Dear Lucas (17 Weeks)

You are 17 weeks old today and tomorrow is your first Thanksgiving! I am so excited just to be together with everyone. Now that you can blow raspberries I can't wait for you and your cousins to get to spit back and forth at each other. Shane will be so happy that he has some way to really play with you. He's been asking every time when he sees you if you can play Play-Doh or climb with him yet. Now you can spit back and forth at each other (I know your Uncle Ted and your Dad will be so thrilled!)

Tonight, after you go to bed I'm going to be baking Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake. Your Grandma Valeri requested it special. Sorry you won't be able to taste it this year. I think you'll have Gerber Organic Applesauce to celebrate your first Thanksgiving. I can't wait for you to cook with me one day. I love to cook and try new recipes. When your Dad comes home from work and sees a recipe on the counter he always GROANS and says something like "oh great something new?" Every once in a while I found something new he likes but he likes the same old things for dinner. I'm sure though when you are helping me in the kitchen all you have to do is look at him with your big eyes and you'll get him to like anything.

Tomorrow hopefully I'll remember to take pictures with you and all of our family. Also, I need to get a good one for our Christmas card. I love this time of year. I love sending out Christmas cards and baking things to share and family dinners. I can't wait until we get our Christmas Tree. I already have plans of laying down under it next to you and watching you stare up at all the lights and ornaments. I'm just so excited to keep certain traditions going and start our own.

The Holidays couldn't be happening at a better time. You are so aware of your surroundings now but not yet able to get around on your own and get into everything just yet. You always want to know what is going on and who is in the room. I can't really nurse with the TV on anymore because you are constantly pulling away and turning your head to see who is talking. I think if I let you, you were turn into a baby couch potato. So instead I turn the TV off (there isn't really anything good on anyway) and you nurse and I read.

Your dad thinks you are a baby Einstein... and that you will be walking sooner than any other baby on the planet (and as your Mom it goes without saying that I think you are the cutest, smartest, sweetest....) I told him it was because you Graduated College before you were even born. He says it doesn't count just because I was pregnant with you when I graduated.

I am so excited that your love of books is really starting to grow. I do all the voices for you and really get into reading to you. You love to look at the colorful pictures and run your fingers over the pages. You haven't tried to eat any of the books though, which is good since we don't have any cloth or cardboard baby books. Most of your books were given to you by your Aunt Lisa or your honorary aunt Brandi.

Besides who needs to chew on books when you are bound and determined to eat a dog? Every day you seem to get a little more determined to pull Jadie to you so you can stick an ear, leg, or tail in your mouth. You even get mad when I wash your hands after you touch her instead of letting you chew on the dog hair that is stuck to your hands. I'm sure when you can get around on your own though that dog hair will become your fifth food group.

You just want to touch and taste everything. Last night while I was giving you your bath I was pouring water on you to rinse you off and you kept trying to grasp the stream of water in your hands. You kept looking at me like you "why can't I grab onto the water?"

Another thing you love to do is play with your feet. You can't reach them on your own just yet. When you are getting a diaper change your eyes light up as soon as you see those 10 little toes. I'm sure it won't be long before you have your feet in your mouth. Every day you try a little harder to get them closer. You've also figured out that if you kick your toy attached to the swing it will play music. I know the first couple of times you did it I know it was on accident but now as soon as the music stops you kick at it again. Today you figured out that it works the same way if you hit it with your hand.

Every day you and your Dad bond a little bit more. You used to look at him as "the man that burps me." Now you know he is your Dad. I think he wants to make sure you know he is your Dad because he still introduces himself to you at least once a day with a "Hi I'm Your Dad." "Or Hey Boy It's Daddy." When he gets home from work you smile at him as soon as you hear his voice. Also sometimes when I am holding you and he walks by you hold out your arms for him. He still loves to feed you your baby food and he is always doing funny little voices while he talks to you.

I know this is random but I really hope your eyes end up changing colors. Your baby blues keep taking freaky red eyed pictures even when I use the red eye reduction feature on our camera. I always end up edited out the red eyes before posting your pictures but then you get freaky black and grey eyes. I guess I'll have to love you even if your eyes stay blue... it just makes it hard since your mom is a camera freak. You are only 17 weeks old and already we have close to 800 digital pictures of you on the computer.

Oh and this week I've been calling you boogs... short for booger. One day I'm going to find a nickname for you that will stick.