Playing with the Big Kids

We have enjoyed a few playdates with Paige's work friends, Sarah & Mary, and their kids, Genna and Max & Ella. Genna and Luke are 3 weeks apart, but Max and Ella are "big kids," who enjoyed helping to take care of Luke a few days ago while their moms ate lunch. Ella even helped to tuck Luke into his carseat when we were getting ready to leave, and as you'll see, Luke found Max to be a laugh riot.

They were great babysitters...I wonder what their hourly rate is?

The Most Pathetic Boy in Hoboken

Luke has always been at his crankiest in the evening. Recently, however, he has taken to being EXTREMELY cranky in the evenings, and has added to that finding solace only with his mother, rejecting his father's affections and ministrations outright. With force. At some point, we can only laugh at him...this was captured after a dad-to-mom transfer following a 20 minute tantrum where his father tried everything in his bag of tricks to calm him down to no avail. Once Mom took him, he decided that maybe, just maybe, he could make it to bedtime.

We eagerly await the end of this phase.

When Lucia Met Luke

It has already been chronicled that Lucia was not quite so sure about this Luke person. Her first day with him was spent with a great deal of distrust, and downright dislike when Mama Fran or Mama Mer dared to approach him within her field of vision. Many a stinkeye was given in his general direction...

But, by the second day, while she didn't want to hug or kiss him, she would grudgingly accept Mama Mer giving him a cuddle:

And showed her acceptance of him in her own way, perhaps in the way that shows her highest regard, by making sure that Luke's lovey (or, as Luce calls them, "lubbies"), Daniel, was well-tended and tucked in just so:

By the end of the visit, I think everyone would agree that a good time was had by all. We hope that we all get to hang out again soon!

Semi-tough

Belly Laughs

This past weekend, our dear friends (and bridesmaids!) Fran & Meredith visited with their 1 1/2 year old daughter, Lucia. There will be more posts highlighting the various and sundry festivities that occurred, including Luce's slow warm-up to Baby Luke, but this one deserves its own post.


In college, Mer & I dubbed Fran "Fran Life of the Party Infantine" because she is one of those people that EVERYONE finds fun & funny to be around. I mean, Mer and I are pretty fun people to be sure, but I was never a DJ for the Masses... True to form, Auntie Fran got Luke to show off his laugh for his dad for the first time. (Paige had seen it before while Paul was out of town, but he hadn't busted it out since)

Don't worry, while you can hear Fran threatening to share Embarrassing Paige Stories with Luke, she KNOWS I have equal dirt on her to tell Lucia one day...

Happy (Belated) Mother's Day, Grandmas!

Since Paige got a Flip video camcorder for Mother's Day, Luke created a special Mother's Day greeting for his grandmas.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Grabbing!

Luke just realized that he can touch things, and they will then move. The natural progression is that he can grab things and hold on to them, generally until his hand gets tired.

With a little help from Dad he got his hands on the pineapple from the playmat and held on until it got boring.

Rock & Roll Baby, Part 3: You ever listen to K-Billy's "Super Sounds of the Seventies" weekend?

This qualifies as "rock and roll" since (despite that some people might get it inexplicably confused with Bob Dylan) the song is "Stuck in the Middle With You" by Stealers Wheel (immortalized by Stephen Wright in Reservoir Dogs).
And because Paige cannot help but stage photos, here is Luke with Paul's two childhood friends, Luke the Bear and Curious George...

Thanks, Aunt Lisa!

Rock & Roll Baby, Part 2: Big Day Coming

This is probably the only time Luke will suffer matching outfits (at least with Mom).

8+ months pregnant Mom didn't make it past the opening act during Hanukkahpaloozathon this year (she tried...Lord, she tried)*, but she made sure that Dad came home with the t-shirt & the onesie.

*Though he missed Big Day Coming and Little Honda Luke did stay long enough to enjoy the song stylings of Flying Nun stalwarts and opening band The Clean while in utero, thus either making him cooler than other babies, or just marking his mom and dad as lame alterna-parents.

Baby Ambassador of Hoboken

In the past few weeks, Luke has had the pleasure of visiting with lots of new friends in his newfound capacity as Baby Ambassodor.

He and Ronan Scott enjoyed an afternoon meeting in Hamilton, NJ while their moms enjoyed one of Sarah's gourmet lunches (mmm...pistou!).

This was apparently Ronan's first run-in with a newborn - he was a true gentleman, letting Luke get in a snuggle with his Mom...

...And he gave Luke some thumb-sucking pointers while giving him a gentle rock in his car seat.

Luke has also had some quality time with fellow Hoboken resident and trendy hand-me-down provider, Ben Kornbluh.

They had a baby summit in Luke's room, where Ben convinced Luke that he should make his activity mat work for him.

Ben was unrelenting in his assertion that the mat is a happy place - once you learn to control your hands.

Look out lady babies of Hoboken, Ben & Luke are a charming team!