Fall Fun!

I love the Fall. The weather gets cooler, the leaves start to change, and the holidays are right around the corner. There is so much fun to be had in the Fall!

I love to bake and make treats. My sister and I decided to tackle caramel apples this year. We coated the apples in caramel, chocolate, and our own toasted and chopped almonds. They were de-lish and made great gifts!

For those of you who aren't Spanish buffs, Calabasas means "pumpkin". So it seems only appropriate that the city of Calabasas hosts a Pumpkin Festival each year. It was a hot day, but we still enjoyed all the pumpkins, pumpkin flavored goodies, and general ambiance.

Our little pumpkin. :)

We spent Halloween weekend up at my mom's house because her birthday was the day before Halloween. Downtown Pleasanton had so much fun stuff going on, we enjoyed the farmer's market, window shopping, and all the cute kids in costumes!

Luke was dressed as, what else?? -- a pirate! He was a rather adorable pirate if you ask us. We took him trick-or-treating to some of our close family friends, but no candy for him this year. He was perfectly happy to chew on his little plastic and cloth sword anyway.

And check out this pumpkin my brother-in-law carved! Such skill!

Can't wait for the holidays -- the season is upon us!

8 Months Old!

Another month has gone by already. Maybe it is because our life has been so incredibly busy lately, but I swear I was just writing his 7 month post. This past month has seen many milestones and, while I have cherished each stage thus far, I love watching Luke discover his world and get so excited when he learns he can do something new in it.

Here are our updates:

• Weight ~21 lbs (again an estimate, we'll get formal stats next month)
• Wears some large 6-9 month sizes, but mostly 9 month and even some small 12 month sizes
• Loves his food and eats pretty much everything. Enjoys all the new food combinations. Has a bit of an orange nose because he loves the orange veggies and fruits so much. Have not yet started meats and only just started on puffs; will incorporate much more over the next month. Also just started introducing lunch.
• Can hold his own bottle, but doesn't do so all the time
• SO curious about everything. Wants to touch, grab, feel anything new. The best toys are not really toys.
• Among the toys he does love: his jumperoo and doorway jumper (the kid gets air when jumping!), his curiosity cube (a cube with all sorts of fun sides) and his Leapfrog table (this one is fairly recent, he can push/pull and the buttons and things and he loves the music and noise).
• Raises arms to be picked up by certain people (mostly mom and dad).
• He is impossibly wiggly and changing a diaper is still the ultimate challenge because of his need to roll all over.
• Babbles more and more with actual sounds and syllables.
• VERY close to crawling! He gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth. He can scoot himself backwards and turn himself in circles, but has a little trouble with the shifting of weight from one arm to another to move forward. If you grab under his arms when he is on all fours, he will put his feet under him and actually walk them in to you. However, we need him to crawl first for all those developmental reasons and use of opposites, so I give him lessons each night. :)
• While he is not a cuddler, if you are sitting on the floor near him, he will be quick to scoot himself over and crawl into your lap to play. So cute.
• He is actually pulling himself up! It started with his leapfrog table. He gets his feet under him and pulls on up! Such a big boy!

Here are few updated pictures from the last month:

On his tummy right after a bath because he won't stay on his back. So much more fun to roll all over. Mommy and Daddy just have to be extra diligent not to let him roll right off the counter!

We moved his little tub to the big tub because the counters became just too unsafe for our roly poly. As you can see, he doesn't like to stay seated in his bathtub either.

This is how he sleeps. It's precious. He likes his head right up against his bumper and sleeps on his tummy with his little arms tucked underneath and his booty in the air.

Look at my big boy!

Such a character. Probably trying to grab the camera to eat it.

And notice the orange nose.

His shirt says "Chubby Cheeks". It is so appropriate because he has my big cheeks when he smiles. And because he has chub pretty much everywhere else.

It's hard to tell, but he is standing in this pic after pulling himself up. I keep his boppy close by in case he takes a tumble. Unfortunately the boppy has not caught every tumble so far...I am sure this is only the beginning of all that. Having a boy makes me so nervous!

This picture is precious to me for 2 reasons: 1) my little boy is doing the plank and just on the verge of crawling and 2) it is taken at Gram and Grandpa's house where I have baby pictures on the very same wonderful, gold, wool carpet. I cherish this one!

Another milestone -- feeding himself using his pincer grasp! (And notice the left hand...can we accept a lefty in our house??)

While I can't wait for our little guy to crawl, I know it will be a mixed blessing with such an active one on the go! We have the baby gates ready to put in place, I am sure they will be up soon! Until next month!

Cowboy Church

Our church kicks off each Fall a little differently -- we have our worship service at Paramount Ranch in Agoura Hills. Paramount Ranch is an old western set, probably most famous as the set of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. They have a large pavilion under which we have our church service and potluck lunch afterward. It is a fun way to utilize our unique surroundings here in LA.

Picture of the live set.

My sister, Katie, and her husband, Chad, came down for a weekend visit.

Grammie came to visit as well. Luke actually fell asleep outside of his own bed or the carseat! He is usually much too stimulated by his surroundings to sleep outside of those 2 places; it was so nice when the wiggle worm conked out!

Kate is holding Lucy Christy, one of Luke's future friends. :)

Grammie with our big boy!

Such fun! We look forward to it every year!

I got a feeling . . .

Not sure how many of you caught this on Oprah the other day- it was a "surprise" flash mob dance.

In this video you'll see Luke's reaction to it. It wasn't long ago that Luke's feet wouldn't even touch the ground in his jumper.

7 months old!

A baby past 6 months of age seems like an "older" baby to me. While we are so excited for all the future will bring and enjoy the continued interaction each new day brings, it sad to think Luke will never be any smaller, will never be a tiny baby again. I know you mothers who have already been there feel this and more! Call me sentimental, but I get a little teary thinking about how fast he grows and changes!

We feel so blessed to have a happy and healthy 7 month old! Here are our updates:

• Weight approx 19.2 lbs (next formal check-up is at 9 months so I weighed him on our scale)
• Wears some large 6 month, 6-9 month and 9 month sizes
• Wears size 3 diapers (had to switch from Pampers to organic Huggies as the fragrance in Pampers was irritating his skin; Huggies does not have a size 2-3, so we moved to size 3)
• In a big boy car seat! Still does not like to be strapped down, but prefers this car seat over the infant seat because he can see the world around him much better.
• Eats his toes -- this is so cute!
• Blows raspberries and does so to signal he is not happy. He will blow when he is done eating and does not want any more or when crying. It's actually kind of funny.
• Smiles and laughs ALL the time. In fact, we get stopped almost everywhere we go as people comment on what a happy baby he is. It is true, he is definitely a very happy baby. Not sure I would say he is an easy baby, but definitely a happy baby.
• Babbles a lot -- "da, da, da" or "ba, ba" or "buh, buh" are the most frequent. He babbles when both happy and talking to himself or when unhappy and crying.
• Still drools copiously. We keep thinking he is on the verge of teething, but no teeth yet.
• Jumping bean! While he has been playing in his jumperoo and doorway jumper for a while now, only in the last couple weeks has he really learned to jump in them. He loves it!
• LOVES to sit in the shopping cart now that he can sit up on his own! Enjoys looking at everything and everyone all around him.
• Diaper changing in now such a challenge for 2 main reasons: 1) he likes to roll over the minute you put him on his back and we cannot get him to stay still to get his diaper changed. I keep a couple toys by his changing table to try to occupy him long enough to get a diaper changed. 2) The kid has what Daddy calls incredible Jujitsu moves. He wraps both his legs around the arm you are using to change him or dress him and turns his body. He is STRONG! Of course, if he really did end up a master of Jujitsu, Daddy would be so proud! Perhaps another black belt in the family??
• When he is nursing or taking a bottle he flaps his free, outside arm up and down. I have no idea what this is all about , but it is pretty funny. Since he does it fairly consistently, thought I needed to add it to the list of updates.
• Eats solids for breakfast and dinner and continues to do well with this. Loves all fruits and orange veggies, but will only eat the green veggies when I blend them with the orange (like peas and carrots). Have you ever tasted the green veggies? I taste everything I give him and they have a nasty aftertaste. I wouldn't want to eat them alone either! We haven't tried any new foods recently, our Pediatrician told us to stick with single foods, not to give him any blended foods just yet to ensure he has no alleriges. I only blend the ones he has already tried successfully.
• Biggest update -- Luke is sleeping through the night!! Hallelujah! Our nightly routine is as follows: dinnertime, playtime, bathtime, nursing and bedtime around 7 pm; "dream feed" (called such because he stays asleep) at 10 pm before I go to bed and one last diaper change; he wakes between 5:30-6:30 am to eat again, then goes back to sleep until 7:30-8:30 am. I started the dream feed because he was waking at 2 or 3 am to eat again, which was not cool. I found that if I just gave him one more feeding before I went to bed, he could make it until early morning. What a difference it makes to have a little more rest!

Here are some of the moments we most enjoyed over the last month (outside of our trip to see grandparents!):

Just as he won't stay still for a diaper change, he won't let us dry him off either without rolling all over the counter! You really have to keep a good hand on him!

In his big boy car seat!

He was exhausted one day after being at Tali's and fell asleep with my sweater while I cooked dinner. Too cute.

We get so many smiles that I had to post a couple other faces. (note the drool all over his shirt.)

Reading the book Grammie gave him. We are trying to encourage good habits. ;)

While I am sad our baby will never be a tiny baby again, he is SO much fun and we both love the time we get to spend with him each day. Love you, Lucas A.!!

Luke and Isaac

We got a chance to meet up with our dear friend Kelli during our layover at DFW Airport. Not the most ideal setup for catching up with a close friend, but we just couldn't pass the chance to see how big Isaac has gotten and to introduce Luke to the Duhaney fam. Here are a few pics and catch the video at the bottom.

I couldn't resist putting up this pic.

My caption for it: "Mamma is this boy real? I think his head might be plastic."

Kelli told me a few days earlier that Isaac really liked the beatbox. I use it on Luke when he starts to get fussy. For some reason babies are fascinated with it. So, I had to share a little with Isaac. Notice Luke in the background. I can't figure out if he's focusing on the sound and trying to pick it up or if he's just not impressed anymore. (and yes I know I got off beat at the end).

Trip to Memphis

We just returned from a trip to Memphis to take Luke to meet both sets of great-grandparents on Allen's side. It was important to us for him not only to get to meet his great-grandparents, but to have pictures with them for his book before he got too old.

This was Luke's first flight -- 2 legs each trip. He was FABULOUS on the way out, slept on both flights. The way back was slightly more challenging because he had been off his schedule for a few days and was a bit overtired. However, we still received several compliments from passengers deplaneing and definitely feel ready to fly with him again soon (which is good because we have additional flight plans Thanksgiving and Christmas!). Luke also got to meet Isaac on our layover in DFW. A brief, but fun visit. Luke was so taken with Isaac! I posted pics on facebook.

Does it look like we were only going to be gone for 5 days given the amount of stuff we took? Our new, lightweight stroller was fantastic. We had a "gate check" bag to keep it clean and it was so easy to use and handy to have. We also took our own car seat per the recommendation of a broker of mine who travels frequently with his kids. We did not have to pay for an extra seat, American Airlines hooked us up each time and blocked a row of 3 seats together. This was so good to have because it gave Luke his own, familiar space.

I think this picture is funny because he was reclined in the stroller and his head looks smaller than his body.

Playing with Nanna.

"Oh! So that's how you buy wood on ebay."

With Grand Dad and Granny Dot

With Granny

Fun times with Granny Dot and Nanna

4 generations of Gillespies

4 generations of Stewarts/Gillespies

We had a great time and can't wait to go back!