Sometimes I leave Clara unattended when I need to get something done, 

quick, without her, like go to the bathroom.

I try to do this when Luke is already preoccupied with something else.

 Luke absolutely adores his sister.

He always wants to be by her.

 I can always tell if Luke has figured out that I have left momentarily unattended.

He gets this silly little laugh,

its borderline evil sounding,

like he's about to do something,mean to her.

Usually he just leans over her,

and laughs in her face.

Today I saw her smiling back at him.

Then he was trying to hold her hand.

If Luke could talk better,

I'm sure he would tell me he can't wait until she older,

so she could play with him!

Sick

We have had a rough couple of weeks in our home lately.
Luke has been sick.
First he got bronchitis,
then the minute he got over that,
he got another NASTY virus.

Thankfully, Clara has been sick free,
and pretty much one happy little girl.
She has learned how to start pouting.
It's amazing what they can do,
even though she is so little.

One thing that has made me smile lately is Luke's use of the word "poop"
He understands this word very well.
When Clara poops, Luke will happily point it out.
She's not very discrete about the matter.

If you pass gas, Luke won't let that one go either.
He will gladly go point to your bum and say "poop!"
He doesn't distinguish between the two things.

In this picture, Luke is trying to give me knuckles.
My most favorite thing is to watch Luke give Clara knuckles.
Obviously, Clara can't.
Luke will do it for her.
Luke will hold up her arm with one hand,
and give her knuckles with his other hand.
It is just too cute!

Luke loves to make lots of noise.
This includes pounding on the piano.
Luke startles Clara a lot,
and she doesn't like that very much.

Here's to a sick free week!
Cross your fingers!!!

2 Months

Look at those cheeks, aren't they just adorable!!!
2 Month Stats:
Weight 11.02 lbs = 56%
Length 22.8" = 65%

What a chubby baby we have!

Bad Day

Yesterday was NOT a good day. Both of my children were sick, one with a temperature of 104+ and the other, screaming for no apparent reason. Normally on days like that I would just stay home, but I HAD to mail some very important documents, in express over night service. Going to the post office is one of the worst errands ever to try and do with kids. I arrived at the post office with minutes until the express mail deadline. I decided to strap the kids in the stroller for a faster easier trip. As soon as I walk in, Clara starts screaming like I have never heard her scream before. Luke was already screaming because he was now strapped into the stroller, unable to run around like a wild boy. Clara won't take a binki, so it is difficult to get her to settle down sometimes. This was one of those times. She just would NOT settle down. Within seconds everyone in the post office was watching me. What they were thinking, I do not know. I was embarrassed to have my newborn screaming so bad, so I just turned around and walked out.

As I was trying to load my kids back up in the car, and putting the stroller away, a woman who was in line approached me. She obviously thought I was a bad mom. She asked me if I needed help. I told her "no thanks" of course, because this was an odd gesture to me. She then proceeded to try and help me load up my stroller. I kindly refused her help again. She then told me she would be happy to hold my baby for me while I completed my business in the post office. Again, I kindly declined her offer. I explained to her, I would just nurse my baby in the car and try again later. She then made the comment, "whoa, she must be really hungry then," As if I take my starving child out in public! I fed her right before I left, nursing her is the only way she calms down. By this point a few more people had left the post office and were watching me, because both of my kids were screaming, and I mean SCREAMING, and I'm sure everyone was thinking I was completely incompetent!

I was embarrassed! I got them both to calm down, and was too embarrassed to walk back into the post office, but I really needed to get something in the mail ASAP for express delivery! So I decided to drive over to the other post office in town. I knew my deadline was nearing, but I thought I still had about 15 minutes. So I loaded both kids up in the stroller again, walked in to see the line was about 15 people long, and NOT MOVING!

Two women in front of me turned around and walked out because it was taking forever. I decided to hold my course. Yes, both my kids were starting to cry, and yes I was now 13 people back. It was 4:10, and I thought the deadline was 4:25. After about 45 seconds of standing in line, and me thinking to myself that I am absolutely crazy, the postal worker said,

"anyone in line for express?"

I held up my envelope and said,"yes"

To my surprise, he said, "come on up, the truck is leaving now!"

So I very kindly apologized to everyone in line that I was now cutting to the front. I'm hoping they weren't all upset with me, I'm hoping they heard my crying children and were grateful this crazy lady would now be leaving the post office and they wouldn't have to listen to the crying!

As I drove away, I was shocked at what just happened. I guess someone else was looking out for me yesterday. I haven't "lost it" yet with 2 kids, but I felt like I could have in that moment.
That's what I get for trying to do things when my children are sick.

Last night I went to bed feeling like the worst mom ever! I felt like I don't give my children enough individual attention. I shouldn't drag them along errands when they don't feel well. They don't deserve that. I feel bad that Luke now has to share his mommy. He looks so sad sometimes when I am holding Clara and not him. However, Luke LOVES Clara. He always wants to hold her and kiss her. Clara likes him too, she definitely tolerates him well. Today has been a better day, but I decided that I need to focus more on giving my children individual attention. They deserve it!

Couponing:
my new favorite hobby!
Everything in this photo was either FREE
or ridiculously cheap,
most less than $.50
Everything less than $1.00

I secretly look forward to double coupon Tuesday
every week at WalMart!
Monday nights I make my list,
and I get giddy about all the great deals I am going to get!

Today I got free BBQ sauce and Tabasco sauce,
I get great deals on snacks for Luke.
I love using FREE toothpaste,
especially FREE dish soap!

You should try it!
A shout out to my cousin Natalie, who got me hooked!
Thanks!!!

It's fun to have a girl, and get her all dressed up.
Gilbert just thinks this is silly.

Clara has a double chin.

Combined with some chubby cheeks!

You know you want to squeeze them!

Luke was mad that he wasn't dressed yet to be in the pictures,
so this is how he got his picture taken.
He's been trained well,
whenever he sees a camera he says
"CHEESE"

Operation: Cold Turkey Binki
Day 4: Success!
We haven't had any binki's for 4 days,
and we are not turning back!
There has been lots of whining and complaining,
and bed time takes forever,
but we will make it!

Luke's favorite: swings!

Operation: Cold Turkey Binki
Day 2: Success
Definition of success=
Mom did not give in.

Today we are starting something new.
Luke has always been a big worry for us.
He has always struggled with acid reflux, and simply just doesn't eat.
We never could figure the kid out.

In November of last year, we took Luke in for some testing so see if they could figure out why he continued to throw up and why he wouldn't eat. The tests came back vague, which was not what we were hoping for. There were some possible food allergies, but he was only 14 months old at the time and some were too early to tell. We came away regretting putting him through the tests since nothing helpful came from them. Since then we have done everything we know to do to help our child. It's so hard to be told by a doctor that your child is malnourished, and there's nothing we can do about it.
Then there are the people who do not know what we've been through with him, and make the naive comments about how small Luke is or how he doesn't eat a lot. Gilbert and I have conversations every day about what Luke has or has not eaten. We count every bite, every calorie and have since he was born. It's been a huge stress and worry in our lives.
We recently repeated these tests to see if anything new could come from them. It was both good and bad. The good was that his body wasn't showing signs of any allergies anymore. So whatever was bothering him before, he has grown out of or acclimated himself to. The bad was, that his body was still showing signs of reflux. The poor kid has probably had a stomach ache his entire life or simply not felt well.
So he is back on acid reflux medicine, to hopefully rectify the stomach ache. However, there is still the issue of his lack of desire to eat. Nearly every person I know has a love affair with food. We buy Luke anything and everything food wise, just in case he will eat it. He simply isn't interested. There have been several days where it is now 2 or 3 in the afternoon and Luke hasn't eaten a single thing, and has no desire to.
We have seen pediatric dieticians, and pediatric feeding experts. We've had his diet analyzed and countless trips to the pediatric gastroenterologist. We are thinking his lack of desire is now a behavioral problem. So our new method to attack that is a medication to help increase his appetite to show him food is SO YUMMY!

So today we started our new plan of attack to help Luke. This plan includes new medications, and cutting out the binki cold turkey. Luke has always been addicted to his binki. I am thinking he used it to help curb his appetite and sooth himself to forget about his tummy ache. We are nearly 24 hours without the binki, so day one is a success! With all these new actions, we are hoping to see some results. We are hoping our little boy will have a normal appetite. We are hoping he will gain some weight. We are hoping that he will start growing at a normal rate and not be so little.
One day, hopefully, we will be able to stop worrying so much about his food intake.
For now, there is a glimmer of hope that we can do something for our child or have answers enough to make an action plan to help him.

For now, we officially have the cutest kids in the world!

For those of you who think Clara looks like Gilbert,
here are some more comparison shots for you.

For those of you who think Clara looks like me,
here's another comparison photo.


Either way, she is one adorable little girl,
who we LOVE!!!

cute kids

Everyone thinks their kids are cute,
but mine really are the cutest kids EVER!!!

Luke walks around saying "cheese"
He knows the drill!

my cute Clara smiles at me!

My cuties actually like each other.
Sometimes Clara doesn't appreciate all the noise,
but I don't blame her.

Luke has incredibly long, gorgeous eyelashes.
Compliments of his mommy.

Luke likes to give Clara kisses!

look alikes

Above: Gilbert
Below: Luke

Above: Clara (I know its not the most flattering pic)
Below: Brandi

What do you think?
Who looks like who?

BYU

For our Sunday afternoon adventure, we decided to take Luke to the BYU duck pond.
He loves ducks, and he loves to throw food at them.

We popped a big bag of popcorn, so these ducks were well fed.
Luke was so excited he kept jumping around,
we were mostly worried he would just jump right on in!

Anything we can do to entertain Luke,
we will try at least once.

Gilbert had to take Luke up the infamous BYU stairs.
He got a little teary eyed, as he told Luke he would walk these steps for school one day.
Just like he did, and just like his dad did.

Gilbert would rather Luke walk these steps as BYU's star quarterback,
but just as a general student would be acceptable too.

enjoying some summer corn!

Sunday

It was our first Sunday back at church full swing!
I had to teach sharing time this week,
so we had to take extra time to prepare to make sure we didn't forget anything.
I ended up taking 3 bags, 2 kids, and a car seat.
I looked ridiculous walking in.
I seriously need to consolidate for next week!
We sure looked cute though...