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| No, he doesn't still have the beard. |
At church, he's the branch mission leader, which keeps him super duper busy. When he gets a spare second, he likes to read and watch movies. We're missing the free cable we had in Salt Lake, but we're kind of making up for it with shows like 30 Rock and The Office and even Parks & Recreation sometimes. (But holy cow, have you guys seen Up All Night? I think it's one of the stupidest shows I've ever seen.)
I'm seriously digging this stay-at-home-mom gig. Luke and I are little buddies. We love going to the zoo, the store, the park, the science center, the shops along the little main street in our town, and the library. Luke is still too young to appreciate what we're doing, of course--he'd just as soon check out the fence as the elephant behind it--but I love to see all these things and he's game to go along! I'm slowly falling in love with St. Louis. It's a cool city, and we live in a great neighborhood. We walk or ride bikes to all those places, which works out well since Scott usually takes the car to work. You would think I would be losing weight faster...the last 15 lbs of Luke's residency still haven't come off yet, but I'm (half-heartedly) trying to watch what I eat a little more closely and be more active and my jeans are slowwwwwly fitting a little better.
At church, I teach the CTR B class in Primary (6, 7, 8, and 9 year olds) and am the Activity Days leader. Since there are only 6 of us that work in Primary, everyone helps out with everything: the secretary is also the pianist (she and I swap once in a while), the president is also the CTR A teacher, the counselor is also the Sunbeams teacher, the nursery leaders are also the Elder's quorum second counselor and the Young Women's first counselor, etc. etc. Most of my Primary students can't read, lots of them have learning or developmental disabilities, not much support at home, etc. Basically the branch is a lot of work and it's pretty draining. The few of us who kind of hold things together (the student families out here from Utah & Idaho for grad school, mostly) are all really close out of necessity, but we all talk about how we go home and cry every Sunday out of frustration & exhaustion.
Really, I'm doing pretty well. I miss my family and friends more than I can put into words, and the branch is tiring, but I really do have a pretty charmed life. I get to play all day with my sweet little boy and, now that he's a little more consistent about taking solid naps, I can even read or work on some Pinterest projects while he sleeps. It's lonely sometimes (a lot of the time?), but I'm happy.
Luke is a little tornado. He's 10 months old now and kind of in between 12 and 18 month clothes--too big for his baby car seat anymore! We were gone for 3 weeks over Christmas (not quite 2 weeks seeing Scott's family in Texas & Louisiana, and then a little more than a week in Utah) and during that time he learned how to crawl, cut two teeth, learned how to pull himself up in his crib, quit eating baby food, got a nasty ear infection (took two kinds of antibiotics to FINALLY get rid of it), started saying "mamamamama," went from 5 or 6 feedings a day to about 4, etc. etc. And since we were traveling, he got used to sleeping in the same room as me. Basically January has been a miserable month of teaching this kid how to sleep again. He had just barely started sleeping through the night right before we left, and it's taken 4 miserable weeks to get back to where he can do that again. It's about half and half now--some nights he sleeps for like 12 hours straight, but last night he woke up 4 times before midnight. I think he might be teething again?
Besides all the sleeping hullabaloo, Luke is just the most darling little monster. He loves to read books--he'll turn the pages, open the flaps, point at the details in the pictures (especially anything that looks like a ball!), and turn back to the front cover when he's done if he wants to "read" it again. Thank heavens for libraries. He loves balls ("babababababa"), especially his beach ball, and especially when he can situate himself about a foot from the wall and bat the ball back and forth to himself. His favorite thing this week is walking (very slowwwly) around the house holding your fingers. He will eat just about anything (and eat a TON of it) as long as he can feed himself--today so far he has had scrambled eggs, cheerios, peas, raspberries, blackberries, peach slices, and a hummus & wheat bread sandwich. (Obviously he eats healthier than I do!)
Good grief, sorry this is getting so wordy! You guys know me. Okay, I'll try to be faster. Plans...we're definitely staying in St. Louis for the foreseeable future (sorry, Mom). Scott loves his job and I love that I can stay home. We are definitely moving this summer when our lease is up, though. Our house (duplex) here is great, but it's way too big & way too expensive for what we need--we pay over a thousand dollars a month just on rent & utilities. Hopefully we can find a teeny little 2-bedroom house to rent closer to where Scott works, since right now his commute is 45+ mins. each way. (We won't complain too much about being in a regular ward again, either.) No plans for kiddo #2 yet; ask me again in the fall. We are trying to save up to buy a house (which is the main reason we'll be moving somewhere cheaper soon!). People at work keep nagging Scott to buy buy buy right now since interest rates are so low, but we really want to be able to put down 20% so we don't have to pay escrow. So depending on how cheap of a place we can find to rent and what raises are like for Scott at work in the next couple of years, buying a house is probably between 2 and 5 years off. We'll need a second car before then too, so we'll have to see how that all falls out.
Routine...my life is pretty formulaic right now, and I actually really like it. Scott leaves for work about 6 every morning, and Luke and I sleep in until 7:30 or so. He nurses & then we both have breakfast & play for a little while, and then he takes a nap around 9:30 for either 1 1/2 or 2 1/2 hours. He nurses when he wakes up, and then our afternoons vary a little bit--some mix of walks, lunch, playing with toys, reading stories, making visiting teaching visits, etc. He usually goes down for his second nap around 2 or 3 and sleeps for about an hour and a half. Dad gets home around 3 or 4 most days, and then we just get to hang out as a family--maybe go on a walk, eat dinner, something like that. He goes to bed about 7 or 8, and then Scott and I watch TV or movies or read together for a while before we go to bed. It's a good life!
Speaking of sleeping, Luke just woke up from his nap. I'm hearing "bapbapbap wahhh bababap ewahh!" from the other room in between thunks of him hitting/chewing on his crib. Off to the rescue!
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