Girls' Weekend

Lukers is so cute, I wish you all could interact with him as much as we get to.  I posted another video, a little longer, so you can get a little taste of how fun and happy he is.

This week went by very quickly.  The kitchen is coming along swimmingly.  The beam is in, which means the walls are officially out!  Electric and plumbing rough is in, and the inspection is tomorrow.  We could have drywall by next week:)

This past Sat/Sun Mom, Kristin and I went to Lake Geneva on a Girl's Weekend.  We had a blast shopping, wining and dining, spa-ing and lounging.  It was the longest I have been away from Luke so far, and while I missed him a lot, the time flew by.

We are continuing to give Luke rice cereal in his bottle every night, but unfortunately that hasn't always meant a full  night's sleep.  It is really sporadic, sometimes he has a great night, waking up only once.  But the past couple nights he has woken up 3 or 4 times again.  No rhyme or reason as far as we can tell.  Let's hope it swings back to the latter soon.

Here are a few other shots from the week:

Caution: Under Construction

Our eco-system is in an upheaval due to the renovation of our kitchen.  Demolition started last Monday, so as I posted last week, the Baranko's (that's us) got out of dodge to avoid the dust and harmful lead that could invade the air during the process.  We stayed with Donna and Emil for the week, which was great.  Isolene was kind enough to make the drive to Downers Grove every day to watch the Lukers.  Emil has been at our house everyday though, overseeing demolition and construction.  It sure comes in handy to have a retired contractor in the family!  Thanks!

So get a load of the shell of our old kitchen.  Tearing down three walls really opens a place up!  We're so excited that this is actually happening!  The kitchen is going to look amazing.  I've posted renderings of how it will hopefully look one day soon.

We "moved" back home from Downers Grove on Friday after work.  While it is wonderful being back in our own beds, the challenge of living without a kitchen has begun.  We have stations sprawled out all over the house for cooking/dishwashing.  We are all set though - we have a mini-fridge, microwave, Crock Pot, electric skillet, electric stovetop and NuWave oven.  We can feast!  It's the cleaning up part that is a little trickier.

On Saturday Luke and I headed up to Kristin and Cory's for a visit.  They hosted a wonderful lunch with my parents, Aunt Susan and Grandma.  PJ was super cute, as always, and I got a bunch of adorable shots.  She is riding her little trike now - what a big girl!  I had a bad cold all week, and lost my voice completely by Friday.  I spent the  next 3 days whispering to everyone, including catching up with family in hushed tones all Saturday. Thanks everyone for your patience with me!

Valentine's Day couple

Sharing Valentine's Day cookies from Grandma Mary

As many of you know, for a while now Matt and I have been considering beginning Luke on a little rice cereal at night.  His regression on sleep has caused us to question whether or not he is getting enough food at night to keep him full.  So we finally took the plunge!  Sunday Lukers had his first "solid food", which basically was ever so slightly thickened breast milk.  We started him with just one tablespoon the first night, and he slept for a little bit longer than he had been.  But the second night we gave him 3 tablespoons in a bottle, and he only woke up ONCE during the night.  Eureka!  Now that's what I'm talking about!  Let's hope it sticks.  Wish us luck for night 3 tonight.  

Sunday was a nice mild weather day, so we got to go on one of our first family outings together to Lake Forest Open Lands.  Luke LOVED it.  Here is a little video of him shrieking with delight.

Sporting my new shades

Yay!  Out of the house and free to run!

Monday was Valentine's Day.  Matt gave me beautiful roses and a sweet card.  Luke gave me my first Valentine's Day Mommy card, and my favorite gummy worms (thanks Daddy).  Matt was the lucky recipient of many wonderful Walgreens Valentine's Day gift items, including the giant heart of chocolates you see below.  It was a nice night with my two main squeezes.

 Finally, Matt had a little photo shoot of Luke and a friend's Packer hard hat.  As painful as it was for him, as a Bears fan, he thought Grandpa Mackus would get a kick out of the littlest Packer fan.  He did:)

Digging out from the storm

The blizzard of 2011 was epic.  Work was closed on Wednesday, so we got a day tucked away at home with Luke.  Matt used that time mostly to snowblow.  It only took a total of 7 hours for him to get our driveway back from the snow gods.

BEFORE

AFTER

Here are some other pictures of our house and the snowstorm's drifts.

Front Left Side - looking into guest room

View from inside our guest room, looking out the front

Back of house

Last weekend we stayed at home, miraculously.  Sunday we spent the whole day packing up the kitchen in preparation for our big kitchen remodel that started on Monday.  Myself, Matt, Luke, Spumoni (& Isolene too during the days!) headed to Donna and Emil's for the coming week of demolition.  Let me tell you...getting every last item out of your kitchen, pantry, front closet and living room bookshelves while simultaneously setting up an interim kitchen in your guest bathroom for the next couple months, while simultaneously packing you and your baby up for a week away...is no picnic.

Oh - and the Packers won the Superbowl on Sunday of course, which made all my family in Wisconsin happy.  Luke was happy too, since you know he is half Packers fan/half Bears fan.

Luke photos from the week are below.  He is officially 5 months old as of last week and based on our home measurements he is 16.5 lbs and 26 inches.  What a big boy!

Grandpa watching Luke while I worked from home on Thursday

Wazzup?

I'll sign off today with a couple photos of our friend Bear, who passed away this morning.  He gave Kristin & Cory many years of being a wonderful companion and canine friend.  We'll miss you sweet Bear Bear.  We hope you are frolicking in snow in heaven with all the bowls of food you can eat.

The Great Blizzard of 2011

We are in the midst of a great blizzard!  Over 20 inches of snow are supposed to come down and already everything is cancelled or closed for tomorrow.  Matt is out snow blowing the "first round" of snow right now!  I have to say that I am kind of enjoying the snow since all my boys are home safe and sound.  

The big Luke news is that he got his first haircut yesterday!  Matt and I were feeling like his hair was looking pretty scraggily lately.  It was really long on one side (almost like a comb over) and then really short on the other side and then bald in back!  How's that for a fashion statement?  So Matt just went ahead and trimmed up the long side so that it looks pretty even all around, except for the bald spot of course, that will just need to grow out!  We think he looks cuter than ever.

Last week Luke had his first Kindermusik class and Isolene said he loved it.  There were just two other babies in the class, one 3 month old girl and one 7 month old boy.  Apparently Luke only had eyes for the little girl, and would not be distracted by the little boy OR the musical activities.  He just stared at the baby girl.  Ha!  I hope this isn't a glimpse of what's to come.  Girl crazy already and a little flirt!  Here he is with his teacher Ms. Susan.

This past weekend we had some fun times.  On Saturday Luke and I had a nice lunch with our friend Alice, then Matt & I hosted a dinner party for our friends Kathryn, TJ, Madeline & Luis.  We had lots of laughs and the night flew by.

Matt & Madeline snuggling in front of  their movie

Madeline & I about to cut the cake

On Sunday we all went up to visit Mom, who had surgery on her shoulder again last week.  She's doing great and is doing her therapy like a pro.  No frozen shoulder this time!  Kristin, Cory and PJ came over too and we had an awesome day.  We went out to brunch, the boys played pool while the girls chatted and babies played, then we had a great dinner before heading home.  We all agreed that it is days like these that create those lasting family memories.  

Here are some cute shots of the Lukers from the week: