Growing Up

There has been a lot of growing up going on around here lately... for all of us.

Saturday was Cameron's 1 month birthday. I can't believe that he is already a month old. I know that I am literally attached to him all the time, but I still feel like I've missed so much. With Luke I had ample time to just sit and stare at him and take a million pictures. I'm still enjoying Cameron as much as possible but our time is often interrupted with other demands. He is a sweet baby but I can already tell that he has a passionate streak in him. He can go from fussy to all-out screaming in 2 seconds flat. People always tell me he looks just like Luke. I see that too, but I think he has more Stacey in him. Especially his deep, intense eyes....we have staring contests all the time.

Here is Luke when he was about the same age:

Cameron:

What do you think?

10 pounds 4 ounces and counting... (only a mother could think that these are clearly 3 very different photos)

Luke has been growing up too. He LOVES Cameron and is very attentive to his needs. As much as he loves his baby brother, I can tell that this is an adjustment for him too. For the past 9 months I have been in survival mode and, because of that, Luke has pretty much had his way. However, now it's time to put order back into our lives. We've started instituting some rules and have tried to be very consistent even when it is SO HARD and I just want to give in and take the easy way out.

This is the face that Luke makes when you tell him to smile :)

We did have a major breakthrough this week. One of our new rules is that Luke has to eat at least one bite of his meal (my friend had this rule growing up and they called it the "gratitude bite"... I like that). You must know that Luke is a TERRIBLE eater and almost never eats what we are eating. We are hoping that this is a baby step towards getting him to eat only what we are eating. The first few meals were an all out battle. There were repeated time-outs and many tears (from Luke) as I kept repeating to him that he needed to take at least one bite before he could play or eat something else. Ultimately he took a bite but they were always foods that he usually eats anyway.

The real test was on Thursday night when we had chicken pot pie...something he had never tried before. I was dreading the enforcement of our rule. Surprisingly after only about 5 minutes of protest, he broke off the tiniest piece of the crust and put it in his mouth. VICTORY! I actually was a little embarrassed at how happy I was. I mean, seriously?! He chose the most nutrient-empty part of the meal and the piece was practically microscopic.

Here is an example of how big it was with a cheerio as a reference point. You may think I'm pathetic but I have never felt so victorious. I won! Oh yes, we're definitely growing up around here.

Luke's favorite book of the moment. We read it several times a day.

I'm also doing some growing up too. The Friday after Cameron was born, we came home from the hospital and by dinner time I was completely overwhelmed with our family of four. My mother-in-law had cooked a great dinner and we all sat down at the table. Luke started crying because he wanted to eat suckers for dinner instead. I looked over at Luke and realized that I had no clue what he had been doing for the past several days while I was in the hospital. Something triggered in me (probably hormones) and I realized that my life (and specifically my life with Luke) would never be the same. His whole childhood flashed before my eyes and for a moment I missed it all so much. So I started crying. I don't mean "teary-eyed"... I mean "trying desperately to keep breathing" type of crying. Andrew sat between us, looking at Luke on one side crying about his suckers and me on the other, crying about who knows what...I'm pretty sure he wanted to throw himself out a window at that very moment :).

Needless to say... Luke got his sucker. I don't think I'll ever forget that moment. I had to let go of the old and move on to our new family of four. Hormones always makes that a little more dramatic than it needs to be. However, the fear of what the future would hold only lasted a moment. Everything has turned out great. Everyone grew up a little and is adjusting to new responsibilities. I have felt so grateful to my Heavenly Father because I know that He gives us the extra strength and abilities we need to rise to new occasions in our lives. He always knows how to calm me down and give me, bit by bit, the new game plan I need to tackle the challenge of the moment.

This whole growing up thing is better than I thought it would be.