Shortly after the game yesterday, Cassie and the boys headed for Belmont, leaving me here all by myself for the week. I’ll miss them, but I plan on catching up on sleep, reading, and getting some things done that have been neglected.
Today I took advantage of the great weather and took a bike ride and played some disc golf. More on both of those later. I’m now officially exhausted and about to hit the sack.
Cassie, Luke, and I went to the football game with my parents yesterday. It was Luke’s first college football game, and we had a great time. Several other members of my family were supposed to join us, but they all backed out for one reason or another. As you might expect, I took a lot of pictures, and they can be found here.
Luke and my dad at the game.
Those are 53 out of the 343 I took. Consider yourself spared. I turned up the saturation on a few of the wide shots. It makes them look more like a painting than a photo. Look for the radioactive green grass. I would have loved to have had a longer lens to take pictures of the action on the field. (Christmas present, anyone?) It’s for the best I suppose. I don’t really need pictures of the action on the field. It’d just be something else to process. I spent around two hours processing these pictures. I will have to acquire a long lens before Luke starts playing sports though.
Wide shot with lots 'o saturation. To me it looks like one of those paintings they sell on the Square. Needs a little Gaussian blur I suppose.
Luke didn’t pay much attention to the game itself, but as you can see in the pictures, he loved being around all the people. He took a quick nap during the second quarter and halftime, but woke up for the good part. I was amazed he went to sleep when he did. He normally needs to be at home with nothing going on. He didn’t have a nap the day before, which might help explain it.
Luke resting up for the second half.
As part of the pre-game show there was a demonstration by the Air Force Parachuting team and a fly-by by two F-16s. I’m sure parachuting into a stadium is not terribly safe, but they made it look effortless. The F-16s were impressive as always.
A member of the Air Force Parachuting team prepares to land on the field.
Luke and Liam went to the pediatrician yesterday. It was Luke’s 18 month checkup and Liam’s 2 month checkup. I was eager to see what Liam weighed compared to Luke at his age. He seemed to be gaining weight faster than Luke.
As it turns out, Liam weighs exactly, to the ounce, what Luke weighed at his two month checkup (12 lbs, 13 oz). He is also 23.5 inches long, 1/4″ shorter than Luke at that age. He was born 4 oz. lighter and 3/4″ shorter than Luke, so he’s doing a good job of playing catch up.
Now it’ll be interesting to see where Liam goes from here. At some point Luke’s growth absolutely exploded. Liam’s current numbers put him in the 50-75th percentile in weight and height. Luke is now 28 lbs, 6 oz and 33.4 inches tall, which put him around the 90th percentile in both categories.
Both boys got some shots yesterday. They both handled them well. Liam actually didn’t start crying until the second one.
The last couple of nights Liam has slept for four hours or longer at a stretch. I’m not willing to say it’s permanent just yet, but I’m hopeful.
Luke is still sleeping through the night, and seems to be sleeping more soundly as of late. In the not too distant future we’re going to try him in his own bed. Yes, he’s sleeping in the bed with us, if I haven’t mentioned that before.
If I could give one bit of advice to new parents, it’s “Don’t even think about letting your child sleep with you.” It’s next to impossible to get them out once you start it. We learned our lesson and Liam is sleeping is his bassinet, which seems to be getting smaller by the day.
My brother got married last month. As the unofficial family photographer I took a lot of pictures. I posted them on my Zenfolio page shortly after the wedding, but never got around to posting about it here. I’ve put a few of my favorites below, or you can go here for all 57 of them.
At the very bottom of this post is a real treat (sarcasm warning!). It’s the only recent picture of myself that I can stand to look at. It’s not good mind you, just tolerable.
Brandon and Keshia
Keshia
Yesterday was an interesting day. My parents came up Friday night and spent the night. The primary purpose was for my dad to help me put up a ham radio antenna. We were mostly successful. I’ll elaborate in a future post.
Our antenna project was interrupted early on to take Cassie to the emergency room. She was sterilizing some pacifiers with boiling water, and when she took the pot off the stove the handle broke. She now has decent sized second degree burns on her stomach and left leg. They gave her a tetanus shot to prevent infection, some high-powered pain medicine, and some cream to put on the burn. She’s handling it very well. I would definitely take advantage of the situation more than she has. Lucky for me, she isn’t.
On any normal day Luke would have been right beside Cassie. Thankfully, yesterday wasn’t a normal day, and he was in the other room with my mom. Interestingly, one of my high school classmates was Cassie’s nurse in the ER. There were only 56 of us, and Belmont is over 100 miles from Oxford. I’d say the odds are low.
Yesterday afternoon Cassie was feeling well enough to go to the Southern Living Idea House in Taylor. My mom has been reading Southern Living for as long as I can remember, and she and my dad are planning to renovate their house next year. It was pretty interesting.
As I mentioned in my last post, we took Luke to his first high school football game last Friday night in Belmont. As I expected, he had a good time. He enjoys being around people, and there were plenty of them at the game.
Toward the end of the third quarter we walked down to where the band was sitting so Cassie could say hi to her former band director. At Belmont the band takes a break during the third quarter, and when they started playing at the beginning of the fourth quarter, it got Luke’s attention very quickly. He loves music, and will “dance” to anything from his toy piano to a car alarm in the parking lot to someone tapping a spoon on the edge of a food container. Toby, one of the drummers and the brother of my best man, let Luke play with his drum. He was very interested, and at one point the band director commented that he was keeping a pretty good beat.
Luke playing Toby's drum.
Luke was wearing his new shoes that aren’t very snug, and they managed to fall under the bleachers not once, but twice. Luckily we were able to retrieve them.
Unfortunately, Belmont lost a close game after some questionable calls from the referees. Never a fun way to lose.
On Saturday, while Cassie went to a baby shower and took the boys shopping with her parents, I took my parents to Tishomingo State Park for a round of disc golf, which was a lot of fun. I think my dad really enjoyed it, so I’ve got someone in Belmont to play with now. I was pretty rusty after not having played for two months.
On Sunday my brother and his family and my grandmothers came to my parents’ house for lunch. It was a good way to end a fun weekend.
Sorry for the lack of posts this week. I haven’t had much time, and when I have had the time, I haven’t had the energy. I blame sleep deprivation.
Speaking of which, it’s gotten a little better. Luke started sleeping through the night a couple of weeks ago. I guess he thought mom and dad needed the rest. He had been getting up for a bottle around 1:00am or so for a long time. Last night he went to bed a little earlier than usual, and we forgot to give him his bedtime bottle. I was worried he would wake up in the middle of the night hungry, but he didn’t.
Liam’s been sleeping pretty good lately too. He still gets up every three hours to eat, but in between bottles he sleeps fairly soundly. Cassie and I both look forward to when he starts only getting up twice to eat. Of course, we can’t remember when Luke started doing that.
Luke’s swimming lessons have been going good. All of us have been looking forward to them. He’s definitely gotten more comfortable in the water. Next week will be his last week. Cassie’s tried to take some pictures, but it’s pretty dark in the Turner Center and none of them have turned out very good. We’ll keep trying.
I took off this afternoon, and we’re about to head to Belmont. Luke will be going to his first high school football game. I’m pretty sure it’ll be my first one since my brother graduated five years ago. I’m looking forward to it.
Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Last week was busy and short. We had to come home Thursday afternoon for my brother’s rehearsal dinner. His wedding was yesterday. I’ll post some photos as soon as I get around to processing them.
Last weekend Liam made his first trip to Belmont (our hometown). He did great, despite the fact he was awake the entire time, which is a little out of character for him.
Luke had his first swimming lesson at the Turner Center on campus last Tuesday. He was a little timid at first, but he really enjoyed it. They just splashed around to get used to the water. He was supposed to have another lesson Thursday, but we had to miss it to make it to Brandon’s rehearsal dinner on time. I’m interested to see what they do this time. Both Luke and I are looking forward to it. I’ll try to get some pictures at some point.
The presidential debate is in Oxford Friday night. Several streets near campus are shut down. Luke and I are going for a walk near the Ford Center this afternoon, and I’m going to see if I can take some pictures. It’s quite an impressive set up. Hopefully I don’t get tackled by the Secret Service.
This was Cassie’s first week to keep the boys on her own. I’d say it went very well. Luke continues to warm up to Liam, but we still have to keep an eye on him. He still likes to shake Liam’s bouncer occasionally.
Liam is doing better about sleeping at night. Occasionally he’ll stay awake for a short period at night, but it’s fairly rare. He gets up about three times to eat during the night, and Luke still gets up once around 2am. That means Cassie and I have to get up twice each. I’ve been drinking two cups of Earl Grey tea a day, just to keep going. It could certainly be worse, but I’ll be glad when Liam starts sleeping for longer periods of time.
Luke was supposed to have his first “swimming lesson” at the Turner Center on campus last Tuesday, but they postponed them a week due to pool renovations. (Which they didn’t bother telling us until we got there for the lesson.) Luke and I will be doing that for the next month on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. I’m looking forward to it. Hopefully I’ll get a few pictures.
Speaking of pictures…we’ve taught Luke to take his bottle by himself. This helps Cassie when Luke and Liam decide it’s time to eat at the same time during the day. One day this week I came home to the scene below. I thought it was cute. Luke had apparently spilled something on his shirt earlier, and Cassie didn’t bother putting anything back on him because he was about to eat. Notice the glob of milk about to hit his chest in the second picture.
Liam is two weeks, one day old today. He went to the pediatrician for his first checkup this afternoon, and he’s still looking great. He’s already gained a few ounces. He still wants to wake up for long stretches during the night, but he’s gotten a lot better. He’s going about three hours between feedings on average, but at night he’ll occasionally go longer, so we can’t complain.
We had to drag out the old bouncer for Luke.
Luke has adapted well to being a big brother. He occasionally likes to bounce Liam’s bouncer, but other than that he’s being very sweet. Luke became very fond of playing with our dishwasher and oven, so we now have gates on both entrances to the kitchen. He’s also been trying to climb things. Yesterday he managed get up on the couch by himself.
Luke’s discovered our laundry nook. He’ll open the sliding doors, get in, and close the doors behind him. A couple of weeks ago he locked himself in his room. I wasn’t able to pick the lock, so I had to take the door knob off the door to get him out. He hasn’t really learned any new words lately, but he’s jabbering up a storm.
Cassie is still doing great. She goes back to the doctor on Friday, but we expect a good report.