Hooray For Half-Birthdays!

Well, as America celebrated her 235th birthday on Monday, my sweet little Samuel Luke celebrated his Half-Birthday! I love that he is going to get fireworks every year 'just for him'!

Six months. Seriously? How*can*that*BE? It's too, too quick, in my opinion!

Yes, I'm sure to some, celebrating a half-birthday is silly, and that's ok. I'm old enough (and lived through enough) now to not really care about what others think of me or what I do. When you are the parent of cold-weather babies, and are anticipating birthday parties, you realize that a fun summer celebration of half- birthday might be worth a think-over.

I planned to do it for Matthew (even had the aquarium cake I'd make for his first birthday planned out) and plan to continue to do so for Luke.

Besides, can one ever have too much celebration of life? I don't think so...and I'm more than grateful to celebrate this little boy as much as I can!

As we are still nomads, I didn't do much more than some silly pictures and quickly made cupcakes, but he won't remember much anyway! The most important part was that he LOVED the teeensy bit of frosting I gave him. He is a sugar FIEND!

Yeah, he is ALL about 'real food' these days...check him checking that cupcake out!

YUMMMMMMMM!

"Are they KIDDING me????????"

We went over to Aunt Pretty's and Uncle Puny's to visit and play at the pool with the cousins for the day.

That evening, we went over to Great Meadow and watched fireworks. He LOVED the fireworks, which isn't too surprising since he's always loved lights.

Poor little guy was POOPED by the time we got home, and bless his heart, he slept from midnight to almost 8 am--without me feeding him through the night. For the last few nights, he's been doing that--waking up a few times in the middle of the night, but putting himself back to sleep within a minute or two. Of course, every time he wakes up, I wake up and can't go back to sleep as easily as he does, but the point is that he is sleeping longer stretches without me feeding him and I think that's progress! KEY to this whole thing is his ability to find his pacifier...I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE and LOVE some more his Wubbanubs! They are soooooo great and it's so funny to watch him maneuver and get "Tank" or "Clifford" or "Froggy" back into his mouth!

He has been an AMAZING traveler! He slept for big portions of the journey from MD to NC, and when he woke up, he'd occupy himself pretty well with his carseat toys. IF he got fussy and cried, he would instantly stop when....I put on the 40s on 4 channel!!!!! He LOVES the 40s--all the brass and badda-bings, badda-booms!! What can I say? My boy's got good taste! I'm so thankful he made the move down so easily!

Today was a HUGE day for his Mama! He has always been pretty verbal, and has been babbling a good bit lately, but today, it was "Mamamamamamamamamamama!" Now I realize he probably has no idea that he's saying my name, but it's only a matter of time, I think! So, so, so sweet...John watched him for an hour tonight while I was doing something and he said the whole time, he just babbled "Mamamamamamamamama" and then fell asleep toward the end of the hour! He makes my heart melt!

We go to the new pediatrician next week and we'll get a growth check up. Let's suffice it to say that whenever people meet Luke, they use words like, "Healthy Boy!" and "Solid!" and "Dense" and "Chunky Monkey!" and "Chubbers!" and all those words make me laugh! Who'd have thunk that Baby Kitty would be such a Pudgesicle? I love it!

I have lots more on my mind these days, but want to post this because it's important I remember MAMA happened TODAY! I hope when we get a bit more settled (as I type from a hotel) that I'll be able to write more. Lots and lots rumbling around in the old noggin!

Here are pics from this week. Honestly, isn't he just too cute????

Solid(s?) As A Rock!

The last two weeks have been CRAZY busy. Without detailing every thing, suffice it to say that literally, NOTHING has been easy.

Well…smooching on my little Pudge Pop is always easy (and fun!), so I can’t say nothing has been easy.

Not much else, though.

So, long stor(ies) short…

• · We got moved out of our house (with fewer tears than I thought…guess I’m still waiting for the major purge)…
• · Said a million heartbreaking “See ya laters” (no good-byes)…
• · Are fighting horrible summer colds (so far John is the only one run down, so pray that Luke and I somehow manage without catching it!)…
• · Have taken Grandma’s house over (poor Grandma!)…
• · Found out we won’t be moving into a house on base until November or December at the earliest (which is several months later than we anticipated, obviously)…
• · Have scrambled to find a temporary apartment (and it’s been YEARS since I’ve filled out an application to live in an apartment. Sample questions? “Do you use illegal drugs? If yes, please explain.” Seriously????????? “Um, yes. On Fridays, I do crack and plan to use your apartment complex to produce meth in mass quantities.” Honestly!)…
• · Have to figure out what of our stuff needs to be partially delivered until a house is available (and so much fun with box labels such as, ‘basement’, ‘Baby’s room’, and ‘kitchen’….who knows WHAT is in each box????)…
• · Won’t get even that partially delivered stuff for another 2 weeks at that…
• · Have learned that Luke is NOT fond of the spoon and/or much that accompanies it (although now with the infant feeder, he’s a little more amiable to the idea!)…
• · Have been battling sleep issues with the poor boy…who can blame him????

Whew. It’s enough for me to just feel like throwing my arms in the air and having a massive hissy fit.

But that won’t make anything different, so…press on, right?

Like John said, “We’ve lived through worse.”

And we have.

Luke is doing SO much these days! ‘Scooter’ is really scooting along….mostly on his back, using his head and feet to inch him along backward. It’s hilarious. When put on his tummy, he is starting to scoot more, though, so I am pretty sure a full-fledged crawler is on his way into appearance soon!

I’ve introduced pears, apples and apple juice, and he’s iffy. Well, he loves the apple juice, but is working through the sippy cup issues—I LOVE the Beaba sippy---with the nipple. He just needs to learn how to tilt it back to use it! He gets really, really mad when he can’t get the juice and yet, hasn’t figured out just yet how to tilt it back! He’s working on it! The spoon is a totally different story, though…the other day, I didn’t even have anything on it and when he saw it, he could NOT turn his head fast enough!!! He wanted NOTHING to do with it…once he realizes how good the sweet stuff is, he relents a little, but still…not feeling solids too much these days! Of course, I write that only hours after he could NOT.GET.ENOUGH of the apples and pears through his mesh sucky. THAT is a huge hit!

He is a SOLID little boy! He’s 16 pounds now, which is still only the 30^th%tile for weight, but man! He certainly is ‘dense’, as he has been described with regard to his weight and body composition several times in the last few weeks! We *know* he has knees and elbows, but we just can’t seem to find them due to the chub-a-lub that covers them! He has the sweetest little inverted knuckles and dimples on his elbows and his thighs are just delicioso!!!! One would never know that such an Itty Bitty Baby Kitty is such a Pudge Pop these days!!! I love, love, love it!

He is rolling over and moving around like a pro. ‘Scooter’ does the funniest thing—he lays on his back, arches it, uses his head and feet and scoots himself backward…it’s so hilarious how mobile he is that way!!! He is also trying a bit to crawl the ‘real’ way, and he inches like a little wormy-worm with the best of them. I think any day now he’ll be moving more and more purposefully and I’ll be in big trouble!!! He’s a guy on the move!!!

He’s also working on sitting. He’s pretty good at sitting for a little bit on his own, but still ends up slumping over and finding his toes. In honesty, that’s pretty darned cute too!!!

We visited “Uncle Kevin” and “Aunt Melissa” and had a great time in the pool! Luke is a natural in the water and his daddy (and I!) couldn’t be happier. I see swim lessons in his future and SOON!

He’s still not sleeping as soundly as I’d like—but heck, with teething (nothing broken through yet) and moving and NO schedule consistency whatsoever, I’d think all things considered, he’s doing ok. We’ve moved bedtime up a bit earlier, and that should hopefully help as well. Naps are still icky, though for the last two days, he took a morning nap that lasted ONE WHOLE HOUR. Yep!!! Each day, his first morning nap was an HOUR! Hooray!!! No idea of why, but I’m not knocking it and hope that the trend will continue!!!

I can’t believe how quickly time has passed. Today, Matthew would be 19 months old. How different my life would be. All this moving around and crazy scheduling with a mobile little boy…it’s hard to imagine and yet, I can’t help but do so. So many times a day, though my life is really full with such an amazing and precious baby brother, “What would have been?” crosses my mind.

It used to overshadow what IS.

It doesn’t do that so much any more, and I’m thankful…but that doesn’t mean that “What would have been?” hurts any less. It’s always there…just coexisting more competently with how life is. I guess that’s how it’s supposed to be…healing doesn’t mean healed, even though so many people think it does.

There’s healing every day.

Don’t think ‘healed’ will be until we all get to Heaven and I get to kiss my Matthew’s sweet cheeks.

Here are some pictures from the last two weeks. We’ve been BUSY!

Daddy and Luke hanging around as the house is packed....

Rockin the guitars for our sweet friend Bree!

Awesome visit with our Hannah's Prayer friend Tina...and her little miracle Grant!

Mommy's great friends Mike and Lorraine!!!

Our wonderful Dr. K...at the Waldorf Shady Grove Grand Opening!

It's good to be Luke!!!!

Daddy's sweet work friend Miss Amy!

Daddy put this mustache on...all the work friends thought it was hilarious!

LOVE THIS BOY! Some photo shoot faves....

MEOW!! Helllloooo, Baby Kitty!!!!

Father's Day

Our sweet friend Bert...he was the one who spoke to mommy and daddy as Matthew was passing away...his words and scripture reading were so special to us.

Our dear, dear friend Miss Connie! We miss, miss, miss her!!!!!!

"I LOVE pooltime!"

Visiting Granddad's resting place in Arlington National Cemetery.