Hardy Visit

We had a great visit yesterday afternoon with the Hardy clan! Luke and Matthew were able to strengthen their BFF status, and Kyle had fun playing on his "little tiny playground" with Kaelyn and Madelyn. But what Kyle REALLY enjoyed was the pizza (he ate 3 slices, according to a somewhat appalled Kaelyn). Such a cute, sweet little crew, those Hardy kids. And of course Er too, who Kyle was very clearly calling "Erica". Not sure where that came from, because I NEVER call her that, except of course when we're in a huge fight ;)

Happy 1st Birthday Pooks!

Hard to believe, but my sweet little Pooks turned 1 today! I got him a small cake, mostly for Kyle's benefit since he now "gets" that you have cake on birthdays, and he also (FINALLY) gets that cake is yummy. So unlike his last 2 birthdays, Kyle will actually be eating his birthday cake this year!

As you can see in the pictures (thanks to Grammy for being the photographer), Luke loved smearing it all around and getting good and messy. He did try a little bit but was definitely more interested in playing with it than eating it.

Kyle sang to him at various times today. But the best was this morning...I usually send Kyle into Luke's room when he first wakes up and he sings "Good Morning to Lukey Pookie". But this morning he went in, turned on the light, and sang "Happy Birthday". Luke was so happy and I WISH I had gotten a video of this sweet little exchange, but of course I didn't :(

Happy, happy birthday my sweet little boy...you are such a joy and blessing :)

My Hero, My Savior, My Mommy

Yes, my mom has TRULY been my savior these last few weeks. And as I blogged last night for the first time in almost a month, I realized how long overdue this post is. As anyone knows who has had even a casual conversation with me recently, feeding Luke is VERY challenging. He just REALLY does not like to eat. And of all the difficulties in my life, this is the one thing that was really pushing me to a bad place. It was starting to adversely affect my parenting as a whole, not to mention my overall sanity.

So that's where Grammy stepped in, or I should say "stepped up". For the last few weeks, most days Grammy has been feeding Luke BOTH lunch and dinner! And she has had great success, almost always getting his whole meal in him. But this (along with the pictures below of him looking super-happy about eating) is very misleading. While Grammy does have a wonderful knack for keeping his meals light and fun, it is VERY hard work. It requires a constant barrage of "props" (things to distract him such as extra spoons, wax paper, lids, etc) and other silly antics, all while defending against his trademark spoon swipe and (albeit playfully) swiping at her face!

Her help has given me one of the hugest lifts possible. And as a result, I feel like I have been a much better mom to both Kyle and Luke. And Luke is definitely getting WAY more much-needed calories in him than if I were going it alone, because I was just running out of the time/patience/energy required to get through each meal, and I was beginning to feel like it was just an impossible task (I have quite seriously compared Grammy's feeding heroics to summiting Mount Everest!).

So thank you, thank you, THANK YOU Grammy. All three of us are in a much better place because of your VERY much appreciated efforts :)

Fun with Nonnie

Kyle and Luke had a great visit with Nonnie today. My boys are very blessed to have two fun, healthy, young-at-heart, loving grandmothers in their lives :)