Back to School

Ford got his Back-to-School haircut tonight! Keys to Success: strapped down, watching Mickey, with a bowl of M&M's!! I'm not nearly as excited about tomorrow as I thought I'd be. We've had a great month - basically ever since my temper post, Ford has been the sweetest thing! We still have our moments, but he's been so affectionate and loving, and as long as I make sure to give him some one-on-one quality time, he's pretty precious! I'm going to miss the little man and our mornings together, but hopefully I'll be really busy with work and his little brother! It'll be nice to have some alone time with Luke!

We made it back to church this morning, and Ford walked right in his classroom like he owned the place! Going to school has been so good for him - I can't say enough great things about Parkway. Everytime we drive by, he gets so excited and shouts "SCHOOL"!! It is such an answered prayer - he used to cry the entire time at church every week and on Wednesday nights. I would wake up on Sunday mornings with a knot in my stomach - no fun! I guess that's one of the drawbacks of having family here. He never really had babysitters other than my parents and Shealy. Although I certainly wouldn't change that for anything!

Oh - notice Ford's knees in the picture - his first of many skinned knees! He fell at church Wednesday night running to the fountain. He cried for about .3 seconds and then was on the go again! He is ALL boy!

Good Practice

A little forshadowing...an engaged Clayton and Shealy holding baby Ford

I'm going to be an aunt (again!!) My little sister is having a baby! I am so excited for Shealy and Clayton - they are going to be amazing parents! It has been torture keeping this secret for the past 6 weeks - I've known about Baby Mac about 3 seconds after the stick showed a plus sign! So please pray for this little one, and also for the little mama - she's been pretty sick, and I can't imagine how tough it is to start a new school year feeling like you're going to have to stick your head in the trash can every 5 minutes! Not exactly the look you're going for with a bunch of 6th graders!

He Woke Up

Sadly, this is the best picture we have of the two of them together...Ford doesn't exactly love to hold his little brother!

Luke has officially "woken up", as so many people warned me he would around his due date! He's still an angel baby - he'd sit in his papasan seat ALL day if his mother wouldn't suffer massive amounts of guilt for letting him - but he's definitely joined the land of the living. He's up twice in the night, usually for about 45 minutes a time, but luckily I have a fantastic husband who takes on one of these feedings so I just have to get up and pump. We're all a little sleep deprived - I can't say with 100% certainty that I brushed my teeth on Friday, but it could be a lot worse! Speaking of pumping, I've sadly stopped nursing and am just pumping. Luke is what we call a "lazy nurser"...he'd nurse for an hour a time and then want to repeat the process an hour later. Not exactly conducive to keeping up with a toddler! I thought maybe it was just a growth spurt, but after a week of this, we had to reevaluate the situation! I was spending half of the day sitting on the couch with a child attached to me while trying to entertain Ford, and it just wasn't working for anybody (except maybe Luke!) So now I'm exclusively pumping, which actually isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Although everytime I turn it on, Ford yells "OFF" over and over again...but he's dealing!


Thanks Knox for letting me borrow all of your cute clothes! This is Mama's favorite!


And in a moment that will go down in Martin family history, Ford actually cleaned his plate for the first time ever on Saturday! He's finally decided to eat without fussing, screaming, cajoling, or bribery! It's amazing! I don't know how long it will last, but we're certainly enjoying it in the meantime!


He's also really gotten into trains and anything with wheels. Jennie got a bunch of Thomas stuff for him a few months ago, but we were saving it for when Luke came so he'd have something new to play with. He LOVES it! Although he can't quite understand why all his trucks can't fit on the track!

This is his new favorite spot - whenever Luke's not in it, he is!


And here they are together "playing" trains. Ford is actually very sweet with Luke, always patting him and giving him kisses, and he gets really upset if Luke is crying. And he's very good at sharing - the other day, Ford and I were sharing a cup of lemonade. He loves to drink out of real cups, so I just put a straw in everything and we're good to go. Well, I was flipping through a magazine, not paying 100% attention to the boys, and Ford took the cup over to Luke to "share" and dumped the entire contents on his sweet little head! Luke was shrieking, Ford ran and hid in his cabinet, and I couldn't stop laughing! Life with these two will never be dull!

August 10th

Today is Luke's due date! This has been the day circled on the calendar for the past nine months...I never in a million years would have thought I'd have a 5 1/2 week old on this day! SURREAL! And as crazy as those first few weeks were, I wouldn't change a single thing! This little angel has almost seamlessly become a part of our family. I can't imagine life without him! Everytime I look at him I'm reminded at what a miracle he is and what a blessing.

He had his 1-month checkup on Thursday. He weighed 7-15 (if I hadn't changed a huge diaper right before he would have been over the 8 pound mark!) He's now 21 1/2 inches, so he's grown 3 inches and gained almost 3 pounds since his birthday! Pretty good for a little guy that only got IV fluid for the first 5 days of life! He really would have been a whopper if he had been born today! We love you, little Luke! And that includes your big brother, even if he doesn't always act like it:)

Baby Boys

Here are my two little angels, Ford at a few days old and Luke at 2 1/2 weeks. Do you think they look alike? The top picture is Ford and the bottom is Luke. I love looking at sleeping babies! So peaceful!

And as an aside, I don't think that picture looks anything like Ford now. And man, that child was orange! I think this was the day he had to stay in the baby tanning bed to get rid of the jaundice. They brought the light box to our house and you could see the strange glow from the street. Cars would drive by very slowly trying to figure out what it was. Hopefully the big blue bow on the mailbox tipped them off that we weren't doing anything illegal!

This is what I found when I got home from our Sunday School Girls' Night Out last night...

I think I'd have 12 of that man's babies!

Luke update: This kid is going to be a chunky monkey before we know it! He gained 12 ounces in 4 days...as of Monday, he was up to 6-7! I told Jennie he just wants to be as big as his cousin when he meets her on Labor Day!

I need some motherly wisdom...

All 3 of my boys are napping, so I've spent my free time lost in blog world! It's been so nice to have a few minutes to do something without a purpose!

We are hanging in there! Luke weighed 5-12 on Wednesday, so he's gaining about an ounce a day. We go back tomorrow for another weight check, and then hopefully we can cut out the bottle completely. Pumping and then giving Luke a bottle takes too much time! Especially when it's just me at home with both of them. But we'll do what we have to do!

I need some advice from all you toddler moms out there...we are having major issues with Ford and obedience. And this started WAY before Luke arrived! Ford has a quite a temper when things don't go his way, and he can be outright defiant at times. I know he's only 21 (almost) months, so I'm having a hard time on knowing where to draw the line between him just acting his age or needing serious discipline. We do spank (personal decision - don't really want to start a discussion up about that:) but it doesn't really seem to phase him. I've tried time out, but I think he's still a little too young to understand. The reason this is such a concern to me is I feel like your temper is such a heart thing, and we need to get this under control NOW. My family has a history of bad tempers, and I do NOT want Ford following in these footsteps. This is something Joseph and I have prayed constantly about since Ford first started showing signs of this. Any words of wisdom? Any Christian-based book recommendations? I'm not expecting him to act like a perfect angel all the time, but I also do not want to have a defiant son. Please help a mama out!