Are Those Cookies Done YET?!?!

And for the Niehomes who might be curious, yes, those are sour cream cookies that Luke is dying to get his paws on.

In the midst of all of our preparations,

Luke got to go sledding for the first time. He just giggled watching Mommy and Daddy trying to run in the snow and pull him.

Luke has also found the most wonderful independence...he has learned to steer! Rather than walking his lawnmower into the wall and whining until you helped turn it around for him, he now can go all over with it. Round and round the kitchen, back and forth from the office. And, what a wonderful little break it's been for Mommy.

Eleven Months Old!

Unfortunately, I'm not sure exactly how much he weighs...somewhere between 21-22 pounds. We are so close to walking, but just needing a bit of confidence to let go. We don't get many discernable noises yet, but a whole lot of gurgling and ahhhing. In fact, when Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas, he replied, "Ahhhhh." It clearly means something to him, but he hasn't been too concerned with making sure we understand it yet.

Our First Visit with Santa

Luke was a trooper! Not one little tear or even a while! He sort of was just wondering what on earth was going on. But, we managed to get just a little smile out of him for a quick pic!

Not Rain, Nor Snow, Not Even a Toddler...

Can keep us cats away from our treats! Obviously, Luke wants in on the action, too, or at least he was taken advantage of an opportunity to finally get his hands on the furry creatures that elude him.

Bye, Bye Grass!

Well, I figure we probably won't see our grass again until April or May. It's been snowing just about every other day here. We asked for snow and boy did we get it! Apparently, this is a triffle unusual for here this early. Usually, it's January before you start seeing temperatures in the single digits and one Alberta clipper after another. We totally missed the boat on getting our Christmas decorations outside. Next year, we will do it at Thanksgiving, like all the other smart people, so that when it starts snowing the Monday after Thanksgiving, we'll be all set. Mike has officially christened the snowblower and Luke and I pretty much spent the week inside nursing our colds. I'm already looking forward to spring and the end of cold and flu season. Ah, the joys of being a parent, right?

Pics from Thanksgiving

Welcome, December!

So, I'm wondering whether we'll see the grass again until spring? We've had our first snowfall, with two more chances for snow in the next 5 days. And, after 3.5 hours total, Mike got his mom to the airport yesterday morning and then made it to work. But, Luke and got all decked out and headed outside to experience the wet stuff firsthand.

The Answer We've All Been Looking For

Mommy! Mommy!! I've been looking at the numbers on this whole economic crisis thingy, and I know what the answer is!!

...More toys for me!

10 Months Old!

Weight: 20 lbs 8 ounces

Height: 29 1/4 inches

Favorite Activities: Flying, cruising, pulling Sydney's tail, and scooting various objects around the room, usually one in each hand

Favorite Food: Anything you want to give me

Where Did the Year Go?

We were at the doctor's yesterday and I had to make a follow up appointment for 3 weeks out. I asked the very nice receptionist, "What date is 3 weeks from now?" December 4th. Holy cow! It's like 6 weeks until Christmas?!?!? Sorry, I'm having a deer in the headlights moment. It seems like Luke was just born yesterday, much less almost 10 months ago. Wow. Guess I better get on the schtick and get Christmas presents bought, eh?

You might be wondering why we were at the doctor's? Well, we had Luke's regularly scheduled 9-month checkup. It was opportunistic as it turns out his cold morphed into an ear infection. Aha! That explains the crankiness. And, here I thought it was teething. Ooops.

In the midst of the fogginess of being sick, Luke was very timely with a new trick. Daddy had just had one of those days on Monday. He tried working from home and the cable went out along with the internet. Then, he tried to work from Panera, but configuration on his computer wouldn't let him connect. It just wasn't a good start to his day. But, he was greeted when he came home by Luke clapping! We now clap at anything and everything...clapping for a Cheerio that made it into his mouth, clapping that Pinochle sneezed, clapping that the telephone rang. It's quite funny actually. I'm thrilled for a bit more interactive communication!! At least we can clap back and forth.

In other developmental news, Luke pushed his lawnmower around the kitchen numerous times the other night. Mike ran for the video camera and I jumped for my cell phone to send a quick pic to Grandma. After 20 minutes of realizing that he must be doing something really cool to get Mommy and Daddy cheering for him so much, he decided he was ready to crawl again and hasn't tried the trick again since. I keep placing him behind the lawnmower but he just squats back down and goes for the safer furniture cruising. I have this strange feeling though that those 6 weeks until Christmas may bring about big changes in the walking department. We'll see!

Grandparents are Truly a Wonderful Thing

My poor parents drive all the way up here for a weekend with Luke and ended up taking care of a sick baby and a Mommy who wasn't feeling too well either. I don't know how we could have gotten through the weekend without them! Poor Luke's cold went from bad to worse on Friday night. He was up off and on throughout the night and finally came down with a fever, so Mike and I covered the night shift and then handed him off to Grandma in the morning for a few hours. It's really Luke's first cold, which has been great that he's been so healthy, but then I haven't had a chance to jump into my neurotic mommy mode and understand everything about what to look for and how long I need to wait to call the doctor. This is my one big hangup - not wanting to go the doctor and waste their time, but understanding when Luke really needs one. Our neighbor back in Virginia, who happens to be a nurse, reminded me that I'm helping to pay for my doctor's new home addition (as a figure of speech). So, we're going to see the doctor this morning after trying all weekend to get this thick yucky stuff to clear up with irrigation and a whole lot of aspirating. BTW, have you ever tried to do this with a kicking, screaming baby?

Despite feeling under the weather and the weather outside being downright dreary and cold, we managed to still enjoy the visit tremendously. Here are some pics courtesy of Grandma Ellen, or is it just Grandma, or is it Grandma L.? (My mom are dad are still deciding what they want to be called, so I just had to give them a little encouragement here). They would certainly welcome suggestions from my readers, I'm sure. Grandma Lukens is off-limits though, as that belongs to my late Grandmother. Anyway, on to the pics of the weekend.

Luke had a large infatuation with Grandpa's beard. If you look closely, you can see his hand tryinig to grab it, but he obviously had to take time to smile for the camera.

Grandpa also has started a fleet for Luke, so here he is taking his new boats for a test drive. Noah's ark (hidden behind Luke in the picture) is unfortunately prone to grounding given the small amount of water. Once Luke gets a little bigger, hopefully, we can have a better "flood" so that the ark can go for a spin around the tub with its propellers.

Who Thought Up Daylight Savings Anyway?

Oh, right! Benjamin Franklin. Clearly, he didn't have a toddler at the time. Really, we would have been fine, except that Luke's body has decided that he needs to poop a lot more often. We went from once a day back to 5 or 6 times a day. What does this have to do with Daylight Savings, you ask? Well, it's usually what wakes him up, and unfortunately, even though he wants to sleep until he sees the sun, his body hasn't quite caught on to that yet. So, 4:15 this morning, I knew I'd be up changing a diaper and then fighting like heck to get him to go back to sleep. Maybe he was just excited about the election??

It's been a while since I posted some pictures of our recent adventures and such. First off, some pics of Luke and Millan

And, just some other fun pictures...

Happy Halloween from the Gigglemonster

It's All Hallows Eve! Luke is donning his costume and ready to greet the millions of kids that we expect to descend on our doorstep between the official Halloween hours of 3 -7 PM. Yes, I swear his arms are free, but funny how it looks like I've strapped them into his costume in the picture!

We've enjoyed a teething free week, thanks to the appearance of a mystery tooth up top. Hooray! So, we celebrated with lots of excitement this week, including a Halloween Party with about 40 kids running around (yes, at someone's house!) and a trip to the Arboretum with Luke's good friend Millan and his mommy. But, the giggles didn't stop there. The other night as we were finishing with the bedtime routine and Luke was settling into Dada's arms with a bottle, something was terribly funny about the bottle. It looked like the same old bottle to Dada and Mama, but clearly, we were missing something that only little eyes could see. Luke erupted into all out belly laughs everytime he put it in his mouth. We just couldn't help laughing right along with him, so there we sat - everyone giggling to the point of tears, very thankful that it was laughter instead of the tears we had the week before.

We hope that everyone has a safe and fun Halloween!

4 Things I Discovered Yesterday

1) French Fries go REALLY well with a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, almost better than with a Wendy's Frosty. (Okay, so I splurged yesterday)


2) I've now seen graffle (sp?). It technically refers to frozen-ish precipitation that's not snow and not sleet.


3) The Windy City lives up to its name. Yesterday, a gust registered 61 mph near us. Really cleared some of the leaves.


4) When you need 1 protector to keep your child from chewing on the rail of his crib, you really need 2. Duh.

The Nerve of Some People

It may be my lack of sleep this week, so this could all be in the eye of the beholder. There I was, at the grocery store, fussy baby in the cart, unloading my hordes of groceries onto the belt. Sometimes, I like to do self-checkout (our store has lines for larger orders) so that I can bag it myself, but I knew that today, Luke would not be cooperative. So, there I am, and someone comes up behind us, and I think he's trying to make friends with Luke as many people do. Then I realized he was talking to me and asking if he could go ahead with his 2 items since I had a large cartful. Let me just say that by looking at him, I could tell that he was not very aware of the challenges that moms face trying to do things while carting around a toddler, much less a fussy one. So, what do you say?? "I'm sorry, I really need to get done as fast as possible"...or "No, I was here first"...or "How about you try shopping with a toddler and then ask me again"...or "There's no waiting at the Self-Checkout Express lane over there." I decided to be nice and do the guy a favor, so I said, "Sure, fine," but I said it a bit tersely hoping that he would get the hint that he really shouldn't ask a favor from a mom with a fussy child.

Well...then I realized that there was a reason why this gentleman needed to go through this particular lane. He had tried to go once and hadn't spent the requisite $25 to use his $5 coupon, so he went and found 2 additional items, leaving the rest of his order piled behind the nice lady. So, there I stood, unconsciously dropping my jaw to the floor in disbelief as the checker rang up the other 10-15 items he was purchasing. Then, he was having difficulty using the credit card machine and he kept trying to sign at the wrong time, so all of this took more time than I was really willing to give as a favor to a total stranger. Had it been another mother or father, or someone who just looked like they were having a rough day and needed something to go his or her way, I would have gladly offered to let them go ahead. I guess the gentleman did give me something in return - he gave me something to blog about today other than teething.

9 Months Old!

Hard to believe that Luke's been with us already nine months! He weighs 20 pounds 4 ounces and measures 29 1/8 inches long. He's starting to cruise the furniture and had his first Cheerios today in honor of his "birthday." We even gave him a bit of pancake this morning.

A Family Outing to the Arboretum

It was a gorgeous day so we decided to do what everyone else was doing and head to the Arboretum. The leaves are just starting to change but still some neat colors! They have an amazing children's garden with all sorts of discovery areas. So, we let Luke get a little dirty and have some fun with the big kids. It will be wonderful to take him back over the next couple of years as he grows. And, I'm sure we'll get better at getting him to look at the camera.

Yummy! Sand and dirt and stuff!

Ah...back at home after a very exciting day. So much excitement that it's good to sit on the couch and watch some football.

An Update on Our Church Quest

We visited another church this weekend. It has a pipe organ, a music program, and a bell choir, so it did pass the critical requirements. Mike and I both decided that it wasn't an "emphatic" no, but we both leaned towards no. It is a much older congregration (not in age of congregants but in how long it and the building have been there) and the general impression that we were both left with was that it lacked energy. There was a guest preacher, which makes us feel that we need to go back to give it an honest try. We didn't really care for the guest minister; he lost me when he pulled out an actual body bag as a prop. I passed Mike a note about that time in the sermon: "I miss Trinity." We'll keep looking and will probably go back and see Pastor Phil soon to fill up our tanks to keep plugging away at our search.

Luke is still having bits of issues with teething pain, but overall, we're much better than Friday. He's pulling up on everything and anything, requiring a lot more careful watching. He loves to talk, but still doesn't like to use many syllables. Still the "ahhh" and gurgle sort of sounds. He started showing a bit more interest in copying Mike and I and I wish I had been fast enough to catch the absolute cutest thing on Sunday. Mike went out the back door to go and mow and Luke crawled to the door and put his hands up to catch his attention. Mike leaned in to kiss him through the window and Luke leaned in too. Definitely a Daddy-lover in this one!



Here he is sporting his new tennis shoes to keep his feet warm.

Merry Hallomas!

When did Halloween become the new Christmas? Or is this just a Chicago thing?

We're Over the Teething Bit

Yesterday just wasn't a good day. Lots of screaming, whining, carrying Luke around, headaches, and sniffles. (In fact, I took Luke to the doctor to rule out an ear infection, and she confirmed that the teeth were moving like crazy without making me feel stupid for wasting her time). So, Mike and I waved the white flag and ordered pizza last night. He left me in charge while he put Luke down (for the record, bad idea to put tired, indecisive Mommy in charge of such a decision). I decided to try a new place because we had coupons - a free small pizza with purchase of an 18 inch pizza sounded good for leftovers through the weekend. What showed up, however, wasn't even close to 18 inches in diameter. It was more like an 18 inch radius...the total should have clued me in a bit, but hey, I figured it must just be really good pizza. I was pretty much giggling about the absurdity of my purchase the entire night, and here was our conversation as I put away the rest of the 3/4 pizza.

J: We don't have a refrigerator in this house this box will fit in.

M: Not even close. Is there something else you can put it in?

J: I'll try Ziplocs. Hmmm...might have to use one gallon size for each piece.

M: Is there anything else larger you can use?

J: I know we don't have any tupperware large enough. Maybe I can get two pieces in each bag.

M: How about a garbage bag?

An Early Infatuation With Plastic

This is how we spent a large part of last week: hand grasped tightly to various plastic cards and rest of self so excited that the only thing to do is stand on your knees and raise your arms in the air and praise the plastic gods (or at least, the AAA gods). Is this a bad sign for the future?

Luke's First Pumpkin Patch

Way too much going on around him to think that we could get him to look at the camera