1 month old!

Our little Holly Jo joined our family a month ago. She has been a good baby sleeping a 5-6 hour chunk at night, but that is after about an hour or longer of crying between 10-11 pm. She consistently is fussy at that time. Last night she slept 7 hours with minimal fussiness! She is starting to smile more and more. She is much more petite than Luke and eats a whole lot less. She weighs 9 1/2 lbs and in the 50th percentile for weight. She is 22 inches long and in the 75th percentile for height.

15 months

I haven't done a month post about Luke in a while. He is now almost 16 months, but here are his stats from the doctors office. He weighs 25 lbs and 6 oz putting him in the 50-70th percentile for weight. He is 33.3 inches and above the 95th percentile for height. His vocabulary is expanding rapidly, sometimes he just mimics you and has no idea what he just said. He said "useful thing" a while ago copying Tice. He is silly and he knows it. He calls himself "Guke" and "Gukie". I love my little Guke.

2 is better than 1

What should I be doing right now while both my kids are sleeping? Probably the endless pile of laundry and burp cloths. This golden time only comes once a day and sometimes one of the kiddies doesn't make it happen. So I am blogging.
Life has been fun and hectic with two children. Luke is learning to be nice to Holly. However, he did sit on her today which warranted a large spanking and a long time out. There is quite a bit of crying at my house. I think 4 years as a pediatric nurse has helped me phase out crying. I'm not saying it doesn't bother me, I'm simply saying my ear is trained to ignore it if it is related to a toddler temper. I guess you could say I have a high cry tolerance. Okay I hope you don't think I shut my kids away and let them cry all the time. I love them and there is much more holding than crying.
There is also a large amount of dirty diapers in the house. Now Luke is fully trained to take the diaper and put it into the garbage. I have been checking the garbage for other things and haven't found any yet.
Here are some pictures of our crazy family.

Luke loves to give Holly kisses.

Suez (Shoes)

Luke loves shoes. He plays in my closet with my heels and drags Eric's shoes around the house. Today I gave him a shoe box to open. He was so excited. We took off the old shoes and put on the new shoes. It took forever to get a still shot of his new kicks because he ran around the second they were on.
Oh and the best part of his new shoes is I paid $1.26 for them after a few coupons and a buy one get one half off!

Nike commercial anyone? He was one the go. (Yes Kayla I put my kid in a coat when 70 degrees outside. We silly Arizonans.)

He is going through a huge growth spurt right now and thickening up. Just look at those ankles.

Little Luke Man

After holding a sweet newborn for a couple of days, I was excited to see my little boy. I was surprised to find an enormous 15 month old. I swear Luke must have grown a ton in those couple of days. I found a little man who runs, talks, and is obsessed with books. He calls Holly "baby" and must be reminded at every interaction with her that we are "soft" and "no" that is for baby Holly. He gives her ultra slobbery kisses and headbutts thanks to his father. He brings me his books while I am nursing and says "up Mom" and "book". I must say as a mother of 2 for 6 days I am learning to multi task in ways I never thought I could. He is also learning that sometimes he is not mom's first priority. He has been entertaining himself in his room and with his toys more and more. He also is getting into everything. He loves going to the park and I have found it necessary for both our sanities to let him run free for a couple of hours a day. His favorite book is Mr. Brown Can Moo. He gets so excited when we get to the thunder page. Here are a couple of pictures I caught Luke in the act of something mischievous.

I found him in his room reading his book on his toddler bed. He is still in the crib at night. 

We told Luke to give Holly a kiss, he opted for a "hea bup" 

 Holly Jo

 He loves brushing his teeth. 

Holly Jo Lines

 7 lbs 12 oz and 19 3/4 inches long

After a speedy arrival, Miss Holly Jo is here and she is perfect. I must say I was getting rather discouraged the closer I was getting to my due date. I tried practically every labor inducing secret short of castor oil (yuck I was not going there). I had jogged a mile at the park the Saturday before she was due to produce only a tired and more achy 39 week prego. So alas I finally decided she would come when she came. I worked a 10 hour shift on Friday vowing that it was my last day of work whether the baby came or not. Eric and I did a ton of stuff that evening including grocery shopping  and cleaning. We went to bed around 10:40. I was so exhausted. I woke up at 11:30 with hard contractions. Hoping to get some more sleep I ignored them for a few minutes, but they just kept coming harder and closer together. I woke Eric up and we packed Luke and headed to my Aunt J's in Gilbert to drop off Luke. It was the longest car ride from Gilbert to Chandler Regional. I was praying in between contractions for green lights. When we arrived at the hospital at 12:20 I was dilated to a 7. The nurses swiftly moved me to the delivery room where the anesthesiologist was setting up my epidural. After some much needed relief, I was instructed to get ready to push. It all happened so fast, it was like a dream. Four contractions later Holly Jo arrived at 2:09 AM. I kept thinking I just got here, how do we already have a baby. Because of her quick delivery her face and head were perfect. We just love her.

Expiration Date

Today as I bought my milk I couldn't help but notice the glaring expiration date which happens to be my due date. I sort of feel like I have one of those stamped on my forehead as polite strangers tell me I look like I'm ready to pop at any time. The one on my head must read "extremely ready to have this baby".  I will be 39 weeks on Monday.