Luke

Luke is 11 weeks old today. As an 11 week old baby, he is a dream! Weeks 2-8 were not so great. He has been an excellent sleeper from day 1. Even as a newborn, our nights were a breeze. Our days, not so much. Luke was extremely fussy during the day, and never wanted to be put down. He screamed bloody murder every time we put him in the carseat and never gave in and fell asleep. The car was a pretty miserable place to be. We eventually figured out that he had thrush and a bad case of reflux. Because of the reflux, he wanted to eat almost constantly. If I did not feed him, he would scream and scream and scream. I really could not leave the house. Between the screaming in the car and the fact that he had to be eating or else he was screaming, it just wasn't worth leaving. Once we treated the thrush, found the swaddle blanket that Will hated, and bought a 60 dollar plush bouncer, our days got a little better. The car did not. One day, after discovering a mishap with the infant carseat involving the cats that rendered the carseat "unuseable" for the day, we installed Sarah's old convertible carseat so that I could take Sarah to school. Luke took right too the convertible seat, and has been using it ever since! As long as he is strapped into that carseat with cold air blowing on him full blast, he is fine in the car. FINALLY! Conclusion...he gets motion sickness, which could also explain his hatred of the swing. Throughout these miserable days, he remained a wonderful sleeper at night which is the only thing that kept me from losing my mind. These days, he is the happiest, sweetest little guy you could ever meet. He is on a much more normal schedule during the day, happy in the car, happy during the day, and sleeping from 6ish to 6ish most every night. He has even maintained the sweet demeanor throughout a cold that has been lingering this week. He has really been smiling up a storm lately and is really starting to vocalize a lot! He loves to cuddle and Mommy loves that! Stephen and I are just absolutely in love with our little Luke. :)

Sarah

What to say about this one? She's fun. She's funny. She's tough as nails. She's a girly girl! She's our sweet little girl. This list could go on and on. There's no way you could ever describe Sarah with just a few words.
Sarah just turned 4 on December 6th. I'm still not sure I've wrapped my brain around that. Sarah started preschool this Fall. If ever a child loves school more than Will does, it is Sarah. She could not wait to get that red bag with her name on it, and she reminds Will every time we pass the school that it is HER school now. Sarah absolutely loves everything about school. She is a very social creature. Her class is so cute. Most of them were in the class that I taught a couple days a week last year, so I am very familiar with them, and so is she. Sarah's a bit bossy and certainly used to going to the mat with Will, so I'm pretty sure she holds her own at school. She loves art, but is much more abstract than Will. I think free play is more her favorite. She loves her teacher (the same one Will had), and seems to be having a good year.
Sarah is really into her baby dolls right now. I would not refer to her as nurturing, however. She is often dragging the babies around by their necks and dropping them on their heads when she is done with them. She won't be baby sitting for us anytime soon! Sarah also loves puzzles and is quite good at them!! My mom has a bunch of puzzles at her house. They are usually the first things Sarah goes for and she will sit quietly working on them until she has finished every last one including one of the United States! She knows where all the states go, and knows facts about most of them. One day, when we were eating lunch with my Grandmother, Sarah grabbed a club cracker and took a little bite out of one of the corners. She looked at it for a minute, and then announced to all of us that it looked just like Utah! Sure enough, it did! Too funny! Other than the dolls and the puzzles, Sarah loves all things pink, princess, and sparkly. At the same time, she has also wrestled an 8 year old boy to the ground in her pink skirt for a football. If any of our children visit the ER for a broken bone, it will be Sarah. She seems to be quite coordinated athletically, yet she is also unbelievably clumsy. She has fallen out of every chair in our house while seemingly sitting still. She routinely falls flat on her face when walking across the floor. All we can do is crack up laughing. Thank goodness she's tough. Hopefully she will grow out of it! Sarah loves her big brother in a big way, but she also loves to fight with her big brother in a big, bad way! These days they are inseperable. Sometimes, that's nice. Sometimes, that's obnoxious, and sometime's it is downright scary because they have the potential to do some crazy things together. Overall, Stephen and I are enjoying watching them enjoy each other's company. Sarah is the definition of a daddy's girl. She loves to crawl up in her daddy's lap and snuggle, and she and Stephen have their own unique way of joking with each other that is very endearing. I am really enjoying my time with Sarah on the two days of the week that she stays home from school. She is a huge helper for me, and I definitely love having my little girl. It's a special relationship.
We love you, Sarah Bear!

Will

Well, this is the big news with Will. Two weeks ago, Saturday, Will lost his first tooth. It had been loose for about 2 weeks. I begged him not to wiggle it out before we had our family pictures taken. I wanted one last set of pictures of my "babies". I don't know if he took me that seriously or if he was just squeamish about it coming out, but he did not touch that tooth. That Saturday night, we were eating at our favorite restaurant, Sol Azteca, with Stephen's parents and his sister Andree and her family. Will took a bite of his rice and next thing I know he was holding the tooth in his hand in front of my face. I think we were both shocked. He was so excited. I ate the rest of my dinner with that little tooth in my hand, because I was so afraid I would lose it. When we got home, I got out my old tooth fairy pillow and we dropped it in. The child was soo excited! The tooth fairy brought Will a dollar in quarters which his Daddy and I thought was quite generous. After talking to some people, we found out that wasn't the case, but it will be the case in our house. :) Will was more than happy with his 4 quarters and spent them on some hot chocolate when he went along with me for some time together at Target. It is taking me time to get used to the gaping hole in his mouth. It is amazing how much it changes their appearance. I dread the day the big teeth grow in, but I guess time marches on.
In other happenings with Will, he is still LOVING school. He is starting to read up a storm, and loves doing so. Our days of spelling things to each other are over in this house! He thinks it is absolutely hilarious to figure out what we're trying to say to each other. It is as amusing to us as it is frustrating. We're very proud of him for how quickly he is picking it up. When Will is not walking around the house reading various labels, he is incessantly looking for paper or paper scraps to make paper airplanes with or to doodle and write on. You cannot imagine the things he creates. They are everywhere. Will also loves Legos! He plays with his legos just about anytime he gets the chance. He is quite creative, and I am always impressed with his creations. He is also quite fond of the Wii. So much so, that we had to set some firm limits on his Wii playing. He can play for 15 minutes in the morning after he gets completely dressed and makes his bed. In the afternoon, he can play for 15 minutes after he takes out the recycling. The first thing he does when he walks in the door from school is run into the kitchen to gather the recycling, and out he goes. It's great. Even better, is that we always have the Wii to hold over his head for punishment. We can get him to do/not do just about anything for the Wii time. That pretty much sums up Will's interests at this time. Not much as changed with him throughout his five years. He still continues to be very good at communicating his thoughts. He is still highly creative, and he still loves to manipulate tools! (to all my friends who remember the baby who ALWAYS crawled around with a fork or a spoon!!!) He's a fun kid, and we're so proud to call him ours!

My Birthday Present--War Eagle!

Stephen and the kids gave me the coolest birthday present! One of our favorite traditions at Auburn is rolling the trees at Toomer's Corner after we win. We've had a lot of wins this season, but we've been at home a lot this season, too. So, we've been rolling our poor Cherry Tree out front after our wins. Probably not a good idea, because it is only a matter of time before a pouting Alabama fan decides to set fire to the tree and burn it and our front yard down. So, just in time for the Iron Bowl, my Toomer's Oak seedling arrived from Auburn. So cool! Of course, it's tiny right now, but it didn't stop us from rolling it after our win last weekend. Here are the pictures...

Luke 5 weeks

This week's accomplishments:
Luke came around to the eat, play, sleep schedule
He is definitely recognizing faces and voices and smiling a lot!
BIGGEST accomplishment...Luke slept from 9:30-5:30!!! Way to go, Buddy! Mommy really enjoyed that sleep! :)

Luke Robert Hertz

It's showtime!

Daddy with Luke


1st bath in Recovery


Our nurse, me, and Luke in Recovery

Daddy and Mommy so happy to have our little Luke


Daddy changing the first diaper under close supervision


That was the last diaper change Will supervised! :)


1st picture as a family of 5!

Big Brother and Big Sister meet Luke

Visitors

Grandma and Mimi


Dad and Mom, AKA Bips and Mimi

Taylor and Ashley--Ashley had baby boy "Tucker" 2 weeks later. Luke and Tucker are bound to be great friends!

Grandma was a loyal visitor

Will and Sarah went to Build A Bear and made Luke a stuffed animal. Will made the Tiger. Sarah made the bear. We're going to take Luke's picture with the bears every month to see how big he is getting.

One week old...not loving the idea of the photoshoot


He eventually came around


Two weeks old.

A few random shots