Trey & Molly's Wedding

We had a nice getaway to southern Illinois for my cousin Molly's wedding.  I was a little worried when I got the invite because it was adults only.  I didn't mind leaving my older 3, but I was definitely worried about leaving Lucas, as he was still nursing, especially before bed.  I wasn't sure what to do, but I knew I didn't want to miss the wedding.  My friend Sandy GRACIOUSLY agreed to keep my 4 kids, including my baby who had never taken a bottle.  Yikes.  She's brave!  And kind!  I'm SO GLAD we got to go though.  I would have HATED to miss it!  

It was a beautiful outdoor wedding in the woods.

The reception was a lot of fun:

I love my Uncle Art:

It was also a great excuse to getaway overnight with Josh.  It was our first date of any kind in over a year.  We had a great time!  It's always so weird to be with him without kids but also GREAT!  I love this man!

Of course we had to track down some Ski while we were in Southern Illinois:

The kids did great at Sandy's.  Lucas slept in their bedroom and did great too.  What a great weekend!

Lucas' Cubs B-day

Lucas' first birthday theme was such an easy choice this year, right after the Cubs won the world series for the first time since 1908!  We had a lot of fun with it.  We had Chicago style hotdogs and nachos with cheese.  Yum!

Grandma Jody and Papa Bob got Lucas a toybox:

Lucas wore his daddy's old Nikes on his first birthday:

I made him eggs for breakfast, and then we went to Champaign for the day and to Cross Training in the afternoon.  It was a full day!

We got some special cupcakes while in Champaign for our family dinner that night:

Lucas ate the ENTIRE thing face first!  He had this figured out better than any baby I've seen!

I made him this cute little smash cake for his family party:

With lots of tips from my friend Kristina, I also made these cookies which tasted better than they looked!

We had blue sno cones:

Lots of cousins:

Aunt Erika made him this adorable shirt:

Grandpa and Grandma Reeves sent a card and money in the mail!

It was a really fun party.  I think everyone had a good time.
And we had so much fun celebrating our boy!  The first year went so fast!

Lucas and Sleep

I started this post about Lucas' sleep early on, as he was a great little sleeper but it took us about 10 months to figure out sleeping 12 hours at at time.  The complication came with having 2 kids' bedrooms for 4 kids... and 2 kids who both needed the crib... 

For the first two months, my strategy with Lucas was the same as with Aleah.  I basically just never put him down.  He was on me 24 hours a day.  We slept in my recliner together, and it worked out great.  I love this stage!!!

At two months, Lucas went to sleeping in the pack 'n play next to my bed.  He loves sleeping on his belly.  He could roll front to back pretty early on, and by 3.5 months, he could flip himself over consistently when he was ready to get up!

He has always been good at putting himself to sleep, from the beginning.  By 2 months, he was sleeping 8 pm-8:30 am and just getting up ONCE, around 5 am to eat.

At some point, he backtracked.  I'm not sure at what point it was, but he starting sleeping 7ish-7ish but getting up TWICE (at varying hours) and was still doing that at 9 months.  He's in our room with us, so when he cries, he just comes into our bed, eats, and then goes back into his.  No big deal.

I thought Christmas break would be a great time to solve this problem.  We rearranged the kids' rooms again.  Hannah, Jacob, and Aleah had all 3 been sleeping in the boys' room.  We moved them all to the girls' room and had Aleah start sleeping in a big girl bed.  That meant Lucas could have a CRIB and his OWN ROOM.  That was all he needed, which I had suspected for quite awhile.  After a month of sleeping in his own room, he has only gotten up once in the night and sleeps 11-12 hours a night with two 2-3 hour naps a day.  It didn't take much to get him on a nap.  He fell into a pretty natural schedule, napping 3 times a day for the first several months, and then transitioned to 2 naps a day, each being about 2-3 hours.  He likes his sleep!  He reminds me of Jacob in this way!  Hallelujah.  His song is Amazing Grace.  I learned all of the verses, in order and have sang it to him hundreds of times this year.  I love this boy!