Life With Luke.. His First Year!

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Oh sweet Luke-Bear Gemma, my one year old angel baby! (He is actually Luke David, by the way!) One year ago RIGHT NOW Luke arrived and he made our lives so much more beautiful and fun than I ever imagined or expected! We  call him Luke Bear because after he was taken out of me [Doc said “wow you got a husky, black headed baby” before I even saw him] and washed off, weighed, and shown to me the words that came out were “aww my baby bear!”. Something about his thick black hair, big cheeks, and sweet face just drew the words out of me! And stuck… so many refer to him as Luke Bear now! He weighed 9.5lbs and was a BIG boy!

He was a pretty easy going back from the get-go. Always chill, laid back, slept just fine and has always liked to eat! 🙂

The first couple of months were a huge learning curve! I remember crying daily about the day ending because him being another day older pained me. It was the FIRST time in my life that I no longer wanted anything to end or to go to the next phase. I used always look forward to finishing something – like college, medical school [John], or whatever but having Luke taught me to stop and embrace each day. His first year flew by – as everyone warned us! [I actually recommend not warning new moms of ‘it goes by fast’ because it makes it more sad.] In fact, you don’t even REALIZE how quickly they are changing until you see a photo on your phone from two weeks ago! Everyone has totally forgotten that Luke was born with thick black hair, then went bald, and now has a blonde combover!! 🙂 He eyes started off blue and eventually turned to green and by the time he was 8-9 months they turned more brown. He still has a bit of a green tint though!

Luke started smiling the first week we brought him home and he’s only continued to smile soon much more! We EAT it up! He is so smily and happy. This winter he got sick w/an ear infection and croup and I went upstairs to get him and despite his awful cough and runny nose, the minute I sang our song he started laughing and smiling! I just remember being so heart broken seeing him sick and then my heart breaking even more when he was still able to smile and laugh despite feeling so awful.

Luke has always loved music and dancing which just cracks John and me up! John and I love love love music and I love to dance so anytime music comes on and I start dancing and being silly he immediately starts moving and clapping and laughing! He also LOVES to talk.. like a lot! He talks so much and started saying mama and dada very young. He’s always been very vocal and talkative which I am guessing he picked up from me!

He loves to ride on Johns shoulders and to have a grip on my hair!

He loves Fitzy and wants to be Fitzys’ BFFL but Fitzy is not so sure about all of that jazz just yet. They are on decent terms, but Luke is always looking for a way to be closer to Fitz. Fitz usually just walks away if Luke approaches him. It’s kind of sad but we have seen Fitz become more open to the idea of Luke over the past 6 months or so!

Luke’s most coveted toys are: water bottles, empty boxes, mom’s makeup, Beauty Blenders, anything super messy, anything dangerous, anything breakable. He loves remotes like most kids so we got him one – a real one!!! Just w/no batteries and he tossed it to the side to grab the real remote out of John’s hand! There’s no tricking him!

He is a major people watcher! Oh my stars!! Anytime we go to a restaurant or on a plane, he has certain people he likes to  look at and analyze. He is always listening in to their convos, too! It is hysterical! He did it at Shake Shack in LA once – it was a young couple! The guy kept looking at him and smiling and I think the girl was getting annoyed and when she turned around and saw that her date was just smiling at Luke she burst into a smile. 🙂

He loves to watch Praise Baby!! It is some kind of magic because if I play a video on YouTube he immediately gets quiet and watches. My nieces Caroline & Olivia showed it to him once and he has loved it ever since!!! I like it too because they use great Christian music and it’s really sweet.

He’s been in the NYC snow and in the ocean in Florida and loved both – but I think he prefers the ocean!!

His first road trip was to Dallas at 3 weeks old and his first flight was to the Bahamas at 2 months old. He was easy to travel with all the way up until the 11.5 month mark! 🙂

He would happily go to anyone- anywhere all the way up until he was 10mos old- which I really liked! I thought it was sweet that he would smile and make new friends! Right around that 10month mark, it flipped. Suddenly he only wants his mom, dad, Bobo (my dad), Coco (my mom), my brother, and my brother in law, Chad! He won’t go to any of the nieces, nephews, or my SIL/or sister right now. He has always loved my brother Paul – like a TON. Paul makes him laugh a lot and does a lot of facial expressions so that could be why! And my brother in law, Chad, is 6’6 so he’s super tall and I think Luke likes the height?! But all kids love Chad, so I don’t know?!

He gets up at 6-7 every AM and plays with John! John goes to work at 6:30 so he and John play together for 30 minutes. Luke has toys in Johns side of the closet that he plays with while John gets dressed! I am grateful for this – I get to sleep through it!! 🙂 John is a really, really great dad and Luke is crazy over him!

Okay, I could go on forever but I just wanted to document some things since it’s his birthday! I am fighting tears so badly writing this – I didn’t realize it was so hard! John is like “why do you keep crying?!”. Luke’s just made our lives so much more meaningful. Everything is SO different with him – he has totally changed my perspective on how I see life. The things I once valued greatly mean so much less now.

Sweet Luke Bear, we love you SO much.. I can’t write anymore bc I am dying to put away my computer and go play!