WWF (Walking, Waving and Fast crawling)

Luke grew up a lot this week.  It was like we blinked and he was able to walk with his walker, wave hello & goodbye and zoom across any surface he is set down on.  Matt and I agree that he is the cutest and most fun he has ever been, we just want to freeze time and keep this phase going forever.  Everything he does is adorable.  All the faces he makes, the squeals, giggles, grins.  He pulls himself up on something and looks over and smiles proudly as if to say "Look at me!!! I did it!"  His chubby little cheeks just beg for kisses every chance we get.

Isolene has been making a ton of baby food to tempt Luke's pallet.  He is now eating three meals a day in addition to his bottles of milk.  (Now that he's eating so much solid food I'm able to more easily keep up with his milk demands, pumping-wise, which is a relief.)  Anyway, a few example of his new culinary delights include pureed vegetable soup, cottage cheese, yogurt, pears, broccoli, green beans, lentils, millet, kidney beans, cantaloupe, carrots, sweet potatoes, mango, oatmeal - with quinoa, flaxseed and barley in the cupboard and on the way this week.

We can't wait for the warm weather to be here to stay.  It has been fun taking Luke to the park to go on the swings and going on walks together.  On Sunday Matt took his new kite for a spin, it worked great.

Last weekend was pretty low key.  Saturday Luke and I went to visit our friend Nobelle downtown and Sunday Grandma and Grandpa Baranko came over, and we enjoyed a nice visit.

Here are a few cute shots of the week.  Luke is 8 months old tomorrow, by the way, and here are the home-measured stats:

Weight: 19 lbs
Length: 28 inches

Peek a Boo!

Taking a breather after speeding down the hallway

King of the Mountain!

Hippity Hoppity

The Easter Bunny came to visit Luke, multiple times!  Luke was lucky to receive several Easter baskets this year with some very thoughtful and cute gifts for him and for his Mom and Dad too.  Thank you Easter bunnies.

Saturday we had a nice visit with our friend Dana, who came up from Chicago for a suburban stroll around Lake Forest.

Sunday we enjoyed a gorgeous Easter brunch in downtown Milwaukee at Coast, a restaurant right in front of the Calatrava.  Then we went back to Mom and Dad's house after brunch for even more fun.  G&G Mackus, Great Grandma Della, Aunt Susan, Melissa and Sean all joined in on the celebrations. Everyone was upset that the Carpenter's couldn't come because Paige is sick with the stomach flu.  We hope she feels better soon, poor little P'gers.

Luke is officially completely mobile.  He crawls really fast, and stands up on everything. We really think that he will be an early walker.  He can already take a few steps holding on to some of his walking toys.  Crawling and blowing bubbles are his favorite pastimes these days.

Missing: Spring Weather

This past week we have been mourning the loss of our spring/summer like warm weather.  Now we're having below normal average temps and gray, rainy skies to match.  Yesterday we woke up to snow!  Boo.  Bring back the sun, we want Spring!

But other than the weather it has been a pretty good week.  With Cory in FL, Kristin and PJ came down for the weekend and it was such a treat to have them stay overnight.  They even accompanied Luke & I to Kindermusik class on Saturday.  Of course I love having Kristin here, and Paige is soooo cute all the time.  They're so fun to have around.

Saturday night Matt and I went out to dinner for Jeff's birthday with the Meyer's and the Bullock's.   It was so fun to see everyone and catch up.  We went downtown to Fogo de Chao Brazilian steakhouse, which is such a neat dining experience.

Birthday Boy Jeff

While we were gorging on meat at dinner, Kristin had her hands full handling babysitting and bedtime for two kids!  She did fantastic:)

Sunday we went to breakfast, went for a hike and played with toys all day long.

In Luke news, he is becoming such a fast crawler.  We are babyproofing our house now, as he is getting into everything he shouldn't be already.

Luke wants in and Spumoni wants out!

Standing = Simple

Lukers can stand up.  It is true.  Last Wednesday while Donna and Emil were watching Luke he stood up in his crib for the first time, and they even got a picture.  He looks very proud of himself.

Now that he's broken through into the world of standing, he is a standing fool.  He pulls himself up on all of his toys, he tries to stand up on furniture and even does some sort of pseudo standing up when he's crawling.  He's still working out how to safely get back to sitting once he pulls himself up.  Key word: safely.

Last weekend we had unseasonably warm weather here, especially on Sunday, and we L-O-V-E-D it.  Saturday morning Matt and I took Luke to our first Kindermusik class of the session.  Isolene had taken him last session on Wednesdays, but we wanted to join in on the fun too.  Luke loves music and it was really fun bonding with him during the class. 

The kitchen is 99.5% done (yay!) so we spent most of the day Saturday putting it back together.  Huge shout out to Donna and Emil for coming over and helping all day.  Not only did they watch Luke so Matt and I could work, but they were indispensable in the kitchen.  Everything that was in the basement waiting patiently for its new cabinet homes needed to be washed and put away.  We had a great system where there was washing/dusting duties by Donna, Emil & Matt and then I would have to decide where each item should live.  It is so nice to have our new kitchen up and running now!

Saturday night, while we still had our babysitters, Matt & I joined friends Kathryn & Luis for a fun dinner in Chicago.  

On Sunday Dad, Kristin, Cory & PJ all came for a visit.  (Mom is in N. Carolina visiting with her friend Cal.)  It was in the 80's and sunny all day. It really felt like summer.  Our first taste of having the new kitchen and all the doors open to the patio and a full house of people was fantastic.  We are in love with our new open floorplan.

We went for a hike in Open Lands, enjoyed the sun on our patio and even brought out the red wagon.  We took PJ and Lukers for a ride, it was soooo cute!

Paige's ball rolled onto the pool cover and she was waiting patiently for the wind to blow it to her:)

Kitchen!

The kitchen is 95% done and it looks beautiful!  I didn't want to give it away with a midweek countertop post late last week because now we have backsplash too, and that makes a big difference.  It is now a completely working kitchen and we LOVE it!  We just have the grout for the backsplash, the outlets and light switches and the rest of the painting left to do to get to 100%.  

Here she is!

Nearly just as exciting, Luke turned 7 months old yesterday.  AND he has cut his first tooth:)  It is on the bottom left and is just starting to poke through.  He continues to work on his crawling skills, and can actually move from A to B pretty quickly.  So much so that Isolene asked us to put up the baby gate in front of the basement stairs.  So we did!

Last weekend we spent Saturday up in Wisconsin. G&G Mackus babysat PJ and Luke while Kristin, Cory, Matt & I saw our first movie in a theater since Luke was born.  It was a fun date.  Sunday we spent with G&G Baranko at our house, originally intended to put our kitchen back together but that didn't really end up happening.  It was a nice mild day so we decided to take Luke to the park down by Lake Michigan.  Yea, it wasn't as mild by the lake, but was still fun!  Luke loved watching the waves crash.

Luke in his new bath seat - lots of bathtime fun!   Thanks Uncle Mike Kurz!

Eating avocado out of the strainer - yummy and fun!