Matt's First Father's Day as a Daddy

Matt is such a great Dad.  He's hands on, loving, silly and fun with Luke.  He is so devoted to his family and we're both lucky to have him!!  It was nice to be able to recognize his great Daddy work on Father's Day this year:)

We also were able to celebrate Father's Day over the weekend with the 3 other fathers in our immediate family, Cory, Dad and Emil.  

On Saturday we headed up to Wisconsin to celebrate with my family, enjoying a gorgeous day outside.  Saturday night Mom and Dad watched Luke so Kristin, Cory, Matt and I could go to The Fiddler on the Roof in downtown Milwaukee.  The show was awesome!  You know how I'm a big fan of TRA-DI-TION!!

A rousing game of croquet was tons of fun!

My parent's landscaping looks gorgeous!

Cory napping with CeCe

Delicious dinner al fresco

Dinosaur sightings!  Lukeasaurus Rex and Paigeasaurs Rex!

Sunday we headed back down to IL to spend the day with Emil and Donna.  Emil is still recovering well from back surgery, even walking close to a mile last week!  We all walked to the park and enjoyed some time playing with Luke and being outside.  

Cute!

Three generations:)

Tuesday we had a really bad storm that knocked down a tree in our backyard and knocked out our power for 48 hours!  It was super fun to shower in the dark and listen to the lovely sound of the generator roaring (the generator was a lifesaver as it kept our sump pump and refrigerator running, thanks D&E!).  Thank goodness that the summer solstice meant that we had tons of daylight, and the cool temps made the lack of air conditioning a non-issue.  It actually wasn't that bad.  The tree removal bill is what was painful!

In Luke news, he is still taking little steps here and there, but he really seems to prefer his crawling as the fastest way to get from a to b.  He's happy as can be.  His appetite has really increased, too, just like the doctor said it would.  He has been eating a TON!  Maybe he'll put on some weight now.

Computer screen is fascinating!

Our strawberries are in!

  

Last week I forgot to post his adorable 9 month photo shoot pictures.  He was so cute in every pic, once again it was impossible to pick our favorite poses.  Here are a few.  If anyone wants any prints, I have about 100!  Let me know and I'll send you a wallet:)  Seriously.  

A Few Good Steps

Lukers definitely took a few steps this week!  It is very exciting!  If Matt or I stand him up and then reach for him Luke will take a couple steps toward us before falling over.  The maximum has been three, but that counts, right?  You have to start somewhere.  He's going to be zooming all over the place before long.

Other than that, not too much to report on the Luke front this week.  Unfortunately he has developed a little bit of a separation anxiety problem with leaving Mommy.  While flattering in a way, it becomes less of a novelty when it becomes difficult to share parenting duties with Matt.  How do single parents do it?  In addition to the "only wanting Mommy" phenomenon, Luke also had a couple of days of straight up super-crabbiness.  We're not sure if it was teething or a little cold or what.  We especially did not enjoy the middle of the night crying fests (although it does make us appreciate going back to the full nights of sleep afterwards).  He certainly earned his nickname "Stinkers" this week.  We're happy to report that he's now back to his normal, happy self.

Last Saturday we went to visit Emil, who had just arrived home from the rehab hospital after his back surgery.  He is doing great and making impressive progress.  He's already taking walks around his neighborhood!

Saturday night Mom and Dad came down to spend the night. We had a fun dinner out in downtown Lake Forest, and Luke enjoyed his time with Grandma and Grandpa.

On Sunday we hosted our annual party with our Mackus relatives.  We celebrated Aunt Sue, Aunt Allyson, Uncle Dan, Cousin Ian and PJ's birthdays as well as Father's Day.  It was a beautiful sunny day, though a bit cold.  That didn't stop a few of us brave few from taking a dip in the pool though.  You know Paige was the first one in!

Some other cute shots of Daddy and Stinkers from the week:

9 months young

This week Luke turned 9 months old.   He had his doctor appointment "well visit" and we were surprised to hear that his growth is actually slowing down compared to his earlier measurements.  His weight in particular is down from what the doctor would expect.  He thinks it is because Luke is so active that he is burning a ton of calories, but not interested in eating any more!  The doctor did confirm that his mobility is very advanced for a baby his age:)  The new thing this week is that he can climb up stairs, he is so fast too!  Dr. T isn't worried about Luke's growth, though, and he anticipates a surge in appetite soon.  So basically Lukers is totally healthy.

Weight: 19 lbs, 4.5 ozs (25th percentile)
Length: 28 1/4 in (50th percentile)
Head circumference: 45 cm (25-50th percentile)

Luke standing up all by himself

This week Grandpa Baranko had back surgery.  The surgery went well and Emil was recovering nicely in the hospital for a few days.  We went to visit him on Saturday evening and were happy to run into Aunt Rosie and Uncle Pat also at the hospital visiting, down from Milwaukee.  Despite the pain of recovery and rehab, Emil is already feeling relief from the unbearable back pain he was having prior to the surgery.  We couldn't believe the doctors had him up walking on the new rod in his back the DAY of his surgery!  What a trooper!  Keep up the great rehab work Grandpa/Dad/Emil!  We love you!

The warm weather we've had makes us feel sure that Summer is really here, and we had another fun couple of days by the pool to prove it.  We were happy to spend time outside on both Saturday and Sunday.

On Sunday we hosted a little pool party with the Bullock's and the Meyer's.  It was so fun, like we were on vacation together in Mexico again - but more convenient:)

Here are some other cute shots from the week:

Climbing up the stairs

I'm stuck!

Proof of the top two teeth - as promised from last week

Funny face

How do I get the basketball game on?  (He really seems to love bball!)

Memorial Day staycation

What's that strange squeaking sound?  Lukers of course!  Cruising around with his walker all over the house.  He takes his "work" very seriously, no time to stop and chat!

Luke is definitely standing on his own now fairly easily, and is a pro at walking with his walker all over the house and even turning it to avoid things sometimes.  Usually he rams into something with the walker and then abandons ship when brute force won't move it.  

He's interested in everything in the house that is NOT a toy.  Favorites include the wine fridge, the piano, house plants, closets, dog toys, magazines and Tupperware.  

His top two teeth are coming in more and more.  We used to just see a little white poking through the gums, but now there are two pronounced little chompers sitting pretty up there.  I'll try and get a picture of them for next week, they're still a little hard to see without him leaning his head back. With the nice weather he has had the chance to spend more time playing outside, which is so fun and cute.  He is really good at drinking from his sippy cup too.  It's important to stay hydrated!

He is becoming more of a picky eater now.  He used to eat pretty much anything, but now that he's had some good stuff (sweet fruit purees and yummy veggie combo purees), he's not so into straight up bland brown rice and broccoli purees. Oh - and we introduced chicken to him for the first time, pureed with tons of veggies and he seemed to like it.  What a mess he makes!

 The Baranko Family spent Memorial Day weekend at home.  Really, I think we only left the house once in three days.  The weather on Saturday and Sunday didn't beg for outings, though.  

Saturday Luke had his last Kindermusik class of the session, then Matt and I cleaned up the basement the rest of the day during the rain.  It wasn't really fun, but a necessary task that we're glad got done because now our finished basement is back to being usable.  We also got our pool fence installed.  It is perfect because it can easily come up and down as we need it to, and it will keep Lukers safe as he grows up playing in the backyard around the pool.

Sunday we had monsoon rains, with flooding all around Lake Forest.  Thank goodness our basement didn't flood again, as it was almost a year to the day that we had the flooding last year and we JUST got the basement back to pre-flood conditions.  Those two new sump pumps did the trick!  Donna and Emil came over for the day, battling the storms.  We had a fun day of hanging out, and when the rain cleared we enjoyed a nice dinner on the patio - the first of the season!

Monday was really the day to write home about though.  The weather was gorgeous, sunny and clear with hot temps too.  Matt and I enjoyed our coffee in the morning on our lounge chairs outside and it felt like we were on vacation.  Later Jeff and Sarah came over, and we had a fun barbeque and pool day.  Thanks for coming guys!  Luke went in the pool all the way for the first time ever and he loved it.  He splashed and shrieked.