Let's Tee Up

Troy thought it would be fun to take Luke to the driving range for the first time while his parents were here so they could experience that with us.  This may seem a little silly but it was totally and completely awesome to watch Troy and Luke together.  I got tears in my eyese watching the two of them--it was such a sweet moment.  Troy also told me later that he got so wrapped up in the moment and the joy of sharing his love of golf with Luke.  He even recounted the first time he remembers golfing with his dad; that's why he wanted his dad to be along for Luke's first experience.

Luke really had a lot of fun.  Troy and I explained some golf etiquette and rules to him before he took his first swing.  Then Troy helped him tee up and he was swinging.  Of course he didn't hit the ball every time or even most of the time on his first swing but he did manage to hit the ball within a couple of swings.  A few of his hits were pretty good for a first attempt.  Troy did the majority of the coaching although I did help Luke with a few drives.  The one we hit together went about 15 feet or so.  Luke did let Troy help him swing a few times but he really wanted to do it all on his own.  He was very determined.

After Troy and Luke hit a half a bucket of balls we moved to the putting green.  Troy explained a few more rules before he and Luke putted around for a while.  Luke even yelled his signature, "Get it in the hole!"  He says that frequently when we're watching golf on TV.

Speaking of watching golf on TV--on the way to the driving range Luke and I had this conversation (Troy and his dad drove seperately):

L: "Mom, who's going to watch the TV?"

Me: "What?"

L: "Who is going to watch us on TV?"

Me: "We're not going to be on TV Luke."

L: "But somebody has to watch us on TV because we're going to play golf."

It dawned on me then that Luke has only experienced golf by watching it on TV so he assumed that he was going to be on TV and he wanted to know who was going to watch him since we weren't at home to watch the TV.  Grandma was chuckling pretty good throughout this conversation by the way.

Me: "Only really, really good golfers are on TV Luke.  If you want to be on TV and play golf you have to practice a whole bunch to be really good.  Then maybe if you're lucky you can play golf and be on TV."

Luke: "Okay Mom, I'll really like golf and practice a whole bunch."

Me: "Great plan Luke."

I can only imagine how thrilled and proud Troy and I would be if Luke loved golf enough to become a professional golfer.  And now on to the pictures :)

More on 5 Months

Hannah's life at 5 months old:

*Schedule: This is still not very concrete.  Of course with babies it never is anyway :)  The one consistent thing is bedtime--it's always late.  Hannah goes to bed between 10:30 and 11:30 and sometimes it's even later.  She is not consistently sleeping through the night yet either.  Some nights she does awesome (this last Thursday was 10:45-8:45) and then there are nights like last night--asleep before 10 and awake at 3:30 for an hour and up at 8.  I have to say my body has adjusted well and most days I don't need a nap.  As for the rest of the day she naps either 1 or 2 times in the morning depending on the night and with luck she'll take at least a 2 hour nap in the afternoon.  She will also take a few short cat naps between 5ish and 8ish.  The bummer is she hasn't really figured out how to put herself to sleep yet.  She likes to be held or rocked or eat herself to sleep.  I've figured out in the past 2 weeks that I can put her in the moby wrap in the afternoon and my movement will put her to sleep but it's not always an ideal situation for me plus she can't get too used to that.  I have tried letting her cry/scream herself to sleep.  On a rare occasion it will work but most often after 20 or so minutes I can't take it anymore and rescue her.

*Stats: I don't know for sure what Hannah's weight is right now.  She was 15 lb 11.5 oz at her 4 month check-up so I would say she's close to 17 pounds.  Whatever her weight is she is a big baby; she's not too chubby she's just big.  She is still wearing 6 month size tops but they are no longer too long and most pants are now 6 month size.  Pajamas are all 9 months in size because her body is so long.  She can also easily wear 9 month size dresses and some of the 6 month size ones are more like long shirts than a dress.  Her hair is also starting to get a longer; there's enough to see it spike up if you rub your hand across her head.  We still aren't sure what color it is although it's leaning toward blonde--it appears red, brown, very blonde or a mix of those depending on the light.  Her eyes are still blue.

*Food: This is the biggest change for this month.  Hannah had her first solid food on April 28.  She absolutely loved her rice cereal.  She quickly figured out how to eat off of the spoon and she loves to eat her dinner after we've had ours every night about 7ish.  Hannah had her first vegetable, carrots (just like Luke), on May 4 and she's quickly moved on from there.  She has had carrots, green beans, peas and sweet potatoes.  She doesn't spit anything out so I can only hope she continues to like her veggies.  She had her first fruit last weekend when she had apples for the first time.  I'm pretty sure the sweetness surprised her a bit but she ate them like a champ.  Hannah is still nursing between 7-10 times a day as well.

*Activities: I would say that during the day Hannah is awake more than she's asleep now.  That is slightly dependent on our activities though.  If we're out running errands and she's in the carseat or stroller she tends to sleep more.  When she is awake Hannah loves to move; LOVES to move.  This includes bouncing, jumping, scooting, rolling (only to her side still) and just hanging out on the floor playing.  She would much prefer to be in someone's arms or have someone very close by than to hang out by herself (so different than Luke).  

*Mobility: This hasn't changed much since last month.  She still likes to scoot around on her back.  So much so that her back is really dry in places.  The one new thing is hanging out in the exersaucer.  Hannah really seems to enjoy the freedom it allows her--playing, bouncing, spinning and watching tv.  Hannah continues to amaze me with her strength.  While laying on her back either on the floor or in her bouncer she'll hold her head up for very long stretches of time and sometimes she'll even pull her legs up to almost like she's doing a tummy crunch as Grandma J put it this week. 

*Favorites: I would say this has all stayed the same from last month as well.  I am still Hannah's favorite person but she has a smile for anyone that says hello or interacts with her.  Hannah still loves when Luke interacts with her and no matter what the situation she will smile instantly when she sees Luke if she hasn't seen him for a while.  Hannah loves to watch Luke play and we can tell she just can't wait to be able to play with him.  Other favorites:  the exersaucer, cloth diapers, being outside, a new taggie car seat toy, laying on her playmat and looking in the mirror with Dad.  Hannah also really enjoys bath time :)

*Events: This last month has seen several firsts for Hannah--eating solid food, playing in the exersaucer, a couple of trips to the zoo and celebrating Mother's Day with me for the first time.  Grandma and Grandpa Johnson were just here for a short visit and Grammy is coming next week while Troy is out of town for the week.

5 Months Old

Hannah is already 5 months old!!!  This is a jabbering, scooting, cereal eating, happy, sweet girl who already has a definite mind of her own.  Not to mention the cutest little thing too!!!  We love her to pieces :)

Grandma and Grandpa Johnson are here right now so I'm going to do the long informative post later this week but I wanted to recognize Hannah today.  

Catch Up

Okay so doing a WITL really drained my blogging abilities for a while.  We've been busy I just haven't had the desire to write about it.  I'm going to do a quick catch up and hopefully I'll keep up with blogging in the days to come.

4-30:  Luke and I love to watch the birds and squirrels in our backyard.

4-30:  First time playing in the exersaucer.

5-1:  We recently bought a zoo pass for the year.  We went with Ashley and the boys a while back.

5-1:  Hannah really likes to pet Maggie.

5-4:  Eating carrots for the first time.

5-8:  Eating lunch outside last week.

5-9:  Luke's class had a Mommy Party last week for Mother's Day.  The kids decorated cookies for us, sang us 3 songs and made us each a placemat with pictures and their handprint.  Each child was also asked 4 different questions:

1) I love my mom because:  ...she loves me.

2) If I could buy mommy anything, it would be:  ...crackers.

3) I love to shop with my mom at:  ...at the new grocery store.

4) My mom is really good at:  ...cleaning the kitchen and doing the dishes.

Way to go me for having a clean kitchen ;)

5-11:  Friday night picnic and a movie--we watched The Muppets.

5-12:  Saturday morning Troy took Luke to Touch a Truck (lots of different equipment to climb on and play on).  Luke isn't a huge fan of loud noises and so they only ended up staying for maybe 15 minutes because Luke was walking around like this and kept requesting to come home.  The sprayer truck was the favorite though.

Happy Mother's Day!

I'm the luckiest girl in the world to have two such beautiful children to celebrate with on this Mother's Day.  We had a great day with some typical everyday challenges but I wouldn't have changed any part of it.  God truly has blessed me and I thank Him everyday for these two miracles.  Happy Mother's Day!!!

WITL Review and Numbers

So I've had all day today to think about and review my WITL project.  A couple of thoughts right off the bat:  I didn't enjoy it quite as much as I did last year; I'm still really glad I kept with it and completed the whole week; I hope that I can find the time to actually make an album out of it rather than just having it here on my blog.  

More thoughts:  1) This project is great at allowing you to really notice the small details of your life that you would not probably otherwise notice--that's cool.  I found several times throughout the week that I would think to myself how awesome the moment was and that I was happy to recognize that.  2) The similarities from this year and last year sort of amaze me because we have a very obvious big difference--Hannah is now a part of our family.  My daily routine is pretty much the same except I get to care for a precious little girl along with my sweet son (life really is good).  3) It was a good reminder for me that even though there are days that it seems like I accomplish nothing I actually do a lot--caring for two children is a big job and some days that is all that can be done.  4) One of my favorite aspects of this project is tracking my blog site meter.  It's so awesome to see how many people read what I'm writing (or at least look at the pictures).  Even more fun is looking at the world map and seeing all the different states and countries these people are from.  Some of the countries include: Canada, Australia, Hungary, Denmark, New Zealand, and the Netherlands.  The number of states for this week was at least 20.  I love that!  5) Luke was a great sport about letting me take so many pictures each day.  He also took pictures this year.  In fact toward the end of the week he wanted to take more pictures.  And he was constantly asking me what I was taking a picture of--ever my curious boy!  6) I'm glad that I had Troy write down some of his activities so that his handwriting is also included.  I think that will be fun to see down the road.  Maybe next year Luke will be able to write a few things or at least have a page with his handwriting.  

I kept track of some numbers through the week:

Our Ages: Amy-33 years, 7 months    Troy-33 years, 4 months         Luke-3 years, 9 months    Hannah-4 months

Loads of laundry: 9

Meals fixed: 15

Rolls of toilet paper used: 5

Walks taken: 3

Full nights sleep: Troy and Luke-7    Amy and Hannah-2

Trips to Target: 2

Doses of medicine given (kids only): 38

Gallons of Kool-Aid made: 3

Dishwasher runs: 4

Pants size: Troy-35    Amy-8    Luke-3T    Hannah-3/6 months

Pictures taken the whole week: 1079

Until I'm able to show some pics of a completed album or next year's WITL I'll say goodbye to this project on my blog for now.

WITL--Sunday

Yesterday was the final day of WITL.  I have to say I'm glad the recording part of this project is done.  It was fun to record everything but it's also time consuming and I was ready to be done.  We took 154 pictures.

Hannah didn't go to sleep until after midnight on Saturday night and then she was awake at 6:45.  Thankfully I was able to sleep in because Troy got up with Luke.  We had lunch plans with some friends to see their new house.  Luke had fun playing with their son, Grey.  When we got home from lunch we all took a nap.  Hannah again refused to sleep anywhere but on me so we both slept together on the couch.  I was just happy to have the chance to take a nap.  Troy ran to Lowe's while Luke played, Hannah hung out on the floor and I made chicken salad for dinner.  Hannah enjoyed some more rice cereal after we all finished our dinner.  Luke and I enjoyed some chill time in his room before he went to bed.  Then Troy did some ironing and the dishes while Hannah and I hung out in the family room.  He went to bed after we watched the news.  Hannah ate on and off all evening it seemed but finally fell asleep about 11:15.  

I was really hoping that with the cereal and the amount of milk Hannah had last night she would sleep through the night.  No luck.  She woke up at 3 to only eat for 5 minutes and then take 45 minutes to go back to sleep.  I really wish we could figure out a schedule!