Four Months

Luke is four months old!

Weight: 16 pounds, 15.4 ounces (77%)

Height: 25.5 inches (64%)

Head: 44 centimeters (98%)

Wow, it was a month full of growing, sleeping and smiling.

This guy is so happy.  He loves to engage others by smiling and will even give a little wink sometimes.

His happiest time is when he first wakes up in the morning or from a nap.  We all love to go in and get him up to see some big smiles.

Luke still saves his biggest smiles for Noah, and big brother just loves it.  He laughs and says, "He swiling! Swiling!"

This big boy is trying to roll over but is having a hard time going more than half way.  That's a big body to roll over. 

He hasn't been a big fan of tummy time, but can you blame him?  It's not easy holding up a 98th percentile sized head.  This month, however, he's gotten a lot stronger and hardly protests on his tummy.

I set the standard pretty high, so I'm not exactly celebrating that Luke is sleeping 7 or 8 hours straight at night.  But his pediatrician tells me that's awesome, and I know it could be much worse.  I say it will be awesome when it's 8 p.m. to 7 a.m.

Luke is a quick learner when it comes to sleep training though.  He's down to a long morning and afternoon nap and usually a little thirty minute nap in the early evening.  It's so nice to have some predictability.  In the past week or so he's gotten better at going back to sleep if he wakes up.  After a little song and a snuggle, he prefers to put himself to sleep by laying down in his crib.  I'm trying to wean him off of the swaddle a bit, but he's an addict and loves being wrapped up.  It's like falling asleep to a big hug.

It feels like some big milestones are right around the corner: rolling over, eating real food and (hopefully) really sleeping through the night.  It's so fun watching you grow and change Luke!

Cabin Fun

The rest of our time in Tahoe was spent having fun doing rather ordinary things: a visit to the park, exploring outside and playing with toys.  Noah was super excited that Grandma brought the 'twains' to the cabin.

I think he might love building the track even more than playing with the actual trains.

And hearing him say, "All aboard!" as he's pretending is just cute.

After seeing a guy at Heavenly shoveling snow, Noah wanted his own shovel.  We heard, "Shubel? Noah shubel?" at least a hundred times before we got back to the cabin.  And 'shubel' (shovel) was the first thing he said when we woke up from his nap.  So, out to shovel some snow we went.

We also spent some time marching in the snow and exploring out behind the cabin.

Noah had a great time picking up pine cones, which he first called pineapples, and throwing them in the water.

And, again, when he wasn't napping, Luke just hung out and relaxed happily.

There was a lot more snow at the park than we expected.  Oh, and it was freezing.  It didn't phase Noah, but poor Luke let us know pretty quickly that all the fat rolls in the world couldn't keep him warm at that point.

So, after a push on the swing,

and a turn down the slide

 we cut our time short at the park and made up for it by going to "E-I-E-I-O" for a little indoor play.
 That's what Noah calls McDonald's. :-)

I wanted to get a picture of Noah with Ronald McDonald, but he wanted to give him hugs. Um, I just love this kid.

It was a great three days.  Grandma and I are already talking about heading up again while Daddy and Grandpa keep 'tounting munies.'

Busy Season Break

With Nate and Grandpa still in the thick of 'tounting munies' (counting money), according to Noah, Grandma and I took the boys up to the cabin for a few days last week.

Taking the gondola up the mountain at Heavenly was a fun adventure.

Noah was definitely hesitant at first.
 
He's not a big fan of enclosed spaces, like elevators, but he got more comfortable as the ride continued.

We got off half way up the mountain to look at the beautiful view and eat lunch.

It was cold, but not too bad.

I think we could have spent another hour just riding the gondola up and down the mountain looking at the mountains and lake.  But, instead, we finished off the fun with some hot chocolate and a cookie.

This guy is so silly.

Luke was, again, a champ.  He slept most of the time and woke up right around the time we started talking about cookies.  Soon enough little buddy. 

Brothers

Tonight Noah looked up at me and excitedly asked, "Baf wif Wuke?"

 

 How could I turn him down?  

I'm loving these sweet 'brother' moments.