So Josh, Audrey and I always joked that we should have named Luke “Anakin” before he was born.  That way, when he was being good we’d call him by his proper name of Anakin and if he was being bad, we’d call him Vader.  If you’ve read my previous post about SW and my kids, you can imagine pretty easily how we were all loving the idea.  I still say Anakin Aney has a sweet ring to it!  Alas, we couldn’t get Mom to buy off on it…’completely’.  She agreed to go with Luke instead.  See, the Dark Side never wins!

So why am I bringing up the name change again?  In the beginning, Luke was definitely teetering on the edge of the Dark Side especially when Dad was dealing with him.  However, after a couple months, Luke has definitely turned out to be our happiest ‘baby’ yet.  He constantly smiles at anyone who looks at him, and being a ‘thumb sucker’ he can comfort himself in most cases without any intervention.  Of course there are exceptions.

Besides being a very happy baby, he also goes to bed earlier than any of our others.  He usually hits the sack at about 6pm.  However, it never fails.  The few times Ann is able to get out into the ‘adult world’ with a few of her friends after putting Luke to bed, he decides that is the night he is going to wake up at 8:30pm looking for a little nighttime snack.  Given that I want to give Ann a bit of well deserved time off, I usually ‘battle’ with Luke for an hour or two before caving in and calling Ann for backup.  Since, Audrey is quick to point out that I do not have any milk in my nipples, I have limited options in terms of comforting Luke. 

There is one fail safe way to comfort him every time though.  I simply start humming.  It’s the one go to option that Josh, Audrey and I have all mastered.  So if you are ever at our house and hear Luke starting to get frantic, you can bet your bottom dollar that you’ll hear three octaves of The Imperial March being hummed…four if Mom isn’t in the position to comfort at the moment. 

Luke’s affinity to the tune, as well as Vader images, has prompted Dad and Josh to make the change to “Anakin”…we’ll see if it sticks ;)

Lucas is growing so fast right in front of our eyes.  Sometimes it seems like he’s been with us forever, and yet other times it is like yesterday he wasn’t here.  He hit another milestone a few days ago…he cut his first tooth.  As I was writing that down in my little ‘Milestone Spreadsheet’ and comparing it to Josh and Audrey, Lucas blew them away in how fast he got his first tooth.  What does that mean?  The heck if I know!  But what I did realize is that we had footage of Josh reaching his milestone of riding a bike and I had never put it up or blogged about it.

So while Lucas gets the ‘photo’ for this blog, Josh gets to show off his bike riding skills.  It amazed both Ann and I at how fast he learned and all the while, never wiping out.  You’ll have to watch the video for a tip on how to avoid nasty wipeouts on the first attempts at riding a bike ;)

Lucas and I are getting in tons of snuggling this past week, as I have let him officially move into our bed at night. He nestles right in with me and we both are in dreamland. With this co-sleeping arrangement, I can usually get two three-hour periods of sleep which I SO NEED. Then Terry comes to bed around 3am and Lucas moves over to his side for a little snuggle time with Dad (Okay, the rest of the night between feedings J ). Terry’s been super busy with work and then helping me with the kids as much as possible (bless his heart!) At around 7:30am, Josh and Audrey join us for morning cartoons and begin whispering in our ears “I’m hungry, can you make me bresk-kiss.” And then, another day begins and Lucas takes his morning nap. :)

Lucas James arrived today at 12:18pm, weighing 9 lbs 1 oz, and 20.75" long.  Both Josh and Audrey wanted to name him Anakin, calling him Vader when he was being bad, but we chose not to go down the dark side of the Force and stuck with Luke - oh come on, Anakin Aney does have a certain ring to it ;)  In all seriousness, everyone is so excited and relived that the baby is finally here.  Of course it wouldn't be Ann if she didn't make the delivery 'exciting'.... [More]