Sunday, August 24, 2008

MOVING FORWARD!

Ok so yesterday after I posted Luke and I were playing on the floor some more and he actually moved forwards about a foot! He still hasn't gotten the hands part down really but he is starting to figure out how to lunge forward instead of backwards all the time. Greg said he did it again this morning before I got up. (-:

It's so exciting seeing him learn and grow, but it also makes me just a little bit sad. He will never be such a little baby again, he is almost to 6 months and eating solid food on a regular basis, before I know it he won't be a baby at all anymore. I want to savor every moment and lock every smile, snuggle, baby kiss, nursing, playing, sleeping, etc. in my memory forever.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

almost!!!

This is the latest development in Luke's quest for the ability to crawl. Not quite there yet but getting much closer. This isn't a great quality video and I should have done it just a few minutes earlier for you to see every thing that he does now in the pursuit of crawling but he got tired so that will have to wait for next time. I had to break it in half so you could see the whole thing.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Sitting!

Luke is sitting up by himself now! I keep thinking he shouldn't be doing this stuff yet but he is. He is also pretty close to crawling I think. He likes to be on all fours and can get himself there from his tummy, and for now he just rocks and scoots backwards but forwards is definitely on the way. We can't leave him on the bed for nap time anymore, not even with pillows surrounding him because he can push them off and fall, and has twice, once for me and once for my mom! Thank goodness he wasn't hurt much.

This video is from the 12th of August but I have been pretty busy lately and earlier attempts to up load it failed, I think because it was so big, so I paired it down quite a bit for the sake of posting. Also it's sideways and I haven't gotten a program to turn it right side up yet so you all will just have to tun your monitors or heads, which ever is easier!




I'm not sure when he got this good at sitting up, but before I started the video he had been sitting up by himself for several minutes already. In fact I had been sitting right behind him for part of the time but he was doing so well and not using me at all that I got up for a second to do something close by and he was still sitting up when I got back and that's when I realized that he really can sit by himself and got the camera out. He kept sitting so long that I quit recording long before he actually fell over sideways. As you can see in the video he has a really strong back and pretty good sense of balance and can correct himself most of the time. He can easily lean down to play with his toes and sit back up again. (he shouldn't be doing this!!! he should stay my baby a little bit longer!)

It's so much fun watching him learn new things but my heart gets just a little bit sad too, it all goes so fast and all these memories are so precious. It's so good to be able to record them and share them with everyone so far away who love him so much.

Mom and Dad just got back from visiting my best friend's family and her parents in Oregon and mom says Luke and Amos (her little boy about the same age) are almost two different species they are so different! Body types and features so opposite and skills all different too. Amos is all arms and legs, fair hair and blue eyes, and he can roll much better than Luke but not sit up like Luke can! She also says he is VERY vocal compared to Luke. It's amazing, and I wish I could have gone up to see them too.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Indiana

So... our trip to Indiana....

Well, we started out at 1240 am thinking that Luke would sleep better at night and we would get some miles behind us before morning hit, which worked out great, but around 7 or 7:30 when we were close to Columbia, MO we had a tire blow (in the rain) and then the car wouldn't start, then we got it towed, then it DID start (stupid car!), then we got the tires replaced (did I mention that we had someone look at the tires before we left and they didn't mention that they were bald?), then the brakes were grinding... So we spent the entire morning in Columbia and ended up eating lunch at a senior center, the only thing within walking distance with food. Luke was tired and hungry by that point so I fed him and then we got our own trays and a very nice lady I had been talking to while we waited on the car offered to walk with him while we ate. I know we looked like crap but as I was walking back to our table after handing him to our "adopted grandma" another old lady at a table I was passing said "There is something wrong with that baby!" in a very bad way and I got pissed off and said "He is just tired!" (I guess so was I.) Anyway, our adopted grandma started to rock him and he was out immediately which was great, and she was really enjoying the baby time, almost wouldn't give him back when they called to tell us the car was ready, but we told her we had a long way to go yet and it was best if he slept through it. After that we made it almost to Tere Haute, IN and he started to scream and nothing made any difference for about 10-15 min. so we were about to pull over when he fell asleep. I told Greg I couldn't handle another one of those and he agreed so we called our friend Dori in Indianapolis and asked if we could crash at her house overnight. This worked out great because it allowed us to see several friends we wouldn't have gotten to see otherwise and Luke slept the rest of the way there.

Here are a few Indy friends, great pics courtesy of Kevin's amazing flash!

Kevin and Jen

Dori and new boyfriend Tom (we love him!)

Lindsey and soon to be hubby Brian

Finally we got to Goshen!!! This is Luke's grandma Myers whom all the grand kids call Mimi.

We had a BBQ that night at Kent and Kathy's and roasted marsh mellows while we waited for Dawn and Ryan and Cassia to get there from Canada.

(chigger free grass!)

We stayed pretty busy while we were there, blueberry picking...


playing at a sprinkler park with the kids and enjoying more chigger free grass...

Having lots of family time... (here is Luke's great grandma Myers)
We saw my friend Bekah and her son Caleb who is about 4 months older than Luke and weighs 1 lb. more than Luke!


We enjoyed the cooler weather.


and lots of good cooking and sweet corn!

More chigger free grass!

Real frogs!
We went swimming at Ideal Beach, Luke's first time at that and I think we all had a lot of fun there.

Ate out with the Myers clan. Kaylene is the girl in front and she and Vince announced their engagement and plans for a June wedding next summer! Congratulations!!!


We took lots of pictures obviously and made sure to get at least one good one of each family for me to use for a "My Family" book for Luke. It will be pretty basic, pictures on pretty paper on card stock and then laminated and put on rings so it is pretty much indestructible.

Kent and Kathy above and Anna and Isaac below.Mimi and Pawpaw

Dawn and Ryan and baby-on-the-way above and Cassia below.
And us!
Our days there were pretty full, we included a trip to Shipshiwana to see a puppet show, guys poker night while the women watched "P.S. I Love You", ate lunch with some of Greg's friends from his old job, got to see Anna play soccer...

And managed to get to a Hershberger reunion before heading out for Indy. On the way home we decided to break up the trip a bit more so we ate supper in Indy (sushi with Dori and Tom!!!) and then made it to St Louis where we spent the night in a hotel. The next day we got up early and made it to KC in time to see the Royals totally crush the White Sox. This was us at the beginning of the game before we knew it would turn out soooo awful.

It really was awful, two players (one from each team) got hit by pitches, the Royal's player was first and he charged the field trying to punch our pitcher but our catcher held him back and instantly all the players and coaches and managers from both teams were on the field. The Pitcher got thrown out of the game and then our manager got thrown out for arguing that the pitcher shouldn't get thrown out for accidentally hitting the batter. Then a few innings later a Royals pitcher hit a White Sox batter and the umpire threw him out immediately. The crowd was pretty ugly and were all cheering for their pitcher who hit our player and booing our catcher every time he came up because they thought he called the inside pitch that hit their player and I heard people yelling things like "hit him in the nuts!" It didn't help that for most of the game we couldn't seem to hit anything either and I think the final score was 14 to3! Anyway, it was a bad first baseball game for Luke to go to, but there is no way to know that ahead of time and we stuck it out and stayed all 9 innings.
When it was all over we hit the road again and got home in time to see my parents before they set off for Oregon, wish I could have gone with them to see all our good friends there, but I'm glad I don't have to worry about any more long drives for a while. Luke did really good, especially on the way home when we split things up a bit more. He is more adaptive and easy-going than even I anticipate sometimes. In the car he slept or played and hardly fussed, and whenever he did we tried to stop a bit and take care of whatever he needed. Here is a great video of him playing with me on the way home.


I think our next adventure with Luke will be camping at Winfield!

Monday, August 4, 2008

Wedding

So it's time to play catch-up here. My cousin Mark got married to Amanda on July 19.

My sister and several cousins and friends from far away, Boston, Colorado, Michigan, Oregon, etc. were able to be there. I didn't get pics of all of them unfortunately but it was really good to see them and catch up a bit, some had never met Luke before and a lot has happened in some of their lives as well.


Getting ready!





It was a beautiful wedding at a beautiful place, my sister and cousin Leah have also gotten married at this place so this is the third wedding here, I guess it's become a favorite for our family. (-:


People arrive!





The wedding!




The reception afterwards was at Mark's parents house and every thing was gorgeous!
The sunsetting over the hill was so beautiful many of the guests went up to see it.







More to come...