The Dickinson Boys: Three Months Old!

Happy little Luke is three months old! Where does the time go?! Just a couple of weeks ago, I got all of his 3-6 month clothes washed and put away- and he's already outgrown them! This weekend I had to wash all of his 6-9 month clothing. I can hardly keep up with him! I suspected he was about to have a growth spurt because he went back to two feedings a night for a while. He's a hungry little man but, once fed, he's usually very content. He is very close to being able to roll over. He's working on it and gets closer every day. He loves stretching out on his playmat and doing his exercises- moving his arms and legs every which way. He does a very good job holding his head up in his little Bumbo seat. After a little while he starts to slump, so we're taking it slow. But he seems to enjoy his new view of the world. He has a better grip on toys hanging overhead and his movements seem to be more fluid and less jerky. He is still having some trouble keeping the pacifier in his mouth. He drops it frequently then cries for it.

He has the most adorable grins but I've had such a hard time capturing them on camera. The second he sees the camera his face goes blank and he just stares. Today I tried to just point the camera in his direction and start clicking so he could still see my face. I got a couple of good pictures but nothing like the pure joy on his face that you see in person.

Luke has been settling into a little bit more of a routine during the day. He's usually up by 7:00 and then gets sleepy around 8:30-ish. He takes a short nap or a series of little catnaps. He usually has a big feeding around lunch and then settles in for a long afternoon nap. Then he eats, plays for a bit and then is asleep for the evening around 7:00 pm or so. He is an incredibly light sleeper. That smallest noises or movements wake him up. It gets frustrating when Will or Zoe do something to wake him.

Last Wednesday we went to Bethesda for his hip ultrasound. It's about an hour from here, through DC traffic. The trip itself was a bit stressful but the appointment went very well. Everything is completely normal- his hip socket is no longer too shallow, the hip angle is perfect and there is no more clicking. He seems to have healed wonderfully so no further follow up is needed. Very good news!

On Friday Will had his "Jumpbunch" class. They did some stretching and basic moves like jumping jacks and running around. I was surprised how much Will followed what the teacher was doing. There were originally two sections of the class- one for younger toddlers (1-2) and one for older kids (3-4). There wasn't enough interest in the younger class so it was cancelled and we had the option to join the older kids. We decided to do the older class so Will is one of the youngest kids in there. He still fit right in though. Everyone got an inflatable soccer ball and was supposed to kick it up and down the gym and then kick the ball into the goal. We're not much of a soccer family so Will hasn't played much soccer. But he plays basketball with Daddy all the time. So instead of kicking the ball, Will would pick up the ball, run down the gym and throw it into the goal. Then he'd run behind the goal, wave his hands in the air and celebrate making a basket. I tried to show him how to kick the ball but he wasn't too interested in that. Toward the end of the class, there was a little obstacle course with cones the kids were supposed to run through and around. Each kid lined up single file and took a turn. When it was Will's turn, he ran to the part with the cones, arranged them in a line so they were touching and started counting them. He was holding up the class with his counting! Hard to discourage a good counting session but I had to intervene and put the cones back so the other kids could run through. Overall Will had a lot of fun. He always loves to run around with other kids. I imagine the basketball theme is coming up soon and then Will will really be in his element.

On Saturday I took Will to his swimming class. He absolutely loves the water and is making some progress. He still gets nervous in the water and hangs on tight to us (rightfully so) but he did dunk his head under water several times. He also jumped in off the side (with me catching him) and stretched out in a back float a few times (with my help). We working on blowing bubbles in the water- right now he just tries to lap it up like a dog.

Will has really been into counting this week. He keeps looking for things to count. He can count objects but when I hand him items, he always seems to have "two" of everything. He asked for crackers the other day and I gave him one. He gestured for another so I handed him a second and he said "two crackers." I got really excited. He asked for another so I gave him one, but according to him he still had "two crackers." I corrected him and told him he had three but he insisted he had two. He'll probably pick that up quickly but right now he always seems to have two of things.

We're making slow but steady progress on new words. He seems to love repeating his favorite words and phrases, even when they don't make sense. Several times a day, he'll blurt out a random string of words. Usually included are "mail trash truck," screwdriver, motorcycle, vacuum and tires. He LOVES pointing out things that have tires. Some of his speech is very clear (like "chocolate cake" is clear as a bell!) but other words require some translation. For example, here are some Willese/English translations:

scoo-sower = screwdriver
staw-babbies= strawberries
dirds= birds
coke=milk
tape-sheesher= tape measure
wash-sheesher= dishwasher
gee-gert = yogurt
shoos= juice and shoes
sussin= muffin
see-ball= basketball and baseball

One thing that is crystal clear- when he sees football on TV he yells "go Cowboys!" (Even if the Cowboys aren't playing).

Finally, a special thanks to my friend Sarah for letting me know how to caption pictures!