Trick or Treat!

Luke didn't do any trick-or-treating this year, but he still took the opportunity to dress up like a monkey! I wasn't going to do any kind of costume, but I found this little costume on sale today and I couldn't resist! He loved seeing all of the kids come to the door and was sad when they left without him - he is such a social little fella - I think I am going to have my hands full!

Such a cute little monkey!

 Check out this monkey's teeth! 

He was watching the little girls across the street - he wanted to go, too! 

Mama, why can't I go with them? 

Happy Halloween!!!!

Luke's Barnyard Birthday Bash

 Luke's first birthday party was SO much fun and he was the cutest little farmer! Here are a few of the little details!

This was the outside of the invitation - I wanted it to look like barn doors! 

Inside of the invitation - it's hard to see from this picture, but there were little farm animals in between the letters of the EIEIO....

Our friends let us borrow their awesome John Deere Gator Truck for our porch! I made the wreath by painting flat wooden farm animals and gluing them onto the yarn-wrapped wreath (Martha Stewart would not be impressed, but Luke loved the animals!)

What Farm Party would be complete without cow balloons on the mailbox?

The breakfast area was all decked out with Luke's "Happy Birthday" banner, balloons, and gingham table runner!

The fireplace banner said, "I Am One!" - note that we are good little football fans - SportsCenter was on and games were watched! 

For the dining room, I ordered vinyl wall decals for the little farm scene. The banner says, "Welcome to Luke's Farm!" I also had a horse, a sheep, and a pig/piglets that I had in other rooms. Luke loved pointing to all of the animals and "petting" them. I made a drum shade to cover the chandelier so the room would look a bit more farm-y.

yummy!

Soooo much food! The cupcakes had little farm animal sprinkles on them.

We made cow-shaped brown-butter-white-chocolate-rice-krispy-treats. 

And what farm party would be complete without EIH2O? 

The birthday boy! 

 Luke wasn't quite sure what to think about his cupcake - he was so tired by this point, that I don't think he was into anything but a nap! He was a good sport and ate a little bit of the icing!

He LOVED the balloons - he kept saying "Bah!" (ball) every time he saw one! 

My very precious and sweet friend, Bea, dressed up for his party - isn't she awesome?

Daddy and Luke on the tractor! 

 It was such a fun and special day! It was so nice of so many of our sweet friends, family, and neighbors to stop by and wish our precious boy a Happy First Birthday! Happy First Birthday, sweet Luke!

Baby's Got A New Pair Of Shoes!

Since he is now walking/teetering around, Luke needed some new shoes! So, Gran, Kasey and I went to Sykes Shoes in Homewood to buy a pair. Luke LOVED the store and had the best time getting his new shoes fitted. He has extra wide feet and he wears a size 4.5. I couldn't decide between the Stride Rite and the Twigs, but ultimately decided on the Twig "Dallas" - he can really move in them!

Here he getting all measured up - Miss Emily was so good with him and he was very interested in what was going on with his foot!

He was very still while Miss Emily measured his foot! 

What size will he be? 

New socks! 

So excited about the whole process!

All strapped in - so cute!

I think these fit just fine!

Once we got his shoes on, he wasn't too sure about walking in them - with a little encouragement from mommy, daddy and Gran, he finally took a few little steps in them!

Of course, the most interesting part of the whole day was the puzzle on the little table in the store - we have since ordered one of these, as it kept his attention for quite a while!

SO much fun with my new shoes and fun puzzle! 

Luke is WALKING!!!!

Well, Luke has been teetering around for several weeks now - but today was the day! He took his first REAL steps! His first steps were in our bathroom - I was drying my hair and he was playing on the floor with some of my velcro rollers (I know, mom of the year, but they keep him occupied!). He got one roller in each hand and then walked right to me! Of course, I had a minor heart attack because he was doing all of this on the hard tile floor, but he did just fine. He still prefers crawling as his main mode of transportation, but he is definitely on his way to being a full time walker! Life is about to get a little crazier around the Burleson household!

Excuse the upside down-ness and quality of (and the obnoxiously proud mama in) this video - I was afraid that if I got out the big camera, that he would get distracted and just crawl around to get the camera. He's not too impressed with my sad non-smart phone ;-)

One Little Monkey Jumping on the Bed....

This little monkey wasn't jumping on the bed, but he did fall down and bump his head! I got the call no mama wants from Luke's school today - they told me that he had slipped on the hard tile and face-planted onto the floor. He was such a big boy - they said that he didn't cry much except for when they put the ice pack on his head ;-) His teacher felt so bad - I told her that this was probably the first of many, many bumps for this active boy!

I called the pediatrician and they said that they wanted to see him, just to make sure everything was okay. They said that he looked just fine and that I should just watch him to make sure the swelling didn't get any worse and to monitor any change in his habits.

He got some extra love and attention all afternoon and we went to Target, where I proceeded to purchase about 300 pairs of gripper socks! No more slip and slide for this sweet boy!

Luke is ONE!

 Well, my baby boy is now ONE! I cannot believe that it has been a whole year since we met our sweet Luke for the first time! I can't remember what it was like to live life without him. One year ago, we went to UAB Hospital, not knowing if we would come home with a baby boy or a baby girl - I can definitively say that this little squirt is ALL BOY.

He has had a great month. Although his ears are still bothering him (boo!), he seems to be over the pneumonia and other illnesses that he acquired during September. I don't know what we are going to do about these ears - he had another ear infection last week, which brings the total to 5 since we got tubes the last week of August. The doctor said that about 20% of children will continue to get ear infections post-tubes, but I think there has to be something behind all of this. Allergies maybe? I am going to give it one more round of antibiotics and then we are going to head back to the ENT.

My once-chunky-baby has become quite the little stringbean! At his one year checkup, he weighed 20 pounds (15th percentile) and was 30.5 inches tall (75th percentile). His head continues to be off the charts (99th percentile) ;-) The doctor attributed his low weight to his recent illnesses and his lack of interest in eating solids - he wants us to keep nursing, but to limit it to 3-4 times a day. Luke just isn't a fan of big meals and I am not going to make mealtime a battle, so we will just have to ease into what he is comfortable doing. He LOVES pot roast, chicken, bananas, waffles, hummus, spinach, bok choy, green beans, cheese and turkey, he just doesn't eat a large quantity of anything. He will sometimes eat the little squeeze pouches of food, but seems to just like a sip or two and then he is finished. He feeds himself and can hold his squeeze pouches by himself, but he just likes to use the spoon as a toy. We are working on that one! He has learned to sign "all done" and lets us know when he's had enough.

He absolutely loves anything mechanical and is obsessed with the vacuum cleaner, the washer and dryer, phones, remote controls, the dishwasher, and anything else with buttons or lights. We were walking through  -Target yesterday and they had the Christmas lights on display - I think he could have stared at them all day long! He definitely isn't scared of anything!

Can you believe how much he's grown? The top picture was taken when he was 4 days old...the bottom one was at 11 months, 3 weeks. So many changes in just one year! He certainly fills up the chair now!

We had his one year pictures taken at the petting farm at Oak Mountain State Park - he was so cute with all of the animals. He loved petting the horse and didn't bat an eyelash when it snorted right at him! He would have chased the goats all over the farm if we had let him! He is very, very close to walking and will take a few steps now and then. He will walk while holding one of my hands, but prefers to crawl or cruise. He loves his little Melissa and Doug alligator clacker push toy and pushes it all over the house. He has learned how to turn it and steer it on his own, so he can entertain himself for quite some time with that! He can make almost anything into a push-toy - laundry baskets, chairs, you name it - he will figure out a way to slide it around the floor!

He is really good at entertaining himself - he will play with his toys and can figure out little games to play by himself. He loves chasing the cats and looking out the windows. He loves to open and close any cabinet or door and loves to empty any box/laundry basket/cabinet that he can find. He loves to "read" his books and can point to some of the animals and objects. He knows "kitty", "pig",  "sheep", and sometimes "bear". He loves to point at the lights and say "maahht" and calls everything that is round a "baaah" (ball). We love to ask him, "How big is Luke?" and he responds by throwing both hands way up in the air when we say "SO BIG!" We also ask him, "How old is Luke?" and he (sometimes) responds by holding up one finger. I don't think he has any idea what it means, he has just learned to do that somehow. It is very cute!

He is still really enjoying his stroller and loves to go walking in the neighborhood. We got our first little snap of cold weather (which is now gone :-(), so I bundled him up for a stroll. This proved to be a bit of overkill, as he was burning up about 4 minutes into the walk. I thought he looked so cute in his little hat! Of course, the ear flaps didn't fasten all the way around that big noggin, but at least his head was warm!

He has started to sleep pretty well at  night. He wakes up a few times, but he can get himself back to sleep without me. He has started to wake up very early in the morning, but we don't go get him until about 6:30 or so. He will usually play or go back to sleep, so we are quite grateful for that. We are going to start working on learning to fall asleep unassisted - not looking forward to that! I have always nursed him to sleep and it has worked very well, but he needs to learn how to fall asleep without me. He sleeps in the swing at Mother's Day Out, but that is not a habit that I want him to get used to. His napping is kind of erratic right now. He will usually take one good (1 hour or so) nap and then one small (20-30 minute) nap. Sometimes he only takes one nap, so I am trying to figure out if I need to keep him up in the morning or just let him sleep when he is tired. Our pediatrician is very supportive and gave us tons of information on how to help him fall asleep on his own, so we are going to get going on that once we get the all-clear on his ears.

I just cannot believe my little man is ONE! We had a fun party for him (I will post on that later!) and it was just so cute to see him interact with everyone. He is definitely not shy and loves to be in the middle of the action. He is all joy and we are so amazed and grateful for his little spirit. This has been the most amazing and special year of our lives and we can't wait to see what the future holds for our sweet Luke.

Eleven Months (and a few weeks...)

Whew! What. A. Month. I am a couple of weeks late posting this 11 month (I still cannot believe he is 11 months old) update, but we have had SO much going on around here - most of it not fun. Since getting his tubes on August 27, Luke has had THREE ear infections, a cold, and pneumonia - scary stuff. It turns out that one of his tubes was blocked by fluid, so we had to go to the ENT and get that suctioned out - so sad. I don't know if he just picked up some germy germs at Mother's Day Out or just when we were out and about, but suffice it to say that Luke's immune system has gotten a good workout over the past three weeks! I am so grateful to have a pediatrician that is cautious and takes us seriously - he really cares about Luke and does everything he can to make sure we are doing everything we can to keep him well.

To top it all off, I got strep throat over the weekend - mama just cannot be sick - ever! K was sweet enough to take Luke on a little father-son escapade, so I got a few hours of solid rest, but it was a rough time! Fortunately, I think all of the Burlesons are on the mend - hopefully we can keep K from getting sick and we can head into October all happy and well.

As for that little 11 month old boy - wow. He is on the move and is SO close to walking! He will let go and stand all by himself and has taken a few little tentative shuffles. I don't know how the timeline goes, but I think we are close to having a walking boy!

One of his favorite things to do is to open and close doors/cabinets and to take everything out of the cabinets. He likes to climb into certain cabinets and into the refrigerator - I think he could play in the refrigerator all day if I let him. We put cabinet locks on the cabinets that have dangerous stuff in them, but left him a few doors to open!

He is LIGHTENING fast when he crawls and loves to crawl outside in the grass and in the driveway. Dirt/pinestraw/rocks/bugs don't seem to deter him at all and he just loves to sit in the grass and put his hands through it. I am so glad that it is finally cooling off around here so that we can spend more time outside. There are several parks that I really want to explore and some long walks that I want to take. He still loves his Bob Stroller and just goes into a kind of baby trance whenever we go on a walk. One of the funny things he does when he crawls is to hold something as he crawls around. It really doesn't matter to him what the object is, but he usually has something in his hands while he is scooting around!

Sleep has been a little hit or miss lately - with him not feeling well, it has been tough to keep him on any kind of structure. He hasn't been napping very consistently and it makes me wonder if he is trying to drop one of his naps. When he has felt well, he has slept through the night, so that gives me great hope for the future. The garbage trucks and other construction vehicles in our neighborhood seem to come through during naptime every day, so that has made it tough for him, as he wakes up with those very loud noises!

And, speaking of noises, Luke has been making all KINDS of sounds and noises! He has finally started to babble very consistently and it seems like he is trying to talk to us. I am having him evaluated by Early Intervention to see if he has some sort of speech delay, as he isn't really associating words with objects quite yet. With all of the trouble we have had with his ears, I am not certain that he has been hearing well. Once we got all of the fluid removed from his ears last week, his babbling improved dramatically - I hate it that he might not have been hearing us well all of these months!

One of my very good friends is a speech therapist and she assures me that he will catch up quickly if he does have a delay, so that is good to know. In the last week, he has started saying "Mama," although I don't know if he is saying it to me or just saying it (although I know what I want to believe!) He does look to some objects when we name them (light, kitty, ball, diaper, drink) and points to things he wants, but just isn't quite into saying anything quite yet! He follows commands sometimes, my favorite one being "Give mama kisses" and then getting sloppy kisses from my sweet boy!

He is not a big eater (other than nursing) these days. He still loves finger foods and will eat almost anything we put in front of him, just not in large quantities. He is still refusing to be spoon fed, but we still try most days to see if he will take it. So far, no luck. He also still refuses to drink anything but water from his cup. I don't know how long I will nurse him, but it doesn't look like we are going to be stopping anytime soon (although I have heard that babies sometimes just decide all of a sudden that they are done!). His favorite things are hummus and flatbread, spinach, green beans, chicken, carrots, bananas, graham crackers, waffles, and cheese. He really does like a large variety of foods, so I am very grateful for that!

Because of his sicknesses, he has dropped a little weight this month - I am hoping that he will put some weight back on, as he seems a little spindly compared to his usual chunky self. I think he weighs around 20 pounds and is close to 30 inches long. He is wearing mostly 12 month clothes, a size 4 diaper, and fits into a size 4 shoe (although, much to my mother-in-law's chagrin, I don't put him in shoes quite yet).

Diaper changes continue to be an Olympic event. He just takes off as soon as we get his diaper off, so we have to come up with a strategy for that. I have gotten lots of advice about baby "discipline," so I am trying to figure out what we are going to do - there are so many options - just need to figure out what works best for us!

He loves to read his books and loves to play with his toys. He has a little basketball goal that he just is obsessed with - he loves to put the balls through the goal over and over and over. We also got him a little walk-behind toy that he just adores. He can now steer it all over the house and has figured out how to get out of corners/dead end streets/etc. He has figured out how all of his toys work and loves anything with buttons and lights. He has figured out how to get his sound machine off of the table in his room and loves to push all of the different buttons and listen to the different sounds. He also loves to drop things through the bars of his baby gates and watch them bounce down the stairs. Speaking of stairs, he loves to climb the stairs - we have to make extra sure that those gates are latched tightly!

We are in the process of planning his first birthday party - hard to believe that it will be taking place two weeks from Saturday - I think it will be a good time, but there is much to do!

This little man continues to be more joy than we ever thought possible - the absolute light of our lives!