Our happy boy

I never thought I'd say this, but Luke's days of not sleeping are a distant memory. He's now a sleeper, through and through (although I know that can change any day), and is such a happy boy because of it.

And that happy little boy turned eight months yesterday. It's so hard to believe he's only four months away from one year. One year!

I say this all the time to Ryan, but for the longest time I really pictured Luke as a perpetual newborn. I'm not sure why. I think it's because he's our second and it's so easy for Clara to steal the show. Luke was a little baby, just laying there, then sitting there, not really needing much, and Clara was very much in need of our attention. Luke would do something developmentally and it would be days (or weeks) before I noticed. Meanwhile, with Clara last year, we were all over her every move!

Poor Lukie! That sounds terrible when I type it out, but really it's not. He was just our sweet, sweet little baby, and his baby-ness was exaggerated by Clara quickly growing out of hers.

But that all changed the past few weeks.

Always crawling, or at least his version of it

I braced myself for his turning seven months. I knew it was a time of rapid development. Clara, despite being born ten weeks early, started doing new things every few days once she hit that milestone. 

And Luke has been no different. He's no longer my newborn. 

He found his voice, saying "Dadada" all the time, even yelling it out of the blue (or whispering, which I find adorable). He started rocking on all fours a few weeks ago and has been wanting to crawl so badly ever since. If you put something he wants across the room he will get to it, one way or another. And just the other day he did an army crawl for the first time. 

Not exactly Clara's legendary eyelashes, but still beautiful

He's also gotten a ton of teeth lately, and has five in all. Adding in solid food (as in not baby food, but puffs and blueberries and that sort of thing) wasn't even on my radar until yesterday, when I realized maybe I should try.

There's those teeth

Oh boy, this kid probably wondered what took me so long!

Someone's pretty happy

He can't get enough of it. He loves feeding himself. He's watched his sister for so long, I think he's happy it's finally his turn.

Sharing a snack

Even though he's now eight months old, I still can't believe he's here. That I conceived a baby and he lives with us and his name is Luke.

"And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God." Luke 1:37