Model Behavior

Our big boy is 3 months old!  He marked the occasion with a photo shoot on Saturday at one of those instant photo studios.  It is hard work to be SO cute for EVERY photo taken, but he did it.  Modelling may be in his future, don't you think?  (We're not biased or anything.)

I'm happy to say that Luke and I both survived my first week back at work.  It only took a couple days to get fully immersed in all that is Walgreens Consumables marketing. Although I miss Lukers a ton, it is beginning to  feel kind of good to be back in the saddle!

Aside from work, we had some other activities this week.  We had a fun birthday dinner for Donna on Wednesday, December 1st.  On Saturday Luke helped pick out his first Christmas tree and also experienced his first snow!  Then we were lucky enough to have Katie came up from Indy to spend the night on Saturday.  On top of that, the Carpenters came down to visit Katie on Sunday and everyone helped us trim our tree.  It looks great!

In Luke development news, his motor skills are really improving.  He is holding his toys all by himself and interacting with them so much more.  When I hold him he feels like he's gotten so big!  Stop growing little man!

Turning the pages of my book (courtesy of Isolene)

Standing up on my own!  My toy fell into the car seat.

My giraffe makes me happy, thanks Angela!

Donna's Birthday - new scarf 

Bathtime!  Mr. Ducky

Napping during football??

I like to drool A LOT!!!  That's how I roll!

Visit with Katie, thanks for the Purdue gear!
Looking good!

Snuggles

Our Christmas tree 2010, smells so wonderful and it so festive!

Cousins (not kissing yet)

So fun to visit with Katie, congrats on being done with finals
 and thanks for coming!

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

We have so much to be thankful for this year, most especially our little turkey Luke.  We'd like to give thanks also for our fabulous family and friends, who make our lives so meaningful.  Thank you for everything!

On Tuesday Donna, Luke and I had the chance to meet baby Jackson Alexander Warner, Kelly & Drew's new baby boy.  For those of you following the blog, you may remember me attending Kelly's shower the other week.  Their little boy is so precious, and Luke looked like a behemoth next to him!

This week was the last week of my maternity leave, and Isolene was here too, so I thought it was the perfect year to host the Baranko side Thanksgiving for the very first time.  Yes, it was the first time I cooked a turkey.  I thought everything turned out great!  We had 9 people over and it was really fun.  Luke enjoyed his first Thanksgiving immensely, and didn't seem to mind that he couldn't partake in the gluttony.  He is such a good baby, he even slept during dinner so the rest of us could eat!

Luke's Thanksgiving outfit #1 with tiny turkeys on it - thanks Grandma Mackus!

Matt's ingenious table extension

Uncle Garry and Luke

On Saturday we drove up to have a post-Thanksgiving celebration with the Mackus side.  Mom and Dad made a delicious lobster, steak and lamb chops dinner and we had a fun weekend.

Everyone IS thankful for Paige Jane

Sisters with their babies:)

PJ helping Grandma Mary sew (sort of)

After dinner snooze

So today was my first day back at work and it went well.  I made it!  Everyone made me feel very welcome back at Walgreens, and Isolene sent me a picture of Luke on my phone and gave me updates on what he was doing - so with all of that the day went by really fast.  I couldn't wait to get home to squeeze Luke though, and was relieved that even with a full day of work I was able to spend a few hours playing and spending time with my baby before bed.  I think this is going to be ok!

Helping Daddy enjoy his morning cup of Joe

Mommy's Little Monster:)

Cutie pie playing with spools of thread

Blowing bubbles of excitement over my toy

Big Boy Lukers

Take a look at Luke's passport photo!  Isn't it hilarious?  He looks like a little man instead of a 2 1/2 month old. We got that taken last week.  I had to renew my passport so thought we should go ahead and get him one too, just in case we need to go anywhere.  Thanks Walgreens photo department!

Luke is hitting the milestones like nobody's business.  He is so strong and getting so big.  He is wearing some of his 6 month old outfits already if you can believe it!  Luke is grabbing his toys and doing some tug of war type games.  He has found his hands are very fun toys as well, his left hand likes to play with his right hand and vice versa almost all day long.  They also like to go in his mouth a lot, I'm talking almost a whole fist at a time.  I also am very happy to report that he is officially the world's best sleeper.  For the past 2 nights he has slept TEN hours straight at night.  Crazy, right?  I kept checking to see if he was still breathing.  The first night I thought it was a fluke, but last night it happened again so I'm hoping it is here to stay.  We were thinking that weaning him of his night feeding would be quite the project (Ferber method, etc.) but we seemed to have skipped all that drama.  At least for now:)  Knock on wood.

The other big news is that our nanny started!  Isolene started last Monday, the 15th, so we could have some transitional time where we're both home.  Isolene is amazing, very loving and very organized.  She's already organized all of our closets and Luke smiles when he sees her every morning!  As wonderful as she is, I'm not going to lie, the first couple days were pretty hard for me.  It really hit home that I was going to have to give up my precious Luke to someone else's care for most of the day and that makes me really sad.  I thought I was going to take this much better than I am, I'm surprised by my emotions.  But I've had some great talks with several of my incredibly supportive friends and they are making me feel much better about my decision to go back to work.  Thank you guys!

This week's activities are chronicled below.

At Middlefork Farm with Kristin and PJ on Monday

He loved the zoo:)

Luke's first trip to the zoo!

Kristin and Sassy Pants

Cousin Jason's 22nd BD Party on Fri nite

Grandpa and Luke

Grandma and me

Fun visit with the Conklin's on Sat, Drew is getting so big!

Little peanut in his crib

Sleepy boy

A Good Week

This week flew by with some fun events.  Tuesday we had lunch with the Walgreens ladies Kate, Kristin and Patrice.  We finally had an introduction to delightful Ms. Morgan Frederick, born the same week as Luke.  

Patrice with her daughter Morgan and Luke

On Thursday Luke and I headed up to WI for a visit with our Great Aunt Barbara, my mother's aunt, with Kristin, PJ and Mom.  She is such a wonderful lady and so great with the kids.  She has so many similarities to my grandmother, it brought back happy memories of my Grandma and made my heart smile that perhaps my grandmother was looking down on us.

Thursday night we had a fun dinner at Mom and Dad's house.  Luke sat in their high chair for the first time (although he didn't eat anything, he watched us!).  

On Friday, I had a nice visit with Lindsey and Andrea and their children.  Lindsey was in town from MN and has a 2 year old daughter, Silvia, and a 2 month old daughter, Cecilia.  Andrea's daughter Josie was born on 9/1, Cecilia was born on 9/2 and Luke was supposed to have been born on 9/3 to complete the trifecta.  Oh well, 9/4 isn't bad!

Isabelle, Silvie, Lindsey and Cecilia

Josie

Cece

Saturday Kathryn hosted a beautiful baby shower for Luke at her home.  Delicious food, beautiful decorations, fun games, generous gifts and great company for sure!  Thanks Kathryn!

Valerie and her boys Nathan and Ben

Kathryn and TJ

Madeline doing one of the games with TJ

Sunday we went to a baby shower for my cousin Dave and his wife Kristina in Indiana.  Kristin, PJ, Mom, Luke and I drove down together. It was a perfect opportunity for Luke to meet his Kurz side family.  The shower was lovely and our time with our Kurz relatives seemed far too short!

Dave and Kristina

Anne, Tracy, A Penny, me, Lukers

Dana, Lisa, A Barbara