Luke's First REAL Christmas

Let me first of all say that I'm posting under the following conditions (Luke is trying to drop one of his naps so I have less and less posting opportunities each day). :) At this moment, Luke is carrying a measuring cup around (he loves those things) as he walks around the house and dances and claps to the music that Landis is playing on his new Bose speakers...it's quite a fun time right now at the Bumgarner home and while everyone is happy and occupied, I'm going to post quickly...

Our Christmas (a.k.a.-Luke's first REAL Christmas) was a BLAST!! Last Christmas was special, but exhausting...I fed a newborn every 3 hours, changed a million diapers, and slept hardly none!!! :) This Christmas, Luke could actually enjoy his Christmas and we could enjoy him. And, boy did we ever...Luke's favorite thing to do was to tear off little tiny pieces of paper and spread them out all over the house. He also loved all of the toys that he got that he could climb, ride, push around (like toy cars and trucks), or toys that he could fill up and then empty (like his big dump truck).

Santa brought Luke...
-a large dump truck with a ton of blocks
-a piano that he could stand up and play
-a remote control that looks like the real one
-some pull back and let go soft cars
-a bus that opens and closes with some blocks in it
-several books

He also received this Little People farm house with several animals and doors that open and close. His Uncle Pete, Aunt Sherry, Cousins Tammy, Greg, Ingrid and Lee gave him that gift and it was a major hit. He now carries around the cute little yellow horse all over the house. He's tried to "hide" him in small cracks and crevices all over the house several times. That's his newest thing right now - picking up things and carrying them all over the house and "placing" them where he wants them.

Another favorite gift was a Step 2 Little Tikes ladder and slide that his "memaw" (my mom) and papaw Kim gave him. He can now climb the steps all by himself and slide down all by himself (with someone close by monitoring, of course).

Landis and I had a great time preparing for "Santa" on Christmas Eve. :)

Then, on Christmas morning, we just watched and smiled as Luke went from toy to toy exploring his new things. It was so cute to watch his face light up when he looked over and saw his dump truck, then it lit up again when he saw his piano, and then again, when he saw his cars...so sweet, so innocent, so precious!!! :)

He still gets up each morning and begins exploring all his toys in the living room. I love to watch him play all by himself as I talk with him about what he is doing. (Side note: we bought an awesome wood toy organizer from Target that really helped with the toy overload-thanks to Jamie and Eric for the tip).

This stage that Luke is in is so wonderful - he's lovable, getting more and more independent, and just so, so sweet! Everything is new and fun to him and everything that he does is new and fun to us!!! :)

We are going to begin the weaning (from nursing) process next week...I'll post later on how that is going...I'm not very excited about it and neither is Luke. :) Go ahead and say a prayer for us and if you have been through this, give me any tips that you have.

Here's the Christmas pics...

The first few are of the Little Tikes slide...this will go outside eventually...we just wanted him to enjoy it while it was cold...

White Christmas!! So beautiful!! (Luke actually did not like getting down in the snow...he wanted daddy to hold him).

The next few are of him taking pieces of tissue paper and putting them in his big dump truck and his little dump truck.

He received Thomas the electric train from Mark, Melissa, and Hannah for his birthday...he cannot push the button and drive it himself right now but he loves for mommy and daddy to "help" him ride Thomas all around the house! :) Isn't he a cute engineer??? :)

Playing with "Gaga" (my Grandaddy Watts) - can't you tell all the grand kids love him???

Luke with daddy and his mammaw Carolyn (that is my wonderful mother in law who is Luke's caregiver each day). :)

Yes, mommy is still in her pajamas and yes, the living room is a mess...one of my favorite quotes is by Andy Rooney - he says, "One of the greatest messes is the mess in the living room on Christmas morning. Don't clean it up too quickly." Don't worry, Andy...we didn't. :) We savored every moment!!! :)

There's Luke's 1st Carolina basketball!

Did you notice the little yellow horse he was carrying?? That's his favorite!!

He crawled into this box by himself and expected to be pulled around!! :)

There's Thomas again!!

Can you see his lips making the "vroom, vroom" car sound? He's very good at that sound!!

There's the favorite dump truck!!

There's the piano!!!

There's the Little People farm.

Until next time!! Happy New Year!!!! :)

1 Year Celebration!

It's hard to believe, but, yes, my little man is officially one year old. On Tuesday, December 21st, we celebrated with a FULL HOUSE of family and friends. As you can imagine, having to prepare for a birthday party this time of year makes things a little stressful - between Christmas shopping and an extra full school schedule, I was able to get everything ready for baby Luke's first birthday celebration. Besides a cooking disaster just minutes before the party, everything was perfect!!

Funny story here - my plan was to serve potato soup and cake at the party. My extra prepared self cooked the potato soup the day before but, for some reason, the cheese woudn't melt. I didn't think much of it...I just thought...I'll cook it a little longer tomorrow before the party and it will melt. So...Tuesday at 4:00, I turn on the big pots with the soup...cook the soup for another hour...the cheese still has not melted and the soup is burning. Landis says..."Did you use low fat cheese?" Well, uh, "YES"!!! Oh no...that's why it's not melting!! I tasted the soup and it was already tasting burnt, so at 5:15 - guests arriving at 6:00 - I dumped both pots of soup and ordered 6 pizzas. A big THANKS to Elizabeth's Pizza for rushing those for me and a big THANKS to my hubby for being flexible and helping me change the plans at the last minute.

Lesson learned here - use the KISS strategy - Keep it Simple, Silly! For the 2nd birthday - I'll remember this!

The pizza turned out to be a great idea because our house was full of family and friends. With the party being on a week night and the week of Christmas, I didn't think that many people would be able to make it, but, I was pleasantly surprised at the great turnout!! Luke sure does have a lot of people who love him! In a very crowded living room, we ate pizza, watched a bunch of kids run around the house and of course, watched the star of the show - baby Luke - eat his cake and play in tissue paper.

He did well eating his cake. He loves chocolate, so I gave him a small chocolate cake to dive into. After some coaching from mommy, he began to stick his own fingers in the cake and try a few pieces. He loved the big candy confetti decorations on the cake the best.

As far as the presents go, as people always say - his favorite part - the tissue paper. He loved taking the paper out of the bags and then ripping it apart one piece at a time. It was so cute to watch him "work"!! He received several adorable outfits and many, many toys. Matter of fact, I put a few of the toys under the bed to pull out for some new excitement later. With Christmas right around the corner, I knew that we were looking at toy overload.

After everyone was gone on Tuesday, while I was rocking my sweet man to sleep, I reflected back to one year ago and just smiled! I thought this day would be hard for me - like maybe I would dread seeing him reach this big milestone, but, I ended up not feeling this way at all...I just thought about how blessed we were to have this time with this little piece of heaven!! I thought about the day that we brought him hom from the hospital - all bundled up - so tiny, so innocent, so sweet! Yes, there is a small part of me that misses that tiny little baby...however, as soon as I see my one year old give me a big grin or hear him laugh out loud or feel his head on my shoulder after he walks up to me to give me a hug, I don't miss the tiny baby stage so much anymore. Luke's personality gets better and better everyday and I continue to enjoy every second of it!

Quick update on Luke's 1 year check-up - overall, he's TINY for babies his age. He only weighs 18 pounds, 13 ounces and is in the 5th percentile for height and weight - he is tiny!!! He is very healthy, but extremely small! The doctor says he is ahead of schedule developmentally - physically and with language development - I'm happy with that news - it looks like we will have a small, smart dude!! (he, he)

I have included some pictures of the birthday party below...

A few more thank yous....thank you to Misty Hulin at Misty's Cakes and Bakery for baking the cake...thank you to Autumn Song Photography (Rodney Slate) for taking pictures at the party (the pictures below were taken by me - I don't have Rodney's yet)...and, to all the family and friends who came to the party and who helped with serving (Hannah, Mark, and Melissa).

Enjoy the pictures...the first one is my favorite...this is what we looked like AFTER all the excitement...EXHAUSTED! Both of us!

We started his birthday morning off with one present from Mommy and Daddy - these are pictures of him playing in the big bed with us!

The rest are some random pictures that I took before his birthday! I am so behind with my blog posting that I had to include these!

He loves to pick up blocks and place them on the couch, table, or anywhere else he can find.

He loves to take blocks in and out of his trunk of his red car...see???

And...finally...here is a video that I took last week before his first birthday of him walking...he started walking all over the place about a week before his birthday!! He's even got a little more steady since this video was taken! Take a look...

As always...thank you for stopping by...enjoy this beautiful Winter Wonderland. I hope to post soon with pictures and details of our Christmas...we still have two family gatherings today so I didn't want to post without pics from those get togethers! See you soon!