What's new?

Where do I begin?

Luca is a dream! We really have been blessed with good babies. P&E were no trouble (I remember we actually had to *wake them up* to feed them when they were newborns) and Luca is doing pretty well regulating himself (he's still on *his own* schedule). Now, the question is...is it genetics, is it environment, or is it luck? Maybe all 3? Anyway, we can only pray that #4 fits into our family as easily as Luca has. Ha ha, NO, I'm not pregnant! #4 is slated for 2009, at the earliest!

P&E have adapted well to Luca's arrival. The first few days back at home from the hospital were a little rough, but all is well for the most part. They are both working on canines and molars right now, as well as bottom lateral incisors for Perry. Like I said in a previous blog entry, take out stock in whatever company produces Tylenol and Motrin! So the teething makes for some crabby tantrum moments, but those are un-related to Luca and his arrival.

Ella has become our "little Mommy". She loves to help...patting his back to burp him, getting his bottle and burprag, hugging and kissing on him, anything to be near him. Perry is a little more standoff-ish, but you can tell she loves him too. We can see Luca taking mental notes of all the times he gets roughed up by his sisters though. At 75th percentile in height and weight, he'll be bigger than them in no time!

I have to share a story from our first outing with all 3 kids. We went to the furniture store to look for a new kitchen table (had to upgrade from 4 to 6 chairs) and I was pushing Luca in his stroller and Dave had the girls in the double stroller. The saleslady stopped us and asked "Are these all *your* kids?". Uh, no, we found these 2 out in the parking lot. Very funny! I'm sure we have lots more strange comments in our future. ;)

We had the verbal explosion here in the past few weeks. The girls are both picking up on so many words and trying to repeat them. It's very exciting. I feel like they can communicate with us fairly well now. "Bah" is universal for ball, bottle, and book...so that one can be a little confusing, but with context clues, it's pretty easy to figure out. "Cah" is car. "Guh" is cup. "Bay bay" is baby. "Mah" is more. "Ishy" is fishy (for our pet fish and for goldfish crackers). "Ishy" can sometimes be confused for "sissy" though. It all kind of sounds the same. "Sue" is shoe. I'm sure I'm forgetting some...but you get the gist.

They have also mastered many body parts and know where their hair, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, belly buttons (bee bo), and toes are. And they often try to repeat those words as well..."ah" for eye and ear, "ha" for hair. They are doing very well on the steps now...going up and down by themselves. They love to jump, dance, run, climb on the couches, play with their toys, and of course get into trouble. :)

We've been going up to the pool a lot lately so they have been playing with some of the neighborhood kids in the kiddie pool. They also have cute little swimsuit tanlines (despite the slathering of SPF 50). Luca is too young for sunscreen (6 months) but he keeps cool in his stroller under an umbrella...with the occasional toe dip in the pool.

Unfortunately, right after I stopped nursing and pumping for Luca, I got sick. It's been about 5 weeks now, but a blood test has revealed that it may be Celiac Disease, an allergy or intolerance of gluten/wheat. I'm having a colonoscopy (my 2nd...yeah, I'm not even 30 and I'll have had 2 colonoscopies) on Monday, along with an endoscopy. So with the biopsy results, we'll know for sure what it is. I've had low iron for awhile now (with both pregnancies) and have finally been labeled anemic...a common symptom of CD.

And also, we'll be heading on our first vacation with all 3 kiddos on the 28th of this month. We're going to The Atlantis in the Bahamas with my mom's family. We're looking forward to it and hope the girls enjoy themselves (with 19 pools to choose from, how could they not?).

Hope everyone is having a good summer!