Beautiful week

We have been enjoying this unseasonably beautiful Fall weather here in Iowa. We have been outside nonstop, visiting parks, playing with the neighbors, grilling out, and making frozen yogurt runs! The boys had their first babysitter this week since Ben was born. For the record, this is Ben's first babysitting experience and it was pleasant. I told our sitter, whatever she did, she had the touch because Ben slept from 730 pm until 4 am! I was shocked, but so loving it! AND Luke slept through the night as well without any crying out for "mama"! The past couple of weeks Ben has been giving us random nights of 7-8 hour stretches, then throws in a random night where he wakes at 2 am and refuses to fall back asleep until 5am, like last night for example:) Luke has had some rough nights, wanting me to rock him or to come sleep with us, we think that he sees me rocking Ben a lot or knowing that Ben is sleeping in our room. So we are wrestling with both boys sleeping through the night. When I find myself being completely exhausted in the middle of the night or day, I just think to myself, there are so many women (and men for that matter) that would do anything to have a child to cause sleep deprivation, and it just makes me so much more thankful of the opportunity to be up at the wee hours of the night nursing Ben or soothing Luke back to sleep. I will have to say I had to get pretty creative the other night. Our neighbors have a little puppy, Lilly, that Luke loves to play with. So I told him that if he keeps crying he will wake up Lilly and she won't want to play with him tomorrow because she will be so tired! Overall, we are getting some sleep, just very inconsistent, but oh so worth it! Ben is eating like crazy, usually every 2 hours or so, and he loves to be held, especially during the late afternoon, early evening hours. It is very hard to put him down so I am finding myself using the bjorn A LOT! We are celebrating Ben's baptism this Sunday, so Wednesday after I dropped Luke off at school I wanted to get some cleaning done while Ben slept. Well, I wrestled with him for a good 30 minutes and finally just caved, put him the bjorn and within minutes he was fast asleep, so I got to cleaning and doing laundry! Here is a picture I took of Ben this morning from my phone, he is growing so much and becoming more and more alert during the day! He loves it when I rub his hands,he coos a little and smirks!
Monday after Luke was done with school I picked him up for a special little "mommy and Luke date". When I told him we were going to the mall for lunch and that he could ride the carousel, he said "oh boy, me n mom mall"! We had a great little lunch and then rode the carousel before we ventured back home for nap time. I have been trying to do fun little things with Luke on Mondays and Wednesdays when I pick him up from school. We have so much fun together and it gives me some time with just Luke which I adore!

This is Luke's favorite animal "buck" to ride on the carousel!

Today we met our Friday playgroup at the park for some playtime and a little picnic! I am so fortunate to have found a great group of mom's that have become dear friends to enjoy these Friday mornings with while our kiddos all play. The kids are all around the same age and get along so well. They can run around like wild kids and we can enjoy some great conversation and laughs. I just cant get over how wonderful this weather is! We will continue to enjoy it to the best of our ability.