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Luke had his 1 month check up today and also his first shot. Poor little man did not like the shot at all (I can’t say I blame him).

The doctor commented several times on what a nice baby Luke is (so you know it must be true – he is a professional after all). He’s up to 9 pounds 3 ounces now and is 21.75 inches long. He’s growing like a weed!!

Seriously, how did we go from this:

To this:

So darn fast?

Even worse is that just about two years ago Adam looked like this:

These babies of mine are growing up too fast.

This was my first week home alone during the day with both boys. Thanks to the holiday it was a short week, which was probably a good thing. Between yesterday and today I have located (and forcefully removed) at least 14 grey hairs. This is not an exaggeration, nor do I believe it is a coincidence.

Alright, I’ll admit that might be a bit melodramatic of me (there really were 14 grey hairs though and I’m certain I didn’t find them all). The boys really weren’t bad at all. The first day was a little rough. Poor Adam went from being at my parents’ house, surrounded by people, to being home with me and Luke.

The first tantrum of the day occurred when I had the audacity to stop playing legos with him in order to feed Luke. Adam definitely needed some extra attention and any time I wasn’t holding Luke I was holding Adam. There was also a huge tantrum because I gave him a cut up apple to snack on (which he asked for) however in the time it took me to slice up the apple he changed his mind and wanted a cracker with peanut butter – only he didn’t really want the peanut butter. To add to the confusion Adam’s pronunciation of “cracker” is almost identical to how he says “tractor”.

The next day went smoother. We spent about an hour playing outside with the water table (which can apparently also be used as a pool). Adam seemed to handle the lower adult to child ratio much better and wasn’t nearly as clingy. It was an interesting week though and I found myself saying a lot of things I never imagined I would.

Things like:

• Don’t put the choo choo in the potty. (he did)
• Why is there a monkey in the ice dispenser?
• Don’t give the baby a yuck. (he did)
• Don’t go potty in the closet. (this was after he ripped off his diaper and ran away from me, and yes, he did)
• Don’t eat the football. (he did)

Adam is taking more of an interest in his little brother lately. He looks for him as soon as he gets up in the morning and even refers to him as Luke now instead of just “baby”. He likes to hold him (for about 5 seconds and then sometimes says “no hold” to let me know he’s done – other times he he will just push him away).

And speaking of Luke, he is fantastic. So far he’s been a dream baby. I really was afraid we’d been spoiled with Adam (he was such an easy baby), but Luke is a great sleeper and a very laid back, happy little man (I probably just jinxed us there and now won’t get any sleep for the next three years).

Oh, and on the topic of sleep, if I could get Adam to sleep in past 6:30 things would be even better. I can’t complain too much though – despite the tantrums, mischief, and early morning wake up calls he really is a great little boy – plus he’s really cute.

I almost forgot to tell you about my favorite part of the parade. Adam had ventured out on his own to retrieve some candy (about five whole feet away from my sister) when he looked up and saw the Subway mascot walking down the street toward him. I wish I’d been able to capture the look of sheer terror on his face before he turned and bolted back to the safety of Aunt Stacy’s lap.

To be completely honest, I can’t blame him. It’s one freaky sandwich. Thankfully there was just one of them, would you believe that Subway has more than one mascot option? The one we saw was “Subman” and they also have “Subway Dude” and “Super Hero”.

Which answers the question I had as to why the giant sub wore a cape – because it’s a Super Hero – funny, but still creepy.

And yes, it really was my favorite part of the parade. I laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes.

I’m sure it will be less amusing to me in a few years when I’m paying for therapy to cure Adam of a fear of lunch meat and shredded lettuce.

This past weekend we celebrated Adam’s second 4th of July and Luke’s first. After a forced (and much needed) second nap Adam was ready for the festivities. Before the parade started Adam was given a box of these things:

They might very well have been his favorite part of the day. He loved throwing them and listening to them explode (he quickly learned they are fun to stomp on too). In the picture below you can see how excited he got when they snapped.

When the parade started he was a little leery of the sirens on the firetrucks, but was fine as long as Aunt Stacy was close. Forget about being a “mama’s boy” Adam is most definitely an Aunt Stacy’s boy.

He loved the fact that they threw candy to him (and cookies and even a box of crayons) and ended up with quite a haul (most of which we left at Grandmama & Papa’s).

In this picture I stole his candy bag from him and my sister stood behind me making funny faces at him to get him to smile (like I said, Aunt Stacy’s boy – so much so in fact that we don’t tell him to say “cheese” to try to get a smile anymore – we ask him to say “Stacy” – whatever works right?).

Little Luke slept through most of the parade. I was a bit worried how he’d handle the sirens and the marching bands, but it didn’t faze him a bit. His shirt says, “Mommy’s Little Firecracker, Exploding with Cuteness” which is completely true. Also completely true is that earlier today he was exploding with more than cuteness – be thankful I didn’t take pictures of that mess. I will say that his timing was impeccable, since he waited until Dave was home on his lunch break (and I was more than happy to let daddy handle clean-up).

Overall it was a great day and I am looking forward to a lot more fun times like this as a family of four.

I really, really love my boys.

One of the projects that was completed while Dave’s parents were visiting a couple of weeks ago was to build a new bird feeder holder thing (yes, that’s the technical term for it) to replace our old ghetto one (sorry, no “before” pictures, you’ll just have to trust me). Then for Father’s Day the boys and I got Dave the three feeders to hang from it.

Pretty isn’t it? Adam loves to look out the window and watch the animals and birds that visit the feeders (and munch on the spilled seeds on the ground). So far we’ve seen a variety of birds, rabbits, chipmunks, and squirrels. Despite the level of juice in the feeder we haven’t seen any hummingbirds yet. We’re thinking that there’s a leak causing the liquid to drain.

At first we loved all of the non-feathered critters that were frequenting our buffet. We’re still on friendly terms with the rabbits (or hop hops as Adam calls them) and chipmunks, however we have since declared war on the squirrels.

It’s really a shame because I am pretty sure the squirrels are Adams’ favorite. My dad has a squirrel named Rocky that he feeds peanuts to and Adam loves to throw the peanuts to Rocky. He’ll stand on the porch, make clicking noises with his tongue, tap the peanut against the railing and call to the squirrel, “Rocky, are you???” (he leaves out the “where” and it’s pretty adorable).

Anyway, back to our evil squirrels. We didn’t mind them climbing the pole and eating the bird food. However, the other day they started gnawing on the feeder itself – leaving little wood chips all over the ground.  This is unacceptable behavior for a guest – biting the house that feeds it.

We are now in the market for a new squirrel-proof bird feeder and are looking forward to a peaceful resolution to this conflict. I’ll keep you posted on our progress (I’m sure you’re all very concerned).

Edited to add: Stacy reminded me that after the last photo was taken the squirrel jumped down and landed on the poor nice chipmunk. This battle is not just about the humans and their damaged property. It is also about defending the weaker creatures that have suffered at the paws of these squirrels.