2 Months

Luke turned 2 months old on Christmas Eve.  He is growing so fast.  It's amazing how much bigger and how much more alert he has gotten in just 2 short months.  We had his 2 month well appointment right before we left for the holidays.  He got a good report and got his first round of shots.  He did not enjoy those but took to the vaccinations fairly well, no fever or fussiness.  He is really growing in size and length.  He weighed 12 lbs, 4 ozs and was 22 1/2 inches long.  He was in the 90th percentile for weight and 75th for length.  He has started to really focus on things and hold his head up.  He is a very smiley little one as well; especially when he wakes up from a good nap or has full belly.  He also has started fighting sleep.  When it's time for a nap he starts to get pretty fussy and we know it's time for bed.  He is sleeping about 10 hours at night with one feeding at 3.  We are more than ready for him to drop that feeding so we can enjoy a full night's sleep. He sleeps pretty sound.  The other morning when I went to get him he had shimmied his way out of the swaddled blanket to the top of the crib.  He had a sock in each bottom corner of the crib and his paci in the other corner.  He was looking like a hot mess.  I just love him to pieces though and can't kiss those cheeks enough  

Milestones

Luke is really starting to hold his head up and he smiles all of the time. We decided to take a video of him last night while he was being so smiley. Please excuse the loud burp in the middle of the video. He hasn't learned his manners yet!

Christmas 2009

Derek and I left Troy on December 20th and returned on the 31st, we had a great time traveling around the state as a family of three and Luke was as sweet as he could be the entire time. 

We started our two week journey in Tuscaloosa. My grandmother had flown in from Illinois to spend the weekend before Christmas in Troy with us and then we drove her to my Dad's house the Monday before.  We spent 4 days in Tuscaloosa hanging out with my dad, stepmom and grandmother.  Luke experienced his first round of presents and pretty much slept through the whole process even though the majority of gifts under the tree were for him.  He got an aquarium to put on his crib, an ornament, a glow worm, and money to start him a savings account among other things.  We celebrated Christmas, my birthday, and my grandmother's birthday on the 23rd since we were headed to Crossville on Christmas Eve. Dad and Kris got Grandma and me a cake from Publix.  Despite being delicious the Publix bakery misheard my stepmom when she ordered it:

That's right folks, "Happy Birthday Barbara (my grandmother) and LeFlie (that'd be me)."  We had a great time trying to decide what the baker was thinking while decorating the cake.  Maybe she thought we were frenchies.  Anyway, the cake really was delicious and will definitely go down in history as the most memorable cake I've ever had.  And needless to say, you should always inspect your cake before leaving the bakery. 

Our next stop was Crossville; we arrived on Christmas Eve and opened more gifts.  We started the gift opening process with Papa reading Luke the Christmas story.  This was such a special moment, even though Luke isn't old enough to understand the true meaning of Christmas, I look forward to teaching him.  On to gifts...pretty much same story, most of the gifts were for Luke and he slept the entire time.  He got a golf club, lullaby seahorse, mobile for his crib (yes, his crib is pretty pimp now), and some more toys and books.  And the highlight of the night was a visit from, yep, you guessed it, Santa:

We spent a few more days in Crossville with Derek's family and then headed to Gardendale to see several friends.  The next few days included hang out time with the Smith's, Haubers', Hughes', Wingo's, Rice's, Travis' and Jordan's.  It was so great to spend a few days catching up with such special friends.  We really are blessed to have so many wonderful friends, and that's just to name a few.  We headed home on the 31st and man was it good to be home.  We had such a great time spending the holidays with family and friends but traveling with a 2 month old did me in.  It was nice to be home and get back to some kind of normalcy.

I also wanted to include this story since it was so special to us:
We ate breakfast on the 22nd with our good friends the Wilson's who are expecting baby number three in May (they currently have 2 boys).  They informed us that they had pictures from their 20 week ultrasound which told the sex of the new baby.   They had not yet looked at them becuase they wanted it to be a Christmas suprise.  They asked us to open the pictures and pick out a blue or pink outfit for them to unwrap on Christmas day.  We were honored and so we opened the pictures and then headed off to the mall to get them a BLUE outfit.  They will be having baby boy number 3!  We couldn't be any more excited for them. 

2009 SEC Champs!

I was in ATL in 1999, the last time Bama won the SEC Championship, and I don't remember it being quite as exciting. Probably because the 9 years previous included a national championship win and the 9 years previous to this one were, well, rocky. Luke stayed with Grana at the hotel while we went to the game. I promise he is Bama's good luck charm. He has brought the tide nothing but good luck since he was born. I can't wait until he is old enough to go to the games with us, okay maybe I can, I'm not ready for him to grow up!

Deron, Daryl, Haley, Me, Derek

Roll Tide Luke!!!

Dancing Baby

I love when babies do this...especially mine ;)

Hey Auburn....

Derek and I had the chance to go to the Auburn game last minute and after much deliberation I decided to go and leave Luke for the first time. He got to stay home with Grana, Papa, Nana and Uncle Deron which was probably much cooler than his Momma who is always kissing all over him. We had so much fun! In the first quarter I was second guessing my decision to come, however, we ended up pulling out the win and it made it all worth it. I've always said I had no desire to go to Auburn for a game because the joy of winning doesn't out weigh the horrible feeling of losing there. Luckily, I didn't have to experience that!

While I had so much fun and it was good to get away for a day, I missed the heck out of my little baby. I was constantly looking at his pictures on my phone. While we were gone Grana took such good care of him and he of course was an angel baby! I'm pretty sure he didn't even notice I was gone!

1 Month

Today Luke is one month old. He is growing too fast! He has started to focus on things and make small responses. For instance, if you stick your tongue out at him, he will try to stick his tongue out at you. I so badly wish I could know what is going through his little brain. He has been sleeping really well at night and last night went 5 hours before waking up to eat. He is eating 3-4 ounces 7 times a day. He got a new dog rug this week and he absolutely loves it. We put it on the floor and he will just lay there on it for hours and look around and then fall asleep. I love the faces he makes when he is waking up. He will stretch his back and wrinkle up his forehead and looks like an old man. It is the cutest thing.

Jessica came to see us this week and helped us get our bonus room set up. Up until this weekend it has just been a huge pile of junk so we are very grateful for her and the motivation she brought with her. We already miss her!

Derek's family is in town for Thanksgiving and we are enjoying them all very much. Right now Luke is watching 'Dancing with the stars' with his 83 year old Nana! I guess that is all for now. I hope I don't ever forget these precious moments. Praise the Lord for such a sweet baby!

Settling in...

Luke in his swing asleep...I'm telling you, he loves it!

The Irons decked out in Bama gear for the LSU game...Roll Tide!!

Luke and I (2 weeks old)

These are some pictures from his first 3 weeks at home. We are finally getting some sort of routine. We eat at the same time each day and have started to only need one night feeding. Momma is very excited about sleeping 4 hours at a time. When we brought Luke home from the hospital he was Jaundice and we had to feed him every 2 hours for the first week and then he didn't weigh enough at his 2 week appointment so we had to up his feedings and on week 4 we are feeding every 3 hours and letting him sleep as long as he will at night. So far that has been 4 hours. It is amazing to me how stinkin cute he is at 4 o'clock in the morning. I just want to kiss his cheeks all of the time! This is the first week I am at home by myself with him. My mom was here for 2 weeks and then Grana (Derek's mom) came for a week. It was so wonderful to have so much help for the first three weeks. My house is spotless and I have lots of food in the freezer.

Thanks Unyun and Grana!

Dear Aunt Angie...

Aunt Angie wasn't able to come to Alabama for Luke's birth so we made her this video.

The Wednesday night supper club (minus kids)

Derek and I are so fortunate to have made such wonderful friends in Troy. We love them very much and enjoy every time we get to hang out with them.

Thanks Nelson's and Jones' for coming to see us! Can't wait until Luke is old enough so that we can get back into the normal Wednesday night routine!