9 Months and 2.5 Years

Yep.  They were right.  All the people who said I wouldn't be able to keep up with the monthly posts with my second child like I did my first - they were right.  My poor second child.  He doesn't have near the photos of him that I took of the first.  Luke doesn't have the blog posts like James either.  But what does he have?  A crazy brother who loves him.  Luke and James make each other laugh and entertain each other better than I can.  I know they are going to be best buddies as they grow.  So here I am... beyond delayed on Luke's 7 and 8 month post.  So I'm going to combine it in a post with James too.  

Luke:

- He stopped napping with me shortly after he turned six months old.  I LOVED napping with him and part of me still misses this.  I loved putting James to bed and then taking Luke to my room and cuddling with him and we'd all sleep for about three hours.  But Luke got to the point where he started napping better without me and he started napping for longer stretches in his crib.  So now he takes a nice morning nap that's usually 1-1.5 hours and a nice afternoon nap that's usually about 2 hours.  For a long time, Luke woke up each morning at 6am, but that's because he went to bed at 6pm.  At around 8 months old, we transitioned him to go to bed at 7 and wake up at 7.  This is much better for the whole family.  He goes down for naps at at night in his bed with his little sleep sack on without issue. 

- He loves food!  This is so different from his brother.  James didn't like eating food until he was almost a year old.  Luke embraced it around 8 months old.  We never did purees (they kinda gross me out and I don't have time to spoon feed a kid).  He likes sweet potato and cucumber.  His favorite food is a banana.  The kid gets so excited when he sees it coming.  He grabs on to it and sucks on it like a Popsicle.  Sometimes I wonder why he's so quiet and it's because he's sucking on a banana.  He takes little bites of most things we eat.  He doesn't really like meat yet.  He eats eggs every morning.  He doesn't seem to want dairy yet.  I've tried to give him cheese and yogurt, but he's not interested.  He nurses 6 times during the day and twice at night.

- He weighed 21 pounds and 2 ounces the last time we went to the doctor (when he was about 8.5 months old). 

- He crawls everywhere.  The child has no limits.  He loves wandering in the bathroom and grabbing the toilet.  It's lovely.  He has also recently learned how to crawl on the hearth.  It's all fun until he decides to try to crawl off of it (which he absolutely cannot do although he has no idea) and commit suicide.  James loves to tell him where to crawl and crawl with him.

- He is very ticklish.  He has a great laugh when you tickle him and he loves it.  

- He's so so strong.  He is both physically strong and strong willed.  He doesn't necessarily like it always sit still when I read to him.  I try to make it very interesting and read for shorter amounts of time and that's usually ok.  But sometimes he doesn't want to be held at all - he'd rather be exploring. 

James:

- James turned 2.5 on June 10th.  Where has the time gone!

- His verbal skills are increasing all the time.  He surprises us with the things he says daily.  He loves to use his verbal skills with Luke.  "No touching, baby!  No, no, no!  No pull the hair!"  He says that as Luke is crawling towards him trying to grab his hair.  He says "Oh my goodness!" a lot - apparently he got that from me.  

- He has started to get an opinion.  He likes the music on when we are in the car.  He likes to walk places (and not be held).  I asked him what he wanted for a snack when we woke up from his nap and he said "goat cheese."  I think he's going to be a food snob like his mama.  

- He's an awesome sleeper.  He naps for about 3 hours in the afternoon and he sleeps 11-12 hours at night.  Sometimes he wakes up in the night from a nightmare (maybe) or who knows why.  Ray always goes and picks him up, gives him some water, and lays him back down and he's out in a few seconds.

- He struggles with being too rough and overwhelming with friends sometimes.  We always need to talk about this before we spend time with friends.  And often times he has to get disciplined several times while with friends. But we are working through it and I see glimmers of hope of him maturing and getting better.  

- James enjoys story time at the library and at church.  He loves swimming with me and for his swim lessons.  He enjoys putting together floor puzzles and helping us cook.  He loves Curious George (the TV show). This has been a blessing (as much as I hate the idea of him watching TV) because I have needed it to keep him entertained while I feed Luke or cook dinner some days.  His favorite place is probably our backyard.  It is fenced in and it has a play set, a garden, a play house, sprinklers, a kid pool, a water table, and lots of dirt.  It's pretty much paradise.  

Family Life:

- We are in such a sweet stage.  Life is full, but it is so so good.  

- We joined a gym and I take the boys to work out with me 3 times a week.  We sometimes go once on the weekend too. Ray works out in the mornings before anyone wakes up.  We have been enjoying eating healthy, whole, organic, and local foods.  It's pretty much our hobby.

- We are not going on vacation this summer - we are just staying close to home and enjoying everything here! 

I finally took some pictures of the boys today... They are my heart!

James loves to crawl like Luke...