Luther: 50 and 52 weeks and 13 months old!

Uh oh....Luther's first birthday has come and gone, and I haven't even finished his bi-weekly posts! Once this is posted, I'm going to be going back over the last YEAR and going to TRY to get caught up on my monthly updates. Heaven forbid I let these children down! I have hundreds of pictures that require at least a brief explanation. If that's too much, I just at least want them in chronological order. Moms of three kids....I don't know how you stay on top of your lives! People think we should move into a bigger house and I'm like are you kidding me?! More to clean and keep organized ON TOP of everything else?! No thank you. Very happy here.

At least today.

50 Weeks

52 Weeks

• Well thankfully I wrote on his 50 week picture that he did the stair for the first time. So I guess he did the stair the first time that week!  I do remember him checking it out more and more and finally it just clicked! 

• He rode in a cart up front like a big boy for the first time on February 20th! Took us almost a full year. He seemed to enjoy the new view and mommy and daddy enjoyed more space in the cart!

• Luther is no longer the youngest on either side of the family! New cousin Paige was born on February 29th and Walker was born on March 1st. How fun! He really loves touching Paige's squishy face and poking her in the eye. All out of love. 

• I think it was February where he really started consistently pulling himself up on things. He tries so hard to be in with the big kids! 

• He would prefer to be held for a solid 10 minutes after waking up. Try to put him down or change his diaper too quickly and he'll definitely be protesting.

• His donut/breakfast themed party was so much fun. He wasn't happy when we took his smash doe doe away from him though. He would have been quite content to sit there for another 30 minutes and continue eating, but the rest of us wanted to move on to presents! He got a new phone, a house that talks and plays music, new balls, rattles, a sword, and was showered with lots of love and attention. It's incredible how the year went so quickly yet so slowly all at the same time. When you're in it, the days can seem long, yet you look back and it seems like a blink of an eye. Daddy was just kissing and laughing with him last night and I though about how new and little he was in the hospital. Only last year! And now he's crawling around and offering kisses and having an opinion about this or that. We had so much to learn about our Luther Tom!

• One thing we've always noticed about Luther is that he has more of an opinion about things that the other two did at his age. I don't like to speak negatively over him, but for the purpose of remembering how he was as a baby, we often say he's dramatic and opinionated. He has a high pitched fake (or sometimes not so fake) cry and will scrunch his cute little face up when he gets upset. Take for instance Sunday night (so he's now 13 months old...) we went out for ice cream and his portion was gone. Not pleased about that. Or yesterday when we were playing out front and I had to carry him back inside with me to get something for Conrad. Also not happy about that. Once we had returned to the garage, he was fine but how dare I take him inside when Gwendolyn and Conrad were playing! He's just funny. 

• He also refuses to look at me when I'm trying to take a picture and literally ignores me. I've run out of all tricks to get his attention. And I am a photographer! Grrrr. 

I told Tom that we would have "that child" who would cry at his first birthday picture session if I wasn't the one taking his pictures. He has definitely been going through separation anxiety and clings to you if you try to hand him off to someone, even people he knows. Kinda breaks my heart, but thankfully he doesn't cry long. 

Here's what I wrote for his 13 month post:

"You're 13 months today, Luther Thomas! I still can't get over you standing on your own like a big boy. It's so cute! You now wave hi and bye bye, and sign "milk" and "more." You clearly say dada, uh oh, and na (no). I think I've only heard you say "mama" in the middle of the night. :)

You give kisses and the best baby hugs. You have an opinion about what you'd like to eat or not eat, and you do not like having toys taken away from you (ahem Conrad.) You love balloons, balls, blocks, swords, your music table, and pretty much anything your siblings are playing with. You recently discovered how fun it is to build and knock down towers! (The doctor said stacking blocks is apparently advanced for your age? Not that we care....) :) Your face lights up at the sight of your daddy and brother and sister, and I love how the three of you show each other love. You seriously look at Gwendolyn and Conrad with such adoring eyes. You still have your adorable modified crawl/scoot, cruise very quickly around furniture, have four teeth, are wearing 12-18 month and some 18-24 month clothes, size 4 diapers, taking two solid 1.5-2 hr naps daily and typically sleep from 8:00 pm to 8:00 am, give or take 30 minutes. You nurse four or five times a day, and I so love our snuggle time before I put you down in your crib (your blanket over my shoulder and you laying on me.) It'd be easier to put you down if you weren't so soft and squishy, but really...why would I want to do that. :) 

Watching your personality develop is so fun and fascinating, and we love you so much!! 

12 month stats as of March 25th, 2016

Weight - 25 lbs, 12 oz (94%)

Height - 31.5" (93%)

Head - 18 5/8" (83%)

• One final update before I hit publish...you were happily staying in the living room even though you could do the stair. Then I left for four days to go visit Aunt Becca and upon coming home, you were no longer staying in the living room. Daddy must have been very busy while I was gone (like, duh) and perhaps consistency went out the window. This has greatly complicated mommy's life because let's just be honest....I can't be in even three different places all at once! And I have officially wished for eyes in the back of my head! You go straight for the rack of shoes and have found it to be quite fun to take them off and move them to the stair. And then to the next stair. And then the next. 

So we've been dealing with that change the last 2.5 weeks. While potty training Conrad. 

Lord help me. And He does!

:)

Luther: 42, 44, 46, and 48 weeks

Oh man. Where has time gone?!! I've stayed relatively on track with the picture taking, but totally dropped the ball on keeping up with my posts. We hit Christmas and then I over-scheduled myself in January with photo sessions.

Thankfully I have Instagram and my Google Keep (such a great app!) list to help me remember all this baby boy has been up to. And it's been a lot! This is certainly the stage of change!! In fact, maybe a month ago I had made note on my Keep list that he had started pulling himself up to standing, but "not consistently". Well that certainly changed over the last two weeks! He's been pulling himself up like crazy on anything he can reach making mommy pretty much constantly nervous. It's been so fun! ;)

Let's get right to it! (Before another month goes by...)

40 Weeks

42 43 Weeks

44 Weeks

and 10 months old!

46 Weeks

48 Weeks

and 11 months old!

 "clapping"

 "SO BIG!"

Ready for a lot of random thoughts? I can't believe it's been 2 months.....

• He started officially crawling towards the end of December, so about 9.5 months old. He has continued to crawl with his right knee on the floor using his left leg to scoot himself to where he wants to go just a bit faster. It's pretty darn cute. And he covers a lot of territory!

• Luther's first Christmas was wonderful. We spent most of his Christmas money on a few bigger things for all three kids to share (wooden table and chairs and a Plasmacar), but he didn't seem to mind. He got a new book, some adorable Zutano booties, and a much needed hooded bath towel so he was pretty well set! He traveled well, slept decently, stayed healthy, and loved all the extra hugs and kisses from both sides of the family.

• At just under 10 months, I took him in for his 9 month well check. He was 23 lbs, 9 oz (92%), 30 1/8" long (93%), and has a lovely 18.5" noggin (90%). And no shots! Yay!

He's longer and not has heavy as Conrad was at 9 months. Not that that really matters, but it's fun to see how they're the same or different.

• On January 12th, we made the BIG transition. Conrad moved out of his crib and into a twin sharing a room with Gwendolyn, and Luther moved out of our bedroom and into the crib in the spare bedroom. I was absolutely dreading it. So many changes. People sharing closets/dressers. People swapping rooms. People moving out of beds they've been in for months (Luther) and years (Conrad and Gwendolyn.) 

It was a LOT. But would ya know....it was also GREAT!

I think having Gwendolyn and Conrad share a room for a month prior to moving him out of the crib (we moved his crib into her room) helped quite a bit, and it helped me as well just having them go to bed at the same time and start waking up closer to the same time. It allowed us time to get their new beds set up, move clothes and closets around, and figure out what we wanted to do with bedding too. (After hours of online searching, we decided on super cozy and soft neutral comforters. Not nearly as fun as Superman and princesses, but definitely practical.)

I think my main concerns were them waking each other up, but that hasn't been an issue. They have woke each other up, but it hasn't been a problem getting them back to sleep. I also realized that in a lot of ways, it's nice that they go to bed and wake up at the same time. I had become used to doing a breakfast for Conrad since he was usually up earlier, then a breakfast for Gwendolyn, then a breakfast for Luther...but now they typically come out at the same time or within 30 minutes of each other and it's less time consuming for mommy. 

I just couldn't really picture Conrad staying in a big boy bed, but he's done really well. Some days he needs some reminding to "cozy up" and go nigh nights, but he's done soooo much better than I was anticipating.

And Luther?! Well, he started sleeping THROUGH.THE.NIGHT!

First night in his crib...he cried out a bit around midnight, but I didn't go in and we didn't hear from him again until 9:30 am the next morning. It's a miracle! A gift from God! And it's stayed that way every since! It's just amazing. In fact, he's been sleeping just a bit too good.....just the last couple of weeks, he has had mornings he's slept until 10:00, 11:30, 11:45 or later some days. And even if it's not that late, I'm shocked to hear him before 8:30.

This has changed our lives. I rarely need a nap anymore, and I remember what it feels like to be rested. Honestly, so so so thankful.

So in summary, while it was a big transition with a lot of moving parts, it proved to be healthy and beneficial in a lot of ways.

• He learned "so big!" and how to clap and both are just adorably cute. Now we're working on blowing kisses and waving and signing "more" and "all done" and saying "Mama". ;) I'm fairly certain he also said "uh oh" one day.

• I've actually loved (for many reasons) raising the kids in a small home, one of the reasons being that we spend a large majority of our day in one room with one step so babies are contained. He can roam and aside from table legs and corners on train tables, there isn't a lot in this room that he can hurt himself on. Thankfully no major bumps and bruises as of yet. (Fingers are crossed it stays that way.) We're in major training mode with big brother Conrad though because he just loves to take away whatever Luther can get his hands on. It's proving to be pretty annoying, but I have to remind myself that a lot of what Luther takes and is interested in is Conrad's! So lots of talk about sharing and being tenderhearted recently.

• He smiles instantly when he sees himself in a mirror or in my phone camera.

• We first learned he might not like being told what to do when we had to speak sharply to him after he would repeatedly touch the Christmas tree. He did not like that.

And it has continued now that he's into things even more...touching cords, diapers on the couch, curtains, tv stands, ice melt pellets, etc. etc. He scrunches up his face and fake cries. You can't help but laugh.

• Every time I buy baby food I think "this is the last time I'm buying baby food" but then....I buy more. He enjoys eating solids and does well with them, but I honestly love how clean and easy the containers are. :) If I didn't have baby food as an option to fill him up (and give him things he wouldn't normally eat like zucchini and squash), I fear I would just feed him the same foods over and over, which isn't great. Really the issue is filling that baby UP. If he isn't crazy about our dinner, and is still hungry, at least I can go grab two containers of baby food.

He enjoys: yogurt, apple sauce, eggs, most fruits, string cheese, lunch meat, toast with butter and avocado, toast with peanut butter, mac n cheese, pasta, veggies straws, waffles, oatmeal, and most of the other kid friendly foods. 

I wish he would enjoy cooked veggies. So we need to work on that.

• He's seriously growing like a weed. I feel like I just moved clothes out of his drawers that he had outgrown and now stuff that just fit isn't fitting! I can barely keep up.

• We love to put our hands out to him to see who he chooses. Sometimes when Daddy is holding him, and I'm putting my hands out to try and get him to come to me, he'll literally push my hands away like "stop asking mom." Which of course, Daddy looooves. (I'm sure he doesn't mean it.)

• Like I mentioned, he pulled himself up for the first time over Christmas, but wasn't consistently doing it until just recently (I'd say around 11 months.) Now that he's crawling AND can pull himself up, Luther just looooves being right in there with Sissy and Brother. Tearing pages in their books. Drinking from their water bottles. Playing with them at the train table. Dumping out all the "castle guys." And most recently, wrestling with them if they're brave enough to lay down and take it. 

He has pulled himself up on the kitchen table chairs WHILE standing underneath the table. And earlier this week, I just happened to walk into the living room to find him holding on to a floor lamp. That isn't exactly sturdy. Needless to say, my old way of doing things (leaving him in the middle of the room with a few toys) has gone out the window. Along with a lot of my patience.

Ugh.

Have I said before how I don't like change?

Well, it's true. Just takes me a little while to adjust and then we'll be good to go. Until, of course, he starts doing stairs. And walking. 

Anyone laughing at me now? It's ok, because I'm laughing at myself. There's nothing BUT change in the first years of a babies life!

• He never struggled with getting himself back down after discovering how to stand. He quickly mastered those deep knee bends!

• He would really prefer not to be put down immediately after waking up. He needs some snuggles. And if you put him down AND leave the room, you're in for some loud shrieking.

Ok, I could write and write about this life-changing baby, but I need to hit "publish" before someone needs me and this sits in a draft forever. I'll be back soon with more deep thoughts because he is 50 weeks in only a couple of days!