Luke’s 4th of July.. and a little extra ;)

We were all looking forward to this year, July 4th because we just knew Luke would be old enough to enjoy it…

or NOT! as soon as he heard the first firework overhead (not ours) he gave us a sad/scared face and asked to go inside. Lol, who were we kidding?! Little by little he started to be ok with the fireworks, I say ok and not “warmed up,” well, because he never really warmed up to them. He straight out did not like them, was really ok with the ones that didn’t make any noise, just lit up real pretty, but definitely did not like the loud fire works/crackers.

here’s him “ok” with the fireworks, lol.

haha! i mean, he got more excited when the train passed…

and here’s one of my gorgeous sister… and her son, Brendan (he was in trouble here.. punishment was sitting on his mom’s lap, haha).

i think my lovely sister is happy that he’s miserable, ha!

and finally, here’s one of Luke ready to go home <3

and the beautiful sunset (view from my sister’s front yard).

and those “extras” i promised…

remember (if you’re my fb friend) how i said that we were going to potty train Luke while we were on vacation (yeah, some vacation right?!)? well, i was supposed to dedicate an entire post to the process, but well, the stomach flu (like i’ve never seen before!) hit the entire family and we had to stop potty-training at the end of day 1 (which i can’t say i’m not relieved about!). this was taken in the a.m., all excited and ready to go! Luke in his very first pair of big-boy chonies!

well, actually, i think this was his second pair, maybe third. haha! the method we chose to use was the 3-day potty training method by Lora Jenkins. i don’t really want to go into all the reasons why we thought Luke was/is ready to be potty trained (unless you’d really like to hear it!) but i chose this method because it just really made sense to me. and of course i had the full support of my husband (who originally wasn’t so sure about the effectiveness – 3 days?! c’mon! yet every time i mentioned quitting he refused! go Trevor!) i don’t know when we’ll schedule the next attempt, there are a few things you should know if you’re considering pt’ing your loved one:

1. it takes a LOT of patience!

2. i would say it requires two dedicated people to be effective (not that our experience was effective but i can tell you that i was exhausted and ready to quit by the 2nd hour!)

3. it takes a LOT of patience! (oh, did i say that already?!).

we planned it at a good time, we both had 4 days off from work/vacation, followed by the weekend. plenty of time to reinforce and dedicate to “making it click.” ok – i’ll move on now.

so, back tracking a little bit, Luke was really afraid of the fireworks. he wouldn’t sleep in his bed (and he was otherwise a very good, routined sleeper) so we let him sleep in our bed for a couple nights while he got over his fear. here are a couple shots of him sleeping soundly in our bed <3

with his little blankie and all <3 he’s loved his burp cloth/blankies since he was a teeny baby. i took a shot of his toes because i take for granted that his hands and feet are so squishy and sweet, i know i’ll appreciate photos like these in 20+ years!

thanks for reading/looking <3 this post was for me, especially. i wish i took more time to document my little boy’s everyday comings and goings, i know i won’t remember a fraction of any of this if i don’t!