Happy Mat Genius

So I think my son may in fact be smarter than me. They say true
genius is being able to focus on the task at hand. Luke can focus on
the star [see photo] on his "happy mat" activity map for 45 minutes.
That is 44 minutes longer than I've ever been able to focus on
anything.

Additionally, Luke here is wanting to give out a fist bump [see photo]
to the blog readers, show how big he is getting and let the world know
that while Dad and formula will make do, Mom's amazing in that she
takes care of him and his sisters solo most every day. Dad's just
proud of himself for having the time to get a photo and post a blog
all while Mom is out- for a mere 3 well deserved hours. (I wonder,
will I always refer to myself in the third person as Dad? Any parents
of older kids care to let me know when/if that goes away?)

Swim lessons and Thunder

With our trip to beach less than 2 weeks away we thought it would be a great idea to get the girls more used to the water. So we had our first swim class at the park district on Tuesday. Ashley is old enough to go to class by herself, but Nicole needs a parent with her. Ashley's class had 5 kids in it, Nicole (and Brandon) was the only one in her class- which would be great 1:1 instruction, had the instructor ever worked with "little kids" before. Nicole was having a blast till the instructor told me to put her face in the water and thinking she knew what she was doing I, mistakenly, obliged. She cried the rest of the time; which had the added benefit of convincing Ashley that she should be scared too (we were after all in the same pool). So day 1 didn't go great, but we talked up day two like crazy, but I guess God heard the prayers of our Girls and brought a huge thunderstorm through right at the beginning of class- so class was canceled and the girls bought themselves another 24 hours to prepare. Wish us luck!
Here is a picture of Nicole pre-dunk:

Smiling Video

We took Luke for a walk and he was all smiles. Here is a video of his smiles.

(Facebook readers, I think to see the video you will have to visit our blog http://5brown.blogspot.com to view)

Smiles and Tummy Time

As you can see, Luke is geting bigger and more interactive by the day.
The second picture here is of "tummy time" which he takes as an
opportunity to nap on his stomach, not sit up and get the excercise it
is supposed to be.

Related to Tummy time yesterday, we heard Ashley walking through the
house singing "Duh nu nu nu.. nu nu Tummy time. Du nu....." I looked
at Missy and she explained that one time, in trying to get Luke
excited/awake about it she sang about tummy time to Luke to the theme
of Hammer time.

Oops... Spoke too soon.

Luke read the posting from yesterday and decided that he'd make me insert my foot squarely in my mouth. He was up yesterday afternoon and cat napped some, but was mostly up till 1am. But he was for the most part happy and while his parents were not all that happy to be awake much later than we would have liked, he did sleep from 1 till 8 this morning.

Not really a blog worthy piece of news but thought I'd mention it out of fair "reporting".

Those of you reading this on facebook: Missy and I are both now importing this blog to our facebook notes application, so you may see this duplicated if we are both on your friend list.

Not about Luke

So, since this blog has been pretty much all about Luke recently, and sometimes his sisters, thought I should warn you that this post isn't really about the kids.

This week I finally got around converting 6 cd's of the Psalms to mp3. It's this really great recording my Mike Kellogg (Moody radio) but when I pulled it to MP3, the track names were not found, so I had Unknown artist, Unknown Album, Track 1, Track 2...track 37, so when I got to work, I decided to fix that. I opened up the properties window and had to fill out the properties for the mp3. Okay, Artist. I was floored.

It seemed too amazing to me to put "God" as the artist... but it was right. Sure, David may have been the composer and Mike Kellogg was the one reading it, but "artist" on audio books is the author, right? It made me realize that the God of the universe wrote a book, wanted to express a message to the people He created and I even had the opportunity to hear God's Word spoken. It is an amazing thing. And best of all, God's Word is living and active, which means it is a message for me today just as much as it was to David 3000 years ago. I listened to the Psalms all the way home as I biked through the woods and they never looked so good.

I also have to give thanks to Matthew Westerholm (Friend from church and author of retro-evangelical.blogspot.com) who through that blog introduced me to Bob Kauflin's work and in his 75min interview (link) his discussion of the Psalms- to realize that Jesus is the only one who can say so many of the Psalms in the entirely. So prophetic. So relevant. So alive. Check it out. (link)

Our sleeper

At the risk of making those of you with young children a bit jealous- and at the risk of jinksing ourselves, thought we'd share the "news" in Luke's life, which is, he sleeps a lot. We have not figured out a "schedule" yet, but have just tried to roll with it. Yesterday he woke up at around 4 pm (yes, I mean pm) after having slept from 11pm the night before, only waking for a morning and midday feedings. Then he napped from 6-10, ate again, then slept till 5am this morning. He and I went for a run, then he was back to sleep by 6:45, sleeping now.
He is growing like a weed, so that is what all the sleep is about we guess. When he is awake he is sometimes a bit fussy, but there are times he is wide awake, alert and smiling, even working to make eye contact, so that is fun.

Bunking It

Nicole is out of her crib now. Both girls in the bunk bed resting
soundly. They also did a great job last night at both staying in bed
and falling asleep in a decent amount of time.

First smiles

Luke is smiling now and Missy tried to catch a picture of it. The timing with the digital camera was not ideal, but we will take what we can get with these first smiles.

Getting big quick

So many of you have commented that we have not had an updated picture
of luke in a while. He is doing quite well. If I say he is sleeping
well, then he will be up all night. He loves his changing pad and
there are times he just wants us to put him down, but he is a pretty
good cuddeler too.

Tandem Swingy Ball World Champions

Ashley and Nicole are the world's best tandem swingy ball players. I have installed the "Big Swing" and the girls are loving it.

PanCan 5K Walk, Chicago

The PanCan walk went well. The weather was a bit rough (50 degrees or
so and a really strong wind with some occasional drizzel) but it beat
the forcast and we made the 5K walk. We were walking in memory of Sue
Brown (Luke's grandma) and all of her grandkids (and kids) were there.
It was good to see everyone and the walk was fun, though a bit
anti-climatic and disorganized- evidenced by the fact that we didn't
get a picture with everyone or many pictures at all, but for having a
18 day old at an event of this size, we did prety well. Luke held up
great and slept through the whole thing.
Alli and Missy set up camp under a bridge and hung out with Luke while
the rest of us did the walk. Thanks to everyone who donated to
PanCan... it was a huge turnout and it was good to be together with so
many people who's lifes have been affected by Pancreatic cancer and
remind us and them that we/they are not alone. Nicer weather may have
allow a bit more socializing, but we'll take what we can- thanks to
all who were there.

We survied another week

Luke is doing really well. The girls are really enjoying him. Today Ashley said that she really loves her little brother...but she loves him a lot more when he is awake. His parents kind of feel the opposite, especially in the middle of the night. Luke will be walking his first 5K in memory of Luke's grandma tomorrow morning down at Grant Park: PanCan Walk. It should be quite wet, so that will be interesting. We'll keep you all posted with how it goes.

He's got mad skills

So in order to keep you up to date on all of his "skills" here is a video of his Pacifier sucking ability. His other skill is creating a lot of heavy diapers, but no one wants to see a video of that.

Almost a week at home

Luke is doing well. We have been home a week tomorrow and I think
everyone has begun to adjust.

Melissa is recovering quickly but also being good about taking it
easy. Her sisters have been taking turns helping out by watching the
girls ever since my mom left on Tuesday. The pain from the c-section
is all but gone and while she does get tired a bit more quickly it is
perhaps the best recovery so far.

Luke is eating, sleeping and growing like crazy. He had is 1 week
check up and he was already 1/2 a pound over his birth weight. (Target
is to reach birth weight by 2 weeks) He started off this week being
up a lot at night and on Tuesday night only let us get 15-30 minute
blocks of sleep. He did better wednesday and then last night he did
great, but unfortunaltly that is because his tear ducts are clogged so
opening his eyes is hard; so he sleeps. It is getting better already
though, so that is good.

Ashley and Nicole really like having a "babee" in the house and will
randomly decide they need to find him to give him a kiss. Luckily he
is a good sleeper because when they find him sleeping in his bassinet
and nearly tip it over he grunts some and then goes back to sleeping.
There is some natural jealously going on and on occasion they are a
bit more needy than regular, but overall they love the extra visitors
who swing by and all the excitement. The nice weather has helped out
a lot in terms of giving them something new to do.

Luke's Homecoming

Saturday Morning Luke decided it was time to leave the hospital and go hang out with his sisters and grandparents. Everything really smoothly but it was a very tiring 15 minute drive home so Luke slept almost all day.

The first night was not so bad. He was up to feed every 3 hours but is very happy. I've posted more pictures on our photo site and more are on the way.

Paparazzi

I'm getting the hang of this stuff. Things are going really well today. I let my parents sleep a little, so did I, my sisters came over too. Check out a few more photos (will it ever stop- every time I turn my head someone has a camera- you'd think I was a first kid or something) on the bottom of my album

How life is like a construction site

So I'm only 30 hours old and I have not had much of a chance to get out, but as I stare out the window at this construction site (see a picture of my view, click here), I'd like to draw some parallels.

1) Both are pretty scary: Whether it's learning how to breath or walk across an I beam, you get the hang of it pretty quick though and then it's just old hat.
2) A good team is important: Lots of guys on the construction site make it all come together; a great mom and an okay dad, great doctors and a talented nursing staff in here and my life is coming together nicely too.
3) Communication is key: outside they have a cool little radio gizmo they use to communicate with the crane operator. Pretty high tech looking. My communication is a bit simpler. If I want something I cry till all these people figure out what it is I want. Pretty sweet gig :)
4) There is clearly a designer with a plan: So it's amazing to watch this building outside come together- such coordination and clearly a designer. And as i stare at my hand an watch all this amazing stuff happen with my body and my mom's, pretty undeniable that there is a Designer. *Romans 1:20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
5) Sometimes things don't work out right the first time but with a little effort it ends up working: The guys outside put these pieces of steel into place and then have to use the torches and chains and brute force to get them to set right. Kinda like when I wasn't breathing quite right; just took a little effort to clear out my lungs and get back on track.
6) Life can be pretty gross at times: Whether that is a flying port-a-potty(click here for a picture of that) or one of my diapers, things get gross at times, but it is all a part of life.

Twice as old as my last blog

Just wanted to give an update on Luke and Mom. He was just complaining that he had not been blogged about for half of his life. He is now twice as old as he was when we last gave you an update on his condition.

He is sleeping a lot today. He has done a good job of getting his lungs clear of fluid and has been a good eater. Visitors are coming by and he seems to like all of them, especially his sisters.

Mom is recovering amazingly. She is now "cable" free and only on tylenol for pain control. She is up and walking around. The only bummer is that she can not seem to fall asleep. Please be praying that she can get more than just rest, but actually fall sleep.

There is a construction project out the window that Dad and Grandpa are watching so that is making the time pass quickly (that and the internet access- which is how you are all kept up to speed on the day in the life of Luke.

More Pictures

Take a look at the photos on our Picasa site (link to the left or here) for even more pictures.
Here are some of our favorites.

The girls had a blast seeing their brother.  They couldn't get enough of holding him.  He slept the whole time, but that made it easier to hold.  He is eating well and very cute.