Dear Lucas (37 Weeks),

You are officially no longer toothless. I know I might be a bad mommy but I'm not sure exactly how many teeth you have (I think 2)... but then You won't let me SEE your teeth. The only way I know they are there is when you pull my finger into your mouth I can feel something SHARP pressing into my skin. If I make the smallest movement like I might possibly look in your mouth you either stick your tongue out covering your gums or you clamp your lips shut. Everyday you get a little better at feeding yourself but about half of the things you try to get in your mouth still don't quite make it. Maybe you wouldn't get a lap full of food if you stopped concentrating so hard on hiding your teeth from me. Also, you don't quite get that whole "one at a time" concept just yet. You eat your Cheerios one handful at a time... but before you can eat the first handful the hand you are not eating from must still be full of Cheerios. Well, for that matter it doesn't matter what you are eating... you always have to have two fist fulls of food.

When I pick you up from your high chair your lap Cheerios go all over the floor and there is Jadie just waiting to clean them up. Sometimes I forget to feed her and later think "oh well she isn't starving... She had half a box of Cheerios today." The funny thing about Jadie is if she doesn't finish all of the Cheerios before you take a nap once you aren't around she could care less about them. When you are back up from your nap all of a sudden she is wolfing them down again. She will eat anything as long as you eat it first... mangos, grapes, Cheerios, baby food green beans. This is funny now but I think as you get older you are going to have an instant partner in crime when we try to get you to eat when you don't want to.

You really are sleeping through the night now. When we put you down at about 7 you will only wake up one time and it is now before 10:00 PM and it is because you have a poop diaper. You get changed, nursed, and put back to bed and then you are out until 8:00 or 9:00 in the morning. When you wake up you will quietly play in your crib and I never know when you are awake. If I walk in to check on you just the sound of the door wakes you up if you were still sleeping. By accident one night I put you to bed with a rattle and in the morning I heard this strange shaking sound on the baby monitor and I knew you were awake. Now every time I put you to bed I out at least one rattle in bed with you. In the morning I can hear you shaking away and I know I need to finish whatever I am doing because you are up and ready to eat. I'm able to get an early warning and also get you our of your crib when you are still happy and not yet crying.

Today since my car was in need of an oil change you and I headed to Wal-mart and we had the best time just browsing through the store and I just pointed out all kinds of things to you. You have always loved going with me to the store but usually we are in a get in, grab what we need, get out rush. Today instead my main objective was to keep you entertained until the car was ready. I kept handing you different textures to feel. When I showed you a large soft fuzzy bean bag frog you started to laugh at it and then for some reason you tried to lick it. I think you've been spending too much time with Jadie. I wanted to buy it for you but honestly why does anyone need a large soft fuzzy bean bag frog, you know other then licking...

The shoe aisles were right across from the licked frog so I thought for fun I would just go look at the shoes. I started putting shoes on your feet and you just looked at them like "uhh what are those things? They don't look like my socks!!!" Since you were born to a mom who lives in flip flops I didn't put a single sneaker on your feet. Instead all I tried on you were sandals.

Quickly you figured out how to wiggle one foot free and you looked at me like "hey this is a pretty fun game mom." Even though you aren't walking and won't be for a while I still bought them. They were on clearance and if nothing else one day when you are fussy and bored with everything else I can strap them on your feet and you can wiggle out of them and play the "loose piggies" game. Plus I've found that anything in baby size is just too cute to resist. You also got two pairs of PJs. You have out grown your 3-6 month ones finally but the 6-12 months ones we have are too big so I thought I would get you a few 6-9 month ones until you grow into your other PJS but you are still swimming in those too. Oh well I guess you are trying to keep your slim and trim super model body. I am getting excited for your 9 month check up in a few weeks but at the same time I am dreading it again.

Thanks for hanging out with me today (not that you had a choice.) Bugga-Bugga, I love you to the moon and back,

Ma Ma