We may be on to something...

Lucas has slept through the night the last two consecutive nights. More to come....

A Year in Review!

My good friend Kelly always has a post like this every year and I love it so I am copying her. (Hope you don't mind, Kelly)

December

November

October

September

August

July

June

May

April

March

February

January

Christmas 2010

Wow! What a wonderful Christmas we had with Lucas. Who knew Christmas would be so much more fun with a baby. I'm sure it will just keep getting better every year. Lucas seemed to enjoy it. We started off decorating our home a couple of weeks before. We took the train downtown to see Santa at Macy's (I so didn't prepare for the 1 hour wait to sit on Santa's lap!) On the 23rd we left for Idaho for 9 days. We stopped in Salt Lake and saw Tricia and her kids. Lucas was scared of her pug dog, Gizzy. He kept watching him and cried when Gizzy walked by or looked at him.

We spent two days in Pocatello and Lucas met his great grandma, Nana. We opened presents on Christmas morning and after lunch we headed up the road to Challis to stay with the Strand's for 4 days. Lucas loved hanging out with his cousins. He became interested in opening presents in Challis (not so much on Christmas morning), but only Lane and Kelli Ann's presents. Too funny! We had a great time at the bowling alley one night and Lucas loved watching all of the action. By the way, the Challis bowling alley has the most AMAZING maple bar doughnuts I have ever eaten and we had them two mornings in a row. After four days of eating too much and staying up too late, back down to Pocatello we went for a couple of days before the drive to Salt Lake City Airport. In Pocatello, Lucas spent some time his twin 2 year-old cousins and learned a bit about sharing toys!
Fun times.

Checking out the tree.

Ribbon...yummy!

Oh boy...packing peanuts!

Lucas was good at tearing up tissue paper.

Lucas on the train.

He is officially a city baby now...he has shopped on Michigan Avenue, ridden in a cab to the airport (in a car seat of course :) and now has ridden the elevated train.

"I'm not sure what I think about this Santa business!"

"I guess he's okay."
(Lucas' full diaper is evidence that I wasn't prepared for a long wait!)

A couple of pics.

New hat and coat.



Out to breakfast.

Fun Times!

I'm going to be mad at myself tomorrow for not sleeping right now while Lucas is sleeping; however, we have been having way too much fun at our music class to not share the news.
'Boogin' Babies' is the class name at a little gem of a place called Musical Magic here in Chicago. Lots of singing, dancing and playing. Lucas loves it and I think Megan loves it even more. Our former nanny is in the class with the new little one that she is caring for and we've made new friends too. Lucas loves to watch the instructor lead us in song and he crawls right up to her and watches intently. He crawls around and checks out the other babies and moms and is becoming known as a bit of a social butterfly in the group. Interesting...coming from two parents with a history of being on the shyer side. He's becoming more independent each time we go. Last week our friend joked that I could practically just drop him off to attend class by himself. How funny!
We're working on memorizing the lyrics of all the songs because when we sing them at home, Lucas' face lights up. I really think it is his favorite place to go and I know that it is the highlight of my week.
We're sad that there is only one class left!

This is Lucas staring at the class instructor.

'Crocodile Rock' paraphernalia.

Rhythm sticks intended to tap but usually head straight into the mouth.

Mr. Independent playing with his rhythm sticks.


Hanging out by the class instructor.

He Did It!!

It happened! He slept through the night last night!!!

7pm until just before 5am.

We have no idea how this happened. Nothing seemed different and the night before we were up either 3 or 4 times.

Wow! We are soooo happy!!

It's been rough!

We have had one hell of a week that has ended with Chad and I sleeping on the couches in the living room for the second night in a row. Our little man's night sleeping has been completely out of whack this week.

Unfortunately, he is still not sleeping through the night at 8.5 months. We got really close prior to his teeth coming in but since that time, he is up more often requesting food than he has anytime before.

Twice this week Lucas fell asleep for the night at about 4pm in the afternoon. On two different nights, he was wide awake in the middle of the night ready to play.

One major problem is that we share a room with this little angel which means that all three of us are up.

Somehow, no matter how quiet we are, he seems to always wake up when we drag our tired bodies into bed. Even though we are completely exhausted, we seem to wake every time he makes a noise or moves in his crib.

I know that we are not supposed to be feeding him at night but that seems to be the only thing that he wants.

In our desperation for some answers, we stumbled across a helpful and entertaining blog, askmoxie.org. Here we read the stories of other crazy fools who raised an infant in an apartment.

Who knew we weren't the only ones living in a one "bedroom" (without walls) loft with a baby, tiptoeing and whispering in the dark by about 7pm every night.

How refreshing to know that many others have experience sharing a bedroom with a baby who does not sleep through the night.

How did these people manage this???

Basically, most said that it was hell!