 2 lollipops and a few M&Ms for the evening, so I was pretty happy. He has enough energy without a bunch of sugar in his system, I couldn't imagine what it would be like with loads of candy. Surprisingly enough, he actually had just as much fun handing out candy when we got home as he did trick or treating. We sat out front to hand out candy. Jacob had a handful of candy in his fist just waiting. Anytime there was a lull, he would say "more kids, Mommy. Where are the kids?" Hilarious to hear him call them "the kids"....since 95% of the trick or treaters were bigger kids than him. It was a memorable evening.

Another busy week

The boys had another very busy and fun week. I'll just do a quick recap of the week here, but I promise to include individual posts about trick or treating and the baptism soon.

Our week included the normal stuff like school, the gym, and bible study, but also featured a Halloween parade at Jacob's school, a Halloween party with our playgroup, a wonderful night of trick or treating for Jacob (more on that later), a dinner and birthday celebration for my SIL, Mindy, and the big event of the weekend, Luke's baptism and party (more on that later too). Throw in a visit to the doctor for Jacob's bronchitis and sinus infection, and we were hardly home. The weather this week continued to be fabulous as well, so I've also started taking the boys on long walks/runs every afternoon to enjoy the outdoors.

In other news on the boys, Jacob is up to 36 inches and 30 3/4 lbs. Luke is up to 24 inches and ~16.5lbs (on our scale). Luke has his 4 month checkup this Friday, so we'll get the official stats then.

Jacob started really singing some songs this week, including Twinkle Twinkle little star, Old MacDonald, B-I-N-G-O, and his ABCs. I didn't realize he could sing the whole thing (except that L-M-N-O-P, is O-O-O-O-P) until he broke out in song. It is pretty cute. I can't get him to sing on camera though. I'll keep trying. He has started to really pick up on some concepts lately, like things being "too big" or "too small" and making connections between books he has and 'live' or 'everyday' events. He also can identify by name tons of cars. He also picks out every Honda Accord on the road as "Daddy's car" and Toyota 4Runner as "Mommy's car" in whatever color it happens to be. It is neat to see his brain really working. Jacob has the capital letters, counting and identifying numbers to 12, and colors down pat, so we are turning our focus more to working on lowercase letters, shapes, and just for fun, the numbers in Spanish.

Luke seems more and more alert. Really taking in his surroundings and watching people, especially Jacob. I catch him just watching and smiling at Jacob often. He can roll from tummy to back pretty easily, but hasn't quite figured out how to roll from his back to his tummy. He lifts his legs straight up and turns himself onto his side, but that is as far as he can go. I expect he'll be turning over in no time. His legs are in constant motion too. He scoots himself around in his bed and on the floor when he is on his back just by his legs wailing around. He has started to reach for the rings hanging from his play gym. He has a really strong grip now and doesn't like to let go of whatever he happens to grab onto. He loves interaction, so anyone who will engage with him is rewarded with a lot of smiling, legs and arms moving around, and a lot of happy talking. We are getting into a loose sleep/awake routine, which is nice. He's not sleeping nearly as much during the day as he was even 2 weeks ago.

The sleeping habits of both boys is a post in itself as well. Go here for the rest of this week's pictures....be aware, there are a lot.

Halloween Parade

Jacob's preschool had a Halloween parade yesterday for all of the kiddos to show their costumes. Here are a few pictures of Jacob and his class 'parading.' Afterwards, they all sat down for a class photo with the pumpkins, but honestly, the pictures aren't great. I guess getting 16 - 2year olds to sit still and smile is not the easiest task.

My new wheels

So, not as exciting as the wheels of a new car, but still exciting for me. I've been meaning to buy a double jogging stroller since before Luke was born, but just couldn't bring myself to spend the money. Well, I found this one in excellent condition on craigslist for a steal, so I got it. Since getting to the gym is not always possible, I'm glad that I now have an alternative way to get in my exercise for the day. And with the weather being so beautiful lately, I'm glad I have one more reason to get outisde. Another plus - both boys actually seem to like it too!

Cold season is here

This week, the weather in Houston was fabulous. Unfortunately, with the wonderful, cooler temperatures, comes cold and flu season. Both Jacob and I had to deal with a cold last week. Thankfully, mine was minor, since it is hard to care for the boys when I'm sick. Jacob seemed to get over his cold without too much downtime too, but something settled into his chest and sinuses. After a visit to the doctor today,he was put antibiotics for a sinus infection and bronchitis and a puffer for wheezing. With the recent struggles with falling asleep, the all night coughing was really making it hard for him to get rested. Hopefully the antibiotics will kick in soon and he'll kick the cough. Kids amaze me with their energy levels even when they are sick. Jacob didn't have a fever and didn't slow down one bit to show me he was sick. If it wasn't for the cough, I would never have known he was sick.

Luke also has a little bit of the sniffles, so hopefully that is as far as it goes. He seems to be handling it ok, except for at night. I can hear the poor guy struggling to breathe through his nose. He has also regressed in his sleeping at night the last few nights. I hope it is related to the sniffles so that he will return to normal when they are gone. Luke has also switched to short nap mode this past week. Instead of taking several 1 hour+ naps each day, we are down to 3 or 4 30-40 min naps. I remember this stage with Jacob, and it was no fun. Especially when it seems he catches those snoozes in the car or when I'm fighting to get Jacob to sleep. It takes away from what little kid-free time I have during the day.

Luke's baptism is this weekend. We have some out-of-town family coming in, and we are very excited to get to see them. The party planning has begun so we hope to have a fabulous day.

Go here for the rest of this week's pictures.

Video Updates

Here are a few quick videos of the boys. Both love to talk...