Dear Lucas (70 Weeks),

I can't believe this is the 70th letter I have written you. I hope someday you really do read this and see how much that we love you and how much I have always tried my best to be a good mom. This week has been a really amazing week to watch you develop and grow. You are listening and following simple directions like "go get your sippy cup" or "throw the ball for Jadie." You also pointed to your eye out of the blue today and said "eye!" Everyday you are more and more little boy and less and less little baby.

Sometimes I wonder if maybe you were switched in the hospital because you are such a happy kid when you first wake up. I will hear you happily babbling to yourself on the monitor and will roll over in bed until you start to "fuss." As soon as I walk in you are jumping up and down in your crib and laughing. Actually, you wake up like this 99.9% of the time anytime you've been sleeping (if you wake up on your own, not if I have to wake you to go somewhere.) Personally, I am NOT a morning person. I very seldom wake up and what to jump happily out of bed. Seeing your bouncing smiling face though quickly chases out my morning grumps and I am happy to start another day with you.

Lately you have been obsessed with seeing yourself in mirrors again. You will wave and talk to the mirror you. Sometimes if I say "hug the baby" you will press yourself up against the glass and say "awwww." I wonder at what point you will realize that you've been staring at your reflection all along.

Lately you haven't been sleeping all that well. For some reason you've been waking up at least twice a night. It started around Thanksgiving weekend so I think all the excitement and later hours you were up had something to do with it. Sometimes the only way to get you to wind down and go back to sleep is to put you in your bouncer/rocker and rock you. One night you feel asleep in the chair and slept that way for 3 hours while I slept next to you in the couch.

I am so excited to finally have our Christmas decorations up and I can hardly wait for Christmas. Last year was fun but you were only about 5 months old and couldn't really join in the celebration. This year you love looking at the pretty lights and listening to me read the Christmas story.

Growing up, one of my favorite Christmas traditions was always getting to play with the nativity that your Grandparents have. Your aunt Lori and I would carry baby Jesus around and wrap him in toilet paper and place him gently in the manger. Your Grandparents still have the same nativity that I grew up with and minus a few sheep legs it is still intact. I am so excited to carry on this same tradition on with you. I hope the Christmas story will come more alive for you each year as you grow up just as it has for me. The nativity has also helped to teach you some of your animals. You now know what a sheep is but I'm still trying to teach you that they "baaaa" and don't bark like a dog (and that most animals don't make dog sounds!) You also have a special love for the baby Jesus and luckily you don't think he barks.

Bugga, I love you to the moon and back!


Mama