Go Mom!

I just want to say that I'm really proud of my mom. As of tomorrow morning she will be half way through her chemo treatments. She is definitely not side-effect free but she hasn't been complaining too much. The two biggest side-effects are her sensitivity to cold and more recently she has been very tired. Unfortunately those are two things that are hard for her because one she is already cold sensitive and who wants to have to wear a pair of gloves to get stuff out of the refrigerator and two she is so active normally. She has been a trooper through this and I know she will continue to be but just in case she needs some encouragement-- GO MOM, YOU'RE AWESOME!!!

Heat Wave

If you have paid any attention to the weather at all lately or even if you've just stepped outside you know it's ridiculously hot. I have said this numerous times lately but I'm so ready for some fall weather!!!

Not only do I not like these temperatures because it makes it miserable to just step outside but it is also hard on Luke. We should be going to the swimming pool (to use the season passes I got), playing outside on the new swing set and with all the other fun outside toys he got for his birthday, exploring the backyard for mysterious creatures (Luke has recently been really interested in bugs--joy), playing frisbee with Maggie and just generally letting Luke be a kid. Luke gets so hot so fast that it is not worth the tantrum about going inside he has after being outside for only 15 minutes because he needs to cool off.

Luke knows it is hot--he tells me all the time, "Momma it hot outside." He tells me when we get in the car after it's been sitting in the sun while we run our errands or even just when I open the door to let Maggie in or out. I feel bad for him because we could go out in the early morning when it hasn't heated up too much yet or later in the evening but those don't work because Luke is asleep in the early morning and in the evening he gets attacked by mosquitos (so do Troy and I for that matter). Maybe I'm being an overly cautious mom but I just don't think it's smart to go outside when we're under a heat advisory. So for now we have to be content with inside activities. I just wish we could get some rain and a break in these temperatures!

Good Night Big Boy!

It is official--Luke is currently sleeping away in his big boy bed. As I said on Monday, this was a hard one for me. I took pictures this morning and after nap time of Luke's last 'sleeps' in his crib. I almost cried when I took him out of his crib after his nap. You wouldn't think something that simple would be so tough or maybe I'm just a sappy mom. Either way it was hard.

The above picture is a great example of why Luke is moving to a regular bed. He hadn't yet managed to get over the crib rail but I have no doubt that he would have soon. I told Luke this morning and after his nap that he would be sleeping in his big boy bed tonight. Both times he looked at the bed and seemed excited. About 7:30 tonight we went upstairs to put the bed rail together and get everything situated. When Luke was getting his pj's on he told us that he was going to take a nap in the bed. I took that as a good sign. So we got his cloth diapers (his comfort item) and a couple of stuffed animals and climbed in. I read him two stories while Troy watched from the end of the bed and then we all said goodnight. It was so easy--too easy in fact. I know at some point we will have a problem with Luke getting out of bed but as of right now about an hour into sleeping in his big boy bed all is well and no sounds can be heard. Here's hoping we all get a full nights sleep and that Luke doesn't fall out of bed.

Slow Down!

Over the weekend Troy and I bought a new king size bed (Troy has been wanting one forever so he finally got his wish). That means that we are rearranging our beds. Our queen will be moved to our guest room--more room for them :) The double bed that was in the guest room is going in the currently unused bedroom and the 2 twin beds that were in that room will be moved to Luke's room. Did you follow that?

What's my point? Well, after Luke woke up from his nap yesterday we moved one of the twin beds into his room. Troy told Luke it was his big boy bed and he would be sleeping there from now on (oops!). Luke really liked the sound of that and immediately wanted to lay on it and pretended to go back to sleep. Our thought was that we would put the bed in there so Luke would get used to seeing it and maybe he would pretend sleep on it for a while before we let him actually sleep in it. After pretend sleep was over Troy commented that Luke was going to want to sleep in the big boy bed last night. I agreed but said that it wouldn't be that big of a deal to just put him in his crib for a few more nights because one I'm not ready to have Luke out of a crib yet (that makes him way too old) and two more importantly we didn't have a guard rail for the bed which is necessary because the mattress is pretty high.

Okay so fast-forward to after bath time. The moment we walk into Luke's room he points to the bed and says go night night. Uh-oh! I calmly told Luke that he would be sleeping in his crib for a few more nights. Well let's just say that didn't go over very well. Luke all out screamed and sobbed for 15 minutes that he wanted to sleep in the bed. Troy was definitely right! Finally Troy said he would take the mattress off the bed so it wouldn't look like a bed anymore. Thankfully that stopped the tantrum and Luke went to sleep in his crib. However, the first thing he said to me this morning when I got him up was go night night with his finger pointing at the bed.

So this morning Luke and I went to Babies R Us and bought a bed rail so that we can get the bed ready for him to sleep in. Troy and I decided that we'll probably wait until Friday night to try letting Luke sleep in bed just in case we're all awake more than we want to be but that's still so fast for me. We've been talking about moving Luke to a bed for a while now but yesterday afternoon when I saw him laying there it totally brought tears to my eyes. It is definitely hard for me when Luke reaches one of these big milestones like this. I want him to grow and be healthy but man oh man does it pull hard on the heartstrings. It definitely makes me appreciate all the little milestones more too!

Troy's New Job

This is the end of Troy's second week at Chesapeake. So far Troy is really happy with his decision to move jobs. He is enjoying the project he has been assigned and has also received several confirmations on a job well done to this point. There has been some adjustment for all of us because Troy is getting home later than before but Luke and I have discovered it allows us a little extra time to run errands after his nap.

One of the nice perks Chesapeake has is allowing families to come share lunch with the employee on Fridays. Luke and I have joined Troy the last two Fridays and I'm really enjoying it. There are a few restaurants on campus but so far we've gone to Fuel for both lunches. I have to say that it is a really cool set-up. You order your food on a touch-screen and you may choose from chinese, mexican, pasta and pizza; all of which you may customize to your desire. I had pasta last week and a taco salad today and was impressed both times.

Luke has been excited to go see Daddy at work both trips. The first trip obviously was exciting because it was a new place to explore and this week Luke remembered all the cool water features he could look at as we walked around. The Chesapeake campus is awesome. I was highly impressed last week. There are numerous brick buildings which house the offices along with great landscaping so it doesn't feel like your typical office building. These are a few pictures from this week. The building in the background in the bottom picture is Troy's actual building.

Swim Lessons

Last week and this week Luke is taking swim lessons. I'm in the water with him so I guess I could say we're taking swim lessons although I do already know how to swim. I had high hopes for this experience for Luke. He loves the water and also has no fear of it. I didn't think this would be too tough. I thought wrong.

Luke doesn't like to participate with the class much at all. Two of the biggest things we're working on: blowing bubbles and kicking. Luke loves to blow bubbles but not in class. He's also pretty good at kicking but not in class. It's very frustrating for me because I want this to be beneficial for him. The other part that is frustrating is that I know he can do this stuff. We went to the pool on Saturday and he did everything we've been working on in class when I asked him to. I'm not sure why Luke doesn't like the class setting. Hopefully this is not a sign of things to come.

There are a few things Luke does like to do. He loves to jump in the water. He has no problem holding his breath when he goes under and he's even gotten strong enough to hold onto the side of pool by himself (very good if he were to fall in accidentally). Luke also likes to glide. I think this is funny because it's almost the same position as when we work on kicking only his arms are above his head with his hands on top of each other. I figured out on Saturday that this is even more fun for him if you let him push off the wall with his feet. So there's hope in all of this somewhere even if my dream of an Olympic Gold in the 50 meter freestyle has faltered a little the past week. Luke is only just 2 so maybe I should cut him some slack :)

Vail, Colorado

It seems like our trip to Vail was forever ago already. Troy and I quickly planned our trip when we learned he would have 2 weeks off between jobs. We left the morning of July 6 and came back on July 9. It was just the right length to allow relaxation and fun plus we didn't have to miss Luke for too long.

Tuesday after we drove to Vail from the Denver airport (I absolutely love the drive up into the mountains from Denver) we quickly unpacked and then went to Vail Village and explored a bit and had lunch. We were both very tired from getting up at 4:30 so then we relaxed in our room and instead of going out to dinner we ordered pizza and watched a movie.

Wednesday morning we went on a 2 hour horse back ride. Troy had never ridden a horse before but he did fine. It was actually quite humorous because his horse would stop and eat grass whenever he had the chance. I told Troy the wranglers gave him the right horse :) Our ride was really nice--we went through some grasslands and up over a hill and along a stream. The views were all fantastic and we got to watch a storm roll in from a distance.

After our ride we decided to go to Breckenridge for the afternoon. We had lunch at a place that I've eaten at several times which is always fun. We wanted to walk around and shop and also ride the alpine slide but the weather did not cooperate. The storm we had watched roll in was now getting us rather wet. We enjoyed the drive back to Vail and again chilled in our room until the rain passed. We then had a nice dinner in Vail Village and enjoyed going in more shops.

Thursday morning we decided a hike was in order. Our original plan was to ride the gondola up to the top of the mountain and hike our way down (thinking this would be easier) but the guide at our hotel said we could do this hike up in about 2 hours and that is wasn't hard at all. He also said that we could save $50 because a ride down in the gondola is free. Um, I don't think he realized that we hadn't totally adjusted to the altitude and that neither of us is in the greatest shape. Well, we decided to save $50 for better or worse. So off we went--very slowly.

It was a beautiful trail. The weather was great. The views were amazing. Our estimate of making it up the trail in reasonable time--a little off. It took us about 3 hours. We definitely bonded and encouraged each other. We decided that next time we probably won't save the $50. On our ride down in the gondola we read the description of our trail, Berry Picker. It was 4.6 miles long and the elevation change was just over 2000 feet. Next time we'll also read the description first.

The best part of the hike for me was seeing all of the wildflowers. I absolutely love Colorado's wildflowers. My 2 favorites are of course the state flower, columbine and also the Indian Paintbrush.

After our hike we had a beautiful scenic drive to Leadville. There we got on the Leadville Train (guess who had this idea). The train used to be for the molybdenum mining industry in the area. We learned about the industry and about the train. It was a nice ride but we both decided it was a bit long. On our way back to Vail we made several stops to enjoy the awesome scenery. We enjoyed another nice dinner and more walking around on our last night in Vail.