Elijah & Luke Have a New Cousin!

Elijah and Luke's Aunt Kristi gave birth to a baby boy named Riley Thomas Swearengin on Monday, April 26th at 10:03. Riley was 7lbs 10oz and 18in long and is as cute as can be! He was 3 weeks early, but is wonderfully healthy and is doing great. They came home from the hospital today and are really excited. We've been up in Huntsville to celebrate his birth and Elijah & Luke have been having so much fun hanging out with their cousin Taylor and all our Huntsville family.
Our boys are doing great - Luke's had his 9mo check up since I've last written on here. To our surprise, he was only 50% in weight and height. He's been crawling around everywhere, pulling up on everything (including walls!) and cruising along furniture and everything else that will hold him. He's starting to talk more, but refuses to say Mamma! He loves saying Dadda and he says Nanna whenever I pull out a banana for him to eat, so maybe that's his second word... we'll have to see if that continues. Elijah is doing great as well. I have tons of funny stories that I've been meaning to post, but time just seems to fly by with these guys. I'm trying to ignore the crying I hear in the background b/c Luke needs to nap, but I'm about to give in... I'll write more soon.

"Are we going to heaven, Daddy?"

So it's been tough with the big guy these past few days... terrible twos, here we are. Instead of reading Elijah a book today before his nap, I just prayed as hard as I could b/c I was at the point of tears dealing with him! So to remind us all (including myself!) of how cute he can be...
Elijah: Are we going to heaven, Daddy? (saw a commercial for 700 club earlier that day, apparently)
Stephen explained how we get to heaven... A few minutes later...
Elijah: Are we going to heaven, Daddy?
Daddy: Do you know how we get to heaven?
Elijah: Yes.
Daddy: How do we get to heaven?
Elijah: By a donkey... we get to heaven by a donkey
Daddy: No. Do you know how we get to heaven?
Elijah: Yes.
Daddy: How do we get to heaven?
Elijah: By an airplane
Daddy: No. Do you know how we get to heaven?
Elijah: Yes.
Daddy: How do we get to heaven?
Elijah: A car.
Daddy: No. Do you know how we get to heaven?
Elijah: Yes.
Daddy: How do we get to heaven?
Elijah: Jesus. We get to heaven by Jesus
Daddy: Yes!!!! We get to heaven by trusting and believeing in Jesus! (and then a further explanation)

Then this morning, we were going over the Easter story, and I asked him where Jesus was carrying his cross...
Mommy: He was carrying his cross to Gol....
Elijah: ly. Golly. (with a smile)
Mommy: No... He was carrying his cross to Gol-ga-
Elijah: fa! (He can't say his th sounds great, so he meant Golgatha)
........
Mommy: Then what happened three days later?
Elijah: (singing in a high voice like David Phelps song) Three days later! Three days later! (with eyes squinting b/c he's singing so high!) Three days later!!!! He ROSE FROM THE DEAD!

Too funny! He can tell the Easter story so well... He says that after they "spanked" Jesus and nailed him to the cross, that "He was stuck". He can tell you what Jesus said when He was up on the cross, what happened to the sky when He died, who came to visit his tomb... future preacher maybe? =) We'll see!
This perked me up a bit before the boys awake, and I hope it did the same for you.
Stories and actual pictures of the boys to come soon.
ps - Luke's doing great! He's crawling EVERYWHERE (even in the fireplace - not lit). And his favorite (only) word is.... Dada!
Mommy: What does Luke say when he's hungry?
Elijah: Dada
Mommy: What does Luke say when he's happy?
Elijah: Dada
Mommy: What does Luke say when he's sleepy?
Elijah: Dada....

Luke is a crawler now!!!

Luke will be 8 months old this week and he's moving all around now! He started crawling backwards a while back and finally got his wheels moving in the right direction on Feb 28th - 7 1/2 months old. He is constantly on the go now, which means we have to be careful with the little matchbox cars and other smaller toys that he doesn't really need to play with (we've tried to clean most of them out, but who can take little cars away from a 2 year old?) He said his first word - "Dada" on Feb 11th, but we're still waiting for "Mama" (Just a note: Elijah said "Mama first) He started pulling up to standing here and there, but last night, he was pulling up a lot. He would pull up on his jumperoo and then eye his little table top toy a few steps away... then you'd see the determination in his eyes as he'd let go and step to it. He is quite courageous! And today he was standing up in his bed and was walking from one side to the other. Crazy! He got dedicated at our church on the 21st of February. Big brother, little brother, and Daddy all wore matching pinstripe blazers...and Mom wore the matching skirt. I mean, what else would you expect from the Burns family? =) Luke's head seems to be shaping up well, just rather slowly. He could care less about wearing it though, praise the Lord! It's just like it's a piece of him. But he is just as cute as can be and developing all too fast - it's hard to enjoy one stage before it's completely over and he's moved on to the next!
Elijah's as cute and funny as ever. His big thing now is to get coins. If he tinkles on the potty he gets one coin - and he doesn't care if it's a lot or just a dribble - he will let you know that he deserves another coin. He will go to the potty 5 times within 10 minutes if we let him (and expect 5 coins too!) And he knows that when he goes poo poo on the potty, he'll get 2 coins (only happened once so far). But we're thinking pull ups are just around the corner, which I will be thrilled about!!! It will be like getting a pay raise once this guy's off diapers! I feel like I'm constantly calling Stephen to tell him things that Elijah says... here are some things that have made me smile lately...

Mom: What does the rain do for the earth?
Elijah: Hmmmm (pointing his finger to his cheek). It cleans daddy's office.
Mom: What else does it do?
Elijah: Hmmm...it cleans our house.

Elijah: (riding in the car) Hey! Gimmie my cup!
Mom and Dad: (ignoring Elijah b/c of his bad manners)
Elijah: Hey! Gimmie my cup... Hey... can you hear me guys? Can you hear me guys! Guys! Can you hear me guys! (yelling)

Elijah: (walking down the stairs every morning) Here comes the (insert color of shirt here) alligator... Here comes the blue alligator...
One night he was walking down the stairs naked, so I said...
Mom: Here comes the naked alligator!
So now everyday it's...
Elijah: (walking down the stairs every morning) Here comes the naked alligator! Here comes the naked alligator!

We've been catching him reading stories to himself.. he was holding his Bible and we listened as he said "Are you my mother? No I'm a cow said the cow...are you my mother? No I'm a doggie, said the doggie"..." And lastly, he LOVES to make Luke smile and laugh, which we love. He's a great big brother!

Fun the Snow!!!

On Friday, we had a fun little snowday! We had about 2 or 3 inches at our house. We bundled both the boys up to go outside to experience snow for the first time for Luke and the second time for Elijah, although he only sat in it for a few minutes about this time last year. Elijah loved running around in the snow. He had a snowball fight with his daddy and and they made a snowman together, of which they were very proud. It lasted unitil Sunday afternoon. They made snow angels too. It was so much fun! Luke seemed to like the snow. His helmet has a hole in the top, so snow kept falling in it the first time we went outside The next time we went outside, he wore one of Stephen's hats b/c all of his were too small! It was beautiful and so much fun!

Super Bowl Fun!

Well tonight is the superbowl and both our boys are decked out in opposite team jerseys - Luke is pulling for the Saints, dressed in his Saints attire given to Elijah last year by one of the Stephen's groomsmen, Mike. He is a huge Saints fan and actually took Stephen to the Saints/Jets game this season. Elijah, on the other hand, is pulling for the Colts, dressed in his Eli Manning jersey given to him by Stephen's step-brother, Quentin. He is a huge Colts fan and has a little boy named Peyton, so between our two families, we have two Manning brothers covered. Although Elijah's jersey is 12mo, he still fits in it. (Barely!)
Luke got his helmet on Friday and we've started the gradual process of adjusting him to it. Yesterday he wore it for about 3 hours, today 6, and by Friday he'll be wearing it 23 hours a day. He seems to be taking to it pretty well, thankfully. We just pray that this works and that he enjoys wearing it... for the next several months.

Helmet here we come...

So I'll start of with an update on Luke's plagiocephaly (fancy word for a misshaped head) - after a consultation with an orthotist, the scans revealed that he will need a cranial band (aka helmet). Most people do not have a symmetrical head; your measurements are off by about 2-4mm. If the child's head is off by 6-10mm, they highly recommend the helmet. Luke's was off by 12mm. So for the next 5 or 6 months, he will be having to wear his sweet little helmet 23 hours a day. That's right - 23 hours a day! Poor guy. I was under the impression that he might have to wear it a couple hours a day, but, unfortunately, I was wrong. His cranial band will be ready on Monday, when we'll go for a lengthy appointment to further customize and fit it to Luke's head. So be in prayer for that situation - that he takes well to the helmet and stays a sweet and happy baby. And that it doesn't hinder his sleep... we are just to the point where he is back to sleeping through the night, for the most part, and are so not looking forward to adding something to complicate his sleep.
On a lighter note, here are a few fun stories about Elijah that I thought I'd share to add a bit of laughter to your day...

• Stephen had to go to Miami for work. Elijah is doing a great job w/ his pronouns when he talks - so great that he pronounces "Miami," "Your-ami." How funny is that?! I told him "daddy's going to Miami... where is he going?"...Elijah: "He's going to Your-ami". We were praying and I said "Please keep daddy safe in Miami" and Elijah repeated and said "Please keep daddy safe in your-ami". lol
• One of his new favorite songs is Zaccheus (was a wee little man...) Out of nowhere, generally at dinner time, he will say "Zaccheus, you come down!..." Of all the bible songs, that one has clearly stuck.
• He has this funny little voice that he uses sometimes. It's really deep and he chooses to use it at the funniest times. He'll say "Papa Jeff and Jerrie" and will almost always say "Jerrie" in his low voice. Stephen and Elijah chase each other all the time, and the other night Stephen had a coin of his and Elijah kept yelling "HEY! (Really deep)... gimmie my coin.... HEY!... gimmie my coin!" Although his manners weren't top notch at that moment, him yelling "hey" like that and chasing Stephen was so funny to us both.
• Thumbs up is the biggest incentive right now. He will do just about anything to get you to give him 2 thumbs up. A few weeks ago, when he was just learning to do thumbs up, he would look at his hand and say "thumbs up!... is that my thumb?" Now he has it down pat.
• Elijah sat down on the potty tonight and was waiting and said "Penis! Tinkle!"
  

More stories to come soon!

Luke is 6 Months Old!

It's hard to believe, but our baby Luke is 6 months old! We went to the doctors yesterday for his check up, and he weights nearly 18lbs, which puts him in the 50th percentile for weight. He is in the 75th % for head size and 15th % for height, so he's still short and chubby, but Dr Malone is hopeful that he'll hit a growth spurt soon. We have an appt with an orthotist on Monday to see if they would recommend our sweet Luke to get, for lack of a better term, a helmet. =) So that will pressurize his head and get it shaped a little bit better. It has improved greatly, but he could use a little extra help since we can't force him to lay a certain way anymore b/c he's so mobile. He has changed a lot in the past couple months! He scooted for the first time on December 16th, one day shy of his 5 month birthday! He only goes a few feet now, but it is progress. He sat up for the first time right around then too... I just don't know where I wrote down that date! So it's fun right now, watching him curiously try to get objects and try to move around. And it's so cute to watch him and Elijah sitting next to each other, playing with the same toys. He loves to sit in his little jumperoo (like an exersaucer, but it bounces) and the little jumper that you attach to a door frame - however, I have learned that I can't leave him in it while I'm showering b/c several times I peaked my head out of the shower, to see Elijah standing next to him, smiling mischievously at me. =)
He's eating solids for breakfast and dinner (fruit and cereal for breakfast and fruit and veggie at night) and is even drinking a little juice every other day (to help out his tummy). Sleeping is a whole different issue... Ever since we visited our family in Huntsville for Thanksgiving, we've been dealing w/ him waking up once a night most days of the week. (prior to that he slept through the night since 2 months or so). And since we had to position him in a certain way at night for his head, we swaddled him up until last Friday. So now that he can play with his feet and hands at night, he thinks it's playtime. Last night was especially rough (could have been attributed to his vaccinations yesterday) - He woke me up every 30 minutes until 1:20, and then he decided to cry until 3 when we finally decided to put him in his swing. We generally let him cry four about 15/30 minutes before we check on him and/or change his diaper. Thank the Lord Elijah is a fantastic sleeper and could care less whether or not his brother is crying in the wee hours of the morning. We're working on teaching him to nap in his bed rather than his swing now, so napping is rough too... whew. I'm getting exhausted just writing about this! So this time period is a little trying, but it is temporary. We'll get through it.
I'll end on a happy note though. He loves to giggle, especially at his daddy and Elijah. At the doctors, he got so tickled watching Elijah run around the room that he made me and the dr crack up as well. It is so precious and so contagious. He is such a sweet child and such an incredible blessing.