Nine months

I truly can't believe it's been nine whole months since Luke was born. Yet it seems like he's always been here.

I know, I know. I write that every month.

This little baby has totally melted our hearts lately. He is really a little boy with his own unique personality, which seemed to come out so much in the last couple months. 

He is so incredibly sweet, just nuzzles into you, smiles constantly, and talks all the time. He adores - ADORES - his big sister. He also has a thing for her sippy cup. 

He's been pulling up for a while now, and cruises once in a while. 

And just a couple weeks ago, he started crawling. He'd been army-crawling for a while, but now he actually crawls, which means he can get around pretty fast. 

I absolutely love, love, love watching him crawl. To think that this little baby has a mind of his own and he is deciding where to go... I just can't get enough of it. So far, he mostly heads from toy to toy and spends a lot of time at the front door. And, of course, he never misses an opportunity to follow around Clara.

He has six teeth, and is working on a seventh. And this kid - at least right now - is a great teether. Thank God! We barely know he's getting a tooth sometimes, until it suddenly appears.

He loves feeding himself food - his favorites are blueberries, bananas, peaches, squash and carrots - and while he still lets me feed him pureed food, he definitely prefers to be in control. The only problem is after I cut whatever he's eating into tiny pieces, he just shoves a fistful into his mouth.

He surprised us in church a little while back by waving to the people behind us and saying, "hi!" They were pretty surprised too. I remember that's where Clara first waved and said "hi" as well, practically in the same pew!

Speaking of church, he does really well during Mass. He really is super content as long as he is in my arms. I know that won't always be the case, but I'm loving it right now. He just looks around and takes it all in. Until he decides he's hungry and then he tries to yank my shirt down until I quickly get up and avoid an embarrassing situation!

He says "dada" all the time, although I'm not sure whether he's actually directing it towards Dada just yet or if it's my imagination. He also says "cat" once in a while, or rather "dat". I can interpret it only because he's repeating after me and playing with our cat at the time.

He loves to play, and unlike Clara who is a champ at playing by herself, I am noticing he prefers Clara to be playing with (or near) him. I've noticed lately he seems much less interested in playing with his toys if she's napping. He's unsettled unless she's there. I told you he adores her.

Mama-in-training

My daughter's current choice for a little light reading, which she drags up onto the bed with her whenever one of us is working on the computer in our bedroom...

You decide to read this now, Clara? Where were you with this about four months ago when I could have used your help?!

So I do torture my kids...

I said in my last post that I wasn't actually trying to torture my kids with the mall fountains, that they did kind of like them. Well, I shouldn't imply I don't ever torture them. Because I do.

Case in point...

Sometimes Lukie and I go together to get Clara when she wakes up from her nap (sometimes Lukie does it alone, but he'd really rather I be there to change her diaper). And sometimes I put Luke in her crib with her. 

Clara's usually not too hot on the idea...

Guess which one likes this and which one doesn't

But it always has potential for some great pictures. And isn't that what it's all about?

Clara, mid-jump

Ok, I'm free. Let me try to break you out.

With Clara's blinds up, I noticed some great light. So the quick crib shots turned into a mini-photo shoot.

You'd rather I not eat this carpet fuzz? Yum!

The many faces of Luke, aka Bruisy Face

I threw this in just to show how 99% of my photos turn out

So because the sibling crib torture wasn't enough, nor was the impromptu photo shoot (which is always a kid fave), I decide to put Clara in her hamper...

Are you serious, Mom?

What? Let this bother me? A hamper's like my second home.

Clara was unrattled. So what's a mother to do? She puts her other baby in, of course...

And it was going quite well until...

Cute, even when they're fighting

...the quarters got a bit cramped. 

And on that note... we went about our business as a normal family. You know, like getting Clara that bottle she'd been asking for.

My poor kids.

Nerves

Just when I think this child is fearless, she proves me wrong. Like today, at the water fountains at the outdoor mall.

I thought she'd love it. She loves big pools. She loves baby pools. She just mastered her baby pool slide which she climbs onto and slides down all by herself. After falling once the other day, she got right back on the horse, proclaiming, "I do!"

But not today. We're not sure if it was the shooting water, or the big kids running around (probably a combination of both), but she was a ball of nerves.

This was as close as she got for a while...

No, really Mama. I'm not scared of the fountains. I'm just very interested in this maintenance worker...

And then Lukie was even closer to the water than she was...

There was a lot of leg-hugging...

And watching safely from a distance...

And just when you might wonder why we were torturing our children with water fountains...

...she warmed up to them. She walked closer... and closer...

Until... Ahhhhh!

I'm ready to go, Mama. If you don't put me in this stroller, I'm pushing it to the car on my own!

I think we'll be sticking with the baby pool from now on :)

Pool pictures

It was cool enough to go in the pool today. A mere 82 degrees! It felt like Spring.

So we did.. and my two little fish went crazy!

There was lots of sliding...

And some back-patting...

And some good-natured hair pulling...

And some... I'm not sure what was going on here...

At the time I thought she was kindly warning me that she was going in her diaper. But that wasn't it. My second guess is she was looking for her belly button. She likes to know it's still there.

We knew Clara loved the water, but we weren't sure about Luke. But he couldn't get enough! Splashing and moving all around the pool...

This kid loves his big sister. Just look at how he looks at her...

Speaking of looks...

Oh my...

Why don't we do this every day? Oh ya... because it's too hot!

My favorite things

Clara's sweet hugs from behind as I'm sitting on the floor.

Waking up to Luke's face inches away from my own, smiling up at me.

Baby belly laughs.

My babies hugging, sitting together, or interacting whatsoever.

..And when I have a camera aimed at them at that particular moment.

Clara's love of singing and her sweet little voice...

Clara's "Happy Song" - an original composition which goes something like this: "Happy, happy, happy.. muah, muah.. happy, happy!" (Those would be kissing sounds)

That Luke can go from a crazy-freak-out-screaming cry to completely calm just by me picking him up.

That Luke loves me more than anyone else on the planet.

Simultaneous naps.

Sink baths...

...and red hair.

Clara's insistence on kissing us goodnight and goodbye. She chases after us yelling, "Kiss, kiss!"

Out-of-the-blue-for-no-apparent-reason hugs and kisses.

Luke's new ability to kiss, even though he so far only gives them out to other babies, including himself..

Watching my babies and their daddy.

Feast days! Clara spent her feast day today (Feast of St. Clare) at the Children's Museum...

These are a few of my favorite things.

Interaction

There has been interaction between our babies ever since we first brought Luke home from the hospital. Clara took to calling him "baby" very early on (even before he was born, actually), and recently has started switching back and forth between that and "Lukie" (or, what sounds more like "yucky," although we can definitely tell it apart from the real "yucky," which she also likes to say a lot).

Clara has always kissed him and hugged him. Early on, she loved reminding herself (and mimicking me) to be careful with him by saying "gentle, gentle" while she rubbed his bald head.

And recently, she asks to have him brought to her before bedtime or upon waking up from a nap by saying, "kiss, kiss!" if I'm holding him. I lean him down to her and she plants a wet one on his cheek.

It's adorable. They have always loved each other, lighting up when the other was around (especially on Luke's part), and really getting along.

But not until recently have they really started actually playing. They have played ever since Luke could sit up, really, but not like this. It was more like Clara dropping all her toys on his lap and him playing with them, one at a time.

But now, they play together.

I can't get enough of it. I could watch them all day, Clara playing with Luke like I play with her, and Luke just cracking up.

I caught some of today's playing on video, just because I wanted to be able to listen to Luke's laugh here whenever I wanted. Of course, he wasn't laughing as hard as before I started taping, but I was able to capture some:

I'm so grateful that God chose to bless us this way, giving us two babies so close in age who will grow up to be (God willing) the best of friends. Being their mother is better than I ever imagined, even though I had a lot of time to imagine. God is so good!