Halfway to One!

We celebrate fractions over here.  Jack is now 5 3/4, Cora is 3 1/4, and Luke is "a half."

1. Happiness

Luke is a "joy baby" as his teacher says.  He radiates happiness, as in give him a smile and he'll squirm with happiness back :)

Luke wakes up happy.  He doesn't cry in the morning.  I'll often walk in to find him already awake just lying on his back waiting patiently for attention.  Other mornings, I'll wake to find the hall light on and Jack up reading books.  Luke's light is also sometimes on. If Jack hears him, he'll turn on his light and give him a few toys.  I like these self-sufficient boys!

2. What makes Luke unhappy

Being tired. When he's tired, he's tired and he pretty much only wants to be held (which he hopes means you are moving toward putting him in bed.)  

Our main challenge with Luke is that he's the world's best sleeper if you will follow his sleepy cues and put him to rest in a quiet place.  For five days in a row this month, he slept for about 6 hours of naps over the day.  But most other days, at day care, on busy Landry family days, on our Nashville trip, he's taken cat naps and shown that he doesn't fall asleep well when it's noisy, exciting, and not in his bed.  This means that he's often ready for bed quite early (like even 6:00 or 5:30) because he's not getting the sleep he needs during the daytime.

We're troubleshooting over here, but luckily, see item #1 - he's still a very happy guy.

3. Diet

I proudly offer exhibit A to show how my baby loves him some breast milk!  The evidence is in the thighs :)

We are two weeks in to offering other foods.  Just like Jack and Cora, the first people food we offered Luke was sweet potatoes.  We are going to mainly go the Baby Led Weaning route and offer Luke foods similar to what the rest of the family is eating (rather than making purees.)  The thought is that it will empower him to continue to control his own intake and determine how much he wants to eat at each meal.

He had roasted sweet potato wedges (plain - not even any olive oil) on day one and roasted squash wedges on day two.  The next few days were busy and Luke didn't get any big people offerings.  Then we took him on a grand adventure to Nashville which expedited his foray into the culinary world.  But I think he was too young for the excitement as everything we gave him (a biscuit from the Loveless Cafe, cheese grits from Biscuit Love (if you are ever in Nashville, GO HERE!), hummus from Epice), he couldn't seem to figure out how to get off his tongue.  The food would just sit there while he made horrified faces :)  And then eventually he spit it back up - usually on us :)  He did seem to enjoy the blackberry that came with my dessert.  He likes to suck, but is not yet sure what to do with food in his mouth.  I well remember how this eating thing takes TIME!

I think that is broccoli on your head Luke :)

4. Personality

Sweet.
Precious.
Fun-loving.
Curious.
Serious.
Lovable.

5. Stats

19 lbs 3 oz at 6 months

He's our smallest baby at 6 months as silly as that sounds :)

He has his big brother's fairness and sensitive skin. He has his sister's precious little nose and mouth. He has my blue eyes (something he also shares with Jack and Cora.)

He has his own perfect round head, his own yet-to-be-determined hair color, and his very own one-of-a-kind chunky thighs :)

This has been a busy, busy season so it was SO nice to reconnect with Luke (and Jacob) on a four day getaway trip to Nashville.  As the third child, I feel like Luke gets put in a chair, plopped on the floor, forgotten about, etc. and so it was nice to focus in on him over those four days.  He's so easy to enjoy.  He didn't seem to want to miss a minute of the trip, hardly napping, but still managing to be very sweet :)