Our little fish

Luke started swimming lessons last Saturday. Today was his second lesson. He really seems to love the water, which doesn't really surprise me since I was a little fish when I was younger also. My sister and I would spend nearly every day at the pool some summers. He is in a class for 6 months old - 3 years old, but most of the kids in the class are right around his age.

We are supposed to throw these rings and have them reach for them. He loves to do it, but immediately tries to put it in his mouth.
He's loving this...

They tell you to put your face in the water and blow bubbles. This is Luke trying to imitate me. However, he really just drinks the water and then ends up getting a little choked up.

Luke can sit up like a champ now. He can't pull himself to a sitting position, but if you sit him up, he will sit there for 15-20 minutes. He is also trying really hard to get up on all fours. He pushes up with his arms and pulls his knees up, but he hasn't quite figured out how to do those both at the same time. And, if any of you have been following his rolling over, he STILL won't roll from his belly to his back. I'm not sure if he is ever going to figure that out.

He still doesn't have any teeth - we were convinced that they would be here any day, but it seems that we must have been wrong. At our 6 month check-up, the doctor said that he thought they would be here within 6 weeks. On Wednesday, it will be 3 weeks since our check-up.

Luke is eating oatmeal, bananas, rice cereal, green beans, peas and plums. We are starting him on carrots tomorrow - so far he likes most things. He loves the bananas, green beans and peas. He'll eat the rice cereal and oatmeal if it is mixed with one of the fruits. He doesn't really care for the plums, but we are trying to do those every couple of days. We've have some funny pictures of him eating the plums. I need to download those from the camera and will post those soon. We'll keep you posted on how he likes orange veggies - carrots, sweet potatoes and squash are next up on his eating schedule.

It's Not Chicago, but...

... it is the Overland Park Arboretum. We postponed our trip to Chicago since Luke wasn't feeling great. I got a call every single day last week (except Friday) from daycare saying that he was either crying and they couldn't figure out why, he had a fever or some other problem. I knew that he had a cold which I don't think helped matters and he got his 6-month shots which all combined for a very crabby baby. Also, I am still convinced that he is teething, but so far no teeth have erupted. So, rather than subject Erin, Kevin and their Luke to all that, we decided to stay home and go to Chicago sometime in September.

Luke went to the pediatrician on Wednesday and here are his stats:

Weight - 18 pounds, 5 ounces - 50-75th percentile

Length - 27.25 inches - 75th percentile

We were hoping to get some good pictures of Luke at various sights around Chicago, but instead we ventured to the Overland Park Arboretum. For any of you that have not been there, it is really nice. There are some walking trails and lots of flowers, ponds, water gardens, etc. I was actually very surprised by the number of people that were out there on a Monday morning.

Richard is still practicing his amateur photography skills and took some really great pictures of Luke. Although, I must say that I didn't do so bad either. Hope you all enjoy. We are very excited to feed him his first vegetable today - we are either doing green beans or sweet peas - it will be a game time decision. We'll take some pictures of it tonight.

Fourth of July

The whole family headed to Cape Fair for the Fourth of July. My sister and her family came from St. Louis. My parents headed down and Richard, Luke and I headed to the Ozarks. We had 6 adults, 2 kids and 4 dogs in my parents 2-bedroom, 1-bath lake house. We had a great time. Luke didn't get to see any fireworks because he goes to bed before dark, but still had a fun time. He got a new 4th of July outfit that he had to show off...

He is sort of sitting up by himself. He topples over a little bit still, but is getting better and better with it.

He still rolls over onto his tummy, but will not roll back to his back. I'm hoping that one of these days he gets mad enough and just rolls on over. But, we are still waiting. His latest trick is trying to roll over as we are changing his diaper - I could live without that trick.

Richard got a new camera and is showing off his artistic abilities. Here is a picture of our nephew Ethan with a creek in the background (and my sister's nose).

Amy and Ethan

Ethan loves his Elmo sunglasses. He carries them with him at all times.

Joe Cool in the wheelbarrow (Amy didn't know that my Dad was letting him ride in the wheelbarrow, but he did just fine).

Ethan and Jon.

We are off to Chicago on Saturday to visit my friend Erin, her husband Kevin and their son Luke who is 3 weeks younger than our Luke. We'll have lots to report when we get back because Luke also has his 6-month check-up with Dr. Jackson next week.