milestones

We have had quite the week here in the DeBoer house. I was busy all week helping coordinate dinners for SERVE at our church. For those of you who aren't familiar with SERVE- our church hosted a group of high school students from all over the United States and Canada. They came to Redlands to do various service projects around town, listen to an amazing speaker and have a great time overall. There was close to 100 in all (students and leaders) not to mention our worship team, our leadership team, helpers, etc. that we had to feed. It was quite the undertaking (especially with working full time and having a baby at home that is still getting me up throughout the night to eat) but it was fun and I am so glad that I was able to be part of it again this year.
Matt was fairly busy this past week as well - being "Mr. Mom" and heading into church nearly every night to help me out in the kitchen. It was nice for him to get out of the house. There were some high school and junior high students from our church there every night who were more than happy to help entertain Luke while we were busy in the kitchen.
However, perhaps the most busy one of our bunch this past week was Luke! He is getting so big and learning so much! It is such a thrill to see him study things and figure things out. Probably the most exciting thing he has figured out recently is rolling over! We knew he was close to rolling over (from back to stomach) because pretty much anytime we laid him down he'd roll to his side but would get his little arm stuck underneath himself and couldn't figure out how to pull it free in order to roll all the way over. Well, he figured that out pretty quickly and hasn't stopped rolling onto his stomach since!
These pictures were taken before Luke learned to roll over - see how he would roll on to his side and sleep that way. I don't know how he could be comfortable in that position, but when I tried to straighten him out and put him on his back, he'd just roll right over and get back into this position.


Here is a video of him rolling over onto his stomach (I think this was the second time I saw him do it). Please excuse the fact that I get extremely excited about this... I pretty much shriek with delight and make a complete idiot out of myself - you may want to turn the volume down on your computer prior to watching it in order to avoid hearing damage. :)



While it has been loads of fun to have him roll onto his stomach, we have quickly learned how this can be a royal pain in the butt as well since he would get himself on his belly and get stuck, not knowing how to roll back. This made nap time and going to bed at night a bit of a challenge since we'd put Luke down on his back (Doctor's orders) and he'd immediately roll onto his tummy, freak himself out and get all upset. So we would have to go back in to his room and roll him onto his back and attempt to calm him down so he'd go to sleep.
I am happy to say that this morning, however, Luke learned how to roll over the other way (from tummy to back)!! He's not the expert at flipping that way as he is from back to front, but he was able to roll himself all the way across his blanket we lay on the floor for him. We'll have to start really baby-proofing the house now that he's more on the go! I thought I'd have a few more months before I had a mobile baby...guess I was wrong.
Speaking of having a mobile baby, here's another video that shows Luke's extreme energy. He absolutely LOVES taking baths! He gets SO excited and kicks his feet like crazy. We used to fill up the tub and place it on the counter - not any more. He kicks and splashes so much that we have put him in his baby tub inside the big tub just to avoid a big wet mess. He's nearly too big for the baby tub now too.
Forewarning: this video contains brief baby nudity. We tried to keep him modest and covered with a washcloth but it didn't quite work as well as we'd hoped. sorry.





Now that Luke has strong enough neck muscles he loves to play 'airplane'.
This video doesn't quite capture it as well but Luke laughs and laughs!




Matt took a few random pictures of Luke this week....

All smiles - he has been smiling and laughing quite a bit lately. Such a happy little guy.

All that giggling and playing really wears him out.
LOVING his fingers - he rarely has his fingers out of his mouth these days.

One of Luke's favorite things these days is to suck on his lower lip.
He still won't take a pacifier very well but boy does he love his lip!


Along with learning to roll over, Luke is learning to sit up. He loves the new view sitting up brings. Here he is sitting on his own, so to speak, in his Bumbo seat. He can handle being upright in his seat for quite awhile, just looking around and sucking on his fingers.

In other news, today marks the first day of my new career as a stay-at-home mom! Yes, that's right, I gave notice at my job and am no longer employed. I am not going to say that I am no longer a working woman because I am sure that being a mom will be the biggest, most important job I'll ever have and will be plenty of work. I feel very blessed to be able to stay home with Luke and I am very excited about this new chapter in my life.