Our Beach Trip

We just got back from our summer beach trip to Orange Beach, AL. We went with all of Lisa's family - Nanny, Poppy, Uncle David, Aunt Kristi, cousins Taylor and Riley, Uncle TJ, and his girlfriend, Lacy. We had a fabulous time! It was Luke's first time to the beach. He thought the sand was okay, but he didn't care for the water at all! It was my fault though b/c I just stuck him right in the water - after he started screaming, I remembered that when Elijah was a baby, I sat him in the sand and let the waves barely reach him so that he could crawl into the water himself. So Luke did not like the gulf. Elijah, on the other hand, LOVED it! He loved running through the sand, which was super soft, and jumping all in the water. Searching for sea shells was his favorite thing to do! We had a blast at the pool and hanging out at the condo with all of the family. We went to Lambert's, which was really fun for the boys. Elijah caught a roll, which was rather hot, and Luke was content gnawing on one all throughout dinner. On the last night, Elijah got to ride go carts for the first time. He had a really good time riding w/ Mom and then Poppy (until he took of his seat belt...) The vacation was wonderful and altogether too short!

I have a crazy story to share from this morning - Luke got his arm (from the elbow up)stuck through one of he and Elijah's chair rungs. He was hysterically crying and I could not get it out. I started freaking out a bit... I got Elijah to grab my phone and then afterwards I said, "Run to the refrigerator and grab the butter!" Like a 2 year old could do that! To my surprise, he found a bottle of spray butter within 5 seconds and I sprayed it on Luke, immediately releasing his arm. Then Elijah said, "Sheesh, that was a close one!" LOL It was a scary situation, but how funny and amazing did our little guy react in the heat of a stressful situation!

Oh and an update on the gulf waters with the oil spill..The gulf was so warm and beautiful. Every now and then, you could see some oil residue on the beach, but it was not enough for us to justify keeping the boys out of the water. One day, we could see some oil patches from our balcony, but that was really it. The clean up crews were on the beach the last day we were there. But it was kind of nice going down to the beach in the middle of the summer and having the beach not really crowded. So if you're thinking of going down to the beach, don't delay it b/c of the oil rumors.

Happy Birthday to Luke!

Our little Luke had his first birthday on Saturday! I cannot believe how quickly a year has passed. It seems like just yesterday, and forever ago, at the same time, that he was in the NICU and we were praying for him to come home. But here we are, one year later, and he’s as precious as can be. He no longer has to wear his helmet (as of Thursday)! Woo hoo! That is truly an answered prayer. His head looks good. He is walking all around and getting into trouble, as you can imagine. =) We now have gates inside our double sided fireplace b/c he thinks it is so funny to get in trouble when he tries to play with the rocks in there. We have to keep Sage’s water and bowls behind a closed door when he’s awake b/c playing with them is just so much fun! His little personality is just so cute! He’s making a lot more sounds now, but hasn’t got the whole talking thing down quite yet. He’s sleeping much longer at nighttime, going to bed at 7:30 and waking up after 7. At his one year check up, he was 50% in height and weight, and a little above average in head size (just like big brother!) So all in all, we have a wonderfully healthy, happy one year old!

His birthday was such a fun day! We woke him up singing, “Happy Birthday” and then went in Elijah’s room to wake him up. Then we asked Elijah what day today was and he said, “It’s Luke’s Birthday Party Day!!!” and proceeded to sing Happy Birthday to Luke! We had his party at 11 – just family and a couple close friends (who are practically family!) The theme was first birthday all-star (yes, we reused Elijah’s decorations!). But this time, we had concession style food – hot dogs, hamburgers, nachos in the little plastic trays, bags of popcorn, soft pretzels, sports cupcakes, and ice cream in little baseball cap ice cream cups. My friend, Holly, who owns and runs HollyDays made some stickers for the caps that all said Luke. Then the kids that came to the party had their own caps with their names on them. They were really cute! Outside we had a pool and slip n slide set up for the kiddos (however, after trying it on Sunday, myself, I have to admit, it’s fun for adults too!) Elijah decided to prematurely get in the water with all of his clothes on, and then proceeded to strip down after he was all wet… That’s our boy! =) Luke had a lot of fun, and a lot of help, opening his presents. He got some really great toys! Among them were some squeaky shoes that he got to sport for a while and sounded so cute as he walked… “squeak squeak, squeak squeak, squeak squeak,…” Too funny.

(The above picture is cousin Hayden Burns, future daughter-in-law Bella Grace Monroe, Elijah and Luke, cousins Taylor and Riley Swearengin, and Cameron, a friend of Luke’s Grammy)

Cake time was a blast as he dug into his baseball smash cake. He loved smashing it up, but didn’t really eat much of it. He smashed it outside, so it was incredibly convenient to clean him off in the baby pool (and you can see in the picture below, Elijah's just loving the slip n slide!) By that time, he was quite ready for his milk and nap. The party kept going for a little while after he left and we had a lot of fun. We got to take some pictures of him after he woke up. My sister, Kristi, made him a sweet little outfit , bib, and birthday hat, so if you’re ever needing something special, I’m sure she can help you out!

Luke, along with his big bro, is a precious little boy and we are so blessed to be his parents. We’ve grown a lot as a family this year and it hasn’t always been smooth sailing, but it is a blessing to have these sweet boys and this great family. We are so thankful for everything the Lord’s blessed us with and we just pray that our household can serve Him well.

And, of course, a couple Elijah stories to make you smile:

It’s naptime and Luke and I are in Elijah’s room tucking him into bed. Luke tries to climb in bed with Elijah and then…

Elijah: I think Luke wants to sleep with me today.

Mom: Well, when you and Luke are bigger, you can sleep together sometime.

Elijah: I think he’s big Mommy. I think he can sleep in my bed with me.

I just read a book that Luke received in the mail and I was showing Elijah that it was Luke’s book…

Mom: It says “Luke Burns”

Elijah: I think it says Me Burns… see? “Me Burns” (as he moves his finger under the words as if he’s reading it). It says “E-L-I-J-A-H.” See Momma?

Our Baby's Walking and Our Big Boy's Trilingual

We'll first start off by showing Luke's first haircut... I had called our friend, Jennifer, who cuts mine and Elijah's hair, but Stephen didn't want to wait and took the clippers to his head. I can't really say much since I didn't do a great job when I attempted to cut Elijah's hair for the first time. We'll just let the pictures speak for themselves...
Because we were going out of town before Jennifer was able to fix his hair, we had Taylor's hair dresser fix it up in Huntsville... He looked so much better!

We can finally say that Luke is walking!!! A few weeks ago (I think June 28th), he started to take 8 or so steps at a time here and there. Since then, he has steadily increased the amount of steps he'll take. Yesterday he walked from the far side of our den fireplace, all the way to the oven in the kitchen. So I think we can officially say he's walking now. Elijah was such a dramatic shift from crawling to solely walking in one day. But Luke likes the variety of crawling and walking.



He's getting more talkative, but still not saying anything really besides momma and dadda... I think at times he says duck, banana, more, and ball, but nothing incredibly consistent. He has dropped two feedings, so now he just eats breakfast, lunch, whole milk before his nap, dinner, and nurses at bedtime (snacks in btwn of course). He's been quite fussy when it comes to eating dinner - the boy hates his veggies. We're also convinced in just a matter of time he's going to either turn into a banana or a blueberry with the amount of fruits he's eating. We are gearing up for his birthday on Saturday! It's so hard to believe he's ready to turn one!



A few sweet Elijah stories...
Every time before he lays down to sleep, we sing him a lullaby. It started out with "I'll love you forever," then it changed to "Brahm's Lullaby" with us making up words. Here's an example.... Lullaby and goodnight. Go to sleep sweet Elijah. While you're sleeping mommy and daddy, and Luke will go to sleep too. And while you're dreaming, dream of airplanes and helicopters too. But for now, close your eyes, and know that mommy and daddy love you." And we always change up what he dreams about - and the wonder in his eyes as he's getting exited about dreaming is so precious! But lately, he's been wanting us (well, Mommy) to sing the "German Lullaby," which is just Brahms Lullaby in German. And I asked him to sing it to me the other day and he sang most of the words correctly! So Elijah is now trilingual - he can speak in English, sing his Spanish ABCs, and sing in German. :) lol

Every time Elijah hears a fire truck, ambulance, or police car, he insists that we pray for them (so sweet!). So we'll pray for them together and then he will always add "And please help them not to get boo boos on their knees. Amen." [A little background on that - Mrs. Debbie at church was the first to pray for a fire truck with him and it just so happened to be after Elijah got a boo boo on his knee. So I guess that's something he associates with praying for them.]

Luke is 11 months! (And a bunch of pictures)

"We want to be just like our Daddy!"
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DADDY!
This picture was taken several months ago for a card we made for Stephen. They had a fun Father's Day with their Daddy yesterday. Stephen and Elijah went to see Elijah's first big movie, Toy Story 3 yesterday and they had so much fun! They both equally ate an entire thing of popcorn (Elijah just asked, "may I please have some popcorn mommy?") and enjoyed their Daddy Date.

We had so much fun at cousin Taylor's 3rd Bday party - This is one of the only shots of Taylor and Elijah together - they were always on the go! And in the background is cousin Riley!

Elijah and Luke had a blast at Summerquest, Hunter Street Baptist Church's Vacation Bible School. They did so many crafts! The sweet ladies from Hunter Street even made Luke a precious scrapbook with pictures and Bible verses. Too precious!

We had fun at the this month's playgroup! We were at our friends, the Watson's, house, but the kids felt like they were at a water park! In the picture above, Elijah is climbing up the right slide. (go figure!)

Luke is now 11 months old! At 11 months, Luke...

-is walking everywhere, while holding onto something. He has taken a few steps on his own, but would rather push a toy to get to another toy, than let go and try to walk to it. In the pool, however, he is bold and thinks he can walk. He has taken about 7 or so steps in the 1 ft pool.
-has grown attached to his cuddle and paci at nighttime and naptime. He does not let go of his cuddle (a little stuffed animal head w/ a tiny blanket attached) from the time he lies down until we pick him up.
-isn't much of a talker. He will say syllables a lot (mostly nana, mama, and dada), but hasn't picked up any words yet besides mama and dada.
- loves to wave hello and bye bye, clap his hands, and put his hands up for "touch down bama"
-can go from crying to giggling up a storm just by walking up to the radio to turn it on. The boy loves to dance! He laughs and laughs when you turn on music and dance with him.
-has a unique whine that sounds like an ambulance. We hear this when we're not giving him enough attention or if he's frustrated with something.
-gasps in his air in excitement whenever he sees Stephen pull in the driveway. He reaches his hands out to him, kicks his feet, and giggles for his daddy.
-is fearless in the water. He could care less if kids nearby splash or pour water on him. And it doesn't phase him one bit when he walks in the pool and falls down under the water.
-is still wearing his helmet. I know a lot of pictures show him w/o it, but he can't wear it in the pool and we tend to take it off for a few minutes when we want to take some pictures. He's still wearing it 23 hours a day. We go back on Thursday for them to tell us whether or not he's done wearing it. Most likely, his head will have grown the amt needed to take it off, but it will be up to use whether or not to continue the use for a little bit longer to make his head more symmetrical. He still has a little flat spot in the back, but at this point, it's hard to tell if that's just a normal baby's head or if it's something to continue to correct. Most likely, we will keep it on another month just for added correction.

FYI - As of a month and a half ago, we only have one in diapers!!! Elijah still wears them at naptime and bedtime, but the moment he pops out of bed, his underwear goes on. He has been doing AWESOME! He's only had about a handful of accidents, the last one being the first weekend in June. We're so proud of him!!!

Luke finally said Mama!!!! (and some other fun updates...)

I'm going to start off by boasting that my son finally said Mama!!!! It was Elijah's first word, at 6 months, but Luke was 10 months and never said it... But finally, last Monday, May 24th, while I was video taping the boys during dinner, Luke said it!! Elijah got a big smile on his face and he said "He just said Mama!!!" He was as overjoyed as I was - and it's all on tape! Woo hoo!!!

So since I mentioned potty training in my last post, I figured I would follow up a bit... Elijah's doing great!!! He gets a gold star on his calendar for every day he doesn't tinkle in his underwear and his calendar is filled up with stars! And if he "poo poos" in the potty, he gets a dollar bill and a big sticker for his calendar. He likes to save those for during naptime when he's wearing his diaper, but he's still filling up his piggy bank pretty well! Last week, I started sending him in his underwear to childcare at church (while I teach aerobics) and we had no accidents. This Sunday, however, was his first time at church from 8 until nearly 11 (during the week it's 8:45ish to 11) and he almost made it. They said he tinkled a lot and did so great, but just before everyone was getting ready to leave, they were tending to the other kids and happened to look back at Elijah and see he had had an accident. That was the first accident he had in nearly 2 weeks (and even before that it was just a tiny bit). But they said to still send him in his underwear next week b/c he did great. We have summer quest (VBS) at church all next week from 8 until 12, so I'm really wanting to make sure he can wear underwear to that. But it's really been rather easy potty training him. (I know I'm going to regret writing that!) Praise the Lord for allowing Elijah to be ready for this!

We went to the zoo last week and had so much fun! We went with friends in the playgroup from our Sunday school class. It was Luke's first trip to the zoo. He seemed to have fun looking at all of the animals, but the water park was by far his favorite part! They have a squirt pad that the kids can run around where water randomly squirts out of it. When we took Elijah at 10 mo, he hated it! We have a picture of him crawling around on it and the look on his face was "I am so mad...I can't believe you let me get wet!!!!!" Luke, at the same age, on the other hand, loved the water! He would just crawl right up to the water and wait for it to come up and splash all over him. He absolutely had a blast! The animals were fun to look at - a lot were sleeping though. When we were over in the barn area, Elijah saw a llamma and kept calling it "Llamma llamma red pajama" (great book if you've never read it!). It was funny.

On Monday we finally took both of the boys to the pool. The weather had been awful all weekend, but once we saw a glimmer of sunshine on Monday, we rushed down there. Elijah apparently forgot all about how to play in a pool - he got in the 1ft baby pool and immediately started running! He fell over, which startled himself, but as soon as we got him on his feet, he tried to run again! That happened several times to the point where he got a little afraid of falling. So we decided to have him kneel and show him how easily he can stand back up. But as soon as he (reluctantly) knelt down, he started to pray, "Our Father, who art in heaven,..." We were cracking up! Then about 20 min later, we tried to get him to kneel again, and he started "Dear Lord. Thank you for this day..." Too sweet!!! Meanwhile, Luke was having a blast walking around the pool and splashing up a storm. I got the courage to take the boys to the pool myself today and we had a great time. Elijah was a little cautious, but never fell. Luke, on the other hand, was fearless - trying to reach for the diving sticks at the bottom, letting go of the side and standing up by himself in the water, falling numerous times without a single cry! Elijah looked at me while we were at the pool and he yelled "This is so fun!!!" It really was. I'm looking forward to a super fun summer with my guys!

Oh and a note to all you couponers out there - We went shopping on Monday and bought 10 packs of Huggies jumbo pack diapers, 2 Olay face washes, Nivea body wash, and 2 Physician's Formula bronzer/blush/eye shadow combo... Originally, that would cost about 140 or so. But with all of the good deals and coupons, we got it all for 36! God has really blessed us with good deals and wise spending!

Summertime's Coming!

With the weather being SO beautiful, we've been able to have some summertime fun! We took the boys a Baron's baseball game on Friday night and had a blast. Stephen had a work social at the game, so we went and got dinner and Elijah got to bounce in one of the inflatables. Both of the boys got a glove at the game (which worked out perfect since we forgot to bring Elijah's with us!) Despite the SUPER hot weather and lack of a breeze, we had a great time.

Grammy took Elijah for a little "Grammy Date" last night, so we decided to take Luke to experience his first time in a swimming pool. He was not having anything to do with it - super sad whenever his toes hit the water, which was a pretty comfortable temperature. But once he got in the water completely, with his feet of the floor, he was perfectly content. He was just all smiles and splashing up a storm! We could have stayed there all afternoon, but dinnertime came all too quickly. But now we know that he loves the pool, which was kind of a prerequisite for being in this family, since mommy plans on being down there every day this summer!

Potty Training Time

It is potty training time, once again. I tried this last year around this time, but Elijah wasn't quite ready. He didn't have the bladder control at all, although it was a great starting point. Since then, he's tinkled in the potty on command really well and has gone at least once a day. But we had a pretty boring week, so I decided to start hard core on Monday. His incentive for tinkling is stickers for his calendar. We have a calendar that we do every Monday - I make a new one on posterboard each month and on every Monday, we color pictures of our plans for the week (library book for library, cross for church, etc) on paper, cut them out together, and he glues them on the specific day. [This started off back when he was about 20 months old b/c I wanted to make sure, since he's not in Mother's Day Out, that I'm teaching him most things that he would be learning there, and I thought "Days of the Week" might be one of them.] So anyways, we used to give him coins as an incentive for going on the potty - which since he LOVED them so much, he can now tell you what men are on the quarter, penny, and dime - but that didn't work so well once we used coins as bribery for other things (aka good behavior in public). So this week he has started putting little stickers on the calendar in 'today's date,' every time he tinkles on the potty. On Monday, he spent all day naked and only tinkled on the floor once. I reminded him every hour to go and he did great. On Tuesday, he spent the morning naked (w/ one accident during lunch in his high chair), and then he wore underwear in the afternoon. On Wednesday, he spent the day in his underwear, and I let him lead me a little more on when he goes to the potty. I eventually made him go a little after 10 since he hadn't gone since he woke up. We made a trip to Publix without a diaper on (I thought that would either turn out to be a brave or stupid decision). At publix, we were in the frozen section when he told me he needed to tinkle on the potty, so we made a mad dash to the rest rooms. It was quite difficult getting him up on the potty (praise the Lord for sanitizing wipes in the bathroom) with Luke in my arms, but he did a great job. He tinkled just a touch in his underwear later that day and then, when I was cleaning up after bedtime, I found that he tinkled in Stephen's chair during his movie... oh well. But my goal, from now on, is to wear underwear at home and then pull ups, I guess, in public outings (with the exception of small trips here and there). I really hope this goes well!

Life with two boys is getting more and more interesting. Luke's pulling up and walking/pushing everything. I didn't pay much attention to it when I was helping Elijah brush his teeth and Luke was walking around the potty, until he grabbed Elijah's little potty and turned it over, spilling a potty full of pee all over the hardwoods. I quickly put both of the boys out of the bathroom, told Elijah to watch his brother for a second =), and closed the door to clean up the mess. When I was done, no more than 1 min later, Elijah was all the way up the stairs, and Luke had made it past the landing on our stairs (almost 1/2way up). Then Elijah said "Hey down there!" with a big smile on his face...It was really cute. Lesson learned - I should shut the gate to the stairs and not close the door when I'm cleaning. =)
Luke has finally started to like books in the past couple days. Generally, he's too distracted to sit and read for a wihle, but something has just clicked in the last couple days. He gets really giddy when I take out "Brown Bear." and it's so cute... Other things that make him start to smile, laugh, and kick his legs in excitement are...opening the front door to the house (we generally wait for daddy to come home when that happens), bananas, Elijah giggling at him, holding him in your arms and dancing with him..He's a sweet, happy boy. He has gotten not one, not two, but three teeth now, and the fourth is about to break through the surface. We'll just say teething hasn't been the best experience in the world...He hasn't been all that fussy though, so that's definitely something to be thankful for. He's had trouble napping the past 2 days and woke up in the middle of the night last night, screaming bloody murder for a good hour. I had quite the meltdown on Tuesday... I keep trying to wake up early, setting the alarm at, now 5:45, just to get some things done around the house and find some time to shower. But Luke keeps waking up earlier and earlier! So I was crying to Stephen on Tuesday, and what does he do? He comes home a little early with roses and chocolates (and an orchid), and a beautifully written little card. Then today, he went into work later than usual (which is probably normal time for most people) just so I could get a shower before my day started, which is so sweet. (A shower might not sound like a lot to most people, but for moms with little ones, you know how big a deal that can be!) So I just wanted to let everyone know how great of a husband he is!