Lukas's 5th and 6th months and other misc events

Holy cow! Luke is already 6.5 months and I'm only sitting down to write about his 5th and 6th months! I can't believe how fast time is flying...

Here he is on his Blessing Day, February 5th. The outfit is a little too big but he looks very cure in it. It was a beautiful, sunny day. We had a very nice (delicious) lunch with our family and friends after the blessing.
This is the latest picture of our whole family that I have. Time for a family photo shoot!!!
Winter fun. Cleaning the driveway...


And of course, playing snow football (what weekend can go without it?).





Luke loves his little spinning thing (I have no idea what it's called)...
My African Violets really flourish in the winter and spring months and then they rest during the summer. There will be more picture of them coming up.
This is a very special violet. I brought it from Russia 5 or 6 years ago from my grandma Rimmulya. I snuck 1 leave into the country hidden in the baby stroller (Alex was a toddler then). I grew a few plants from it since then. I hope it lives on forever.
A typical weekend: reading magazines with my boys surrounding me in our messy living room. These days I don't care as much about having a magazine-cover-perfect living room as I care about spending precious time with family.
Nicholas truly is a budding chef. He loves to help Papa in the kitchen on saturday mornings.
We signed Nick up for Little Gym lessons and he's been really loving it! Alex gets to come with him and show off his skills :) So far they haven't said anything to us about having Alex there as a sidekick...






Dave gave me this perfect bouquet for International Women's day. The funniest thing about it is that he had it delivered to my work, however I already left when it arrived, so we had to make a special trip back to my work to retrieve it on a friday night :)

Lukas is enjoying his naps outdoors.
Grandma great Gudgell celebrated her 92nd birthday this year!
Lukas ventured into the world of solid foods! First impression: not too impressed. But as the days went on, he proved to be a good eater.



Those rare moments when Papa is actually able to feed Lukas. Precious!
I love it that our boys really like each other and on their way of being best friends!
Even sharing snacks in a rocking chair (I obviously wasn't around when this took place or they would have been escorted to the kitchen without delay!).

So far Luke is retaining his beautiful blue eyes!
Our boys often play together.
This year I bought special grow lights for my seedlings and I have to say I'm very impressed!!! Now I'm contemplating an idea of buying more lights and growing more things from seeds... I hope Dave doesn't read this or I will be banned from expanding my little indoor farm...
Happy sights of spring in my own backyard!
And more things that make me happy (well, not so much the dog, but definitely Nick :)
A typical Sunday morning at our house: eating blini Dave'a :) My Russian friends will know what these are :)))
Ok, this picture doesn't need an explanation: it is simply hilarious. Nick is just trying to be helpful!
Luke has graduated to the real bathtub. He simply stopped fitting in a baby bathtub in the kitchen sink.
Happy times: getting a massage after a bath. Ahhhhhh.

Lukas's 4th month and New Year's

The month of January was less than eventful. This is probably my least favorite month of the year. It's just that not much is happening, it is cold, dreary and all we do is work.

We finally took our annual family photos with the tree the day before we took it down.
We even got everybody looking at the camera. It took probably more than 50 shots to achieve this.

Mama with her boys.
Papa with his boys.

We had a very nice New Year's celebration this year. We opted to spend it with just a couple of friends in a nice, intimate evening. The food was out of this world (thanks to the combined efforts of the Amoros' and our family).

The kids were certainly happy.
So were the rest of us :)
Our boys spend a lot of the time rolling around the floor with Lukas.
We found that the best place for Lukas' daytime naps is... the deck. We bundle him up, put him on top of the sheepskin and he sleeps for 2 hours at a time. I don't know if it's the fresh air or something else, but he takes the best naps there and is always happy when he wakes up. Nicholas sometimes stands guard :).


A typical Sunday morning at our house: everybody piles up onto our (not very big) bed.
My Hawaiian hibiscus bloomed again this year. I still chuckle every time it blooms; when I bought it in Maui years ago, it said on the package that it was going to be yellow hibiscus. Well, it has always bloomed with orangy-red flowers!
Lukas made his debut in the highchair (reclined way back) at around 4 months old. I noticed that he enjoys watching us eat from the highchair.

The technology doesn't fail to amaze me; neither does the fact that a 2-year-old can figure out not only how to push buttons on a smart phone, but also how to access games and actually be able to play them! On our bathroom floor, no less :)
This picture shows how really blue Lukas' eyes are! I love that about him and I hope the color doesn't change over time...
He loves his tummy time so much! He's already starting to roll all over the place and he tries to roll from his back to tummy already!
He had his 4-month check-up and he was 26 inches long (75th percentile) and weighed 13 lbs 10 oz (25th percentile). Just the way we like them: tall and slender :)

We also made a day-trip to Midway one of the lazy Sundays. It was a gorgeous winter day and we played outside a bit. Next time we go there, it will be to swim in the Homestead Crater. I'm already starting to plan it :)


My silly boys: Alex being a typical 7-year-old- playing games on his iPod; Nicholas being a funny 2-year-old (minus the terrible 2s, well, most of the time), and Lukas trying to figure out what the heck is going on :)