Auntie Kristin & Cousin PJ come to visit

I heart my auntie:)....

...and my big girl cousin PJ who is going to show me the ropes

We could hardly wait for Kristin and PJ to come meet our little girl, and the day finally arrived last Wednesday!  We spent four days hanging around enjoying each other's company, it was perfect.  PJ and Luke played soooo well together, they were super cute to watch.  PJ was so sweet with Claire, too.  She was really good at holding her and babying her, it melted your heart.  

Thursday we had a fun playdate with Sara, Orrin, Lila, Isolene, Kirah, and of course Kristin, PJ, me, Lukers and Claire.  We are went for a walk to the park so it was a total stroller brigade!

Walking to Open Lands  Look at how cute they are holding hands!

I had a *great* idea to go on the hike sans stroller for Luke.  Remind me not to try that again for I'd say at least 6 months.  My ears and arms are still recovering from carrying a screaming, wiggling child 2 miles home.  Luke didn't want to leave the boardwalk part of the hike, for anyone who's wondering.

Getting ready to go to the park at the beach.  

Happy dune jumper!

Mexican dinner out the night before the girls left for home!  I think this was Claire's first public restaurant outing.  

Snuggles!

After a sad good bye to Kristin and PJ, we hit the park to take advantage of the sunny day.  The other shots are just some cute ones from our day to day routine.  Claire continues to be an angelic baby.  She is getting good at bearing weight.  She sleeps well - 5 hours is her longest so far - and she is getting so much more personality.  She is smiling and cooing, it is in a word: adorable.

Looking at the birds at Elawa Farm

Matt converted his tool area in the basement into his home office.  Saaaweet office space!

Neck strength champion of the world.

Look at the cutie patootie face!!!

Showing us his "Percy the Lizard" that he and PJ hatched themselves.

Kristin says I need to share stories like the below, so here goes :)  True story.  A couple nights ago I got up to feed Claire around 2:30am and had to change her diaper.  I try to do it really fast so I don't wake her up too much so we can both get back to sleep asap.  I can usually get her fed and back in bed in like 10 minutes, it is awesome.  This night, unfortunately, she had wet through her outfit, so I had to strip her down (she wears 3 layers to sleep- a onesie, a sleeper, and a swaddler).  But as soon as I changed her diaper and got her dressed again in new versions of all her three layers, I heard her poop again!!  Little stinker!  I couldn't just put her back in the crib when I knew she was poopy (although I considered it, I'm not proud), so I ever so gently unswaddled her, unsnapped her sleeper and onesie, and then removed the dirty diaper.  I was wiping her bottom before securing her new diaper, when she starts peeing!  Yep, you guessed it, she wet her new diaper, and since it wasn't really on her yet, she wet onto her new onesie, sleeper and swaddler too.  So we had to get all undressed again and redressed, and I was just finishing the final swaddle step when she spit up a ton of milk onto herself, soaking through all three layers.  So I removed the puke soaked swaddler, sleeper and onesie - redressed the baby girl with NO EXCRETIONS LEFT in her body (hopefully) and then tried to convince her she was not totally awake:)  

Look at me!!  I like to poop, pee and spit up!

Development Updates

It has been a while since I did a Luker Dukerson update, so I have a lot to say!  I snuck in one about Claire, too:)

The photos are just the day to day important milestones we capture being home with our kiddos!  

- Luke is still doing well having to share us with his baby sister.  He gives her gentle kisses before going to sleep that will melt your heart.  We've only had a couple times where he has asked me to "Put Baby Claire down and hold me!"  We have been having so much fun spending time together, he loves having us both home almost every day.

- Claire moved to her own room, and is sleeping in her crib like a champ!  We started the bedtime routine a few days ago, so she is taking a bath with Luke, getting stories, then is nursed and put to bed around 8:30 too.  I think she likes her new routine - she slept 5 hours in a row last night.  I didn't have to get up to feed her until close to 2am!  We'll take it!

- Luke has been taking showers instead of baths for the past few weeks (although he seems to be back on baths the past couple nights).  Matt put his dump trucks and bulldozers in the shower, and it is such a hoot to see him playing in our huge shower with these trucks.  He fills up and dumps out water and soap bubbles and could stay in there forever.  Matt taught him to "park" all of his equipment and flip up the dump trucks and bulldozers so that they don't collect water when we take a shower in there later.

- Luke is so vocal, it is so fun to talk to him and have real conversations. He is exploring the range of his voice (read:  yelling inside) so we have to remind him to use his "inside voice" all the time.  His favorite thing to shout is "Moooommmy!!!  Where are you????" even if I'm right next to him.  Examples of other cute things he says are "Ahoy there mateys!" and "Hi there!" as he jumps into a room.

- Luke is able to "read" his favorite books by himself.  He literally knows every word of his David book by heart.  You turn each page and he says exactly what is on each page, it is amazing.  We tried to get it on camera, but the stinkers won't perform.

- Luke is getting really good at imagination play.  He plays with his train set, and his Sesame Street playhouse, and his fire trucks so well by himself - he has the guys say things to each other and pretends all sorts of things.  It is definitely a new phase that is really fun to watch.

- Luke is also getting really good at playing with other kids.  He used to play alongside them, but now he really interacts with them so much better.  I can't wait for PJ to get here today to see how well they play together.  On Easter he played with Orrin so well, too.

First bath together!

First time in the baby carrier - I love being hands free, and she loves being carried around all snuggled in there.

Playing outside yesterday.  It is finally getting to feel like Spring!

Ahoy there mateys!  He sees land (or more like the wood plank in front of the lens!)

Everytime she kicked or moved her arms she would hit a toy and geek out.  

We bought this used  compact double stroller on Craig's List.  This is out first time taking it out for a spin, we went to the park.  Luke liked sitting in his special seat up front:)  This was Claire's first walk outside, too.

We bundled her all up, she was so cute.  

ladybug girl

A Smiley Easter & Matt's BIG DAY

Look who's smiling!!  We had so much to smile about this Easter, Claire just had to join in on the fun!

Adorable hair piece from the Yttre family:)

 We celebrated Easter with another local Easter egg hunt on Good Friday, then at the Baranko's house on Sunday.  The Baranko's sold their home of 31 years in Downers Grove (it sold within 48 hours of being listed!) so they will be moving out in a couple months.  That meant that this was the last holiday celebration that took place in their house, the house where Ben and Matt grew up in.  What a wonderful house it has been, we will miss it.  We had the traditional Hungarian Easter feast, a combination of meats, cheeses, breads and sausages.  Yum!  Donna and Emil have an offer in on an awesome house in nearby Waukegan, let's cross our fingers that the inspection goes well today and that they get their new home!

Speaking of homes, today is an important day for Matt and his new business.  He closed on his first foreclosed home today, yay!!  That means he is off an running on renovation to either flip or rent the property.  Congratulations, Matt!  The first of many:)

Funny enough, this property is just a few doors down from Donna and Emil's potential new house - that's how they found it!  We were checking out Matt's property during the inspection and they saw the house for sale and asked to take a look at it.  It was meant to be!

Gorton Community Center Easter Celebration:

Handsome boy on the way to the Easter egg hunt.  

Crafts and snacks.  Luke was WAY more interested in the snacks.

Singing songs with the Easter bunny.  There were tons of kids

Nice sunny day meant the Easter egg hunt could be outdoors.

Serenaded by "Mr. David" Luke's music teacher.  Luke checking out the Easter bunny.

Easter morning at home:

Easter morning, finding the eggs that Luke dyed last week that the Easter Bunny hid.

Luke finding his basket

Look at all that loot!

Easter morning with my babies:)

Eating his hard boiled egg

Easter day at Donna and Emil's house:

Cute "My first Easter" outfit!

The best and most elaborate Easter egg hunt yet!  Easter bunny Donna hid 46 eggs, complete with prizes and goodies in each one.  Orrin and Luke had a great time finding all of them.

Orrin finding a tricky one in the greenhouse window.

Family photo:)

Easter dinner

Justin with the affectionately dubbed "Meat Volcano"

Our hosts with the most

Claire likes being held by her Grandpa

Look at those cute little bunny slippers!

Grammy enjoyed holding Claire a lot during the party