happy birthday, nana!

Happy Birthday, Nana!

Dear Nana,

Weren't you surprised that we came to Asheville for your big birthday? (Don't worry, I won't spill the beans on how old you are.) I was SO good on the long car ride. Mom will talk more about that trip in another post. I really wanted to come and see you for your birthday because you were with me on my birthday. You made my birthday so very special, so it's the least I could do to come and see you on yours! The two of us make a pretty good team, don't you think? We got to hang out on the night of your birthday at Frankie Bones restaurant where I decided to be wiiiiide awake for the majority of the time. I just didn't want to miss any of the action, you know? I wore the cute monkey polo outfit you got me for Easter. I wanted to look extra handsome for your special day. Then the next day I got to eat at Tupelo Honey, one of mom and dad's favorite places to eat in Asheville, meet some of the crazy girls you work with, and walk around downtown. It was great seeing the place that you and Poppy work and meeting a lot of the people that have seen lots of pictures of me. I think you guys are pretty proud of me, and I love that. Anyway, I hope your birthday was extra great this year. I'm so glad that we got to spend it together. I love you, Nana!

Love, Lucas.

the nursery.

Welcome to Lucas's nursery! I love this room for so many reasons. First of all, we actually spent quite a bit of time dreaming about what this room would look like. I wanted it to be cute of course, but also a relaxing place with lots of personal hand made touches. I think we achieved this in the nursery. Would you like to take a tour?

Here, you see his crib. A few things to note: The bedding. I LOVE the bedding. It's a retro owl-theme with chevron accents, and you will notice lots and lots of little owl touches all around the room. After looking and looking and looking for baby bedding, I finally found this look online at this cute little boutiquey website...and it was EXPENSIVE. I was disappointed because of course I had fallen in love with it, and simply nothing else would do! After searching the website some more, I saw that you could order their fabric for cheap. Really cheap! Thankfully I have a very talented mother-in-law who loves to sew, and we decided that we could tackle the baby bedding and get the same look. We had a few craft days and made the bumpers, crib skirt, valance, and curtains. And by 'we' I actually mean 'her.' I had reached a point in my pregnancy where I was sure that part of my brain had died and gone somewhere far away, therefore I was of no help when it came to measuring, cutting, and sewing. In the end, it came out better than I could have imagined. She also made a throw pillow and a quilt. Here is a closer look at the fabric. I love it!

Above the crib is a piece of art that I made. (Thank you for the idea, pinterest!) The wood is from an old fork-lift pallet that we cleaned and stained, and I painted Psalm 139:14 on it. This comes from one of my favorite passages in the Bible. My prayer is that Lucas will someday understand this, that he is fearfully and wonderfully made, and that he never forgets it.

My dad painted the nursery for Lucas. The paint on the wall is a grayish/blue. It's so relaxing. After about 30 paint swatches (literally) we found the perfect one. Not too blue, not too gray. It's perfect!

Onto the bookshelf. This was quite the project...another idea I saw on pinterest. I showed Brandon the picture and asked him if he could build it. I loved how it resembled a tree branch, going along with my owl theme, and also being able to hang on the wall since the room is tiny and we didn't have enough floor space for a stand-up bookshelf. He, always being up for a challenge, said sure. Once he started researching it, getting advice from friends and workers at the wood shops, he realized how difficult it actually was going to be. The thickness tapers and there are lots of different angles, so it was pretty difficult. Regardless, he started working on it (with the motivation to see the idea come into fruition and also to prove those guys who said he shouldn't attempt it wrong!) He worked on the back porch for a full day and a half, and ta-da! We have a branch bookshelf!

Moving on. The glider. I love this thing. A good friend gave us some advice and said if we were going to splurge, splurge on the rocking chair. Because you will spend a lot of time here. We still got a pretty good deal on it, but it was a little bit of a splurge...and it's been worth every penny. Lucas loves to rock, and it's a great chair for snuggling and feeding. Pair a comfy chair with a really cute baby, and it makes being up at 4:00 a.m. not so bad!

The little piece of furniture to the left of the rocker was an unexpected find at HomeGoods. My parents and I were there looking for a lamp and saw this thing. We needed more storage space, and this was perfect! It's great to have things like burp cloths stored in there right next to the rocker to have on hand. The rectangle looking thing on top is a lamp. It gives off a wonderful low light, very soothing. And the little mouse night light was something that was in my room when I was a baby. It still works! So my parents brought it to put in my son's room.

Here is his changing table/dresser.

Above it is a shelf that was made by Brandon's older sister, Gina. It's adorable. We have a few of our maternity pictures displayed on the top, along with some little owl creatures and hats, a sweet note from Nana, and imprints of his little baby feet (thanks, Aunt Pom!)

Lastly, we have a great piece of art also made by Gina that hangs in between the closet and bathroom doors. It has his birthday, time, weight, and length. So cute!

I love this room. I remember sitting in there before Lucas was born, dreaming about the baby boy that was inside my belly. I loved looking around at the nursery, anxiously waiting to meet our son who had this great room waiting for him. Now I get to sit in here with him. It's a relaxing place, filled with personal touches of so many people who love him.

1 month stats

Lucas had his 1 month appointment at the pediatrician's office today; here are his numbers:

Weight: 11 lbs. 13 oz. (90th percentile)

Length: 22 and 1/4 inches (75th percentile)

Head Circumference: 39.5 cm (85th percentile)

Lucas is thinking, "Dad, why are you making faces at me?"

That being said, our boy is still quite the chunk! It's hard to believe how much he has grown and developed in the past month. He continues to have such good head control and has started tracking us with his eyes and social smiling. The smiling is SO fun, seeing how he responds and smiles at us instead of just smiling when he toots :)

It's also amazing to me to see how much Brandon and I have adapted and grown as parents in this first month. I think we will both be quick to say that we have continued to be humbled by the Lord every day. We are learning patience, lots and lots of patience. We are learning how to function on very little hours of sleep compared to the amount of sleep we got pre-baby. And we're not even grouchy! It's a miracle. We also have learned how dependent Lucas is on us, just as we are to be dependent on the Lord. We are supposed to come to Him as children, something that we need to still work on. We are learning lessons on sacrifice. And we are learning to slow down and appreciate the little things every day.

We love you, big boy!

the boy can eat.

I'm 1 month old today!!!

This may seem trivial to some of you, but we hit a milestone here today. Yes, Lucas is 1 month old today, but he also took a bottle! We have been saying for the past few days, "we should try a bottle today." Because of my hesitancy to try yet, we kept putting it off. But the reality is, I have to go back to work in the middle of May and the boy's gotta eat. I have had so many friends with babies who have had hard times taking bottles, causing their mamas to have to try multiple different kinds of bottles before they found one that works. So we started out by trying a Tommee Tippee bottle, and our little guy sucked down 4 ounces without skipping a beat! The boy can eat. I don't know if it is the type of bottle or just the fact that he loves to eat so much that he would eat from anything that has his mama's milk coming out of it, but either way, we're so proud of our little porker. This means a few things...date night! Jon and Kelsey, be ready for a phone call. On the agenda first is dinner and the Hunger Games movie! Hopefully sometime soon. It also means that dad can take over one of the nighttime feedings and I can get more than 3 consecutive hours of sleep! Score. And it also unfortunately means that I will be capable of going back to work. Boo.

Happy 1 month, sweet Lucas. You have filled our lives with so much love already, we can't believe it. We love you!

family.

Lately, I've been overwhelmed with thanksgiving. I am especially thankful for the huge number of family and friends who have surrounded us and our baby boy with so much love. Our family has sacrificed their vacation time, driving and flying long hours just to come and hang out with us. Lucas has gotten to meet so many people who love him so much already! Here are some highlights:

Lucas with his Nana, my mom

Lucas with his Poppy, my dad

Lucas with his Nanny Farrin and Oliver

Lucas with his Uncle Jon and Aunt Kelsey

Lucas with Kyre (who came all the way from Louisiana to meet him!)

Lucas with Lexi, his favorite pup

Lucas with his MiMi, Brandon's mom

Lucas with his Papa, Brandon's dad

Lucas with his Aunt Sis, Brandon's sister Stephanie (who flew up from Florida to meet him!)

Lucas with his Granny, Brandon's grandmother (who took a train from Florida to meet him!)

Lucas with his MawMaw and PawPaw, my grandparents (who drove up from Louisiana to meet him!)

We are so very thankful for these people who have traveled far from home from Asheville, Charlotte, Louisiana, and Florida to love on us, and for so many more who aren't pictured yet. Come on to Durham, y'all. You know you want to squeeze those cheeks!

oh glorious day!

Happy Easter!!!

On our first Easter as a family of 3, I am even more in awe of the meaning of this holiday. It's not about chocolate bunnies. Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!

My prayer for Lucas is that he will one day fully understand the depth of love that comes from the cross. HE is not dead, oh glorious day! This changes everything!

Dressed in our Sunday best

Can you see his adorable outfit? melt.my.heart.

2 week stats

Guess who's officially a chunk?

This guy!!!

We just got back from the pediatrician's office for Lucas's 2 week checkup, and he proved to us that his speed-nursing is getting the job done.

He measured in at 10lbs 1 oz. putting him in the 95th percentile for weight, and 90th percentile for head circumference at 38.5cm. Big boy!

In other bragging news, he is super strong already. I promise you that he was lifting his head at the first pediatricians appointment, at 3 days old. That's the honest truth! We have pictures to prove it, because that is not normal for a newborn. He showed off again today and lifted his head and chest when he was on his tummy, which he has been doing now for a week.

Other random facts about our little (big) guy:

*He has long outgrown size newborn diapers. We had to upgrade to a size one when he was about 5 days old after going through multiple outfits a day. Newborns just weren't cutting it.

*He loves tummy time

*I mentioned speed-nursing...10 minutes? Done. What a blessing!

*He hates being naked, especially when it comes to bath time. And by hate, I mean HATE. He gets that lip-quivering cry which is so pitiful, but so adorable we can't help but laugh every time.

*I am surprised he hasn't peed on more things. We have been lucky to avoid sprays during diaper changes (am I jinxing us right now?) minus one incident when Brandon was changing him in the pack-and-play and he peed on the subwoofer. Oops.

*He continues to be SO alert. When he is awake, he is looking around and taking in the world. It's so fun. He stares so intently at our faces and out the window, you can see his little wheels turning.

*Lexi is very protective of him. She acts pretty concerned when he cries, wanting to go up to him and sniff him to make sure he is okay. She also gives him tiny little kisses when we let her, and she likes to be next to him. It's pretty cute, as evidenced by the pictures below.

*He can burp and toot with the best of any grown man. I think he might get that from the Shirley side of my family.....

*His hair still is naturally growing in a mohawk. Rock star.

We continue to be amazed at how quickly he is changing. It's fun to see him developing and growing, but I still tell him not to grow up too fast. I try my hardest to savor every sweet moment, I don't want it to go by too quickly.