Sick baby

Luke has his first cold, and it's doozy! (Thanks a lot, daycare!) He is quite pathetic: snot running out of his nose, watery eyes, and a bad cough. It's been really hard to watch him go through this. Tonight we gave him a bath hoping it would help him feel better. Check out the huge booger coming out of his nose in the first picture. (Is it wrong that I took a picture??) You really need to click on the picture to open it up in a full screen to fully appreciate the situation. (Go ahead, you know you want to.) Only then will you see the snot bubble coming out of the other nostril.






Did I mention that I went back to work today? Not exactly how I wanted to leave my baby on my first full day. Thankfully, David was able to stay home with Luke, so he at least avoided daycare!

Mr. Chatty

Luke loves to talk! (Hmmm... I wonder which parent he gets that from!) Here's a short video of him talking to me. (Please try to ignore how annoying I sound. Baby talk by adults is grating.)



Unfortunately, Mr. Chatty has his first cold. Daycare. He has been handling it VERY well, though It's really hard to hear him cough. I hope this passes quickly!

Baby it's cold outside

It was colder this weekend in Greensboro than it has been in 5 years. That didn't stop us from getting out, though! Of course we took the necessary precautions and bundled up little man. I dare say he looks adorable in his winter gear.

Mom-mom and Pop babysat Luke for a few hours on Friday night. (And this time he didn't sleep through it!) Their favorite trick? A singing lighted snowman that Mom-mom bought Luke. He is mesmerized by it.
Luke got a lot of Daddy time this weekend. Here's a video of the two watching the Duke basketball game:

Daycare: A Tale of Survival

Luke started daycare this week. We took him for 6 hours on Tuesday and 6 hours on Thursday and survived to tell the tale! Tuesday was very difficult and sad for me. I took Luke to school (I find it easier to call it school...) at 8:30am and hung out with him in the classroom until 9:10am. The teachers were so very nice to let me stay until I felt comfortable leaving. Only, I never felt comfortable leaving because Luke was crying and wouldn't calm down. I can only imagine that my crying, which started literally from the moment I entered the building and did not stop for 2 hours, did not help the situation. I wanted to leave with him settled into his morning nap- or at least not crying- but 9:10 came quickly, and I either had to leave or miss my dentist appointment. So, as hard as it was to leave I headed to the dentist. I cried the entire time I was in the dentist's chair. I felt badly for the dental hygentist, who did not know what to do with me and kept asking if she could get me yet another tissue. (To add insult to injury, I found out that I had my first ever cavity. Not fair.) After the dentist I went back to the school to check on Luke and feed him. There was no way I could have just left him there for 6 hours on his first day without going back at least once! Again, the teachers were very accomodating. Thank goodness because yet again I was crying. The good news is that when I left an hour later Luke was not crying. That was a relief! And, when I picked him up at 2pm he was seemingly content. Ok. We made it! A silver lining with this daycare thing is that that night Luke slept from 9:30pm until 6am!! Guess he was all tuckered out.

On Thursday I had a better strategy: I brought reinforcement. I just couldn't go it alone again. So, at 8:30am David and I took Luke to daycare (see, I can call it that now) and dropped him off together. This time David went in the classroom with Luke to get him settled in (I just hung out by the door but could see everything and talk to the teachers.) I think we both needed to experience the setting before handing off our son. This time when we left Luke was not crying. Progress!! I did not go back to feed him that day instead leaving him there for a very long (and lonely... I missed my little man) 6 hours. When I picked him up at 2pm, he was in the arms of one of his teachers just watching her as if she was the most fascinating person on earth. It was very comforting to see. And, although it slightly hurt my feelings, I also did get comfort from the fact that when she put Luke in my arms he immediately started crying. I guess he was happy there, huh? The teachers said he was great all day and only cried when hungry. I was so relieved.

This week we will again take Luke on Tuesday and Thursday as a transition to next week when classes start back up. I feel a lot of relief because I now feel comfortable with his school. (Translation: when I drive by it I no longer feel like throwing up.) I am confident that he is in a loving, caring, and stimulating environment. I really do think that he is going to learn a lot and be well cared for. That being said, I am happy that it will only be 3 days a week!!

For Christmas Becky got us an AWESOME Flip video recorder. We love it and have snapped a bunch of little videos of Luke. However, I've been waiting for a really great one to put on the blog. However, as it turns out, at this age Luke just doesn't do anything that would make a really great video. (Let me clarify. We think everything he does is simply amazing. However, it just doesn't make for exciting video.) But, rather than just keep waiting, I decided to post one on the blog now. Here you go:

Finally, here are a couple of photos I snapped today of Luke enjoying some great quality time with his dad. Here's daddy reading to Luke:

And here they are watching football.

Little Football Fan

Luke has been enjoying the football playoffs. Last night he attended a playoff party at George and Ashley's house. (He wasn't even the youngest person there! Marley had him beat by 2 months.) Sadly, he really likes watching tv. Yesterday Luke had a meltdown at Target, and to calm him David took him over to the electronic section. Luke was instantly calmed by the dozens of tv's. Yikes. Well, people have been saying that he looks like his mother and now he is acting like her too:)

He still loves his bathtime. He has become a big time splasher. And, this weekend he entertained us by pooping in the bath. That was quite the surprise. Splash, splash, grunt, explosion!
He is also starting to grasp objects. He really likes to hold his fingers on one hand with the other hand. It's very cute though sometimes he grabs his fingers with such strength that I worry he will hurt himself. Here he is holding a piece of his playmat that David put in his hand. Soon he will be able to grab objects himself.

He's so proud of himself.

One of the best things about weekends is that we can spend a lazy morning together in bed; Luke is happiest in the mornings. Here's David reading to Luke this morning. We love that Dr. Seuss!!

Luke needs a jacket for daycare as they go outside every day. Unfortunately, finding a jacket for a baby is proving difficult. I found a jacket today that I thought might work but it's too big on him. Check him out. He had a major meltdown right after I snapped this shot. (He also hates being in his Bumbo. Don't tell Santa- that's what he brought Luke this year for Christmas.)

In other developments, Luke has decided to hate the pacifier. This is very unfortunate as the pacifer was our key to the outside world; any time Luke started to lose it I could stick a pacifier in his mouth and calm him down. Not anymore. Also, he has decided to hate his car seat. Sigh. I guess I won't be running errands with him for a while. Oh, and he has become a big time drooler. His shirts are constantly wet with spit. (Anna, now I see the genius of your putting a bib on Vada!)

Luke starts daycare this week. He is going for half days on Tuesday and Thursday. Wish us luck!!

3 months!!!

Our Little Man turned 3 months old today! It's amazing how much different he is now compared to when we first met him. He smiles a lot (oh how that melts my heart), can (almost) hold his head up, (kind of) sucks his thumb, sleeps more regularly (my favorite development), cries less (thank you!), makes a lot of different happy noises, sleeps in his own room, watches us as we move around a room, has less hair (yep), outgrew his preemie clothes and now fits in size 3 months, bats at objects, holds his own hand (that's a new one), and is longer and heavier. Based on our home scale, he is a little over 11 and a half pounds! Here he is with Bear. He graduated to a sitting position this month:

David and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary this past Monday. (For those of you trying to do the math... Luke was conceived 3 weeks after we got married. Happy surprise!!!) We decided to spend part of our evening doing our favorite thing with Luke- giving him a bath! The little guy really loves his bath time and it makes us so happy to see him have a good time.

Happy New Year everyone! We had a very low key New Year's Eve (an hour of which was spent driving around with Luke in the car trying to get him to stop crying so we could go out for burgers. Ok, that sounds bad... it was really 25 minutes there, 15 minutes nursing in the car, 5 minutes in the restaurant deciding whether to stay, 10 minutes back home during which time Luke fell asleep a half a block from our house, and then 10 minutes back to the restaurant). Today we celebrated the New Year with some friends at an open house with traditional New Year's Day fare. Luke was fantastic and came home and took a 4 hour nap. He's off to a good start to the new year!!

2009 is sure to be an exciting year for the Andrews family. We are so excited for all the firsts that this year will bring. Here's wishing you a great year too!