Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our families! Here is a recap mostly in pictures!

First up, was Thanksgiving dinner with the Zukowski's on Wednesday night.


Luke loves his fruit, especially when it looks like a turkey!








Paige eating her Thanksgiving dinner - oatmeal.




Luke loves playing the piano with Grandma.


And the dogs love Wally!


On Thanksgiving, we had lunch at my Grandparent's and then appetizers and dessert with the Kohr's at my parent's house, but first an attempt at some pics!





"Cousins" Logan and Luke


They are just a little excited for some chocolate turkey cake!




Meeting Baby Jack for the first time - this is my cousin Matt's son. He is just 2 weeks younger than Paige!




Carly's Halloween costume she brought home for Luke to have!


Playing cars with Sophia

Words with Luke

(Some of these go back a few months - this post was started on 8/24)

Me: Luke did you go to the library today?
Luke: Yes, the truck took me.
Me: What truck?
Luke: The semi truck.
Me: Oh really. I think you are telling stories.
Luke: No, I telling words.

Luke: Look Mommy! 2 cranes and a bobcat.
Me: Cool!
Luke: I just love bobcats.
Me: You do?
Luke: Yeah.
Me: Why do you love them?
Luke: Because they scoop up dirt.

As I am feeding Paige, Luke says "Mommy, you have booby milk in your nipples." (Thanks for saying booby milk one time Wally!)

Me: (yawn) I am tired Lukey.
Luke: Why?
Me: I just am.
Luke: You need to take a nap?
Me: I would love that.
Luke: With a blanket?
Me: That would be perfect.
Luke: I can watch cartoons when you nap (in a very excited voice!)

Me: Look, there is a police car. (had it's lights on)
Luke: I think it is going to save people.

Everyday he tells us who everyone is going to be for Halloween (next year). It is usually all of the Cars characters or from The Wizard of Oz. He said the other day completely out of the blue that Chloe (my parents golden retriever) is going to be the Wicked Witch and that Chloe will only trick-or-treat in the daytime.

Luke says "that's so silly!" a lot.

After talking with Papa and me about his birthday party last year and it snowing pretty badly, Luke tells me almost everyday in the car that he hopes it doesn't snow on his birthday because he will be sad.

When he sees commercials for toys or looks through catalogs and flyers at the toys, he is sure to mention which toys are for girls. He always says, "that's for you Mommy because you're a girl".

Luke was telling us the days of the week during supper and then he started saying the days in Spanish. I swear he knows way more in Spanish than we are aware!

A Productive (Exhausting) Weekend

The weekend was good. We really just stayed around the house and got A LOT done! It felt good to cross a lot of stuff off of our, well I guess "my", list. The only thing that didn't get crossed off was a good night's sleep. (This is the last time I will talk about sleep on this blog until I have some really great news to share.) Paige is up every 2 hours like clockwork (10, 12, 2, and 4). I have no idea what the deal is! Every night I think to myself, "she is going to sleep good tonight - I just know it!", but it hasn't happened yet.

Here are some pics of our weekend!

Good Morning!


Fun in the jumperoo - yes, we still wear skeleton jammies around here!


And fun in the walker!


Playtime in the kitchen.


Football fun!


Telling me a very serious story!


A sleepy Daddy!


All ready to head out to eat! (We haven't been out to eat in a few weeks. The last few times have not been the best experiences, but I am happy to say that last night was a success!)


The restaurant wore somebody out! (This ended up being a late catnap for the Miss so we put her down later than normal to see if that would help her sleep at night - nope, same 10, 12, 2, and 4!)


Mommy and her little ballerina before church!


Cheese!


One more of the sweet ballerina!


And some pics of our new and improved (but still a work-in-progress) family/play room (basement).




We sort of created our own entertainment center. Dad - can you believe those ends are still in-tact and standing??? 7 years and 2 moves...it was well worth the time it took you and Wally to build it!


We moved our desk (which we rarely even use) to the far corner of the basement to allow more room for toys (or golfing)!


Hope you all had a great weekend!

What's Been Going On?

Things are kind of busy and crazy around here and time is limited. Here is a rundown of what has been going on (I promise to get the camera out this weekend!).

Last weekend we headed to LP. I had a bridal shower to go to and we had Zukowski family pics scheduled. Let’s just say, I have no idea how they are going to turn out. I am sure there are some good ones, but getting 11 people (which includes two little ones) to all smile and look and keep their eyes open at the same time can prove to be difficult. Not to mention, when we arrived at Starved Rock (our photo location) and I took Paige out of her carseat, she was missing a shoe – Wally! Moms – you know how stressful coordinating outfits can be and to be missing a shoe was very irritating to me! And our attempt at a picture of Paige and Luke in their adorable Christmas outfits did not quite turnout – both are crying!

Monday we were back to the grind, but we also had Paige’s 4-month doctor’s appointment. I was SHOCKED to learn that she is only 14 lbs. 12 oz. I mean, that is a great weight and she is doing fantastic, but have you seen her lately??? She looks like she weighs much more than that – ha! I also couldn’t believe that when I looked back at Luke’s stats he was 16 lbs. 8 oz. at his 4-month check up – whoa Bubba! She was 25 inches long and really just doing fabulously. She proved to be a bit tougher this time around with the shots too.

Since we had painting done last week, our house has been in disarray. Everything needed/needs to be put back on the walls and furniture re-organized. And since the painters were there, we have been having a terrible smell coming from our dryer, oven, and even the toaster when it was plugged in. We had no idea what was going on until I Googled (thank goodness for Google – Papa Jeff knows a lot, but even he couldn’t figure this one out after we did everything he had suggested and found no issues). It turns out that fumes can settle in these appliances (or something like that). We had our entire basement finished and partially stained so we think that is where the problem lied. We really got the fans going in the basement and the smell has finally started to go away! We also changed the layout of the furniture down there, and I am loving it! It feels so much more open and gives us more space for Toyland USA. We still have some reorganizing and decorating to do, but it is turning out to be a great family/play room.

Paige sleep update: Well, we had one good night this week. Paige could not keep her eyes open so we put her down at 7, she woke at 10:15, I fed her and laid her back down, she slept until 5:45 – woo hoo! And then the next night she was up 3 times…sigh! We got the go ahead at her doctor’s appointment to start cereal. I really wasn’t ready to start it with her yet (we waited until Luke was about 5 months), but now I am thinking it is worth a try if it might help her sleep (although I don’t feel that hunger is the reason she wakes up…). I know cereal at this point isn’t really for nutritious reasons, it is just about learning to eat, but it’s worth a try right? If she doesn’t seem into it, we will stop and try again in a few weeks. If she does like it, but it doesn’t help her sleep, well, we will just keep hoping that more than 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep is in our near future on a regular basis!

The rest of the week was pretty typical. Typical now equals busy. Busy playing, feeding, cooking, cleaning, washing bottles and pump parts, laundering, organizing, cuddling, reading, singing, dancing, bathing, sleeping, or lacking sleep, rocking, and so on.

Life in the Zukowski house – crazy at times, but I wouldn’t change it for the world! (I continuously remind myself that one day my house will be empty and I will be wishing there was an almost-3-year old talking my ear off and a baby fussing because she wants to be held by her mama!)

Nothing Better

They make my heart smile!


I mean, seriously...how cute is this picture?!?! :)






This one cracks me up because Paige had just spit up a little and I think Luke got nervous it was going to get on him!

4 Months Old

Somehow it is November already, which means that somehow you, Miss Paige, are 4 months old!



Even though life has changed quite a bit for all of us in these last few weeks, you are still a wonderful baby!



Your smile can light up a room.



The sounds you make are the best. Sometimes I think you can hold a note longer than an opera singer!



We have heard you giggle a few times over the last month, but behind that smile is laughter - I just know it! (Daddy thinks maybe you aren't a "laugh out loud" kind of girl and more of a silent laugher like me.)



As I've said before, you aren't much of a fan of tummy time, but I'm hoping if I put you on your tummy for long enough, you will roll yourself over to end your misery. Sometimes I think you are so close!



You are now waking up at least twice a night - a big change for us from just a few weeks ago when you were sleeping through the night. The first time you wake up, we nurse, the second time if it is within 2-3 hours of the last wake up, I just rock you back to sleep, the third time, we nurse again. The good news is that at least you fall back asleep easily whether you eat or not. We are dealing with the interrupted sleep - it can't last forever, right? RIGHT?!?!



You watch your big brother like a hawk. You are just taking in everything he does - the good and the bad!



You have also really started to notice Nala. Unfortunately, she is a barker. You always turn and give the strangest look when she barks - like you are trying to figure out what this little, loud, moving creature is.



You grab and hold lots of toys and just this past weekend we put you in the jumperoo. You can't reach the ground yet and don't seem to enjoy it all that much (your brother really never seemed to like it much either). However, you do enjoy the walker. We started putting you in it for just a few minutes at a time last weekend and you have already scooted yourself across the house. Luke likes to push you in it, but we are always right there with him so he doesn't give you a big old push into the wall. He knows he needs to go slow! The walker was always a huge hit with Luke and it seems that it might be the same for you!



You are a mama's girl! In fact, while Daddy was holding you and I was in the room the other day, you were fine, but I when I walked away, you started crying - really crying. When I came back in, you stopped and gave me the biggest smile! This has happened a few times and Daddy is convinced it is because I left.



One of my favorite things we do together is rock. You weren't much of a rocker for awhile, but lately you have let me hold you and rock away. Your favorite position is the cradle hold and with me squeezing you very close to me. I love this position too because we can look at each other, and I can watch you drift off to sleep.



You are very much loved baby girl and we can't believe how quickly time is passing.



Love you Pooh Pooh Bear!