"Gonna miss my daddy"

Luke is really going to miss his daddy when he is gone for two weeks! Sean has to fly out to NJ tomorrow evening for a two week training session. Fortunately he is going to sneak a quick trip home next weekend to see us on Saturday & Sunday. Sean is really going to miss our little guy. He is so fun, changing everyday, always a pleasant surprise!

Luke is so content these days just hanging out!

(Sean and his "mini-me")

Luke is enjoying some tummy!

Did you catch the drool?!?! Very very common these days.

EYEBROW FROWN!

This is the one trait Luke got from his mama! (sorry Luke)

Watch Dog

It has happened! Gunner has officially taken on the role of "watch dog" over Luke. Gunner has been out of commission the past few months with his knee surgery so he wasn't taking the stairs too well. Now that he is almost 3 months post-op he is challenging himself in every way. Last night he roamed upstairs, he has always loved sleeping at the foot of our bed! HOWEVER...Gunner has decided to sleep at the foot of Luke's crib!!! It is priceless. This morning when I went into get Luke, there sat Gunner, laid you alongside Luke's crib. I wish I had a picture...maybe tomorrow morning I will come armed with the camera.

We are anxiously awaiting Spring! I have had a week from hell when it comes to traveling. I got stranded Sunday evening on my way to Lincoln, NE, having to stay at the most disgusting motel. I made the trek back East to Des Moines where I should have stayed. I had no business being out on the road Monday. Unfortunately, yet fortunately I drove home. I wanted to get home to my boys!!! It was not a smart move on part, I am very thankful that I made it home safely. I counted around 70 vehicles in the ditch between Des Moines and Iowa City (96 mile stretch) and there was one fatal accident right before my eyes. I am pretty certain I had a very special Angel Grandpa looking out for me. It was one of those drives, when I arrived home I let out the biggest sigh of relief and wiped the sweat off my forehead. Sean made a great point...although Luke appreciated me being home Monday night, it is not worth the risk, he would rather have his mom home the next day than not at all!!! I need to change my way of thinking now that I have a sweet little boy that needs his mama!

Safe travels to everyone, be safe, be smart, and go somewhere warm for a bit!

Jump.Jump.Jump

Now that I have uploaded most of my videos I wanted to share the latest. Just a little history on this...when I video Luke he is mesmerized by the camera and just sits and stares at it. So Saturday I was trying to video him and he was just looking at me like "what the heck mom". So I put the camera down and went into the kitchen to make lunch. I could then hear this little boy going crazy in his jumparoo. I snatched the camera and got some great footage! He loves the hanging banana!!!

Chatterbox

Here is a little lengthly clip of our little chatterbox!

precious boy

This is Luke's favorite toy, his crinkle bear. My first overnight away from him, I was flying home from CA and I found this in a cute little toy store in the Denver airport

So cool...just chillin' in my bumbo

We have "Luke's circuit training" set up in our living room.

This is one of many stations

another station...loving his jumparoo

Time for a break...that's a lot of work!

Our little boy is getting so big

Luke's first experience with rice cereal. He doesn't get it everyday, but he does love it. Luke is eating 5-6 times a day, sleeping 10 1/2 hours at night, and still taking 3-4 naps a day. He is such a happy little boy...we are so blessed! (although I can hardly ever get him to smile for the camera without any help. He just stares at the camera when its just me)

Computer problems

I have finally received my computer back after separation for one week. It has been good and bad. I have been scrambling without it from a work perspective, although I have learned to love our new Public Library! I find that I don't waste countless hours searching the Internet endlessly for things I do not need!

The weather has been a total drag this week, lots of rain/ice making it very challenging to get out and work with a few of my reps. I am hopeful that the weather shapes up this weekend as Luke and I want to head to my parents. Sean is away for his National Sales Meeting in Scottsdale, AZ. Unfortunately the weather hasn't been super pleasant for them. The first day was gorgeous and it has rained with high winds everyday since.

Luke is changing so much, we are having just a ball with him. He is rolling over constantly, spending very little time on his tummy. He is almost ready to roll from his back to his tummy. He loves to watch Gunner and will follow him with his eyes which leads him to almost roll. We introduced rice cereal to him this week, just a few times. He loves it! It is not an everyday thing, just getting him use to eating from a spoon. It is so funny, when I am getting more from the bowl, he gets super excited and makes the funniest noises. I promise I will upload video clips and more pictures, just been a little crazy.

Have a great weekend and Safe travels!

it has been awhile

Sorry for my lack of blogging the past several days. I have been swamped with work, traveling a lot, and my time for blogging went by the wayside. This will be short post, but I am dying to share some of Luke's latest. He has got quite the personality developing and it makes us laugh hysterically. He is laughing and squealling like crazy, when we start laughing at him, it makes him laugh more and eventually starts squalling like a little pig, super cute. Luke is rolling over more and more, mostly for Ms. Judi...dad has yet to see him, I have seen him roll a few times. Luke's latest is blowing bubbles with lips and he gets mad when he runs out of saliva to keep going...he might have his daddy's short fuss?!?! He has perfected naptime in his crib...AMEN! We have a little rainforest music show attached to his bed and when we lay him down for naps he watches that, talks to himself a bit, and crashes. He is still sleeping well at night, going down about 7:30ish, however he isn't sleeping as late. He had been sleeping until 6:30-7:00 each morning, now its more like 5:00a.m (so not a fan of that) We started him on a little rice cereal last night...he devoured it! I am hoping that satisfies his little tummy!
I hope to upload some latest pictures and videos. Luke had fun with his Grandpa & Grandma Einck this past weekend, they watched him while Sean and I went to my work holiday party in Des Moines. His Godmama Kate, and Uncles Bryan & Mitch also came to visit.
Sean leaves tomorrow for his national sales meeting in Scottsdale, AZ until Sunday, so while he enjoys some fun in the sun, Luke and I are heading to my parents for the weekend. Daddy will miss Luke so much, this will be the longest he has been away. (I am sure he will miss me & Gunner too)

Baby's got his blue jeans on...

Luke looks like such a big boy in his blue jeans

"what are you doing mom?"

I love my crinkle bear

This is my favorite toy...my crinkle bear!

Freezing cold

I just want to share that it is FREEZING COLD here in Iowa City, and we are so jealous of all of you who are somewhere warm! This morning it was -10 and -34 with windchill. Needless to say we are staying put. I ran out this morning for a few errands and we are hoping to make it to church this evening, otherwise we are going into hibernation. Sean went out and bought the new Tiger Woods golf game, yes, he is still a supporter! It turned out to be a pretty good investment because it has been so darn cold these past couple of weeks that he has spent hours in his "man cave" playing Tiger Woods golf on our wii. (thanks Nate for getting Sean hooked over Christmas)I am happy to share that I have been using my Christmas gift, my pilates reformer, and my kettleworx workout DVDs. I am not so sure it is working yet, but I am determined to stick with it. I have some motivation..we are in the process of planning a trip to Mexico in April for my 30th birthday!!!!

Monday and Tuesday we are meeting with some local builders! Top on our list for 2010 is to find a home!!! We haven't seen anything yet, so we have meetings with some builders to see what their plans are for the Parade of homes tour this year, and see if we might be interested in one of their plans. We are considering all our options, hoping this is our final move...for many years anyway!

We had Luke's 4 month check on Thursday afternoon, he is growing like a weed, 26 inches in the 75th percentile, 13 lbs 8oz, 20th percentile for weight. We seem to think he is a little chunk, however he is still pretty small. They said if he were in the 75th percentile for weight too he would be 14 lbs 8 oz...he seems pretty big to us. He is loving his jumparoo, I have some great video of him, as soon as I learn how to upload our videos I will post some clips...it makes me laugh so hard because he gets so excited and jumps more when we laugh!

Here is our little trooper after his shots. After he caught his breath from the sting of the shots, he screamed bloody murder for a couple minutes then was out like a light. I was expecting him to sleep for awhile, but as soon as we got home he was ready to play. Shortly after I took this picture, he had his purple band-aid off and in his mouth!!! He was like "I don't need band-aids, band-aids are for wimps!" Everything is going in his mouth these days!

4 months old

Luke, you are 4 months old

01.04.10

Monday, Luke turned four months old! We ask ourselves, "where has the time gone?" He is getting so big, we have his four month check tomorrow so I am anxious to see how much this little guy weighs and how long he is. I can really tell a difference when I snuggle with him, he doesn't fit like he use to when he would lay on my chest. Even when he is in his jumparoo, just a few weeks ago we had a pillow under his feet, now we just have a blanket folded over! At four months, this is what you are you doing:

-you are wearing size 2 diapers

-you have started to wear some of your 6 month clothing

-we just upgraded you to a Large swaddle for nighttime, you started busting out of your smaller one

-we are still working on your naps in the crib, you are doing much better, although you prefer your swing

-you are taking 3 naps a day, morning, early afternoon, and one around 5 pm

-you absolutely love your bath, we just ordered a bigger one for you to splash around in

-you suck on your fist all the time

-you have started laughing more

-you are ticklish on your feet and belly

-you turn when you hear voices

-you love to watch the TV (lights)

-you are eating 6 times a day

-still sleeping like a champ at night, usually from 7:30pm-6:30am

-you wake up every morning with a big smile on your face when mommy comes to get you

-you love to talk to yourself

-recognize yourself in the mirror and smile/laugh at yourself

Luke, you are such an amazing little gift from God that we are so thankful for everyday. Everyday you make us smile, laugh, and we love you more and more and more!

back to work

smiling at his daddy

Our Pride & Joy

We have had the most wonderful couple of weeks celebrating Christmas and ringing in 2010 with our little boy! Tomorrow work awaits us whether we like it or not, and boy do we have a crazy week ahead of us! Sean and I experienced our first of many "scheduling conflicts". We are both scheduled to be in Omaha on Wednesday, which means both of us need to be on the road by 5 a.m. Fortunately, I am able to rearrange my week and swap days, so I will now head to Omaha on Tuesday. Luke is our #1 priority and we will always rearrange our schedules so if we both can't be home, one of us will always be home when he wakes up to start his day and be home to end his day. We have had just the most amazing time with him, it makes it so hard to focus on work, and I am still struggling with finding the right balance. What I do have down, is when I am around Luke he gets 110% of my attention, I truly enjoy every minute with him, even when he is napping I just want to hold him and snuggle with him. (I don't...not all the time anyway!!!) I just can't get enough of him.

2009 recap

We have had one incredible year and we can only imagine the joy that 2010 will bring to us!

We started off the year with a bang, finding out on January 13th that we were going to be blessed with a sweet little child (understatement), right before our trip to the Bahamas with our great friends Heath & Alicia Christians. It was such a wonderful feeling to be carrying our little guy, and I was very fortunate to have a very healthy pregnancy.

In February, my brother Bryan proposed to his girlfriend Kate, who I am absolutely thrilled to officially welcome to our family this May. In addition, the Merrick family grew, as Sean's brother and his wife welcomed their son Connor in early February.

We had a great trip out to San Fransisco to visit my older Brother Nate and his girlfriend Debbie. It was so good to see where he was living, enjoying the city of San Fran and Wine Country.

Our summer was spent on a few local lakes in Kalamazoo, enjoying the beauty of West Michigan, baby showers hosted by family and great friends.

In August, Sean and I both received new jobs that would ultimately bring us back to Iowa closer to our family and many great friends.

September we welcomed our Sweet Little One, Luke Michael Merrick! Oh, what a blessing this little boy has been to our lives. We had many visitors and so much help.

October Luke was baptized in Iowa City and celebrated with many close family members. Nate and Debbie flew in to meet Luke at the end of October and the whole Einck clan joined in the fun! They all attended the Michigan State/Iowa game. The following week, October 27th we packed up our beautiful home in Kalamazoo and moved to Iowa City. We settled into our townhome while we search for our next home!

November was a relaxing month, as we were settled into our townhome in Iowa City. Sean had started his job and I was able to spend the month of November loving on our little guy everyday, all day!!!! We were able to celebrate Thanksgiving with both of our families this year being we were living closer.

December I returned to work (boo-hoo) and we had the greatest blessing of all...to celebrate the birth of Jesus with all our family and our adorable little boy, Luke.

We can only imagine the joy that 2010 will bring to our family and yours. Happy New Year...welcome 2010